*170]) ANNUAL REGISTER, 1795. 
etry sustained a heavy loss, and that 
his accomplished pen might have 
rescued it from its degraded state, 
without the intervention of so many 
other eminent men, whose labours 
had been employed tothe same pur- 
pose. The few pieces which re- 
main of his Latin poetry induce us 
to regret the severity of their author. 
‘These poems he had arranged in five 
books, which he submitted to the 
correction of Politiano, who having 
performed his task, returned them to 
theirauthor, with an elegant apology 
fur the freedoms which he had taken. 
Soon afterwards Pico committed 
his five books to the flames, to 
the great regret of Politiano, who 
has perpetuated this incident by a 
Greek epigram. If the works thus 
destroyed were €qua! in merit to his 
Latin elegy addressed to Girolamo 
Benivieni, posterity have reason to 
Jament the loss.’ 
From the eighth chapter, we 
have already extracted the charac- 
ter of the celebrated Girolamo Sa- 
vonarola; with whose eventful histo- 
ry most of our readers are probably 
acquainted. 
The subject of the ninth chapter 
is the arts; of which Mr. Roscoe 
has deduced the history from their 
first rade beginnings in Italy, to the 
commencement of the golden age 
of Leo. 
The tenth and last chapter con- 
tains an account of the death, anda 
review of the character, of Lorenzo; 
a narrative of the expulsion of his 
son from Florence, and of the con- 
vulsions which agitated that repub- 
lic; and a brief history of his de- 
scendants, till the house of Medici 
at length acquired the sovereign 
authority in that country of which 
they had been so long the first citi- 
zens ;—e revolution whieh was ac- 
complished by Cosmo de’ Medici, 
who became the first grand duke of 
Tuscany. 
We have now presented to the 
public such ample extracts from this 
valuable work, that they will beable 
to form their own opinion both of 
its general excellence and its dis- 
tinguishing qualities, 
It must be noinconsiderable con- 
solation to the lovers of literature, to 
observe that, in the midst of these 
furious political animosities which 
threatened to banishevery mild sene 
timent and elegant pursuit from 
among us, there should still remaina 
sufficient portion of calm literary 
taste to render a work like the pre- 
sent so generally acceptableand po- 
pular, Solid and permanent repu- 
tation the intrinsic merit of the work 
itself must in time have secured: but 
it was scarcely to have been hoped 
that it should haveacquired such ra- 
pid fame, without treating any tem~- 
porary topic, or adopting any tem- 
porary fashion; without stooping to 
the meretricious allurements of style 
which seduce a depraved taste ; and 
. without either flattering or provok- 
ing any of the passions which divide 
an agitated public. Itis not often 
at any time, but it is very seldom in 
such times as the present, that the 
means of obtaining early popularity 
are the same with those of securing 
a lasting reputation.—We congra- 
tulate the author on having come 
bined both these objects, without 
having debased the dignity of histo- 
ry so far as to minister to any of the 
reigning prejudices of the age. He 
has obtained public applause, with- 
out any sacrifice either of the purity 
of his taste or of the independence 
of his*principles. He has paid no 
court to the prepossessions of that 
body of Englishmen, among whom 
the 
