tual charms of
women. With the sensualist, the contrary takes place; he becomes more
material in his old age: requires women well taught in Venus's shrines,
and flies from all mention of philosophy.

As I was leaving her I told the abbe that if I stayed at Sienna I would
see no other woman but her, come what might, and he agreed that I was
very right.

The abbe shewed me all the objects of interest in Sienna, and introduced
me to the literati, who in their turn visited me.

The same day Chiaccheri took me to a house where the learned society
assembled. It was the residence of two sisters--the elder extremely ugly
and the younger very pretty, but the elder sister was accounted, and very
rightly, the Corinna of the place. She asked me to give her a specimen of
my skill, promising to return the compliment. I recited the first thing
that came into my head, and she replied with a few lines of exquisite
beauty. I complimented her, but Chiaccheri (who had been her master)
guessed that I did not believe her to be the author, and proposed that we
should try bouts rimes. The pretty sister gave out the rhymes, and we all
set to work. The ugly sister finished first, and when the verses came to
be read, hers were pronounced the best. I was amazed, and made an
improvisation on her skill, which I gave her in writing. In five minutes
she returned it to me; the rhymes were the same, but the turn of the
thought was much more elegant. I was still more surprised, and took the
liberty of asking her name, and found her to be the famous "Shepherdess,"
Maria Fortuna, of the Academy of Arcadians.

I had read the beautiful stanzas she had written in praise of Metastasio.
I told her so, and she brought me the poet's reply in manuscript.

Full of admiration, I addressed myself to her alone, and all her
plainness vanished.

I had had an agreeable conversation with the marchioness in the morning,
but in the evening I was literally in an ecstacy.

I kept on talking of Fortuna, and asked the abbe if she could improvise
in the manner of Gorilla. He replied that she had wished to do so, but
that he had disallowed it, and he easily convinced me that this
improvisation would have been the ruin of her fine talent. I also agreed
with him when he said that he had warned her against making impromptus
too frequently, as such hasty verses are apt to sacrifice wit to rhyme.

The honour in which improvisation was held amongst the Greeks and Romans
is due