Note 67 — BOOK V.

A strict intimacy existed, especially between him and the Cav. Marino, among whose letters we may enumerate twenty-eight more to Castello than to any other person. It is pleasing to observe the dexterity of the poet, who often praises the "miraculous pencil" and the "divine hand" of the painter, an homage bestowed still more liberally in the Galleria; and the gratitude of the artist who designed and coloured for his friend gratis, and who exerts himself to requite every letter of the poet by some acceptable work of art, (p. 175).