The other genius in this wonderful art is Signer Sgricci. He is so far superior to Rosa Taddei in being five or six years older, in being a very good Latinist and hi _improvising_ whole tragedies on any subject, chosen by the audience. When the subject is chosen, he develops his plan, fixes his _dramatis personae_ and then strikes off in _versi sciolti_. He at times introduces a chorus with lyric poetry. I was present one evening at an _Accademia_ given by him in the Palazzo Chigi. The subject chosen was _Sophonisba_ and it was wonderful the manner in which he varied his plot from that of every other dramatic author on the same subject. He _acted_ the drama, as well as composed it, and pourtrayed the different characters with the happiest effect. The ardent passion and impetuosity of Massinissa, the studied calm philosophy and stoicism of Scipio, the romantic yet dignified attachment of Sophonisba, and the plain soldierlike honorable behaviour of Syphax were given in a very superior style. I recollect particularly a line he puts in the mouth of Scipio, when he is endeavouring to persuade Massinissa to resist the allurements and blandishments of love: Chè cor di donne è laberinto, in quale Facil si perde l'intelletto umano. This drama he divided into three acts, and on its termination he improvised a poem in _terza rima_ on the subject of the contest of Ajax and Ulysses for the armour of Achilles. Wonderful, however, as this act of improvising may appear, it is not perhaps so much so as the mathematical faculty of a youth of eight years of age, Yorkshireman by birth, who has lately exhibited his talent for arithmetical calculation _improvised_ in England and who in a few seconds, from mental calculation, could give the cube root of a number containing fifteen or sixteen figures. Is not all this a confirmation of Doctor Gall's theory on craniology? viz., that our faculties depend on the organisation of the scull. I think I have seen this frequently exemplified at Eton. I have known a boy who could not compose a verse, make a considerable figure in arithmetic and geometry; and another, who could write Latin verse with almost Ovidian elegance, and yet could not work the simplest question in vulgar fractions. Indeed, I think there seems little doubt that we are born with dispositions and propensities, which may be developed and encouraged, or damped and checked altogether by education.