noble, and retinue of the same character, stamp him at first sight as one of distinguished birth, and with as distinguished a judgment.

"All very good! But why so much of a stranger, to me?' you might ask. My answer may hereafter pleasure you as much, or more than its subject has done me. In fact, I wish you to know and esteem him, as he knows and esteems you, unseen. I have talked of you to him; described your taste, your disposition, your manners, and, above all, the 'better part' that is in you. I even noted your birth-day to him; and we conversed together with a kind of common interest on its suggestions. I also told him that I had a hope you might proceed to Cracow, to be a spectator of the coronation. But I needed not to add any request to him for the attentions to you there which he already felt due to your character. He was even then your friend his heart had found the attraction which had made me so firmly yours; and he besought me to persuade you to become his guest. 'I will take care,' said he, 'that neither he nor you shall have occasion to regret bestowing such a gratification on me.'

"You see in this, that a hospitable reception awaits you, should the season permit your going;

and that a noble mind is prepared to give you a brother's welcome. Besides that, and the interest of the royal spectacle, a rare opportunity offers itself for your making acquaintance with many illustrious persons of different countries who must be present; and of forming intimacies, I trust, with the actually most illustrious, those whose characters are yet more noble than their distinguished stations.

"I conjecture, from the tone of your last letter, that you are disappointed in the magnificence of Venice. Yet that seems to me something surprising, for Italy has not a city to compare with it. However, if a lively previous fancy has baulked your satisfaction in the place itself, I am sensible you will find the sort of entertainment in the society I promised you. Society is the book of men, where man is compared with man. There, in the chosen circles of Venice, men of various talents and accomplishments will meet you. You will see many to admire, more to amuse; but a little acquaintance with most, will shew that their acquirements are more for display than service; and, from excess in playing the agreeable, they soon become completely the reverse, wearying the over-treated guest with hospitable vanities.

"Much has been vaunted of the political wisdom

of the Venetians; but, to my notion, though our Germans have not such subtilty in their prudence, their honest soundness in judgment is far more to be depended on for ultimate advantage than all that we find in those doubly-refined cabinets. However, I have been so long absent from Italy, it hardly becomes me to offer an opinion on the people amongst whom you now are. I ought rather to wait for your report; and I know you accustom yourself to speak without prejudice of all places and persons.

"If I wished to indulge my feelings, I should never quit my pen when writing to you. Thus employed, I almost forget we are not present with each other. Farewell! Salute, in my name, those of my acquaintance who still sojourn at Venice, and particularly the excellent Count Hanau,

"Yours,

"HUBERT LANGUET."

The second letter is omitted, for want of space, and will be given in the next volume.