n lords of the present day, are as
unacquainted with the pompous luxury of their ancestors, as these
ancestors themselves were with the austere virtues of the Roman
republic. The country houses convey still more the idea of this
solitude, of this indifference of the possessors in the midst of the
most admirable abodes in the world. People may walk in these immense
gardens without suspecting that they have a master. The grass grows in
the middle of the walks, and in these very walks are trees fantastically
cut according to the ancient taste that prevailed in France.--What a
singular whimsicality is this neglect of the necessary, and affectation
of the useless!--But one is often surprised at Rome, and in the greater
part of the other cities of Italy, at the taste of the Italians for
extravagant ornaments,--they who have incessantly before their eyes the
noble simplicity of the antique. They love what is brilliant, much
better than what is elegant and commodious. They have in every instance,
the advantages and the inconveniences of not living habitually in
society. Their luxury is rather that of the imagination, than the luxury
of actual enjoyment;--isolated as they are among themselves, they cannot
dread the spirit of ridicule, which seldom penetrates at Rome into
domestic secrecy; and often, in contrasting the interior with the
exterior of their palaces, one would say, that the greater part of the
Italian nobility arrange their dwellings more to dazzle the passers-by
than to receive their friends.

After having surveyed the churches and the palaces, Corinne conducted
Oswald to the villa Mellini, a solitary garden, without any other
ornament than its magnificent trees. From here is seen, at a distance,
the chain of the Appenines; the transparency of the air colours these
mountains and throws them forward in the perspective, giving them a most
picturesque appearance. Oswald and Corinne remained in this spot to
enjoy the charms of the sky and the tranquillity of nature. It is
impossible to form an idea of this singular tranquillity without having
lived in Southern countries. On a hot day there is not felt the lightest
breath of wind. The feeblest blade of grass is perfectly still, and the
animals themselves partake of the indolence which the fine weather
inspires: in the middle of the day, you neither hear the hum of flies,
the chirping of grasshoppers, nor the song of birds; no object fatigues
itself with useless and trifl