to your kind mention of me to the noble Cardinal Francisco Barberino, that at a grand mufical entertainment which he gave, he waited for me at the door, fought me out among the crowd, took me by the hand, and introduced me into the palace with every mark of the most flattering diftinction. When I went the next day to render him my acknowledgments for this his gracious condefcenfion, it was you who obtained me an interview, in which I experienced a degree of civility and kindness greater than I had any reafon to expect from a person of his high dignity and character. I know not, most learned Holftein, whether I am the only Englishman to whom you have fhown fo much friendship and regard, or whether you are led to fhow the fame to all my countrymen, from a recollection of the three years which you paffed at the univerfity of Oxford. If this be the cafe you generously pay to our dear England the fees of her education; and you both deferve the grateful acknowledgments of each individual in particular, and of our country in general. But if this diftinction was shown exclusively to me, if you selected me as worthy of your friendship, I congratulate myself on your preference, while I think your candour greater than my defert. I ftrenuously urged my friends, according to your inftructions, to infpect the Codex Mediceus; though they have at present but little hope of being able to do it. For in that library nothing can be tranfcribed, nor even a pen put to paper without permiffion being previously obtained; but they say that there is at Rome one John Baptifta Donio, who is daily expected at Florence where he has been invited to read lectures on the Greek language, and by whom you may easily obtain the object of your wishes. It would indeed have been far more grateful to me if I could have been at all inftrumental in promoting those honourable and illuftrious pursuits in which you are engaged; and which it behoves all men, on all occafions and in all circumftances, to promote. I add that you will lay me under new obligations if you will exprefs my warmest acknowledgments, and my most respectful compliments to the moft noble

Cardinal,

Cardinal, whofe great virtues and whofe honeft zeal, fo favourable to the encouragement of all the liberal arts, are the conftant objects of my admiration. Nor can I look without reverence on that mild, and if I may fo fpeak, that lowly loftiness of mind, which is exalted by its own humiliation, and to which we may apply a verse in the Ceres of Callimachus,

Γήματα μαν χέρσω κεφαλαδε ̓ οἱ άπτετ ̓ ὀλύμπω.

On th' earth he treads, but to the heavens he foars.

His conduct may ferve to fhow other princes that a forbidding fuperciliousness and a dazzling parade of power are quite incompatible with real magnanimity. Nor do I think that while he lives any one will regret the lofs of the Efti, the Farnefe, or the Medici, who formerly efpoufed with fo much zeal the patronage of literature. Adieu moft learned Holstein, and if you think me worthy of the honour, rank me I beseech you, for the future, wherever I may be, among those who are moft attached to you and to the ftudies in which you are engaged.

Florence, March 30, 1639.

X.

To CAROLO DEODATI, a Florentine Noble.

I DERIVED, my dear Charles, from the unexpected receipt of your letter a pleasure greater than I can exprefs; but of which you may have fome notion from the pain with which it was attended; and without a mixture of which hardly any great pleasure is conceded to mankind. While I was perufing the first lines of yours, in which the elegance of expreffion feems to conteft the palm with the tenderness of friendship, I felt nothing but an unmingled purity of joy, particularly when I found you labouring to make friendship win

the

the prize. But as foon as I came to that paffage in which you tell me that you had previously sent me three letters which must have been loft, then the fimplicity of my joy began to be imbued with grief and agitated with regret. But fomething more difaftrous foon appears. It is often a fubject of forrowful reflection to me, that those with whom I have been either fortuitoufly or legally affociated by contiguity of place, or fome tie of little moment, are continually at hand to infeft my home, to ftun me with their noise and waste me with vexation, while those who are endeared to me by the closeft fympathy of manners, of tastes and pursuits, are almost all withheld from my embrace either by death or an insuperable distance of place; and have for the most part been fo rapidly hurried from my fight, that my prospects feem continually folitary, and my heart perpetually defolate. With a lively pleasure do I read your anxious enquiries about my health fince I left Florence, and your unintermitted recollections of our intimacy. Those recollections have been reciprocal, though I thought that they had been cherished by me alone. I would not conceal from you that my departure excited in me the most poignant fenfations of uneafinefs, which revive with increased force as often as I recollect that I left fo many companions fo engaging, and fo many friends fo kind, collected in one city; which is, alas, fo far removed; which imperious circumftances compelled me to quit against my inclination, but which was and is to me moft dear. I appeal to the tomb of Damon which I fhall ever cherish and revere; his death occafioned the moft bitter forrow and regret, which I could find no more easy way to mitigate than by recalling the memory of those times, when, with thofe perfons, and particularly with you, I tafted blifs without alloy. This you would have known long fince, if you received my poem on that occafion. I had it carefully fent, that whatever poetical merit it might poffefs, the few verses which are included in the manner of an emblem, might afford no doubtful proof of my love for you. I thought that by this means I fhould entice you or fome other perfons to write; for if I wrote firft it feemed neceffary that I VOL. I. should

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fhould write to all, as if I wrote to one exclufively I feared that I fhould give offence to the reft; fince I hope that many are ftill left who might justly claim the performance of this duty. But you, by first addreffing me in a manner fo truly friendly, and by a triple repetition of epiftolary kindness, have laid me under an obligation to write to you, and have exonerated me from the cenfure of thofe to whom I do not write. Though I must confefs that I found other reasons for filence in these convulfions which my country has experienced fince my return home, which neceffarily diverted my attention from the profecution of my ftudies to the prefervation of my property and my life. For can you imagine that I could have leifure to tafte the sweets of literary cafe while fo many battles were fought, fo much blood fhed, and while fo much ravage prevailed among my fellow-citizens? But even in the midst of this tempeftuous period, I have published several works in my native language, which if they had not been written in English, I fhould have pleasure in fending to you, whofe judgment I fo much revere. My Latin poems I will foon fend as you defire; and this I should have done long ago without being defired, if I had not fufpected that fome rather harsh expreffions which they contained against the Roman pontiff would have rendered them lefs pleafing to your ears. Now I request whenever I mention the rites of your religion in my own way, that you will prevail on your friends (for I am under no apprehenfions from you) to show me the fame indulgence not only which they did to Aligerius and to Petrarch on a fimilar occafion, but which you did formerly with fuch fingular benevolence to the freedom of my conversation on topics of religion. With pleasure I perused your defcription of the funeral of king Louis. I do not acknowledge the infpiration of that vulgar and mercenary Mercury whom you jocofely profess to worship, but of that Mercury who excels in eloquence, who is dear to the Muses and the patron of men of genius. It remains for us to hit upon fome method by which our correfpondence may in future be carried on with greater regularity and fewer interruptions. This does not feem

very difficult, when we have fo many merchants who trade fo extenfively with us; whofe agents pass to and fro every week, and whofe fhips are failing backward and forward almoft as often. In the mean time, my dear Charles, farewell, and prefent my kind wishes to Cultellino, Francifco, Trefcobaldo, Maltatefto, the younger Clemantillo, and every other inquiring friend, and to all the members of the Gaddian academy. Adieu. London, April 21, 1647.

XI.

To HERMANN MILLES, Secretary to the Count of Olden

burgh.

BEFORE I return any answer, most noble Hermann, to your letter which I received on the 17th of December, I will firft explain the reasons why I did not write before, that you may not impute to me the blame of a filence which has fo long continued. First, the delay was occafioned by ill-health, whofe hoftilities I have now almoft perpetually to combat; next, by a cause of ill-health, a neceffary and fudden removal to another house, which had accidentally begun to take place on the day that your letter arrived; and lastly, by Thame that I had no intelligence concerning your bufinefs, which I thought that it would be agreeable to communicate. For the day before yesterday when I accidentally met the Lord Froft, and anxiously enquired of him whether any answer to you had been resolved on? (for the state of my health often kept me from the council) he replied not without emotion, that nothing had been refolved on, and that he could make no progrefs in expediting the bufinefs. I thought it therefore better to be filent for a time, than immediately to write what I knew that it would be irkfome for you to hear, but rather to wait till I fhould have the pleasure to communicate

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