hich had so long covered her beauty. But she rose not now, as of
old, in exposed and luxurious loveliness. She still wore the cestus of
her ancient witchcraft; but the diadem of Juno was on her brow, and
the aegis of Pallas in her hand. Love might, in fact, be called a new
passion; and it is not astonishing that the first poet of eminence
who wholly devoted his genius to this theme should have excited an
extraordinary sensation. He may be compared to an adventurer who
accidentally lands in a rich and unknown island; and who, though he may
only set up an ill-shaped cross upon the shore, acquires possession of
its treasures, and gives it his name. The claim of Petrarch was indeed
somewhat like that of Amerigo Vespucci to the continent which should
have derived its appellation from Columbus. The Provencal poets were
unquestionably the masters of the Florentine. But they wrote in an age
which could not appreciate their merits; and their imitator lived at the
very period when composition in the vernacular language began to attract
general attention. Petrarch was in literature what a Valentine is
in love. The public preferred him, not because his merits were of a
transcendent order, but because he was the first person whom they saw
after they awoke from their long sleep.

Nor did Petrarch gain less by comparison with his immediate successors
than with those who had preceded him. Till more than a century after his
death Italy produced no poet who could be compared to him. This decay of
genius is doubtless to be ascribed, in a great measure, to the influence
which his own works had exercised upon the literature of his country.
Yet it has conduced much to his fame. Nothing is more favourable to
the reputation of a writer than to be succeeded by a race inferior
to himself; and it is an advantage, from obvious causes, much more
frequently enjoyed by those who corrupt the national taste than by those
who improve it.

Another cause has co-operated with those which I have mentioned to
spread the renown of Petrarch. I mean the interest which is inspired by
the events of his life--an interest which must have been strongly felt
by his contemporaries, since, after an interval of five hundred years,
no critic can be wholly exempt from its influence. Among the great men
to whom we owe the resuscitation of science he deserves the foremost
place; and his enthusiastic attachment to this great cause constitutes
his most just and splendid titl