aintaining the freedom of his own opinions. PETRARCH replied,
that the anxiety of BOCCACCIO for the liberty of his friend was a thought
most grateful to him; but he assured Boccaccio that he preserved his
freedom, even although it appeared that he bowed under a hard yoke. He
hoped that he had not to learn to serve in his old age, he who had
hitherto studied to preserve his independence; but, in respect to
servitude, he did not know whom it was most displeasing to serve, a tyrant
like Visconti, or with Boccaccio, a people of tyrants[A].

[Footnote A: These interesting letters are preserved in Count Baldelli's
"Life of Boccaccio," p. 115.]

The unity of feeling is displayed in such memorable associates as BEAUMONT
and FLETCHER; whose labours are so combined, that no critic can detect the
mingled production of either; and whose lives are so closely united, that
no biographer can compose the memoirs of the one without running into the
history of the other. Their days were interwoven as their verses.
MONTAIGNE and CHARRON, in the eyes of posterity, are rivals; but such
literary friendship knows no rivalry. Such was Montaigne's affection for
Charron, that he requested him by his will to bear the arms of the
Montaignes; and Charrot evinced his gratitude to the manes of his departed
friend, by leaving his fortune to the sister of Montaigne.

How pathetically ERASMUS mourns over the death of his beloved Sir THOMAS
MORE!--"_In Moro mihi videor extinctus"_--"I seem to see myself extinct in
More." It was a melancholy presage of his own death, which shortly after
followed. The Doric sweetness and simplicity of old ISAAC WALTON, the
angler, were reflected in a mind as clear and generous, when CHARLES
COTTON continued the feelings, rather than the little work of Walton.
METASTASIO and FARINELLI called each other _il Gemello_, the Twin: and
both delighted to trace the resemblance of their lives and fates, and the
perpetual alliance of the verse and the voice. The famous JOHN BAPTISTA
PORTA had a love of the mysterious parts of sciences, such as physiognomy,
natural magic, the cryptical arts of writing, and projected many curious
inventions which astonished his age, and which we have carried to
perfection. This extraordinary man saw his fame somewhat diminishing by a
rumour that his brother John Vincent had a great share in the composition
of his works; but this never disturbed him; and Peiresc, in an
interesting account of a visit to