our own
self-upbraiding, arises a disposition to be indulgent--to forbear--and
to forgive--so at least it ought to be. When once we have shed those
inexpressibly bitter tears, which fall unregarded, and which we forget
to wipe away, O how we shrink from inflicting pain! how we shudder at
unkindness!--and think all harshness even in thought, only another
name for cruelty! These are but common-place truths, I know, which
have often been a thousand times better expressed. Formerly I heard
them, read them, and thought I believed them: now I feel them; and
feeling, I utter them as if they were something new.--Alas! the
lessons of sorrow are as old as the world itself.

To-day we have seen nothing new. In the morning I was ill: in the
afternoon we drove to the Cascina; and while the rest walked, I spread
my shawl upon the bank and basked like a lizard in the sunshine. It
was a most lovely day, a summer-day in England. In this paradise of a
country, the common air, and earth, and skies, seem happiness enough.
While I sat to-day, on my green bank--languid, indeed, but free from
pain--and looked round upon a scene which has lost its novelty, but
none of its beauty,--where Florence, with its glittering domes and its
back-ground of sunny hills, terminated my view on one side, and the
Apennines, tinted with rose colour and gold, bounded it on the other,
I felt not only pleasure, but a deep thankfulness that such pleasures
were yet left to me.

Among the gay figures who passed and repassed before me, I remarked a
benevolent but rather heavy-looking old gentleman, with a shawl
hanging over his arm, and holding a parasol, with which he was
gallantly shading a little plain old woman from the November sun.
After them walked two young ladies, simply dressed; and then followed
a tall and very handsome young man, with a plain but elegant girl
hanging on his arm. This was the Grand Duke and his family; with the
Prince of Carignano, who has lately married one of his daughters. Two
servants in plain drab liveries, followed at a considerable distance.
People politely drew on one side as they approached; but no other
homage was paid to the sovereign, who thus takes his walk in public
almost every day. Lady Morgan is merry at the expense of the Grand
Duke's taste for brick and mortar: but monarchs, like other men, must
have their amusements; some invent uniforms, some stitch
embroidery;--and why should not this good-natured Grand Duke amuse