OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

laurel' was endeared to the lover by a verbalresemblance with the name of his mistress. Thevalue of either object was enhanced by the dif-ficulties of the pursuit; and if the virtue or pru-dence of Laura was inexorable, 1 " he enjoyed, andmight boast of enjoying, the nymph of poetry.His vanity was not of the most delicate kind,since he applauds the success of his own labours;his name was popular; his friends were active;the open or secret opposition of envy and pre-judice was surmounted by the dexterity of pa-tient merit. In the thirty-sixth year of his age,he was solicited to accept the object of hiswishes; and on the same day, in the solitude ofVaucluse, he received a similar and solemn in-vitation from the senate of Rome and the univer-sity of Paris. The learning of a theologicalschool, and the ignorance of a lawless city, werealike unqualified to bestow the ideal though im-mortal wreath which genius may obtain fromthe free applause of the public and of posterity;but the candidate dismissed this troublesomereflection, and after some moments of compla-

and were not abolished in the fourth century (Ausonius de Professori-bus Burdegal. v). If the crown were given to superior merit, the ex-clusion of Statius (capitolia nostrae iniiciata lyrae, Sylv. 1. iii, v. SI)may do honour to the games of the capitol; but the Latin poets wholived before Domitian were crowned only in the public opinion.

1 Petrarch and the senators of Rome were ignorant that the laurelwas not the Capitoline , but the Delphic crown (Plin. Hist. Natur. xv,39. Hist. Critique de la Republique des Lettres, tom. i, p. 150-220).The victors in the capitol were crowned with a garland of oak leaves(Martial, 1. iv, epigram 64).

*> The pious grandson of Laura has laboured, and not without suc-cess, to vindicate her immaculate chastity against the censures of thegrave and the sneers of the profane (tom. ii, notes, p. 76-82).

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LXX.