effects of time. The northern nations have not given to Italy that
warlike aspect which Germany has preserved. It seems that the gentle
soil of Ausonia was unable to support the fortifications and citadels
which bristle in northern countries. Rarely is a Gothic edifice or a
feudal castle to be met with here; and the monuments of the ancient
Romans reign alone triumphant over Time, and the nations by whom they
have been conquered.

The whole mountain which dominates Terracina, is covered with orange and
lemon trees, which embalm the air in a delicious manner. There is
nothing in our climate that resembles the southern perfume of lemon
trees in the open air; it produces on the imagination almost the same
effect as melodious music; it gives a poetic disposition to the soul,
stimulates genius, and intoxicates with the charms of nature. The aloe
and the broad-leaved cactus, which are met here at every step, have a
peculiar aspect, which brings to mind all that we know of the formidable
productions of Africa. These plants inspire a sort of terror: they seem
to belong to a violent and despotic nature. The whole aspect of the
country is foreign: we feel ourselves in another world, a world which is
only known by the descriptions of the ancient poets, who have at the
same time so much imagination and so much exactness in their
descriptions. On entering Terracina, the children threw into the
carriage of Corinne an immense quantity of flowers which they gather by
the road-side or on the mountain, and which they carelessly scatter
about; such is their reliance on the prodigality of nature! The carts
which bring home the harvest from the fields are every day ornamented
with garlands of roses, and sometimes the children surround the cups
they drink out of with flowers; for beneath such a sky the imagination
of the common people becomes poetical. By the side of these smiling
pictures the sea, whose billows lashed the shore with fury, was seen and
heard. It was not agitated by the storm; but by the rocks which stand in
habitual opposition to its waves, irritating its grandeur.

E non udite ancor come risuona
Il roco ed alto fremito marino?

_And do you not hear still the hoarse and deep roar of the sea?_

This motion without aim, this strength without object which is renewed
throughout eternity without our being able to discover either its cause
or its end, attracts us to the shore, where this grand spectacle offers
itself