effective and animated, and gives with great vividness the first
impressions of a mind susceptible to the grand and imposing aspects
of nature.

"After Etna," says Mr. Gladstone in his diary, "the temples are
certainly the great charm and attraction of Sicily. I do not know
whether there is any one among them which, taken alone, exceeds in
beauty that of Neptune, at Paestum; but they have the advantage of
number and variety, as well as of highly interesting positions. At
Segesta the temple is enthroned in a perfect mountain solitude, and it
is like a beautiful tomb of its religion, so stately, so entire; while
around, but for one solitary house of the keeper, there is nothing,
absolutely nothing, to disturb the apparent reign of Silence and of
Death.... The temples enshrine a most pure and salutary principle of
art, that which connects grandeur of effect with simplicity of detail;
and, retaining their beauty and their dignity in their decay, they
represent the great man when fallen, as types of that almost highest of
human qualities--silent yet not sullen, endurance."

While sojourning at Rome Mr. Gladstone met Lord Macaulay. Writing home
from Rome in the same year, Lord Macaulay says: "On Christmas Eve I
found Gladstone in the throng, and I accosted him, as we had met, though
we had never been introduced to each other. He received my advances with
very great _empressement_ indeed, and we had a good deal of pleasant
talk." And again he writes: "I enjoyed Italy immensely; far more than I
had expected. By-the-by, I met Gladstone at Rome. We talked and walked
together in St. Peter's during the best part of an afternoon. He is
both a clever and an amiable man."

Among the visitors at Rome the winter that Mr. Gladstone spent in the