rian, Extremes meet.' Both, in fact, started from the Socratic maxim; both may probably have alleged the same discourses in vindication of their system. 'The wise man should not submit to circumstances, but rule them,' said Aristippus; his whose business is to arrange his circumstances that they may produce the maximum of pleasure and the minimum of pain. A man is to be superior to his circumstances,' said Antisthenes, and therefore he is by all means to overcome his sensibility to pleasure or pain, and endeavour to live solely within himself, cultivating that nobler part of him which is not affected by outward impulses and impressions. If the first could allege passages from the discourses of Socrates in support of his theory, the latter could more confidently appeal to the whole course of his life, to his habitual endeavours after a victory over mere sensations. The Cynics* were, in fact, more disciplinarians than doctrinists. They had a hard dogmatism of their own, but they were much more ambitious to show their own indifference to passing accidents, than to discover principles and reasons for such an indifference. Of the two professors of the school, Antisthenes seems to have. been the honester, Diogenes the more original. The first was hard and narrow, but apparently, sincere ; the second was an ostentatious coxcomb, from whose proud and insolent spirit were emitted now and then sparks of what might have been genius, if it had been accompanied with simplicity of character and a true purpose.'

PETRARCH'S INTERVIEW WITH CHARLES

THE FOURTH.

ARELY have words more honest or truthful been

RAREL

uttered, than those used by Petrarch in his interview with Charles the Fourth, Emperor of Germany. Petrarch was the son of a Florentine notary, and the fellow exile and friend of the great poet Dante. His father, after many vicissitudes, settled at Avignon, in the south of France. Here young Petrarch was sent to receive such education as a very humble schoolmaster could give him. His tastes led him early to an intimate acquaintance with the Latin classics, before his companions had mastered the rudiments. It was intended that he should receive a legal education, but he had no taste for arguments, save those of Cicero and the Roman orators. His parents dying when he was very young, left the direction of his studies to his own discretion. For a number of years it is not ascertained how he obtained the means of living. His devotion to study at length recommended him to several persons of distinction, who became his patrons and supporters; and probably through them he entered the Church. When he had the power, his chief delight was to collect a library of classical manuscripts, many of which have since been

lost to the learned world, and which were doubtless exceedingly valuable.

The attention of posterity is directed to Petrarch, not so much on account of his profound learning, the Latin essays he composed, or his fame as a man, as it is to some hundreds of sonnets addressed to a lady named Laura, for whom he entertained a regard similar to that entertained by Dante for Beatrice. Petrarch met the lady on the Good Friday in the year 1327, in the church of St. Claire, at Avignon. She was about twenty years of age, and had been married some time. According to Petrarch's evidence, she was remarkable for the elegance of her person, for her golden hair, and a complexion purer than snow; she was tall and graceful, her voice clear and musical, and her manners indicated dignity and sweetness.

For upwards of twenty years the poet addressed to this lady sonnets, suggested by every variation of his mind. And yet, strange as it may seem, it is not certain that they ever conversed together. The lady, on the other hand, performed all the duties of her position in an exemplary manner; she became the mother of eleven children, and was universally respected and beloved. During the time that Petrarch was composing his sonnets, he resided in the romantic valley of Vaucluse, where he entertained the hope that his poetry would one day earn for him the laurel crown bestowed at Rome upon eminent poets. This hope was at length gratified. In August, 1340,

messengers arrived at his abode offering him the coveted honour of a public coronation at Paris or Rome. He selected the latter, where the ceremony was performed with great splendour. This led to his introduction to the princes and nobles, who felt themselves honoured by being permitted to entertain him. He seems to have been content, however, with the profits of an archdeaconry, which some of these patrons bestowed upon him.

In 1348, on the twenty-first anniversary of her meeting with Petrarch, Laura died of the plague, and was tenderly bewailed by the poet in a number of sonnets, the character of which is thus estimated by Mr. Stebbing:

"Petrarch's reputation has now for many years rested solely on his Italian poems, which occupy less than two hundred pages out of thirteen hundred, of which the folio volume containing his works consists. Studying these productions without reference to the controversies which have been maintained respecting them, we find them possessing a charm sufficient to soothe and delight us, but not to awaken passion, or give birth to any feeling of power or sublimity. If they were intended to convey an idea that the writer was under the influence of strong emotion, they are in that respect undoubted failures; for there is little poetry of any repute that makes a less vivid impression on the feelings. But it is not essential to all poetris class that it should be uniformly expres

sive of violent or intense excitement. The deepest seated passion is not always the readiest to reveal itself; and the lover may adore his mistress without addressing her in ordinary intercourse in the language of ecstasy in any case. Petrarch seldom wrote in a highly impassioned style, and those who have most censured him for want of warmth and energy, should have first considered the circumstances under which he composed his poetry. However strong his love might be for Laura, his respect for her was equal to his love, and whether he intended the sonnets he wrote, for her eye only, or for that of the world at large, he would scarcely address her in a manner unbecoming her situation and the purity of her character. Still further, Petrarch had rarely any means of addressing Laura but by his verses, and from the commencement of his passion to her death he employed them as the common medium of communicating his sentiments. It was not merely on great occasions, when taking long farewells, or inspired with some sudden emotion that he thus addressed her. Not a week, perhaps, passed without his writing on the subject of his love, and he was sufficiently Platonic, while breathing forth his verse, to believe that his spirit held communion with that of Laura. He wrote sonnets, in fact, not to make known his love, but to console himself under its disappointments; denied the pleasure of conversing with her who possessed his affections, he sought to deceive