I have made a very valuable acquaintance in M. K[ölle][113] the envoy of the King of Würtemberg, 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 Bürger, 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 Bürger 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[ölle]'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 Antinoüs, 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. In their private characters they much resemble each other, being both honorable, generous, unassuming, and enthusiastic lovers of their profession and of the fine arts hi general.