lest some of the lovers of Northern literature in this city should get the start of us. I shall not disclose this literary secret to any of my friends here till I hear from you. I found Valance in the very act of unpacking the books.

I think with you that our inventions were getting tame and vapid. But the German inventions, in my opinion, bear a strong resemblance to the ravings of a man in a fever. The flights of Shakspeare, Milton, and Ariosto, are divine: they are the effusions of a fine frenzy. Ariosto was a miracle of genius. I almost adore him.

I picked up a curious book yesterday, Luigi Groto's* edition of the Decameron, Ven. 1590. (See Memoir on Ital. Trag. p. 64.) I got at the same time Bicchierai's dramas, one of which is a free version of Dodsley's Cleone.

Now, as I am not a more literal, but not

I must confess that Boyd is sometimes too paraphrastical. His fancy is too luxuriant; but he is certainly un vero poeta. vero poeta, my versions are so pleasing to the mere English reader. I had it, however, in contemplation to execute all the versions in the manner of " cease, relentless furies," &c. p. 252. 252. As Boyd is not rich and has a large

* Luigi Groto, who was employed by the Inquisition to purge the Decameron of its impurities, no needless task, died at Venice in 1585. From the circumstance of his having been deprived of sight, he is seldom mentioned without the addition of Il cieco d'Adria to his name. He was the author of several tragedies, and among others of Hadriana, from which Mr. Walker has given long extracts, on account of the many points of resemblance between it and Shakspeare's Romeo and Juliet.

family, I am endeavoring to get him a purchaser for a translation of the whole Commedia. He has almost got out of purgatory. A better creature does not exist.

I have made considerable progress in my Essay on the Revival of the Drama in Italy. But I must totally drop, or at least suspend, the other work which I formerly mentioned to you, since Harding has not procured for me Le Vite del Testi et del Marino.

I am entirely of your opinion that scarce Italian books do not abound in London. Yet a friend purchased for me at a sale the other day twenty scarce and curious old Italian (secular) dramas, and might have got at the same time a great number of sacred dramas; but he did not think I was collecting dramas of that kind. Now, it happens that the nature of my present undertaking renders sacred dramas (I mean the early ones) peculiarly acceptable to me; but, above all, I am desirous of procuring Cionacci's* collection, so often quoted by Roscoe and Burney.

Though the Monthly is rather severe, I am pleased on the whole with their critique. If they knew how very small a portion of vanity there is in my composition, they would not accuse me of making a parade of my friendships. I name those to whom I am indebted, because I never conceal obligations; and the epithets which I bestow on them are, in my opinion, merited.

• Cionacci was the editor of the sacred poems of Lorenzo and of others of the Medici family.

I am sure I do not say as many handsome things of my friends, as Hayley does of his in the Life of Milton. The Monthly also accuses me of writing "imparted from the press." I certainly wrote in more than one instance, "the press

imparted," and " imparted by the press;" but I was never guilty of such nonsense as imparted from, though it may be so printed without being noticed in the Errata. There are several other errors not noticed in the Errata, as hoary usage for hoary use; hollow shade for hallowed wave, &c. But the reviewer is wrong in saying that I refer the origin of the Opera to Testi's Alcina, I only say, "this rage for music, thus favored by Testi, gave birth to the opera" (p. 180.) Justice ought

to be done in the next review.

Who is Mr. Damiani, who gives an account of the present state of literature in Italy, in the Monthly Magazine for August, 1797 ?

A Miss Hay, who is employed on a biographical account of the celebrated of her own sex of all ages and countries, calls on the public for aid. I shall rummage among my books, and, if I should find any thing for her purpose, I shall send it to her printer's. It is incumbent on a lover of letters to promote every literary undertaking to the utmost of his ability.

SIR JOSEPH BANKS TO MR. PINKERTON.

Soho Square, June 26th, 1799.

Confident that the only sentiments I have ever expressed concerning Mr. Browne are those which I feel; a respect for his talents as a writer, which I am acquainted with by having read several of his letters; an unbounded confidence both in his judgment as an observer, and his veracity as a narrator, and a full sense of the value of the sacrifice he has made in the pursuit of useful knowledge, I hold it impossible that any one can have quoted me for any thing which implies the slightest degree of censure on him or on his pursuits; I conclude, therefore, that you have been misinformed on that head.

MR. W. G. BROWNE TO MR. PINKERTON.

Sotterley, June 28th, 1799.

Having been from home yesterday during the day, and returning near midnight, I found your favor of the 26th. This will be my excuse for not having replied immediately on the subject of the map. The green line was agreed on between Arrowsmith and myself, in lieu of a double line, to denote my own route. It should be traced in Dar Fûr only from Cobbé to Tendelti, and thence to Gidîd, a town somewhat to the east of the road from Cobbé to Ril. If you judge it proper,

it may also be traced from Kahira to Assûan, and thence returning to Ghenné, thence to Cosseir, &c. From Kahira straight to Feiume, thence to the Nile, and down the west bank to Kahira; from ditto to Suez, Tôr, and Mount Sinai, and back to Kahira. The route through Egypt, however, it seems to me superfluous to mark with color.

I am happy to hear that the business is drawing near a conclusion, but, at the same time, much concerned that you should have been so harassed by it; and the more, as it seems that my negligence has been the chief cause of this inconvenience.

.*

I conceive it will be more prudent entirely to relinquish the Plan of Kahira ;* as with all these impediments, it is impossible but great errors must have place. I am displeased at having been even involuntarily the author of any irregularity at the Museum. Lowry, while I had the book in chambers, had employed five hours in copying the plan, a time abundantly sufficient. I ordered him not to undertake it, if it could not certainly be finished by the 4th June. He sent his assistant to look

* Messrs. Cadell and Davies, in a note to Mr. Pinkerton dated two days before this letter, had requested that some passages in the Appendix to Mr. Browne's Travels, referring to this plan, might be expunged; for that they had no hopes of getting it in time from Mr. Lowry. By the omission of this plan the loss to the public was not so great as may possibly be imagined. Mr. Browne's intention was to have given that of Niebuhr, as he informs Mr. Pinkerton in a note which I have not printed; all the materials which he had himself collected for the purpose during his residence in the city having perished.