It was with justice that the Florentines held the name of Poggio in respectful remembrance. Inspired by a zealous love of his country, he had constantly prided himself upon the honour of being a citizen of a free state, and he neglected no opportunity which presented itself of increasing and displaying the glory of the Tuscan republic. And this end he most effectually promoted by the splendour of his own accomplishments. He so faithfully improved the advantages which he enjoyed in the course of his education in the Florentine university, that amongst the multitudes of learned men who adorned his age, he occupied a station of the highest eminence. His admission into the Roman chancery, and his continuance in offices of confidence under eight successive pontiffs, afford an ample proof not only of his ability in business, but also of his fidelity and integrity. Honoured by the favour of the great, he did not sacrifice his independence at the shrine of power, but uniformly maintained the ingenuous sentiments of freedom. The whole tenor of his writings evinces, that he united to the accomplishments of literature an intimate knowledge of the world; and many passages might be quoted from his works to prove that the eye of his mind surveyed a wider intellectual horizon than fell to the general lot of the age in which he lived. He was warm and enthusiastic in his friendly attachments, and duteously eager to diffuse the renown of those whom he loved. But acute sensations are not productive of signal virtues alone; they too frequently betray mankind into capital errors. Though Poggio was by no means implacable in his anger, yet he was as energetic in the expression of his resentment, as he was enthusiastic in the language in which he testified his esteem for those to whom he was bound by the ties of friendship. The licentiousness in which he occasionally indulged in the early part of his life, and the indecent levity which occurs in some of his writings, are rather the vices of the times than of the man. We accordingly find that those circumstances did not deprive him of the countenance of the highest ecclesiastical dignitaries—they did not cause him to forfeit the favour of the pious Eugenius, or of the virtuous and accomplished Nicolas V. His failings, indeed, were fully counterbalanced by several moral qualities of superior excellence—by his gratitude for benefits received; by his sincerity in friendship; by his compassion for the unfortunate; and by his readiness, to the extent of his ability, to succour the distressed. To which it may be added, that he seems to have recommended himself to most of those with whom he maintained a personal intercourse, by the urbanity of his manners, and by the sportiveness of his wit.