July 4. Much has been already done for the age of Petrarcha; and in the second period, the interesting notes which accompany the letters of the chancellor de l'Hopital, published in the year 1779, have given a very pleasing and satisfactory view of the state of literature in Europe, during the age of that eminent person. It remains to do justice to the age of Peiresc; a list of some of whose learned correspondents have been formerly exhibited in this miscellany. Peiresc contributed, by his correspondence, his memorials, and his purse, to almost all the great publications and discoveries of his time; though he had never leisure to publish any of his own excellent works, except a tract concerning an ancient Tripod, discovered at Frejus. In the library of cardinal Alexander Albani at Rome, there is a collection of letters from Peiresc to the cavalier Pozzo, which are well worthy of being communicated to the learned world; and would, it is believed, be generously communicated to any respectable and learned person, who would undertake to publish them, as a specimen of the erudition of the noble and excellent author. This might lead to the publication, in numbers, or volumes, of the great treasure of literature, in the hands of the abbé de St Leger, formerly described in this miscellany; of various other works of Peiresc, which are in the hands of M. de Noyer, his father M. de St Vincent, in the library of Carpentras, founded by Mr Inquimbert, bishop of that diocese, or in the hands of the abbe de St Leger, as prepared for the prefs, with Mazauques. notes by M. Thomasien de M. Seguier, a learned antiquary of Nismes, who died about seven years ago, procured for M. de St Vincent, the perusal of a volume of letters of Peiresc; and, it is believed, many other precious. remains of that great man, may be found in the repositories of the lives of his contemporaries; and, as it is believed that the Bee now travels to France and Germany, the lands of erudition, it is hoped, that these notices may attract attention, and produce consequences favourable to the appearance of a work, so favourable to literature, as that which has been suggested. READING MEMORANDUMS. CUSTOM, that whimsical and capricious tyrant of the mind, despises decency, and too often triumphs over prudence and virtue. There is a common infirmity in human nature that inclines us to be most curious, and conceited, in matters where we have the least concern; and for -which we are the least adapted either by study or na ture. With a man of pride or of pafsion, it is vain to argue. He will despise arguments a priori and a posteriori. He is bent on an object, in the pursuit of which, self gratification is his chief motive; he can not feel the force of words, because he is subdued by the force of passion. I will leave my enemy to be punished by the most painful of all reflections," the remembrance of a crime perpretated in vain." The vain man who despises, or the proud man who threatens the world, is always ridiculous; for the world can easily go on without him, and in a short time will cease to miss him. Some men who are good companions abroad, are more serious at home than their families could at all times wish; as if they exhausted upon strangers their whole stock of good humour. Let both sexes consider the uncertainty of happinefs. To cherish the vain hope of uninterrupted felicity, is as absurd as it is to expect unerring perfection from any child of mortality. Steadily to adhere to the laudable ambition of acquiring happiness by virtue, is the only receipe ever yet discovered, that could reconcile us to our inseparable connection with affliction: The fharpness of whose arrows are easily repelled, when not pointed with guilt. True is the observation, that however fair the prospect may for a time appear, affliction, that certain portion of man, will too often intercept our most flattering views. WAS 'Twas in a fhady grove where ivy twin'd She mourn'd the fate of virtue and of love, M. |