chief and protector of his nation. Favoured by the Cardinal, Theodore Gaza, George of Trebizond, John Argyropylus, taught their native language in the fchools of Florence and of Rome. The eloquence, politenefs, and imperial descent of John Lafcaris recommended him to the French monarchs; and in the fame cities he was alternately employed to teach and to negociate. By these mafters, the fenfe, though not the spirit, of the Greek claffics, was interpreted to the Latin world. The beauties of ftyle evaporate in a verfion; but the judgment of Theodore Gaza felected the more folid works of Ariftotle and Theophraftus, and their natural hiftories of animals and plants opened a rich fund of genuine and experimental fcience.

The literary merits of the Greeks were feconded and furpaffed by the ardour of the Latins. The ambition of republics and princes vied with each other in the encouragement and reward of literature.

The fame of Nicholas the fifth has not been adequate to his merits. From a plebeian origin, he raised himself by his virtue and learning the character of the man prevailed over the intereft of the pope; and he fharpened those weapons which were foon pointed against the Roman church. He had been the friend of the most eminent fcholars of the age: he became their patron; and fuch was, the humility of his manners, that the change was fcarcely difcernible either to them or to himself. If he preffed the acceptance of a liberal gift, it was not as the measure of defert, but as the proof of benevolence; and when modeft merit declined his bounty, " accept "it," would he fay with a confciousness of his own worth; " you "will not always have a Nicholas among ye," The influence of the holy fee pervaded Chriftendom; and he exerted that influence in the fearch, not of benefices, but of books. From the ruins of the Byzantine libraries, from the darkest monafteries of Germany and Britain, he collected the duty manufcripts of the writers of antiquity; and wherever the original could not be removed, a faithful copy was tranfcribed and tranfmitted for his ufe. The Vatican, the old repofitory for bulls and legends, for fuperftition and forgery, was daily replenished with more precious furniture; and fuch was the ind: ftry of Nicholas, that in a reign of eight years, he formed a library of five thousand volumes. To his munificence, the Latin world was indebted for the verfions of Xenophon, Diodorus, Poly-, bius, Thucydides, Herodotus, and Appian; of Strabo's geography, of the Iliad, of the most valuable works of Plato and Aristotle, of Ptolemy and Theophraftus, and of the fathers of the Greek church. The example of the Roman pontiff was preceded or imitated by a Florentine merchant, who governed the republic without arms and without a title. Cofmo of Medicis was the father of a line of princes, whofe name and age are almoft fynonymous with the reftoration of learning: his credit was ennobled into fame; his riches were dedicated to the fervice of mankind; he correfponded at once with Cairo and London: and a cargo of Indian fpices and Greek books was often imported in the fame veffel. The genius and education

of

of his grandfon Lorenzo rendered him, not only a patron, but a judge and candidate, in the literary race. In his palace, diftrefs was entitled to relief, and merit to reward: his leifure hours were delightfully spent in the Platonic academy: he encouraged the emulation of Demetrius Chalcondyles and Angelo Politian; and his active miffionary Janus Lafcaris returned from the Eaft with a treasure of two hundred manufcripts, fourscore of which are as yet unknown in the libraries of Europe. The reft of Italy was animated by a fimilar fpirit, and the progrefs of the nation repaid the liberality of her princes. The Latins held the exclufive property of their own literature: and thefe difciples of Greece were foon capable of tranfmitting and improving the leffons which they had imbibed. After a fhort fucceffion of foreign teachers, the tide of emigration fubfided; but the language of Conftantinople was fpread beyond the Alps; and the natives of France, Germany, and England, imparted to their country the facred fire which they had kindled in the fchools of Florence and Rome. In the productions of the mind, as in those of the foil, the gifts of nature are excelled by induftry and skill: the Greek authors, forgotten on the banks of the Iliffus, have been illuftrated on thofe of the Elbe and the Thames: and Beffarion or Gaza might have envied the fuperior fcience of the Barbarians, the accuracy of Budæus, the tafte of Erafmus, the copioufness of Stephens, the erudition of Scaliger, the difcernment of Reifke, or of Bentley. On the fide of the Latins, the difcovery of printing was a cafual advantage: but this ufeful art has been applied by Aldus, and his innumerable fucceffors, to perpetuate and multiply the works of antiquity. A fingle manufcript imported from Greece is revived in ten thousand copies; and each copy is fairer than the original. In this form, Homer and Plato would perufe with more fatisfaction their own writings: and their fcholiafts must refign the prize to the labours of our weflern editors.

Before the revival of claffic literature, the Barbarians in Europe were immerfed in ignorance, and their vulgar tongues were marked with the rudeness and poverty of their manners. The ftudents of the more perfect idioms of Rome and Greece, were introduced to a new world of light and fcience; to the fociety of the free and polished nations of antiquity; and to a familiar converfe with those immortal men who fpoke the fublime language of eloquence and reason. Such an intercourfe muft tend to refine the tafle, and to elevate the genius, of the moderns: and yet, from the firft experiment, it might appear that the ftudy of the ancients had given fetters, rather than wings, to the human mind. However laudable, the fpirit of imitation is of a fervile caft; and the first difciples of the Greeks and Romans were a colony of ftrangers in the midst of their age and country. The minute and laborious diligence which explored the antiquities of remote times, might have improved or adorned the prefent ftate of fociety: the critic and metaphyfician were the flaves of Aftriftotle; the poets, hiftorians, and orators, were proad to repeat the thoughts and words of the Auguftan age; the works of nature were observed with the eyes of Pliny and Theophraftus; and fome Pagan votaries profeffed a fecret devotion to the gods of Homer and Plato. The Italians were oppreffed by the

Q4

Arength

ftrength and number of their ancient auxiliaries: the century after the deaths of Petrarch and Boccace was filled with a crowd of Latin imitators, who decently repofe on our fhelves; but in that æra ef learning, it will not be eafy to difcern a real difcovery of science, a work of invention or eloquence, in the popular language of the country. But as foon as it had been deeply faturated with the celeftial dew, the foil was quickened into vegetation and life; the modern idioms were refined: the claffics of Athens and Rome infpired a pure taste and a generous emulation; and in Italy, as afterwards in France and England, the pleafing reign of poetry and fiction was fucceeded by the light of fpeculative and experimental philofophy. Genius may anticipate the season of maturity; but in the education of a people, as in that of an individual, memory muft be exercised, before the powers of reafon and fancy can be expanded; nor may the artist hope to equal or furpafs, till he has learned to imitate, the works of his predeceffors."

It is with pleasure that we have dwelt on this part of Mr. Gibbon's work, the hiftory of letters, which is far more interefting and agreeable than "the hiftory of blood."

We now proceed, according to our promife, to point out the characteristic beauties and defects of this extraordinary production of industry and elegance, which defervedly excites unusual attention both at home and abroad. On this copious fubject, we shall comprize our obfervations under three heads; I. The ORIGINAL MATERIALS. II. ARRANGEMENT. III. STYLE.

The value of the materials can only be eftimated by those who have explored the rubbish of the middle ages, a period of a thoufand years, between the taking of Rome and the conqueft of Conftantinople; and which, though it produced a total revolution in the affairs of the world, has not been illuftrated by a fingle writer deferving the title of a claffic. The defire of giving full fatisfaction to the Public has induced Mr. Gibbon to read fuch books as no other confideration could probably have prevailed on him to open. The catalogue of the works which he has perufed or confulted, would fill a moderate volume. Their moft ftriking paffages adorn the bottom of his page, in the form of Notes; and the reader, while he is conducted through the labyrinth by the fteady light of criticism, enjoys the advantage, at leaft the pleasure, of domestic and contemporary witneffes. Yet it is deeply to be regretted that fome of those materials, in paffing through the intellectual crucible of Mr. Gibbon, underga a very unfavourable tranfmutation. Clear, comprehenfive, and impartial, on every other fubject, in all that concerns Chriftianity he difcovers the bitterness of an adverfary, alternately employing the fophiftry of the fceptic, or the fneer of the fatirift. This we regret, not for the fake of Chriftianity or the Public, because we are firmly of opinion that neither of them can receive any material or permanent injury from the arguments, or far

cafms,

cafms, of infidels; but we regret it for the fake of Mr. Gibbon, and for the fake of his friends, who may be fwayed by his example, and biaffed by his authority; and we lament that, in a work which in other parts breathes the liberal and manly fpirit of Greece and Rome, the Author fhould defcend to employ against the religion of his country, and its profeffors, the obJique and infidious artifices of the Gallic fchool, and of Voltaire, its fuperficial mafter. In one paffage, he hints, disrespectfully, that Chriftianity is the only religion in which the God is the victim;' in another he invidiously remarks, that the God of Mahomet reigned without an equal, and without a fon!' and in a third, laying afide the mafk, he boldy arraigns the whole body of the clergy:

The influence of two fifter prostitutes, Marozia and Theodora, was founded on their wealth and beauty, their political and amorous intrigues: the most strenuous of their lovers were rewarded with the Roman mitre, and their reign may have fuggefted to the darker ages the fable of a female pope. The baftard fon, the grandfon and the great-grandfon of Marozia, a rare genealogy, were feated in the chair of St. Peter, and it was at the age of nineteen years that the fecond of thefe became the head of the Latin church. His youth and manhood were of a fuitable complexion; and the nations of pilgrims could bear. teftimony to the charges that were urged against him in a Roman fynod, and in the prefence of Otho the great. As John XII. had renounced the drefs and decencies of his profeffion, the foldier may not perhaps be difhonoured by the wine which he drank, the blood that he fpilt, the flames that he kindled, or the licentious purfuits of gaming and hunting. His open fimony might be the confequence of diftrefs: and his blafphemous invocation of. Jupiter and Venus, if it be true, could not poffibly be ferious. But we read with fome furprise, that the worthy grandfon of Marozia lived in public adultery with the matrons of Rome; that the Lateran palace was turned into a school for proftitution, and that his rapes of virgins and widows had deterred the female pilgrims from visiting the tomb of St. Peter, left, in the devout act, they should be violated by his fucceffor. The proteftants have dwelt with malicious pleasure on these characters of anti-chrift; but to a philofophic eye, the vices of the clergy are far lefs dangerous than their virtues.'

This paffage, which puts us in mind of the verse in Cato,

"Curfe on his virtues, they've undone his country," betrays the genuine fentiments of Mr. G. which he moft commonly endeavours to conceal, under a thin difguife of hypocritical refpect. Yet, in juftice to him, we muft acknowlege that he feldom lofes an opportunity of extolling the amiable fyftem of morality inculcated in the Gospel.-Its purity is the frequent fubject of his panegyric; while, with the inconfiftency natural to a man whose opinions are warped by authors far inferior to himself in learning, he too often difgraces his page with ludicrous and obfcene notes. In the tranflations of the paffages

which

which he cites, or to which he refers, Mr. Gibbon is fometimes biaffed by a more laudable partiality, than his antipathy to Revelation. Chalcondyles, in defcribing the countries and cities of the Weft in the year 1402, mentions London, Aordiun.... προέχεσα των εν τη νησῳ ταυτή πασων πολεων, ολβῳ τε και τη αλλη ευδαιμονια εδεμιας των προς έσπέραν λειπομένη. viz. London, furpaffing all other cities in the island, is inferior in wealth and Splendor to no one city in the Weft; which Mr. G. paraphrafes in the following words: In populoufnefs and power, in riches and luxury, London, the metropolis of the ifle, may claim a pre-eminence over all the cities of the Weft.'

Secondly, In the arrangement of his work, Mr. Gibbon has not always obferved the exact chronological order. According to Cicero's definition (De Orator. I. ii. c. 15.), he has confidered it as his duty not only to relate events, but to explain their caufes; and in explaining thofe caufes, he has been chiefly attentive to their mutual connection and dependence. For this reafon, there is fometimes an obfcurity in his narrative, which, for the most part, vanishes on a fecond perufal; and a learned reader will readily comprehend the difficulty of arranging, with lucid order, fuch a variety of matter, collected from fources the moft remote; and inftead of reproaching Mr. G. with obfcurities of this kind, which fometimes occur, will rather admire his dexterity in allowing them to occur fo feldom. On this fubject, we prefume to advife the reader to examine occafionally the contents of the feveral volumes, in which the tranfactions related in the work are ftated with great brevity, and accurately diftinguifhed by their dates. By this method he will gain a clear and complete idea of the narrative, and be enabled to perceive the Author's reafons for deviating from the precife order of time, a minute attention to which has disfigured many valuable hiftories. In geography, which, as well as chronology, has been called the eye of hiftory, but which is often dim, or otherwife defective, Mr. G. is equally copious and accurate; and almost every page of his work is enlivened by the beauty of geographical defcription, in which he has few equals, and no fuperior. In this particular we have met with one, and but one confiderable error, which we shall mention. At the mouth of the Adriatic gulf, the fhores of Italy and Epirus incline towards each other. The space between Brundufium and Durazzo, the Roman paffage, is no more than one hundred miles; at the laft ftation of Otranto, it is contracted to fifty; and this narrow diftance had fuggefted to Pyrrhus and Pompey the fublime or extravagant idea of a bridge. But we can affure Mr. G. and our Readers, that the diftance, inftead of fifty, is not thirty miles; a circumftance that must have occafioned a great difference indeed, in the conftruction of the projected bridge, On