to that Solitude which his relinquishment of every public employment afforded him. His countrymen, however, forced him to abandon his retreat, gave him the abfolute command of the army; and, by his military skill, he faved the Republic. PETRARCH alfo, a character I never contemplate but with increasing fenfibility, formed his mind, and rendered it capable of tranfacting the most complicated political affairs, by the habits he acquired in Solitude. He was, indeed, what persons frequently become in Solitude, choleric, fatirical, and petulant; and has been severely reproached with having drawn the manners of his age with too harsh and fombrous a pencil, particularly the scenes of infamy which were transacted at the court of Avignon, under the pontificate of Clement the Sixth; but he was a perfect master of the human heart, knew how to manage the paffions with uncommon dexterity, and to turn them directly to his purposes. The Abbê de Sades, the best historian of his life, fays, "he is fcarcely "known, except as a tender and elegant poet, "who loved with ardour, and fung, in all the harmony of verse, the charms of his mistress." But was this in reality the whole of his character? Certainly not. Literature, long buried in the ruins of barbarity, owes the highest obligations to his pen he rescued fome of the finest works of antiquity antiquity from duft and rottennefs; and many of thofe precious treafures of learning, which have fince contributed to delight and instruct mankind, were discovered by his induftry, corrected by his learning and fagacity, and multiplied in accurate copies at his expence. He was the great reftorer of elegant writing and true tafte; and by his own compofitions, equal to any that ancient Rome, previous to its fubjugation, produced, purified the public mind, reformed the manners of the age, and extirpated the prejudices of the times. Purfuing his ftudies with unremitting firmness to the hour of his death, his laft work furpaffed all that had preceded it. But he was not only a tender lover, an elegant poet, and a correct and claffical hiftorian, but an able statefinan alfo, to whom the moft celebrated fovereigns of his age confided every difficult negociation, and confulted in their moft important concerns. He poffeffed, in the Fourteenth Century, a degree of fame, credit, and influence, which no man of the present day, however learned, has ever acquired. Three Popes, an Emperor, a Sovereign of France, a King of Naples, a crowd of Cardinals, the greatest Princes, and the most illuftrious Nobility of Italy, cultivated his friendship, and folicited his correspondence. In the feveral capacities of Statefman, Minifter, and Ambaffador, he was employed in transacting the greateft affairs, and by that means was enabled to acquire acquire and disclose the most useful and important truths. These high advantages he owed entirely to Solitude, with the nature of which as he was better acquainted than any other person, so he cherished it with greater fondness, and refounded its praise with higher energy; and at length preferred his liberty and leifure to all the enjoyments of the world. Love, to which he had confecrated the prime of his life, appeared, indeed, for a long time, to enervate his mind; but suddenly abandoning the foft and effeminate style in which he breathed his fighs at Laura's feet, he addressed Kings, Emperors, and Popes, with manly boldnefs, and with that confidence which splendid talents and a high reputation always inspire. In an elegant oration, worthy of Demofthenes and Cicero, he endeavoured to compose the jarring. interests of Italy; and exhorted the contending Powers to destroy, with their confederated arms, the Barbarians, thofe common enemies of their country, who were ravaging its very bofom, and preying on its vitals. The enterprizes of Rienzi,* who seemed like an agent sent from Heaven to restore the decayed metropolis of the Roman Empire * For an elegant and highly interefting account of this enterprize, and of the character, abilities, conduct, and fate, of this extraordinary man, see Mr. Gibbon's Hiftory of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. xii. p. 331, 8vo. edition. Empire to its former fplendour, were suggested, encouraged, directed and supported by his abilities. A timid Emperor was roused by his eloquence to invade Italy, and induced to feize upon the reins of government as fucceffor to the Cæfars. The Pope, by his advice, removed the holy chair, which had been transported to the borders of the Rhine, and replaced it on the banks of the Tiber; and at a moment even when he confeffed, in one of his letters, that his mind was distracted with vexation, his heart torn with love, and his whole foul difgufted with men and measures. Pope Clement the Sixth confided to his negociation an affair of great difficulty at the Court of Naples, in which he fucceeded to the highest satisfaction of his em ployer. His refidence at courts, indeed, had rendered him ambitious, busy, and enterprizing; and he candidly acknowledged that he felt a pleasure on perceiving a hermit, accustomed to dwell only in woods, and to faunter over plains, running through the magnificent palaces of cardinals with a crowd of courtiers in his suite. When John Visconti, Archbishop and Prince of Milan, and Sovereign of Lombardy, who united the finest talents with an ambition fo infatiable that it threatened to swallow up all Italy, had the happiness to fix Petrarch in his interefts, by inducing him to accept of a feat in his council, the friends of the philofopher whispered one among another, 2 << This "This ftern republican, who breathed no fenti"ments but those of liberty and independence; "this untamed bull, who roared fo loud at the "flighteft fhadow of the yoke; who could endure (c no fetters but those of love, and who even felt "these too heavy; who has refufed the firft offers "at the court of Rome, because he difdained to "wear golden chains; has at length fubmitted to "be shackled by the Tyrant of Italy; and this great "apoftate of Solitude, who could no longer live "except in the tranquillity of the groves, now "contentedly refides amidst the tumults of "Milan."* (c My friends,” replied Petrarch, "have *The conduct of Petrarch might here have been finely contrafted with the conduct of Horace on an occafion in fome degree fimilar. Maecenas had beftowed upon him a little eftate near Tibur, to which he retired, and wrote those poems that have fince fo much amufed and inftructed mankind. His fame foon reached the ears of Auguftus, who offered him the place of his private fecretary, which Horace declined, because the duties of it would have interfered with the pleafures he enjoyed in retireThis fondness for a fequeftered life he has very happily expreffed in the fixth ode of the seventh book, addressed to Septimius, of which we infert an elegant and highly poetical tranflation by William Boscawen, Efq. ment. I. Septimius, who would dare explore Prepar'd alike to brave Realms |