It is interesting on this occasion to become acquainted with the nature of the colonies, and with the manner in which a new ruling class of men establish themselves among the people, introducing their language and manners to such an extent as to cause the nationality of the ancient inhabitants to disappear. The most striking example of this phenomenon is the diffusion of the language and manners of the Arabs over the East and Africa: all the languages which were previously spoken there, Greek, Latin, Egyptian, and Syriac, having given way to the Arabic. In like manner, the Turkish language has become predominant in Armenia and Hyrcania. This accounts for the fact, that, although the Arab immigration into Spain was not very numerous in comparison with the ancient inhabitants, yet when in the thirteenth century Andalusia was re-conquered by the Christians, the people spoke nothing but Arabic. The Ommayad khalifs had introduced the Arabic language by putting to death any one refusing to adopt it. The term colony, therefore, is very vague: we generally imagine that the colonists constitute the real body of the people; but this is not so, for the colony only furnishes the form. I very well remember, that about thirty-five years ago, when I read that account of Aristoxenus, the matter appeared to me strange; but the mixture of the two nationalities clears up everything. ETRURIA. Etruria is in every respect a highly important and interesting country, and in ancient history it is at the same time great and powerful; it derives a particular interest from the fact of its being the mother country of the modern Tuscans, a people on whom all the honour of Italy, in regard to intellectual and artistic greatness, rested during the middle ages no less than in modern times, just as the honour of Greece rested on Athens. In the whole range of modern history there is not a people, which is so strongly marked with the antique character as the Florentines; they possess all the great qualities of the Athenians, without their light-headedness. They also have been too severely judged of; I do not, indeed, mean to say that they are faultless, but they are, in spite of any faults, deserving of the highest respect. A man who is familiar with the old Italian literature and history, cannot but feel the greatest affection and attachment to Tuscany, and this affection and attachment are unconsciously transferred to the ancestors of the modern Tuscans. But the great renown enjoyed by the ancient Etruscans is not owing to this, but rather to the irresistible charm with which man is drawn towards that which is mysterious and enigmatical. We can, indeed, see that the Etruscans were a very remarkable people, and that in regard to the fine arts, they occupy, next to the Greeks, the highest rank in antiquity; yet so many monuments and inscriptions of this same people are perfect mysteries to us; inscriptions exist in great numbers, but are altogether inexplicable.