PETRARCH THE MAN 



of the poet, who, trying to win earthly fame in Heaven, 

 is Hkely to fall between two stools; and he quotes the 

 Africa, wherein Petrarch describes the successive deaths 

 of man's fame, due to the rivalry of new aspirants for 

 glory, to the decay of tombstones and of books. He 

 advocates the acquisition of a certain kind of fame 

 which naturally accompanies virtue. Let Petrarch be 

 virtuous, then, and win the real fame; let him abandon 

 his literary works. This is too much for our author, 

 who decides that he will first complete his books, and 

 then give himself up entirely to virtue. St. Augustine 

 takes leave of him with the hope that he may be suc- 

 cessful, and Petrarch shares that hope. It is to Augus- 

 tine's credit, — and of course to Petrarch's as well, — 

 that he perceives the fallacy of this effort to legitimize 

 fame, which reminds one of similar efforts on the part 

 of the old Romans, when they asserted that the art of 

 rhetoric was an ars bene vivendi as well as an ars bene 

 dicendi, that the great orator must of necessity be a 

 good man. In both cases, of course, the desire was for 

 earthly glory; and the time had come when religion 

 was unable to stifle any longer this yearning. Well and 

 good it is for fame to help men in the life after death, if 

 such there be; but the real thing is to enjoy fame on 

 this earth during one's Hfetime, and to hand it down to 

 posterity. 



From what has gone before it is quite clear that 

 Petrarch was not perfect. His ideals were noble, but 

 his strength was inadequate for their fulfillment. His 



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