Do not imagine, however, that paying respect to Cardinals involves paying respect to religion, or that it is necessary to attend Mass in order to get invited to balls.  What is absolutely indispensable is, to believe that everything at Rome is good, to regard the Papacy as an arch, the Cardinals as so many saints, abuses as principles, and to applaud the march of the Government, even though it stand still.  It is considered good taste to praise the virtues of the lower orders, their simple faith, and their indifference as to political affairs, and to despise that middle-class which is destined to bring about the next revolution.

I conversed much with some of the foreigners who live in Rome, and who mix with its best society.  One of the most distinguished and the most agreeable of them often gave me advice which, though I have not followed, I have not forgotten.

“My dear friend,” he used to say,

“I know but two ways of writing about Rome.  You must choose for yourself.  If you declaim against the priestly government, its abuses, vices, and injustice; against the assassinations, the uncultivated lands, the bad air, the filthiness of the streets; against the many scandals, the hypocrisies, the robberies, the lotteries, the Ghetto, and all that follows as a matter of course, you will earn the somewhat barren honour of having added the thousand and first pamphlet to those which have appeared since the time of Luther.  All has been said that can be said against the Popes.  A man who pretends to originality should not lend his voice to the chorus of brawling reformers.  Remember, too, that the Government of this country, though very mild and very paternal, never forgives!  Even if it wished to do so, it cannot.  It must defend its principle, which is sacred.  Don’t close the gates of Rome against yourself.  You will be so glad to revisit it, and we shall be so happy to receive you again!  If you wish to support a new and original theme, and to gain fame which will not be wholly unprofitable, dare to declare boldly that everything is good—­even that which all agree to pronounce bad.  Praise without restriction an order of things which has been solidly maintained for eighteen centuries.  Prove that everything here is firmly established, and that the network of pontifical institutions is linked together by a powerful logic.  Bravely resist those aspirations after reform which may haply urge you to demand such and such changes.  Remember that you cannot disturb old constitutions with impunity; that the displacement of a single stone may bring down the whole edifice.  How do you know, that the particular abuse which most offends you is not absolutely necessary to the very existence of Rome?  Good and evil mixed together form a cement more durable than the elaborately selected materials of which modern utopias are made.  I who tell you this have been here many years, and am quite comfortable and contented.  Whither