ut a scandal to the name; and Paul now declared
that he would not have that term evermore mentioned under pain of
heresy. He left us in a passion, and kept us two months longer in prison
to complete the year, as it seems he had sworn."

Such is the interesting narrative of Platina, from which we may surely
infer, that if these learned men assembled for the communication of
their studies--inquiries suggested by the monuments of antiquity, the
two learned languages, ancient authors, and speculative points of
philosophy--these objects were associated with others which terrified
the jealousy of modern Rome.

Some time after, at Naples, appeared the two brothers, John Baptiste and
John Vincent Porta, those twin spirits, the Castor and Pollux of the
natural philosophy of that age, and whose scenical museum delighted and
awed, by its optical illusions, its treasure of curiosities, and its
natural magic, all learned natives and foreigners. Their names are still
famous, and their treatises, _De Humana Physiognomia_ and _Magia
Naturalis_, are still opened by the curious, who discover these children
of philosophy wandering in the arcana of nature, to them a world of
perpetual beginnings! These learned brothers united with the Marquis of
Manso, the friend of Tasso, in establishing an academy under the
whimsical name _degli Oziosi_ (the Lazy), which so ill-described their
intentions. This academy did not sufficiently embrace the views of the
learned brothers; and then they formed another under their own roof,
which they appropriately named _degli Secreti_. The ostensible motive
was, that no one should be admitted into this interior society who had
not signalised himself by some experiment or discovery. It is clear
that, whatever they intended by the project, the election of the members
was to pass through the most rigid scrutiny; and what was the
consequence? The court of Rome again started up with all its fears, and,
secretly obtaining information of some discussions which had passed in
this academy _degli Secreti_, prohibited the Porta's from holding such
assemblies, or applying themselves to those illicit sciences, whose
amusements are criminal, and turn us aside from the study of the Holy
Scriptures.[307] It seems that one of the Porta's had delivered himself
in the style of an ancient oracle; but what was more alarming in this
prophetical spirit, several of his predictions had been actually
verified! The infallible court was i