9

Cellent breakfast on the forbidden fruit; and then even
Dr. -saved his credit by assuring- me, that it was the
deleterious ingredients with which coffee was universally
adulterated at the houses in this city, that had induced him
to prohibit its use to me, but that such coffee as his could
never hurt my constitution. Bowing to this explanation,
I once more set out on my journey, and walked along the
beautiful shore of Chiaia towards my destination, till from
my map I concluded that I was within fifty yards of the spot.
Four or five Ciceroni in vain offered their services; I was
determined to see with my own eyes alone. Whether this
class of men derive their generic appellation from the elo-
quent maimer with which they explain the antiquarian cu-
riosities, or from the innumerable villas which their fanciful
ignorance ascribes to the Roman orator, I am at a loss to
decide. That Cicero’s philosophy was not of so austere a
kind as to induce him to renounce the sweets of this world
and the improvement of his fortune, we learn from his own
confession in his Offices; and his vanity may have prompted
him to endeavour to disguise a plebeian descent under ex-
ternal splendour: but so great is the number of ruins which
bear the name of Tullian villas, that, were we to trust to
tradition, in this respect, we might not only justly accuse him
of downright extravagance, but perhaps be inclined to think
a quaestorship in Sicily, and a proconsulate in Cilicia, must
have been two very good things.
What a shocking failing, this unconquerable loquacity!
—Sure of your pardon, I return to Virgil.
The Ciceronian gentlemen were highly offended at my
declining their aid, but they triumphed at last. All my
endeavours to discover the spot were fruitless; I was com-
pelled to call one of them to my assistance. He immediately
led me up a pretty steep causeway, turned into a private
c garden,