372 Beflexions on History, Ssc. 



period in the Roman history, claims a diligent 

 and an attentive perusal from every friend of 

 liberty, .oratory and science. Voltaire's Age 

 of Louis the Fourteenth, should not be .con- 

 demned merely for its title, nor censured till a 

 better can be found. As it was certainly a 

 period, which displayed ambitious tyranny, 

 but was distinguished for polite literature -y so 

 the wTiter, notvi^ithstanding his prejudices for 

 the supposed grandeur of his country, has not 

 failed to delineate the subject in both points of 

 view. But without any prejudices of such a 

 nature, Robertson has chosen for one of his 

 themes the reign of Charles the Fifth, a period 

 remarkable for the secession of the Protestants 

 from their obedience to the see of Rome, and 

 noted as the time when the system called the 

 balance of power, was established in Europe. 

 The reign of Philip the Second was an a^ra of 

 bloody persecution, and has, in very plain and 

 unaffected language, received its just condem- 

 nation, in the history of Watson. 



In like manner the lives of Poggio Brac- 

 ciolini, and Lorenzo de Medici, are at least 

 interesting to classical scholars, because they 

 describe the period when by their labours and 

 researches, the most celebtated works of the- 

 ancient Greeks and Romans, were not only re- 

 deemed from the obscurity of the dark ages. 



