Befides the Gallery and Tribuna, the hundredth part of whofe treasures I have not particularised, there are other rooms, whofe contents are indicated by the names. they bear; as, the Cabinet of Arts, of Aftronomy, of Natural Hiftory, of Medals, of Porcelain, of Antiquities, and the Saloon of the Hermaphrodite, fo called from a ftatue which divides the admiration of the Amateurs with that in the Borghese village at Rome. The excellence of the execution is difgraced by the vileness of the fubject. We are furprised how the Greeks and Romans could take pleasure in fuch unnatural figures; in this particular their tafte feems to have been as depraved, as in general it was elegant and refined. In this room there is a collection of drawings by fome of the greatest masters, Michael Angelo, Raphael, Andrea del Sarto, and others. There is, in particular, a fketch of the Laft Judgment by the first-named of thefe painters, different, and, in the opinion of fome, defigned

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figned with more judgment, than his famous picture on the same subject in Sixtus the Fourth's chapel in the Vatican.

The large room, called the Gallery of Portraits, is not the leaft curious in this vaft Mufæum. It contains the portraits, all executed by themselves, of the most eminent painters who have flourished in Europe during the three laft centuries. They amount to above two hundred; thofe of Rubens, Vandyke, Rembrandt, and Guido, were formerly the moft efteemed; two have been added lately, which vie with the fineft in this collection-thofe of Meng's and Sir Joshua Reynolds. The portrait of Raphael feems to have been done when he was young; it is not equal to any of the above. The Electress Dowager of Saxony has made a valuable addition to this collection, by fending her own portrait painted by herself; she is at full length, with the palette and pencils in her hands. Coreggio, after hearing

hearing the picture of St. Cecilia at Bologna cried up as a prodigy, and the ne plus ultra of art, went to fee it; and conscious that there was nothing in it that required the exertion of greater powers than he felt within himself, he was overheard to fay, "Anch' io sono pittore." This illuftrious princess was alfo confcious of her powers when he painted this portrait, which feems to pronounce to the spectators, Anch' io fono pittrice.

LETTER LXXII.

Florence.

HA

AVING now croffed from the Adriatic to the Mediterranean, and travelled through a confiderable part of Italy, I acknowledge I have been agreeably difappointed in finding the fate of the poorer part of the inhabitants lefs wretch: ed than, from the accounts of fome travellers, I imagined it was; and I may with equal truth add, that although I have not feen fo much poverty as I was taught to expect, yet I have feen far more poverty than mifery. Even the extremity of indigence is accompanied with lefs wretchednefs here than in many other countries. This is partly owing to the mildness of the climate and fertility of the foil, and partly to the peaceable, religious, and contented difpofition of the people.

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people. The miferies which the poorer part of mankind fuffer from cold, are, perhaps, greater than thofe derived from any other fource whatever. But in Italy, the gentleness of the climate protects them from this calamity nine months of the year. If they can gather as much wood as to keep a moderate fire during the remaining three, and procure a coarse cloke, they have little to fear from that quarter. Those who cannot get employment, which is often the cafe in this country, and even those who do not choose to work, which is the cafe with numbers all the world over, receive a regular maintenance from fome convent: with this, and what little they can pick up otherwise, in a country where provifions are plentiful and cheap, they pafs through life, in their own opinion, with more fatisfaction than if they had a greater number of conveniencies procured by much bodily labour. Whereas in Great Britain, Germany, and other northern B b 2 countries,