Yet reverse the picture, and they appear rather to be demi-gods than
men! Listen to their music! Behold their paintings! Examine their
palaces, their basins of porphyry, urns and vases of Numidian marble,
catacombs, and subterranean cities; their sculptured heroes, triumphal
arches, and amphitheatres in which a nation might assemble; their
Corinthian columns hewn from the rocks of Egypt, and obelisks of
granite transported by some strange but forgotten means from
Alexandria; the simplicity the grandeur and beauty of their temples and
churches; the vast fruitfulness of their lands, their rich vineyards,
teeming fields, and early harvests; the mingled sublime and beautiful
over the face of nature in this country, which is sheltered from
invaders by mountains and seas, so as by a small degree of art to
render it impregnable; their desolating earthquakes, which yet seem but
to renovate fertility; their volcanos, sending forth volumes of flame
and rivers of fire, and overwhelming cities which though they have
buried they have not utterly destroyed; these and a thousand other
particulars, which I can neither enumerate nor remember, apparently
speak them a race the most favoured of heaven, and announce Italy to be
a country for whose embellishment and renown earth and heaven, men and
gods have for ages contended.

The recollection of these things appears to be more vivid, and to give
me greater pleasure than I believe the sight of them afforded. Perhaps
it is my temper. Impatient of delay, I had scarcely glanced at one
object before I was eager to hunt for another. The tediousness of the
Ciceroni was to me intolerable. What cannot instantly be comprehended I
can scarcely persuade myself to think worthy of the trouble of enquiry.
I love to enjoy; and, if enjoyment do not come to me, I must fly to
seek it, and hasten from object to object till it be overtaken.