wide from that fimplicity which characterizes true beauty.

"The method to give a fcrupulous reafon for every thing is neceffary; but it ought, notwithftanding, to be ufed with difcretion, otherwife it accuftoms youth to observe too much the minutenefs of every little part, and not to attend fufficiently to the grandeur of the whole. He likewife lamented much, that his father had accuftomed him to paint in enamel, and in miniature ; as it afterwards coft him great trouble to correct the dry and minute tafte of that fpecies of painting. The truth is, that Mengs knew latterly how to liberate himfelf intirely from that defect which he has plainly fhewn in those miniatures which he painted by way of complaifance. I do not know, however, that he finished more than four, three of the which are in my poffeffion.

"His veneration for antiquity was great, without being fanatical. Where he found defects, he always acknowledged them. To point out the errors, or beauty of a work, is this difference; for the one, it is neceffary that the eye fhould be endowed with the illuftration of re2fon, and accompanied by that fine fenfibility which is not common to all men. Envy and Malignity, in - order to abafe the works of others, and to elevate themselves by their ruin, look with piercing eyes after their defects; but he who manifefts only the errors, and is filent on the beauties of a work, is either igno. rant or invidious, or perhaps both the one and the other.

"None like Mengs ever underfood and manifefted the perfections of the ancient statues. How many times has he contemplated with me the beauties of the fublime Laocoon, till he was fired with enthusiasm at

its excellence, and on one occafion obferved to me that the right tibia of one of his children was much fhorter than the other.

"On account of having given to the king, for his academy, all the chalk figures of his collection of ftatues, (a collection which had coft him a fum fuperior to his finances,) he thought of writing a treatife on the manner of viewing antiquities, and of difcovering their beauties; but he feared, that there might be found in Europe, perfons, who from fome defect, would take umbrage, and declaim against the real merit of thefe works. Death has therefore deprived the world of this publication, which I am fure would have been a model of fagacity and wifdom. It was him alone who was capable of difcovering a demonftrating, as he did in a letter to monfignor Fabroni, that, the group of Niobe was only an infe. rior copy of the famous original mentioned by Pliny. His intelligence in antiquities is clear from the following circumftance: Ione day found in a cave in the villa of Pifoni at Tivoli, a head much battered and ill treated, fo as one would fuppofe to be unintelligible, y, as foon as he faw it, he faid it was a fculpture of the time of Alexander the Great: a few days after was found the remainder of the infcription, which proved it to be the head of the fame Alexander.

"Laftly, it is worthy to know, that all the technical parts in the hiftory of the arts, by Winkelman, are of his friend Mengs; which is fufficient to give an idea, how much he had ftudied the works of the ancients."

"The franknefs of his manner was certainly fingular; and it is well known that his enthusiasm for the arts extinguifhed in him every

other

other paffion. His veracity, and the horror he bore towards every fpecies of fafehood, was ever vifible in all his actions; for proof of which I fhall give only one example of the many which I could adduce.

"On entering France by Pont Vauvoifin, the last time he went to Spain, the officers of the customhoufe faw that he had fome gold boxes ornamented with brilliants, which were given him by different princes. They asked him if he carried them for fale, or for his own ufe. He replied, that he was not a merchant, and that he did not take fnuff; with which they, were not contented, and infifted that he would reply to the fecond part of their demand, if they were for his awn ufe, in order that he might be at liberty to take them but they were not able to draw from him a word of untruth, that is to fay, that he had ever taken fnuff; for which reason they were obliged, againft their will, to feize the boxes as vendible goods, which he suffered, nor ever would have taken the trouble to recover them, if the marquis de Llano and myself had not reprefented the affair at Paris.

"I remember another trait of

him, which is too characteristic to be omitted. The king of Poland requested of him an allegorical painting, and when the commiffion was given him by his minifter, then refident in Rome, Mengs replied, that with the greatest pleasure he would grant the request which his majefty had honoured him with, but having already various commiffions from other fovereigns, reafon dictated that he should accomplish thofe firft, according to the orders which he had re'ceived; and befides, that he had given his word to fome friends, to finish them fome paintings, and 'those ought to be the first, because, he preferred friendship to all the honours and dignities of this 'world.'

"He was a most faithful husband,, and tender father to his children, to whom he gave a rigid and excellent education. Nevertheless, he has much injured his family by his want of economy, and careleffness of money. One might reckon, that in his laft eighteen years he received more than one hundred and eighty thousand scudi, and scarce left enough at his death to pay the expences of his funeral.”

the Second, fhine confpicuous through the gloom of the eleventh century. The most remarkable features in the portrait are, 1. His Ligurian marquifate. 2. His riches.

lic opinion. The glory of his defcendants is reflected on the founder; and Azo II. claims our attention as the ftem of the two great branches of the pedigree; as the

common

common father of the Italian and German princes of the kindred lines of Efte and Brunswick.

"1. The fair conjecture that the two Otberts, the father and fon, commanded at Milan and Genoa with the title and office of marquis, Acquires a new degree of probabis lity for Azo I. and afcends to the level of hiftoric truth in the perfon of Azo II. Before the middle of the eleventh century the ruins of Genoa had been restored; its active inhabitants excelled in the arts of navigation and trade: their arms had been felt on the African coaft, and their credit was established in the ports of Egypt and Greece. Their riches increased with their induftry, and their liberty with their riches. Yet they continued to obey, or at least to revere, the majefty of the emperors. In an act, as it should feem of the year one thoufand and forty-eight, the marquis Albert-Azo prefides at Genoa in a court of justice, and his affeffors, the magiftrates of the city, are proud to ftyle themselves the confuls and judges of the facred palace. The royal dignity of Pavia was gradually eclipfed by the wean and populoufnels of Milan, the firft of the Italian cities that dared to erect the standard of independance. The government of Milan was divided between the two representatives of St. Ambrofe and of Cæfar. The veneration of the flock for the fhepherd was fortified by the temporal ftate and privileges of the archbishop, and his annual revenue of fourfcore thousand pieces of gold, fupplied an ample fund for benevolence or luxury. The civil and military powers were exercifed by the duke or marquis of Milan (for thefe titles were promifcuously used), and the voice of tradition is clear and pofitive that 1. 1796.

this hereditary office was vefted in the ancestors of the houfe of Efte. Some of the prerogatives which they affumed are expreílive of the rigour of the feudal fyftem: they were the heirs of all who died childlefs and inteftate, and a fine was paid on the birth of each infant who defeated their claim: their officers levied a tax on the markets, and their minute inquifition exacted the first loaf of bread from each oven, and the first log of wood from every cart load that entered the gates. Yet an old hiftorian, more forcibly affected with the calamities of his own days, deplores the long loft felicity of their golden age, which had been equally praifed by the bleffings of the feeble, and the curfes of the ftrong. They drew their fwords for the fervice of the prince and people, but their reign was diftinguithed by long intervals of profperity and peace. The diftant poffeffions and various avocations of the duke or marquis often diverted him from the exer.cife of this municipal truft: his powers were devolved on the 'vìs. ` counts and captains of Milan; the fe fubordinate tyrants formed an alliance, or rather confpiracy, with the valvafors, or nobles of the first clafs; and the people were afflicted by the difcord or the union of a lawlefs oligarchy. A private infult exafperated the patience of the plebeians: they rofe in arms, and their numbers and fury prevailed in the bloody conteft. The captains and nobles retired; but they retired with a fpirit of revenge; collected their vaffals and peafants of the adjacent country; encompafled the city with a circumyallıtion of tix fortreffes, and in a siege or blockade of three years reduced the inhabitants to the laft extremes of famine and diftrefs. By the interpontion

C

terpofition of the emperor and the archbishop the peace of Milan was reitored the factions were reconciled: they wifely refufed a garrifon of four thoufand Germans; but they acquiefced in the civil government of the empire. The marquis again afcended his tribunal, and that marqu's is AlbertAzo the fecond. A judicial act of the year one thousand and fortyfive attefts his title and jurifdiction; and as the reprefentative of the emperor, he impofes a fine of a thousand pieces of gold. The progrefs of Italian liberty reduced his office to the empty name of marquis of Liguria, and fuch he is ftyled by the hiftorians of the age. In the next century, his grandfon, Obizo I. is invested by the emperor Frederic I. with the honours of marquis of Milan and Genoa, as his grandfather Azo held them of the empire; but this fplendid grant commemorates the dignity, without reviving the power, of the houfe of Efte.

"2. Like one of his Tufcan anceftors, Azo the fecond was diftinguifhed among the princes of Italy by the epithet of the Rich. The particulars of his rent-roll cannot now be afcertained: an occafional, though authentic deed of inveftiture, enumerates eighty-three fiefs or manors which he held of the empire in Lombardy and Tufcany, from the marquifate of Efte to the 'county of Luni: but to thefe poffeffions must be added the lands which he enjoyed as the vaffal of the church, the ancient patrimony of Otbert (the Terra Obertenga) in the counties of Arezzo, Pifa, and Lucca, and the marriage portion of his first wife, which, according to the various readings of the manufcripts, may be computed either at twenty, or at two hundred thousand

English acres. If fuch a mafs of landed property were now accu. mulated on the head of an Italian nobleman, the annual revenue might fatisfy the largest demands of private luxury or avarice, and the fortunate owner would be rich in the improvement of agriculture, the manufactures of industry, the refinement of taste, and the extent of commerce. But the barbarism of the eleventh century diminished the income, and aggravated the expence, of the marquis of Efte. In a long feries of war and anarchy, man and the works of man had been swept away; and the introduction of each ferocious and idle ftranger had been over-balanced by the lofs of five or fix perhaps of the peaceful induftrious natives. The mifchievous growth of vegetation, the frequent inundations of the rivers, were no longer checked by the vigilance of labour; the face of the country was again covered with forefts and moraffes; of the vaft domains which acknowledged Azo for their lord, the far greater part was abandoned to the wild beasts of the field, and a much smaller portion was reduced to the state of conftant and productive husbandry. An adequate rent may be obtained from the skill and fubftance of a free tenant, who fertilizes a grateful foil, and enjoys the fecurity and benefit of a long leafe. But faint is the hope, and fcanty is the produce of those harvefts, which are raifed by the reluctant toil of peafants and flaves, condemned to a bare fubfiftence, and carelefs of the interefts of a rapacious mafter. If his granaries are full, his purse is empty; and the want of cities or commerce, the difficulty of finding or reaching a market, obliges him to confume on the spot a part of his useless stock, which cannot be exchanged

exchanged for merchandize or money. The member of a well-regulated fociety is defended from private wrongs by the laws, and from public injuries by the arms of the state; and the tax which he pays is a juft equivalent for the protection which he receives. But the guard of his life, his honour, and his fortune, was abandoned to the private fword of a feudal chief; and if his own temper had been inclined to moderation and patience, the public contempt would have roufed him to deeds of violence and revenge. The entertainment of his vaffals and foldiers, their pay and rewards, their arms and horfes, furpaffed the measure of the most oppreffive tribute, and the destruction which he inflicted on his neighbours was often retaliated on his own lands. The costly ele. gance of palaces and gardens was fuperfeded by the laborious and expenfive conftruction of ftrong caftles, on the fummits of the moft inacceffible rocks; and fome of thefe, like the fortrefs of Canoffa in the Appenine, were built and provided to fuftain a three years fiege against a royal army. But his defence in this world was tefs burthenfome to a wealthy lord than his falvation in the next: the demands of his chapel, his priests, his alms, his offerings, his pilgrimages, were inceffantly renewed; the monaftery chofen for his fepulchre was endowed with his faireft poffeffions, and the naked heir might often complain, that his father's fins had been redeemed at too high a price. The marquis Azo was not exempt from the contagion of the times: his devotion was amufed and inflamed by the frequent miracles which were performed in his prefence; and the monks of Vangadizza, who yielded to his requeft

the arm of a dead faint, were ig norant of the value of that ineftimable jewel. After fatisfying the demands of war and fuperftition, he might appropriate the rest of his revenue to use and pleasure! But the Italians of the eleventh century were imperfectly skilled in the liberal and mechanic arts: the objects of foreign luxury were furnifhed at an exorbitant price by the merchants of Pifa and Venice; and the fuperfluous wealth, which could not purchase the real comforts of life, was idly wafted on fome rare occafions of vanity and pomp. Such were the nuptials of Boniface, duke or marquis of Tuscany, whose family was long afterwards united with that of Azo, by the marriage of their children. Thefe nuptials were celebrated on the banks of the Mincius, which the fancy of Virgil has decorated with a more beautiful picture. The princes and people of Italy were invited to the feaft, which continued three months: the fertile meadows, which. are interfected by the flow and winding courfe of the river, were covered with innumerable tents, and the bridegroom difplayed and diverfified the fcenes of his proud and taftelefs magnificence. All the utenfils of fervice were of filver, and his horfes were fhod with plates of the fame metal, loosely nailed, and carelessly dropped, to indicate his contempt of riches. An image of plenty and profufion was expreffed in the banquet: the noft delicious wines were drawn in buckets from the well; and the fpices of the east were ground in water-mills like common flour. The dramatic and mufical arts were in the rudeft ftate; but the marquis had fummoned the most popular fingers, harpers, and buffoons, to exercife their talents on C 2

this.