this fplendid theatre. Their exhibitions were applauded, and they applauded the liberality of their patron. After this festival, I might remark a fingular gift of the fame Boniface to the emperor Henry III. a chariot and oxen of folid filver, which were defigned only as a vehicle for a hoghead of vinegar. If fuch an example fhould feem above the imitation of Azo himfelf, the marquis of Efte was at leaft fuperior in wealth and dignity to the vaffals of his compeer. One of these vaffals, the vifcount of Mantua, prefented the German monarch with one hundred falcons, and one hundred bay horfes, a grateful contribution to the pleafures of a royal fportfman. In that age, the proud diftinction be tween the nobles and princes of Italy was guarded with jealous ceremony: the vifcount of Mantua had never been feated at the table of his immediate lord: he yielded to the invitation of the emperor; and a ftag's fkin, filled with pieces of gold, was graciously accepted by the marquis of Tufcany as the fine of his prefumption.

"3. The temporal felicity of Azo was crowned by the long poffeffion of honours and riches: he died in the year one thousand and ninety-feven, aged upwards of an hundred years; and the term of his mortal existence was almoft commenfurate with the lapfe of the eleventh century. The character, as well as the fituation of the marquis of Efte, rendered him an actor in the revolutions of that memovable period but time has caft a veil over the virtues and vices of the man, and I must be content to mark fome of the æras, the mile. ftones of his life, which measure the -extent and intervals of the vacant way. Albert-Azo the fecond was

no more than feventeen when ke firft drew the fword of rebellion of patriotifm, when he was involved with his grand-father, his father, and his three uncles, in a common profcription. In the vigour of manhood, about his fiftieth year, the Ligurian marquis governed the cities of Milan and Genoà, as the minifter of imperial authority. He was upwards of feventy when he paffed the Alps to vindicate the inheritance of Maine for the children of his fecond marriage. He became the friend and fervant of Gregory VII, and in one of his epifties, that ambitious pontiff recommends the marquis Azo as the mott faithful and best beloved of the Italian princes; as the proper channel through which a king of Hungary might convey his petitions to the apoftolic throne. In the mighty contest between the crown and the mitre, the marquis Azo and the countefs Matilda led the powers of Italy, and when the ftandard of St. Peter was displayed, neither the age of the one, nor the fex of the other, could detain them from the

field.

With thefe two affectionate clients the pope maintained his ftation in the fortrefs of Canoffa, while the emperor, barefoot on the frozen ground, fafted and prayed three days at the foot of the rock: they were witneffes to the abject ceremony of the penance and pardon of Henry IV.; and in the triumph of the church, a patriot might forefce the deliverance of Italy from the German yoke. At the time of this event the marquis of Efte was above fourfcore; but in the twenty following years he was ftill alive and active amidst the revolutions of peace and war. The last act which he fubfcribed is dated above a century after his birth; and in that act the venerable chief poffelles

poffeffes the command of his faculties, his family, and his fortune. In this rare prerogative of longevity Albert-Azo II. ftands alone; nor can I recollect in the authentic annals of mortality a fingle example of a king or prince, of a statefinan or general, of a philofopher or poet, whofe life has been extended beyond the period of an hundred years. Nor should this obfervation, which is juftified by univerfal experience, be thought either ftrange or furprising. It has been found, that of twenty-four thoufand newborn infants, feven only will furvive to attain that diftant term; and much smaller is the proportion of those who will be raifed by fortune or genius, to govern, or afflict, or enlighten, their age or country. The chance that the fame individual fhould draw the two great prizes in the lottery of life, will not edfily be defined by the powers of calculation. Three approximations, which will not haftily be matched, have diftinguifhed the prefent century, Aurungzeb, Cardinal Fleury, and Fontenelle. Had a fortnight more been given to the philofopher, he might have celebrated his fecular feftival; but the lives and labours of the Mogul king and the French minifter were terminated before they had accomplished their ninetieth year. A trong conftitution may be the gift of nature; but the few who furvive their contemporaries must have been fuperior to the paffions and appetites which urge the fpeedy decay and diffolution of the mind and body. The marquis of Efte may be prefumed, from his riches and longevity, to have understood the economy of health and fortune.

"4. I remember a Perfian tale of three old men, who were fucceffively queftioned by a traveller

The

as he met them on the road. youngest brother, under the load of a wife and a numerous family, was finking into the grave before his time. The fecond, though much older, was far lefs infirm and decrepid: he had been left a widower and without children. But the laft and eldeft of the three brothers ftill preferved, at an incredible age, the vigour and vivacity of the autumnal feafon; he had always preferred a life of celibacy. The enjoyment of domeftic freedom could not, however, contribute to the longevity of the marquis Azo: he married three wives; he educated three fons; and it is doubtful whether chance or prudence delayed his firft nuptials till he had at leaft accomplished the fortieth year of his age. Thefe nuptials were contracted with Cuniza, or Cunegon da, a German maid, whofe ancef tors, by their nobility and riches, were diftinguifhed among the Suabian and Bavarian chiefs; whofe brother was invefted by the empe ror Henry III. with the dutchy of Carinthia, and the marquifate of Verona, on the confines of the Venetian poffeffions of the houfe of Efte. The marriage of Azo and Cunegonda was productive of a fon, who received at his baptifm the name of Guelph, to revive and perpetuate the memory of his uncle, his grandfather, and his first progenitors, on the maternal fide. I have already defined the ample domain which was given as a marriage-portion to the daughter of the Guelphs: but on the failure of heirs male, her fortunate fon inherited the patrimonial eftates of the family, obtained the dukedom of Bavaria, and became the founder of the eldeft, or German branch, of the houfe of Efte, from which the dukes of Brunfwick, the electors of Hanover,

C 3

Hanover, and the kings of Great Britain, are lineally defcended. After the decease of Cunegonda, who must have departed this life in the flower of her age, the marquis of Efte folicited a fecond alliance beyond the Alps: but his delicacy no longer infifted on the choice of a virgin; the widower was contented with a widow; and he excufed the ambitious. ftain which might adhere to his bride by a divorce from her first hufband. Her name was Garfenda, the daughter, and at length the heiress, of the counts of Main. She became the mother of two fons, Hugo and Fulk, and the younger of thefe is the acknowledged parent of the dukes of Ferrara and Modena. The fame liberal fortune which had crowned the offspring of the first, feemed to attend the children of the fecond nuptials of the marquis Azo: but their fortune was hollow and fallacious, and after the lofs of their Gallic inheritance, the fons of Garfenda reluctantly acquiefced in fome fragments of their Italian patrimony. Matilda, the third wife of Azo, was another widow of noble birth, fince he was his own coufin in the fourth degree; but this confanguinity provoked the ftern and impartial juftice of Gregory VII. His friend was fummoned to appear before a fynod at Rome: the inflexible prieft pronounced a fentence of divorce, and whatsoever idea may be formed of the marquis's vigour, at the age of feventy-eight, he might fubmit, without much effort, to the canons of the church. Befides his three fons, Azo had a daughter named Adelais, who was educated in the family of the countefs Matilda. But the damfel is only mentioned to atteft the miraculous virtue of Anfelm bishop of Lucca; he was re

lieved in the night from a violent fit of the cholic, by the local application of a pillow, on which the faint had formerly repofed his head.

"5. A wealthy marquis of the eleventh century muft have com manded a proud hereditary rank in civil fociety. In the judgment of the pope, the emperor, and the public, Albert-Azo was diftinguifhed among the princes, and the first princes, of the kingdom of Italy. His double alliance in Germany and France may prove how much he was known and efteemed among foreign nations; and he ftrengthened his political importance by a domeftic union with the conquerors of Apulia and Sicily. I fhall not repeat the story of the Norman adventurers, nor shall I again delineate the character and exploits of Robert Guifcard, which, to the readers of the Hiftory of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, are fufficiently familiar. But as duke Robert had four daughters, the choice of his other three fons-in-law may ferve as a teft, a touchstone, of the comparative weight and value of the houfe of Efte. Michael, emperor of the Greeks, was the first name in the chriftian world. Raymond, count of Barcelona, was the independent fovereign of a warlike people; and the meaneft of the three, a French baron, of military renown, was the coufin of the kings of France and Jerufalem, the brother-in-law of the king of Navarre and Arragon. Such were three of the fons, by alliance, of the Norman conqueror, who had previously rejected a propofal for the eldest fon of the emperor Henry IV.

the marriage of a fourth daughter will be moft accurately reprefented in the words of the Apulian poet: While the hero

refided

right of primogeniture; but I was fucceeded by five brothers and one fifter, all of whom were fnatched a way in their infancy. My five bro. thers, whofe names may be found in the parish register of Putney, I fhall not pretend to lament; but from my childhood to the prefent hour I have deeply and fincerely regretted my fifter, whofe life was fomewhat prolonged, whom I remember to have feen an amiable infant. The relation of a brother and a fifter, efpccially if they do not marry, appears to me of a very fingular nature. It is a familiar and tender friendship with a female, much about our own age; an affection perhaps foftened by the fecret influence of fex, but pure from any mixture of fenfual defire, the fole fpecies of Platonic love that can be indulged with truth, and without danger."

"The death of a new. born child before that of its parents may feem an unnatural, but it is strictly a probable, event: fince of any given number the greater part are extinguifhed before their ninth year, before they poffefs the faculties of the mind or body. Without accufing the profufe wafte or imperfect workmanship of nature, I fhall only obferve, that this unfavourable chance was multiplied against my infant exiftence. So feeble was my conftitution, fo precarious my life, that, in the baptifm of each of my brothers, my father's prudence fucceffively repeated my chriftian name of Edward, that, in cafe of the departure of the eldest fon, this patronymic appellation might be ftill perpetuated in the family.

·Uno avulfo non defisit alter.. To preferve and to rear fo frail a being, the moft tender affiduity was

fcarcely fufficient; and my mo+ ther's attention was fomewhat dis verted by her frequent pregnancies, by an exclufive paffion for her huf. band, and by the diffipation of the world, in which his taste and au thority obliged her to mingle. But the maternal office was supplied by my aunt, Mrs. Catharine Porten; at whofe name I feel a tear of gra titude trickling down my cheek. A life of celibacy transferred her va cant affection to her fifter's first child; my weakness excited her pity; her attachment was fortified by labour and fuccefs; and if there be any, as I trust there are fome, who rejoice that I live, to that dear and excellent woman they muft hold themselves indebted. Many anxious and folitary days did the confume in the patient trial of every mode of relief and amufe ment. Many wakeful nights did the fit by my bed-fide in trembling expectation that each hour would be my laft. Of the various and frequent diforders of my childhood my own recollection is dark; nor do I wish to expatiate on fo difgufting a topic. Suffice it to say, that while every practitioner, from Sloane and Ward to the chevalier Taylor, was fucceffively fummoned to torture or relieve me, the care of my mind was too frequently neglected for that of my health; compaflion always fuggefted an excufe for the indulgence of the mafter, or the idleness of the pupil; and the chain of my education was broken, as often as I was recalled from the school of learning to the bed of fickneís.

"As foon as the use of speech had prepared my infant reafon for the admiffion of knowledge, I was taught the arts of reading, writing, and arithmetic. So remote is the date, fo vague is the memory of