DIALOGUE I.

CYNTHIO, Eugenius and Philander had retired together from the town to a country village, that lies upon the Thames. Their design was to pass away the heats of the Summer [...]mong the fresh breezes, that rise from the river, [...]d the agreeable mixture of shades and fountains, [...] which the whole country naturally abounds, [...]hey were all three very well versed in the po­ [...]er parts of learning, and had travelled into the [...]ost refined nations of Europe: so that they [...]ere capable of entertaining themselves on a [Page 10] thousand different subjects without running into the common topics of defaming publick parties, or particular persons. As they were intimate friends they took the freedom to dissent from one another in discourse, or upon occasion to speak a Latin sentence without fearing the imputation of pedantry or ill-breeding.

They were one evening taking a walk together in the fields when their discourse accidentally fell upon several unprofitable parts of learning. It was Cynthio's humour to run down every thing that was rather for ostentation than use. He was still preferring good sense to arts and sciences, and often took a pleasure to appear ignorant, that he might the better turn to ridicule those that valued themselves on their books and studies, though at the same time one might very well see that he could not have attacked many parts of learning so successfully, had not he borrowed his assistances from them. After having rally'd a set or two of Virtuoso's, he fell upon the Me­dallists.

These gentlemen, says he, value themselves upon being critics in Rust, and will undertake to tell you the different ages of it, by its colour. They are possessed with a kind of learned avarice, and are for getting together hoards of such mony only as was current among the Greeks and La­tins. There are several of them that are better acquainted with the faces of the Antonines, than of the Stuarts, and would rather chuse to count out a Sum in Sesterces, than in pounds sterling, I have heard of one in Italy that used to swear by the head of Otho. Nothing can be pleasanter than to see a circle of these Virtuoso's about a cabinet [Page 11] of Medals, descanting upon the value, rarity and authenticalness of the several pieces that lie before them. One takes up a coin of gold, and after having well weighed the figures and inscription, [...]ells you very gravely, if it were brass, it would be invaluable. Another falls a ringing a Pescen­ [...]ius Niger, and judiciously distinguishes the [...]ound of it to be modern. A third desires you [...]o observe well the Toga on such a reverse, and asks you whether you can in conscience believe the sleeve of it to be of the true Roman cut.

I must confess, says Philander, the knowledge of Medals has most of those disadvantages that can [...]ender a science ridiculous, to such as are not well versed in it. Nothing is more easy than to represent as impertinences any parts of learning that have no immediate relation to the happiness or convenience of mankind. When a man spends his whole life among the Stars and Planets, or lays out a twelve-month on the spots in the Sun, however noble his speculations may be, they are very apt to fall [...]nto burlesque. But it is still more natural to [...]augh at such studies as are employed on low and vulgar objects. What curious observations have been made on Spiders, Lobsters, and Cockle­ [...]hells? yet the very naming of them is almost suf­ficient to turn them into raillery. It is no won­der therefore that the science of Medals, which [...]s charged with so many unconcerning parts of knowledge, and built on such mean materials, [...]hould appear ridiculous to those that have not ta­ [...]en the pains to examine it.

Eugenius was very attentive to what Philander [...]aid on the subject of Medals. He was one that [...]ndeavoured rather to be agreeable than shining [Page 12] in conversation, for which reason he was more beloved, though not so much admired as Cynthio. I must confess, says he, I find my self very much inclined to speak against a sort of study that I know nothing of. I have however one strong Prejudice in favour of it, that Philander has thought it worth his while to employ some time upon it. I am glad then, says Cynthio, that I have thrown him on a science of which I have long wished to hear the Usefulness. There, says Philander, you must excuse me. At present you do not know but it may have its usefulness. But should I endeavour to convince you of it, I might fail in my attempt, and so render my sci­ence still more contemptible. On the contrary, says Cynthio, we are already so persuaded of the unprofitableness of your science, that you can but leave us where you find us, but if you succeed you increase the number of your party. Well, says Philander, in hopes of making two such considerable proselytes, I am very well content to talk away an evening with you on the subject; but on this condition, that you will communicate your thoughts to me freely when you dissent from me, or have any difficulties that you think me capable of removing. To make use of the li­berty you give us, says Eugenius, I must tell you what I believe surprizes all beginners as well as my self. We are apt to think your Medallists a little fantastical in the different prices they set upon their coins, without any regard to the an­cient value or the metal of which they are com­posed. A silver Medal, for example, shall be more esteemed than a golden one, and a piece of brass than either. To answer you, says Philander, it [Page 13] [...]he language of a Medallist, you are not to look upon a cabinet of Medals as a treasure of mony, but of knowledge, nor must you fancy any charms in gold, but in the figures and inscriptions [...]at adorn it. The intrinsic value of an old coin does not consist in its metal but its erudition. It is the Device that has raised the species, so that at present an As or an Obolus may carry a higher price than a Denarius or a Drachma; and a piece of mony that was not worth a peny fif­teen hundred years ago, may be now rated at fifty crowns, or perhaps a hundred guineas. I find, says Cynthio, that to have a relish for anci­ent coins it is necessary to have a contempt of the modern. But I am afraid you will never be able, with all your Medallic eloquence, to per­suade Eugenius and my self that it is better to have a pocket full of Otho's and Gordians than of Jaco­ [...]us's or Louis d'ors. This however we shall be judges of, when you have let us know the several uses of old coins.

The first and most obvious one, says Philan­ [...]r, is the shewing us the Faces of all the great persons of antiquity. A cabinet of Medals is a collection of pictures in miniature. Juvenal calls them very humorously,

You here see the Alexanders, Caesars, Pompeys, [...]rajans, and the whole catalogue of Heroes; [...]ho have many of them so distinguished them­ [...]elves from the rest of mankind that we almost [...]ook upon them as another species. It is an a­ [...]reeable amusement to compare in our own [Page 14] thoughts the face of a great Man with the chara­cter that authors have given us of him, and to try if we can find out in his looks and features either the haughty, cruel, or merciful temper that discovers it self in the history of his actions. We find too on Medals the representations of Ladies that have given occasion to whole volumes on the account only of a face. We have here the pleasure to ex­amine their looks and dresses, and to survey at leisure those beauties that have sometimes been the happiness or misery of whole kingdoms: Nor do you only meet the faces of such as are famous in history, but of several whose names are not to be found any where except on Medals. Some of the Emperors, for example, have had Wives, and some of them Children, that no authors have mentioned. We are therefore obliged to the study of coins for having made new discoveries to the learned, and given them information of such persons as are to be met with on no other kind of records. You must give me leave, says Cynthio, to reject this last use of Medals. I do not think it worth while to trouble my self with a person's name or face that receives all his repu­tation from the mint, and would never have been known in the world had there not been such things as Medals. A man's memory finds suf­ficient employment on such as have really signa­lized themselves by their great actions, without charging it self with the names of an insignificant people whose whole history is written on the edges of an old coin.

If you are only for such persons as have made a noise in the world, says Philander, you have on Medals a long list of heathen Deities, distinguish­ [...]d [Page 15] from each other by their proper titles and or­ [...]aments. You see the copies of several statues that have had the politest nations of the world f [...]ll down before them. You have here too seve­ [...]l persons of a more thin and shadowy nature, [...]s Hope, Constancy, Fidelity, Abundance, Ho­ [...]our, Virtue, Eternity, Justice, Moderation, Hap­ [...]iness, and in short a whole creation of the like [...]maginary substances. To these you may add the Genies of nations, provinces, cities, high-ways, and the like Allegorical Beings. In devices of this nature one sees a pretty poetical invention, and may often find as much thought on the re­verse of a Medal as in a Canto of Spenser. Not to interrupt you, says Eugenius, I fancy it is this use of Medals that has recommended them to se­veral history-painters, who perhaps without this assistance would have found it very difficult to have invented such an airy species of beings, when they are obliged to put a moral virtue into co­lours, or to find out a proper dress for a passion. I [...] is doubtless for this reason, says Philander, that Painters have not a little contributed to bring the [...]udy of Medals in vogue. For not to mention several others, Caraccio is said to have assisted A­ [...]etine by designs that he took from the Spintriae of Tiberius. Raphael had thoroughly studied the figures on old Coins. Patin tells us that Lo [...]run had done the same. And it is well known [...]at Rubens had a noble collection of Medals in his [...]wn possession. But I must not quit this head [...]efore I tell you, that you see on Medals not on­ly the names and persons of Emperors, Kings, consuls, Pro-consuls, Praetors, and the like cha­ [...]acters of importance, but of some of the Poets, [Page 16] and of several who had won the prizes at the Olympic games. It was a noble time, says Cyn­thio, when Trips and Cornish hugs could make a man immortal. How many Heroes would Moor-fields have furnished out in the days of old? A fellow that can now only win a hat or a belt, had he lived among the Greeks, might have had his face stampt upon their Coins. But these were the wise ancients, who had more esteem for a Milo than a Homer, and heapt up greater Honours on Pindar's Jockies, than on the Poet himself. But by this time I suppose you have drawn up all your medallic people, and indeed they make a much more formidable body than I could have imagined. You have shewn us all conditions, sexes and ages, emperors and empresses, men and children, gods and wrestlers. Nay you have con­jured up persons that exist no where else but on old Coins, and have made our Passions and Vir­tues and Vices visible. I could never have thought that a cabinet of Medals had been so well peopled. But in the next place, says Phi­lander, as we see on coins the different Faces of persons, we see on them too their different Ha­bits and Dresses, according to the mode that pre­vailed in the several ages when the Medals were stampt. This is another use, says Cynthio, that in my opinion contributes rather to make a man learned than wise, and is neither capable of plea­sing the understanding or imagination. I know there are several supercilious Critics that will treat an author with the greatest contempt imagi­nable, if he fancies the old Romans wore a girdle, and are amazed at a man's ignorance, who be­lieves the Toga had any Sleeves to it till the de­clension [Page 17] of the Roman Empire. Now I would fain know the great importance of this kind of learning, and why it should not be as noble a task to write upon a Bib and hanging-sleeves, as on the Bulla and Praetexta. The reason is, that we are familiar with the names of the one, and meet with the other no where but in learned authors. An Antiquary will scorn to mention a pinner or a night-rail, a petticoat or a manteau; but will talk as gravely as a father of the church on the Vitta and Peplus, the Stola and Instita. How would an old Roman laugh, were it possible for him to see the solemn dissertations that have been made on these weighty subjects! To set them in their natural light, let us fancy, if you please, that about a thousand years hence, some profound author shall write a learned treatise on the Ha­bit [...] of the present age, distinguished into the fol­lowing Titles and Chapters.

• Of the old British Trowser.
• Of the Ruff and Collar-bana.
• The opinion of several learned me concerning the use of the Shoulder-knot.
• Such a one mistaken in his account of the Sur­tout, &c.

I must confess, says Eugenius interrupting him, the knowledge of these affairs is in it self very lit [...]e improving, but as it is impossible without it to understand several parts of your ancient au­thors, it certainly hath its use. It is pity indeed there is not a nearer way of coming at it. I have sometimes fancied it would not be an imperti­nent design to make a kind of an old Roman [Page 18] wardrobe, where you should see Toga's and Tuni­ca's, the Chlamys and Trabea, and in short all the different vests and ornaments that are so often mentioned in the Greek and Roman authors. By this means a man would comprehend better and remember much longer the shape of an ancient garment, than he possibly can from the help of tedious quotations and descriptions. The design says Philander, might be very useful, but after what models would you work? Sigonius, for example, will tell you that the Vestis Trabeat [...] was of such a particular fashion, Scaliger is fo [...] another, and Dacier thinks them both in the wrong. These are, says Cynthio, I suppose the names of three Roman taylors: for is it possible men of learning can have any disputes of this na­ture? May not we as well believe that hereafter the whole learned world will be divided upon the make of a modern pair of breeches? And yet, says Eugenius, the Critics have fallen as fou [...] upon each other for matters of the same moment But as to this point, where the Make of the gar­ment is controverted, let them, if they can find cloth enough, work after all the most probable fashions. To enlarge the design, I would have another room for the old Roman instruments o [...] war, where you might see the Pilum and the shield, the eagles, ensigns, helmets, battering-rams and trophies, in a word, all the ancient military furniture in the same manner as it might have been in an Arsenal of old Rome. A third apart­ment should be a kind of Sacristie for altars idols, sacrificing instruments, and other religious utensils. Not to be tedious, one might make a magazine for all sorts of antiquities, that would [Page 19] show a man in an afternoon more than he could [...]earn out of books in a twelve-month. This would [...]ut short the whole study of antiquities, and perhaps [...] much more useful to Universities than those [...]ollections of Whale-bone and Crocodile-skins in [...]hich they commonly abound. You will find it very difficult, says Cynthio, to persuade those soci­eties of learned men to fall in with your project. They will tell you that things of this importance must not be taken on trust; you ought to learn them among the Classic Authors and at the foun­tain-head. Pray consider what a figure a man would make in the republick of letters, should he appeal to your University-wardrobe, when they expect a sentence out of the Re Vestiaria? or how do you think a man that has read Vegetius will relish your Roman Arsenal? In the mean time, says Philander, you find on Medals every thing that you could meet with in your magazine of antiquities, and when you have built your arse­nals, wardrobes, and sacristies, it is from Medals that you must fetch their furniture. It is here too that you see the figures of several instruments of musick, mathematics and mechanics. One might make an entire gally out of the plans that are to be met with on the reverses of several old coins. Nor are they only charged with Things but with many ancient Customs, as sacrifices, tri­umphs, congiaries, allocutions, decursions, lecti­ [...]erniums, and a thousand other antiquated names [...]d ceremonies that we should not have had so j [...]st a notion of, were they not still preserved on Coins. I might add under this head of antiqui­ties, that we find on Medals the manner of spel­ [...]ng in the old Roman inscriptions. That is, says [Page 20] Cynthio, we find that Felix is never written with an oe dipthongue, and that in Augustus's days Civis stood for Cives, with other secrets in Or­thography of the same importance.

To come then to a more weighty use, says Philander, it is certain that Medals give a very great light to history, in confirming such passages as are true in old Authors, in settling such as are told after different manners, and in recording such as have been omitted. In this case a cabinet of Medals is a body of history. It was indeed the best way in the world to perpetuate the me­mory of great actions, thus to coin out the life of an Emperor, and to put every great exploit in­to the mint. It was a kind of Printing, before the art was invented. It is by this means that Mon­sieur Vaillant has disembroiled a history that was lost to the world before his time, and out of a short collection of Medals has given us a chroni­cle of the Kings of Syria. For this too is an ad­vantage Medals have over books, that they tell their story much quicker, and sum up a whole volume in twenty or thirty reverses. They are indeed the best epitomes in the world, and let you see with one cast of an eye the substance of above a hundred pages. Another use of Medals is, that they not only shew you the actions of an Emperor, but at the same time mark out the year in which they were performed. Every exploit has its date set to it. A series of an Emperor's Coins is his life digested into annals. Historians seldom break their relation with a mixture of chronology, nor distribute the particulars of an Emperor's story into the several years of his reign: or where they do it they often differ in their seve­ral [Page 21] periods. Here therefore it is much safer to quote a Medal than an Author, for in this case [...]ou do not appeal to a Suetonius or a Lampri­ [...]ius, but to the Emperor himself, or to the whole [...]ody of a Roman Senate. Besides that a Coin is in no danger of having its characters altered by copiers and transcribers. This I must confess, says Cynthio, may in some cases be of great moment, but considering the subjects on which your chro­nologers are generally employed, I see but little use that rises from it. For example, what signi­fies it to the world whether such an Elephant ap­peared in the Amphi-theatre in the second or the third year of Domitian? Or what am I the wiser for knowing that Trajan was in the fifth year of his Tribuneship when he entertained the people with such a Horse-race or Bull-baiting? Yet it is the fixing of these great periods that gives a man the first rank in the republic of letters, and re­commends him to the world for a person of va­rious reading and profound erudition.

You must always give your men of great reading leave to show their talents on the meanest subjects, says Eugenius; it is a kind of shooting at rovers: where a man lets fly his arrow without taking any aim, to shew his strength. But there is one advantage, says he, turning to Philander, that seems to me very considerable, although your Medallists sel­ [...]om throw it into the account, which is the great [...]lp to memory one finds in Medals: for my own part I am very much embarrassed in the names and ranks of the several Roman Emperors, and find it difficult to recollect upon occasion the different parts of their history: but your Medal­ [...]sts upon the first naming of an Emperor will [Page 22] immediately tell you his age, family and life. To remember where he enters in the succession, they only consider in what part of the cabinet he lies; and by runinng over in their thoughts such a par­ticular drawer, will give you an account of all the remarkable parts of his reign.

I thank you, says Philander, for helping me to an use that perhaps I should not have thought on. But there is another of which I am sure you could not be but sensible when you were at Rome. I must own to you it surprized me to see my Ci­ceroni so well acquainted with the busts and sta­tues of all the great people of antiquity. There was not an Emperor or Empress but he knew by sight, and as he was seldom without Medals in his pocket, he would often shew us the same face on an old Coin that we saw in the Statue. He would discover a Commodus through the disguise of the club and lion's skin, and find out such a one to be Livia that was dressed up like a Ceres. Let a bust be never so disfigured, they have a thousand marks by which to decipher it. They will know a Zenobia by the sitting of her Dia­dem, and will distinguish the Faustina's by their different way of tying up their hair. Oh! Sir, says Cynthio, they will go a great deal farther, they will give you the name and titles of a Sta­tue that has lost his nose and ears; or if there is but half a beard remaining, will tell you at first sight who was the owner of it. Now I must con­fess to you, I used to fancy they imposed upon me an Emperor or Empress at pleasure, rather than appear ignorant.

All this however is easily learnt from Medals, says Philander, where you may see likewise the [Page 23] plans of many the most considerable buildings of Old Rome. There is an ingenious Gentleman of our own nation extremely well versed in this stu­d [...], who has a design of publishing the whole hi­story of Architecture, with its several improve­ments and decays as it is to be met with on an­cient Coins. He has assured me that he has ob­served all the nicety of proportion in the figures of the different orders that compose the buildings on the best preserved Medals. You here see the copies of such Ports and triumphal Arches as there are not the least traces of in the places where they once stood. You have here the models of seve­ral ancient Temples, though the Temples them­selves, and the Gods that were worshipped in them, are perished many hundred years ago. Or if there are still any foundations or ruines of for­mer edifices, you may learn from Coins what was their Architecture when they stood whole and entire. These are buildings with the Goths and Vandals could not demolish, that are infinite­ly more durable than stone or marble, and will perhaps last as long as the earth it self. They are in short so many real monuments of Brass.

This is a noble Panegyric on an old copper Coin, says Cynthio. But I am afraid a little ma­licious [Page 24] rust would demolish one of your braze [...] edifices as effectually as a Goth or Vandal. Yo [...] would laugh at me, says Philander, should I mak [...] you a learned dissertation on the nature of Rusts I shall only tell you there are two or three sort of them which are extremely beautiful in the ey [...] of an Antiquary, and preserve a Coin better tha [...] the best artificial varnish. As for other kinds, skilful Medallist knows very well how to de [...] with them. He will recover you a Temple o [...] a triumphal Arch out of its rubbish, if I may [...] call it, and with a few reparations of the gravin [...] tool restore it to its first splendour and magnif [...] cence. I have known an Emperor quite hid u [...] der a crust of dross, who after two or three day [...] cleansing has appeared with all his Titles abo [...] him as fresh and beautiful as at his first comi [...] out of the Mint. I am sorry, says Eugenius, did not know this last use of Medals when I w [...] at Rome. It might perhaps have given me a greater taste of its Antiquities, and have fixed in m [...] memory several of the ruins that I have now fo [...] gotten For my part, says Cynthio, I think the [...] are at Rome enow modern works of Architectu [...] to employ any reasonable man. I never cou [...] have a taste for old bricks and rubbish, nor wou [...] trouble my self about the ruines of Augustus's P [...] lace so long as I could see the Vatican, t [...] Borghese, and the Farnese as they now stand; must own to you at the same time this is talki [...] like an ignorant man. Were I in other comp [...] ny I would perhaps change my style, and t [...] them that I would rather see the fragments [...] Apollo's Temple than St. Peter's. I rememb [...] when our Antiquary at Rome had led us a who [...] [Page 25] day together from one ruin to another, he at last brought us to the Rotunda, And this, says he, is the most valuable Antiquity in Italy, notwith­standing it is so entire.

The same kind of fancy, says Philander, has formerly gained upon several of your Medallists, who were for hoording up such pieces of money only as had been half consumed by time or rust. There were no Coins pleased them more than those which had passed through the hands of an old Roman Clipper. I have read an Author of this taste that compares a ragged Coin to a tattered Colours. But to come again to our Subject. As we find on Medals the plans of several buildings that are now demolished, we see on them too the Models of many ancient Statues that are now lost. There are several Reverses which are own­ed to be the representations of antique figures, and I question not but there are many others that were formed on the like Models, though at pre­sent they lie under no suspicion of it. The Her­c [...]les Farnese, the Venus of Medicis, the Apollo in the Belvidera, and the famous Marcus Aurelius on horse-back, which are perhaps the four most beautiful Statues extant, make their appearance all of them on ancient Medals, though the figures that represent them were never thought to be the [...]pies of statues till the statues themselves were discovered. There is no question, I think, but t [...] same reflexion may extend it self to antique P [...]ctures: for I doubt not but in the designs of se­veral Greek Medals in particular, one might of­ten see the hand of an Apelles or Protogenes, were we as well acquainted with their works as [...]e are with Titian's or Vandike's. I might here [Page 26] make a much greater show of the Usefulness of Medals, if I would take the method of others, and prove to you that all arts and sciences receive a considerable illustration from this study. I must however tell you, that Medals and the Civil Law, as we are assured by those who are well read in both, give a considerable light to each other, and that several old Coins are like so many maps for explaining of the ancient Geography. But besides the more solid parts of learning, there are severa [...] little intimations to be met with on Medals tha [...] are very pleasant to such as are conversant in thi [...] kind of study. Should I tell you gravely, tha [...] without the help of Coins we should never have known which was the first of the Emperors tha [...] wore a beard, or rode in stirrups, I might turt my science into ridicule. Yet it is certai [...] there are a thousand little impertinencies of this nature that are very gratifying to curiosity, tho' per­haps not very improving to the understanding To see the dress that such an Empress delighte [...] to be drawn in, the titles that were most agreeabl [...] to such an Emperor, the flatteries that he lay mo [...] open to, the honours that he paid to his chi [...] dren, wives, predecessors, friends or collegue with the like particularities only to be met with o [...] Medals, are certainly not a little pleasing to th [...] inquisitive temper which is so natural to the min [...] of man.

I declare to you, says Cynthio, you have ast [...] nished me with the several parts of knowledg [...] that you have discovered on Medals. I cou [...] never fancy before this evening, that a Coin cou [...] have any nobler use in it than to pay a recko [...] ing.

[Page 27]You have not heard all yet, says Philander, there is still an advantage to be drawn from Me­dals, which I am sure will heighten your esteem for them. It is indeed an use that no body has hitherto dwelt upon. If any of the Antiquaries have touched upon it, they have immediately quitted it, without considering it in its full latitude, light and extent. Not to keep you in suspence, I think there is a great affinity between Coins and Poetry, and that your Medallist and Critic are much nearer related than the world generally imagines. A reverse often clears up the passage of an old poet, as the poet often serves to unrid­dle a reverse. I could be longer on this head, but I fear I have already tired you. Nay, says Eugenius, since you have gone so far with us, we must beg you to finish your lecture, especial­ly since you are on a subject, that I dare promise you will be very agreeable to Cynthio, who is so professed an admirer of the ancient poets. I must only warn you, that you do not charge your Coins with more uses than they can bear. It is generally the method of such as are in love with any particular science to discover all others in it. Who would imagine, for example, that archite­cture should comprehend the knowledge of histo­ [...]y, ethics, music, astronomy, natural philosophy, [...]hysic and the civil law? Yet Vitruvius will give [...]ou his reasons, such as they are, why a good ar­chitect is master of these several arts and sciences. Sure, says Cynthio, Martial had never read Vitru­vius when he threw the Cryer and the Architect into the same class.

But to give you an instance out of a very cele­brated discourse on poetry, because we are on that subject, of an author's finding out imaginary beauties in his own art. I have obser­ved, Vossius de viribus Rythmi. says he, (speaking of the natura [...] propension that all men have to num­bers and harmony) that my barber ha [...] often combed my head in Dactyls an [...] Spondees, that is, with two short strokes and a lon [...] one, or with two long ones successively. Nay, say he, I have known him sometimes run even int [...] Pyrrhichius's and Anapoestus's. This you wil [...] think perhaps a very extravagant fancy, but I mus [...] own I should as soon expect to find the Prosodu [...] in a Comb as Poetry in a Medal. Before I en­deavour to convince you of it, says Philander, I mus [...] confess to you that this science has its visionarie [...] as well as all others. There are several, for example, that will find a mystery in every tooth o [...] Neptune's trident, and are amazed at the wisdo [...] of the ancients that represented a thunder-bol [...] with three forks, since, they will tell you, nothing could have better explained its triple quality of piercing, burning and melting. I have see a long discourse on the figure and nature of horn to shew it was impossible to have found out a fitte [...] emblem for plenty than the Cornu-copiae. These a [...] a sort of authors who scorn to take up with appearances, and fancy an interpretation vulg [...] when it is natural. What could have been mor [...] proper to shew the beauty and friendship of th [...] three Graces, than to represent them naked an [...] [Page 29] knitt together in a kind of dance? It is thus they always appear in ancient sculpture, whether on Medals or in Marble, as I doubt not but Horace alludes to designs of this nature, when he de­scribes them after the same manner.

Several of your Medallists will be here again a­stonished at the wisdom of the ancients, that knew how to couch such excellent Precepts of morality under visible objects. The nature of Gratitude, they will tell you, is better illustrated by this single device, than by Seneca's whole book d [...] Beneficiis. The three Graces teach us three things. I. To remark the doing of a cour­tesie. II. The return of it from the receiver. III. The obligation of the receiver to acknow­ledge it. The three Graces are always hand in hand, to show us that these three duties should be never separated. They are naked, to admonish us that Gratitude should be returned with a free and open heart; and dancing, to shew us that no virtue is more active than Gratitude. May not we here say with Lucretius?

It is an easy thing, says Eugenius, to find out designs that never entered into the thoughts of the [...]ulptor or the coiner. I dare say, the same [Page 30] Gentlemen who have fixed this piece of morality on the three naked Sisters dancing hand in hand, would have found out as good a one for them, had there been four of them sitting at a distance from each other, and covered from head to foot. It is here therefore, says Philander, that the old Poets step in to the assistance of the Medallist, when they give us the same though in words as the masters of the Roman min [...] have done in figures. A man may see a meta­phor or an allegory in picture, as well as rea [...] them in a description. When therefore I con­front a Medal with a Verse, I only shew yo [...] the same design executed by different hands, and appeal from one master to another of the sam [...] age and taste. This is certainly a much sure way than to build on the interpretations of a [...] author who does not consider how the ancient used to think, but will be still inventing mysteries and applications out of his own fancy. T [...] make my self more intelligible, I find a shield o [...] the reverse of an Emperor's Coin, designed as [...] compliment to him from the senate of Rome. meet with the same metaphor in ancient poets t [...] express protection or defence. I conclude therefore that this Medal compliments the Emper [...] in the same sense as the old Romans did the Dictator Fabius when they called him the Buc [...] ler of Rome. Put this reverse now if you pleas [...] into the hands of a mystical antiquary; He sha [...] tell you that the use of the shield being to defen [...] the body from the weapons of an enemy, it ver [...] aptly shadows out to us the resolution or co [...] tinence of the Emperor, which made him pro [...] to all the attacks, of fortune or of pleasure. [...] [Page 31] the next place, the figure of the shield being round it is an emblem of perfection, for Aristotle has said the round figure is the most perfect. It may likewise signify the immortal reputation that the Emperor has acquired by his great actions, ro­tundity being an emblem of eternity that has nei­ther beginning nor end. After this I dare not an­swer for the shield's convexity that it does not co­ver a mystery, nay there shall not be the least wrinkle or flourish upon it which will not turn to some account. In this case therefore ^* Poe­try being in some respects an art of designing as well as Painting or Sculpture, they may serve as Comments on each other. I am very well satisfied, says Eugenius, by what you have said on this subject, that the Poets may contribute to the explication of such reverses as are purely emblematical, or when the persons are of that shadowy allegorical nature you have before men­tioned, but I suppose there are many other re­verses that represent things and persons of a more real existence. In this case too, says Phi­lander, a Poet lets you into the knowledge of a device better than a Prose-writer, as his de­scriptions are often more diffuse, his story more naturally circumstanced, and his language en­riched with a greater variety of epithets: So that you often meet with little hints and suggestions in a Poet that give a great illustration to the cu­stoms, actions, ornaments, and all kinds of Antiqui­ties that are to be met with on ancient Coins. I fancy, says Cynthio, there is nothing more ridicu­lous than an Antiquary's reading the Greek or [Page 32] Latin Poets. He never thinks of the beauty of the thought or language, but is for searching in­to what he calls the Erudition of the Author. He will turn you over all Virgil to find out the figure of an old Rostrum, and has the greatest esteem imaginable for Homer, because has given us the fashion of a Greek scepter. It is indeed odd enough to consider how all kinds of Readers find their account in the old Poets. Not only your men of the more refined or solid parts of Learning, but even your Alchymist and Fortune-teller will discover the secrets of their art in Ho­mer and Virgil. This, says Eugenius, is a pre­judice of a very ancient standing. Read but Plu­tarch's discourse on Homer, and you will see that the Iliad contains the whole circle of arts, and that Thales and Pythagoras stole all their philosophy out of this Poet's works. One would be amazed to see what pains he takes to prove that Homer understood all the figures in Rhetoric, before they were invented. I do not question, says Philander, were it possible for Homer to read his praises in this Author, but he would be as much surprized as ever Monsieur Jordain was when he had found he had talked Prose all his life-time without ever knowing what it was. But to finish the task you have set me, we may observe that not only the Virtues, and the like imaginary persons, but all the heathen Divinities appear generally in the same Dress among the Po­ets that they wear in Medals. I must confess, I believe both the one and the other took the Mode from the ancient Greek Statuaries. It will not perhaps be an improper transition to pass from the heathen gods to the several monsters of antiquity, [Page 33] as Chimaeras, Gorgons, Sphinxes, and many others that make the same figure in verse as on coins. It often happens too, that the Poet and the Se­nate of Rome have both chosen the same Topic to flatter their Emperor upon, and have some­times fallen upon the same thought. It is cer­tain, they both of them lay upon the catch for a great action: It is no wonder therefore, that they were often engaged on one subject, the Medal and the Poem being nothing else but oc­casional compliments to the Emperor. Nay, I question not but you may sometimes find certain passages among the Poets that relate to the par­cular device of a Medal.

I wonder, says Eugenius, that your Medallists have not been as diligent in searching the Poets as the Historians, since I find they are so capable of enlightning their art. I would have some bo­dy put the Muses under a kind of contribution to furnish out whatever they have in them that bears any relation to Coins. Though they taught us but the same things that might be learnt in other writings, they would at least teach us more agreeably, and draw several over to the study of Medals that would rather be instructed in verse than in prose. I am glad, says Philander, to hear you of this opinion, for to tell you truly, when I was at Rome, I took occasion to buy up many Imperial Medals that have any affinity with passages of the ancient Poets. So that I have by me a sort of poetical Cash, which I fancy I could count over to you in Latin and Greek verse, If you will drink a dish of Tea with me to-mor­row morning, I will lay my whole collection before you. I cannot tell, says Cynthio, how the [Page 34] Poets will succeed in the explication of coins, t [...] which they are generally very great strangers. We are however obliged to you for preventing us with the offer of a kindness that you might well imagine we should have asked you.

Our three friends had been so intent on thei [...] discourse, that they had rambled very far int [...] the fields without taking notice of it. Philande [...] first put them in mind, that unless they turne [...] back quickly they would endanger being benighted. Their conversation ran insensibly into othe [...] subjects, but as I design only to report such part of it as have any relation to Medals, I shall leav [...] them to return home as fast as they please, with out troubling my self with their talk on the w [...] thither, or with their ceremonies at parting.

[figure]

DIALOGUE II.

SOME of the finest treatises of the most po­lite Latin and Greek writers are in Dialogue, as many very valued pieces of French, Itali­an, and English appear in the same dress. I have sometimes however been very much distasted at this way of writing, by reason of the long Pre­faces and exordiums into which it often betrays an author. There is so much time taken up in ceremony, that before they enter on their subject the Dialogue is half ended. To avoid the fault I have found in others, I shall not trouble my self nor my Reader with the first salutes of our three friends, nor with any part of their discourse over the Tea-table. We will suppose the China dishes taken off, and a Drawer of Medals supply­ing their room. Philander, who is to be the He­roe in my Dialogue, takes it in his hand, and ad­dressing himself to Cynthio and Eugenius, I will first of all, says he, show you an assembly of the most virtuous Ladies that you have ever perhaps conversed with. I do not know, says Cynthio, re­garding them, what their virtue may be, but me­thinks they are a little fantastical in their dress. You will find, says Philander, there is good sense in it. They have not a single ornament that they cannot give a reason for. I was going to ask you, says Eugenius, in what country you find these Ladies. But I see they are some of those [Page 36] imaginary persons you told us of last night that inhabit old Coins, and appear no where else but on the reverse of a Medal. Their proper coun­try, says Philander, is the breast of a good man: for I think they are most of them the figures of Virtues. It is a great compliment methinks to the sex, says Cynthio, that your Virtues are gene­rally shown in petticoats. I can give no other reason for it, says Philander, but because they chanced to be of the feminine gender in the learn­ed languages. First Series. FIGURE I. You find however something bold and masculine in the air and posture of the first figure, which is that of Virtue her self, and agrees very well with the description we find of her in Silius Italicus.

Virtue and Honour had their Temples bordering on each other, and are sometimes both on the same coin, FIG. 2. as in the following one of Galba. Silius Italicus makes them companions in the glorious equipage that he gives his Virtue.

The head of Honour is crowned with a Laurel, as Martial has adorned his Glory after the same manner, which indeed is but another name for the same person. ‘Mitte coronatas Gloria maesta comas.’ I find, says Cynthio, the Latins mean Courage by the figure of Virtue, as well as by the word it self. Courage was esteemed the greatest perfe­ction among them, and therefore went under the name of Virtue in general, as the modern Italians give the same name on the same account to the Knowledge of Curiosities. Should a Roman Painter at present draw the picture of Virtue, in­ [...]ead of the Spear and Paratonium that she bears [...]n old coins, he would give her a Bust in one hand and a Fiddle in the other.

The next, says Philander, FIG. 3. is a Lady of a more peaceful character, and had [...]er Temple at Rome. ‘ [Page 38]—Salutato crepitat Concordia nido.’ She is often placed on the reverse of an Imperi [...] coin to show the good understanding betwee [...] the Emperor and the Empress. She has alway [...] a Cornu-copiae in her hand, to denote that Plent [...] is the fruit of Concord. After this short accou [...] of the Goddess, I desire you will give me you [...] opinion of the Deity that is described in the fo [...] lowing verses of Seneca, who would have he propitious to the marriage of Jason and Creus: He mentions her by her qualities, and not b [...] her name.

The description, says Eugenius, is a copy of th [...] figure we have before us: and for the future, in stead of any further note on this passage, would have the reverse you have shown us stamped on the side of it. The interpreters of Seneca says Philander, will understand the precedent verses as a description of Venus, though in my opinion there is only the first of them that can aptly relate to her, which at the same time agrees as wel [...] with Concord: and that this was a Goddess wh [...] [Page 39] [...]ed to interest her self in marriages, we may see the following description.

Peace differs as little in her Dress as in her Character from Concord. FIG. 4. You may observe in both these figures that the Vest is gathered up before them, like an Apron, which you must suppose filled with fruits as well as the Cornu-copiae. It is to this part of the Dress that Tibullus alludes.

Prudentius has given us the same circumstance in his description of Avarice.

[Page 40] How proper the emblems of Plenty are to Peace, may be seen in the same Poet.

The Olive-branch in her hand is frequently touch­ed upon in the old Poets as a token of Peace.

In his right hand an Olive-branch he holds.

[Page 41] Which by the way one would think had been spoken rather of an Attila, or a Maximin, than Julius Caesar.

You see Abundance or Plenty makes the same figure in Medals as in Horace. FIG. 5.

The Compliment on this reverse to Gordianus Pius is expressed in the same manner as that of Horace to Augustus.

But to return again to our Virtues. FIG. 6. You have here the picture of Fidelity, who was worshipped as a Goddess among the Romans.

I should fancy, from the following verses of Vir­gil [Page 42] and Silius Italicus, that she was represented under the figure of an old woman.

FIG. 7.There is a Medal of Heliogabal [...] inscrib'd FIDES EXERCITUS. that receives a great light from the preceding verses. She is posted between two military En­signs, for the good quality that the Poet ascribes [Page 43] [...]her of preserving the publick peace, by keeping the Army true to its Allegiance.

I fancy, says Eugenius, as you have discovered the Age of this imaginary Lady from the descrip­tion that the Poets have made of her, you may [...]nd too the colour of the Drapery that she wore in the old Roman paintings, from that verse in Horace,

One would think, says Philander, by this verse, that Hope and Fidelity had both the same kind of Dress. It is certain Hope might have a fair pre­tence to White, in allusion to those that were Candidates for an employ.

And how properly the Epithet of Rara agrees with her, you may see in the transpa­rency of the next figure. FIG. 8. She is here dressed in such a kind of Vest as the [...]atins call a Multicium from the fineness of its issue. Your Roman Beaus had their summer [...]a of such a light airy make.

I remember, says Cynthio, Juvenal rallys Cre [...] cus, that was otherwise a brave rough fellow, very handsomely, on this kind of garment.

But pray what is the meaning that this trans­parent Lady holds up her train in her left hand for I find your women on Medals do nothin [...] without a meaning. Besides, I suppose there a moral precept at least couch'd under the figur [...] she holds in her other hand. She draws bac [...] her garment, says Philander, that it may not in cumber her in her march. For she is always drawn in a posture of walking, it being as natu­ral for Hope to press forward to her proper ob­jects, as for Fear to fly from them.

This beautiful similitude is, I think, the prettiest Emblem in the world of Hope and Fear in extre­mity. A flower or blossome that you see in the right hand is a proper ornament for Hope, since they are these that we term in poetical language th [...] Hopes of the year.

The same Poet in his De fastis, speaking of [...] Vine in flower, expresses it

FIG. 9.The next on the List is a Lady of contrary character, and therefore in quite different posture. As Security is free from pursuits, she is represented leaning carelesly on pillar. Horace has drawn a pretty metaphor fro [...] this posture.

She rests her self on a pillar, for the same reas [...] as the Poets often compare an obstinate resol [...] tion or a great firmness of mind, to a rock th [...] is not to be moved by all the assaults of win or waves.

I am apt to think it was on Devices of this na­ture that Horace had his eye in his Ode to Fortune. It is certain he alludes to a pillar that figured out Security, or something very like it; and till any body finds out another that will stand better in [...]s place, I think we may content our selves with this before us.

I must however be so fair as to let you know th [...] Peace and Felicity have their pillars in sever [...] Medals as well as Security, so that if you do [...] like one of them, you may take the other.

FIG. 10.The next Figure is that of Chasty, who was worshipped as a Go [...] dess, and had her Temple.

How her posture and dress become her, you [...] see in the following verses.

Sh [...] represented in the habit of a Roman Matron.

Th [...] ni Catia est, says Cynthio, is a beauty un­known to most of our English Satyrists. Ho­race knew how to stab with address, and to give a thrust where he was least expected Boileau ha [...] nicely imitated him in this, as well as his o­the [...] beauties. But our English Libellers are for he [...]ng a man down-right, and for letting him see at [...]istance that he is to look for no mercy. I own to you, says Eugenius, I have often admi­red this piece of art in the two Satyrists you men­tion and have been surprized to meet with a man in Satire that I never in the least expected to [Page 50] find there. They have a particular way of hiding their ill-nature, and introduce a criminal rather to illustrate a precept or passage, than out of any seeming design to abuse him. Our English Poets on the contrary show a kind of malice prepense in their Satires, and instead of bringing in the per­son to give light to any part of the Poem, let you see they writ the whole Poem on purpose to abuse the person. But we must not leave the Ladies thus. Pray what kind of head-dress is that of Piety?

As Chastity, says Philander, appears in the habit of a Roman matron, in whom that Virtue was sup­posed to reign in its perfection, Piety wears the dress of the Vestal Virgins, FIG. 11: who were the greatest and most shining exam­ples of it. Vittata Sacerdos is you know an Expres­sion among the Latin Poets. I do not question but you have seen in the Duke of Florence's gallery a beautiful antique figure of a woman standing before an Altar, which some of the Antiquaries call a Piety and others a Vestal Virgin. The woman, Altar and fire burning on it, are seen in marble exactly as in this coin, and bring to my mind a part of [...] speech that Religion makes in Phaedrus's fables.

It is to this Goddess that Statius addresses him­self in the following lines.

The little trunk she holds in her left hand is the [...] that you so often find among the Poets, in w [...]ich the frankincense was preserv'd that Pi­ [...]ty [...]ere supposed to strow on the fire.

T [...] figure of Equity differs but lit­ [...]e from that our painters make of [...]er a [...] present. FIG. 12. The scales she carries in her hand [...]re so natural an emblem of justice, that Persius [...]as [...]med them into an allegory to express the deci­ [...]o [...] [...]f right or wrong.

FIG. 13.The next figure I present you wi [...] is Eternity. She holds in her ha [...] a globe with a Phaenix on it. How proper a [...] of Eternity is each of these you may see in [...] following quotations. I am sure you will p [...] don the length of the latter as it is not impro [...] to the occasion, and shows at the same time [...] great fruitfulness of the Poet's fancy, that co [...] turn the same thought to so many different wa [...]

The circle of rays that you see round the hea [...] the Phaenix distinguish him to be the bird and spring of the Sun.

The radiated head of the Phaenix gives us meaning of a passage in Ausonius, which I formerly surprized to meet with in the desc [...] tion of a Bird. But at present I am very well [...]tisfied the Poet must have had his eye on the [...]gure of this Bird in ancient sculpture and pai [...] ing, as indeed it was impossible to take it fr [...] the life.

If you have a mind to compare this scale of Be­ [...] with that of Hesiod, I shall give it you in a [...]lation of that Poet.

A man had need be a good Arithmetician, sa [...] Cynthio, to understand this Author's works. H [...] descriptton runs on like a Multiplication Tab [...] But methinks the Poets ought to have agreed little better in the calculations of a Bird's life th [...] was probably of their own creation.

We generally find a great confusion in the [...] ditions of the ancients, says Phil [...] der. FIG. 14. It seems to me, from the n [...] Medal, it was an opinion among the [...] that the Phoenix renewed her self at the beginni [...] of the great year, and the return of the Gold [...] Age. This opinion I find touched upon in [...] couple of lines in Claudian.

The person in the midst of the circle is suppos [...] to be Jupiter, by the Author that has publish [...] this Medal, but I should rather take it for t [...] figure of Time. I remember I have seen at Ro [...] [Page 59] antique Statue of Time, with a wheel or [...]p of marble in his hand, as Seneca describes [...] and not with a serpent as he is generally re­p [...]ented.

[...] the circle of marble in his hand represents the [...]mon year, so this that encompasses him is a [...]er representation of the great year, which [...]e whole round and comprehension of Time. [...] when this is finished, the heavenly bodies [...] supposed to begin their courses anew, and to [...]sure over again the several periods and divi­ [...]s of years, months, days, &c. into which the [...]t year is distinguished.

T [...] sum up therefore the thoughts of this Medal. The inscription teaches us that the whole design [...]st refer to the Golden Age which it lively re­presents, [Page 60] if we suppose the circle that encompases Time, or if you please Jupiter, signifies th [...] finishing of the great year; and that the Phaen [...] figures out the beginning of a new series of tim [...] So that the compliment on this Medal to the Emperor Adrian, is in all respects the same that V [...] gil makes to Pollio's son, at whose birth he su [...] poses the annus magnus or platonical year [...] out, and renewed again with the opening of [...] Golden Age.

[...] may compare the design of this reverse, if yo [...] please, with one of Constantine, so far as the P [...]enix is concerned in both. As for the other figure, we may have occasion to speak of it in a­nother place. Vid. 15 figure. King of France's Medalions.

The next figure shadows out Eter­ni [...] to us, FIG. 16. by the Sun in one hand [...] the Moon in the other, which in the lan­ [...]e of sacred poetry is as-long as the Sun and [...]n endureth. The heathens made choice of th [...]e Lights as apt symbols of Eternity, because, contrary to all sublunary Beings, though they seem to perish every night, they renew themselves every morning.

[...]ace, whether in imitation of Catullus or not, [...] applied the same thought to the Moon: and [...] too in the plural number.

FIG. 17.In the next figure Eternity sits a globe of the heavens adorned w [...] stars. We have already seen how proper an e [...] ­blem of Eternity the globe is, and may find [...], duration of the stars made use of by the Poets [...]n expression of what is never like to end.

Vid. FIG. 13.I might here tell you that Eter [...] ty has a covering on her he because we can never find out her beginni [...] that her legs are bare, because we see only th [...] parts of her that are actually running on; that fits on a globe and bears a scepter in her hand, shew that she is sovereign Mistress of all thing [...] but for any of these assertions I have no war [...] from the Poets.

[Page 63]You must excuse me, if I have been longer than ordinary on such a subject as Eternity. FIG. 18. The next you see is Victo­ry [...]o whom the Medallists as well as [...]oets never fail to give a pair of wings.

T [...] palm branch and lawrel were both the re­w [...]s of Conquerors, and therefore no impro­per ornaments for Victory.

I [...] [...]e way you may observe the lower plaits of the [...]rapery that seem to have gathered the wind into them. I have seen abundance of antique fi­gures in Sculpture and Painting, with just the [...] turn in the lower foldings of the Vest, [Page 64] when the person that wears it is in a posture tripping forward.

It is worth while to compare this figure of Vic [...] ry with her Statue as it is described in a very be [...] tiful passage of Prudentius.

You have here another Victory that I fa [...]cy Claudian had in his view when he mentions her wings, FIG. 19. palm and trophy in the following description. It appears on a Coin of Constantine who lived about an age before Clau­dian, and I believe we shall find that it is not the only piece of antique sculpture that this Poet has copied out in his descriptions.

FIG. 20,The last of our imaginary B [...] is Liberty. In her left hand she [...]ries the wand that the Latins call the Rud [...] Vindicta, and in her right the cap of Lib [...] The Poets use the same kinds of metaphor express Liberty. I shall quote Horace for first, whom Ovid has imitated on the same [...] sion, and for the latter Martial.

[Page 67] I cannot forbear repeating a passage out of Per­sius says Cynthio, that in my opinion turns the cer [...]mony of making a Freeman very handsomely in [...] ridicule. It seems the clapping a Cap on hi [...] [...]ead and giving him a Turn on the heel were ne [...]ssary circumstances. A Slave thus qualified be [...]me a Citizen of Rome, and was honoured w [...]th a name more than belonged to any of his Forefathers, which Persius has repeated with a great deal of humour.

Since you have given us the ceremony of the [...] says Eugenius, I'll give you that of the W [...] out of Claudian.

The Grato ictu and the felix injuria, says Cyn [...] would have told us the name of the Aut [...] though you had said nothing of him. T [...] is none of all the Poets that delights so much these pretty kinds of contradictions as Clau [...] He loves to set his Epithet at variance with substantive, and to surprize his Reader wit [...] seeming absurdity. If this Poet were well e [...] mined, one would find that some of his gre [...] beauties as well as faults arise from the freq [...] use of this particular figure.

I question not, says Philander, but you are t [...] by this time with the company of so mysteriou [...] sort of Ladies as those we have had before [...] We will now, for our diversion, entertain [...] selves with a sett of Riddles, and see if we [...] find a key to them among the ancient Po [...] [Page 69] The first of them, says Cynthio, is [...] Sh [...] under sail, Second Series. FIG. 1. I suppose it has it h [...] a metaphor or moral pre­cep [...]or its cargo. This, says Philander, is an [...]m of Happiness, as you may see by the in­ [...]cription it carries in its sails. We find the same Device to express the same thought in several of [...]he Poets: as in Horace, when he speaks of the moderation to be used in a flowing fortune, and [...]n Ovid when he reflects on his past happiness.

Yo [...] see the metaphor is the same in the Verses is [...]e Medal, with this distinction only, that [Page 70] the one is in words and the other in figur [...] The Idea is alike in both, though the manner representing it is different. If you would see [...] whole Ship made use of in the same sense by old Poet, as it is here on the Medal, you [...] find it in a pretty Allegory of Seneca.

After having considered the Ship as a Metaph [...] we may now look on it as a Reality, and obser [...] in it the Make of the old Roman vessels, as th [...] are described among the Poets. It is carried [...] by oars and sails at the same time.

[Page 71] [...] [...]op of it has the bend that Ovid and Vir­ [...] mo [...]ion.

[...]u see the description of the Pilot, and the place sits on, in the following quotations.

[Page 72] I have mentioned these two last passages [...] Virgil, because I think we cannot have so [...] an idea of the Pilot's misfortune in each of th [...] without observing the situation of his post, as [...] pears in ancient Coins. The figure you see the other end of the ship is a Triton, a man in upper parts, and a fish below with a trumpe [...] his mouth. Virgil describes him in the s [...] manner on one of Aeneas's ships. It was p [...] bably a common figure on their ancient ve [...] for we meet with it too in Silius Italicus.

I am apt to think, says Eugenius, from cer [...] passages of the Poets, that several ships made ch [...] of some God or other for their guardians, among the Roman Catholics every vessel is recomended to the patronage of some particular S [...] To give you an instance of two or three.

The figure of the Deity was very large, as I have seen it on other Medals as well as this you have show us, and stood on one end of the vessel that patronised. This may give us an image of a [...]ery beautiful circumstance that we meet with in a couple of wrecks described by Silius Italicus, and Hersius.

You will think perhaps I carry my conject [...] too far, if I tell you that I fancy they are ti [...] kind of Gods that Horace mentions in his Alle [...] rical vessel which was so broken and shattere [...] pieces; for I am apt to think that integra reli [...] to the Gods as well as the lintea.

Since we are engaged so far in Roman shipping, FIG. 2. says Philander, here show you a Medal that has on reverse a Rostrum with three teeth to it: whe [...] Silius's trifidum rostrum and Virgil's rostrisque [...] dentibus, which in some editions is stridenti [...] [Page 75] th [...] Editor chusing rather to make a false quantity tha [...] to insert a word that he did not know the m [...]ing of. Flaccus gives us a Rostrum of the sa [...] make.

A Ship-carpenter of old Rome says Cynthio, could not have talked more judiciously. I am afr [...], if we let you alone, you will find out eve­ry [...]nk and rope about the vessel among the La­ti [...] [...]oets. Let us now, if you please, go to the n [...] Medal.

The next, says Philander, FIG. 3. is a pair of Scales, which we meet with on several old Coins. They are commonly interpreted as an emblem of the Emperor's Justice. But why may not we suppose that they allude sometimes to the Ba­lance in the Heavens, which was the reigning con­stellation of Rome and Italy? Whether it be so or no, the [...] are capable methinks of receiving a nobler in­terpretation than what is commonly put on them, if we suppose the thought of the reverse to be the same with that in Manilius.

FIG. 4.The Thunderbolt is a reverse Augustus. We see it used by the g [...] test Poet of the same age to express a terrible [...] irresistable force in battle, which is probably [...] meaning of it on this Medal, for in another pl [...] the same Poet applys the same metaphor to [...] gustus's person.

I have sometimes wondered, says Eugenius, w [...] the Latin Poets so frequently give the Epith [...] of trifidum and trisulcum to the Thunderbolt. [Page 77] am [...]ow persuaded they took it from the sculp­tors and painters that lived before them, and had ge [...]ally given it three forks as in the present fi­gu [...]. Virgil insists on the number three in its de­scr [...]ion, and seems to hint at the wings we see on it. He has worked up such a noise and ter­ro [...] the composition of his Thunderbolt as cannot be expressed by a pencil or graving-tool.

Our next reverse is an Oaken Gar­ [...]and which we find on abundance of [...]mperial Coins. FIG. 5. I shall not here multiply quo­ [...]ations to show that the garland of Oak was the [...]eward of such as had saved the life of a citizen, [...]ut will give you a passage out of Claudian, where [...]he compliment to Stilico is the same that we have [...]ere on the Medal. I question not but the old Coin [...] gave the thought to the Poet.

It is not to be supposed that the Emperor h [...] actually covered a Roman in battle. It is enoug [...] that he had driven out a tyrant, gained a victor [...] or restored Justice. For in any of these or t [...] like cases he may very well be said to have save the life of a citizen, and by consequence ent [...] tled to the reward of it. Accordingly we fin [...] Virgil distributing his Oaken garlands to thos [...] that had enlarged or strength'ned the dominio [...] of Rome; as we may learn from Statius that t [...] statue of Curtius, who had sacrificed himself fo [...] the good of the people, had the head surround [...] with the same kind of ornament.

The two horns that you see on the [...]t Medal are emblems of Plenty. FIG. 8.

[...]ur Medallists tell us that two horns on a Coin [...]ify an extraordinary Plenty. But I see no [...]ndation for this conjecture. Why should [...] not as well have stamped two Thunder-bolts, [...]o Caduceus's, or two Ships, to represent an [...]raordinary force, a lasting peace, or an un­ [...]nded happiness. I rather think that the dou­ [...] Cornu-copia relates to the double tradition of its original. Some representing it as the horn of A [...]helous broken off by Hercules, and others as the ho [...]n of the Goat that gave suck to Jupiter.

Betwixt the double Cornu-copia you see Mercury's rod.

It [...]ands on old Coins as an emblem of Peace, by [...]on of its stupifying quality that has gained it the title of Virga somnifera. It has wings, for another quality that Virgil mentions in his de­scription of it.

The two heads over the two Cornu-copiae are of the Emperor's children, who are sometimes cal­led among the Poets the pledges of Peace, as they took away the occasions of war in cutting off all disputes to the succession.

This Medal therefore compliments the Emper [...] on his two children, whom it represents as pu [...] lic blessings that promise Peace and Plenty to [...] Empire.

FIG. 7.The two hands that joyn one an [...] ther are Emblems of Fidelity.

By the Inscription we may see that they represent in this place the Fidelity or Loyalty of the public towards their Emperor. The Caduces rising between the hands signifies the Peace tha [...] arises from such an union with their Prince, [...] the spike of Corn on each side shadows out th [...] Plenty that is the fruit of such a peace.

The giving of a hand, in the reverse of Claudius, is a token of good will. FIG. 8. For when, after the death of his nephew Caligula, Claudius was in no small apprehension for his own life, he was, contrary to his expectation, well received among the Praetorian guards, and afterwards declared their Emperor. His recep­tion is here recorded on a Medal, in which one of the Ensigns presents him his hand, in the same sense as Anchises gives it in the following verses.

The old weather-beaten soldier that carries in his hand the Roman Eagle, is the same kind of offi­cer that you meet with in Javenal's fourteenth Satire.

I remember in one of the Poets the Signifer is de­scribed with a Lion's skin over his head and shoulders, like this we see in the Medal, but at present I cannot recollect the passage. Virgil has given us a noble description of a warrior ma­king his appearance under a Lion's skin.

Since you have mentioned the dress of your Sta [...] dard-bearer, says Cynthio, I cannot forbear [...] marking that of Claudius, which was the us [...] Roman habit. One may see in this Medal, [...] well as in any antique Statues, that the old [...] mans had their necks and arms bare, and as m [...] exposed to view as our hands and faces are at p [...] sent. Before I had made this remark, I ha [...] sometimes wondered to see the Roman Poe [...] in their descriptions of a beautiful man, so oft mentioning the Turn of his Neck and Arm [...] that in our modern dresses lie out of sight, [...] are covered under part of the cloathing. N [...] to trouble you with many quotations, Hor [...] speaks of both these parts of the body in the begi [...] ning of an Ode, that in my opinion may be rec [...] oned among the finest of his book, for the na [...] ralness of the thought, and the beauty of the [...] pression.

It was probably this particular in the Roman ha­bit that gave Virgil the thought in the following verse, where Remulus, among other reproaches th [...] [...]he makes the Trojans for their softness and ef­fe [...]acy, upbraids them with the Make of their T [...]ca's that had sleeves to them, and did not leave the arms naked and exposed to the wea­t [...] like that of the Romans. ‘ [...]t tunicae manicas, et habent ridimicula mitrae.’ [...]il lets us know in another place, that the I­ [...]ns preserved their old language and habits, [...]withstanding the Trojans became their Ma­ [...], and that the Trojans themselves quitted the [...] of their own country for that of Italy. [...] he tells us was the effect of a prayer that J [...]o made to Jupiter.

By the way, I have often admired at Virgil for representing his Juno with such an impotent kind of revenge as what is the subject of this speech. You may be sure, says Eugenius, that Virgil knew very well this was a trifling kind of request for the Queen of the Gods to make, as we may find by Jupiter's way of accepting it,

I am apt to think Virgil had a further view in this request of Juno than what his Commenta­tors have discovered in it. He knew very well that his Aeneid was founded on a very doubtful story, and that Aeneas's coming into Italy was not uni­versally received among the Romans themselves. He knew too that a main objection to this story was the great difference of Customs, Language and Habits among the Romans and Trojans. To obviate therefore so strong an objection, he makes this difference to arise from the forecast and prae­determination of the Gods themselves. But pray what is the name of the Lady in the next Medal? Methinks she is very particular in her Quoiffure.

[Page 88] FIG. 9.It is the emblem of Fruitfulness, says Philander, and was designed as a com­pliment to Julia the wife of Septimius Severus, who had the same number of children as you see on this Coin. Her head is crowned with towers in allusion to Cybele the mother of the Gods, and for the same reason that Virgil compares the city of Rome to her.

The Vine issuing out of the Urn speaks the same sense as that in the Psalmist. Thy wife shall be as the fruitful vine on the walls of thy house. The four Stars overhead, and the same number on the Globe, represent the four children. There is a Medalion of Romulus and Remus sucking the wolf, with a Star over each of their heads, as we find the Latin Poets speaking of the children of Princes under the same metaphor.

I need not mention Homer's comparing Astyanax to the Morning-star, nor Virgil's imitation of him in his description of Ascanius.

The next Medal was stampt on the marriage of Nero and Octavia; FIG. 10. you see the Sun over the head of Nero, and the Moon over that of Octavia. They face one another according to the situation of these two Planets in the Heavens.

And to shew that Octavia derived her whole lu­stre from the friendly aspect of her husband.

But if we consider the history of this Medal, we shall find more Fancy in it than the Medallists have yet discovered. Nero and Octavia were not only husband and wife, but brother and sister, Claudius being the father of both. We have this relation between them marked out in the Tragedy of Octavia, where it speaks of her marriage with Nero.

They are therefore very prettily represented by the Sun and Moon, who as they are the most glorious parts of the universe, are in a poetical [Page 91] [...]nealogy brother and sister. Virgil gives us a [...]ght of them in the same position that they regard [...]ch other on this Medal.

The flattery on the next Medal is in [...]e same thought as that of Lucretius. FIG. 11.

The Emperor appears as a Rising Sun, and holds [...] Globe in his hand to figure out the Earth that is enlightned and actuated by his beauty.

On his head you see the rays that seem to grow out of it. Claudian in the description of his in­fant Titan descants on this glory about his head, but has run his description into most wretched fustian.

FIG. 12.The Sun rises on a Medal of Commodus, as Ovid describes him in the sto­ry of Phaeton

You have here too the four horses breaking through the clouds in their morning passage.

The woman underneath represents the Earth, as Ovid has drawn her sitting in the same figure.

[...]he Cornu-copiae in her hand is a type of her [...]itfulness, as in the speech she makes to Jupiter.

So much for the designing part of the Medal; as for the thought of it, the Antiquaries are divided upon it. For my part I cannot doubt but it was made as a compliment to Commodus on his s [...]ill in the chariot-race. It is supposed that the same occasion furnished Lucan with the same thought in his address to Nero.

This is so natural an allusion, that we find the course of the Sun described in the Poets by metaphors borrowed from the Circus.

However it be, we are sure in general it is [...] comparing of Commodus to the Sun, which is [...] simile of as long standing as poetry, I had almost said, as the Sun it self.

I believe, says Cynthio, there is scarce a grea [...] man he ever shone upon that has not been com­pared to him. I look on similes as a part of his productions. I do not know whether he raises fruits or flowers in greater number. Horace has turn'd this comparison into ridicule seventeen hundred years ago.

[Page 95]You have now shown us persons under the dis­ [...]uise of Stars, Moons and Suns. I suppose we [...]ave at last done with the coelestial bodies.

The next figure you see, says Philan­ [...]er, had once a place in the Heavens, FIG 13. [...] you will believe ecclesiastical story. It is the [...]gn that is said to have appeared to Constantine [...]efore the battle with Maxentius. We are told [...]y a Christian Poet, that he caus'd it to be wrought [...]n the military Ensign that the Romans call their Labarum. And it is on this Ensign that we find in the present Medal.

By the word Christus he means without doubt [...]he present figure, which is composed out of the [...]wo initial letters of the name.

He bore the same sign in his standards, FIG. 14. [...]s you may see in the following Me­ [...]al and verses.

FIG. 15.But to return to our Labarum; [...] you have a mind to see it in a state of Paganism you have it on a Coin of Tiberius. [...] stands between two other Ensigns, and is the mark of a Roman Colony where the Medal was stamped. By the way you must observe, the where-ever the Romans fixed their standards they looked on that place as their country, and thought themselves obliged to defend it with their lives. For this reason their standards were always carryed before them when they went to settle themselves in a Colony. This gives the meaning of a couple of verses in Silius Italicus, that make a very far-fetcht compliment to Fabius.

FIG. 16.The following Medal was stamped on Trajan's victory over the Daci, you see on it the figure of Trajan presenting a little Victory to Rome. Between them lies the con­quered province of Dacia. It may be worth while to observe the particularities in each figure. We see abundance of persons on old Coins that hold a little Victory in one hand, like this of Tra­jan, [Page 97] which is always the sign of a Conquest. I [...]ave sometimes fancied Virgil alludes to this [...]ustom in a verse that Turnus speaks.

The Emperor's standing in a Gown, and making [...] present of his Dacian Victory to the city of Rome, agrees very well with Claudian's chara­cter of him.

The city of Rome carries the Wand in her hand that is the symbol of her Divinity.

As the Globe under her feet betokens her domi­nion over all the nations of the earth.

The heap of arms she sits on signifies the Peace that the Emperor had procured her. On old Coins we often see an Emperor, a Victory, the city of Rome, or a slave, sitting on a heap of arms, which always marks out the Peace that arose from such an action as gave occasion to the Me­dal. I think we cannot doubt but Virgil copied out this circumstance from the ancient Sculptors, in that inimitable description he has given us of Military Fury shut up in the Temple of Janus and loaden with chains.

We are told by the old Scholiast, says Eugenius, that there was actually such a statue in the Tem­ple of Janus as that Virgil has here described, which I am almost apt to believe, since you assure [...]s that this part of the design is so often met with on ancient Medals. But have you nothing [...]o remark on the figure of the Province? Her posture, says Philander, is what we often meet with in the slaves and captives of old Coins: a­mong the Poets too, sitting on the ground is a mark of Misery or Captivity.

You have the same posture in an old Coin that celebrates a victory of Lucius Verus o­ver the Parthians. FIG. 17. The captive's hands are here bound behind him, as a farther instance of his slavery.

We may learn from Ovid that it was sometimes the custom to place a slave with his arms bound at the foot of the Trophy, as in the figure before us.

You see on his head the cap which the Parthians, and indeed most of the eastern nations, wear on Medals. They had not probably the ceremony of veiling the Bonnet in their salutations, for in Me­dals they still have it on their heads, whether they are before Emperors or Generals, kneeling, sit­ting or standing. Martial has distinguished them by this cap as their chief characteristic.

[Page 101] [...] cannot hear, says Cynthio, without a kind of indignation, the satyrical reflections that Martial [...]as made on the memory of Domitian. It is certain so ill an Emperor deserved all the reproa­ches that could be heaped upon him, but he [...]ould not deserve them of Martial. I must con­fess I am less scandalised at the flatteries the Epi­ [...]rammatist paid him living, than the ingratitude [...]e showed him dead. A man may be betrayed [...]nto the one by an overstrained complaisance, or [...]y a temper extremely sensible of favours and obligations: whereas the other can arise from [...]othing but a natural baseness and villany of [...]oul. It does not always happen, says Philan­ [...]er, that the Poet and the honest man meet toge­ther in the same person. I think we need enlarge [...]o farther on this Medal, unless you have a mind [...]o compare the Trophy on it with that of Me­ [...]entius in Virgil.

FIG. 18.On the next Medal you see the Peace that Vespasian procured the Empire, af­ter having happily finished all its wars both at home and abroad. The woman with the olive-branch in her hand is the figure of Peace.

With the other hand she thrusts a lighted torch under a heap of armour that lies by an Altar. This alludes to a custom among the ancient Ro­mans of gathering up the armour that lay scatter­ed on the field of battle, and burning it as an of­fering to one of their Deities. It is to this custom that Virgil refers, and Silius Italicus has descri­bed at large.

As for the heap of Arms, and mountain of Arms, that the Poet mentions, you may see them on two Coins of Mar­cus Aurelius. FIG. 19.20. DE SARMATIS and DE GERMANIS allude perhaps to the form of words that might be used at the set­ting fire to them.— Ausonio de nomine. Those [Page 104] who will not allow of the interpretation I have put on these two last Medals may think it an ob­jection that there is no torch or fire near them to signifie any such allusion. But they may consi­der that on several Imperial Coins we meet with the figure of a funeral pile, without any thing to denote the burning of it, though indeed there is on some of them a Flambeau sticking out on each side, to let us know it was to be consumed to ashes.

You have been so intent on the burning of the Arms, says Cynthio, that you have forgotten the Pil­lar on your 18th Medal. You may find the history of it, says Philander, in Ovid de Fastis. It was from this Pillar that the spear was tossed at the o­pening of a war, for which reason the little figure on the top of it holds a spear in its hand, and Peace turns her back upon it.

FIG. 21.The different interpretations that have been made on the next Medal seem to be forced and unnatural. I will therefore give you my own opinion of it. The vessel is here represented as stranded. The figure before it [Page 105] seems to come in to its assistance, and to lift it off the shallows: for we see the water scarce [...]eaches up to the knees, though it is the fi­gure of a man standing on firm ground. His attendants, and the good office he is employed upon, resemble those the Poets often attribute to Neptune. Homer tells us, that the Whales leap­ed up at their God's approach, as we see in the Medal. The two small figures that stand naked among the waves are Sea-Deities of an inferiour rank, who are supposed to assist their Sovereign in the succour he gives the distressed vessel.

The interpreters of this Medal have mistaken these two figures for the representation of two persons that are drowning. But as they are both naked and drawn in a posture rather of trium­phing o'er the waves than of sinking under them, so we see abundance of Water-Deities on other Medals represented after the same manner.

After having thus far cleared our way to the Me­dal, I take the thought of the reverse to be this. The stranded vessel is the Commonwealth of Rome, that by the tyranny of Domitian, and the insolence of the Praetorian Guards under Nerva, was quite run aground and in danger of perish­ing. Some of those embarked in it endeavour at her recovery, but it is Trajan that by the adoption of Nerva stems the tide to her relief, and like another Neptune shoves her off the quick­sands. Your Device, says Eugenius, hangs very well together; but is not it liable to the same ex­ceptions that you made us last night to such expli­cations as have nothing but the writer's imagina­tion to support them? To shew you, says Phi­lander, that the construction I put on this Medal is conformable to the fancies of the old Romans, you may observe, that Horace represents at length the Commonwealth of Rome under the figure of a ship, in the Allegory that you meet with in the fourteenth Ode of his first book.

Nor was any thing more usual than to represent a God in the shape and dress of an Emperor.

For the thought in general, you have just the same metaphorical compliment to Theodosius in Claudian, as the Medal here makes to Trajan.

I shall only add, that this Medal was stamped in honour of Trajan, when he was only Caesar, as appears by the face of it....SARI TRAIANO.

FIG. 22.The next is a reverse of Marcus Au­relius. We have on it a Minerva mounted on a monster, that Ausonius describes in the following verses.

The monster, says Cynthio, is a Sphinx, but for her meaning on this Medal, I am not O Edipus [Page 109] enough to unriddle it. I must confess, says Phi­lander, the Poets fail me in this particular. There is however a passage in Pausanias that I will re­peat to you, though it is in prose, since I know no body else that has explained the Medal by it. The Athenians, says he, drew a Sphinx on the armour of Pallas, by reason of the strength and sagacity of this animal. The Sphinx therefore signifies the same as Minerva herself, who was the Goddess of arms as well as wisdom, and describes the Emperor, as one of the Poets ex­presses it,

The Romans joined both devices together, to make the emblem the more significant, as in­deed they could not too much extol the learn­ing and military virtues of this excellent Empe­ror, who was the best Philosopher and greatest General of his Age.

We will close up this Series of Me­dals with one that was stamped under Tiberius to the memory of Augustus. FIG. 23. Over his head you see the star that his father Julius Caesar was supposed to have been changed into.

Virgil draws the same figure of Augustus on Ae­neas's shield as we see on this Medal. The Com­mentators tell us, that the star was engraven on Augustus's helmet, but we may be sure Virgil means such a figure of the Emperor as he used [Page 111] [...]o be represented by in the Roman sculpture, and [...]ch a one as we may suppose this to be that we [...]ave before us.

The thunderbolt that lies by him is a mark of his Apotheosis, that makes him as it were a compa­ [...]ion of Jupiter. Thus the Poets of his own age [...]hat deified him living,

He wears on his head the Corona Radiata, which at that time was another type of his Divinity. The spikes that shoot out from the crown were to represent the rays of the Sun. There were [Page 112] twelve of them, in allusion to the Signs of the Zo­diac. It is this kind of crown that Virgil describes.

FIG. 24:If you would know why the corona radiata is a representation of the Sun, you may see it in the figure of Apollo in the next reverse, where his head is encompassed with such an arch of glory as Ovid and Statius mention, that might be put on and taken off at pleasure.

[Page 113] In his right hand he holds the whip with which [...]e is supposed to drive the horses of the Sun: as [...]n a pretty passage of Ovid, that some of his edi­ [...]ors must needs fancy spurious.

The double-pointed dart in his left hand is an emblem of his beams, that pierce through such an [...]nfinite depth of air, and enter into the very bow­els of the earth. Accordingly Lucretius calls [...]hem the darts of the day, as Ausonius to make a sort of witticism has follow'd his example.

I have now given you a sample of such emble­matical Medals as are unriddled by the Latin Po­ets, and have shown several passages in the Latin Poets that receive an illustration from Medals. Some of the Coins we have had before us have [Page 114] not been explained by others, as many of them have been explained in a different manner. There are indeed others that have had very near the same explication put upon them, but as this explication has been supported by no authority, it can at best be looked upon but as a probable conjecture. It is certain, says Eugenius, there cannot be any more authentic illustrations of Roman Medals, especially of those that are full of fancy, than such as are drawn out of the Latin Poets. For as there is a great affinity between Designing and Poetry, so the Latin Poets, and the Designers of the Roman Medals, lived very near one ano­ther, were acquainted with the same customs, conversant with the same objects, and bred up to the same relish for wit and fancy. But who are the Ladies that we are next to examine? These are, says Philander, so many Cities, Nations and Provinces that present themselves to you under the shape of women. What you take for a fine Lady at first sight, when you come to look into her will prove a town, a country, or one of the four parts of the world. In short, you have now Afric, Spain, France, Italy, and several other na­tions of the earth before you. This is one of the pleasantest Maps, says Cynthio, that I ever saw. Your Geographers now and then fancy a coun­try like a Leg or a Head, a Bear or a Dragon, but I never before saw them represented like wo­men. I could not have thought your mountains, seas and promontories could have made up an assembly of such well-shaped persons. This therefore, says Philander, is a Geography particu­lar to the Medallists. The Poets however have sometimes given into it, and furnish us with very [Page 115] [...]ood lights for the explication of it. Third Series. FIG. 1. The first Lady you see on the List is Africa, she carries an Elephant's tooth [...]y her side.

She is always quoiff'd with the head of an Ele­phant, to show that this animal is the breed of that Country, as for the same reason she has a Dragon lying at her feet.

Lucan in his description of the several noxious animals of this country, mentions in particular the flying Dragon that we see on this Medal.

The Bull that appears on the other side of the Dra­gon, shows us that Afric abounds in agriculture.

[Page 117] This part of the world has always on Medals something to denote her wonderful fruitfulness, [...]s it was indeed the great granary of Italy. In the [...]wo following figures, the handful of wheat, the Cornu-copiae, and basket of corn, are all emblems of the same signification.

FIG. 2.The Lion on the second Medal marks [...]er out for the

The Scorpion on the third is ano­ther of her productions, FIG. 3. as Lucan mentions it in particular, in the long catalogue of her venomous animals.

The three figures you have here shown us, say [...] Eugenius, give me an idea of a description or two in Claudian, that I must confess I did not before know what to make of. They represent Africa in the shape of a woman, and certainly allude to the corn and head-dress that she wears on old Coins

I think, says Philander, there is no question but the Poet has copied out in his description the fi­gure that Africa made in ancient sculpture and painting. FIG. 4. The next before us is Egypt. Her basket of wheat shows us the great fruitfulness of the country, which is cau­sed by the inundations of the Nile.

The instrument in her hand is the Sistrum of the Egyptians, made use of in the worship of the Goddess Isis.

On Medals you see it in the hand of Egypt, of [...]sis, or any of her Worshippers. The Poets too [...]ake the same use of it, as Virgil has placed it [...]n Cleopatra's hand, to distinguish her from an Egyptian.

The bird before her is the Egyptian Ibis. This figure however does not represent the living bird, but rather an idol of it, as one may guess by the pedestal it stands upon, for the Egyptians wor­shipped it as a God.

We have Mauritania on the fifth Me­dal, FIG. 5. leading a horse with something like a thread, for where there is a bridle in old Coins you see it much more distinctly. In her other [...]and she holds a switch. We have the design of his Medal in the following descriptions that ce­ [...]ebrate the Moors and Numidians, Inhabitants of Mauritania, for their horsemanship.

The Horse too may stand as an emblem of the warlike genius of the people.

FIG. 6.From Africa we will cross over into Spain. There are learned Medallists that tell us, the Rabbet which you see before her feet, may signifie either the great multitude of these Animals that are found in Spain, or per­haps the several mines that are wrought within the bowels of that country, the Latin word Cu­niculus signifying either a Rabbet or a Mine. But these Gentlemen do not consider, that it is not [Page 123] the Word but the Figure that appears on the Me­dal. Cuniculus may stand for a Rabbet or a Mine, but the picture of a Rabbet is not the pi­cture of a Mine. A pun can be no more engra­ven than it can be translated. When the word is construed into its idea the double meaning va­nishes. The figure therefore before us means a real Rabbet, which is there found in vast multi­tudes.

The Olive-branch tell us, it is a country that a­bounds in Olives, as it is for this reason that Claudian in his description of Spain binds an O­live branch about her head.

Martial has given us the like figure of one of the greatest rivers in Spain.

And Prudentius of one of its eminent towns.

FIG. 7. France, you see, has a Sheep by her, not only as a sacrifice, but to shew that the riches of the country consisted chiefly in flocks and pasturage. Thus Horace mentioning the commodities of different countries,

She carries on her shoulders the Sagulum that Virgil speaks of as the habit of the ancient Gauls.

She is drawn in a posture of sacrificing for the [...]afe arrival of the Emperor, as we may learn [...]rom the inscription. We find in the several Medals that were struck on Adrian's progress [...]hrough the Empire, that at his arrival they offer­ [...]d a sacrifice to the Gods for the reception of so [...]reat a blessing. Horace mentions this custom.

Italy has a Cornu-copiae in her hand, FIG. 8. to denote her fruitfulness;

[Page 126] and a crown of towers on her head to figure out the many towns and cities that stand upon her. Lucan has given her the like ornament, where he represents her addressing herself to Julius Caesar.

She holds a sceptre in her other hand, and sits on a globe of the heavens, to shew that she is the Sovereign of nations, and that all the influences of the Sun and Stars fall on her dominions. Claudian makes the same compliment to Rome.

The picture that Claudian makes of Rome one would think was copied from the next Medal. FIG. 9.

The next figure is Achaia. FIG. 10.

[Page 128]I am sorry, says Cynthio, to find you running farther off us. I was in hopes you would have shown us our own nation, when you were so near us as France. I have here, says Philander, FIG. 11. one of Augustus's Britan­nia's. You see she is not drawn like other countries, in a soft peaceful posture, but is adorned with emblems that mark out the milita­ry genius of her Inhabitants. This is, I think, the only commendable quality that the old Poets have touched upon in the description of our country. I had once made a collection of all the passages in the Latin Poets, that give any account of us, but I find them so very malicious, that it would look like a libel on the nation to repeat them to you. We seldom meet with our fore-fathers, but they are coupled with some epithet or another to blacken them. Barbarous, Cruel and Inhospitable are the best terms they can afford us, which it would be a kind of injustice to publish, since their posterity are become so polite, good-natured, and kind to strangers. To mention therefore those parts only that relate to the pre­sent Medal. She sits on a globe that stands in water, to denote that she is Mistress of a new world, separate from that which the Romans had before conquered, by the interposition of the sea. I think we cannot doubt of this interpretation, if we consider how she has been represented by the ancient Poets.

The feet of Britannia are washed by the waves, in the same Poet.

She bears a Roman Ensign in one of her hands, to confess herself a conquered province.

But to return to Achaia, FIG. 10. whom we left upon her knees before the Emperor Adrian. She has a pot before her with a sprig of Parsly rising out of it. I will not here trouble you with a dull story of Hercules's eating a sal­lade of Parsly for his refreshment, after his en­counter with the Nemean Lion. It is certain, there were in Achaia the Nemean Games, and that a garland of Parsly was the Victor's reward. You have an account of these Games in Ausonius.

One reason why they chose Parsly for a Garland, was doubtless because it always preserves its ver­dure, as Horace opposes it to the short-lived Lilly.

Juvenal mentions the Crown that was made of it, and which here surrounds the head of Achaia.

She presents herself to the Emperor in the same posture that the Germans and English still salute the Imperial and Royal family.

Sicily appears before Adrian in the same posture. FIG. 12. She has a bundle of Corn [Page 132] in her hand, and a Garland of it on her head, as she abounds in wheat, and was consecrated to Ceres.

FIG. 13.We find Judaea on several coins of Vespasian and Titus, in a posture that denotes sorrow and captivity. The first figure of her is drawn to the life, in a picture that Seneca has given us of the Trojan matrons bewailing their captivity.

The head is veiled in both figures, as another ex­pression of grief.

I need not mention her sitting on the ground, be­cause we have already spoken of the aptness of such a posture to represent an extreme affliction. I fancy, says Eugenius, the Romans might have an eye on the customs of the Jewish nation, as well as of those of their country, in the several marks of sorrow they have set on this figure. The Psalmist describes the Jews lamenting their captivity in the same pensive posture. By the wa­ters of Babylon we sate down and wept, when we remembred thee, O Sion. But what is more re­markable, we find Judaea represented as a wo­man in sorrow sitting on the ground, in a passage of the Prophet that foretells the very captivity re­ed on this Medal. The covering of the head, and the rending of garments, we find very often in Holy Scripture, as the expressions of a raging grief. But what is the tree we see on both these Medals? We find, says Philander, not only on these, but on several other coins that relate to Judaea, the figure of a Palm-tree, to show us that Palms are the growth of the country. Thus Sili­us Italicus, speaking of Vespasian's conquest, that is the subject of this Medal.

Martial seems to have hinted at the many pieces of painting and sculpture that were occasioned by this conquest of Judaea, and had generally some­thing of the Palm-tree in them. It begins an E­pigram on the death of Scorpus a chariot-driver, which in those degenerate times of the Empire was looked upon as a public calamity.

The man by the Palm-tree in the first of these Medals, is supposed to be a Jew with his hands bound behind him.

I need not tell you that the winged figure on the other Medal is a Victory. FIG. 14. She is represented here as on many other coins, writing something on a shield. We find this way of registring a Victory touched upon in Virgil, and Silius Italicus.

FIG 15. Parthia has on one side of her the Bow and Quiver which are so much talked of by the Poets. Lucan's account of the Parthians is very pretty and poetical.

The Crown she holds in her hand, refers to the crown of gold that Parthia, as well as other pro­vinces, presented to the Emperor Antonine. The presenting a Crown, was the giving up the so­vereignty into his hands.

Antioch has an Anchor by her, FIG. 16. in [...]emory of her founder Seleucus, whose [...]ace was all born with this mark upon them, if you'll believe Historians. Ausonius has taken notice of it in his verses on this city.

Smyrna is always represented by an Amazon, FIG. 17. that is said to have been her first foundress. You see her here entring into a league with Thyatira. Each of them holds her tutelar Deity in her hand.

On the left arm of Smyrna, is the Pelta or Buck­ler of the Amazons, as the long weapon by her is the Bipennis or Securis.

FIG. 18.The dress that Arabia appears in, brings to my mind the description Lu­can has made of these eastern nations.

She bears in one hand a sprig of frankincense.

In the other hand you see the perfumed reed, as the garland on her head may be supposed to be woven out of some other part of her fragrant productions.

What a delicious country is this, says Cynthio? a man almost smells it in the descriptions that are made of it. The Camel is in Arabia, I sup­pose, a beast of burden, that helps to carry off its spices. We find the Camel, says Philander, mentioned in Persius on the same account.

He loads the Camel with pepper, because the a­nimal and its cargo are both the productions of the same country.

You have given us some quotations out of Persius this morning, says Eugenius, that in my opinion have a great deal of poetry in them. I have often wondered at Mr. Dryden for passing so severe a censure on this Author. He fancies the description of a Wreck that you have already ci­ted, is too good for Persius, and that he might be helpt in it by Lucan, who was one of his contemporaries. For my part, says Cynthio, I am so far from Mr. Dryden's opinion in this particu­lar, that I fancy Persius a better Poet than Lucan: and that had he been engaged on the same sub­ject, he would at least in his Expressions and De­scriptions have out-writ the Pharsalia. He was indeed employed on subjects that seldom led him into any thing like Description, but where he has an occasion of shewing himself, we find very few of the Latin Poets that have given a grea­ter beauty to their Expressions. His obscurities are indeed sometimes affected, but they generally arise from the remoteness of the Customs, Per­sons and Things he alludes to: as Satyr is for this reason more difficult to be understood by those that are not of the same Age with it, than any other kind of Poetry. Love-verses and [Page 142] Heroics deal in Images that are ever fixed and settled in the nature of things, but a thousand ideas enter into Satyr, that are as changeable and unsteady as the mode or the humours of mankind.

Our three friends had passed away the whole morning among their Medals and Latin Poets. Philander told them it was now too late to enter on another Series, but if they would take up with such a dinner as he could meet with at his Lodgings, he would afterwards lay the rest of his Medals before them. Cynthio and Euge­nius were both of them so well pleased with the novelty of the subject, that they would not refuse the offer Philander made them.

DIALOGUE III.
A PARALLEL between the Ancient and Modern MEDALS.

PHILANDER used every morning to take a walk in a neighbouring wood, that stood on the borders of the Thames. It was cut [...]hrough by abundance of beautiful allies, which [...]erminating on the water, looked like so many [...]ainted views in perspective. The banks of the [...]iver and the thickness of the shades drew into them all the birds of the country, that at Sun-ri­sing filled the wood with such a variety of notes, as made the prettiest confusion imaginable. I know in descriptions of this nature the scenes are generally supposed to grow out of the Au­thor's imagination, and if they are not charming in all their parts, the Reader never imputes it to the want of sun or soil, but to the Writer's bar­renness of invention. It is Cicero's observation on the Plane-tree, that makes so flourishing a fi­gure in one of Plato's Dialogues, that it did not [Page 144] draw its nourishment from the fountain that ra [...] by it and watered its roots, but from the rich­ness of the style that describes it. For my own part, as I design only to fix the scene of the fol­lowing Dialogue, I shall not endeavour to give it any other ornaments than those which nature has bestowed upon it.

Philander was here enjoying the cool of the morning, among the dews that lay on every thing about him, and that gave the air such a freshness as is not a little agreeable in the hot part of the year. He not been here long before he was joined by Cynthio and Eugenius. Cyn­thio immediately fell upon Philander for breaking his night's rest. You have so filled my head, says he, with old Coins, that I have had nothing but figures and inscriptions before my eyes. If I chanced to fall into a little slumber, it was im­mediately interrupted with the vision of a Cadu­ceus or a Cornu-copiae. You will make me be­lieve, says Philander, that you begin to be recon­ciled to Medals. They say it is a sure sign a man loves money, when he is used to find it in his dreams. There is certainly, says Eugenius, something like Avarice in the study of Medals. The more a man knows of them, the more he desires to know. There is one subject in par­ticular that Cynthio, as well as my self, has a mind to engage you in. We would fain know how the Ancient and Modern Medals differ from one another, and which of them deserves the preference. You have a mind to engage me in a subject, says Philander, that is perhaps of a lar­ger extent than you imagine. To examine it thoroughly, it would be necessary to take them [Page 145] in pieces, and to speak of the difference that shews it self in their Metals, in the Occasion of stamp­ing them, in the Inscriptions, and in the Figures that adorn them. Since you have divided your subject, says Cynthio, be so kind as to enter on it without any further preface.

We should first of all, says Philander, consider the difference of the Metals that we find in an­cient and modern Coins, but as this speculation is more curious than improving, I believe you will excuse me if I do not dwell long upon it. One may understand all the learned part of this science, without knowing whether there were Coins of iron or lead among the old Romans, and if a man is well acquainted with the Device of a Medal, I do not see what necessity there is of being able to tell whether the Medal it self be of copper or Corinthian brass. There is how­ever so great a difference between the antique and modern Medals, that I have seen an Antiquary lick an old Coin, among other tryals, to distin­guish the age of it by its Taste. I remember when I laught at him for it, he told me with a great deal of vehemence, there was as much dif­ference between the relish of ancient and modern brass, as between an apple and a turnep. It is pity, says Engenius, but they found out the Smell too of an ancient Medal. They would then be able to judge of it by all the senses. The Touch, I have heard, gives almost as good evidence as the Sight, and the Ringing of a Me­dal is, I know, a very common experiment. But I suppose this last proof you mention relates only to such Coins as are made of your baser sorts of metal. And here, says Philander, we may ob­serve [Page 146] the prudence of the Ancients above that of the Moderns, in the care they took to perpetuate the memory of great actions. They knew very well that silver and gold might fall into the hands of the covetous or ignorant, who would not respect them for the Device they bore, but for the Metal they were made of. Nor were their apprehensions ill-founded; for it is not easily ima­gined how many of these noble monuments of history have perished in the goldsmiths hands, be­fore they came to be collected together by the learned men of these two or three last Centuries. Inscriptions, Victories, Buildings, and a thousand other pieces of antiquity were melted down in those barbarous Ages, that thought figures and letters only served to spoil the gold that was charged with them. Your Medallists look on this destruction of Coins, as on the burning of the Alexandrian Library, and would be content to compound for them, with almost the loss of a Vatican. To prevent this in some measure, the ancients placed the greatest variety of their devi­ces on their brass and copper Coins, which are in no fear of falling into the clippers hands, nor in any danger of melting till the general confla­gration. On the contrary, our modern Medals are most in silver or gold, and often in a very small number of each. I have seen a golden one at Vienna, of Philip the second, that weighed two and twenty pound, which is probably singular in its kind, and will not be able to keep it self long out of the furnace when it leaves the Emperor's Treasury. I remember another in the King of Prussia's collection, that has in it three pound weight of gold. The Princes who struck these [Page 147] Medals, says Eugenius, seem to have designed them rather as an ostentation of their Wealth, than of their Virtues. They fancied probably, it was a greater honour to appear in gold than in copper, and that a Medal receives all its value from the rarity of the metal. I think the next subject you proposed to speak of, were the dif­ferent Occasions that have given birth to ancient and modern Medals.

Before we enter on this particular, says Phi­lander, I must tell you by way of preliminary, that formerly there was no difference between Money and Medals. An old Roman had his purse full of the same pieces that we now pre­serve in Cabinets. Assoon as an Emperor had done any thing remarkable, it was immediately stamped on a Coin, and became current through his whole Dominions. It was a pretty contri­vance, says Cynthio, to spread abroad the virtues of an Emperor, and make his actions circulate. A fresh Coin was a kind of a Gazette, that pub­lished the latest news of the Empire. I should fancy your Roman Bankers were very good Hi­storians. It is certain, says Eugenius, they might find their profit and instruction mixed together. I have often wondered that no nation among the moderns has imitated the antient Romans in this particular. I know no other way of securing these kinds of monuments, and making them nu­merous enough to be handed down to future ages. But where Statesmen are ruled by a spi­rit of faction and interest, they can have no pas­sion for the glory of their country, nor any con­cern for the figure it will make among posterity. A man that talks of his nation's honour a thou­sand [Page 148] years hence, is in very great danger of being laught at. We shall think, says Cynthio, you have a mind to fall out with the Government, because it does not encourage Medals. But were all your ancient Coins that are now in Cabinets once current money? It is the most probable opinion, says Philander, that they were all of them such, excepting those we call Meda­lions. These in respect of the other Coins were the same as modern Medals, in respect of mo­dern money. They were exempted from all commerce, and had no other value but what was set upon them by the fancy of the owner. They are supposed to have been struck by Emperors for presents to their Friends, foreign Princes, or Ambassadors. However, that the smallness of their number might not endanger the loss of the devices they bore, the Romans took care gene­rally to stamp the subject of their Medalions on their ordinary Coins that were the running cash of the nation. As if in England we should see on our half-penny and farthing pieces, the several designs that show themselves in their perfection on our Medals.

If we now consider, continued Philander, the different Occasions or Subjects of ancient and modern Medals, we shall find they both agree in recording the great actions and successes in war, allowing still for the different ways of making it, and the circumstances that attended it in past ages, and in the present. I shall instance one. I do not remember in any old Coin to have seen the taking of a town mentioned: as indeed there were few conquerors could signalize themselves that way before the invention of powder and [Page 149] fortifications, a single battle often deciding the fate of whole kingdoms. Our modern Medals give us several sieges and plans of fortified towns, that show themselves in all their parts to a great advantage on the reverse of a Coin. It is indeed, a kind of justice, says Eugenius, that a Prince owes to posterity, after he has ruined or defaced a strong place to deliver down to them a model of it as it stood whole and entire. The Coin re­pairs in some measure the mischiefs of his Bombs and Cannons. In the next place, says Philan­der, we see both on the ancient and modern Me­dals the several noble pieces of Architecture that were finished at the time when the Medals were stamped. I must observe however, to the ho­nour of the latter, that they have represented their buildings according to the rules of perspe­ctive. This I remember to have seen but in ve­ry few of the plans on ancient Coins, which makes them appear much less beautiful than the modern, especially to a mathematical eye. Thus far our two setts of Medals agree as to their Subject. But old Coins go farther in their compliments to their Emperor, as they take occasion to celebrate his distinguishing Virtues; not as they showed themselves in any particular action, but as they shone out in the general view of his character. This humour went so far, that we see Nero's fid­ling, and Commodus's skill in fencing, on several of their Medals. At present, you never meet with the King of France's generosity, nor the Em­peror's devotion recorded after this manner. A­gain, the Romans used to register the great actions of Peace that turned to the good of the people, as well as those of War. The remission of a [Page 150] Debt, the taking off a Duty, the giving up a Tax, the mending a Port, or the making a Highway, were not looked upon as improper subjects for a Coin. They were glad of any opportunity to encourage their Emperors in the humour of do­ing good, and knew very well, that many of these acts of beneficence had a wider and more lasting influence on the happiness and welfare of a peo­ple, than the gaining a Victory, or the Conquest of a nation. In England perhaps it would have looked a little odd to have stamped a Medal on the abolishing of Chimney-money in the last Reign, or on the giving a hundred thousand pound a year towards the carrying on a war, in this. I find, says Eugenius, had we struck in with the practice of the ancient Romans, we should have had Medals on the fitting up our several Docks, on the making of our Rivers navigable, on the building our men of War, and the like subjects, that have certainly very well deserved them. The reason why it has been neglected, says Philander, may possibly be this. Our Princes have the coin­ing of their own Medals, and perhaps may think it would look like vanity to erect so many Tro­phies and Monuments of praise to their own merit; whereas among the ancient Romans, the Senate had still a watchful eye on their Emperor, and if they found any thing in his life and actions that might furnish out a Medal, they did not fail of making him so acceptable an offering. 'Tis true, their flatteries betray often such a base­ness of spirit, as one would little expect to find among such an order of men. And here by the way we may observe, that you never find any thing like Satyr or Raillery on old Coins.

[Page 151]Whatever victories were got on foreign ene­mies, or the several pretenders to the Empire obtained over one another, they are recorded on Coins without the least bitterness or reflection. The Emperors often jested on their rivals or predecessors, but their Mints still maintained their gravity. They might publish invectives against one another in their discourses or wri­tings, but never on their Coins. Had we no other histories of the Roman Emperors, but those we find on their money, we should take them for the most virtuous race of Princes that mankind were ever blessed with: whereas, if we look in­to their lives, they appear many of them such monsters of lust and cruelty, as are almost a re­proach to human nature. Medals are therefore so many compliments to an Emperor, that a­scribe to him all the Virtues and Victories he himself pretended to. Were you to take from hence all your informations, you would fancy Claudius as great a Conqueror as Julius Caesar, and Domitian a wiser Prince than his brother Ti­tus. Tiberius on his Coins is all Mercy and Mo­deration, Caligula and Nero are Fathers of their Country, Galba the patron of public Liberty, and Vitellius the restorer of the city of Rome. In short, if you have a mind to see the religious Commodus, the pious Caracalla, and the devout Heliogabalus, you may find them either in the inscription or device of their Medals. On the contrary, those of a modern make are often char­ged with Irony and Satyr. Our Kings no soon­er fall out, but their mints make war upon one another, and their malice appears on their Me­dals. One meets sometimes with very nice [Page 152] touches of Raillery, but as we have no instance of it among the ancient Coins, I shall leave you to determine, whether or no it ought to find a place there. I must confess, says Cynthio, I be­lieve we are generally in the wrong, when we deviate from the ancients: because their practice is for the most part grounded upon reason. But if our fore-fathers have thought fit to be grave and serious, I hope their posterity may laugh with­out offence. For my part, I cannot but look on this kind of Raillery as a refinement on Me­dals: and do not see why there may not be some for diversion, at the same time that there are o­thers of a more solemn and majestic nature, as a Victory may be celebrated in an Epigram as well as in an Heroic Poem. Had the ancients given place to Raillery on any of their Coins, I question not but they would have been the most valued parts of a collection. Besides the enter­tainment we should have found in them, they would have shown us the different state of Wit, as it flourished or decayed in the several ages of the Roman Empire. There is no doubt, says Philander, but our fore-fathers, if they had plea­sed, could have been as witty as their posterity. But I am of opinion, they industriously avoided it on their Coins, that they might not give us oc­casion to suspect their sincerity. Had they run into mirth or satyr we should not have thought they had designed so much to instruct as to di­vert us. I have heard, says Eugenius, that the Romans stamped several Coins on the same occa­sion. If we follow their example, there will be no danger of deceiving posterity: since the more serious sort of Medals may serve as Comments [Page 153] on those of a lighter character. However it is, the raillery of the Moderns cannot be worse than the flattery of the Ancients. But hitherto you have only mentioned such Coins as were made on the Emperor, I have seen several of our own time that have been made as a compliment to private persons. There are pieces of money, says Philander, that during the time of the Roman Emperors, were coined in honour of the Senate, Army or People. I do not remember to have seen in the upper Empire the face of any private person that was not some way related to the Im­perial family. Sejanus has indeed his Consulship mentioned on a Coin of Tiberius, as he has the honour to give a name to the year in which our Saviour was crucified. We are now come to the Legend or Inscription of our Medals, which as it is one of the more essential parts of them, it may deserve to be examined more at length. You have chosen a very short Text to enlarge upon, says Cynthio: I should as soon expect to see a Critique on the Posie of a Ring, as on the In­scription of a Medal.

I have seen several modern Coins, says Phi­lander, that have had part of the Legend running round the edges, like the Decus et Tutamen in our milled money; so that a few years will proba­bly wear out the action that the Coin was de­signed to perpetuate. The ancients were too wise to register their exploits on so nice a sur­face. I should fancy, says Eugenius, the mo­derns may have chosen this part of the Medal for the inscription, that the figures on each side might appear to a greater advantage. I have observed in several old Coins a kind of confusion between [Page 154] the legend and the device. The figures and let­ters were so mingled together, that one would think the Coiner was hard put to it on what part of the money to bestow the several words of his inscription. You have found out some­thing like an excuse, says Philander, for your milled Medals, if they carried the whole legend on their edges. But at the same time that they are lettered on the edges, they have other inscrip­tions on the face and the reverse. Your modern Designers cannot contract the occasion of the Medal into an inscription that is proper to the Volume they write upon: so that having scrib­bled over both sides, they are forced, as it were to write upon the margin. The first fault there­fore that I shall find with a modern legend, is its Diffusiveness. You have sometimes the whole side of a Medal over-run with it. One would fancy the Author had a design of being Ciceroni­an in his Latin, and of making a round period I will give you only the reverse of a Coin stampt by the present Emperor of Germany, on the rai­sing of the siege of Vienna. VIENNA AVSTRIA [...] 4/ [...]4 IVLII AB ACHMETE II. OBSESSA [...]/1 [...] SEPT. EX INSPERATO AB EO DESERTA EST. I should take this, says Cynthio, for the paragraph of a Gazette, rather than the inscription of a Medal. I remember you represented your ancient Coins as abridgements of history; but your modern, if there are many of them like this, should themselves be epitomized. Compare with this, says Philander, the brevity and comprehen­siveness of those legends that appear on ancient Coins. ‘ [Page 155]Salus Generis humani. Tellus stabilita. Gloria Orbis Terrae. Pacator Orbis. Restitutor Orbis Terrarum. Gaudium Reipublicae. Hilaritas po­ [...]uli Romani. Bono Reipub. nati. Roma rena­ [...]cens. Libertas restituta. Saeculum Aureum. Puellae Faustinianae. Rex Parthis datus. Vi­ctoria Germanica. Fides Mutua. Asia Subacta. Judaea capta. Amor mutuus. Genetrix orbis. Sideribus recepta. Genio Senatûs. Fides exer­citús. Providentia Senatûs. Restitutori Hispaniae. Adventui Aug. Britanniae. Regna Adsignata. Adlocutio. Discipulina Augusti. Felicitas publica. Rex Armenis datus.’ What a majesty and force does one meet with in these short Inscriptions! Are not you amazed to see so much history gathered into so small a compass? You have often the subject of a Vo­lume in a couple of words.

If our modern Medals are so very prolix in their prose, they are every whit as tedious in their verse. You have sometimes a dull Epigram of four lines. This, says Cynthio, may be of great use to immortalize Punns and Quibbles, and to let posterity see their forefathers were a parcel of blockheads. A Coin, I find, may be of great use to a bad Poet. If he cannot become im­mortal by the goodness of his verse, he may by the durableness of the Metal that supports it. I shall give you an instance, says Philander, from a Medal of Gustavus Adolphus, that will stand as an eternal monument of Dullness and Bravery.

It is well, says Cynthio, you tell us this is a Medal of the Great Gustavus: I should have ta­ken it for some one of his Gothic Predecessors. Does it not bring into your mind Alexander the Great's being accompanied with a Chaerilus in his Persian expedition? If you are offended at the homeliness of this Inscription, says Philander, what would you think of such as have neither sense nor grammar in them? I assure you I have seen the face of many a great Monarch hemmed in with false Latin. But it is not only the stupi­dity and tediousness of these Inscriptions that I find fault with; supposing them of a moderate length and proper sense, why must they be in verse? We should be surprized to see the title of a serious book in rhime, yet it is every whit as ri­diculous to give the subject of a Medal in a piece of an Hexameter. This however is the practice of our modern Medallists. If you look into the ancient Inscriptions, you see an air of simplicity in the words, but a great magnificence in the thought; on the contrary, in your modern Me­dals you have generally a trifling thought wrapt up in the beginning or end of an Heroic verse. Where the sense of an Inscription is low, it is not in the power of Dactyls and Spondees to raise it; where it is noble, it has no need of such af­fected ornaments. I remember a Medal of Phi­lip the second, on Charles le Quint's resigning to him the Kingdom of Spain, with this Inscription, Ut Quiescat Atlas. The Device is a Hercules with the Sphere on his shoulders. Notwithstanding [Page 157] the thought is poetical, I dare say you would think the beauty of the Inscription very much lost, had it been — requiescat ut Atlas. To instance a Medal of our own nation. After the conclusion of the peace with Holland, there was one stampt with the following Legend — Re­deant Commercia Flandris. The thought is here great enough, but in my opinion it would have looked much greater in two or three words of prose. I think truly, says Eugenius, it is ridiculous enough to make the Inscription run like a piece of a verse, when it is not ta­ken out of an old Author. But I would fain have your opinion on such Inscriptions as are borrowed from the Latin Poets. I have seen several of this sort that have been very prettily ap­plied, and I fancy when they are chosen with art, they should not be thought unworthy of a place in your Medals.

Which ever side I take, says Philander, I am like to have a great party against me. Those who have formed their relish on old Coins, will by no means allow of such an innovation; on the contrary, your men of wit will be apt to look on it as an improvement on ancient Medals. You will oblige us however to let us know what kind of rules you would have observed in the choice of your quotations, since you seem to lay a stress on their being chosen with Art. You must know then, says Eugenius, I do not think it enough that a quotation tells us plain matter of fact, unless it has some other accidental orna­ments to set it off. Indeed if a great action that seldom happens in the course of human affairs, is exactly described in the passage of an old Poet, it [Page 158] gives the Reader a very agreeable surprize, and may therefore deserve a place on a Medal.

Again, if there is more than a single circum­stance of the action specified in the quotation, it pleases a man to see an old exploit copied out as it were by a Modern, and running parallel with it in several of its particulars.

In the next place, when the quotation is not only apt, but has in it a turn of Wit or Satyr, it is still the better qualified for a Medal, as it has a double capacity of pleasing.

But there is no Inscription fitter for a Medal, in my opinion, than a quotation that besides its aptness has something in it lofty and sublime: for such an one strikes in with the natural great­ness of the soul, and produces a high idea of the person or action it celebrates, which is one of the principal designs of a Medal.

It is certainly very pleasant, says Eugenius, to see a verse of an old Poet, revolting as it were from its original sense, and siding with a modern subject. But then it ought to do it wil­lingly of its own accord, without being forced to it by any change in the words, or the punctua­tion: for when this happens, it is no longer the verse of an ancient Poet, but of him that has converted it to his own use.

You have, I believe, by this time exhausted your subject, says Philander; and I think the criticisms you have made on the poetical quota­tions that we so often meet with in our modern Medals, may be very well applied to the Mottos of books, and other Inscriptions of the same nature. But before, we quit the Legends of Me­dals, I cannot but take notice of a kind of wit [Page 159] that flourishes very much on many of the mo­dern, especially those of Germany, when they re­present in the Inscription the year in which they were coined. As to mention to you another of Gustavus Adolphus. CHR IST VS DVX ER­GO TR IVMPH VS. If you take the pains to pick out the figures from the several words, and range them in their proper order, you will find they amount to 1627, the year in which the Me­dal was coined; for do not you observe some of the letters distinguish themselves from the rest, and top it over their fellows? these you must consider in a double capacity, as letters and as cy­phers. Your laborious German Wits will turn you over a whole Dictionary for one of these in­genious Devices. You would fancy perhaps they were searching after an apt classical term, but in­stead of that, they are looking out a word that has an L. an M. or a D. in it. When there­fore you see any of these Inscriptions, you are not so much to look in them for the thought, as for the year of the Lord. There are foreign U­niversities where this kind of wit is so much in vogue, that as you praise a man in England for being an excellent Philosopher or Poet, it is an or­dinary character among them to be a great Chro­nogrammatist. These are probably, says Cynthio, some of those mild provinces of Acrostic land, that Mr. Dryden has assigned to his Anagrams, Wings and Altars. We have now done, I sup­pose, with the Legend of a Medal. I think you promised us in the next place to speak of the Fi­gures.

As we had a great deal of talk on this part of a Coin, replied Philander, in our discourse on [Page 160] the Usefulness of ancient Medals, I shall only just touch on the chief heads wherein the Ancient and the Modern differ. In the first place, the Romans always appear in the proper Dress of their country, insomuch that you see the little variations of the Mode in the drapery of the Medal. They would have thought it ridiculous to have drawn an Emperor of Rome in a Gre­cian Cloak or a Phrygian Mitre. On the con­trary, our modern Medals are full of Toga's and Tunica's, Trabea's and Paludamentums, with a multitude of the like antiquated garments, that have not been in fashion these thousand years. You see very often a King of England or France dressed up like a Julius Caesar. One would think they had a mind to pass themselves upon posteri­ty for Roman Emperors. The same observation may run through several customs and religions, that appear in our ancient and modern Coins. Nothing is more usual than to see Allusions to Roman customs and ceremonies on the Medals of our own nation. Nay very often they carry the figure of a heathen god. If posterity takes its notions of us from our Medals, they must fancy one of our Kings paid a great devotion to Miner­va, that another was a professed Worshipper of Apollo, or at best that our whole religion was a mixture of Paganism and Christianity. Had the old Romans been guilty of the same extravagance, there would have been so great a confusion in their Antiquities, that their Coins would not have had half the uses we now find in them. We ought to look on Medals as so many monu­ments consigned over to Eternity, that may pos­sibly last when all other memorials of the same [Page 161] Age are worn out or lost. They are a kind of Present that those who are actually in Being make over to such as lie hid within the depths of Futu­rity. Were they only designed to instruct the three or four succeeding generations, they are in no great danger of being misunderstood: but as they may pass into the hands of a posterity, that [...]ie many removes from us, and are like to act their part in the world, when its governments, manners and religions may be quite altered; we ought to take a particular care not to make any false reports in them, or to charge them with any Devices that may look doubtful or unintelligible.

I have lately seen, says Eugenius, a Medallic history of the present King of France. One might expect, methinks, to see the Medals of that na­tion in the highest perfection, when there is a so­ciety pensioned and set apart on purpose for the designing of them.

We will examine them, if you please, says Phi­lander, in the light that our foregoing observa­tions have set them: but on this condition that you do not look on the faults I find in them any more than my own private opinion. In the first place then, I think it is impossible to learn from the French Medals either the religion, custom, or habits of the French nation. You see on some of them the Cross of our Saviour, and on others Hercules' his Club. In one you have an Angel, and in another a Mercury. I fancy, says Cynthio, posterity would be as much puzzled on the reli­gion of Louis le Grand, were they to learn it from his Medals, as we are at present on that of Constantine the Great. It is certain, says Phi­lander, there is the same mixture of Christian and [Page 162] Pagan in their Coins; nor is there a less confu­sion in their customs. For example, what rela­tion is there between the figure of a Bull, and the planting of a French colony in America? The Romans made use of this type in allusion to one of their own customs at the sending out of a co­lony. But for the French, a Ram, a Hog, or an Elephant, would have been every whit as signi­ficant an emblem. Then can any thing be more unnatural than to see a King of France dressed like an Emperor of Rome, with his arms stripped up to the elbows, a Laurel on his head, and a Chlamys over his shoulders? I fancy, says Euge­nius, the society of Medallists would give you their reasons for what they have done. You your self allow the Legend to be Latin, and why may not the customs and ornaments be of the same country as the language? especially since they are all of them so universally understood by the learned. I own to you, says Philander, if they only design to deliver down to posterity the several parts of their Great Monarch's histo­ry, it is no matter for the other circumstances of a Medal; but I fancy it would be as great a plea­sure and instruction for future ages, to see the Dres­ses and Customs of their ancestors, as their Buil­dings and Victories. Besides, I do not think they have always chosen a proper Occasion for a Me­dal. There is one struck, for example, on the English failing in their attempts on Dunkirk: when in the last reign they endeavoured to blow up a Fort, and bombard the town. What have the French here done to boast of? A Medal how­ever you have with this inscription, DVNKIRKA ILLAESA. Not to cavil at the two K's in [Page 163] Dunkirka, or the impropriety of the word Illaesa, [...]he whole Medal, in my opinion, tends not so much to the honour of the French as of the Eng­ [...]ish,

I could mention a few other faults, or at least what I take for such. But at same time must be forced to allow, that this Series of Medals is the most perfect of any among the moderns in the beauty of the Work, the aptness of the De­vice, and the propriety of the Legend. In these and other particulars, the French Medals come nearer the ancients than those of any other coun­try, as indeed it is to this nation we are indebted for the best lights that have been given to the whole science in general.

I must not here forget to mention the Medal­lic history of the Popes, where there are many Coins of an excellent workmanship, as I think they have none of those faults that I have spoken of in the preceding sett. They are always Roman-Catholic in the Device and in the Legend, which are both of them many times taken out of the ho­ly Scriptures, and therefore not unsuitable to the character of the Prince they represent. Thus when Innocent XI. lay under terrible apprehen­sions of the French King, he put out a Coin, that on the reverse of it had a ship tossed on the waves to represent the Church. Before it, was the figure of our Saviour walking on the waters, and St. Peter ready to sink at his feet. The in­scription, if I remember, was in Latin. Help [Page 164] Lord, or else I perish. This puts me in mind, says Cynthio, of a Pasquinade, that at the same [...]ime was fixed up at Rome. Ad Galli cantum Petrus flet. But methinks, under this head of the figures on ancient and modern Coins, we might expect to hear your opinion on the difference that appears in the Workmanship of each. You must know then, says Philander, that till about the end of the third Century, when there was a gene­ral decay in all the arts of designing, I do not re­member to have seen the head of a Roman Em­peror drawn with a full face. They always ap­pear in profil, to use a French term of art, which gives us the view of a head, that, in my opinion, has something in it very majestic, and at the same time suits best with the dimensions of a Medal. Besides that it shows the nose and eyebrows, with the several prominencies and fallings in of the fea­tures, much more distinctly than any other kind of figure. In the lower Empire you have abundance of broad Gothic faces, like so many full Moons on the side of a Coin. Among the moderns too, we have of both sorts, though the finest are made after the antique. In the next place, you find the figures of many ancient Coins rising up in a much more beautiful relief than those on the modern. This too is a beauty that fell with the grandeur of the Roman Emperors, so that you see the face sinking by degrees in the several declensions of the Empire, till about Constantine's time it lies al­most even with the surface of the Medal. After this it appears so very plain and uniform, that one would think the Coiner look'd on the flatness of a figure as one of the greatest beauties in Sculp­ture. I fancy, says Eugenius, the Sculptors of [Page 165] that age had the same relish as a Greek Priest that was buying some religious pictures at Venice. A­mong others he was shown a noble piece of Ti­tian. The Priest having well survey'd it, was ve­ry much scandalized at the extravagance of the relief, as he termed it. You know, says he, our religion forbids all idolatry: We admit of no I­mages but such as are drawn on a smooth sur­face: The figure you have here shown me, stands so much out to the eye, that I would no sooner suf­fer it in my Church than a Statue. I could re­commend your Greek Priest, says Philander, to a­bundance of celebrated Painters on this side of the Alps that would not fail to please him. We must own however, that the figures on several of our modern Medals are raised and rounded to a very great perfection. But if you compare them in this particular with the most finished among the ancients, your men of art declare universally for the latter.

Cynthio and Eugenius, though they were well pleased with Philander's discourse, were glad how­ever to find it at an end: for the Sun began to gather strength upon them, and had pierced the shelter of their walks in several places. Philan­der had no sooner done talking, but he grew sen­sible of the heat himself, and immediately propo­sed to his friends the retiring to his lodgings, and getting a thicker shade over their heads. They both of them very readily closed with the propo­sal, and by that means give me an opportunity of finishing my Dialogue.