e pleased to
distinguish in me by the name of magic, is nothing but a sort of
transparency of mind, which allows its different sentiments and opposing
thoughts to be seen without labouring to harmonize them; for that
harmony, when it exists, is almost always assumed--most genuine
characters being by nature inconsequent--but it is not of myself I wish
to speak, it is of that unfortunate nation you so cruelly attack. Can it
be my affection for my friends which has inspired you with this bitter
malevolence? You know me too well to be jealous of me; indeed I have not
the vanity to believe that a sentiment of this description could have
sufficient power to transport you to such a degree of injustice. You
repeat the opinion of every other foreigner upon the Italian character,
when drawn from first impressions; but it requires deeper penetration,
and a more patient scrutiny, to be able to form a correct judgment upon
this country, which at different epochs has been so great. Whence comes
it that this nation, under the Romans, has attained the highest military
character in the world? that it has been the most jealous of its
liberties, in the republics of the middle ages, and in the sixteenth
century, the most illustrious in literature, and the arts and sciences?
Has she not pursued glory under every form? And if now, alas! she can
boast of none, why do you not rather accuse her political situation,
since in other circumstances she has shown herself different?

"I know not whether I deceive myself; but the wrongs of the Italians
inspire me with no other sentiment than pity for their lot. Foreigners
have in every age conquered and torn asunder this beautiful country, the
perpetual object of their ambition; and yet foreigners bitterly reproach
this nation, with the wrongs of a conquered and dismembered country?
Europe is indebted to the Italians for the arts and sciences, and shall
Europe, turning their own benefits against them, dispute with her
benefactors the only species of renown which can distinguish a nation
without either military strength or political liberty?

"It is so true that nations derive their character from the nature of
their government, that in this same Italy, we behold a remarkable
difference of manners in the different states that compose it. The
Piedmontese, who formed a little national body, have a more martial
spirit than all the rest of Italy; the Florentines, who have had the
good fortune either to enj