His Saltem Accumulem Donis, Et Fungar Inani Munere.[108]

Has no royalist or ministerial poet been found to do hommage to her manes?

Had she lived to be Queen of England she would have found a thousand venal pens to give her every virtue under heaven.

There is a professor of natural philosophy now at Naples, of the name of Amici, from Modena, who has invented a microscope of immense power. The circulation of the blood in the thigh of a frog (the coldest animal in nature), when viewed thro' this microscope, appears to take place with the rapidity of a Swiss torrent.

Since I have been here, I have once more ascended Vesuvius; there was no eruption at all this time, but I witnessed the sight of a stream of red-hot liquid lava flowing slowly down the flank of the mountain. It was about two and a half feet broad.

In my letters from Naples, the last time I was there, I gave you some idea of the state of society. Among the upper classes gaming is reduced to a science and is almost exclusively the order of the day. There is little or no taste for litterature among any part of the native society. The upper classes are sensualists; the middling ignorant and superstitious. With regard to the Lazzaroni, I do not think that they at all deserve the ill name that has been given to them. They always seem good humoured and willing to work, when employment is given to them; and they do not appear at all disposed to disturb the public peace, which, from their being so numerous and formidable a body, they could easily do. The Neapolitan dialect has a far greater affinity to the Spanish than to the Tuscan, and there are likewise, a great many Greek words in it. When one takes into consideration the extreme ignorance that prevails among the Neapolitans in general, one is astonished that such a prodigy of genius as Filangieri could have sprung up among them. What talent, application, deep research and judgment were united in that illustrious man! And yet there are many Neapolitans of rank who have never heard of him. Would you believe that on my asking one of the principal booksellers in Naples for Filangieri's work on legislation (an immortal work which has called forth the admiration and eulogy of the greatest geniuses of the age, of which Benjamin Franklin and Sir Wm Jones spoke in the most unqualified terms of approbation; a work which has been translated into all the languages of Europe), I was told by the bookseller that he had never heard either of the author or of his work.

A very curious thing at Naples is the number of public writers; who compose letters and memorials in booths, fitted up in the streets. As the great majority of the people are so ignorant as to be unable to read or write, it follows that when they receive letters, they must find somebody to read them for them and to write the answers required.

Enter page number Go  Previous Next
Page 212 of 291
Words from 110858 to 111372 of 151859