To understand Italian poets, especially Dante, your knowledge of Italian history must be fairly good, and the study of Italian literature would demand more time, probably, than you will have to give to it. So I will not enter into that subject, but I will advise you to take an Italian daily paper directly you begin your study of Italian, if you do so; for you will very soon be able to spell out a great deal of its contents, and this will aid you in mastering the language. They are fortunately very cheap indeed. My first purchase when I get into North Italy, after passing through the St. Gotthard, and getting near Milan, is the _Corriere della Sera_ (or the _Evening Courier_) of that city, of which I am very fond, as it is full of general news and is amusing. In Florence and Rome I am very erratic in my choice, and only think of avoiding too fine and close print, and bad paper, as these are often the faults of Italian papers. But at all times there is the delightful _Nuova Antologia_ to be had; and at Lausanne there is the _Révue Nationale_. Both of these reviews, or magazines, are of the best kind, and the same may be said of the _Révue de Deux Mondes_. If you can enjoy French, all these can be easily obtained in England, as most libraries take them. And now I must turn from Italy, as I think you will know quite enough about it for a short visit; and let me hope that you will not be one of the disappointed ones, to whom none of her attractions have appealed, who see nothing of her many-sidedness, and note none of that endless procession of people who made her history through the ages, and understand none of the things which make her everlasting charm. A well-known prelate said the other day, “General culture is sympathetic interest in the world of human intelligence,” and this to me is a definition which explains much of the so-called “disappointment” we hear of to-day.