and narrow home, where rest those who once enjoyed them as we now do. Without the blessed hope held out to us by religion, how fearful would be the prospect of a dreamless and eternal sleep in the cold dark grave!

MODENA. This is a quiet and silent place: the palace large and disproportioned to the town, as also to the extent of territory of its sovereign. The gallery contains several good paintings by the Caracci, Guercino, Guido, Albano, and Dossi. The custode pointed out with great complacency the pictures returned from Paris, a journey which is considered to be a certificate of their value; the French being supposed to have taken only the best. "They judge works of art better than they execute them, Signora," was the custode's remark.

The library contains above eighty thousand volumes, and above three thousand manuscripts. In it Muratori and Tiraboschi consulted authorities for their histories; and spent many an hour filling those pages since so often referred to by students. They were both at the head of this library, a circumstance which invested it with increased interest to me, who feel a reverence towards those pioneers in literature who open a route to the less laborious and enterprising. Two volumes of the Bible, with innumerable and beautiful miniatures by Taddeo Crivelli, and an artist whose name I forget, I could have looked at for hours.

A collection of provincial poetry, said to contain poems nowhere else to be met with; a manuscript of Dante, with some quaint figures on it; various manuscripts of Bojardo and Tasso; and the correspondence of Tiraboschi, were shown to us.

This fine library belonged to the house of Este; and was brought hither from Ferrara, when its possessor, Cæsar d'Este, was despoiled of his dominions by Clement VIII.

The museum contains some antiquities, but is only now forming. The bucket, rendered more famous by Tassoni, than by its having been taken from the Bolognese, still dangles from its chain and I looked on it with interest, as having inspired a poem which, whatever Voltaire may have written in depreciation of it, has very great merit; but he who could depreciate Shakspeare, may be pardoned for attacking Tassoni.

Samuel Rogers! Samuel Rogers! never will I put faith in you again. In vain have I sought the Orsini Palace near the Rizzio gate, to see the picture of "Ginevra," the luckless maiden

who found a tomb upon her bridal day within "an oaken chest, half eaten by the worm, but richly carved by Anthony of Trent."

Shall I confess it? this story so well told, was one of my great inducements to visit Modena; and now that I am here I can find no one who ever heard of it. Mine host shrugged his shoulders, and declared he never knew of such a thing; the cicerone was puzzled and confounded, and thought there must be some mistake, for had such an event ever occurred, it surely must have been communicated to him; for man and boy he had dwelt at Modena, and was acquainted with all circumstances that could interest strangers.

O Samuel Rogers!--yet let me not accuse you unjustly

Lest I, perchance, should wrong thee, gentle bard,
For now methinks I call to mind some note
Remember'd vaguely, in which thou there didst own
The place uncertain where th' event occurred.

And sooth to say, thy Italy is now

Lodg'd with some other books I value much,
Within a fourgon journeying on to France,.
By nearer route than that which I have taken.
So I cannot consult its graceful page

Where sweet and gentle thoughts are ever found.

Deprived of Ginevra, I sought some other heroine in memory's cell; and remembered Tarquinia Molza, a fair poetess, born at Modena, in the middle of the fifteenth century. She excelled not only in poetry, but was a proficient in the Latin, Greek and Hebrew languages; and what was still more important than all this erudition, was an amiable and excellent woman. Appointed lady of honour to the Princesses Lucretia and Leonora d'Este, she passed many years in the dangerous ordeal of a court, respected for her genius, and beloved for her estimable qualities. When she returned to her native town, she received a diploma, granting her and her family the rights and prerogatives of Modena; which diploma is still preserved in the archives of Modena. Tasso has introduced her as one of the interlocutors in his "Dialogue on Love," which, in honour of her, he named Molza; and Francesco Patrizzi dedicated to her the third volume of his "Discussions Péripatétiques."

This dedication is so honourable to my sex, that I remember to have read it twice. Patrizzi says in it that he considers

her the most learned of all the women hitherto distinguished in the world of letters; that she perfectly understood the Greek and Latin historians and orators; and, above all, Plato among philosophers, and Pindar among the poets. He refers to her poetry in Latin as well as in Italian; and dwells with complacency on her knowledge of logic, and moral philosophy, physiology, theology, and all the other ologies: then sums up all by adding, "What may not be said of your skill in music, in which you surpass not only all musicians, but the Muses themselves." Of her eloquence, benevolence, virtue, and grace, he makes an equally honourable mention; and this from such a writer was no mean praise.

Read this, ye envious men, who are disposed to question the capabilities of women for grave studies! and ponder on it, ye ill-judging women, who claim an equality with men, instead of rendering yourselves more than equal, by the high cultivation of your minds, and the exemption from passion and prejudice to which the necessities and temperatures of political life expose them. Remember, that the rare endowments and still more rare accomplishments of Tarquinia Molza were so meekly borne, and her domestic duties so admirably fulfilled, that those who most admired her for her genius and learning, valued her still more for her goodness. Lose not, then, O woman! the precious time afforded you for mental cultivation, in vain and unbecoming clamours for equal rights with men. Those amongst you who perpetrate this sorry folly, inflict the deepest injury on your sex, by furnishing ground to the other, to deny you the respect to which you are entitled. Be worthy to become the friends as well as companions of your husbands, by qualifying yourselves to share their studies while sweetening their homes. Rejoice that you are saved from the arena of politics, and the arduous efforts compelled by professional life; and that the many hours of uninteresting labour to which men are condemned, are left to you for the acquisition of knowledge, and the fulfilment of duties pregnant with the dearest interests. Sooth their care, reward their toil, secure their peace; and your equality, nay more, your superiority, will be felt, if not acknowledged, by all who owe their felicity to you.

But here am I advising my sex on their true interest, instead of noticing the souvenirs of Modena.

Few places have evinced, in former times, a greater love

of science, or furnished a more appalling example to what crimes its votaries may be urged. Witness the terrible parricide committed by the brothers Grillenzone, in 1518, as related by Muratori.

The brothers Grillenzone were seven in number, and all dwelt beneath the paternal roof. Devoted to science, and fondly attached to each other, the father wished them to go forth in search of professions; and they, in order to avoid a separation, determined on his death. These brothers assembled at their house all the persons who, like themselves, were devoted to learning, and employed masters to lecture on, and explain the subjects of their studies. The meetings soon led to the formation of an academy; and Modena owes to these parricides an obligation that must have entitled them to her gratitude, were the recollection of it not stained by their fearful crime.

The Rangoni family, too, did much for the advancement of literature at Modena, and many were the savants and distinguished writers who cast a lustre on this now comparatively secluded and deserted town, in which people are more occupied at present in manufacturing food for the body, in the shape of sausages, which are said to vie in excellence with those of Bologna, than in providing food for the mind.

REGGIO. The aspect of Reggio is very different from the generality of Italian towns. Cheerful and scrupulously clean, it invites the traveller to sojourn in it; and the appearance of its inhabitants harmonises with the place, as they look gay and animated. Reggio gave birth to Ariosto, a fact of which our cicerone did not fail to remind us before he had accompanied us half through the first street.

It is curious to observe the pride that such people take in their celebrated men, and with which they refer to the places of their birth. They do not mention it calmly and dispassionately as a piece of information, but name it as something to occasion exultation. I like this enthusiasm, it is an incitement, as well as a reward to genius; and is of all vanities the most blameless.

The cathedral contains some good pictures by Guercino and Palma, and fine sculpture by Clementi, a native of Reggio, said to have been a pupil of Michael Angelo.

The church of the Madonna della Ghiara is a noble edifice,

and boasts some clever paintings, the work of a native artist named Ferrari, Ludovico Caraccio, Spada, and Palma.

The library is very extensive, and is rich in books of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and a collection of the works of the authors of Reggio. The theatre might put to shame those of the most considerable cities in other countries, being not only of a size peculiarly well calculated for the accommodation of a large audience, but also for scenic effect.

PARMA.-Silent, gloomy, and deserted, Parma seems to offer a striking picture of the altered fortunes of its mistress. There still hangs around it the semblance of grandeur, but it is grandeur fallen from its high estate:" and on beholding its empty streets and decaying buildings, one cannot refrain from pitying her who was once empress of the gayest and most brilliant capital in the world, for being condemned to reside here, and support the mimic form of regal splendour shorn of all its dignity. The fate of Napoleon, chained Prometheus-like on his ocean rock, had a sublimity in it: but she who shared his throne, whose brow was encircled by a diadem, before which the proudest monarchs bowed, to be reduced to hold her state in this poor town.-O! it is pitiful! and Maria Louisa must have less pride or more philosophy than falls to the share of most of her sex, to be enabled to support it with such equanimity.

We went over the ducal Palace to-day, which has nothing regal about it; and no greater number of apartments than generally appertains to the residence of a private individual. Its appearance is mean and common-place, divested of dignity or good taste. The furniture is like that of a Fermier-Général de France, after long use, rich, tasteless, and faded.

The carriage of Lord and Lady Burghersh was at the entrance, and the custode who showed us over the apartments, reverted with no little complacency to the fact, that "the ambassador Inglese, and the niece of the great Wellington, were then sitting with Maria Louisa !"

In a lumber-rocm was shown us the toilette presented to the Empress of France, and the cradle given to the King of Rome, by the city of Paris! As ill did this mean and vulgar apartment seem fitted to enshrine these costly gifts, the wrecks of an empire unparalleled in history, as did the palace itself to be the residence of her who has been mistress of France!