fied with the spirit of
Heroism, of Genius, and of whatever is most memorable in History. But
the legitimate influences of Nature, of Art, and of Ancestry, are often
overborne by those of Institutions and Laws, as is now witnessed on all
the eastern and southern coasts of the Mediterranean, and I was rather
disappointed in finding the present Romans a race of fully average
capacities, intellectual and physical. A face indicating mental
imbecility, or even low mediocrity, is very rarely met in those streets
where the greater portion of the Romans seem to work and live. The women
are brown, plain, bare-headed, and rather careless of personal
appearance, but ready at repartee, self-possessed, energetic, with
flashing eyes and countenances often indicating a depth of emotion and
character. I do not think such pictures as abound in Rome could have
been painted where the women were common-place and unideal.

But all with whom I can converse, and who are qualified to speak by
residence in the country, give unfavorable accounts of the moral
qualities of the Romans especially, and in these qualities I include
Patriotism and all the civic virtues. That Italians, and those of Rome
especially, are quite commonly sensual, selfish, indolent, fickle,
dishonest, vicious, is the general report of the foreigners residing
among them. Zealous Protestants will readily account for it by their
Catholicism. My own prepossessions naturally lead me to the conclusion
that much of the religious machinery in operation here is unfavorable to
the development of high moral character. Whatever the enlightened and
good may mean by these observances, it does seem to me that the ignorant
and vulgar understand that the evil consequences of pleasant sins may be
cheaply avoided by a liberal use of holy water, by bowings before the
altar and reverent conformity to rituals and ceremonies.--This is
certainly the great danger (in my sight) of the Catholic system, that it
may lead its votaries to esteem conformity to outward and ceremonial
requirements as essentially meritorious, and in some sense an offset for
violations of the moral law. Not that this error is by any means
confined to Catholics, for Christendom is full of Protestants who,
though ready enough to proclaim that kissing the toe of St. Peter's
statue is a poor atonement for violating the Commandments, and Adoration
of the Virgin a very bad substitute for Chastity, do yet themselves
prefer bad Christ