that which I am perfuaded diftinguishes you much more, is "the piety, beneficence, and zeal, which you have difplayed throughout the whole undertak"ing; qualities, which, however "neceffary in a man of your function, do not, on that account, "the lefs merit the efteem and at"tention of all mankind: it is to "these, Sir, that you owe the teftimony which I am defirous to give you of my regard. I pray "God to have you in his holy pro"tection. Potfdam, October 4, 1743.

66

FREDERICK."

Another work, which does not lefs honour to Monf. Languet, is the house de l'enfant Jefus. The establishment of this houfe, fo advantageous to the community, will beft evince the piety and the talents of our celebrated divine. It confifts of two parts. The firft is compofed of about 35 poor ladies, defcended from families illuftrious from the year 1535 to the prefent time. The fecond of more than four hundred poor women and children of town and country.

Thofe young ladies whofe anceftors have been in the king's fervice are preferred to all others. An education is given to them fuited to the dignity of their birth. They are employed, by turns, in infpecting the bakehoufe, the poultry. yards, the dairies, the laundries, the gardens, the laboratory, the linen warehouses, the fpinningrooms, and other places belonging to the houfe. By thefe means they become good houfe-wives, and able to relieve their poor relations in the country. Services, thefe, far

more important than if they paffed their time in finging and embroidery. Befides, the neceffity they are under to fuccour, by a thousand little kind offices, the poor women and girls who work there, renders them more condefcending, kind and humble, more ferviceable to fociety, than if they had only converfed with perfons of rank and diftin&ion. Accordingly we see here none of thofe airs of preeminence and difdain, which are met with in other places. When they leave the house, they carry with them to their relations, linen, cloaths, and money. If they chufe to enter a convent, and live a religious life, a fufficient fum is alloted to them for that purpose. M. Languet ufed befides to grant great fums of money to fuch ladies, as were examples of economy, virtue and piety, in thofe religious houses which he had the goodness to fuperintend. The poor women and children, who form the second part, are provided with food every day, and work at the fpinning-wheel. They make a great quantity of linen and cotton. Different rooms are affigned to them. They are under different claffes. In each room are two ladies of the fociety of St. Thomas, of Ville-Neuve, of which M. Languet was fuperior-general.. Thefe ladies are placed there to overfee the work, and to give fuch inftructions as they think proper. They never leave the room, till others come in their places. women and the girls who find employment in this houfe, have, in a former period of their lives, been licentious and diffolute, and are ge nerally reformed, by the examples, of virtue before their eyes, and by the falutary advice given to them.

The

They

They have the amount of their works paid them in money when they leave the houfe. They become industrious and exemplary, and, by this establishment, are reftored to the community and to religion. There were in the houfe de l'enfant Jefus, in 1741, more than 1400 women and girls of this fort, and the vicar of St. Sulpice employed all the means in his power to make their fituation agreeable. Although the land belonging to the house measured only 17 arpens* it has a large dairy which has given milk to more than 2000 children belonging to the parish, a managery, poultry of all forts, a bakehoufe from whence more than one hundred thousand pounds of bread have been diftributed every month to the poor of the parish, fpinning rooms, a very neat and well culti vated garden, and a magnificent laboratory where all forts of medicines are made.

The order and œconomy obferved in this houfe, in the education, inftruction, and employment of fo many people, were fo admirable, and gave fo great an idea of the vicar of St. Sulpice, that cardinal Fleury propofed to make him fuperintendant-general of all the hospitals in the kingdom but M. Languet ufed to answer him, with a fmile, I have always faid, my lord, that it was the bounty of your highness led me to the hofpital. The expence of this establishment was immenfe. He fpent his revenue on it, an inheritance which came to him by the death of the baron of Montigni his brother, and the eflate of the abbé de Bernay, granted him by the king.

M. Languet was not lefs to be efteemed for his beneficence and his zeal in aiding the poor of every fort. Never man took more pains than he did, in procuring feveral donations and legacies, which he diftributed with admirable prudence and difcretion. He enquired with care, if the legacies which were left him, were to the disadvantage of the poor relations of the teftator; if he found that to be the cafe, he restored to them, not only the legacy, but gave them, when wanting, a large fum of his own. Madame de Cavois, as illustrious for the benevolence of her difpofition as for her rank in life, having left him, by her laft will, a legacy of more than 600,coo livres, he took only 30,000 livres for the poor, and returned the remaining fum to her relations. It is faid, from very good authority, that he difburfed near a million of livres in charities every year. He always chofe noble families reduced to poverty, before all others: and, we have heard from perfons who knew him well, that there were fome families of diftinction in his parith, to each of whom he has diftributed 30,000 livres per annum. Always willing to ferve mankind, he gave liberally, and often before any application was made to him. When there was a general dearth in the year 1725, he fold, in order to relieve the poor, his houfhold goods, his pictures, and fome fcarce and curious pieces of furniture which he had procured with difficulty. From that time, he had only three pieces of plate, no tapestry, and but a mean ferge bed, which madame de Cavois had lent him,

him, having fold before, for the poor, all the prefents fhe had made him at different periods. His chatity was not confined to his own parish. At the time that the plague raged at Marfeilles, he fent large fums into Provence to aflift thofe perfons who were afflicted with that difeafe. He interested himself with great zeal in the promotion of arts and commerce, and in whatever concerned the glory of the nation. In times of public calamity, as conflagrations, &c. his prudence and affiduity have been much admired. He understood well the different difpofitions of men. He knew how to employ every one according to his talent or capacity. In the most intricate and perplexed affairs he decided with a fagacity and judgment that furprifed every one. Monf. Languet refufed the bishopric of Couferans, and that of Poitiers, and feveral others which were offered him by Louis XIV. and Louis XV. under the miniftry of the duke of Orleans and cardinal Fleury. He refigned his vicarage to Monf. l'abbé du Lau, in 1748, but continued to preach every Sunday, according to his cuflom, in his own parish church, and continued alfo to fupport the houfe de P'enfant Jefus, till his death, which happened on the 11th day of October, 1750, in the 75th year of his age, at the abbey de Bernay, to which place he went to make fome charitable establishments. His piety and continued application to works of beneficence, did not hinder him from being lively and chearful. He had a fine genius, which fhewed it felf by the agreeable repartees, and fenfible remarks he made in converfation.

VOL. VI.

Some account of the life of TORQUATO TASSO, prefixed to a new tranflation of the Jerufalem Delivered, by Mr. Hoole, and taken from that, which was written by Giovanni Battista Manfo, a Neapolitan, lord of Bifaccio and Pianca; an intimate friend of Tafio's, and witness to many of the particulars he relates.

Torquato Taffo was defcended

from the noble family of the Torregiani, lords of Bergano and Milan, which, being expelled by the Vifcenti, fettled in the most advantageous parts of the mountain Taffo, from which the family, from this time, took its name.

He was the fon of Bernardo Taffo, the author of feveral ingenious compofitions both inverfe and profe, and of Portia de Roffi, a lady of an illuftrious family of Naples. He was born at Sorento on the 11th of March 1544. The fondness of the Italians for their most admired author, has caufed them to relate many extravagant fictions concerning him. They pretend, that at fix months old he not only fpoke clearly and diftinctly, and expreffed his wants, but that he answered qucftions, thought, and reafoned.

His father being obliged to accompany the prince of Salerno to the emperor Charles the Vth, upon a

deputation from Naples to remonftrate against erecting the inquifition there, committed the care of his fon, then three years old, to Angeluzza, a man of great learning, who, we are told, at this tender age, began to teach him grammar: at four he was fent to the Jefuits college, and at feven was well acquainted with Latin and Greek. At the fame age he is faid to have C

made

made public orations, and compofed fome pieces of poetry, which had nothing childish either in the thought or expreffion.

The prince of Salerno fucceeded, but the viceroy of Naples, by whom the project of establishing the inquifition in that city had been formed, conceived fo bitter a refentment against him, as the inftrument of fetting it afide, that he found means to incenfe the emperor against him, and the prince thinking it proper to retire to Rome, Bernard Taffo went thither alfo, taking with him Torquato his

fon.

The prince, with all his adherents, was, foon after their departure, declared rebels to the ftate, and in this declaration, Torquato, though no more than nine years old, was included.

At twelve years of age he went from Rome to Mantua, where his father had entered into the fervice of the duke Guglielmo Gonzaga: he had then compleated his knowledge of the Latin and Greek languages; he was well acquainted with rhetoric and poetry, and a master of Ariftotle's ethics; he had alfo ftudied the precepts of Mauritio Cataneo with particular attention, and ever after reverenced him as a fecond father.

He was foon after fent to the univerfity of Padua, and in his 18th year published his Rinaldo, a poem written upon the plan of Homer's Odyffey. This extended his repuzation throughout all Italy, but greatly difpleafed his father, who forefaw that it would feduce him from ftudies of more advantage: he went to Padua to remonftrate against his apparent purpofe of giving himself up to philofophy

and poetry, and made ufe of many very harth expreffions, which Taffo heard with a patience and tranquillity that made the old gentleman ftill more angry: "Of what use,

fays he, is that philofophy on "which you value yourself fo "much?" It has enabled me, replied Taffo, to endure the barfbnefs of your reproofs.

He foon after went to Bologna, by the invitation of the city and college, but in a little time returned to Padua at the preffing inftances of Scipio Gonzaga, who had been elected prince of the academy that had been established in that city by the name of the Etherei. He was incorporated into this fociety, and took upon himself the name of Pentito.

He was now in his 20th year, and applying himself wholly to poetry and philofophy, he foon became a perfect mafter of both; his philofophy prevented his poetry from becoming licentious, and his poetry kept his philofophy from growing auftere.

In this retreat he formed the defign of his Jerufalem Delivered, invented the fable, difpofed the parts, and determined to dedicate it to the house of Efte, but whether to Alphonfo the IId, the laft duke of Ferrara, or to his brother, the cardinal Luigi, to whom he had already dedicated his Rinaldo, he was yet in doubt. Being preffed by both the brothers to refide with them at Ferrara, he confented. The duke gave him an apartment in his palace, where he lived in peace, and affluence, and profecuted his work, which he now determined to dedicate to the duke, and which was published by his patrons book by book as he finished

them.

them. The duke being defirous in proportion as his reputation increafed, of fixing him near him, had thoughts of marrying him advantageously, but he declined all proposals of that kind.

When he was about 27, he made ajourney into France with the cardinal the duke's brother, who went thither in quality of legate; here he received very diftinguishing favours from Charles the IXth, the wretch who afterwards perpetrated the horrid maffacre called St. Bartholomew's Day, which will render his name infamous and deteftable to the latest generation.

From France he returned to Ferrara, with the cardinal, the next year, and published a pastoral comedy called Aminta; this was rec ived with univerfal applaufe, as a masterpiece in its kind, and is the original of the Paftor Fido, and Filli di Sciro.

In the 30th year of his age he finished his Jerufalem, and the whole was reprinted and published together: the fuccefs of it was aftonishing; it was tranflated into Latin, French, Spanish, and even the oriental languages, almoft as foon as it appeared.

But it was Taffo's fate to become wretched from the moment that he gained the fummit of reputation: very foon after his Jerufalem was published he loft his father, who died at Oftia upon the Po, the government of which place had been given him by the duke of Mantua: his Jerufalem was attacked by a swarm of ignorant, but petulant critics, who gave the preference to the rhapfodies of Pulci and Boyardo;

and the perfidy of a friend drew upon upon him much greater misfortunes.

This friend was a gentleman of Ferrara, to whom Taffo had indifcreetly communicated fome tranfactions of a very delicate nature, concerning his patron the duke, with whom he lived. This fecret being betrayed, Taffo reproached his friend for his treachery, and this reproach was retorted in fuch a manner as provoked Taffo to ftrike him; a challenge immediately enfued, and the opponents met and engaged; but during the rencounter, three brothers of Taffo's antagonist came up, and all fell upon him together: Taffo defended himself fo well, that he wounded two of them, and kept his ground against the others till fome people came up and parted them. This made a great noise at Ferrara, where nothing was talked of but the valour of Taffo, and it became a kind of proverb, "That "Taffo, with his pen and his "fword, was fuperior to all men.”

The duke being informed of the quarrel, banished the brothers from his dominions, and confifcated their eftates, provoked, perhaps, not lefs by the fubject of the quarrel, than by the unmanly attack of Taffo; but as the fubject of the quarrel drew his refentment alfo upon Taffo himself, he fhut him up in prifon, under pretence of fecuring him from any future attacks of his enemies.

Taffo found means to escape from this confinement, after having fuffered it about a year; and being now about 34 years of age, C 2

retired