"Next as his looks along the sculptures glanced, A youth with Phœbus hand in hand advanced; Courteous his air, from his ingenuous face, Inform'd with wisdom, modesty, and grace, And every mild affection, at a scan The passer-by would mark him for a man, Perfect in all gentilities of mind That sweeten life and harmonise mankind. The form which lively thus the sculptor drew, Assured Severo in an instant knew, For him who had by careful culture shown Fernando's spirit, lovely as his own; Had given him grace, sincerity, and ease, The pure politeness that aspires to please, The candid virtues that disdain pretence, And martial manliness, and sprightly sense, With all the generous courtesies enshrined In the fair temple of Fernando's mind. When well surveyed his name Severo read, 'Boscan!' whose genius o'er the world is spread, In whose illumined aspect shines the fire That, stream'd from Delphos, lights him to the lyre, And warms those songs which with mankind shall stay Whilst endless ages roll unfelt away."[12] Besides Garcilaso, Boscan enjoyed the friendship of a man, far different in the qualities of his mind, but of high powers of intellect, and of a noble though arrogant and proud disposition. The epistles in verse that passed between Boscan and don Diego Hurtado de Mendoza prove the friendship that subsisted between them, and the esteem in which Boscan was held; at the same time they present a delightful picture of the tranquil happiness which the poet enjoyed. Mendoza's epistle is imitated from Horace; it is written in praise of a tranquil life. At the conclusion it describes the delights of a rural seclusion, ornamented by all the charms of nature; and he introduces his friend as enjoying these in perfection, attended on by his wife, who plucks for him the rarest grapes and ripe fruit,--the fresh and sweet gifts of summer,--waiting on him with diligence and joy, proud and happy in her task. Boscan, in his reply, dilates on the subject, and fills up the picture with a thousand graces and refinements of feeling drawn from nature, and which coming warm from the heart, reach our own. I am tempted to introduce a portion of this epistle. The fault of the Spaniards in their literature is diffuseness; I have therefore endeavoured in some degree to compress the rambling of the poet, while I suppress no sentiment, nor introduce a new idea. Little used to versification, my translation wants smoothness; but presenting, as it does, a picture of domestic life, such as was passed at a distant age and in a distant land, yet resembling so nearly our own notions of the pleasures of home, I think it cannot fail to interest the reader. Boscan commences, in imitation of Horace, by commending the tranquillity enjoyed in a middle station of life. He then goes on to adorn his canvass with a picture of conjugal attachment and happiness:--