into the Revival of Greek Literature in Italy. 403 



which was destined to be eminently effectual in the restoration 

 of letters. The first of these is to be found in the writings of 

 the civilians ; the second in the rise of monastic establishments 

 in the fourth century. SALVUS JULIANUS, by order of the Em- 

 peror ADRIAN (says that learned author formerly quoted) framed 

 the perpetual edict, or a standing code to extract the essence of 

 preceding institutes, and exhibit an authentic body of salutary 

 laws. His successors distinguished themselves by industry and 

 learning. Proficients in philology, from the necessity of a close 

 application to the most ancient writers, they employed their 

 knowledge to correct and refine their language. Well versed in 

 the fashionable philosophy of Greece, they did not amuse them- 

 selves with the investigation of metaphysical subtleties, or the in- 

 volution of moral precepts, but devoted their acquirements to de- 

 fine the rights, and protect the property, of their fellow-citizens. 

 It need not be insisted how much such a body of writers have 

 done for the cause of learning, in counteracting the earlier affec- 

 tation, and the later barbarisms of cotemporary authors. Even 

 when the day of destruction came, they still furnished the most 

 essential services. It was the diffusion of their writings over the 

 provinces, and the use of the Roman jurisprudence in legal " de- 

 " cisions, that served to preserve the memory, and almost to em- 

 " balm the purity of the Latin tongue *." 



In this passage the important effects ascribed to the plead- 

 ings and the writings of the Roman lawyers, throughout the pe- 

 riod of four hundred years, which elapsed from the reign of 

 ADRIAN till that of JUSTINIAN, in the beginning of the sixth cen- 

 tury, are not overrated ; and the three Emperors, to whose en- 

 couragement we mainly owe this preservation of the Latin lan- 

 guage, are ADRIAN, THEODOSIUS and JUSTINIAN. 



* Introduction to the Literary History of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centu- 

 ries, p. 23, 24. 



