I passed three most delightful days and which will live for ever in my recollection, with Mr Sismondi, in whom I found an inexhaustible fund of talent and information, combined with such an unassuming simplicity of character and manner that he appeared to me by far the most agreeable litterary man that I ever met with. His mother, who is a lady of great talent and perfectly conversant in English litterature, resides with him. His sister also is settled at Pescia, being married to a Tuscan gentleman of the name of Forti. The sister has a full share of the talents and amiable qualities of her mother and brother. With a family of such resources as this, you may suppose our conversation did not flag for a moment, nor do I recollect in the course of my whole life having passed such a pleasant time; and I only wished that the three days could be prolonged to three years. Politics, the occurrences of the day, living characters, classical reminiscences, French, English, Italian and German litterature, afforded us an inexhaustible variety of topics for conversation: and the profound local knowledge that Mr Sismondi possesses of Italy, of its history and antiquities, renders his communications of the utmost value to the traveller. Our supper was prolonged to a late hour and I question if the suppers and conversations of Scipio and Atticus, those _nodes caenaeque Deum_[100] were more piquant or afforded more variety than ours. Shakespeare, Schiller, Voltaire, Ariosto, Dante, Filangieri, Michel Angelo, Washington, Napoleon, all furnished anecdotes and reflexions in abundance.