[31] Bayle is mistaken in supposing that the marriage of Lorenzo took place in 1471. Speaking of Machiavelli, he says, Il ne marque pas l'année de ce mariage, ce qui est un grand défaut dans un écrivain d'histoire; mais on peut recueillir de sa narration que ce fut l'an 1471. _Dict. Hist. art. Politien._ In correcting Bayle, Menckenius falls into a greater error, and places this event in 1472. _Menk. in vitâ Pol._ p. 48. [32] 'How grateful to our sensations, how distinct to our imagination appear the "Speluncæ, vivique lacus, ac frigida Tempe, Mugitusque boûm, mollesque sub arbore somni." [33] 'Published for the first time at the close of the present work.' [34] If Virgil has given us a highly-finished personification of Rumour, if Horace speaks of his _atra Cura_, if Lucretius present us with an awful picture of Superstition, their portraits are so vague as scarcely to communicate any discriminate idea, and are characterized by their operation and effects, rather than by their poetical insignia. Of the ancient Roman authors, perhaps there is no one that abounds in these personifications more than the tragedian Seneca; yet what idea do we form of Labour, when we are told that "Labor exoritur durus, et omnes Agitat curas, aperitque domos:" 'Or, of Hope or Fear, from the following passage: "Turbine magni, spes solicitæ Urbibus errant, trepidique metus." 'The personification of Hope, by Tibullus, (Lib. II. Eleg. 6.) is scarcely worthy of that charming author; and if he has been happier in his description of Sleep, (Lib. I. Eleg. 1.) it is still liable to the objections before mentioned.'