The Admirable Crichton. 105 



The Dedication. 



To the Most Serene Prince John Baptist Gentili, Duke and Most 

 Wise Ruler of the Republic of Genoa, James Crichton, of 

 Scotland, wishes the highest prosperity. 



Of the oration which, on the Calends of July, Most Serene 

 Prince, by your authority and by a decree of the Most Illustrious 

 Senate, I delivered from the Tribune at the recent election of 

 Magistrates of the Senatorial order, graciously accept the dedica- 

 tion to your most famous and most worthy name. For it may be 

 permitted that to you, the best of princes, who have achieved the 

 highest seat of power and majesty in this Republic, at once by 

 the splendour of your race and your own worthiness, and by that 

 sweetest courtesy of manner for which you are amongst all men 

 conspicuous, I should dare to offer these small fruits of my incon- 

 siderable talents. Deign so to regard me that a tolerant con- 

 sideration of my constitutional foolishness, and the regal benignity 

 of your nature, with which you are accustomed to embrace all 

 men of letters to a degree greater than the divine Csesars or 

 Alexander the Great, should not be refused to my present 

 temerity. And, indeed, by Hercules, I would not have dared to 

 make such an attempt unless my feelings had been lively and 

 loyal towards you, and I had reflected that you would estimate 

 the significance of this small present not by its slightness but by its 

 eager and ingenuous goodwill ! First that I might manifest some 

 little gratitude for the boundless kindness with which you have 

 treated me from the day when I approached you as a suppliant, 

 and, also, in respect of the oration, that as I could not completely 

 vindicate its expressions against perverse and idle men who are 

 accustomed with the utmost licence of speech to attack the pro- 

 ductions of others, you are able to protect and defend me with 

 the most inviolable stronghold of your authority. For when, 

 after such violent storms of labour with which in past days I 

 was harassed, not without extreme detriment to my studies and 

 my youth, a certain small space of time may be granted, I may 

 be able to revert to the enjoyment of the pure pleasure of philo- 

 sophy. I hope, indeed, in dependence on the Divine mercy, to 

 dedicate to your most famous name, lucubrations of somewhat 

 greater weight, which to no mortal, nor to any Prince, would I 



