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hroughout Europe. To account fully for this prefer-ence it would be necestuy to outline the history ofEuropean taste and culture during the last fivecenturies. It seems enough to point out that Dante'spassion was the more mystic, spiritual, rare and difficultto grasp; Petrarch's the less fine, the more obyiousand the more uniyersaL^ It was reserved for thenineteenth century to discover the sincerity of Dante'slove and the comparative hoUowness of Petrarch's.While the presses of Europe teemed with editions ofPetrarch in the original and in translations, while ^ Prom another point of view, the following passage ofMacaulay, though exaggerated and overcharged, is worthyof study and consideration : « From the time of Petrarch tothe appearance of Alfieri's tragedies, we may trace in almostevery page of Italian literature the influence of those cele-brated sonnets which, from the nature both of their beautiesand their faults, were peculiarly unfit to be models forgeneral imitation. Almost all the poets of that period,however different in the degree and quality of their talents,were characterised by great exaggeration, and as a necessaryconsequence, great coldness of sentiment ; by a passion forfrivolous and tawdry ornament ; and, above all, by an extreme feebleness and diffuseness of style It may be thought that I have gone too far in attributing these evils to theinfluence of Petrarch. It cannot, however, be doubted thatthev have arisen, in a great measure, from a neglect of thestyle of Dante. This is not more proved by the decline ofItalian poetry than by its resuscitation " (jCritkhmt of ihiPrhui^l ItaliaH Writen i No. I, Dante. January, 1824)
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