PREFACE.

Y the advice of the Bookfeller these

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little VOLUMES are now brought to a conclufion. The favourable reception they have met with has but ferved to convince the COMPILER, that in the approbation of the plan of them, the Public has overlooked the deficiencies in the

execution.

HISTORY has been called "Philofophy "teaching by examples." Biography may be faid to be Philosophy rendered dra

matic, and brought home to " each man's "bufinefs and bofom ;" and, in the opinion of a great mafter* of this fpecies of compofition, " is, of the various kind "of narrative writing, that which is most "cagerly read, and most easily applied "to the purposes of life."

ONE deviation only from the general plan of the work occurs, the introduction of a living character. In this, perhaps, the COMPILER but anticipates the wifhes of the reader, who may think that a man like Dr. TUCKER omni major eulogio fhould be alfo omni exceptione major.

Idler, No. 84.

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&c. &c. &c.

LORENZO DE' MEDICI.

HIS great Statesman, on finding himself dying,

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fent for his fon Pietro, who was to fucceed. him in his estates and in his dignity, and thus addreffed him: "I doubt not, Son, that you will "hereafter poffefs the fame weight and authority "in the State which I have hitherto enjoyed; "but as the Republic, although it forms but one "body, has many heads, you must not expect that "it will be poffible for you, on all occafions, fo "to conduct yourself as to obtain the approbation "of every individual. Remember therefore, in "every fituation, to pursue that course of conduct " which strict integrity prescribes, and to confult "the

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"the interefts of the whole Community rather than the gratification of any particular part of it.”

The Hiftory of the Life and Times of this great Man has been lately written by Mr. Roscoe, in fo elegant a ftyle, and with such knowledge of the ftate of Literature and of the Arts at that period, that every perfon of tafte must wish that he would proceed with the Life of his Son Leo X. under whofe Pontificate they reached perfection.

TRANSLATION of the ITALIAN LETTER in the Fourth Volume of thefe ANECDOTES, written by LORENZO to his Son GIOVANNI DE' MEDICI (afterwards Leo X.), on his being made a CARDINAL; from MR. ROSCOE'S "Life of Lorenzo."

LORENZO DE' MEDIÇI,

TO GIOVANNI DE' MEDICI, CARDINAL. "You, and all of us who are interested in your "welfare, ought to esteem ourselves highly fa"voured by Providence, not only for the many "honours and benefits bestowed on our House, "but more particularly for having conferred upon "us, in your person, the greatest dignity we have "ever enjoyed. This favour, in itself fo im"portant, is rendered still more fo by the circum"ftances with which it is accompanied, and ef"pecially by the confideration of your youth, and

of our fituation in the world. The first thing

"that

that I would therefore fuggeft to you is, that you ought to be grateful to God, and continually * to recollect that it is not through your merits, "your prudence, or your folicitude, that this “event has taken place, but through his favour, "which you can only repay by a pious, chaste, "and exemplary life; and that your obligations "to the performance of these duties are so much "the greater, as in your early years you have "given fome reasonable expectation that your "riper age may produce such fruits. It would "indeed be highly disgraceful, and as contrary to

your duty as to my hopes, if, at a time when "others display a greater fhare of reason, and "adopt a better mode of life, you should forget "the precepts of your youth, and forfake the path " in which you have hitherto trodden. Endeavour "therefore to alleviate the burthen of your early "dignity, by the regularity of your life, and by "your perfeverance in thofe ftudies which are «fuitable to your profeffion. It gave me great "fatisfaction to learn, that, in the course of the "paft year, you had frequently, of your own ac"cord, gone to communion and confeffion; nor ❝ do I conceive that there is any better way of "obtaining the favour of Heaven, than by habi"tuating yourself to a performance of these and “fimilar duties. This appears to me to be the "moft

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