With regard to the present Pontiff Pius VII, from the excellence of his private character and virtues, and from his unassuming manners and goodness of heart, there is but one opinion respecting him.  Even those who do not like the ecclesiastical Government, and behold in it the degradation of Italy, render justice to the good qualities of Pius VII.  He always displayed the greatest moderation and humanity in prosperity, and in adversity he was firm and dignified.  In his morals and habits he is quite a primitive Christian, and if he does not possess that great political talent which has distinguished some of his predecessors, he has been particularly fortunate and discriminating in the choice of his minister, in whom are united ability, firmness, suavity of manner and unimpeachable character.  I think I have thus given a faithful delineation of Cardinal Consalvi.

ROME, March 12th.

I have made a very valuable acquaintance in M. K[oelle][113] the envoy of the King of Wuertemberg, to the Holy See.  He is an enthusiastic admirer of his countryman the poet Schiller, and thro’ his means of procuring German books, I am enabled to prosecute my studies in that noble language.  An Italian lady there having heard much of Schiller and Buerger, and not being acquainted with the German language, requested me to make an Italian translation of some of the pieces of those poets; chusing the Leonora of Buerger as one, and leaving to myself the choice of one from Schiller, I represented the extreme difficulty of the task, but as she had read a sonnet of mine on Lord Guildford’s project of establishing an University in the Italian language, she would not hear of any excuse.  To work then I set, and completed the translation of Leonora, together with one of Schiller’s Feast of Eleusis.  These and my sonnet were the cause of my being recommended for admission as a member of the Academy degli Arcadi in Rome and I received the pastoral name of Galeso Itaoense.

The Carnaval is now over and the ladies are all at their Livres d’Heures, posting masses and prayers to the credit side, to counterbalance the sins and frailties committed during the carnaval in the account which they keep in the Ledger of Heaven.  Dancing and masquerading are now over and Requiems and the Miserere the order of the day at the conversazioni.

At Mr K[oelle]’s house I have become acquainted with Thorwaldsen, the famous Danish sculptor, who is by many considered as the successful rival of Canova; but their respective styles are so different, that a comparison can scarce be made between them.  Canova excels in the soft and graceful, in the figures of youthful females and young men; Thorwaldsen in the grave, stern and terrible.  In a word, did I wish to have made a Hebe, a Venus, an Antinoues, an Apollo, I should charge Canova with their execution.  Did I wish for an Ajax, an Hercules, a Neptune, a Jupiter, I should give the preference to Thorwaldsen.