Mr. Roscoe undertook. In stating the predisposing causes of the revolution in the church which happened under Leo, it is necessary to take a near view of the state of society; the government and doctrines of the church are to be represented; the policy of its rulers, the character of its priesthood, the views and sentiments of its members, are to be set forth and discussed; and all these are auxiliary, we conceive, to the researches and conclusions which are requisite in order to pursue the principal object of the present work.

Instead of minute details of the wars maintained in Italy by the French, we are of opinion that the author should have substituted a retrospective view of the progress of letters from the first moment of their becoming objects of public attention, to the period of which he writes. The principles, events, and incidents, which gave the happy impulse, should have been ascertained; and following this clue, the several stages of their progress should have been noted. Instead of dwelling on particulars, the causes of this auspicious revolution should have been developed and reviewed in detail; and instead of pourtraying individuals, the author ought to have sketched groupes.

In many even eminent writers, we discern a weakness which we must always contemplate as very degrading, viz. that of deserting the character of historian, in order to assume the office of advocate; and we are sorry to add that we scarcely know a respectable author who has subjected himself in a greater degree to this imputation than Mr. Roscoe. This infirmity in several instances leads him not merely to go beyond the truth, but even to lose sight of it, and to mislead his less informed and less cautious readers. We have formerly passed over much of the ground which the author has here explored, but we own that the Leo described by him differs widely from the picture which we should have formed from our own impressions. Even admitting Mr. R.'s relations, we find them inconsistent with the portrait which is presented to us in the last chapter. As sovereign Pontiff, Leo seems to have rightly apprehended the part which he ought to act in his relation to foreign states; and he appears desirous of copying the policy of Julius II. He clearly discerned his Italian interests, but he wanted steadiness and firmness to pursue them. During his pontificate, he atchieved nothing that could distinguish him in history. He seems to have been endowed with little foresight. Like most of his predecessors, he appears to have sought anxiously the aggrandizement of his family, but had not resolution effectually to prosecute that which he had so much at heart. His plan of life, his amusements, and his engagements, as described by the present author himself, shew that the hours, which should

have

have been devoted to the meditations and the pursuits of the statesman, were consumed in attending on the invitations of pleasure. Let us see how far Mr. Roscoe's account of his manner of passing his time confirms these allegations:

When Leo occasionally retired from the tumults of the city to his villa of Malliana, about five miles from Rome, he dedicated a considerable portion of his time to the amusements of fowling and hunting, in which he engaged with such carnestness, as to disregard all the inclemencies of weather, and the inconveniencies arising from want of accommodation. To these active exercises, he was most probably led to accustom himself, from an idea that they were conducive to his health, in correcting his natural tendency to a corpulent. habit. Having from his youth been devoted to these sports, he was well skilled in conducting them; and was highly offended with any of his companions, whatever their rank might be, who, through ignorance or carelesness, spoiled the expected diversion. An unsuccessful chase seemed to be one of the heaviest misfortunes that could befal him, whilst those who were hunting for the pontifical favour, rather than the beasts of the field, always found that it was the best time to obtain it, when the exertions of the pontiff had been crowned with success. Towards the decline of the year, when the heat of the season began to be mitigated by the rains, he visited the warm baths of Viterbo, the vicinity of which abounded with partridges, quails, and pheasants, and where he frequently took the diversion of hawking. Thence he passed to the beautiful lake of Bolsena, where he spent his time in fishing on the island in the midst of the lake, or at the entrance of the river Marta. In this neighbourhood he was always splendidly received and entertained by the cardinal Alessandro Farnese, afterwards Paul III. who had erected there superb villas and palaces, and by extensive plantations of fruit and forest trees, had ornamented and enriched the surrounding country. After quitting these confines, he usually pursued his journies along the Tuscan ter ritories, until he arrived at the shore of the sea, near Civita Vecchia. Here an entertainment of the most acceptable kind was provided for him. In a large plain, surrounded with hills, like an amphitheatre, and overspred with underwood for covert, a great number of wild boars and deer were collected, and the Roman pontiff, forgetful of both church and state, enjoyed the pleasures of the chase in their highest perfection. From Civita Vecchia he returned about the month of November, by Palo, and the forest of Cervetri to Rome, which, however, he soon quitted for his villa at Malliana; a place with which he was so delighted, notwithstanding the insalubrity of the air, occasioned by the exhalations of the surrounding fens, that it was with difficulty he could be prevailed on to return to the ci y, unless a meeting of the consistory, or some important occasion, required his presence. His arrival here was welcomed · by the peasantry, with no less joy than the appearance of an abundant harvest. His bounty was showered down alike on the old and the young, who surrounded him on the road to present to him their rustic offerings. But not satisfied with indiscriminate

generosity,

generosity, he frequently entered into conversation with them, inquired into their wants, paid the debts of the aged, unfortunate, or infirm; bestowed marriage portions upon the damsels, and assisted those who had to provide for a numerous family; there being, in his opinion, nothing so becoming a great prince, as to alleviate distress, and to send away every person satisfied and cheerful from his presence.'

Do not his gratifications hence appear to have formed the principal occupation of the Pontiff? Scarcely will he forego his amusements to execute the formal part of his functions! Have we not, in this delineation, traits which bespeak a mind incapable of great and dignified pursuits?

In his ecclesiastical character, the merit of Leo seems to have been confined to a decorous discharge of his sacerdotal functions. To comprehensive views, to fine strokes of policy, to well judged interpositions of authority, he exhibits not any claim. No man was ever more unequal to the crisis on which he was thrown; for he discerned not the spirit of the times, nor the principles which were in activity, nor the dangers which hung over him. The period called for strict behaviour from all persons in high ecclesiastical stations; and yet never did a pontiff more forget his sacred character, and in no court was less restraint ever imposed upon conduct. A traffic the most odious that occurs in human annals, which (it is true) had been long known at Rome, and which remains in the recollection of men an eternal disgrace to that court, it was one of the measures of his spiritual administration to extend to the most shameful and detestable length as an operation of finance. This conduct gave rise to the schism which so widely diffused itself, and laid the foundation for the ultimate downfall of the Romish hierarchy. The partiality of Mr. Roscoe to the Pontiff induces him to give a preference to the sophistical and artful historian Pallavicini, over the most ingenious narrator that ever transmitted accounts to other times. Fra. Paolo's History of the Council of Trent is founded on indisputable documents; though, as has been observed, it be full of inaccuracies in little matters, its authority in all that is important cannot be impeached; and in the notes to the translation of Père Courayer, all the minor mistakes are rectified. Had Mr. Roscoe consulted this work, he would have met with much that would have been adapted to his purpose.

That Leo was a lover of letters, and a munificent patron of them, cannot be doubted: but this glorious province he must divide with several of his predecessors as well as with many preceding and contemporary princes and chiefs of Italy. We feel no propensity to derogate from his merit as a

promoter

promoter of learning and a protector of learned men: but let not the similar claims of others be kept out of sight, in order to magnify those of Leo: nor, in fulfilling the rigid duties of an historian, let it be forgotten that if the literati of the age participated of his bounty, they shared it in common with jesters and buffoons. The greatest genius of the time, though he had lived in the closest intimacy with this pontiff, before his elevation, and though he became his suitor, never tasted of his liberality; and it was reserved for a Prince of Ferrara, at a subsequent period, to have the exclusive privilege of remunerating the first poet of his age. It does not appear, moreover, that the laudable exertions of this Pope had any very extensive or permanent influence on the fate of literature; and on this subject, we think, nothing can be more just than the following reflections of Andres, which Mr. Roscoe quotes, but which he has found it more easy to contradict than to refute :

"I observe," says another eminent literary historian, "that these times are generally distinguished as THE AGE OF LEO THE TENTH; but I cannot perceive why the Italians have agreed to restrict to the court of this pontiff, that literary glory which was common to all Italy." "It is not my intention," adds he, "to detract a single particle from the praises due to Leo X. for the services rendered by him to the cause of literature. I shall only remark, that the greater part of the Italian princes of this period might with equal right pretend to the same honour; so that there is no particular reason for conferring on Leo the superiority over all the rest.'

With respect to certain charges of a very grave nature imputed by his contemporaries to the Pontiff, we own that we are less complaisant than the present courteous historian. On this head, Mr. Roscoe must surely have forgotten the rules of evidence with which his early profession might have rendered him familiar. He ought to know that there are some matters, of which the whispers of the day are the only testimonies, and of which the universal belief of the period is the sole corroborative evidence, Where would Mr. R. look for the proofs of the criminal propensities of Leo, or of the early irregularities of Lucretia? Would he search for them in the archives of the state, among the records of courts of justice, or in the pages of contemporary historians; or rather are they not matters which rest in rumour and general belief?-Could the voluptuous, self-indulgent, and accomplished Pontiff revisit these earthly scenes, hold commerce with the tenants of them, and shew himself the same as when he was a living inhabitant of them, we believe that no one would be slower in recognizing him, or be finally more disappointed in him, than his present zealous and admiring biographer. Mr. Roscoe has delighted

us

us much, and we own ourselves indebted to him for infor mation on some points: but we must beg to be excused from borrowing of him our opinion of the Medici family; of whom, if he be in many instances the faithful historian, we conceive him to be more frequently the advocate and panegyrist.

Regarding with gratitude and admiration the vast mass of matter, much of it choice, and some of it exquisite, which we have now been examining, we cannot help wishing that it possessed more of the attractions which may be derived from form and arrangement. We feel reluctant in applying a harsh term: but we must own that, in surveying the agglomera tions before us, the idea of chaos has more than once forced itself on our minds. Whether the plastic hands which have explored so widely, dug so deeply, and collected together so much of what is precious, will be employed in giving form, symmetry, and proportion to the structure which at present equally requires and deserves that care, we cannot conjecture*: but we know what is our wish, as well from a regard to the litevature of the country, as to the fame of the accomplished author.

It is not without surprize that we find a person of Mr. Roscoe's taste, who is intimately conversant with the most classical of modern productions, disfiguring the page of history by the frequent introduction of scraps of poetry. The longestablished rules of historical composition are not to be violated, because Italy abounds with exquisite fugitive pieces, nor because Mr. R. is usually a spirited and elegant translator.

To the innovation attempted by this writer, namely that of applying the vernacular spelling to all proper names, we are by no means enemies: but the contrary practice is too inveterate, to allow us to expect that the authority of any one individual will be sufficient to overturn it.

ART. II. Essays in a Series of Letters to a Friend, on the following Subjects: I. On a Man's writing Memoirs of himself. II. On Decision of Character. III. On the Application of the epithet Romantic. IV. On some of the Causes by which evangelical Religion has been rendered less acceptable to Persons of cultivated Taste. By John Foster, 2d Edition. 2 Vols. 12mo. 8s. Boards. Longman and Co. 1806.

WE E have frequently had occasion to pass judgment on com positions of the desultory nature of those which are usually denominated Essays; we have stated the reasons for

Since the above was written, we learn that a new edition of this work, in octavo, and corrected by the author, has been published: but we have not seen it,