any sense, in this world: but it is greatly fitter still (little as
we are used that way) to shudder in pity and abhorrence over the

scandalous tragedy, transcendent nadir of human ugliness and
contemptibility, which under the daring title of religious worship,

and practical recognition of the Highest God, daily and hourly
everywhere transacts itself there. And, alas, not there only, but

elsewhere, everywhere more or less; whereby our sense is so blunted to
it;--whence, in all provinces of human life, these tears!--

But let us take a glance at the Carnival, since we are here. The
Letters, as before, are addressed to Knightsbridge; the date _Rome_:--

"_February 5th_, 1839.--The Carnival began yesterday. It is a curious
example of the trifling things which will heartily amuse tens of

thousands of grown people, precisely because they are trifling, and
therefore a relief from serious business, cares and labors. The Corso

is a street about a mile long, and about as broad as Jermyn Street;
but bordered by much loftier houses, with many palaces and churches,

and has two or three small squares opening into it. Carriages, mostly
open, drove up and down it for two or three hours; and the contents

were shot at with handfuls of comfits from the windows,--in the hope
of making them as non-content as possible,--while they returned the

fire to the best of their inferiorability. The populace, among whom
was I, walked about; perhaps one in fifty were masked in character;

but there was little in the masquerade either of splendor of costume
or liveliness of mimicry. However, the whole scene was very gay;

there were a good many troops about, and some of them heavy dragoons,
who flourished their swords with the magnanimity of our Life-Guards,

to repel the encroachments of too ambitious little boys. Most of the
windows and balconies were hung with colored drapery; and there were

flags, trumpets, nosegays and flirtations of all shapes and sizes.
The best of all was, that there was laughter enough to have frightened

Cassius out of his thin carcass, could the lean old homicide have been
present, otherwise than as a fleshless ghost;--in which capacity I

thought I had a glimpse of him looking over the shoulder of a
particolored clown, in a carriage full of London Cockneys driving

towards the Capitol. This good-humored foolery will go on for several
days to come, ending always with the celebrated Horse-race, of horses

without riders. The long street is cleared in the centre by troops,
and half a dozen quadrupeds, ornamented like Grimaldi in a London

pantomime, scamper away, with the mob closing and roaring at their
heels."

"_February_ 9th, 1839.--The usual state of Rome is quiet and sober.
One could almost fancy the actualgeneration held their breath, and

stole by on tiptoe, in presence of so memorable a past. But during
the Carnival all mankind, womankind and childkind think it unbecoming

not to play the fool. The modern donkey pokes its head out of the
lion's skin of old Rome, and brays out the absurdest of asinine

roundelays. Conceive twenty thousand grown people in a long street,
at the windows, on the footways, and in carriages, amused day after

day for several hours in pelting and being pelted with handfuls of
mock or real sugar-plums; and this no name or presence, but real

downright showers of plaster comfits, from which people guard their
eyes with meshes of wire. As sure as a carriage passes under a window

or balcony where are acquaintances of theirs, down comes a shower of
hail, ineffectually returned from below. The parties in two crossing

carriages similarlyassault each other; and there are long balconies
hung the whole way with a deep canvas pocket full of this mortal shot.

One Russian Grand Duke goes with a troop of youngsters in a wagon, all
dressed in brown linen frocks and masked, and pelts among the most

furious, also being pelted. The children are of course preeminently
vigorous, and there is a considerablecirculation of real sugar-plums,

which supply consolation for all disappointments."
The whole to conclude, as is proper, with a display, with two

displays, of fireworks; in which art, as in some others, Rome is
unrivalled:--

"_February 9th_, 1839.--It seems to be the ambition of all the lower
classes to wear a mask and showy grotesquedisguise of some kind; and

I believe many of the upper ranks do the same. They even put St.
Peter's into masquerade; and make it a Cathedral of Lamplight instead

of a stone one. Two evenings ago this feat was performed; and I was
able to see it from the rooms of a friend near this, which command an

excellent view of it. I never saw so beautiful an effect of
artificial light. The evening was perfectlyserene and clear; the

principal lines of the building, the columns, architrave and pediment
of the front, the two inferior cupolas, the curves of the dome from

which the dome rises, the ribs of the dome itself, the small oriel
windows between them, and the lantern and ball and cross,--all were

delineated in the clear vault of air by lines of pale yellow fire.
The dome of another great Church, much nearer to the eye, stood up as

a great black mass,--a funereal contrast to the luminous tabernacle.
"While I was looking at this latter, a red blaze burst from the

summit, and at the same moment seemed to flash over the whole
building, filling up the pale outline with a simultaneous burst of

fire. This is a celebrated display; and is done, I believe, by the
employment of a very great number of men to light, at the same

instant, the torches which are fixed for the purpose all over the
building. After the first glare of fire, I did not think the second

aspect of the building so beautiful as the first; it wanted both
softness and distinctness. The two most animated days of the Carnival

are still to come."
"_April 4th_, 1839.--We have just come to the termination of all the

Easter spectacles here. On Sunday evening St. Peter's was a second
time illuminated; I was in the Piazza, and admired the sight from a

nearer point than when I had seen it before at the time of the
Carnival.

"On Monday evening the celebrated fire-works were let off from the
Castle of St. Angelo; they were said to be, in some respects more

brilliant than usual. I certainly never saw any fireworks comparable
to them for beauty. The Girandola is a discharge of many thousands of

rockets at once, which of course fall back, like the leaves of a lily,
and form for a minute a very beautiful picture. There was also in

silvery light a very long Facade of a Palace, which looked a residence
for Oberon and Titania, and beat Aladdin's into darkness. Afterwards

a series of cascades of red fire poured down the faces of the Castle
and of the scaffoldings round it, and seemed a burning Niagara. Of

course there were abundance of serpents, wheels and cannon-shot; there
was also a display of dazzling white light, which made a strange

appearance on the houses, the river, the bridge, and the faces of the
multitude. The whole ended with a second and a more splendid

Girandola."
Take finally, to people the scene a little for us, if our imagination

be at all lively, these three small entries, of different dates, and
so wind up:--

"_December 30th_, 1838.--I received on Christmas-day a packet from Dr.
Carlyle, containing Letters from the Maurices; which were a very

pleasant arrival. The Dr. wrote a few lines with them, mentioning
that he was only at Civita Vecchia while the steamer baited on its way

to Naples. I have written to thank him for his despatches."
"_March 16th_, 1839.--I have seen a good deal of John Mill, whose

society I like much. He enters heartily into the interest of the
things which I most care for here, and I have seldom had more pleasure

than in taking him to see Raffael's Loggie, where are the Frescos
called his Bible, and to the Sixtine Chapel, which I admire and love

more and more. He is in very weak health, but as fresh and clear in
mind as possible.... English politics seem in a queer state, the

Conservatives creeping on, the Whigs losing ground; like combatants on
the top of a breach, while there is a social mine below which will

probably blow both parties into the air."
"_April 4th_, 1839.--I walked out on Tuesday on the Ancona Road, and

about noon met a travelling carriage, which from a distance looked
very suspicious, and on nearer approach was found really to contain

Captain Sterling and an Albanian manservant on the front, and behind
under the hood Mrs. A. Sterling and the she portion of the tail. They

seemed very well; and, having turned the Albanian back to the rear of
the whole machine, I sat by Anthony, and entered Rome in

triumph."--Here is indeed a conquest! Captain A. Sterling, now on his
return from service in Corfu, meets his Brother in this manner; and

the remaining Roman days are of a brighter complexion. As these
suddenly ended, I believe he turned southward, and found at Naples the

Dr. Carlyle above mentioned (an extremelyintimateacquaintance of
mine), who was still there. For we are a most travelling people, we

of this Island in this time; and, as the Prophet threatened, see
ourselves, in so many senses, made "like unto a wheel!"--

Sterling returned from Italy filled with much cheerful imagery and
reminiscence, and great store of artistic, serious, dilettante and