it is certain that the removal of the seat of the empire to Byzantium, could not be the measure which inflicted the deadly blow to the cultivation of letters. This passage, no doubt, is in Tiraboschi; for our author has translated it word by word; but Mr. Berington has forgotten that the works of great men are not to be considered as heathen temples, in which we are to worship every thing we find. But let us go on.

"The fourth century closed, and the fifth opened, while the purple was disgraced by the imbecile Honorius, one of the sons of Theodosius. This was a period of accumulated distress to the Roman States. In the preceding years they had often, with various success, been invaded by the barbarians from the north, first in quest of plunder, and then, as they felt the allurements of a milder climate, or the pleasures of a less savage life, in quest of settlements. Resistance, though sometimes crowned by victory, was ultimately vain; for new bodies of armed men, with their wives and children, their slaves and flocks, kept constantly advancing with steady perseverance, In less than two centuries from their first eruption, they extended their ravage and their conquest over Thrace, Pannonia, Gaul, Spain, Africa, and finally, over Italy. Even Rome, in the tenth year of the fifth century, saw Alaric with his Goths within her walls.

"The effects of these invasions on literature and the arts, and more than the invasions, the effects of the permanent settlements in the provinces, will hereafter be detailed. Let me now only add, that ten emperors, from the death of Honorius in 423, filled the western throne, during whose reigns the Huns, under Attila, in 452, over-ran Italy with furious impetuosity. Genseric, with his Vandals from Africa, in 455, surprised Rome, which he abandoned to pillage during fourteen days. New scenes of devastation were daily repeated; and finally, when a civil war, between the competitors for the throne, filled up the measure of misfortune, the barbarians, of whom the provinces were full, and with whom the ranks of the army were crowded, demanded, as their stipulated property, one half of the lands of Italy; and, when this was refused, aspired to a higher price. Odoacer, the chief of the Heruli, pursued his victorious career to the walls of Rome, despoiled Augustulus, a name of ominous import, of the purple, proclaimed himself king of Italy, and ascended the vacant throne. The western empire closed. This was in the year 476, at which time Africa obeyed the Vandals; Spain and part of Gaul were subject to the Goths; the Burgundians and Franks occupied the remainder; and many parts of Britain were subject to the domination of the Saxons." P.17.

This is all very true, and in contemplating the picture of the two different portions of Europe, along the precise line which at the time of the Christian æra separated civilization from barbarism, we are at a loss to imagine the objects which were left for the

the Romans to desire. What allurements or what temptation could the Barbarians be supposed to present? And yet during the space of 250 years from the time of Augustus, the Romans; with whom war became a habit when it ceased to be a necessity, are constantly seen beyond the line of demarcation, attacking and driving before them the wandering tribes of savages, who seemed to bear a resemblance to the human species more in their outward shape than in their internal faculties. But at this time the scene changes, and these barbarians accumulated towards the north are roused to a terrible reaction. They rush down like a torrent on the tottering empire, and retaliate on the Romans their invasions of nearly two centuries and a half, by the same depredations on their territories during an equal number of years. In these irruptions repulsion was vain, and opposition abortive; Rome, the mighty Colossus, was shaken, and sunk at last under the repeated strokes of her undisciplined but vigorous enemies. During this struggle, the loss of literature must have been immense. The best, the most cultivated, the richest towns of Italy were often burnt and pillaged; and Rome, proud Rome, swelled twice the booty of her conquerors, both with her riches and inhabitants. But yet even these sanguinary wars and dreadful events are not sufficient causes to explain the decay of litera

ture.

The fact is, we ought to distinguish the irruptions of the Barbarians into two different classes. Some of a temporary nature which had depredation and booty for object; and others of a permanent kind which looked for settlement. In the first class we ought to reckon the invasion of the Huns under Attila, that of the Visigoths under the famous Alaric, and even the storm and plunder of Rome by the Vandals, who immediately returned to Africa to reign, until they were destroyed by Belisarius. Under the second head, we may class the Ostrogoths under Theodoric, the Lombards or Longobards under Alboin, &c.

Now it is certain that the mischief caused by the Vandals, by the Huns, and by the Visigoths, however great it might have been, could by no means have destroyed the literature of Italy, where, according to Mr. Berington's statement, by the removal of the seat of empire to Byzantium, even the provincial towns had ac quired a degree of knowledge unknown to the very age of Augustus. These irruptions were of too short and temporary a nature to make any impression upon the morals or the character of the people, or cause them to forget the pursuits of literature and sciThe men of genius and learning, who were scattered all over Italy, as soon as the dreadful storm was abated, had no rea son to relinquish their studies; and when the taste for knowledge has once taken root-amongst a nation, calamities of a tem porary nature cannot in a moment eradicate so goodly a plant,

ence.

They

They resemble the flash of lightning in the beautiful language of a modern poet,

"Che fa un solco nell' ombra, e si dilegua."

For a reason somewhat different, the same may be said of the irruptions of the second sort that have settlement for object. It is a point now too well established in politics, that civilization must at all times be the consequence of conquest. For if a civilized conqueror should vanquish a barbarous nation, he will of course introduce amongst his new subjects all the arts and establishments which he has left at home; and thus together with his laws, introduce cultivation. This indeed has been the case with nearly all the nations conquered by the Romans. On the other hand, if the conqueror should be a barbarian, and the conquered civilized, the very same will happen. As soon as the armies are laid aside, the arts of peace must gain their ascendency, and the conqueror himself, who in the end wishes to enjoy the fruit of his victory, will generally encourage and admire literature and arts, and by degrees himself become softened and civilized by them. Græcia capta ferum victorem, &c. &c.

"I

It is not therefore a new opinion, that the barbarians did not alter the arts and literature of Italy, more than the Tartars have done in China. Many learned writers have laboured to establish this point beyond the power of controversy; and Muratori in many places has shewn that even the method of building which is still called Gothic, and the peculiar formation of the letters of the alphabet, which is attributed to the Lombards, are in reality the Italian style of writing and building of the middle ages. Goti ed i Vandali, says Algarotti, fecero assai men male che non şi crede," and the celebrated Gravina was wont to say, " che ci avrebbe voluti per l'Italia un dugento mila Barbari a rifor marvi la morale e le lettere.” In these combustions the trash will for ever be lost; the firstrate works, the productions of genius, will survive; and in this respect we fully agree with the Gravina, and join him in the wish that a couple of hundred thousand Cossacks or Tartars would come and clear away from our libraries the heaps of worthless productions which long since have been pouring down upon us.

But if the removal of the seat of empire, and the irruption of the Barbarians are not sufficient reasons to account for the total extinction of literature, as the want of liberty and imperial encouragement are not for their declension, the reader may now ask, what were the causes that produced this wonderful revolution? We are sorry that want of room does not allow us to enter into the details, and answer this question so fully as it deserves and we should have wished. Being obliged to confine our

selves within our too narrow limits, we shall simply state what were the principal causes. In doing so, we shall have it in our power to make use of the observations of our author, who, although he has not derived from them all the advantage he could, yet he has not overlooked them altogether.

In the first place, without having recourse to want of liberty or imperial encouragement, which could not act as primary agents during the time we are now speaking, we shall set down the love of novelty as the first cause which began to affect good taste. To prove our assertion, we have merely to quote a passage from the Analytical Inquiry into the Principles of Taste, by Mr. Knight, which however has been quoted more fully by Mr. Berington, Page 69, Book I.

"Perfection in taste and style has no sooner been reached, than it has been abandoned, even by those, who not only professed the warmest, but felt the sincerest admiration for the models which they forsook. The style of Virgil and Horace in poetry, and that of Cæsar and Cicero in prose, continued to be admired and ap plauded through all the succeeding ages of Roman eloquence, as the true standards of taste and eloquence in writing. Yet no one attempted to imitate them. All writers seek for applause; and applause is gained only by novelty. The style of Cicero and Virgil was new in the Latin language, when they wrote; but, in the age of Seneca and Lucan, it was no longer so; and though it still imposed by the stamp of authority, it could not even please without it; so that living writers, whose names depended on their works, and not their works upon their names, were obliged to seek for other means of exciting public attention, and acquiring public approbation. In the succeeding age, the refinements of these writers became old and insipid; and those of Statius and Tacitus were successfully employed to gratify the restless pruriency of innovation. In all other ages and countries, where letters have been successfully cultivated, the progression has been nearly the same." P. 69.

A second cause, but by no means less powerful, is the facility by which the freedom of Rome was obtained, and which afterwards by a decree of the Emperor was granted to all the Roman world, so that it filled the capital with strangers. This is equally well explained by our author, and we are happy to shew him again to our readers in his own simple and energetic style.

"I might add, I believe, that other causes contributed much to vitiate the purity of the Latin language, that is, the countenance given to learned foreigners from the provinces, and the fashion of teaching Greek to the children in their earliest infancy. Of this the author of the dialogue complains: The infant,' he says, is intrusted to a Greek chambermaid,' and we have abundant proof of the partiality which has always been entertained for that enchanting

5

chanting language and its professors. Had this been adopted with a view of perusing those models of classical excellence, which formed the taste of Cicero and his contemporaries, the age might have continued to experience the good effects; but the practice at this time appears to have been upheld only by vanity or affectation, The purity of the native tongue was, in the mean time, corrupted by the commixture of two different idioms.

"The same, but more vitiating, effects happened from the intercourse with provincial strangers. These brought with them the peculiarities of their respective dialects, which could not fail, more or less, to affect the substance, structure, or combinations of an ac quired speech. New words and phrases would be introduced, till the whole tissue of the language would experience a visible change.

"And if in the best age of the Roman language, the style of Livy could justly be charged with Patavinity; what might not be expected when the Senecas, and other provincial writers, by their brilliant conceits and their alluring defects had formed a new school, and given new force to the vitiation of public taste?"P. 70.

The third cause, which we fear must be considered as having contributed to vitiate the literary taste of the age and hastened its decline, was the madness of controversy with which the Christians in this third period of Ecclesiastical History, destroyed the simplicity of the Gospel, and disturbed the unity and harmony of the Christian Church.

Mr. Berington, indeed, has foreseen the objection, but he would not admit the position; and in discussing whether the prevalence of the Christian religion might not in some cases give another direction to human pursuits, he thus endeavours to get rid of the difficulty altogether.

"Had this corruption of taste or its decline kept pace with the progress of the new religion, the argument would have been more than plausible; but, as we have seen, the decline had commenced before the Christian era began, and before any possible effect could have been produced by a change in the modes of faith, or the ceremonials of worship. Then why should we attempt to conjure up an influence, which, at one time, is evidently fanciful, and, during three hundred years, is afterward uncertain in its operation, when we are in the possession of causes, which, as the heathen writers themselves confess, were fully adequate to the effects?"P. 73.

We shall endeavour to explain the riddle to our reader.

About the middle of the fourth century, when the Roman empire, tottering under its own weight, was divided into East and West; when Rome no longer was the capital of the world; when

weak