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The falt-box with clattering and clapping fhall found,
The iron lyre

Buzzing twang with wav'ring wire,
With heavy hum
The fober hurdy-gurdy thrum,

And the merry merry marrow-bones ring round.
LAST GRAND CHORUS.
Such matchlefs ftrains Cæcilia knew,
When audience from their heav'nly sphere,
By harmony's ftrong pow'r, fhe drew,
Whilft lift'ning angels gladly ftoop'd to hear.

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BOOKS published in the Year 1763.

The antiquities of Athens measured and delineated, by James Stuart, F. R. S. and F. S. A. and Nicholas Revett, Architects and Painters. V. i.

THERE is fcarcely any object, which operates more powerfully on that curiofity, which is the great incitement to knowledge, than antiquities of every fpecies. If fome perfons have followed this tudy with too much minuteness, or, by an enthufiafm naturally, and fomewhat excufeably, growing out of a favourite purfuit, have rated antiquities above their juft value, their weakness cannot attaint the good fenfe of others, nor derogate from the advantage of rational and liberal enquiries. By the ftudy of antiquities, history is frequently explained and confirmed, and fometimes corre&ted. Facts and manners are rendered more diftin&t, and their impreffion becomes infinitely ftronger, and more lafting. This ftudy becomes ftill more important, if the antiquities, which are the object of it, relate to a nation not only diftinguished for its power and policy, but eminent for its cultivation of the rational powers, and its refinement on the

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pleafares of the imagination. In fuch a cafe, monuments of antiquity not only illuftrate hiftory, but regulate tafte; and are capable of affording the most effential helps in the improvement of architecture, painting, fculpture, and all the arts which embellish life.

Advantages of this kind were naturally expected from a work on the antiquities of Athens; and, perhaps, no book, which had excited fo much of the public expectation, has difappointed it for little. Monfieur le Roy's performance, though it preceded this work, did not at all pre-occupy its place. The work of meffieurs Stuart and Revett is, in every respect, as original and informing, as if no other on the fubject had gone before it. Indeed, that which has preceded it rather afforded new and powerful reafons for the publication of this. The numerous and important mistakes, with which that book is filled, both in the difquifitions and defigns, had rendered more exact enquiries, and more accurate drawings, abfolutely neceffary. Becaufe the name of Athens would have been impofing; and its monuments, thus reprefented, would have vitiated, inftead of correct

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ing our tafte; and inftead of enlarging our ideas, would have only miled them.

The work before us carries the moft evident marks of truth and exactness. The labour employed in it must have been immenfe. We do not remember ever to have seen any work, which manifefts fo much ingenuity in the refearches, and which discovers, at the fame time, fo guarded and punctilious an accuracy with regard to facts, on every thing which relates to the measurement and defign. As no antiquities extant deferve the public attention more than thofe of Athens, fo none have ever been treated with a more extenfive erudition, or explained with a greater variety and choice of illuftration. This volume is, however, far from exhaufting the fubject. Several of the nobleft monuments of Athens ftill remain to be defcribed. When the whole fhall be completed, from the fpecimen of this volume we may conclude,, that nothing will be wanting to form a complete idea of the Athenian architecture and fculpture; and that the world will be indebted to our ingenious countrymen for a true idea of thofe noble arts, as they were cultivated in the place, and in the period, in which, probably, they approached the nearest to their perfection.

The work is dedicated to the king, in a fhort, manly, and fimple addrefs, which does juftice to his majefty's protection of the arts, and to his other princely virtues, without offending his delicacy with any thing like the ftile of adulation.

The preface contains the motives of the authors to this undertaking, a fort of hiftory of the arts of defign, and a comparative

view of the merit of the Grecian and Roman architecture.

The work itself is divided into five chapters. The firft relates to a Doric Portico, which had hitherto been fuppofed part of a temple dedicated to Auguftus. The authors refute this opinion; they fhew that this building was dedicated to Minerva, and was not a temple, but the entrance into one of the Agoras or Markets of Athens. This they prove from the form and difpofition of the building, from the proportions of the columns, and from the infcriptions on fome of the remaining walls. This portico furnifhes a moft elegant example of the Doric order.

The fecond chapter relates to an Ionic Temple on the Iliffus. The authors make it probable that this building was not a temple of Ceres, according to the common notion, but one dedicated to the hero Pa nops. This building is an example of the Tonic of a very fingular kind..

The third chapter is on the octagon Tower of Andronicus Cyrrheftes, commonly called, the Temple of the Winds. Upon this piece of antiquity the authors have taken great pains, and experded much erudition. When at Athens, they caufed a great quantity of earth to be removed, both within and from about the building, in order to find its true form and proportion, and afcertain its original ufe. They have made accordingly fome cuffous difcoveries; though from a view of their plate of the pavement (which they have first laid open) it appears that a good deal ftill remains to be explained. This building affords an example of an order hitherto entirely unknown;

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but which is far from being deftitute of tafte and elegance.

The fourth chapter is a differtation on a monument, called by the vulgar of Athens the Lanthorn of Demofthenes, but which the learned of Europe have confidered as a temple of Hercules. The authors fhew the mistake of both thefe opinions; and prove it to be a choragic monument, erected to fuftain a prize tripod won at the exhibition of a public entertainment of mufic. They demonftrate that it has no relation to Hercules. but that it was built in honour of Bacchus, to whofe history all the ornaments of the building belong. This chapter will afford extraordinary entertainment to all lovers of polite antiquity. The monument itfelf is one of the most exquifite pieces, both for the architecture and fculpture, any where extant; it feems to be most highly finished, and was certainly the work of a very enlightened period. The order is the Corinthian, though differing a good deal, both in the proportions and the ornaments, from the ordinary examples of that order.

The fifth and laft chapter is on the portico, fuppofed to be the remains of a temple of Jupiter Olympius. The authors fhew the common notion concerning this antiquity to be alfo erroneous, and, indeed, make out their point beyond controverfy, from the dimenfions, fituation, and every circumftance relative to that building. They have proved it to be

the celebrated portico, called the Poikile.

The plan of each chapter in this work is as follows: First, A differtation on the antiquity, which is the object of it. Secondly, An illustration of their plates. Thirdly, A criticifm on the accounts of other travellers and antiquaries.

In perufing this work, the reader will obferve with pleafure, that there is not a fingle monument treated of, which is not fet in a light abfolutely new, and the opinion of the authors fupported by reafons, which cannot fail of giving entire fatisfaction to every ingenious reader.

This book contains seventy copper plates, engraved in fuch a manner as to do honour to our English artists. Nothing can be executed in a more perfect manner than the baffo relievos on the little temple called the Lanthorn. They are a confiderable acquifition to thofe young artifts, who would acquire the taste of the antique. These figures are drawn with a truth and exactness in the anatomy and proportions, far exceeding any thing of the kind hitherto published. The prints from the most celebrated statues and reliefs, even thofe by great names, though otherwife meritorious, are most of them incorrec and faulty in the drawing; and ferve for little more than to give a loofe general idea of the originals. This will appear obviously to thofe who have had opportunity, and would take the trouble to compare them.

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"I beg leave, madam, to affure you, that there is not one command I have received from the king, which I have not obeyed with all poffible expedition and zeal; and, as there is nothing which the king would have done here, but may be compaffed with great cafe, if thofe, who are to do it, have a mind to it; fo I hope, your majesty will pardon me, if I prefume to fay, that, if the king had fo thought fit, I could have done what his majesty has now directed, even the fame things, to much greater fatisfaction than has happened." V. i. p. 362.

Clarendon, then, did not owe his recall to his being a steady and bold afferter of the proteftant caufe. It was occafioned only by the blind bigotry of Tyrconnel, who could not endure, that any other than himself should have the glory of a work, he foolishly thought fo eafy.

The appendix contains much curious matter; a more circumftantial account of the conduct of the bishops of that time; Maffey's difpenfation and pardon, on being appointed dean of Chrift church college in Oxford, &c. Likewife a curious letter in Italian, from one father Con, a jefuit, to the provincial of his order at Rome; and as this letter draws the best picture imaginable of K. James's conduct, we present the reader with the translation of it.

London, Dec. 10, 1688. "Honoured father William, There is now an endofall the plea fing hopes of feeing our holy religion make a progrefs in this country. The king and the queen are fled,

their adherents are left to them felves, and a new prince with a foreign army has got poffeffion without the least refiftance. It is a thing unfeen, unheard of, and unrecorded in hiftory, that a king in peaceful poffeffion of his realm with an army of thirty thousand fighting men, and forty fhips of war, thould quit his kingdom without firing a piftol. The foreigners themselves who have got poffeffion are aftonished at their own fuccefs, and laugh at the Eng lifh for their cowardice, and dif loyalty to their prince. It looks as if heaven and earth had con fpired against us. But this is not all; the great evil comes from ourfelves: our own imprudence, avarice, and ambition, have brought all this upon us. The good king has made use of fools, knaves, and blockheads; and the great minifter that you fent hither has contributed alfo his fhare. Inftead of a moderate, difcreet, and fagacious minifter, you fent a mere boy, a fine fhewy fop, to make love to the ladies.

High praifes, mighty trophies you

have won.

But enough on this head, my dear friend; the whole affair is over. I am only forry that I made one among fo many madmen, who were incapable either of directing, or governing. I now return, as can, with the little family to 2 land of Chriftians: this unhappy voyage colts me dear; but there is no help for it. The profpect was fair, if the bufinefs had been in the hands of men of fenfe; but, to our difgrace, the helm was held by rogues. I have already paid the compliments of the new year to our patrons; and I now do the

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