1

thofe great and fometimes good men, who find fatisfaction in fuch acclamations, made worfe by it; and History has too frequently taught me, that the head which has grown this day giddy with the roar of the million, has the very next been fixed upon a pole.

As Alexander VI. was entering a little town in the neighbourhood of Rome, which had been juft evacuated by the enemy, he perceived the townsmen bufy in the market-place in pulling down from a gibbet a figure, which had been defigned to reprefent himself. There were also fome knocking down a neighbouring ftatue of one of the Orfini family, with whom he was at war, in order to put Alexander's effigy when taken down, in its place. It is poffible à man who knew lefs of the world would have condemned the adulation of those barefaced flatterers; but Alexander feemed pleased at their zeal, and turning to Borgia his fon, faid with a fmile, Vides, mi fili, quam leve difcrimen palibulum inter et ftatuum. "You fee, my fon, the fmall difference "between a gibbet and a ftatue." If the great could be taught any leffon, this might ferve to teach them upon how weak a foundation their glory ftands, which is built upon popular applaufe; for as fuch praise what feems like merit, they as quickly condemn what has only the appearance of guilt.

Popular glory is a perfect coquet; her lovers muft toil, feel every inquietude, indulge every caprice, and perhaps at laft be jilted into the bargain. True glory on the other hand resembles a woman of fenfe; her admirers must play no tricks; they feel no great anxiety, for they are fure in the end of being rewarded in proportion to their merit. When Swift ufed to appear in public, he generally had the mob fhouting in his train. "Pox take thefe fools,"

he

he would fay, "how much joy might all this bawling give my Lord Mayor !"

We have feen thofe virtues, which have while living retired from the public eye, generally tranfmitted to pofterity, as the trueft objects of admiration and praife. Perhaps the character of the late Duke of Marlborough may one day be fet up, even above that of his more talked-of predeceffor; fince an affemblage of all the mild and amiable virtues is far fuperior to those vulgarly called the great ones. I must be pardoned for this fhort tribute to the memory of a man, who while living would as much deteft to receive any thing that wore the appearance of flattery, as I fhould to offer it.

I know not how to turn fo trite a subject out of the beaten road of common place, except by illuftrating it, rather by the affiftance of my memory than my judgment, and inftead of making reflections by telling a story.

A Chinese, who had long ftudied the works of Confucius, who knew the characters of fourteen thousand words, and could read a great part of every book that came in his way, once took it into his head to travel into Europe, and obferve the customs of a people whom he thought not very much inferior even to his own countrymen, in the arts of refining upon every pleasure. Upon his arrival at Amfterdam his paffion for letters naturally led him to a bookfeller's fhop; and as he could fpeak a little Dutch, he civilly afked the book feller for the works of the immortal lixofou. The bookfeller affured him, he had never heard the book mentioned before. "What, have you never heard of that immor"tal poet," returned the other much furprised, "that light of the eyes, that favourite of kings, that role of perfection! I fuppofe you know nothing of the immortal Fipfihihi, fecond coufin to

66

"" the

"the moon?" "Nothing at all, indeed fir," returned the other. "Alas!" cries our traveller, "to what purpose then has one of these fafted to "death, and the other offered himself up as a facri"fice to the Tartarean enemy, to gain a renown "which has never travelled beyond the precincts " of China!"

There is fcarcely a village in Europe, and not one univerfity, that is not thus furnished with its little great men. The head of a petty corporation, who opposes the defigns of a prince, who would tyrannically force his fubjects to fave their beft cloaths for fundays; the puny pedant who finds one undifcovered property in the polype, defcribes an unheeded procefs in the fkeleton of a mole, and whofe : mind like his microfcope perceives nature only in detail; the rhymer who makes smooth verses, and paints to our imagination when he should only speak to our hearts; all equally fancy themselves walking forward to immortality, and defire the crowd behind them to look on. The crowd takes them at their word. Patriot, philofopher, and poet, are fhouted in their train, Where was there ever fo much merit feen; no times fo important as our own; ages yet unborn fhall gaze with wonder and applaufe! to fuch mufic the important pigmy moves forward, bustling and fwelling, and aptly compared to a puddle in a storm.

I have lived to fee generals, who once had crowds halloing after them wherever they went, who were beprarfed by newfpapers and magazines, those echoes of the voice of the vulgar, and yet they have long funk into merited obfcurity, with fcarcely even an epitaph left to flatter. A few years ago the herring fishery employed all Grub-street; it was the topic in every coffee-houfe, and the burthen of every ballad. We were to drag up oceans of gold

from

terms. At We have

from the bottom of the fea; we were to fupply all Europe with herrings upon our own prefent we hear no more of all this. fifhed up very little gold that I can learn; nor do we furnish the world with herrings, as was expected. Let us wait but a few years longer, and we shall find all our expectations an berring fifbery.

SOME ACCOUNT

OF THE

ACADEMIES OF ITALY.

THERE is not perhaps a country in Europe, in which learning is fo faft upon the decline as in Italy; yet not one in which there are fuch a number of academies inftituted for its fupport. There is fcarcely a confiderable town in the whole country, which has not one or two inftitutions of this nature, where the learned, as they are pleased to call themselves, meet to harangue, to compliment each other, and praise the utility of their inftitution.

Jarchius has taken the trouble to give us a lift of those clubs, or academies, which amount to five hundred and fifty, each diftinguished by fomewhat whimfical in the name. The academies of Bologna, for inftance, are divided into the Abbandonati, the Aufiofi, Ociofio, Arcadi, Confufi, Dubbiofi, &c. There are few of these who have not published their tranfactions, and fcarcely a member who is not looked upon as the most famous man in the world, at home.

Of all thofe focieties I know of none, whose works are worth being known out of the precincts of the city in which they were written, except the

Cicalata

Cicalata Academica (or, as we might exprefs it, the tickling fociety) of Florence. I have juft now be fore me a manufcript oration, fpoken by the late Tomafo Crudeli at that fociety, which will at once serve to give a better picture of the manner in which men of wit amuse themfelves in that country, than any thing I could fay upon the occafion. The ora→ tion is this:

"The younger the nymph, my dear companions, the more happy the lover. From fourteen to seventeen, you are fure of finding love for love; from seventeen to twenty-one, there is always a mixture of intereft and affection. But when that period is past, no longer expect to receive, but to buy. No longer expect a nymph who gives, but who fells her favours. At this age every glance is taught its duty; not a look, not a figh, without defign; the lady, like a fkilful warrior, aims at the heart of another, while fhe fhields her own from danger.

"On the contrary at fifteen you may expect nothing but fimplicity, innocence, and nature. The paffions are then fincere; the foul feems feated in the lips; the dear object feels prefent happiness, without being anxious for the future; her eyes brighten if her lover approaches; her fmiles are borrowed from the Graces, and her very mistakes seem to complete her defires.

"Lucretia was juft fixteen. The rofe and lily took poffeffion of her face, and her bofom, by its hue and its coldness, feemed covered with fnow. So much beauty, and fo much virtue feldom want admirers. Orlandino, a youth of fenfe and merit, was among the number. He had long languished for an opportunity of declaring his paffion, when Cupid, as if willing to indulge his happiness, brought the charming young couple by mere accident to an arbour, where every prying eye but love was abfent. Orlandino talked of the fincerity of his pas