'the opinions you avowed were rational but the ardour of your imagination was apparent, and what ardent imagination ever was contented to trust with plain reasoning, or to the evidence of the senses? it may not willingly confine itself to the dull truths of this earth, but, eager to expand its faculties, to fill its capacity, and to experience its own peculiar delights, soars after new wonders into a world of its own'


ann radcliffe's the italian