“Better so than to be the chief and eldest. May I ask you to what branch of literature you have devoted yourself?”
“To none; but that, perhaps, will come afterwards. In the meantime I read as much as I can, and try to study character on my travels.”
“That is the way to become learned, but the book of humanity is too vast. Reading a history is the easier way.”
“Yes, if history did not lie. One is not sure of the truth of the facts. It is tiring, while the study of the world is amusing. Horace, whom I know by heart, is my guide-book.”
“Algarotti, too, is very fond of Horace. Of course you are fond of poetry?”
“It is my passion.”
“Have you made many sonnets?”
“Ten or twelve I like, and two or three thousand which in all probability I have not read twice.”
“The Italians are mad after sonnets.”
“Yes; if one can call it a madness to desire to put thought into measured harmony. The sonnet is difficult because the thought has to be fitted exactly into the fourteen lines.”