lection was juftly characterized by Valla, in 1452, which was feven years before the author's death; and we may add, that it was printed in 1470, only eleven years after, in a state which we fear will not afford much juftification. The morals of Poggio, as far as women were concerned, were licentious, for the greater part of his life; nor can they be excufed any more than his Facetia, except by the grofs manners of his time, and the univerfal prevalence of bad example. "It is a ftriking proof," fays his prefent biographer, "of the licentioufnefs of the times, that an apoftolic fecretary, who enjoyed the friendship and efteem of the Pontiff, fhould have published a number of ftories which outrage the laws of decency, and put modefty to the blush; and that the dignity of the Roman hierarchy fhould have tolerated a book, various paffages of which tend not merely to expofe the ignorance and hypocrify of individuals of the clerical profeffion, but to throw ridicule on the most facred ceremonies of the Catholic Church." P. 442. In other refpects, the character of Poggio may be defended against all affailants. He ferved his mafiers with fidelity, and literature with enthufiafin. In private, he was a warm and a steady friend, unaltered by change of circumftances. High-fpirited and liberal, a fworn foe to meannefs and hypocrily, and fo averfe to the corruptions of Religion, that, had the work of Reformation been more advanced, his attachment to the papal court would probably have yielded to his zeal for truth. The noble tribute of juftice paid in one of his Epiftles to the cha racter and conftancy of Jerome of Prague, is a pledge to us of the feelings he would have experienced had the truth been further opened, and perfecution further carried. His ftrong and frequent remonftrances against the hypocrify of the Romish clergy fuggeft the fame opinion, and have led the writers of that clafs to charge him with impiety. If Erasmus confidered him as unlearned, compared with his own astonishing extent of literature, there were certainly few others who had a right to defpife his acquirements; and the efforts of Poggio and his friends revived, more than any other caufe, that tafte which prepared the world to admire the writings of Erafmus. It appears that in confidering the mutual invectives which had paffed between Valla and Poggio, Erafmus had taken part with the former; but the invectives on both fides, as well as those which paffed between Poggio and Filelto, are difgraceful to the writers; and the reflections of Mr. Shepherd upon them, and upon literary contefts in general, do honour, in an equal proportion, to his fentiments and his pen. Though they occur near the clofe of his book, as we are employed upon this part of the fubject, we fhall cite them here.

BRIT, CRIT. VÓL. XX. OCT. 1832.

The

"The foregoing traits of the hiftory of literature muft decifively contradict the doctrine of the amiable Ovid, when he afferts,

Ingenuos didiciffe fideliter artes

Emollit mores, nec finit efle feros.

It is, indeed, a moft lamentable truth, that few quarrels are more violent or implacable, than thofe which are excited by the jealoufy of li terary rivalship; and that the bittereft vituperative language on record occurs in the controverfial writings of diftinguifhed fcholars. Several caufes concur in producing this unhappy effect. It is of the very ef fence of extraordinary talents to advance to extremes. In men whofe ardent minds glow with the temperature of genius, whether the flame be kindled by the fcintillation of love or of enmity, it burns with impetuous fury. The exiftence of many fcholars, and the happiness of the great majority of the cultivators of literature, depend upon the eftimation in which they are held by the public. Any affertion or infinuation, therefore, derogatorý to their talents or acquirements, they confider as a dangerous infringement upon their deareft interefts, which the ftrong principle of felf-prefervation urges them to refent The objects upon which we employ a confiderable portion of our time and labour, acquire, in our eftimation, an undue degree of importance. Hence it happens, that too many scholars, imagining that all valuable knowledge centers in fome fingle fubject of study, to which they have exclufively devoted their attention, indulge the spirit of pride, and arrogantly claim from the public a degree of deference which is by no means due to the most fuccefsful cultivator of any fingle department of fcience or of literature: and in the literary, as well as in the commercial world, undue demands are refentfully reted; and amongft fcholars, as amongst men of the world, pride produces difcord. Learned men are allo too frequently furrounded by officious friends, whofe ignorant enthufiafm of attachment betrays them into a kind of idolatry, which is productive of the most mifchievous confequences to its object. They who are accustomed to meet with a blind and ready acquiefcence in their opinions, in the obfequious circle of their partizans, become impatient of contradiction, and give way to the impulfe of anger, when any one prefumes to put their dogmas to the teft of unreferved examination. The flame of refentment is fanned by the foolish partiality by which it was originally kindled; and the nobleft energies of fome mighty mind are perverted to the maintenance of ftrife, and the infliction of pain. The operation of thefe caufes produces many ftriking proofs, that learning and wifdom are by no means identical; and that the interpreter of the fublimeft morals may become the miferable victim of the meaneft paffions which rankle in the human breaft." P. 477.

POGGIO, in this Life, is called Poggio Bracciolini, without any other appellations; but in what paffes for his Epitaph, given both by Blount, in his Cenfura, and by Nathan Chytræus, in his collection of Infcriptions, he is called Johannes Francifcus Poggio. The fame Chriftian names are alfo affixed to his portrait by Boiffard. Thefe authorities alfo make

Rome

Rome the place of his burial, which, Mr. Shepherd informs us, took place in the church of Santa Croce, at Florence. This is the more likely, as he undoubtedly died at Florence, and was not likely to be removed to Rome for burial, efpecially as he was fo highly efteemed by his countrymen, the Florentines. All these mistakes of the names, and of the Epi. taph, have arifen from confounding a fon with his father. John Francis Poggio, or rather Bracciolini, who was actually buried in the church of St. Gregory, at Rome, was the fourth fon of our Poggio; and the mistake in Chytræus is, that of making the date MCCCCXXII, inftead of MDXXII, when this fon of Poggio died, (P.484.) The real Epitaph of Poggio Bracciolini remains, therefore, to be found, and must be fought at Florence, not at Rome. Mr. Shepherd has not given it, nor the infcription fubjoined to his ftatue, of which he tells fo remarkable an anecdote. That, when the façade of the church of Santa Maria del Fiore, where it flood, was altered in 1560, the ftatue of Poggio was removed to another part of that edifice, where it now compofes one of the group of the twelve Apostles. This is from Recanati's Life of Poggio.

The prefent Life of him contains much interefting matter: but, for the convenience of the reader, it greatly wants an Index. It would have been very proper alfo to infert, in fome part, a regular lift of his works; for, though each article is perhaps mentioned in its chronological order, they cannot, efpecially as there is no index, be viewed collectively by the reader This defect we fhall fupply, from the Bafil edition of his works, publifhed in 1538. 1. Hiftoria difceptativa de avaritia. 2. Hiftoria convivialis, uter alteri gratias debeat pro convivio, an qui vocatur, an qui vocat. 3. Hiftoria convivialis utra artium, medicina an juris civilis præftet. 4. Hiftoria convivialis, utrum prifcis Romanis Latina lingua omnibus communis fuerit, an alia quædam doctorum virorum, alia plebis et vulgi. Libri 3. This is a very curious tract, and very learned. 5. De nobilitate, liber difceptatorius. 6. De humanæ conditionis miferiâ. Lib. 2. 7. Afinus Luciani, Latinè. 8. Invectiva in Felicem Antipapam. 9. Invectivæ in Francifcum Philelphum iv. 10. Invective in Laurentium Vallam iv. 11. Oratioin Funere Cardinalis Florentini. 12. Oratio in funere Nicolai Nicoli. 13. Oratio in funere Laurentis de Medicis. 14. Oratio ad Nicolaum V. Pontificem. 15. Epiftolarum Liber*. 16. De infelicitate principum, dialogus. 17. Facetiarum liber. 18. Hiftoria Florentina. Lib. viii.

* Some Epiftles, if not other eompofitions of Poggio, may still moft Probably be found in MS, and well deferve the fearch. Cc 2

We

We have already given a fufficient fpecimen of the flyle of this biographer, and of the nature of his reflections. When he appears as a tranflator, from any works of his author, he fuftains the character with elegance and vigour. The only poetical effort is a tranflation from one of Philelphus's Satires, and there, juftice compels us to fay, he does not appear quite fo much to advantage. We fpeak not of any glaring defects, but merely of a flyle lefs polished and vigorous than that of his profe. This Life of Poggio, on the whole, cannot fail to be creditable to the writer, and acceptable to the public, particularly as a fuitable and pleafing introduction to that Life of Lorenzo, which is itfelf, in due time, to be followed by a no lefs interefting Life of Leo X.

ART. VII. Philofophical Tranfactions of the Royal Society, &c.

(Concluded from our last, p. 283.)

XVI. Additional Obfervations tending to investigate the Symptoms of the variable Emiffion of the Light and Heat of the San; with Trials to fet afide darkening Glaffes, by trans mitting the folar Rays through Liquids; and a few Remarks to remove Objections that might be made against fome of the Arguments contained in the former Paper. By William Herfchel, L. L. D.

THE

HE nature of the obfervations, which are contained in this fupplement to the other paper on the fame fubject, of which we have taken fufficient notice in the preceding pages, is pretty well indicated in its title. They are of the fame nature as thofe of that paper, excepting that in this fupplement a telescopial eye-piece is defcribed, which defends the eye from the heat of the fun's rays, by the interpofition of fluids, among which, Dr. H. found that water alone anfwers this purpole remarkably well.

"I viewed," he fays, "the fun with a fkeleton eye-piece, into the vacancy of which may be placed a moveable trough, fhut up at the ends with well polished plain glaffes, fo that the fun's rays may be made to pass through any liquid contained in the trough, before they come to the eye glafs.

Through fpirit of wine, I faw the fun very diftinctly. There are ten openings without fhallows; and a pretty confiderable one with a fhallow. The opening is nearly round; and the fhallow is concentric with it, and alfo round. The want of fhallows about the fmall

openings,

openings, and the roundness of that about the largest, indicate that the elaitic empyreal gas which paffes through them, is without fidebias in its motion.

"March 8. I viewed the fun through water. It keeps the heat off fo well, that we may look for any length of time, without the least, inconvenience."

The above-mentioned eye-piece is delineated on an adjoining plate.

XVII. On an improved Reflecting Circle. By Jofeph de Mendoza Rios, Efq.

This author begins by briefly defcribing the general method. of measuring angles in practical aftronomy, efpecially at fea. He mentions the improvements which have been made at va.. rious times for this purpose; and the inftruments which were invented by T. Mayer, and by the Chevalier de Borda. He points out the limits of their powers, as alfo their defects; after which he defcribes a circular inftrument of his invention, for measuring angles; and the defcription is illuftrated by four plates, which exhibit the inftrument in different points of view; and the want of which prevents the practicability of giving our readers a fufficient idea of its particular and complicated conftruction.

XVIII. Obfervations and Experiments upon Dr. James's Powder; with a Method of preparing, in the humid Way, a fimilar Subftance. By Richard Chenevix, Efq.

In this paper it is firft of all remarked, that the dry way of preparing Dr. James's Powder, is fubject to certain inequali-, ties, which may render the effect of this moft valuable medicine not very conftant; and as too much attention cannot be paid to a preparation of fo much confequence, therefore, Mr. Chenevix endeavoured to difcover a more certain method of preparing this powder; and after a variety of trials, he at laft found reafon to prefer the following preparation.

"Diffolve," he fays, "together or feparately, in the leaft poffi le portion of muriatic acid, equal parts of the white oxide of antimony (formerly called Algaroth's Powder) and of phosphate of lime. Pour this folution gradually into diftilled water, previously alkalizated by a fufficient quantity of ammonia. A white and abundant precipitate will take place, which well washed and dried, is the fubftitute I propofe for Dr. James's Powder."

This author then fubjoins fome neceffary cautions in performing the preparation; and, laftly, concludes with the following account of its medicinal property.

"To