DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62267#0102
29
CLASSICAL TOUR
Ch. IV,
partly by the cheapness of masters, and by the
facility of instruction in every branch and lan-
guage. This academy was indeed a most useful
establishment, and extremely well calculated to
usher young men into the world in the most re-
spectable manner, and to fashion them to courts
and to public life. A year passed in it, with the
least application, enabled them to prosecute their
travels with advantage, not only by supplying
them with the information necessary, but by pro-
curing them such connexions with the first fami-
lies in all the great cities as might preclude the
formalities of presentation, and admit them at
once into the intimacy of Italian society. With-
out this confidential admission (which few travel-
lers have enjoyed for many years past) the do-
mestic intercourse of Italians, and consequently
the character of the nation, which is never fully
and undisguisedly unfolded unless in such inter-
course, must continue a mystery. Now the aca-
demy of Turin, where the young students were
considered as part of the court, and admitted to
all its balls and amusements, placed this advantage
completely within their reach, and was in this
respect, and indeed in most others, far superior
to Geneva, where the British youth of rank were
too often sent to learn French and scepticism.
Turin is beautifully situated on the northern
CLASSICAL TOUR
Ch. IV,
partly by the cheapness of masters, and by the
facility of instruction in every branch and lan-
guage. This academy was indeed a most useful
establishment, and extremely well calculated to
usher young men into the world in the most re-
spectable manner, and to fashion them to courts
and to public life. A year passed in it, with the
least application, enabled them to prosecute their
travels with advantage, not only by supplying
them with the information necessary, but by pro-
curing them such connexions with the first fami-
lies in all the great cities as might preclude the
formalities of presentation, and admit them at
once into the intimacy of Italian society. With-
out this confidential admission (which few travel-
lers have enjoyed for many years past) the do-
mestic intercourse of Italians, and consequently
the character of the nation, which is never fully
and undisguisedly unfolded unless in such inter-
course, must continue a mystery. Now the aca-
demy of Turin, where the young students were
considered as part of the court, and admitted to
all its balls and amusements, placed this advantage
completely within their reach, and was in this
respect, and indeed in most others, far superior
to Geneva, where the British youth of rank were
too often sent to learn French and scepticism.
Turin is beautifully situated on the northern