dential reasons he assigned for objecting to the marriage, may be inferred from the way he used to speak of Piozzi. He told Miss Seward that he was an ugly dog, without particular skill in his profession. This Miss Seward, who afterward made Piozzi's acquaintance, declares was not true. "Mr. Piozzi," she says, "is a handsome man, in middle life, with gentle, pleasing, and unaffected manners, and with very eminent skill in his profession. Though he has not a powerful or fine-toned voice, he sings with transcending grace and expression." Perhaps we may ascribe to the same depreciating spirit the terms in which the Doctor described Mrs. Thrale herself, in his conversations with Boswell. "It is a great mistake," he said, "to suppose that she is above her husband in literary attainments. She is more flippant; but he has ten times her learning he is a regular scholar; but her learning is that of a schoolboy in one of the lower forms." Yet, for all that, he enjoyed her society a great deal more than he did her husband's, and spoke of her colloquial wit as being more brilliant than that of any literary woman of her time. Posterity, that owes so much to the recollections she preserved of the great man whose genius and virtues she held in admiration, will not be disposed to acquiesce in the verdict which places her husband's barren "learning" above her fruitful "flippancy." Mrs. Piozzi was in person short and plump, and of remarkably lively manners. The vi vacity of her conversation is reflected fairly enough in her letters, which appear to have been written off-hand in a glow of new enjoyments. After having been pent up so many years, her excursion on this occasion to the Continent (which had always been a pleasure she yearned for) appears to have liberated her gaiety, and given a free rein to her animal spirits. The intimate and confidential friendship which subsisted between her and Mr. Lysons, comes out agreeably in the unrestrained chatter about her movements, and the frankness with which she confides to him her feelings about her marriage, and the ill-natured criticisms of her acquaint"Few people," she says to Mr. Lysons, "love you better than I do-for few people know you so well." As we advance with the publication of these letters (which are curious and valuable as illustrations of ances. Scriptum in Skia, Sept. 6, 1773. There is no date to the following bu lively patriotism, but we presume it was ten about the year 1777, when there general talk of a French invasion. Dr. son used to ridicule the notion of such vasion, and grievously complained tha Delight their own country to drench; And ne'er be such fools as the French- And ne'er be such fools as the French. If enamour'd they are Of young Freedom the fair, Sure they know not the trim of their wench But think Liberty's joy, Is sink, burn, and destroy, Why our fleet may do that for the French, Our fleet may do that for the French. What bold Edward begun, From their monarch his sceptre to wrench, our brethren and we, Lord North graced the Treasury Bench; traitors and rogues were the French, the ench, traitors and rogues were the French. off the snake's head, 66 pride of the wealth which they had acquired got that Mr. Thrale's father had worked for through an accident and a brewery, they fortwenty years at six shillings a week amongst the vats from which he afterward derived his enormous fortune, and they remembered only that Mr. Piozzi was poor, and a singer by profession. It mattered nothing that the marriage contributed to the lady's happiness. But now that the Prince of Sisterna has presented us with his opera-box," says Mrs. Piozzi, "perhaps Miss Thrale will write!" She had ample compensation for reviving health and spirits, and a contentall this mean and unworthy treatment in her ment she had not enjoyed for many years. My husband's kindness," she writes in the fullness of her heart to Mr. Lysons, "makes amends for all I suffered to obtain him." 66 Most of her early and closest friends and still to be stung by the French, the adopted the same line of conduct toward her, nch, and to be stung by the French. Tower so high, Cross it shall fly, Dout it we'll dig a deep trench; arm in the cause, on and Laws, and she tells Mr. Lysons that she was obliged to break off her correspondence with Mr. Seward in consequence of the contemptuous tone of his letters. Even her own daughters joined the crusade against her husband. "I correspond," she observes, "constantly and copiously with such of my daughters as are own with these leveling French, the willing to answer my letters, and I have at ch, -wn with these leveling French. ohnson's name finds its way into ne of her letters, and it is evident -tone in which she speaks of him, atever she may have secretly sufferhis harshness in reference to her -, her admiration and regard for him ergone no diminution. She desires Ons not to neglect him-" You will she says, see any other mortal so good-I keep his picture in my and his works on my chimney. fore this touching remembrance of ld have reached England he was ameses spoken of in these letters robably of the family of that Dr. ith whom Dr. Johnson had main- long and close intimacy, and to many allusions are made in the by Boswell. gst the most interesting passages, references which Mrs. Piozzi makes vn situation, and the malicious gos last received one cold scrap from the eldest, which I instinctively and tenderly replied to." And all this because she formed a connection which in this very letter she describes as making the happiness of her life! Paris, Friday, 17th Sept., 1784. DEAR MR. LYSONS, Though I hear by our friend, Mr. James that you are still at Bath, yet I make use of your own direction, as it is always safest to follow rules exactly, when people are very distant from each other. Was I writing to and only desirous of my letters, I would not a person who I thought regardless of me, begin by saying how well and how happy I find myself; but if that were not the first thing you wished to hear, I would not write to you at all. The second is how, and what, and where, &c., and what do you see with most pleasure? and so forth. Why, then, absolutely I think the Prince of Bourbon's Cabinet afforded me as much pleasure as anything, and that because it put us in mind of you, and we cried out, Lord! if Mr. Lysons did but see 11 that tho' this town seems in some and affectionate siste H. L. PI My husband sends you a thousand pliments. You must now direct to but write soon; or if you write late, di Turin. this is at Chantilly, where the waterfalls are so fine and the fish so tame. Well! but this moment brings me your kind letter, and assures me I am not forgotten. Mercy on me! what wonders Mrs. James has written! God bless you, speak to everybody you know, and protest that I owe nothing; as for the debts incurred by Johnson, her husband must see to them. Let us, however, get rid of the dirty house in Duke Street. I had no letters from Phillips or Coward while at London, but whoever writes now I shall get the intelligence safe enough. I am glad you are sitting for your picture. The portrait of Lysons, Earl of Tetbury, High Chancellor of England, in his youth will be of amazing value two hundred years hence. Meantime, tell me some news, do, of what you hear and and see, do, and study. We find it so very hot, we dare not venture the suffocation of a theatre; but out-door diversions so swarm about this gay town, that there is no need except to put your head out of doors, and you see everything qui respire le plaisir à Paris, comme l'opulence à Londres. Assure yourself, my dear sir, and assure my Bath friends, that it is equally out of the power of both to drive from my mind those who have so long and kindly contributed to its relief. I shall be very studious to execute all your commissions; but that odious Custom House! that foe to friendly intercourse! how shall we charm or stupify that ever-wakeful dragon? Tell Mrs. James that they seized my flannel petticoats (although made up), Turin, 19th which I had provided for winter wear, and Your letter, dear Mr. Lysons, wa upon muslins and dimmities. No nunc dim- first thing I found after my passage o mities, said they, but detained all they could mountains; and my desire to oblige y find. Well! now am I a professed traveler, complying with your request, was nat and what shall I tell to divert you, of my the second sensation. I have inquire travels? Dr. Johnson says (you know) that Dr. Allioni, and shall have leave to se whoever would entertain another by his re- collection to-morrow, my letter shall lie marks, must make the object of them human till I can give you an account of my su life. Mr. Whalley would, with equal confi- Meantime, you ask me what I think of S dence, assert, no doubt, that the voyager and its Alps! Shall I protest to you t should be particularly attentive to the scenery have not yet arranged the ideas with w of the places he passes thro'; for both speak they crowded my mind; and that alth of what would most entertain them. I think I have now been here six days, staring you would wish to hear a little of each; to instant at some work of art, the lea be told that the vines clustering up the ap- which would serve for a wonder in Eng ple-trees, and mingling their fruits, fill one's my eyes turn perpetually toward t eye with elegance and one's heart with com- glorious productions of Nature, and I fort, as one drives along the splendid ave- scorn to think of anything but them. V nues which constitute the approach to this pro- what monkeys were we all at last to t digious city, and are called the high-road to at Mr. Whalley's descriptions? Those if for ten or twenty miles; that your friends days' journey from Pont Bon Voisin to Jo and Regcsing Autter about the Tuillexia A Monsieur, Monsieur Samuel Lysons, - volosa would ha anawak T hould think y, and said how you would sit upon k and that rock, taking views of the I jumped out of the coach myself place to drink at a beautiful cascade ne foaming down the side of the hill, ed with various colored greens, where ved Hyale among the bushes (the butterfly with brown-edged wings), ld not catch her. This city is the mmetrical, the most delicate, and the anquil I have ever seen-London is nd Bath heavy, compared with it. e a model of a town exhibited in ax for a show; I did not know till at the metropolis of a nation could be thing, But I do not wish for you wish you fast shut up with piles of ks all the week, to dig fame and fort of black letters, and blacker recinjury, fraud, and ruin; then to taste at Sheen from Saturday to Monthe more pleasing contemplation of orks unperverted by man. re going to Alexandria, Genoa, and nd then to Milan for the winter, as zi finds friends everywhere to delay 1 I hate hurry and fatigue; it takes Ione's attention. Lyons was a deplace to me, and we were so feasted red there by my husband's old acce. The Duke and Duchess of land, too, paid us a thousand caressites where we met with them, and we neans of musical parties neither. The of Sisterna came yesterday to visit zi, and present me the key of his he Opera for the time we stay at Here's honor and glory for you! iss Thrale hears of it all-she will erhaps; the other two are very kind ctionate. My health and spirits mend y, thank God, and my husband's makes me amends for all I suffered to m. We mean to go quietly forward ring, but there is no joke at all in he Appenines at Christmas, so you have accounts of the north of Italy this year; let me add how much agnificent the Rhone appeared to the Po, and then lay by my paper my visit to Dr. Allioni. I have seen the good old man and ction, but could not coax him out of I really curious-as for trash, one ot be plagued with them. The specipetrified wood and marbles of this are exceedingly fine indeed, and I buy, or change, or procure them slate, too, are admirable, and there is one flat stone with a fish in it, so perfect on both sides, that it seems a Cameo and Intaglio. I will not rest, however, till I can obtain you something. He is good-natured and communicative, and will publish his book upon Botany next January, but being nearly blind, the pleasure once produced to him is lost, and he means to sell all his rarities together. The "hortus siccus," I fancy, is a very good one, but you know how little a way my skill reaches in such matters. I was glad to see Atlas and Antenor again, though, God bless you, and be very wise, and very good, and very happy, and do not forget your mother's preachments, nor those of your ever sincere and faithful, H. L. PIOZZI. Milan, 7th Dec. 1784. I THANK you very kindly, dear Mr. Lysons, for your attention, which I value exccedingly, and beg you to continue. The attention and politeness with which I am treated here is really prodigious; and I did not expect anything like it. What shall I tell you to compensate for the length and good nature of your last letter. I must begin with Genoa, I believe, and rejoice that my paper is long and wide, if I propose to describe either its elegance or splendor; the entrance of the city, so justly called la Superba, or the magnificence of the gulf it overlooks and appears to command. Ob! if one was enthusiastically fond of natural beauties, one certainly should never quit the Bocchetta of Genoa, where the clouds veil the hill, and the strawberry-trees, growing wild like our furze bushes, help to adorn it; where balm and rosemary perfume the road, and fill the little ditches, that in England are deformed by nettles, thistles, &c., (not one of which have I seen since I left France,) where standard, fig-trees spread their great leaves, and hold out their delicious fruits like oaks and acorns in our country; while to Mr. James, for I have been too m that encloses a pleasure-ground belonging to the numberless palaces scattered up and down for a few miles round the city. Two days ago I received a box of roses and carnations from thence; all of which blew out in the open air, at this time of the year when the people on the other side the Strand can scarcely see the scarlet pocket-books, which shine in your landlord's shop window for fog, I trow. Poor Sammy, said your mother, when first you described your situation to her, I'm sure; if he should lose either his health or his disposition to virtue in that nasty town, I should wish he had never seen it, let him grow as rich and as fortunate as he will. You know I used to preach to you like your mother, and press you lose no ground in the great race by following golden apples. I still continue to take the same liberty, and often fancy a young man committed so to the wide world like a fine picture painted in enamel, and put into the furnace-from whence if it comes out with the likeness fixed and the colors firm, all agree to admire and strive to possess it--if they run!! But my sermon is at an end, and we will begin a new subject. Mr. Piozzi is much pleased with your letter, which I translated my best; and bids me send you a copy of a sonnet written in my praise already, as I have made no verses myself, and as you will like these better than any I should have written. Every-him again in a day or two. Mrs. Lewis body here says they are very good onesgive a copy of them to dear Mr. James, who reads this language as well as his own, or nearly: Al merito impareggiabile dell' ornatissima Signo Inglese, condotta sposa in Milano dal Signor Don SONETTO. D'insubria el genio, licto oltre l'usato, Che un raro Don dan cielo a noi rien dato. Se dell' empio Amano al fatal commando, and Miss Nicholson, have had accou Your friend and obedient servant, My husband sends his kind complime he studies English while you work at the ian, so the conversation will do excelle when you meet next. I dined at the minis Now don't put this in the newspapers, for if on Tuesday, and he called all the wise TAR do I will never write to |