8/10 has been calumniated, for that this pontiff was only too sudden to begin the reform he meditated. was a scholastic whose austerity turned away with contempt from all ancient art, and was no brother to contemporary genius. He was one of the _cui bono_ race, a branch of our political economists. When they showed him the Laocooen, Adrian silenced their raptures by the frigid observation, that all such things were _idola antiquorum_: and ridiculed the _amena letteratura_ till every man of genius retreated from his court. |