against the Italian and particularly the Romish priesthood, to whose scandalous mode of life, the basest characters are made, as the most proper witnesses in such a case, to bear ample testimony. It appears, therefore, that at this time satire might be openly and fearlessly directed against the clergy, and that its application in that way was not displeasing to the heads of the Portuguese church; for had it been otherwise, so pious a writer as Saa de Miranda would scarcely have ventured to indulge in such representations even if he could have made them in secret. Having taken a general view of the services which this memorable writer rendered to Portuguese poetry, it can scarcely be necessary to state that he was the first classic poet of his nation; but if it be wished to make a more rigid application of this title and to confer it only on writers, whose poetic cultivation, according to the classic models of the ancients, leaves nothing farther to be desired, it were better to abstain altogether from employing it in the history of modern poetry. Miranda presented to his countrymen the first example of the manner in which poetic genius aspiring to the highest pinnacle of art, ought to study the classic poets of antiquity, in order to acquire clearness of poetic perception, solid judgment in invention and precision, elegance and ingenious simplicity in composition and diction, without renouncing his individual character and the genius of his age and nation.[80] The account of the classic school which Saa de Miranda founded in Portuguese poetry, must be deferred until historical justice be rendered to the genius of a less cultivated poet, who flourished at the same period with Saa de Miranda, but who chose for himself a totally different path on the Portuguese Parnassus. GIL VICENTE.