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fhould be the firft objed of intereft to the expanding foul ; and its 

 own nature will certainly be the next objed; of its eager refearches. 

 — When we have once learned to think, it is moft natural that we 

 fhould wifh to know how and why we think. To fatisfy its curio- 

 lity will be the firft amufement of the infant mind ; and Science 

 will therefore take place of Tafte, which, as it is only to be acquired 

 by a nice and critical inveftigation of beauties and of defeds, muft 

 naturally await the flow progrefs of Study. 



Such were moft probably fome, at leaft, of the caufes which, 

 during the courfe of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, 

 plunged and abforbed the learned of Italy, the great teachers of 

 the Weft, in the unfathomable depths of fcholaftic fpeculation and 

 metaphyfical refinement, and, by prompting the mind to attempt 

 the folution of invincible difficulty, baffled the efforts of the 

 moft penetrating genius, and checked the progrefs of ufeful 

 knowledge. Hence proceeded that rage for abftrufe difquifition, 

 which, not content with rendering Profe unintelligible, infeded 

 and obfcured even the pleafant Region of Poetry, fo as that fcarce 

 a Love-fonnet could be given to the world unattended by the long, 

 laborious, and perplexing comments of fafhionable Philofophers — 

 Hence was the ftream of knowledge fo far perverted and choaked 

 in its courfe as to threaten with inundation thofe fields it was 

 meant to fertilize — Hence the dark allegories and myftic theology 

 of the learnedly-poetical Dante, and his beft of imitators, Frezzi* — 

 Vol. VI. (B) Hence 



■* Monfigmr Frezzi Vefcovo de Foligno compofed, between the years 1380 and 1400, 



the Quadriregio, an excellent Poem written in fuccefsful imitation of Dante. — The 



merit of this very ancient and fingular compofition would entitle it to be bcttei" 

 known by foreigners. 



