140 EXAMINATION of an HISTORICAL HYPOTHESIS 



to infert all thefe fabricated pafTages in every one of the manu- 

 fcripts of the author's works which are to be found in Europe. 

 Nor even, fhould we allow this Orange undertaking to have 

 been practicable, is it poflible to figure a motive capable of in- 

 ducing to the attempt ? For, what interell had any man to fhew, 

 that the Laura of Petrarch was born and died in an obfcure 

 residence in the country, while nothing more was proved to af- 

 certain her origin or connections ? But this reafoning will not 

 apply to thofe proofs which are brought to fhew that Laura 

 was born and died at Avignon. The manufcript note on Vir- 

 gil, and the fonnet faid to have been found in the grave, ftand 

 evidently in a very different predicament. Here the forgery 

 was eafy ; the motive to it flrong and alluring. At the diftance 

 of two hundred years from the death of Petrarch, it was no 

 difficult matter for the pofTeffor of this manufcript of Virgil, 

 which is faid to exhibit a great number of notes on its margin, 

 in the genuine handwriting of the poet, to have fabricated one 

 additional note in imitation of that handwriting, of which he 

 had before him fo many fpecimens ; nor did it require a great 

 meafure of ingenuity to compofe a fingle fonnet, written in the 

 perfon of Petrarch, and that too perhaps of equal merit with 

 many of his genuine compofitions. Of both forgeries the mo- 

 tive was probably the fame, which has mitigated the Abbe de 

 Sade to the compilation of his elaborate work, the defire of 

 vindicating to this houfe the relation to fo celebrated a perfon- 

 age as the Laura of Petrarch : though, as we fhall prefently 

 fee, the Abbe's hypothefis goes beyond the pretentions of his 

 anceftors, and much further than the evidence of this note and 

 fonnet can conduct him ; even fuppofing both were of the moft 

 certain authenticity. 



We have already remarked, that the purpofe of the fearch in- 

 to the graves in the church of the Cordeliers, was to afcertain 



the 



