man whom he has immortalised, that when employed on this
elaborate resemblance of his friend, he was only painting himself with all
the identifying strokes of self-love[A].

[Footnote A: "I suppose," writes EVELYN, that most agreeable enthusiast of
literature, to a travelling friend, "that you carry the life of that
incomparable virtuoso always about you in your motions, not only because
it is portable, but for that it is written by the pen of the great
Gassendus."]

It was in the vast library of PINELLI, the founder of the most magnificent
one in Europe, that PEIRESC, then a youth, felt the remote hope of
emulating the man of letters before his eyes. His life was not without
preparation, nor without fortunate coincidences; but there was a grandeur
of design in the execution which originated in the genius of the man
himself.

The curious genius of PEIRESC was marked by its precocity, as usually are
strong passions in strong minds; this intense curiosity was the germ of
all those studies which seemed mature in his youth. He early resolved on a
personal intercourse with the great literary characters of Europe; and his
friend has thrown over these literary travels that charm of detail by
which we accompany PEIRESC into the libraries of the learned; there
with the historian opening new sources of history, or with the critic
correcting manuscripts, and settling points of erudition; or by the opened
cabinet of the antiquary, deciphering obscure inscriptions, and explaining
medals. In the galleries of the curious in art, among their marbles, their
pictures, and their prints, PEIRESC has often revealed to the artist some
secret in his own art. In the museum of the naturalist, or the garden of
the botanist, there was no rarity of nature on which he had not something
to communicate. His mind toiled with that impatience of knowledge, that
becomes a pain only when the mind is not on the advance. In England
PEIRESC was the associate of Camden and Selden, and had more than one
interview with that friend to literary men, our calumniated James the
First. One may judge by these who were the men whom PEIRESC sought, and
by whom he himself was ever after sought. Such, indeed, were immortal
friendships! Immortal they may be justly called, from the objects in which
they concerned themselves, and from the permanent results of the combined
studies of such friends.

Another peculiar greatness in this literary character was PEIRESC'S
enlar