ADVERTISEMENT BY THE FRENCH EDITOR. THIS Volume requires neither Preface nor Apology, to entitle it to the approbation of the public; besides its being the continuation of a book, which has been already translated into several different languages, spread all over Europe, and highly esteemed in every Court, it carries so strong an impression of the immortal Ganganelli, that his soul, heart, and genius may be traced in every page. I appeal to the historical portrait of that illustrious Pontiff, drawn by the masterly hand of a learned Italian, who had the happiness of being particularly intimate with Ganganelli, which he has delineated in the following letter of the 20th November, 1776. I intreat the favour of my Vol. III. readers A readers to attend to it, and they will evidently see the most perfect conformity between the person of Clement XIV. and his Letters which I have published: "A just discernment, a perfect mastery of his "passions, a rectitude of heart, with a penetrat"ing insight, formed the proper and original phi"losophy of Ganganelli. It was obscured by "the philosophy of Scotus, in which he had been "educated, and the narrow limits of his cell "might be said to have cramped the natural vigour of his mind. "However, it must be allowed that he derived "some advantage from his being shut up in a "cloister, and it was probably owing to it, that " he was capable of moderating that lively ima"gination, which, in his youth, was apt to run "to excess, although always attended by inno"cence and good manners; to it he owed that "disinterestedness, which the religion he was "bred in always inspires; with that silence and "dislike to honours which became systematical " with him, that he might neither be exposed to « envy nor persecution. Reading excellent books, particularly French, with the conversation of 66 men |