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-SoOT-r HINTS concerning the STATE o/" SCIENCE at the. 

 REVIVAL of LETTERS, grounded on a PASSAGE 

 0/^ DANTE in >6// I N F E R N O, Canto IV. v. 130. 

 By the Right Honourable the EARL o/'CHARLEMONT, 

 Prejident of the Royal Irifh Academy and F. R. S. 



± HIS earliefl of modern Bards, who compofed his excellent, Read April 

 though fingular poem about the year 1300*, in defcribing the ^ ' '79 • 

 Elyfium, prepared for the reception of thofe Pagan worthies whofe 



(A 2) merits 



* Dante was born, according to Boccaccio, in the year 1265, and probably wrote 

 his Comedia at about the age of thirty-five years, a period of his life which many 

 reafons concur to make us fuppofe was honoured by this wonderful compofition, 

 and which well accords with what he himfelf fays in the firft line of his poem. 



Nel mezzo del Cammin di noftra Vita. 



I have ftyled Dante the earlieft of modern Bards, and fo he undoubtedly was of 

 fuch as have merited that illuftrious appellation, though the Poefia Provenzale 

 began to be cultivated fo early as in the year 11 00, and though Italian poetry may be 

 traced back to the year 11 84 — about fixty years however it continued in its infant 

 ftate, and was firft brought to a degree of maturity by Fra. Guittone D'Arezzo, who 

 flourilhed about the year 1250. 



