to the study of the learned languages, in which she became an adept, and to the attainment of sciences, seldom sought after, and still,more seldom mastered, except by male students.

Padua, so famed for the encouragement it afforded to scientific men, extended also its protection to those of the gentler sex who devoted themselves to similar pursuits, its ancient academy, the Ricovrati, being alike open to them. How far this protection may tend to increase the happiness or usefulness of women, is a knotty point, which I leave casuists to debate; but at the risk of drawing down on my head the indignation of those of my sex, who think that we should have equal privileges with men, I must confess, that the advantages to be derived from a scientific education, and an admittance to a university, would, in my humble opinion, be more than counterbalanced by the loss of that feminine delicacy and timidity, which constitute the most attractive charms of woman. All that is requisite for us to know, may be acquired in the privacy of our paternal homes; and I should no more think of sending a daughter of mine to an academy, to study abstruse sciences, similar to those taught to men, than I should of having her instructed in those athletic exercises so necessary to be acquired by those, who are born to be our protectors and defenders.

In this university, many celebrated men have been educated. Among the most distinguished may be

VOL. III.

F

named Galileo, and Christopher Columbus; names that make one look at it with reverence.

The observatory, rendered so interesting by having been used by "the starry Galileo," in the pursuit of his scientific researches, is a great attraction to every stranger who visits Padua. Here he made some of those discoveries which have immortalized his name; and as I looked from the spot, whence he too had often contemplated the heavens, I sighed at the fate reserved for such a man; and was thankful for living in times when bigotry can no more curb the advance of science, or punish those who promote it. The observatory is constructed on the top of a high tower, once the scene of many of the cruelties of Eccelino, the tyrant of Padua.

Padua has given birth to the grammarian Asconius Pedianus, junior, to the poetess Isabella Andreini, and to our own contemporary, Belzoni, the Egyptian traveller, with whom I am well acquainted.*

Of all the honors awarded to genius, the one which least pleases me is that of preserving, as a memorial of it, portions of the frail and perishable mortal coil in which it was encased on earth, yet this appears to be a favorite mode of rendering homage to it, in Italy; for at Florence I saw the finger of Galileo, pointing to the heavens, whose starry lore

* Since dead, and buried at Padua.

he had so profoundly studied; and at Padua they show a vertebra of his. Strange infatuation, to remind us, by the wrecks of mortality, of that which is immortal-genius!

The library of the university is very rich, and the view of it is enough to tempt one to make a long sojourn at Padua, in order to explore at leisure the dusky, not dusty, tomes it contains. The repose and silence of the place, so well calculated to assist the mind in its efforts to acquire knowledge, increase the desire to remain here; and I could loiter many a week, nay month, in this dull and secluded spot, without feeling time hang heavily on my hands. A portrait of Petrarch is shown in the library, a place which in life he would have liked to rest in, surrounded by books, in which he so much delighted.

One of the peculiar attractions of Padua for me, is the number of old-fashioned houses, surrounded by gardens, which are to be found within its walls; looking as secluded and as quaint as if they were many miles from any town, and that their occupants, during the last century, had carefully refrained from changing their sober but pleasing aspects. This mixture of foliage and flowers introduced between spires, domes, and ancient buildings, have a charming effect, and I lingered at the gates of some of these houses half tempted to envy their owners.

The cathedral has nothing very attractive about it, unless it be the picture of a Madonna, by Giotto, bequeathed by Petrarch to Francesa Carara.

VENICE.-How shall I turn from the objects that court my attention on every side, to note those that attracted it on the route between Padua and Mestrè? The road is parallel with the straight and formal banks of the Brenta, which much more resembles a canal than a river, and is dotted with villas, chiefly belonging to Venetians, who resort to them to pass the villegiatura. They remind me of the old pictures by Dutch masters, in which clipped trees, straight walks, and as straight canals, constitute the general features.

The Brenta being navigable, the inhabitants of these formal villas enjoy (for to them I am told it is a positive enjoyment) the sight of the heavy lumbering boats, that daily pass and re-pass close to their windows, a circumstance that would be found so objectionable to the more fastidious taste of my compatriots.

Nothing can be more grotesque than the marble and stone figures that decorate the fronts of these villas, and are placed on the walls and gate-posts that enclose them. Every species of bodily deformity to which flesh is heir has been represented in these misshapen creations of a depraved imagination; and seen between the stunted and clipped trees with which they are intermingled, the effect is infinitely more strange than agreeable. A deep dyke sometimes shuts out a view of the river from the basement stories of these houses, but this is still more cheerless than the sight it excludes. I thought of

our beautiful villas in dear England, hid amid umbrageous trees feathering down to velvet lawns or reflecting their picturesque fronts in the glassy bosom of the broad and limpid rivers which glide sinuously and gracefully along; instead of being pent in as here, between two steep and straight banks, that convert them into the appearance of canals.

All this I thought of and much more, until my heart yearned for that land, whence I have now been six long years an exile, until I had entered the boat at Mestrè, which was in readiness to convey us to Venice; and from that moment-shall I confess the fact?-I could think of nothing but the scene around, and the still more exciting one, we were rapidly approaching.

How strange, yet how beautiful was the first view of Venice! It seemed in the distance like a floating city, its domes, spires, cupolas, and towers, glittering in the sunbeams, and looked so glorious, that I could have fancied it one of those optical illusions presented by a mirage. As we entered the grand canal, the reality of the scene became impressed on my mind, and the grandeur of the houses, with the rich and solid architectural decorations lavished on them, formed so striking and melancholy a contrast to the ruin into which they are fast falling, that the scene awakened feelings of deep sadness in my breast. The palaces looked as if the touch of some envious wizard had caused them to decay, long ere