e who had spoken of his being in a sound sleep up to the
moment when one of his great battles was to be fought, as a proof of the
calmness of his mind and command over anxious thoughts, said frankly,
'that he slept because, from bodily exhaustion, he could not help it.'
In like manner it is noticed that criminals, on the night previous to
their execution, seldom awake before they are called, a proof that the
body is the master of us far more than we need be willing to allow.

Should this note by any possible chance be seen by any of my countrymen
who might have been in the Gallery at the time (and several persons were
there) and witnessed such an indecorum, I hope he will give up the
opinion which he might naturally have formed to my prejudice.

312. *_Florence_.

'Rapt above earth,' and the following one. [XXI.-II.]

However, at first, these two Sonnets from M. Angelo may seem in their
spirit somewhat inconsistent with each other, I have not scrupled to
place them side by side as characteristic of their great author, and
others with whom he lived. I feel, nevertheless, a wish to know at what
periods of his life they were respectively composed. The latter, as it
expresses, was written in his advanced years, when it was natural that
the Platonism that pervades the one should give way to the Christian
feeling that inspired the other. Between both, there is more than poetic
affinity.

312a. *_Among the Ruins of a Convent in the Apennines_. [XXIII.]

The political revolutions of our time have multiplied on the Continent
objects that unavoidably call forth reflections such as are expressed in
these verses, but the ruins in those countries are too recent to exhibit
in anything like an equal degree the beauty with which time and Nature
have invested the remains of our convents and abbeys. These verses, it
will be observed, take up the beauty long before it is matured, as one
cannot but wish it may be among some of the desolations of Italy,
France, and Germany.

313. *_Sonnets after leaving Italy_. [XXV.]

I had proof in several instances that the Carbonari, if I may still call
them so, and their favourers, are opening their eyes to the necessity of
patience, and are intent upon spreading knowledge actively, but quietly
as they can. May they have resolution to continue in this course, for it
is the only one by which they can truly benefit their country.

We left Italy by the way which is called the 'Nuova Str