Petrarca is,in my mind,a sing-song,love-sick poet;much admired,however,by the Italians:but an Italian who should think no better of him than I do,would certainly say that he deserved his 'Laura'better than his 'Lauro';and that wretched quibble would be reckoned an excellent piece of Italian wit.
The Italian prose-writers (of invention I mean)which I would recommend to your acquaintance,are Machiavello and Boccacio;the former,for the established reputation which he has acquired,of a consummate politician (whatever my own private sentiments may be of either his politics or his morality):the latter,for his great invention,and for his natural and agreeable manner of telling his stories.
Guicciardini,Bentivoglio,Davila,etc.,are excellent historians,and deserved being read with attention.The nature of history checks,a little,the flights of Italian imaginations;which,in works of invention,are very high indeed.Translations curb them still more:and their translations of the classics are incomparable;particularly the first ten,translated in the time of Leo the Tenth,and inscribed to him,under the title of Collana.That original Collana has been lengthened since;and if I mistake not,consist now of one hundred and ten volumes.
From what I have said,you will easily guess that I meant to put you upon your guard;and not let your fancy be dazzled and your taste corrupted by the concetti,the quaintnesses,and false thoughts,which are too much the characteristics of the Italian and Spanish authors.I think you are in no great danger,as your taste has been formed upon the best ancient models,the Greek and Latin authors of the best ages,who indulge themselves in none of the puerilities I have hinted at.I think I may say,with truth;that true wit,sound taste,and good sense,are now,as it were,engrossed by France and England.Your old acquaintances,the Germans,I fear,are a little below them;and your new acquaintances,the Italians,are a great deal too much above them.The former,I doubt,crawl a little;the latter,I am sure,very often fly out of sight.
I recommended to you a good many years ago,and I believe you then read,La maniere de bien penser dans les ouvrages d'esprit par le Pere Bouhours;and I think it is very well worth your reading again,now that you can judge of it better.I do not know any book that contributes more to form a true taste;and you find there,into the bargain,the most celebrated passages,both of the ancients and the moderns,which refresh your memory with what you have formerly read in them separately.It is followed by a book much of the same size,by the same author,entitled,'Suite des Pensees ingenieuses'.
To do justice to the best English and French authors,they have not given into that false taste;they allow no thoughts to be good,that are not just and founded upon truth.The age of Lewis XIV.was very like the Augustan;Boileau,Moliere,La Fontaine,Racine,,etc.,established the true,and exposed the false taste.The reign of King Charles II.
(meritorious in no other respect)banished false taste out of England,and proscribed puns,quibbles,acrostics,etc.Since that,false wit has renewed its attacks,and endeavored to recover its lost empire,both in England and France;but without success;though,I must say,with more success in France than in England.Addison,Pope,and Swift,have vigorously defended the rights of good sense,which is more than can be said of their contemporary French authors,who have of late had a great tendency to 'le faux brillant','le raffinement,et l'entortillement'.
And Lord Roscommon would be more in the right now,than he was then,in saying,that,"The English bullion of one sterling line,Drawn to French wire,would through whole pages shine."Lose no time,my dear child,I conjure you,in forming your taste,your manners,your mind,your everything;you have but two years'time to do it in;for whatever you are,to a certain degree,at twenty,you will be,more or less,all the rest of your life.May it be a long and happy one.
Adieu.
