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Memoirs of Leonardo Aretino.

being permitted to abstain from cooperating in any act of injustice, he rested his continuance in the service -of Gregory*. In the mean time, he occupied many of his leisure hours, in investigating the antiquities of the city of Rimini, of which we find the following interesting account in a letter to Niccolo Niccoli:

“You have been impelled by your ardent curiosity, on the subject of antiquities, to request me to give you information by letter, should I find any monuments of ancient art at Rimini. Though I had already made the requisite researches on my own account, for the gratification of your wishes, I renewed my investigations with all possible diligence and minuteness. Rimini, as I suppose you are well aware, was a very ancient and celebrated colony of the Roman people. But it has shared the fate of other ancient cities. It contains monuments of very ancient works, but so ruined and worn by time, that it is next to impossible to ascertain their original plan, or the uses to which they were destined. There are, however, two remarkable and excellent specimens of antique workmanship, still almost entire, well worthy of observation, and distinguished by their beauty, which I will describe to the best of my ability.

"The first is a lofty and magnificent Gate, built with squared stones, and highly finished and ornamented, the antiquity of which is evinced by the inscription by which it is surmounted. For although some of the letters of the inscription in question, are lost in consequence of the dilapidation of the edifice, the name of the consul under whose auspices it was erected is still legible, and the dipthongs are exhibited in the antique fashion of the Greeks. This gate was originally flanked by two towers; but these being built, not with stone, but brick, are almost entirely fallen into decay. Thus much as to the first relic of antiquity. The second is a most beautiful and clegant Bridge, which, as appears by the inscriptions engraven on its battlements, was a gift presented to the city by Augustus and Tiberius. In all probability it was begun by the former of those emperors, and finished by the latter; or

Leon. Aret. Epist. lib. iii. ep. 8.

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perhaps it was projected by the one, and executed by the other. However this may be, the structure of the bridge is very magnificent, and it is highly decorated with marble. The piers are four feet deep in the water, supporting four arches. The bridge is sufficiently broad to allow two carriages moving in opposite directions casily to pass each other, and on each side there is an elevated pathway for foot passengers. The battlements are made of marble, in single slabs placed upright, and resting each on its own base, and rounded at the top. The most remarkable circumstance which I observed in this magnificent bridge, is, that it is extended in exquisite and correspondent workmanship, beyond each bank of the river, so as to obviate those changes of the course of the stream which might be the effect of a sudden rise of its current. The highway connected with it was formed of the same kind of stones, with which the highways about Rome were formerly constructed. Of this there still remain some vestiges, and many stones of the kind to which I have alluded are to be found in various places, scattered in the vicinity of the road. From these two monuments of antiquity, it may be determined with sufficient certainty, that this city was not in times of old, of greater, but rather of somewhat less extent than it is at present; for on the side which looks towards Pesaro and the Temple of Fortune, there is the ancient gate which I have just described, and, on the opposite side, looking towards Ravenna, there is the bridge of Augustus and Tiberius, extending over the river which washes the walls of the town. In other parts, as well towards the sea as towards the land, are seen the ves tiges of the ancient fortifications, which were formerly surrounded by an open space called the Pomærium, and upon the inspection of which it is evident, that in modern times the town has been considerably enlarged."†

In the fourteenth century, a repu tation for literary attainments was, throughout the whole of Italy, a sure passport to the favour of the great. The accomplished scholar was deemed entitled to familiar intercourse with sovereign princes. It is not, then,

+ Leon. Aret. Epist. lib. iii. ep. 9.

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Memoirs of Leonardo Aretino.

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matter of surprise, that, during his why should I dwell on such topics as residence at Rimini, Leonardo should the splendour of his family, when, in have been honoured with the friendly whatever station he had been born, he notice of Carlo Malatesta, lord of would have acquired nobility, glory, that place, and of the surrounding dis- and honour, by his extraordinary virtrict, and that he should, as he him- tues? I will only briefly say thus self declares, have been admitted to much, that by the munificence of the his table, and allowed to partake of Divine Providence all the virtues of his amusements, to share in his stu- a long line of illustrious ancestry are dies, and freely to discuss with him all so united in him, that whosoever of the current topics of disputation ‡. his predecessors was distinguished by: Leonardo was no flatterer; we may magnanimity, by wisdom, by valour, therefore give a considerable degree or by justice, all their noble endowof credit to the eulogium on his newly ments are exemplified in him, as being acquired friend, with which he closes their legitimate successor. It is inhis letter to Niccolo Niccoli, on the deed altogether wonderful in how antiquities of Rimini. many and how various things this "But since I have undertaken to prince excels. In the first place, his describe the ancient monuments of glory and skill in war is acknowledged this place, I must not omit to mention by the concurrent testimony of all one specimen of antiquity, to which competent judges. His military exnothing comparable can be found in ploits are great and memorable. VicRome, in Athens, or in Syracuse. Itory has crowned his arms from his speak not of a statue of Parian marble, or of Corinthian brass; I speak of nothing mute, the object of childish admiration; but of a personage who is the express image of those excellent men of old time, of whom we read with fixed admiration, and whose memory we hold in veneration; I mean Carlo Malatesta, the lord of this state. You know that I am not much given to commendation; you will therefore the more readily believe me when I say, that as often as I look upon him, I seem to myself to behold a Marcus Marcellus, or a Furius Camillus, men who were at once invincible in war, and gentle, and observant of the laws, in peace. Trust me, my friend, I neither deceive you, nor am deceived myself. I never yet saw a man who more nearly resembled the illustrious men whom I have just mentioned, in greatness of mind, in pre-eminence of genius, and in other virtues worthy of a distinguished chief. On this occasion, I do not deal in oratorical flourishes: let these be applied to individuals whose virtues and actions stand in need of being set off by ornament, as paint and finery are used to supply the want of beauty in women. sides, I have neither time nor space, in the composition of a letter, to write a formal panegyric on his character. I say nothing, then, of his illustrious birth, of the glory of his ancestors, of his wealth, and of his power. For

Leon. Aret. Epist. lib. vi. ep. 7.

early youth; and in the course of his campaigns he has evinced a generous loftiness of spirit, and an invincible strength of body, in the encountering of dangers. If you attend to his conduct in peace, you will find him distinguished by a maturity of wisdom, and by a singular prudence, the fruit of an excellent understanding, improved by constant experience in affairs of the highest importance. Add to this, what is in my opinion most wonderful, that a person who has been engaged in pursuits which seem to preclude all attention to study, has attained to an eminence in literature which has been reached by comparatively few of those who have devoted the whole of their lives to the culti vation of letters. He is, moreover, endowed with those eminent virtues, without which all other princely accomplishments are instruments of mischief, namely, modesty, a high sense of honour, clemency, piety, and integrity. Such is the activity of his genius, that whether he reads the ancient authors, or composes in verse or prose, he seems born for that particular employment. Another of his quaBe-lifications I should not perhaps have mentioned, had it not been enumerated amongst the accomplishments of Augustus and Titus, namely, that his handwriting is so elegant, that it equals, or even surpasses, that of his secretaries. I cannot therefore determine, whether he is more powerful or more learned-more strong in body

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Defectibility of the Human Mind.

or in mind-more just, or more ingenious. Some persons there are who estimate his good fortune by the success of his enterprises: but this success I attribute to his industry, his justice, and his piety; for it is a saying of Furius Camillus, that prosperity attends the servants, adversity the contemners, of the gods. It is not my intention to institute a comparison between Malatesta and any of the great men of classic times; but in complying, with the request which you have made me, to give you an account of the specimens of antiquity which are to be found at Rimini, I thought it my duty not to omit to mention, with due praise, his talents and his virtues.'

(To be continued.)

AN ATTEMPT TO DEMONSTRATE THE

DEFECTIBILITY OF THE HUMAN
MIND, AND THE DOCTRINE OF THE
FALL OF MAN, FROM PREMISES UN-

CONNECTED WITH THE BIBLE.

THE defectibility of the human mind is demonstrable from the prevalence of vice.

For since our volition is not excited without an action of the mind, whereby we decide upon the motives presented to our choice, it follows that every act of wickedness results from a determinate action of the mind. And since the prevalence of vice incontrovertibly proves a propensity to evil, and that propensity can never excite our volition, except it bias the mind in the choice of motives; therefore, as the mind feels repugnant or not in the choice of good or evil motives, so the bias of the propensity to evil does or does not prevail. But since the propensity to evil is incontrovertibly proved from the prevalence of vice, its bias upon the mind must be in the same proportion as vice is prevalent. Now, since the propensity and the prevalence have the same relation as cause and effect, that relation must be determinate; that is, they must have a determinate ratio to each other. Wherefore the inference is just, that, in proportion to the prevalence of vice, the mind of man is more or less propense to evil, and cannot therefore be inde

fectible.

* Leon. Aret. Epist. lib. iii. ep. 9.

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For if it be otherwise, and the prevalence be not in a determinate ratio to the propensity to evil, then one act of wickedness may indicate the evil propensity, and not another,-which is absurd. For since the propensity to evil can never excite our volition, except it bias the mind in the choice of motives, every act of wickedness must indicate the evil propensity; and since we cannot do an act of wickedness independently of our volition, if the wicked acts be ever so multiplied, they must always have the same determinate ratio to the propensity to evil. It therefore follows, that the human mind is more or less propense to evil in the same proportion as vice is more or less prevalent; which demonstrates its defectibility, since the mind cannot be propense to evil, and indefectible, at the same time.

Before we apply this reasoning to the doctrine of the Fall, it may be expected that we should prove à priori the defectibility of the first man. That there must be a first link in the chain of human beings, is obvious from this argument, that an eternal succession of human beings implies that not one individual of the beings of which the succession is made up, is self-existent; and it is morally impossible that the succession can be self-existent, that is, eternal, for then the effect must exist before the cause; for there can be no succession till one being is passed away, and another stands in his room. But the proof of the defectibility of the first man lies within a narrow compass; for since the first man was not self-existent, he was not an infinite being, therefore he must owe his being to another; wherefore he must be a creature, and consequently a finite being. But to be indefectible, he must possess infinite perfection; which involves this contradiction, that a finite being must possess infinite perfection,

which is absurd. By consequence, a being that is finite, must also be defectible.

But since the defectibility of the human mind has been demonstrated from the actual condition in which man is found, that is, from the prevalence of vice; in applying the argument to the doctrine of the Fall, we are not speculating upon any theory of the origin of moral evil, but our proof is grounded upon matter of fact, which is obvious to every one's observation. And

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Extract from an Old Sermon.

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since the defectibility of the human | since all men are found in the same mind is demonstrated, man's liability predicament, and their identical conto fall is demonstrated also. This de- dition cannot be accounted for upon fectibility is demonstrated from the any other hypothesis, we are comprevalence of vice; and since the mind pelled to refer it to the apostasy of the of man is propense to evil in the same first man. But it is obvious for the proportion as vice is prevalent, there- same reason, that the deterioration is fore man must either have been created referrible alone to the first man, and propense to evil, or he must have that it must have taken place previlapsed into his present condition. But ously to the propagation of his species, it is inconsistent with reason to ima- otherwise some of his progeny must gine that man was created propense have escaped the contamination. to evil, since God, his creator, is infinite in holiness and indefectible. And since a propensity to evil must of all things be the most inimical to man's present and eternal happiness, it is inconsistent to imagine that God, who is infinite in wisdom and goodness, should create in him that evil propensity.

Whether this demonstration of the defectibility of the human mind, and of the doctrine of the Fall, from premises entirely unconnected with the Bible, be satisfactory or not, the argument is not preferred as a matter of choice: for the demonstration upon the Christian scheme is infinitely more satisfactory in the author's judgment ; neither is it offered to the Christian as the best demonstration of the truth; but the design of giving it to the public is, to convince every thinking man of the unreasonableness of modern infidelity.

June 23, 1821.

PUDICUS.

Extract from an Old Sermon.

THE IMPERIAL

MAGAZINE.

Since, therefore, man was not created propense to evil, he must have lapsed into his present condition. This is a supposition in which there is no inconsistency for since man was defectible, he was liable to fall; which proves his condition to have been contingent and if man was not free to stand or fall, then the contingency was not in himself, and he would not be responsible for his actions. If he was created propense to evil, then his condition was not contingent, but absolute; and he could not himself be TO THE EDITOR OF chargeable with the sin which he committed. But what a dreadful dilemma would this hypothesis bring us into? for if sin be not chargeable upon the creature, it must be chargeable upon the Creator; which we have seen to be inconsistent in the nature of things: wherefore the conclusion is inevitable, that man's pristine condition was contingent; that is, that he was free to stand or fall. Therefore, since man in his present condition is propense to evil, and is no longer free to do good, because the propensity to evil gives that bias to his mind which excites volitions that have a continual tendency to evil, he must have lapsed into this condition: which proves that the nature of man must have suffered deterioration, that is, that he must have fallen from his pristine condition.

But this deterioration of the nature of man is not referrible to any one branch of the family of human kind exclusively, but fixes upon the whole race; wherefore the deterioration must have taken place in the first man. For

SIR,-The following extract is from an old sermon, entitled "The Mean in Mourning," preached in 1593, " by that eloquent divine of famous memorie, Thomas Playfere, Doctor in Divinity," from Luke xxiii. 28.-"Weep not for me, but weep for yourselves.' The sermon is divided into eight parts, of which the following is the commencement of the fourth, and will, it is conceived, be found by some of your Protestant readers interesting, as being a relic of the style in which the people in those times were instructed in the mysteries of Christ, by their Catholie divines.

"The fourth part followeth; For mee, Weep not too much for my death. For the death of Christ is the death of Death: the death of the Divell: the life of himself: the life of Man. The reason of all this is his innocence and

righteousnesse, which makes first, that as the life of Christ is the life of Life; so the death of Christ is the death of Death. Put the case how

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Extract from an Old Sermon.

you please, this is a most certaine truth, that the gate of life had never bin opened unto us, if Christ, who is the death of Death, had not by his death overcome death. Therefore both before his death he threateneth and challengeth death, saying, O Death, I will bee thy death: and also after his death, hee derideth and scorneth death, saying, O Death, thou art but a drone, where is now thy sting? Ask death, any of you, I pray, and say, Death, how hast thou lost thy sting? How hast thou lost thy strength? What is the matter that virgins and very children do now contemn thee, whereas kings and even tyrants did before feare thee? Death, I warrant, will answer you, that the only cause of this is, the death of Christ. Even as a bee stinging a dead body takes no hurt, but stinging a live body many times, loozes both sting and life together; in like manner death, so long as it stung mortal men only, which were dead in sin, was never a wit the worse: but when it stung Christ once, who is life itself, by and by it lost both sting and strength.

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jetting up and downe in a lyon's skinne, did for a time terrifie his master; but afterwards being descried, did benefit him very much; semblably death stands now like a silly asse, having his lyon's skinne pulled over his eares, and is so farre from terrifying any, that it benefits all true Christians, because by it they rest from their labour, and if they be oppressed with troubles or cares, when they come to death, they are discharged; death as an asse doth bear these burthens for them.

"Oblessed, blessed be our Lord, which hath so disarmed death, that it can not do us any hurt, no more than a bee can which hath no sting; nay rather it doth us much good, as the brazen serpent did the Israelites: which hath so dismasked death that it cannot make us afraid, no more than a scar-bug can which hath no vizard; nay rather, as an asse beareth his master's burthens, so death easeth and refresheth us. Hee that felleth a tree upon which the sun shineth, may well cut down the tree, but cannot hurt the sun. that powreth water upon iron which is red hot, may well quench the heate, but he cannot hurt the iron. And so Christ the sun of righteousnesse did drive away the shadow of death; and as glowing iron, was too hot and too hard a morsell to digest.

He

"Therefore as the brazen serpent was so far from hurting the Israelites, that contrarywise it healed them; after the same sort, death is now so far from hurting any true Israelite, that one the other side, if affliction, as a fiery ser- "All the while Adam did eat any other pent, sting us, or any thing else hurt fruit which God gave him leave to eate, us, presently it is helped and redress- he was nourished by it: but when he ed by death. Those which will needs had tasted of the forbidden tree, he play the hobgoblins, or the night- perished. Right so death had free walking spirits (as we call them,) all leave to devour any other man, Christ the wile they speak under a hollow only excepted, but when it went about vault, or leap forth with an ugly vizard to destroy Christ, then it was destroyupon their faces, they are so terrible, ed itself. Those barbarous people that he which thinketh himself no small called Cannibals, which feed only upon man, may perhaps be affrighted with raw flesh, especially of men, if they them. But if some lusty fellow chance happen to eate a piece of roasted meat, to steppe into one of these, and cud- commonly they surfit of it, and die. gell him well-favouredly, and pull the Even so the right Cannibal, the only vizard from his face, then every boy devourer of all mankind, death laughs him to scorne. So is it in this meane, tasting of Christ's flesh, and matter. Death was a terrible bulbeg-finding it not to be raw, (such as it ger, and made every man afraid of was used to eat) but wholsome and him a great while; but Christ dying, heavenly meate indeede, presently buckled with this bulbegger, and con- tooke a surfit of it, and within three jured him (as I may say) out of his days died. For even as when Judus hollow vault, when as the dead com- had received a sop at Christ's hand, ming out of the graves, were seen in anon after his bowels gushed out; in Jerusalem, and puld the vizard from like sort death being so saucie as to his face, when as he himself rising, left snotch a sop (as it were) of Christ's the linning clothes, which were the flesh, and a little bit of his body, was vizard of death, behind him. There-by and by, like Judas, choaked and fore as that asse'called Cumanus Asinus, strangled with it, and faine to yield it

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