We should call this

close resemblance to the Latin. pedantry; but it appears a meritorious exploit in the eyes of a nation, which, having for two hundred years diluted its language to insipidity, now lays it down for a maxim that for the graces of style, the early Tuscan authors are to be consulted; and for the strength, and, if the word may be used, the nobility of the language, the Latins are the only safe model. It must be confessed that the origin of the language admits of this union. It is not unnatural that when they would discourse of liberty, they should have recourse to the manner of their Roman ancestors.

Bonaparte, at the Congress of Lyons, changed the name of the Cisalpine into that of the Italian Republic. He appointed himself president of this new state, and promulgated a constitution which he continued to violate at will up to the other change which converted the Republic into a Kingdom, and placed the administration of Upper Italy in the hands of a French viceroy. The only effect of Foscolo's discourse was to stop his own military promotion, but the loss of fortune was more than compensated by the public gratitude, which pointed to him as the man who had spoken the sense of the people, who had told the courageous truth, and had stood forward as the champion of national independence. It seems, however, that he continued in the army some time after this effort. The date of the preface to his 'Sentimental Journey' shows that he was, in 1805, at Calais with one of the Italian regiments which Bonaparte had united to his Army of England. His dedication of the works of Montecuculi, published in 1808 and 1809, which is addressed to General Caffarelli, minister of war of the Italian kingdom, tells us that he was aide-decamp to that officer.

Foscolo published his edition of Montecuculi in two volumes, in folio, from the manuscripts discovered in the archives of the last Prince Trivulzio, by Serassi, the biographer of Tasso, and more recently by other inquirers. These manuscripts were more complete than those of the old incorrect edition, made just after the death of the author,

which had never been reprinted, and was so much forgotten that Montecuculi was known only through the French and German translations. The object of Foscolo was more than literary he wished, by the example and precepts of an illustrious fellow-citizen, to inspire the Italians with a portion of his martial spirit, as well as to replace the author in his due rank amongst the best classical writers. He placed Montecuculi by the side of Machiavelli, and the compressed commanding style of the great rival of Turenne facilitated the labours of his editor in filling up the many blanks of the manuscript. Foscolo was commended for these supplements, and for his happy imitation of the original style; but he was accused of having been too licentious in his emendations of the text.*

Montecuculi wrote his commentaries and his military aphorisms when the use of artillery was but imperfectly known, and when a great part both of the infantry and cavalry fought with pikes and halberds, and the principal object of every war was the attack and defence of fortified towns. Foscolo illustrated his author with notes of two kinds-some of them consisting of passages from the classics, serving to show the Greek and Roman art of war, and the others relating to the system of Frederic II. and of Napoleon. By this plan the editor meant to apply each precept of Montecuculi to the three principal epochs in the history of military art-the ancient, the middle, and the modern period. To each volume he subjoined dissertations written with precisely the same object: he calls Napoleon il maggiore guerriero delle età moderne, an eulogium which must be allowed far from extravagant, at the time that the two senates of France and of Italy declared him the Thunderer of the Earth ("Jupiter foudroyant sur la terre "), and all the kings of Europe confessed the title to be fairly earned and duly bestowed.

*Ha supplito alle lacune con lo stile del Montecucoli: ma Montecucoli nel proprio testo parla spesso con lo stile di Foscolo.-Sce Giornale della Società d'Incorraggiamente, an. 1809.

The Viceroy Eugene had about this time won a battle of no great importance against the Archduke John, in Hungary. The French chose to exalt this victory to a parallel with that of Montecuculi, who after two years of perseverance, and with an army of seven thousand men, had defeated seventy thousand Turks at a time when they were yet formidable in the field: this was at the famous battle of San Gothard. The bulletins observed that the Viceroy had been victorious on the same spot already illustrated by the exploits of Montecuculi, and had rivalled the skilful manoeuvres of the Italian marshal. Foscolo devotes one of his dissertations to refute this encomium, and proves that neither the circumstances, nor the position, nor the place were the same; and he concludes by insinuating that such exaggerations might be injurious to the merit actually acquired by the Viceroy.

6

Foscolo was now sent as Professor of literature to Pavia, to replace Monti, who had been appointed historiographer. The new professor opened his course of lectures by an essay on the Origin and the Duties of Literature.'* It was his grand position that, "as society could neither be formed originally, nor afterwards kept together, except by the use of words, every abuse of this distinctive human faculty, must tend necessarily to the corruption of all social ties. Consequently, that the men of letters, being especially endowed with the power of words, are traitors to their duty whenever they neglect by their writings to excite the generous passions, to demonstrate useful truths, to add charms to virtue, and to direct public opinion to the promotion of national prosperity."

He goes on to place his men of letters as independent mediators between the government which applies to force alone, and has a natural tendency to despotism, and the people, who have no less a natural inclination towards licen

"Dell' Origine e dell' Ufficio della Letteratura."-Milano, 1809. It was translated and commented upon by the celebrated Guinguinet.

VOL. II.

S

tiousness and slavery. He looks for the proof of these principles in the history of all nations; and the more he exults in the utility of literature, the more he declaims against the vanity and the baseness both of those who sell their abilities to a tyrant, and of those who employ them in administering to the odious passions and the capricious follies of the multitude. It was an old and constant practice in Italy to insert an eulogy of the actual government in the opening discourses of every professor. Foscolo departed from this ceremony, and subjoined a note, saying, "that it belongs to history alone to speak in a becoming manner of great sovereigns." He then cited a decree of Augustus Cæsar, which forbad the small poets and orators to disgrace his name by their ephemeral praises.

The professorships of literature not only at Pavia, but also at Bologna * and Padua, were forthwith suppressed by the government. Many other professorships underwent the same fate-namely, those for the Greek and for the Oriental languages, for history, for the knowledge of medals, and, in short, for all those branches of study not strictly belonging to medicine, to jurisprudence, and to the mathematics. Foscolo retained his chair only two months; and about twenty-four other professors, who had not involved themselves in the guilt of preaching his principles, were also deprived of their emoluments, after many years of literary labour. It would be hazardous to say whether the discourse of Foscolo provoked this measure, or whether it had been some time in agitation; but at all events, the Italians were struck with the verification of the words of their own Alfieri, who had told them that absolute monarchs hate the historian, and the poet, and the orator, and give preference to the sciences. Perhaps it may not be uncharitable to add

* On this occasion the celebrated Mezzofanti, professor of Oriental languages, and the most extraordinary linguist in existence, was deprived of his chair, and reduced to an income of 750 francs.

† See the article on Alfieri.

that the scientific, compared with the literary writers of every nation, repay with corresponding submission the partiality of royal patronage.

Padua, Pavia and Bologna beheld the sudden decline of the institutions which had been the ancient ornament of their towns. Four-and-twenty lyceums were founded in the respective departments of the kingdom, with the pretext of reinstating some of the professors ejected from the three universities; but it was impossible to find a sufficient number of learned individuals, or adequate salaries for all these establishments, in every branch of science and of literature; and the consequence of this dispersion, as well as of the multiplied foundations, was, that the place of professor was degraded from those high privileges and that respectability of character which had made it for centuries an object of Italian ambition.

Those who have criticised Foscolo's discourse on the origin and the duties of literature, have found all the beauties and all the defects of this author more strongly displayed in this discourse than in any other of his prose works. A strict propriety in the words, a severe grammatical exactness, and a scrupulous rejection of every thing not absolutely inherent in the genius of the language-these meritorious characteristics are apparent in every page; but on the other hand, the same composition is remarkable for an unusual method of connecting the phrases; for the perilous boldness of the metaphors; for the over-nice discrimination of the expressions, and the use of them in the primitive Tuscan sense in contradistinction to their modern acceptation. It evinces also a certain confusion of imagery with argument, a continual struggle between the natural impetuosity and the affected calm of the writer; a union of objects very different in themselves, which are distinguished by a variety of colouring that dazzles and confounds the eye; and lastly, a crowd of ideas which, together with the rapidity of expression, overwhelm and fatigue the attention.

The Cavalier Lamberti, a declared adversary of this