that of modern nations. But the view from the tower of the Campidoglio is not dependent upon associations only for its attractions; in abstract beauty it is rich. almost beyond rivalry, and would be delightful to gaze upon were it not the scene of events for ever consecrated by the pages of genius. Here it was, to this spot, that De Stael makes her eloquent cicerone Corinna lead her English lover, to pour forth to him, in language worthy of the subject, the sublime reflections to which the contemplations of the ruins of Rome give rise in every sensitive and elegant mind. De Stael's "Corinna" was the first novel I ever read, and it has left a living impression upon my mind: its characters appear real beings-friends and companions of my early youth, with whom I have oft conversed, and whose voices seem to have been ever musical and soft;-its events seem like those of early childhood, that leave such vivid pictures in the gallery of the imagination, which time never dulls, and which in brightness of colouring the after events of life never equal. These recollections of my first novel are as brightly pictured as the memory of

"the schoolboy spot

We ne'er forget, though there we are forgot."

in memory

My first walks in Rome realized many of the scenes treasured up since my boyish reading of Corinna. I saw them at last reduced to real forms, and though they lost something, perhaps, of the poetry and colouring, by the transmutation, were yet delightful to look upon as a realization of a happy dream. I saw the fountain of Trevi, with its crowd of statues, and its dashing cascades settling into a glassy mirror in its front; and, gazing abstractedly upon it, the excited fancy supplied the figure of Oswald leaning over the balustrade, and Corinna recognizing the features of the proud stranger, as she saw them reflected in the clear waters. And now, as I mounted the magnificent steps of the Capitol, fancy drew the figure of the melancholy Englishman, leaning against the colossal lion of basalt, as the pageant descended, bearing Corinna, all radiant with the excitement of her triumph, and crowned with the bays that had been refused to Tasso: this story has for me become one of the associations of the spot. But I must descend from the fanciful, and attempt to describe the realities of the place. The pedestals terminating the staircase on either side at the top are each surmounted by a colossal figure of a youth holding a horse, of inferior workmanship, removed here from the ruins of the baths of Constantine. The balustrade to the right and left is ornamented by other pieces of ancient