News from Parnassus: Second Century

to censure them; a Prince, in whom the height of intellect, the excellence of judgment, and the abundance of all the most choice sciences are seen to be equal to the greatness of his blood and the richness of the patrimony with which God caused him to be born into this world. Not only I, to whom affection can dazzle the judgment because I was born your servant, but everyone who hears you discourse upon any most elegant matter, remains so admired, and indeed satisfied by Your Illustrious Lordship V. S. Illustrissima, that with a full mouth they celebrate you as one of those well-reasoned living books, which in a short time make learned those who have the fortune to hear them speak. This is a miracle all the greater in these present times, in which the supreme happiness of men is placed in possessing much, not in knowing much. To see a Prince, your peer, who truly deserves the most noble title of Man of Letters Letterato, is held to be a most rare portent, a singular wonder of nature original: "mostro di natura," used here in the classical sense of a divine marvel rather than something hideous. And yet Your Illustrious Lordship V. S. Illustrissima has always sweated since your earliest childhood to make an acquisition of the virtues, and you labor there now as if these had to be your richest patrimony, and as if they now acquired for you not only your living, but your reputation. But returning to my own interests, I am forced to reveal to Your Illustrious Lordship V. S. Illustrissima a certain scruple that sometimes...