The Admirable Crichton. 101 



destitute condition, and we can well understand that his fame 

 must have preceded him when we learn from the oration that he 

 had received financial assistance and hospitality from the leading 

 men of the Republic. In fact, he had been welcomed with almost 

 incredible kindness, which, as he expresses it, he would not 

 exchange for the statues of Demetrius and the triumphs of 

 Consuls. 



In the dedication Crichton adumbrates his hope and resolu- 

 tion to do something in the future of a nature more elaborate 

 and more worthy of the merits of a Prince whom he declares to 

 have been the happiest of those known to history for his singular 

 combination of virtue and good fortune. He places himself 

 under the protection of the Prince against the attacks and un- 

 bridled speeches of the perverse and idle men whose business it 

 is to be savagely hypercritical towards the productions of other 

 people. This, no doubt, is a reference to the enemies Crichton 

 had encountered during those periods in which he proclaimed 

 his daring challenges. 



The first sentences of the oration express Crichton's despair 

 of being able to do justice to so illustrious a theme and so 

 glorious an occasion, but, whatever his incompetence, his feel- 

 ing of obligation forbids him to retire. Therefore he over- 

 comes all hesitation and misgiving by a sense of gratitude and 

 duty. The inspirations of such a position were sufficient to 

 furnish eloquence to the least skilled of orators, although, as he 

 suggests, the possibilities of doing justice to it were beyond the 

 accomplishment of the greatest lords and masters of speech 

 known to the annals of the world. Piously premising that there 

 is nothing more pleasing to God as the Supreme Power than a 

 free republic purely and properly administered, Crichton 

 illustrates his meaning from the example of Greeks, Romans, 

 and others who had proceeded on this principle, tracing the 

 introduction of their several codes of law to the instructions of 

 heaven itself. He regards Genoa as particularly favoured in the 

 circumstance that its Princes, who are not born to rank and 

 office, but are elected by the votes of the citizens, are free from 

 the temptations of vice and luxury to which so many hereditary 

 monarchs have succumbed, to their own disgrace and degrada- 

 tion and to the desolation and misery of their subjects. The 



