left the hands of the sculptor, this work, after the Apollo and the Laocoon, is, perhaps, the most beautiful monument of antiquity which Time has transmitted to us.'

I shall conclude by mentioning the famous Thetis, which was discovered by Cardinal Albani, in making an excavation at the Villa of Antoninus Pius, at Lanuvium, " though assuredly a work of a date far anterior to the age of the Antinous, being undeniably one of the most beautiful figures of antiquity."+

From the attitude-an oar in the left hand, resting on a Triton, and one of the legs a little raised, as if riding on the prow of a vessel-Winkelman conjectures, that, in all probability, it represents Thetis, though it may be the Gnidian Venus, (surnamed the Venus of prosperous navigation.) Winkelman goes into ecstasies about it. "In no female statue," he exclaims, "scarcely even in the Venus di Medicis, do we see, as in this, la fraicheur et l'innocence de la plus tendre jeunesse," &c. and yet this statue, with all the bloom of tender youth,' had no head!-But he supplies the want with a head like a rose-bud. "Upon this beautiful body," he adds, "l'imagination aime à placer une tête semblable à un bouton de rose qui commence à s'epanouir," &c. &c.

The head which the restorer has placed upon it,

* Winkelman, Hist. de l'Arte, liv. vi. chap. 7. § 28. † Ibid. liv. vi. chap. 7. § 39.

is not in the least like a rose-bud; but when a fine ancient statue has but an indifferent modern head, which often happens, the best way is to look at it as if it had none. The lower part of the body is covered with drapery, thrown gracefully over the left arm, and falling in light and transparent folds, which betray what they seem to conceal, offer to view one of the most beautiful female forms that art ever produced. And Winkelman hopes he may be forgiven" for believing, that the poets of Greece alluded to this very statue, when they spoke of the limbs of Thetis, as the model of beauty. The man of genius," he proceeds, "at the sight of this beautiful Nereid, transported beyond the time of Homer, sees Thetis rising from the bosom of the ocean-before she was sensible to the love of any mortal-before her union with Peleus was thought of-before her youthful charms had kindled the passion of the three gods-before even the first ship had cut the waves of the Ægian sea-for the prow on which she rests her foot, is only an attribute to make her known."*

He goes on in this way through several pages. What he did not do well, I cannot hope to do better. Perfection in art, is, indeed, indescribable. All we can learn from the most ingenious description by the man of taste and genius, or the critic of judgment and discernment, is, that the thing described must be something very pretty. Such

* Hist. de l'Arte, liv. vii. chap. 7. § 40.

the Thetis certainly is, and I shall say no more of

it.

I ought to enumerate to you the sculptures in the smaller casinos, porticos, billiard rooms, coffeehouse, &c., which, however, are, in general, inferior to those of the great building; but I should vainly try to give you an idea of the treasures of this museum,-of the beautiful statues I have left wholly unmentioned, of the curious mosaics, the ancient paintings, the bronzes, the inscriptions, the marble columns, the vases, the sarcophagi, and the innumerable and inestimable bassi rilievi, which adorn this wonderful temple of art. The hours of pleasure I have spent within it are over. This very day I have visited it for the last time, and its remembrance is all that is left me.

LETTER LXXI.

THE POPE.

TO-DAY we were presented to the Pope in a summer-house of the Vatican gardens, where he went to receive us; for his Holiness may not admit a female within the sanctuary of his palace. Now, to my thinking, his stealing in this private manner into the garden to meet ladies, according to a previous assignation, wears a much more equivocal appearance, and might, indeed, give rise to much scandal.

Five o'clock was the hour fixed for the interview and we had just arrived at the indicated summerhouse, which contained two good carpetted drawing-rooms, when, "punctual as lovers to the moment sworn," the Pope entered-took off his large round red hat, and, severally bowing to us both, passed on into the inner room, whither we were conducted by Cardinal, and presented. But, alas! here the similitude failed-the natural order of things was reversed-for, instead of the Pope, like an impassioned lover, dropping down on his knees to us, it was our business to kneel to him.

This, however, his holiness, being apprised of our being Lutherani, would by no means allow. Instead of his toe, we kissed his hand, which ceremony being performed, he seated us beside him, and chatted with us very pleasantly for half an hour -told us about old times, and old stories, and all he used to do when he was a Ragazzo. "Like all other old people," he said, laughing good humouredly, "he thought all things were changed for the worse. The very seasons were changed-opinions were changed-times were changed."-" Tutto e mutato: prima le teste, e poi gli tempi: sopra tutto son mutato io," continued he, laughing; and he drew a very droll picture of what he was when a mischievous little urchin. He was polite enough to choose to think, "it was scarcely possible we could be English, though he had heard so we spoke Italian so well;" and could hardly believe we had only been a few months in Italy. He said he particularly disliked speaking French-he supposed, because he spoke it particularly ill; but, indeed, he had little reason to like any thing French. Seizing upon this opening, we made some remarks on the occupation of Italy by the French, which drew from him a most energetic picture of the miseries which they had brought upon this unhappy land-of the wrongs they had committed, and the curse they had entailed upon it. "You see it now," he added, "a changed country, exhausted and bleeding under the wounds of its enemies. Their rapacity, not content with despoiling it of its ornaments, has robbed it of its prosperity, and of that