526 
tous clafs of writers, who have inciden- 
tally treated of his life and literary cha- 
raster, in critical differtation; and me- 
moirs of the ftate of literature of his age 
and country, the paffion of Petrarch, fo 
remarkable both for its fervency and du- 
ration, was efteemed an honourable and 
virtuous flame. Petrarch afpired to the 
happinefs of being united» fo Laura in 
marriage ; and the heart of Laura was 
not ‘hletiBle to the paftion ; fuch, at leaf, 
are the ideas conveyed by the peet, in bis 
writings, of the nature and object of his 
paffion ; and {uch has been the uniform 
belief of the world with regard to it, from 
his days to the time of the Abbe de Sade. 
This biographer, with a {pirit very oppo- 
fite to that of the heroes of chivalry, blafs 
at once the fair fame of the virtuous 
Laura, and the hitherto unfuilied honour 
of her lover; and maintains that Laura 
was amarried woman, the mother of a 
numerous family ; that Petrarch, with all 
his profeffions of a pure and honourable 
flame, had no other end, in his unexampled 
affiduity of purfuit, than what every liber- 
tine propofes to himfelf in the poffeffion 
of a miitrefs. Such isthe hypothefis of 
De Sade, which Mr. Tytler undertakes to 
-controvert and deltroy. 
The Abhbé’s bypothefis, it. is well- 
known, depends very much on a marginal 
note, all-ged to have been in the hand- 
writing of the poet, on a manufcript copy 
of Virgil, which is faid to have been the 
property of Petrarch, According to this 
note, Laura was bern at Avignon, and 
died in the fame place. But Mr. Tytler 
contemds that the evidence taken from 
the works of Petrarch, is, that, though the 
died in the fame place where fhe was 
born, and had {pent the greateft part of 
her life, yet that place was not Avignon, 
but fome fmall village or country-feat in 
bh territory of Avignon, near tiie fource 
of the Borge a, or the ‘fountain of Vauclule. 
The faéts adduced, the pafiages quoted 
from the writings of Petrarth, and the ar- 
guients brought forward by our author, 
appear to camy conviction on this point. 
The Abbé de Sade endeavours to prove 
that the mifirets of Petrarch was Lauia 
de Noves ; that fhe was bern at Avignon, 
and was. married to Hugh de Bade: th 
whom fhe bere eleven children,; ; that the 
died at Avignon, and was interred in the 
burial place belonging to the houfe of Sade, 
in the church of the Cordeliers. Mr. 
Tytler admits, that the Abbé, who is a 
branch of that famiy, has eftablifhed the 
certainty of thefe tacts, viz. ** That this 
Proceedings of Learned Societies. 
[Janet 
Laura, the wife of Hugh de Sade, was 
born, died, and was buried at Avignon ;™ 
but, having before proved, by what he 
conceives to be irrefracable arguments, 
that the Laura of Petrarch was neither 
born, nor died, nor was buried at Avig- 
non, he Cunt dae fhe was a different per- 
fon from Laura de Noves. Ke admits 
that the current, though unfounded, report 
was, that Laura belonged to the family of 
Sade 5 but that it never was afferred till 
the time of the Abbé fhe was connected 
with it by marriage, but that_fhe herfelf 
was adeicendant of that houfe. 
Mr. Tyt ler next fhews the futility of 
the Abbé’s arguments to prove that Lau- 
ra mut have been a married woman: and 
having, in this part of the work, fhewn 
himfeifan able critic, by applying, in 4 
forcible manner, the rules which he laid 
down as applicable to the examination of 
niftorical queftions of this kind; he brings 
forward a variety of cogent arguments ta 
prove, that Petrarch’s Laura was never 
marricd, and thus he has endeavoured to 
refcue he fair fame of thefe virtuous and 
honourable jovers. ; 
Such is a very brief cutline of the me- 
thod adopt ed in this ingenious and elabo- 
rate eflay, which extends to the length of | 
feventy quarto pages, and which is con- 
cluded in the following words :—* It is 
fuficient to our purpolt, if while, on the 
one hand, we have fhewn, that there is 
not the fmalleft fol:dity in all that elabo- 
rate fabric of argument, which has been 
brought to prove, that Laura was a mar- 
ried woman, we have proved, on the other, 
from.the whole tenor of the writings of 
Petrarch, the enly evidence that applies 
to the matter, that his 2ffection was an 
honovrabie ard a virtuous flame.”? On 
this fubjcét, the refle&tion of Mr. Bastie 
(one of Petrach’s biographers) is equally 
beautiful, as a (entiment of morality, and - 
juit, as an ob/fervation on human nature ; 
—‘* flay a que la vertu feule qui foit ca- 
pable de faire des impreffions que la more 
1 é, ace pas.’ 
‘The other paper, in this part of the 
‘Traniaéiions, is a Defeription of fomeIm- 
provements in the Arms and Accoutre- 
men's of Light Cavairy, propofed by the. 
Earl of Ancram to the Marquis Cornwal- 
lis: 
The carabine recommended by his 
aisisad is parucularly defcribed, and the 
advantages which it poficfles over thofe of 
common ¥cénitruétion are, that it is ftron- 
gev becaule it is fortified all round wita 
iron 3 it is upwards of two pounds ligne 
an 
ae 
