1 68 EXAMINATION of an HISTORICAL HYPOTHESIS 



example of unpardonable dlfingenuity in our Abbe, which, oc- 

 curring in an inftance of eafy dete<Stion, mull: jultly render 

 fufpicious many of thofe authorities which he pretends to have 

 drawn from private fources, fuch as the archives of his own and 

 other families, where it is impoflible for others to follow him,- 

 and inveftigate the truth of his information. 



Before I leave this argument I muft obferve, that, by adopt- 

 ing our author's own mode of reafoning, the works of the poet 

 will furnilh us with fimilar evidence, diredlly deftru(flive of his 

 hypothefis. If the ftate of Laura, whether married or un- 

 married, is to be determined from that of her companions or 

 attendants, we find, in many other pafTages of the poetical works 

 of Petrarch, that he affigns to her an attendance of virgins. 

 Thus, in the "nth eclogue, in which the companions of Laura 

 lament her death, under the name of Galatea, one of them, 

 fays: •■■ ■ 



Addam perpetuos celebret quos mundus hanoiesj 

 Virgineos addam caetus, thus que verendos. 



And in the 3d eclogue, employing his' favourite allufion, the 

 verdant Laurel, under which he always figures his miftrefs, he 

 fays : 



Purpurea in ripa, Laurique virentis ad umhrani, 

 Virgineam afpicio, ccelo plaudente choream. — 



5/3, The laft of the arguments advanced by the author of 

 the Memoires, which he gives as in a manner conclufive on this 

 point, is that which is drawn from the dialogue with St Au- 

 gustine, and confifts in the interpretation given to the con- 

 traded 



jfearch and deep erudition of modern authors has brought to light, otherwife he 

 -would not have made them the attendants of his Laura, married or unmarried, to- 

 the Temple of Chajlity. 



