OR

ITALY.

BY

MAD. DE STAEL HOLSTEIN.

...Udrallo il bel paese,

Ch' Apennin parte, e 'l mar circonda; e l' Alpe.

249.8.167.

Во

CORINNA.

BOOK I.

CHAPTER I.

OSWALD.

DURING the winter of the

year 1794, Oswald, the descendant of the house of Nelvil, one of the most illustrious families of Scottish nobility, left Edinburgh to repair to Italy. To the graces of a person handsome, tall, and majestic, he added the captivation of a cultivated mind, the advantages of an exalted title, and an independent fortune; but a heavy calamity had injured his health; and it was the unanimous opinion of the faculty

that he should resort to the salubrious climates of the south. Though he was indifferent about the preservation of his life, he obeyed this advice, hoping that a succession of novelties might in some measure dissipate his sorrow. His inmost breast was afflicted by the severest of privations—the loss of a father; and this original cause of his disorder, when aggravated by painful circumstances, and aided by acute compunctions, left his imagination open to terrific phantoms. The heart softened by dejection is easily persuaded of its own guilt; and the tranquillity even of the conscience is disturbed by violent agitations of grief.

At the early age of five-and-twenty he was disgusted with life; all his actions were governed by the impulse of his mind; and his sensibility, thus affected, could no longer indulge in the fond illusions of the heart. When he had opportunity of serving his friends, no

one could be more amiably complaisant, or more zealously obliging; but his heart, inaccessible to the gentle tumult of joy, could not be moved even by the satisfaction of having done well. He sacrificed his inclinations to the tastes of others without difficulty; but this absolute renunciation of every selfish end could not be entirely accounted for by referring it to the noble principle of generosity. It arose from the intensity of his suffering, which prevented him from taking any interest in his own immediate destiny. Those who were indifferent to him were pleased with this disposition; but to those who loved him it was painful to observe that he interested himself in the happines of others without hoping for happiness himself; that he communicated pleasure which they were unable to reciprocate.

His disposition was however changeable; he had a feeling heart and an ardent