We must not therefore be surprised if, with these dispositions, and in such a dissolute city, he was betrayed into some excesses.

But these were the result of his complexion, and not of deliberate profligacy.

He alludes to this subject in his Epistle to Posterity, with every appearance of truth and candour.
From his own confession, Petrarch seems to have been somewhat vain of his personal appearance during his youth, a venial foible, from which neither the handsome nor the homely, nor the wise nor the foolish, are exempt.

It is amusing to find our own Milton betraying this weakness, in spite of all the surrounding strength of his character.

In answering one of his slanderers, who had called him pale and cadaverous, the author of Paradise Lost appeals to all who knew him whether his complexion was not so fresh and blooming as to make him appear ten years younger than he really was.
Petrarch, when young, was so strikingly handsome, that he was frequently pointed at and admired as he passed along, for his features were manly, well-formed, and expressive, and his carriage was graceful and distinguished.