s of Hearts!_'
Or left our church, in spite of solemn 'caves,'
To score off sins by rosaries and aves!
Number the gnats that cloud the dewy lawn,
Or flitting flies that light the sparkling corn;
Or pirate hawks that haunt Rome's lawless sky,
Or the fell fevers Pontine plains supply;
The locust legions count; or say as soon
What hoarse Cicadae stun the sultry noon
With ringing dissonance; what flow'rets fair
In early spring inebriate the air:
Or count the gems in every dazzling shower
That Roman rockets detonating pour,
Dropping their liquid light o'er Hadrian's glowing tower:
Or tell what crowds on Easter-day repair
To see their Pontiff-bird, in high-swung chair
Upborne magnificent; when, rising slow,
_Th' emerging figure stands, all white as snow_,
Like some large albatross his arms outspreads,
O'er all that mighty, silent, sea of heads!
Thrice waves his wings, the voiceless blessing sends
Far, far away to earth's remotest ends!
The joyous news th' impatient cannon tells,
Louder and louder, as the discord swells,
Of clashing bands, and shouts, and drums, and loud-tongued bells!"

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Becker, a celebrated coiner from the antique, recently deceased in
Prussia,--_N.B._--His widow carries on the business.

[2] _Quot Themison oegros autumno occiderit uno._ Alas! and there are
many Themisons still in Rome; for whose address _vide_ the Guide-Books.

BIRBONIANA.

In England, we have our trades and our professions;--abroad, all
callings are trades; medicine is a trade; theology a trade; law no
better. With us, the title of professor carries with it something of
rank, being always conferred by authority, and not, as in Italy, a
dignity at once self-imposed and assumed by any party who chooses to
adopt it. Furthermore, at home it must be a grave subject indeed that is
entitled to the honour of being represented by a professor; whilst
abroad, the commonest accomplishments are raised to the dignity which we
restrict to science; and every private teacher of fencing, fiddling,
juggling, and dancing, affixes professor to his card. The art of
cheating, _ingannazione_, seems to be at present the only one in Italy
irrepresented, _eo nomine_, by a teacher. Whether it be that there is
properly no such art, but, as was formerly alleged of rhetoric, that
every man persuades best in the subject of his own craft, the principles
of cheating in like manner vary with