406 Mr TYTLER'S Introduction to an Enquiry, Sfc. 



This moral eclipse of all that was excellent in human know- 

 ledge, continued for nearly six centuries, during which period the 

 country of VIRGIL successively presents to the eye of the histo- 

 rian a confused assemblage of different races of men, Franks, 

 Normans and Saracens ; and when at length, after a long period 

 of war and bloodshed, the light of civilization breaks in upon the 

 scene, we find that out of this living chaos, there had arisen the 

 infant nations, and the unformed language of modern Italy. 



The irruption of the Lombards into Italy, is the gloomy pe- 

 riod from which we may date the total extinction of the Greek 

 language and literature in the West * ; nor do we find any dis- 

 tinct traces of a spirit of revival until the middle of the four- 

 teenth century, the age of PETRARCH and BOCACCIO. 



* BALDELLI Vita di BOCACCIO, p. 223. 



