er of indifference:
the work is to depend on itself, and not on the writer; and the author,
who has no resources in his own mind beyond the reputation, transient or
permanent, which is to arise from his literary efforts, deserves the
fate of authors.

In the course of the following canto it was my intention, either in the
text or in the notes, to have touched upon the present state of Italian
literature, and perhaps of manners. But the text, within the limits I
proposed, I soon found hardly sufficient for the labyrinth of external
objects, and the consequent reflections: and for the whole of the notes,
excepting a few of the shortest, I am indebted to yourself,[367] and
these were necessarily limited to the elucidation of the text.

It is also a delicate, and no very grateful task, to dissert upon the
literature and manners of a nation so dissimilar; and requires an
attention and impartiality which would induce us,--though perhaps no
inattentive observers, nor ignorant of the language or customs of the
people amongst whom we have recently abode--to distrust, or at least
defer our judgment, and more narrowly examine our information. The state
of literary, as well as political party, appears to run, or to _have_
run, so high, that for a stranger to steer impartially between them is
next to impossible. It may be enough, then, at least for my purpose, to
quote from their own beautiful language--"Mi pare che in un paese tutto
poetico, che vanta la lingua la piu nobile ed insieme la piu dolce,
tutte tutte le vie diverse si possono tentare, e che sinche la patria di
Alfieri e di Monti non ha perduto l'antico valore, in tutte essa
dovrebbe essere la prima." Italy has great names still--Canova,[368]
Monti, Ugo Foscolo, Pindemonte, Visconti, Morelli, Cicognara, Albrizzi,
Mezzofanti, Mai, Mustoxidi, Aglietti, and Vacca, will secure to the
present generation an honourable place in most of the departments of
Art, Science, and Belles Lettres; and in some the very
highest--Europe--the World--has but one Canova.

It has been somewhere said by Alfieri, that "La pianta uomo nasce piu
robusta in Italia che in qualunque altra terra--e che gli stessi atroci
delitti che vi si commettono ne sono una prova." Without subscribing to
the latter part of his proposition, a dangerous doctrine, the truth of
which may be disputed on better grounds, namely, that the Italians are
in no respect more ferocious than their neighbours, that man must be
wi