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"An honest man, 'tis true," said he, "but cunning." But, a short

time before the period to which our history belongs, a work

appeared which had terminated the question of pre-eminence; a

work in which was comprised and condensed a relation of every

vice, in order to enable men to avoid it, and every virtue, in

order to enable men to practise it,-a book of few leaves, indeed,

but all of gold; in a word, the Statista Regnante of Don

Valeriano Castiglione; of the celebrated man upon whom the most

learned men emulated each other in bestowing praises, and for

whose notice the greatest personages contended; whom Pope Urban

VIII.