acquired weight, and the opinions of Boileau, Bouhours, Dubos, &c. became axioms in the literary world. Either from jealousy or from ignorance, or from a mixture of both, these critics speak of Italian literature with contempt, and take every occasion of vilifying the best and noblest compositions of its authors. Hence the contemptuous appellation of tinsel*, given by the French Satirist to the strains (Aurea dicta) of Tasso, an appellation as inapplicable as it is insolent, which must have been dictated by envy, and can be repeated by ignorance only.

The flippant petulancy of these criticisms might perhaps recommend them to the French public, especially as they flattered the national vanity, by depreciating the glory of a rival, or rather a superior country; but it is difficult to conceive how they came to be so generally circulated and adopted in England; and it is not without some degree of patriot indignation, that we see Dryden bend his own stronger judgment, and Pope submit his finer taste, to the dictates of French essayists, and to the assertions of Parisian poets. Addison, though in other respects an Anti-Gallican, and strongly influenced by those laudable prejudices, to use his own expression, which naturally cleave to the heart of a true-born Briton, here condescended to follow the crowd, and resigning his own better lights and superior information, adopted without examination, the opinions of the French school. This tame, servile spirit of imitation became in a short time general, and not only contributed to give the language of our enemies that currency of which they are now so proud, but restrained the flight of British genius,

* Le clinquant de Tasse à tout l'or de Virgile. Boileau, Sat. IX.

and kept it confined in the trammels of French rules and of French example.

How detrimental, in fact, this imitative spirit has been to our national literature will appear evident, if we compare the authors, who were formed in the Italian school, with those who fashioned their productions on French models. To say nothing of Chaucer, who borrowed both his manner and his subject from Italy, or of Shakspeare, whose genius like that of Homer was fed, as the luminaries of heaven, by sources secret and inexhaustible; I need only mention the names of Spenser and of Milton, two towering spirits, who soar far above competition, and from their higher spheres look down upon the humbler range of Pope and of Dryden. Yet Spenser and Milton are disciples of the Tuscan sages, and look up with grateful acknowledgment to their Ausonian masters. Waller and Cowley pursued the same path though at a respectful distance, and certainly not, passibus aquis; especially as in the time of the latter, French fashion began to spread its baneful influence over English literature. Then came the gossamer breed of courtly poetasters, who forgetting, or perhaps not knowing, that

The sterling bullion of one British line

Drawn to French wire, would through whole pages shine;

derived their pretty thoughts from French madrigals, and modelled their little minds, as they borrowed their dress from French puppets. I mean not to say that Italian was utterly neglected during this long period, because I am aware that at all times it was considered as an accomplishment ornamental to all, and

indispensably necessary to those, who visit Italy. But though the language of Italy was known, its literature was neglected; so that not its historians only were forgotten, but of all the treasures of its divine poesy little was ever cited or admired excepting a few airs from the opera, or some love-sick and effeminate sonnets selected from the minor poets. French literature was the sole object of the attention of our writers, and from it they derived that cold correctness which seems to be the prevailing feature of most of the authors of the first part of the eighteenth century.

Nor was this frigidity, the only or the greatest evil that resulted from the then prevailing partiality for French literature. The spirit of infidelity had already infected some of the leading writers of that volatile nation, and continued to spread its poison imperceptibly, but effectually, till the latter years of the reign of Louis the Fifteenth, when most of the academicians had, through interest, or vanity ever the predominant passion in a French bosom, ranged themselves under the banners of Voltaire, and had become real or pretended sceptics. The works of the subalterns, it is true, were much praised but little read by their partisans; and Helvetius, Freret, Du Maillet, with fifty others of equal learning and equal fame now slumber in dust and silence on the upper shelves of public libraries, the common repository of deceased authors. But the wit and the ribaldry of their Chief continued to amuse and to captivate the gay, the voluptuous, and the ignorant; to dictate the ton, that is, to prescribe opinions and style to the higher circles; and by making impiety current in good company, to give it the greatest recommendation it could possess in the eyes of his countrymen, the sanction of Fashion.

Such was the state of opinion in France, when two persons of very different tastes and characters in other respects, but equally enslaved to vanity and to pride, visited that country-I mean Hume and Gibbon, who, though Britons in general are little inclined to bend their necks to the yoke of foreign teachers, meanly condescended to sacrifice the independence of their own understanding and the religion of their country, to the flatteries and the sophisms of Parisian atheists. These two renegadoes joined in the views of their foreign associates, undertook to propagate atheistic principles among their countrymen, and faithful to the engagement, endeavoured in all their works to instil doubt and indifference into the minds of their readers, and by secret and almost imperceptible arts, gradually to undermine their attachment to revealed religion. Hints, sneers, misrepresentation, and exaggeration, concealed under affected candour, pervade almost every page of their very popular but most pernicious histories; and if the mischief of these works however great, be not equal to the wishes of their authors, it is entirely owing to the good sense and the spirit of religion so natural to the minds of Englishmen. This wise and happy temper, the source and security of public and private felicity, the nation owes to Providence; the desolating doctrines of incredulity,* Hume and Gibbon, and their disciples, borrowed from France and its academies. Italian literature is exempt from this infection: its general tendency is religious; all its great authors have been

* Fuyez ceux qui sous pretexte d'expliquer la nature sement dans les cœurs des hommes de desolantes doctrines nous soumettent a leurs decisions tranchantes, et pretendent nous donner, pour les vrais principes des choses, les inintelligibles systemes qu'ils ont bâtis dans leur imagination.-Rousseau. Emile.

distinguished by a steady and enlightened piety, and their works naturally tend to elevate the mind of the reader and to fix his thoughts on the noble destinies of the human race; an unspeakable advantage in a downward and perverse age, when men, formed in vain with looks erect and countenance sublime, confine their views to the earth, and voluntarily place themselves on a level with the beasts that perish.

To return-Gray, who seems to have conceived, while in Italy, a partiality for its poetry, soon discovered the treasures which it contains; and first, I believe, attempted to copy the manner and to revive the taste that had formed the princes of English verse, and given them that boldness and that sublimity which foreigners now consider as their characteristic qualities. His school inherited his partiality, and the study of Italian began to revive gradually, though its progress was slow until the publication of the Life of Lorenzo de Medici; a work which evidently awakened the slumbering curiosity of the nation, and once more turned their eyes to Italy, the great parent and nurse of languages, of laws, of arts, and of sciences. Since the appearance of that publication, many champions have arisen to support the united cause of Taste and of Italian, and have displayed talents which might have obtained success with fewer advantages on their side, but with so many, could not fail to triumph. Among these the public is much indebted to Mr. Mathias, and to the author of the Pursuits of Literature, (quocunque gaudet nomine) who have struggled with unabating zeal to turn the attention of the public, from the frippery and the tinsel of France, to the sterling ore of Italy, and to place the literature of that country in the rank due to its merit, that is, next to the emanations of Greek and Roman genius.