Know'st thou it well? O thither, Friend!
Thither with thee, Beloved! would I wend.

Know'st thou the House? On Columns rests its Height;
Shines the Saloon; the Chambers glisten bright;
And Marble Figures stand and look at me--
Ah, thou poor Child! what have they done to thee!
Know'st thou it well? O thither, Friend!
Thither with thee, Protector! would I wend.

S. T. COLERIDGE, _from_ GOETHE.

INTRODUCTION.

After the fall of Napoleon had given peace to Europe, and insipidity
to a soldier's life, I returned with my regiment to B----, and too
soon discovered that the lounging habits and quiet security of parade
and garrison service were miserable substitutes for the high and
stirring excitement of the bivouac, the skirmish, and the battle. I
found myself gradually sinking into a state of mental atrophy,
perilous alike to physical and moral health; and, after a fruitless
struggle of some months with these morbid longings for old habits and
associations, I determined to quit the army, and to realise the
favourite daydream of my early youth--a walk through Italy; hoping, by
two years of travel and incessant intercourse with men and books, to
gain a fresh hold upon life and happiness, and to repair, in some
measure, those deficiencies in my education, which the premature
adoption of a military life had necessarily involved.

Pausing a few days at Vienna, I formed a friendly intimacy with a
young and intelligent Venetian, of the ancient senatorial house of
F----i; and, on my return through Venice, after a rewarding and
delightful residence of two years in various parts of Italy, I met my
Vienna friend in one of the taverns of St Mark's. After a cordial
greeting, he told me that he was obliged to leave Venice on the
ensuing day, to take possession of an estate and villa in Lombardy,
bequeathed to him by a deceased relative. The gardens, he added,
covered the slope of a woody hill, which commanded a wide view over
the classic shores and environs of the Lake of Garda; and the mansion,
although time-worn and ruinous, contained some fine old paintings, and
a store of old books and manuscripts which had not seen the light for
ages. I had already experienced the keen delight of exploring the
mines of literary wealth contained in the old libraries of Italy, and
I did not hesitate to accept the cordial invitation to accompany him
which closed this alluring descrip