observations are such as might be supplied by a hasty view, and
consist chiefly in comparisons of the present face of the country
with the descriptions left us by the Roman poets, from whom he made
preparatory collections, though he might have spared the trouble had
he known that such collections had been made twice before by Italian
authors.

The most amusing passage of his book is his account of the minute
republic of San Marino; of many parts it is not a very severe
censure to say that they might have been written at home. His
elegance of language, and variegation of prose and verse, however,
gain upon the reader; and the book, though awhile neglected, became
in time so much the favourite of the public that before it was
reprinted it rose to five times its price.

When he returned to England (in 1702), with a meanness of appearance
which gave testimony of the difficulties to which he had been
reduced, he found his old patrons out of power, and was therefore,
for a time, at full leisure for the cultivation of his mind; and a
mind so cultivated gives reason to believe that little time was
lost. But he remained not long neglected or useless. The victory
at Blenheim (1704) spread triumph and confidence over the nation;
and Lord Godolphin, lamenting to Lord Halifax that it had not been
celebrated in a manner equal to the subject, desired him to propose
it to some better poet. Halifax told him that there was no
encouragement for genius; that worthless men were unprofitably
enriched with public money, without any care to find or employ those
whose appearance might do honour to their country. To this
Godolphin replied that such abuses should in time be rectified; and
that, if a man could be found capable of the task then proposed, he