98 
the 
Roman 
conversations 
continual 
exercise 
of 
the 
understanding. 
The 
details 
of 
political 
intrigue, 
and 
the 
follies 
of 
individuals, 
excited 
but 
little 
interest 
among 
the 
in 
strangers 
Rome. 
It 
seemed 
as 
if 
by an 
universal 
tacit 
resolution, 
national and personal peculiarities and 
prej udices 
were 
forgotten, 
and 
that 
all 
strangers 
simulta- 
their attention to the 
neousl y turned 
transactions 
and affairs of former ages, and of statesmen and au- 
thors 
HOW I10 ITIOYE. 
Their mornings 
were 
spent 
raised to 
monuments 
in surveying the 
vir- 
pubHc 
in 
featu res 
giving local 
in 
tue, and 
their minds to 
the 
knowledge 
which 
they 
had 
acquired 
bY 
the 
perusal 
of 
have perpetuated 
that 
those works 
the 
dignity 
of 
the 
Roman 
character. 
Their 
even- 
ings 
VVBFC 
often 
allotted 
to 
the 
comparison 
of 
their respective conjectures, 
and 
to 
ascertain 
the 
authenticity and history of the relics which they 
had collected of antient art. Sometimes the day 
was consumed 
in 
the 
of 
study 
those 
inesti [I1 able 
ornaments 
of 
religion , 
by 
which 
the 
fraudulent 
disposition of the priesthood had, in the decay of 
its power, rendered itself venerable to the most 
enlightened minds; and the night was devoted to 
the consideration of the causes which contribute