o
be always on the watch against being cheated.

* * * * *

EXTRACT FROM A LETTER.

One loses sight of all dabbling and pretension when seated at the feet
of dead Rome,--Rome so grand and beautiful upon her bier. Art is dead
here; the few sparkles that sometimes break through the embers cannot
make a flame; but the relics of the past are great enough, over-great;
we should do nothing but sit, and weep, and worship.

In Rome, one has all the free feeling of the country; the city is so
interwoven with vineyards and gardens, such delightful walks in the
villas, such ceaseless music of the fountains, and from every high
point the Campagna and Tiber seem so near.

Full of enchantment has been my summer, passed wholly among Italians,
in places where no foreigner goes, amid the snowy peaks, in the
exquisite valleys of the Abruzzi. I have seen a thousand landscapes,
any one of which might employ the thoughts of the painter for years.
Not without reason the people dream that, at the death of a saint,
columns of light are seen to hover on those mountains. They take, at
sunset, the same rose-hues as the Alps. The torrents are magnificent.
I knew some noblemen, with baronial castles nestled in the hills and
slopes, rich in the artistic treasures of centuries. They liked me,
and showed me the hidden beauties of Roman remains.

* * * * *

Rome, April, 1848.

The gods themselves walk on earth, here in the Italian spring. Day
after day of sunny weather lights up the flowery woods and Arcadian
glades. The fountains, hateful during the endless rains, charm again.
At Castle Turano I found heaths, as large as our pear-trees, in full
flower. Such wealth of beauty is irresistible, but ah! the drama of my
life is very strange: the ship plunges deeper as it rises higher. You
would be amazed, could you know how different is my present phase of
life from that in which you knew me; but you would love me no less; it
is tire same planet that shows such different climes.

* * * * *

TO HER MOTHER.

Rome, November 16, 1848.

I am again in Rome, situated for the first time entirely to my mind.
I have only one room, but large; and everything about the bed
so gracefully and adroitly disposed that it makes a beautiful
parlor,--and of course I pay much less. I have the sun all day, and
an excellent chimney. It is very high, and has pure air and the