During his wanderings, he wrote a letter to Tommaso da Messina, containing a long geographical dissertation on the island of Thule.
Petrarch approached the British shores; why were they not fated to have the honour of receiving him?
Ah! but who was there, then, in England that was capable of receiving him?
Chaucer was but a child.

We had the names of some learned men, but our language had no literature.

Time works wonders in a few centuries; and England, _now_ proud of her Shakespeare and her Verulam, looks not with envy on the glory of any earthly nation.

During his excitement by these travels, a singular change took place in our poet's habitual feelings.

He recovered his health and spirits; he could bear to think of Laura with equanimity, and his countenance resumed the cheerfulness that was natural to a man in the strength of his age.