1802.) 
ences, preferved fome reputation even fo 
late as the year 1770, when anew edition 
of ic vas publifhed in four volumesin 4to. 
Dominic, of whom we now offer a flight 
account, received the beft education that 
the city of Naples, or any part of the 
kingdom, could afford; and as he was 
pearly intended for the medical profeffion, 
it was natural that he fhould methodically 
go through all the ftudies conncéted with 
it, and that he fhould afterwards he coma 
pletely inftructed in its theory and prac- 
tice by his learned and refpzétable uncle. 
It was, however, neicher to his natural 
abilities, nor to the peculiar care of his 
joftruétors, that young Dominic ftood in- 
debied for that brilliant figure which he 
fubfequently made in the medical line, 
and for the uncommon reputation which 
he foon acquired among the learned men 
of his native country, and of the remainder 
of Italy. The whole was owing to an 
extraordinary combination of circumftan- 
ces arifing from the viciifitudes of fcience 
in the age in which he happened -to live. 
Any attentive obferver, who has adverted 
to the progrefs of phyfics, during the 
eighteenth century, may have remark- 
ed that each of the three generations 
compofing this period has fome fpecific 
fhades of its own, through which it is 
diftinguifhed from the two others, befides 
the acknowledged generic character which 
all of them have in common. When this 
olition is taken, it is obvious that, as the 
firit generation was diftinguifhed for the 
Newtonian philofophy, and the third for 
chemiltry; fo was the fecond for botany, 
and other branches of natural hiftory.. It 
is likewife known that this movement was 
communicated to the human mind by 
Buffon, who employed his enchanting 
powers in popularifing the fcience: and 
by Linné, who brought into it that ad- 
mirable {pirit of order which has immor- 
talized his name. Cirillo found himfelf 
in thefe happy circumftances ! he con-. 
nected his rifing fame with the fpirit of 
his age: he happened to be the firft per- 
fon, in Naples, who ftudied the works of 
the immortal $wedifh naturalift ; who was 
duly fenfible of the fuperior beauty of his 
claffificatioa and nomenclature, and who 
knew and taught that eternal economy of 
the vegetable world, by which 
Vivunt in venerem frondes; nemus omne 
per altum j 
Felix arbor amat, 
We feel, however, that, whilft we are 
making the eulogy of one man, we indi- 
reGtly and unwillingly make the fatire of © 
all his countrymen; and we are indeed 
Memsirs of Mr. Cirilla. 
45 
heartily forry that we cannot mention 3 
fingle Neapolitan character in this Maga- 
zine, without fome untavorable obferva- 
tion, either on the inhabitants, or on the 
government. The kingdom of Naples is, 
in a great meafure, the Bzotia of Italy, 
Whilft the Italians held the fupreme rank 
in the empire of learning, the Neapolitans 
were always half a century behind the reft 
ot their countrymen; as foon as the {ci- 
ences arole toa greater degree of {plendor 
on this fide of the Alps, they have been, 
juft as before, behind the remainder of 
Italy, and moreover a full century be- 
hind France and England. ‘Thofe of our 
readers, who may deem thefe expreffions 
too harfh, will be eafily reconciled to them 
when, in the prefent inftance, they are 
told that, during nearly two centuries 
which feparate Fabio Colonna from Do. 
minic Cirillo, the {cience of botany, in 
Napies, feems to have been utterly eraled 
from the map of human knowledge; and 
as this propofition alfo may appear too 
dogmatic, we feel it incumbent upon us to 
illuftrate it with a fhort commentary, 
Whether we confider the fyftem of vege- 
table phyfics, or the general and partial 
hiltory of piants, or the peculiar deferip- 
{ions of botanic gardens, we find the 
Italians, within tne period to which we 
allude, as much active in thefe purtuits 
as in apy otheroccupation. And, in fact, 
in each of the four mentioned branches, 
from Cefalpini to Bonelli, they caa pro- 
duce a number of writers, which, al- 
though decidedly inferior to that of their 
contemporaries in. the fame line, either ia 
England or in France, would, perhaps, 
be fufficient to exhibit a complete fyficm 
of botanical knowledge; and, perhaps 
alfo, be competent to do credit to any 
civilized nation. It is certainly curious 
to remark, that no one of thefe writers 
has been a Neapolitan, though the king- 
dom of Naples compofes nearly the third 
pait of Italy, and that no attempt was 
ever made by the inhabitants to render 
botany an object of attention, if we except 
(what a few inveftigators of national anti- 
quities only know,) the fmall garden 
which the prince of Cattolica, a Sicilian 
nobJeman, conitructed tor bis own plea. 
fure, in Naples, towards the clofe ot the 
r7th century; and asother incontiderable 
one which, at the beginning of the lait, 
was ercéted on the adjacent hillock, called 
La Montagnuola, by the duke Fijamiini, 
for the ufe of the famous holpital of 2 Anz~ 
nunziata, of which he was a governor, 
The prefent writer has reafon to think, 
that before the publication of the Freach 
Lucy 
