ds. At his death Rymer became the Historiographer and Tate
the Laureat: both offices seem equally useless, but, if united, will not
prove so to the Poet Laureat.

ANGELO POLITIAN.

Angelo Politian, an Italian, was one of the most polished writers of the
fifteenth century. Baillet has placed him amongst his celebrated
children; for he was a writer at twelve years of age. The Muses indeed
cherished him in his cradle, and the Graces hung round it their wreaths.
When he became professor of the Greek language, such were the charms of
his lectures, that Chalcondylas, a native of Greece, saw himself
abandoned by his pupils, who resorted to the delightful disquisitions of
the elegant Politian. Critics of various nations have acknowledged that
his poetical versions have frequently excelled the originals. This happy
genius was lodged in a most unhappy form; nor were his morals untainted:
it is only in his literary compositions that he appears perfect.

As a specimen of his Epistles, here is one, which serves as prefatory
and dedicatory. The letter is replete with literature, though void of
pedantry; a barren subject is embellished by its happy turns. Perhaps no
author has more playfully defended himself from the incertitude of
criticism and the fastidiousness of critics.

MY LORD,

You have frequently urged me to collect my letters, to revise and to
publish them in a volume. I have now gathered them, that I might not
omit any mark of that obedience which I owe to him, on whom I rest all
my hopes, and all my prosperity. I have not, however, collected them
all, because that would have been a more laborious task than to have
gathered the scattered leaves of the Sibyl. It was never, indeed, with
an intention of forming my letters into one body that I wrote them, but
merely as occasion prompted, and as the subjects presented themselves
without seeking for them. I never retained copies except of a few,
which, less fortunate, I think, than the others, were thus favoured for
the sake of the verses they contained. To form, however, a tolerable
volume, I have also inserted some written by others, but only those with
which several ingenious scholars favoured me, and which, perhaps, may
put the reader in good humour with my own.

There is one thing for which some will be inclined to censure me; the
style of my letters is very unequal; and, to confess the truth, I did
not find myself always in the same humour, and the same mod