bear the stamp of industry, talents, and good sense. And as they may be preferred, both in point of information and composition, to the productions that immediately preceded them, so they are perhaps more truly estimable than many of those of the ensuing century; when by an overstrained attention to the beauty of language, the importance of the subject was frequently neglected or forgotten, and the talents of the first men of the age being devoted rather to words than to things, were overwhelmed in a prolixity of language, that in the form of letters, orations, and critical dissertations, became the opprobrium of literature, and the destruction of true taste.

CHAP. VIII.

DOMESTIC character of Lorenzo de' Medici-Accused of being addicted to licentious amours-Children of Lorenzo-His conduct towards them-Politiano accompanies them to Pistoia-They remove to Caffagiolo-Dissentions between Politiano and Madonna Clarice-He retires to Fiesole and writes his poem intitled RUSTICUS-Piero de' Medici-Giovanni de' Medici-Lorenzo discharges his debts and quits commerce for agriculture-Villa of Poggio-Cajano-Careggi-Fiesole and other domains-Piero visits the Pope-Giovanni raised to the dignity of a cardinal-Admonitory letter of Lorenzo-Piero marries Alfonsina Orsini—Visits Milan-Learned ecclesiastics favoured by Lorenzo-Mariano Gennazano-Girolamo SavonarolaMatteo Bosso-Death of Madonne Clarice-Assassination of Girolamo Riario-Tragical death of Galeotto Manfredi prince of Faenza.

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CHAP. VIII.

HAVING hitherto traced the conduct of Lorenzo de' Medici in public life, we may now be allowed to follow him to his domestic retreat, and observe him in the intercourse of his family, the education of his children, or the society of his friends. The mind of man varies with his local situation, and before it can be justly estimated, must be viewed in those moments when it expands itself in the warmth of confidence, and exhibits its true colours in the sunshine of affection. Whether it was from the suggestions of policy, or the versatility of his natural disposition, that Lorenzo de' Medici turned with such facility from concerns of high importance to the discussion of subjects of amusement, and the levity of convivial intercourse, certain it is, that few persons have displayed this faculty in so eminent a degree. "Think not," says Politiano, writing

to

Domestic character of Lo

renzo.

to his friend(a), "that any of our learned associates, even

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they who have devoted their lives to study, are to be es"teemed superior to Lorenzo de' Medici, either for acuteness in disputation, or for good sense in forming a just "decision; or that he yields to any of them in expressing "his thoughts with facility, variety, and elegance. The examples of history are as familiar to him as the attend66 ants that surround his table, and when the nature of his subject admits of it, his conversation is abundantly sea"soned with the salt collected from that ocean, from which "Venus herself first sprung (b)." His talent for irony was peculiar, and folly and absurdity seldom escaped his animadversion(c). In the collections formed by the Florentines, of the motti e burle of celebrated men, Lorenzo bears a distinguished part; but when expressions adapted to the occasion of a moment, are transplanted to the page of a book, and submitted to the cool consideration of the closet, they too often remind us of a flower cropt from its stalk, to be preserved in arid deformity. Possibly too, those who have assumed the task of selection may not have been accurate in their choice, and perhaps the celebrity of his

Says Jacques Moisant, Sieur de Brieux. v. Menagiana, tom. i. p. 59, where the author has traced this sentiment from Plutarch to Politiano, and downwards to Victorius, Heinsius, and de Brieux. 66 Quelque belle & fine, au reste," says he, " que soit cette pensée, usée aujourd'hui comme elle est, on n'oserait plus "la repétér."

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(c) “ Quum jocabatur, nihil hilarius; quum mordebat nihil asperius.”

Valori, in vitá p. 14.