1804.) 
part of Italy may now fet up for a Tuf- 
can poet, if he be only born with a kind 
of natural fprightlinefs of mind, which, 
united toa knowledge of mythology, and 
the fuperficial reading of fome poets in any 
language, may enable him to pleafe his 
readers with imagery, and that tinfel 
fo violently reproached in .Taffo, while 
only very few lines of his noble poem de- 
ferve that charge. Thefe poetafters, never- 
thelefs, {peak very highly of Petrarca; but 
they are far from beftowing any pains in 
imitating that admirable bard, either in 
the purity of terms, jultnels of epithets, 
or in the fyntax and conftruction of the 
verbs, fentences, and periods. 
The profe-writers are {till worfe: they 
would think it beneath their conceited 
importance to attend to any thing befides 
the force of their arguments, or the illuf- 
tration of their fubject. They have al- 
ways ready for their defence thele trite 
lines of. Horace, Ar. Poet. 
‘¢ Licuit, femperque licebit 
Signatum prafente nota producere nomen.” 
If we afk them which are the words 
that may be faid to be ftamped prefente 
nota, they immediately reply with another 
line of the fame author: thofe fanétioned 
by ufe or cufiom-— 
“© Quem penes arbitrium eff et jus et norma 
loquendi.** 
Allowed, I would fay to them ; but by 
this cujiom or ufe, is:it to be underftood, in 
thefe matters, of the ftyle of writing or 
fpeaking of the greateft portion of a na- 
tion? Molt certainly not ; for Quixtihan, 
Inftit. Orat. Lib. 1, Cap. 6, juftly obferves, 
that if the w/e or cuffom, ‘*ex eo quod plures 
faciunt, nomen accipiat, periculofifimum 
dabit preceptum non orationi modo, fed, quod 
majus eff, vite.” . What are we then to 
underftand by cuffom ? The fame author 
tells it to us ibid. in plain terms, ‘ Coz- 
fuetudinem fermonis vocabo confenfum 
eruditorum ; ficut vivendt, confenfum bono- 
rum. And who are to be confidered thole 
eruditi capable of furnifhing a genuine 
ftandard for literary compofition? Thofe 
who have ftudied rhetoric in the Latin* 
language ; or thofe who have learnt natu- 
ral philofophy, mathematics, law, &c. ? 
How can all thefe fciences give thefe eru- 
ditt a correé&t and elegant ftyle, when nei- 
* The book ufed to teach rhetoric in the 
grammar-fchools of Tufcany is written in 
Latin, and only Latin quotations are intro- 
‘duced in it. I entertain little doubt of this 
being the cafe in all the {chools of Italy. 
4 
Account of Count Alfieri and Tufcan Literature. 
559. 
ther themfelves nor their preceptors have 
ever beftowed avy time in attentively 
perufing their belt Tufcan claffics, or ftu- 
dying their grammarians and critics? Ef 
they would make themfelves perfeétly ac. 
quainted with thofe books, and they were 
to find the Tufcan language deficient in 
words to exprefs what they want, then 
indeed, and only then— 
“¢ Fingere ciniutis non exaudita Cethegis 
Continget.”” 
What I have obferved on the proper 
choice of words, is equally applicable to 
the fyntax of every fentence ; and that 
concinnitas, or calida juedtura, as the 
above Latin critics call it, confifting in that 
harmonious and elegant arrangement of 
fentences and periods, fo fafcinating im 
the writings of the pureft Tulcan claflics. 
Since unfortunately our language has, 
through neglect, fo much degenerated, in 
ludicrous, colloquial, or very familiar fub- 
jects, one ought to follow the current, and 
write or fpeak, as it is now univerfally 
done in polite circles: but in lyric, fub« 
lime, elegant, fcientific, or didactic fub- 
jects, the claflics who have refpectively 
written upon them should be our indifpen- 
fable guidance as to the ftyle and the fyn- 
tax of our writings. For they have not 
only acquired immortal fame for them- 
felves, but the Tufcanidiom owes to them 
its own too; without whom it would never 
have become fo univerfally admired ia 
Europe above all other living languages 
for its harmony, delicacy, and exquifite 
beauties.* 
Our modern profe-writers, however, 
like fo many literary democrats, {corn to 
be confined by any rule, and each of them 
writes according to that language he has 
molt read; if Latin, like Latins ; if Greek, 
* Horace fays that languages change, and 
Dr. JouNson has adorned the title page of 
his diftionary with thofe lines; but I main» 
tain that it is only through neglect that Jan- 
guages change—if they were properly culti- 
vaied, they would become permanent by 
bwoks, Such changes may have proved ufe- 
ful to the Englith (though the fublime wri- 
tings of Shakefpeare make me of the contrary 
Opinion, fubmitting always, as a foreigner, te 
the Englifh literati on this point), but they _ 
have proved highly detrimental to the Tuf- 
can language, which had attained its higheft 
point of perfection in the 14th century. The 
Mepicz had nearly brought it to its former 
purity ; but, as Alferi fays, ‘* Bereal feettroy 
| ineforabil, duro,’ has foon undone what they 
had fo glorioufly effected. 
like 
