147
ral
population
seemed
to
be
defective
in
that
detestation
of
vice
found
in
all
countries
in
healthful
state
of
morals,
and
which
is
often
strongest among the lowest of the vulgar, especially
in what
thought
respects the conduct of the great.
that the commonalty of Italy had
He
lost
the tact by which the good and evil of actions are
discriminated ;
and
that,
whatever
W38
good
in
their disposition,
W38
constitutional,
and
uncon-
nected
with
any principle of
religion,
OP SEDSB
of
right. In the Papal
states, this appeared to be
particularly the case.
All the creative powers of
seemed there to be extinct.
the mind
The coun-
try was
with
covered
ruins,
and
human cha-
the
ashes.
racter was in
Sometimes, indeed, a few em-
bers of intellect were seen among the clergy ;
but
the
brightness
their scintillation was owing to
of
the blackness of death with
which they were con-
trasted. The splendour of the nobility struck
him only as a more conspicuous poverty than the
beggary of the common people; and the perfect
contempt with which they treated the. feelings of
their
dependants,
seemed
to
him
scarcely
less
despicable
than
the
apathy
with
which
it
WHS
endured.
The
innumerable
examples
of
the
L2