Some felt the filent stroke of mould'ring age,
Some hoftile fury, fome religious rage.
Barbarian blindness, Christian zeal conspire,
And Papal piety, and Gothic fire.

Perhaps, by its own ruins fav'd from flame,

15

Some bury'd marble half preserves a name;
That Name the learn'd with fierce difputes pursue,
And give to Titus old Vespasian's due.

Ambition figh'd: She found it vain to truft

The faithless Column and the crumbling Bust:

20

Huge moles, whofe fhadow ftretch'd from shore to shore,

Their ruins perifh'd, and their place no more!

NOTES.

furvey,] Thefe Gods were the then Tyrants of Rome, to whom the Empire raised Temples. The epithet, admiring, conveys a strong ri

dicule; that paffion, in the opinion of Philofophy, always conveying the ideas of ignorance and mifery:

Nil admirari prope res eft una, Numici, Solaque quæ poffit facere & fervare beatum. Admiration implying our ignorance of other things; pride, our ignorance of ourfelves

VER. 18. And give to Titus old Vefpafian's due.]

A fine infinuation of the entire want of Tafte in Antiquaries; whofe ignorance of Characters misleads them, (fupported only by a name) againft Reafon and Hiftory.

Convinc'd, the now contracts her vast design,
And all her Triumphs fhrink into a Coin.
A narrow orb each crouded conqueft keeps,
Beneath her Palm here fad Judæa weeps.
Now fcantier limits the proud Arch confine,
And scarce are seen the proftrate Nile or Rhine;
A fmall Euphrates thro' the piece is roll'd,

And little Eagles wave their wings in gold.

25

The Medal, faithful to its charge of fame, Thro' climes and ages bears each form and name : In one short view fubjected to our eye Gods, Emp'rors, Heroes, Sages, Beauties, lie. With fharpen'd fight pale Antiquaries pore, Th' infcription valuc, but the ruft adore.

NOTES.

A narrow

30

35

VER. 35. With sharpen'd fight pale Antiquaries pore,] Microscopic glaffes, invent

VER. 25. Orb each crowded Conqueft keeps,] A ridicule on the pompous title of Orbis Ro-ed by philofophers to difmanus, which the Romans gave to their empire.

cover the beauties in the minuter works of nature, ridiculously applied by Antiquaries, to detect the cheats of counterfeit me

VER. 27.1 the proud Arch] i. e. The triumphal Arch, which was generally an enormous mafs of build-dals. ing.

This the blue varnish, that the green endears,
The facred ruft of twice ten hundred years!
To gain Pefcennius one employs his schemes,
One grafps a Cecrops in ecstatic dreams.

Poor Vadius, long with learned spleen devour'd,
Can tafte no pleasure fince his Shield was fcour'd:
And Curio, restless by the Fair-one's fide,

Sighs for an Otho, and neglects his bride.

Theirs is the Vanity, the Learning thine:

40

45

Touch'd by thy hand, again Rome's glories fhine;
Her Gods, and god-like Heroes rife to view,
And all her faded garlands bloom a-new.
Nor blush, these studies thy regard engage;
These pleas'd the Fathers of poetic rage;

NOTES.

50

VER. 37. This the blue | fome writers of eminence varnish, that the green endears,] i e. This a collector of filver; That, of brafs coins.

VER. 41. Poor Vadius] See his hiftory, and that of his Shield, in the Memoirs of Scriblerus.

VER. 49. Nor blush, thefe Studies thy regard engage ;] A fenfelefs affectation which

have betrayed; who when fortune, or their talents, have raised them to a condition to do without those arts, for which only they gained our esteem, have pretended to think letters below their Character. This falfe fshame M. Voltaire has very well, and with proper indignation, expofed in his

The verfe and sculpture bore an equal part,

And Art reflected images to Art.

Oh when shall Britain, confcious of her claim,
Stand emulous of Greek and Roman fame?
In living medals fee her wars enroll'd,
And vanquish'd realms fupply recording gold?
Here, rifing bold, the Patriot's honest face;
There Warriors frowning in hiftoric brass :
Then future ages with delight shall see

55

How Plato's, Bacon's, Newton's looks agree; 60

NOTES.

account of Mr Congreve: "He had one Defect, which 66 was, his entertaining too "mean an Idea of his firft

Profeffion, (that of a Wri"ter) tho' 'twas to this he "ow'd his Fame and For66 tune. He spoke of his "Works as of Trifles that 66 were beneath him; and " hinted to me in our "first Conversation, that I "should vifit him upon no "other Foot than that of

a Gentleman, who led a "Life of plainnefs and fim

"plicity. I anfwer'd, that, "had he been fo unfortu"nate as to be a mere Gen"tleman, I should never "have come to fee him ; "and I was very much

difgufted at fo unseason"able a piece of vanity. Letters concerning the Englifh Nation, xix.

VER. 53. Ob when shall Britain, &c,] A compliment to one of Mr Addifon's papers in the Spectator on this fubject.

Or in fair feries laurell'd Bards be shown,

A Virgil there, and here an Addison.

Then fhall thy CRAGGS (and let me call him mine) On the caft ore, another Pollio, fhine;

With aspect open, fhall erect his head,

65

And round the orb in lafting notes be read, "Statesman, yet friend to Truth! of foul fincere, "In action faithful, and in honour clear; "Who broke no promife, ferv'd no private end, "Who gain'd no title, and who loft no friend; "Ennobled by himself, by all approv❜d, "And prais'd, unenvy'd, by the Muse he lov❜d."

NOTES

VER. 67. "Statefman," it. One would fancy the yet friend to truth, &c.] It" Author had a Defign of Thould be remembered that" being Ciceronian-but this poem was written to "it is not only the tedibe printed before Mr Ad-" oufnefs of thefe infcripdifon's Difcourfe on Medals," tions that I find fault in which there is the fol- "with; fuppofing them of lowing cenfure of long le- " a moderate length, why gends upon coins: "The "muft they be in verfe? "We should be furprized "to fee the title of a fe"rious book in rhime.". Dial. iii.

firft fault I find with a "modern legend is its dif"fufiveness. You have "fometimes the whole fide "of a medal over-run with