barbarity. The philology of Italy had been

transplanted hither in the reign of Henry the Eighth ; and the learned languages had been successfully cultivated by Lilly, Linacre, and More ; by Pole, Cheke, and Gardiner ; and afterwards by Smith, Clerk, Haddon, and Ascham. Greek was now taught to boys in the principal schools ; and those who united elegance with learning read, with great dili- gence, the Italian and Spanish poets. But liter- ature was yet confined to professed scholars, or to men and women of high rank. The public was gross and dark ; and to be able to read and write, was an accomplishment still valued for its rarity.

Nations, like individuals, have their infancy. . . . Whatever is remote from common ap- pearances, is always welcome to vulgar, as to childish, credulity ; and of a country unen- lightened by learning, the whole people is the vulgar. The study of those who then aspired to plebeian learning was laid 'out upon adven- tures, giants, dragons, and enchantments. The Death of Arthur was the favourite volume.

The mind which has feasted on the luxuri- ous wonders of fiction has no taste of the in- sipidity of truth. A play which imitated only the common occurrences of the world would upon the admirers of Palmerin and Guy

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