“I should perhaps,” says Mr. J. C. Walker, “have acknowledged sooner the receipt
of the inestimable present which you have done me the honour to send me; but
the truth is, I was so powerfully captivated by the charms of the work, that I
could not prevail on myself to suspend the perusal, even to perform a duty of
gratitude. I will not, however, delay any longer to offer you my warmest thanks
for the rich accession you have made to my collection. I was not entitled to,
nor did I presume to expect, so magnificent a present. I was not, therefore,
less surprised than delighted at the receipt of it. It has been my study day
and night ever since it reached me.
| LIFE OF WILLIAM ROSCOE. | 325 |
“I am astonished at the immense mass of curious and interesting information it contains, and charmed with the clearness of the arrangement, and the simple elegance of the style. You, and your friend Mr. Shepherd, have completed, in a most masterly manner, the history of the revival of letters. I hope it is not true that you do not mean to pursue your researches further into the literary history of Italy. Such a determination would be matter of general regret.
“During the perusal of your work it often occurred to me, that every admirer of the golden days of Leo has reason to rejoice that Dr. Robertson did not, as he once intended, occupy your subject. To the political part he might have done justice; but in the literary department, and in the history of the arts, he would certainly have failed. Robertson shines in the cabinet and in the field, but (if I may so express myself) he does not seem at home in the academy. He does not appear to have cultivated with ardour what is generally understood by the term elegant literature; nor does he seem to have had much taste in the fine arts*: so that his ‘History of the
* Hume appears to have held the same opinion as Mr. Walker. “As to the Age of Leo X.,” he says, in a letter to Dr. Robertson, “it was Warton himself who intended to |
| 326 | LIFE OF WILLIAM ROSCOE. |
