Industry And Comfort Are Prevalent Here, As Is The Case Indeed All
Over Tuscany; I Mean Agricultural Industry, For Commerce Is Just Now At A
Stand.
I passed three most delightful days and which will live for ever in my
recollection, with Mr Sismondi, in
Whom I found an inexhaustible fund of
talent and information, combined with such an unassuming simplicity of
character and manner that he appeared to me by far the most agreeable
litterary man that I ever met with. His mother, who is a lady of great
talent and perfectly conversant in English litterature, resides with him.
His sister also is settled at Pescia, being married to a Tuscan gentleman
of the name of Forti. The sister has a full share of the talents and
amiable qualities of her mother and brother. With a family of such
resources as this, you may suppose our conversation did not flag for a
moment, nor do I recollect in the course of my whole life having passed
such a pleasant time; and I only wished that the three days could be
prolonged to three years. Politics, the occurrences of the day, living
characters, classical reminiscences, French, English, Italian and German
litterature, afforded us an inexhaustible variety of topics for
conversation: and the profound local knowledge that Mr Sismondi possesses
of Italy, of its history and antiquities, renders his communications of the
utmost value to the traveller. Our supper was prolonged to a late hour and
I question if the suppers and conversations of Scipio and Atticus, those
nodes caenaeque Deum[100] were more piquant or afforded more variety than
ours.
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