To work then I set,
and completed the translation of _Leonora_, together with one of Schiller's
_Feast of Eleusis_. These and my sonnet were the cause of my being
recommended for admission as a member of the Academy _degli Arcadi_ in Rome
and I received the pastoral name of _Galeso Itaoense_.
The Carnaval is now over and the ladies are all at their _Livres d'Heures_,
posting masses and prayers to the credit side, to counterbalance the sins
and frailties committed during the carnaval in the account which they keep
in the Ledger of Heaven. Dancing and masquerading are now over and
_Requiems_ and the _Miserere_ the order of the day at the _conversazioni_.
At Mr K[oelle]'s house I have become acquainted with Thorwaldsen, the famous
Danish sculptor, who is by many considered as the successful rival of
Canova; but their respective styles are so different, that a comparison can
scarce be made between them. Canova excels in the soft and graceful, in the
figures of youthful females and young men; Thorwaldsen in the grave, stern
and terrible. In a word, did I wish to have made a Hebe, a Venus, an
Antinoues, an Apollo, I should charge Canova with their execution.
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