ESTABLISHMENT OF THE PORTUGUESE ACADEMY IN 1714.
During the forty-four years reign of John V. namely, from 1705 to 1750, there was no want of institutions, calculated to raise the nation to the point of elevation whence it had fallen. For the polite literature of Portugal a new era seemed to have commenced, when, in the year 1714, an Academia Portugueza, on the model of the French academy, was established under the presidency of so accomplished a man as the Count de Ericeyra. But we nowhere find an account of any advantage which the language and literature of Portugal derived from the labours of this academy; and the establishment was soon so completely neglected, that it is difficult to conjecture how and when it sank into decay.[336] Other academies on the Italian plan had their rise and decline without producing any beneficial results; while several Portuguese poets were satisfied with the honour of admission into the Italian academy of the Arcadians. The academy of history, founded at Lisbon in 1720, also promised to be useful to Portuguese eloquence, as well as to historical science; but in the end little or nothing was effected even by this institution. Besides, though the general character of the Portuguese, which had always been less fanatical than that of the Spaniards, appeared about this period to become somewhat more liberal in religious and ecclesiastical matters, that favourable symptom was merely a consequence of the friendly relations which Portugal was under the necessity of maintaining with England; and these relations seemed to place Portugal too much in a state of dependence, to be flattering to the national feeling, or to reanimate it by the diffusion of knowledge. The inquisition, too, continued to adopt the old precautions against all attempts at free-thinking, after the manner of Voltaire. It was, therefore, neither the spirit of the old nor of the new age, which, in the reign of John V. sometimes maintained the ancient forms in Portuguese poetry and eloquence, and sometimes endeavoured to introduce new ones. This fluctuation was merely the result of a feeble wavering between the old Portuguese, the French, and the Italian taste. The better poetry was, however, still to be found in the works of the authors, who remained faithful to the ancient manner.