Rev. Mr. Hall's Inquiry concerning 
Villas , Signa y labulas vejlras , ^>/«m quam rm- 
fublicam fccijlis *. 
Let me now call your attention to a much 
later period of hiftory, when talle revived, in the 
fifteenth century, after a long and gloomy night 
of Gothic ignorance and barbarity. Foftered 
by the favour and liberality of the princes of the 
Medici family, literature and the arts made & 
rapid progrefs. But it does not appear, that 
moral duties made equal advances, or were more 
generally cultivated. Obfcrve, in what unfavour¬ 
able colours,' the characters of thefe Medici, the 
great patrons of genius and learning, are drawn 
by Lord Orrery, in his Letters from Italy , 
tc Iff fays he, “ you take a view of the princes 
of the Medici, in a group, you will feel reve¬ 
rence and refpeCt, at one part of the picture, 
and be ftruck with horror and amazement, at 
the remainder. To revere and honour them, 
you mull confider their generofity, their bene¬ 
factions to men of learning, their policy, and 
fcientific initiations. To view them with 
horror and amazement, you need only liften 
to the undoubted outrages of their private 
lives j by which you will be convinced, that 
few or none of the whole race were endued 
with the fofter paffions of the human foul. 
I wifh, that in many of their group, their love 
* Salluft. Bell. Catilinar, 
was 
