(which possibly would be the best course), or else should be used for
idealizing the man of the day to himself; and that, as Nature makes us
sensible of the fact when men and women are graceful, beautiful, and
noble, through whatever costume they wear, so it ought to be the test of
the sculptor's genius that he should do the same. Mrs. Jameson decidedly
objected to buttons, breeches, and all other items of modern costume;
and, indeed, they do degrade the marble, and make high sculpture utterly
impossible. Then let the art perish as one that the world has done with,
as it has done with many other beautiful things that belonged to an
earlier time.

It was long past the hour of Mrs. Jameson's dinner engagement when we
drove up to her door in the Via Ripetta. I bade her farewell with much
good-feeling on my own side, and, I hope, on hers, excusing myself,
however, from keeping the previous engagement to spend the evening with
her, for, in point of fact, we had mutually had enough of one another for
the time being. I am glad to record that she expressed a very favorable
opinion of our friend Mr. Thompson's pictures.


May 12th.--To-day we have been to the Villa Albani, to which we had a
ticket of admission through the agency of Mr. Cass (the American
Minister). We set out between ten and eleven o'clock, and walked through
the Via Felice, the Piazza Barberini, and a long, heavy, dusty range of
streets beyond, to the Porta Salara, whence the road extends, white and
sunny, between two high blank walls to the gate of the villa, which is at
no great distance. We were admitted by a girl, and went first to the
casino, along an aisle of overshadowing trees, the branches of which met
above our heads. In the portico of the casino, which extends along its
whole front, there are many busts and statues, and, among them, one of