ies of this order. TIRABOSCHI indeed lived to complete his
great national history of Italian literature; but, unhappily for us,
WARTON, after feeling his way through the darker ages of our poetry, and
just conducting us to a brighter region, in planning the map of the
country of which he had only a Pisgah view, expires amid his volumes! Our
poetical antiquary led us to the opening gates of the paradise of our
poetry, when, alas! they closed on him and on us! The most precious
portion of Warton's history is but the fragment of a fragment.

Life passes away in collecting materials--the marble lies in blocks--and
sometimes a colonnade is erected, or even one whole side of a palace
indicates the design of the architect. Count MAZZUCHELLI, early in
life, formed a noble but too mighty a project, in which, however, he
considerably advanced. This was an historical and critical account of the
memoirs and the writings of Italian authors; he even commenced the
publication in alphabetical order, but the six invaluable folios we
possess only contain the authors the initial letters of whose names are A
and B! This great literary historian had finished for the press other
volumes, which the torpor of his descendants has suffered to lie in a
dormant state. Rich in acquisition, and judicious in his decisions, the
days of the patriotic Mazzuchelli were freely given to the most curious
and elegant researches in his national literature; his correspondence is
said to consist of forty volumes; with eight of literary memoirs, besides
the lives of his literary contemporaries;--but Europe has been defrauded
of the hidden treasures.

The history of BAILLET'S "Jugemens des Scavans sur les Principaux Ouvrages
des Auteurs," or Decisions of the Learned on the Learned, is a remarkable
instance how little the calculations of writers of research serve to
ascertain the period of their projected labour. Baillet passed his life in
the midst of the great library of the literary family of the Lamoignons,
and as an act of gratitude arranged a classified catalogue in thirty-two
folio volumes; it indicated not only what any author had professedly
composed on any subject, but also marked those passages relative to the
subject which other writers had touched on. By means of this catalogue,
the philosophical patron of Baillet at a single glance discovered the
great results of human knowledge on any object of his inquiries. This
catalogue, of equal novelty and cur