Page:The spiritual venality of Rome.djvu/76

53 general tiiXe, except in the index, which is, Alique regule, and contains twenty-three tituli, so numbered in Banck. There is nothing re* markable in this portion^ except that it consists strictly of Regular, without any Taxce, although voL aiL p. 469y observes, he ^ was author of a great number of oecaskmal piecesi and of twentj-soTen plays, mittoi bt the space of twenly-fiye jeais: which aro stiU read with pleasure and the general approbation of the iugsnloufl, notwithstanding the soTere criticisms of many, that envied his exalted meiit^-» and this» without the sUghtest aUusion to the notorious and re» ToLtiiig profl^gaqr of a great portion of his productions I By way ef apology ibr these offoices, it has sometimes been aUeged» that his life was unstahied, which, if trae in the very limited sense in which it can be^ is only to say, that he was not impelled to write wickedly by headstrong passion, but hired so to do by hope of gain or bad popularity^hia vice was without even the low extenuation of natural and appropnate temptation* If the morality and necessitiea of Borne were unknown^ we should wondier at the degradation to which she wiU stoop Ibr an al^ $ and theftct, that her sons xeftue not libatioas to their goddess from the foulest kennels of human depravity would appear incro- dible, were it not notoiious, that a son of Anacveon, in whose heart libertinism and inhumanity appear to contend fat pre- eadnence, has been publicly accepted and accredited aa a worthy advocate of the Holy Boman catholic church. A crown waa wanting to the pieces tin the power of diq>enaing national re< ward was prostituted to the bestowal of a pension on the coi^ mpter of public morals and the heartless deiider of the perse* euted Protestant deigy of his conntiy. Weieitnotsolong^ I could with pleasure transcribe a part of the speedi of the Bev. H. O'SuUivan at the Protestant Meet* ing in the Shire HaU, Heiefoiid» Sept S, ISSfi; on asulijeet so edifying as the tmeident Anacreon of modern England, or the bish gentieman in search of n rdigion yet to seek. But I wiU do my best to extend the dienlation of the concfaidiDg portion. f3