Like the prince in the nursery tale, he sought and found the sleeping beauty within the recesses which had so long concealed her from mankind.

The portal was indeed rusted by time;--the dust of ages had accumulated on the hangings;--the furniture was of antique fashion;--and the gorgeous colour of the embroidery had faded.

But the living charms which were well worth all the rest remained in the bloom of eternal youth, and well rewarded the bold adventurer who roused them from their long slumber.

In every line of the Philip and the Saul, the greatest poems, I think, of the eighteenth century, we may trace the influence of that mighty genius which has immortalised the ill-starred love of Francesca, and the paternal agonies of Ugolino.

Alfieri bequeathed the sovereignty of Italian literature to the author of the Aristodemus--a man of genius scarcely inferior to his own, and a still more devoted disciple of the great Florentine.