VINE IN ITALY. 89 



ecclesiastic, who was arrested on his journey by 

 the seductive attractions of this place, and lost 

 his life in an undue indulgence of the pleasures 

 of the wine cup. These wines are both white 

 and red, possessing more body than the Orvieto, 

 though, to my taste, a less delicate flavour. 



They certainly maintain in the country a 

 higher reputation than is conceded to the other 

 wine. I understand that these wines have been 

 imported into the United States, but from what 

 I saw of them, am of opinion, that to bear the 

 foreign transportation, they must be so highly 

 reinforced as to destroy, in a great degree, their 

 delicious flavour. There is in these wines a pe- 

 culiar delicacy, the loss of which would be im- 

 mediately detected by such as have drunk them 

 in purity. 



On leaving the States of the Church, and en- 

 tering at Fondi, the dominions of the two Sici- 

 lies, new varieties are found springing from other 

 soils, and different exposures. The wine most 

 celebrated at Naples, if not throughout Europe, 

 is the " Lachrymse Christi" a name regarded 

 by us as a profanation of all that is held sacred, 

 and exposing the people of that country to the 

 anathema of our Protestant community. How 

 far we are borne out in such opinions, may be 

 referred to that Christian charity " which think- 

 eth no evil." A more intimate acquaintance 

 with their religious community changed the 

 feelings of prejudice conceived against this peo- 

 ple. If we admit that the principle of right con- 

 sists in the purity of intention, the sweeping 

 censure in which we sometimes hear them in- 

 H 2 



