rsonal profit, and in a spirit of cold, far-sighted
calculation, reckons up the advantages to be got by sacrificing an innate
desire for blood to a civilised greed of money.

Dr. Johnson would have liked the Romans--for in general they are good
lovers and good haters, whatever faults they may have. The patriarchal
system, which was all but universal twenty years ago, and is only now
beginning to yield to more modern institutions of life, tends to foster
the passions of love and hate. Where father and mother sit at the head
and foot of the table, their sons with their wives and their children
each in his or her place, often to the number of twenty souls--all living
under one roof, one name, and one bond of family unity--there is likely
to be a great similarity of feeling upon all questions of family pride,
especially among people who discuss everything with vehemence, from
European politics to the family cook. They may bicker and squabble among
themselves,--and they frequently do,--but in their outward relations with
the world they act as one individual, and the enemy of one is the enemy
of all; for the pride of race and name is very great. There is a family
in Rome who, since the memory of man, have not failed to dine together
twice every week, and there are now more than thirty persons who take
their places at the patriarchal board. No excuse can be pleaded for
absence, and no one would think of violating the rule. Whether such a
mode of life is good or not is a matter of opinion; it is, at all events,
a fact, and one not generally understood or even known by persons who
make studies of Italian character. Free and constant discussion of all
manner of topics should certainly tend to widen the intelligence; but, on
the other hand, where the dialecticians are all of one race, and name,
and blood, the practice may often merely lead to an undue development of
prejudice. In Rome, particularly, where so many families take a distinct
character from the influence of a foreign mother, the opinions of a house
are associated with its mere name. Casa Borghese thinks so and so, Casa
Colonna has diametrically opposite views, while Casa Altieri may differ
wholly from both; and in connection with most subjects the mere names
Borghese, Altieri, Colonna, are associated in the minds of Romans of all
classes with distinct sets of principles and ideas, with distinct types
of character, and with distinctly different outward and visible signs o