of money was at twenty per cent, and upwards: even over this resource, Venice had a commanding influence by the first establishment of a bank in Europe about the year 1157: the period of the commercial ascendency of the Italian states, during which the interest of money continued most exorbitant, extended from the close of the eleventh century to the beginning of the sixteenth.' Denina's own words with respect to the Venetians are; "Erano perfant venuti in riputazione di tanto potere, che forse non si sarebbe creduto giuoco disuguale, se tute le altre potenze marittime di cristianita naviganti per il Mediterranco, Catalani, Provenzali, Genovesi, Toscani, Napolitani, e Anconitani, si fossero collegate insieme per contrastar a quella republica il dominio del mare, e la superiorità del commerzio.” * 架 Mr. Clarke next enters on the details which teach us the antient glories of Portugal, and the obligations which the world owes to that minor state. It was her favoured lot to be ruled by able and benignant sovereigns, almost without interruption from the Conde Henry, the founder of her power, and even of her political existence, to Emanuel I.; under whose auspices the passage by the Cape to India was ascertained. Prince Henry, youngest son of John I. king of Portugal, by Philippa daughter of John of Gaunt, whom his father afterward created Duke of Viseo, is one of the most remarkable characters in history; and scarcely can an individual be found in its whole compass who rose more above the level of his age. At a time when warlike feats alone called forth praise, he foresook the military career in which he had distinguished himself, retired from court, and fixed his residence at Sagres; whence he could behold that vast ocean, which he so ardently longed to render better known to mankind; and in which sequestered place he could devote all his time and thoughts to the promotion of maritime discoveries. He had to combat the ruling passion, the prejudices, and the terrors of the age; intrigues arising from. jealousy in his own country; and foreign obstacles proceeding from the hostility of the Venetians, and their Moorish agents, to all attempts at changing the antient channels of commerce. Under such an opposition, any other man must have yielded; and though this Prince's firmness was of the first order, though his passion for his favourite pursuits was not to be diverted, yet had he not been the son of a king,-and had he not, as grand master of the order of Christ, interested religion and its supreme head, the Pope, in his cause,-he never could have effected his designs, and laid the foundation of the grand discovery of a passage by the Cape to India. He had embraced every opportunity of Denina, Revoluzioni d'Italia, vol. iii. p. 372. conversing conversing with intelligent Moors, had sought every species of information which could assist his views, and all skilful and enterprizing navigators were kindly received and patronized by him. He founded a school at Sagres, intended to form youth for the service, where all the advantages of which the age would allow were furnished. Finally, by his undaunted perseverance, by his unremitting exertions, by the great credit which he possessed, and by the vast wealth of which he had the disposal, he overcame all the obstacles which ignorance, envy, and fear had created; opened to his countrymen the trade of the gold coast; made then familiar with the Western shores of Africa, as far at least as Rio Grande; and was the cause of the discoveries of the Madeiras, the Canaries, the Cape Verd Islands, and the Azores. What was of most consequence, he had dispelled the prejudices against farther discovery and the aversion to maritime enterprize; nay, he even brought it as it were into vogue, and enlisted the superstition and the avarice of the times on its side. The first discovery made under his auspices was that of Puerto Santo, one of the Madeiras, which took place in 1418; and the last expedition, which he lived to see fitted out, set sail, it is conjectured, in 1462. What mo dern princely character can produce a title to the veneration of mankind, equal to that of Henry Duke of Viseo? The degree of terror, with which the enterprizes first proposed by the Duke of Viseo would be viewed, may be collected from the following passage: Africa, from time immemorial, has been the land of wonder or fairy illusion; and though the industry of the eighteenth century may have removed many of the plausible theories that darkened the beginning of the fifteenth, we still have gained little more than a knowledge of its coaste. The philosophic ideas of Cicero, who collected whatever had been approved by the antients, were now become the errors of the vulgar; the arguments that convinced the reason of Pliny, may be allowed to have possessed some weight on the minds of Portuguese seamen they believed, therefore, that the middle regions of the earth, in the torrid zone, teemed with scorching vapours; and that the unexplored southern continent of Africa, after extending in breadth towards the west, diverged with an unbroken sweep to the cast; and having joined the continent of Asia to the eastward of the Golden Chersonese, the peninsula of Malacca, was not surrounded by sea, but stretched in breadth to the South Pole.' Elsewhere the author takes notice that Though a prince, and one of the most illustrious, Henry was ob liged to pay the heavy tribute which the malignity of human nature seldom fails to exact from those who attempt to confer important benefits on mankind. The Systematic Pailosophers were alarmed, lest their favourite, and long established theories, should be perverted by the acquisition of real knowledge, which a continuation of the Portuguese discoveries would inevitably produce. The Military beheld with impatience the increase of fame that was obtained by a profession, they had always considered as inferior to their own. The Nobility of Portugal dreaded the opening of a source of wealth, whose influx, as it tended to raise the mercantile character, would proportionably equalize the ascendancy of rank, and check the rapa. cious sway of territorial possession. A numerous party was more. over formed of the Indolent and Splenetic, who invariably oppose whatever seems to reproach their own supineness, or the perverted talents of a morbid disposition. Such were the leaders of a powerful cabal, that had been long forming against the noblest efforts of the human mind: their sentiments assumed a plausible and specious guise" it was presumption to search for a passage to the southern extremity of Africa, since the wisest of the antient geographers had pronounced it to be impracticable. Philosophy had long proved, that even if such a Cape existed, the seas beyond it could not be navigable: what stubborn obstinacy then to persist contrary to such unanswerable arguments? what dangers would the Portuguese be exposed to! who, if they succeeded in passing Bojadore, would probably be changed into Blacks, and retain to the last a mark of disgrace for their temerity. Preceding princes had sought a nobler object in the field of military glory; nor had wasted the revenue in search of barren countries, and sandy deserts, never intended to be explored. The lives of many valuable subjects were thus sacrificed for precarious and uncertain advantages; and the bravest of the Portuguese would be lost to their country, in attempting to pass the deso late cape of Bojadore. If land was wanting to the increased population of Portugal, they tauntingly reminded the king of many tracts that were yet uncultivated: they represented the number of widows and orphans, who by these voyages would be reduced to distress, yet at the same time cherished the military ardour of the monarch, by a view of the conquests that were neglected in Africa, and the trophies that might be gained from the Moors. The sycophants of the court closed the varied tissue of malignancy, exclaiming, how much it was to be lamented, that the Prince would not imitate the prudence of his father, and he content with following the footsteps of such illustrious ancestors." We discover a simplicity and an interest in the older translations of the accounts of the voyages of the early Portuguese, which we think fully warrant the preference given to them by the present author. Mr. Clarke urges the convenience that would arise from more determinate divisions of the ocean, and adds; 'After much conversation on this subject with one of the first hydrographers of the present age, Mr. Arrowsmith, whose liberality is only equalied by his information, I have ventured to offer the follow. ing Divisors of the Ocean to the attention of nautical men. 1. The North Atlantic, extending from the equator to Cape Farewell on the coast coast of Greenland in 60° north latitude. 2. South Atlantic, from the equator to an imaginary line drawn from the Cape of Good Hope to Cape Horn. 3. Indian Ocean, bounded to the south by a line carried from the Cape of Good Hope to the south-west point of New Holland. 4. The North Pacific, flowing from the equator to Cape Prince of Wales in the latitude of 66° north. 5. South Pacific, from the equator to an imaginary line stretched from the south-eastern point of Van Diemen's Land, to the southern cape of New Zealand, and continued thence to Cape Horn. The remaining portions of the Ocean flowing round the northern, and southern Poles, to be called the North, and South Polar Seas.' This volume comes down no lower than the close of the 15th century. The Appendix, among other papers, contains several very valuable tracts which have before appeared in print: but we are of opinion that, if such a collection be proper, it had better have been made separately from the work before us. - Some well executed charts by Arrowsmith, and several striking plates and vignettes, enhance the value of this interesting performance. ART. XII. Fables: consisting of select Parts from Dante, Eerni, T With respect to the Italian pieces, it will readily occur to the classical scholar, that no imitation of them in modern English, however faithful or elegant, can truly exhibit those charms which depend on the language alone. That language, too, we are accustomed to associate with the wild and obsolete machinery of the middle ages, with knights and tourna ments, with demons and incantations. Hence the native strains of Tasso or Ariosto affect us with genuine or at least delusive pleasure, while we peruse the best translations of them only, perhaps, without wearisomeness. To these causes we would ascribe the diminution of interest with which we glanced at the imitations before us. Mr. Wharton is more unfortunate in the choice of his subjects than in the execution of his design; for it cannot be denied that he frequently conveys the sentiments of his author with much spirit, and in the true language of 9 English Jo. English poetry. The dark painting of Dante, for example, is at once recognized in these lines; "Through Me you pass to Sorrow's dark domain; "Through Me, where sharp remorse avails no more, Nor stay'd, till from the brink of Hell he shew'd There groans and sighs and shrieks of loud affright Wept at the fearful doom of those below. A spirited description of an opposite complexion occurs at P. 54. f In that fair garden pleasure breath'd around, With laughing flowers and cheerful verdure crown'd; And on herself to turn the potent spell; |