“Two days ago, sir, good Mr. Edwards brought me your eagerly expected, and most welcome, second volume. I must thank you for it immediately, though incapable of writing with my own hand. I have been extremely ill with the gout for above eleven weeks, and ten days ago was at the point of death with an inflammation in my bowels, but have happily lived to see the continuation of your work, of which I have already gone through two chapters, and find them fully equal to their predecessors. Indeed, as I cannot express, in words of my own, my sentiments both of your work and of you, I shall beg your leave to transcribe the character of another person, which so exactly suits my thoughts of you, that I should very awkwardly attempt to draw another portrait, which I am sure would not be so like.
“‘Although these volumes appear to be rather the
amusement of the leisure hours of a polite scholar, than the researches of a
professed historian, yet they display an acquaintance with the transactions of
Italy, seldom acquired except by a native. To a great proficiency in the
literature of that country, Mr. Tenhove
united an indisputable taste in the productions of all
| 160 | LIFE OF WILLIAM ROSCOE. |
“Nothing, sir, but your own extreme modesty, and impartial justice, would have blinded you so far as to have prevented you discovering that this must be a more faithful picture of yourself than it can be of Mr. Tenhove’s imperfect performance, omitting the language of a third.
“In my own copy of your work, I shall certainly insert the quotation in lieu of Testimonia Auctorum.
“Give me leave to thank you (for your own sake too) for your improvement of the two lines beginning with imagined evils: you have completely satisfied me, sir; and since I find that you can correct as masterly as compose, I believe, that, with all my admiration and respect, I shall be impertinent enough to point out any new faults, if I can discover them, in your second volume.
“I hope, by this sincere sketch of my senti-
| LIFE OF WILLIAM ROSCOE. | 161 |
