would have been every whit as fignificant an emblem. Then can any thing be more unnatural than to see a King of France dreffed like an Emperor of Rome, with his arms ftripped up to the elbows, a Laurel on his head, and a Chlamys over his Shoulders? I fancy, fays Eugenius, the fociety of Medallifts would give you their reasons for what they have done.. You yourself allow the Legend to be Latin, and why may not the customs and ornaments be of the fame country as the language? especially fince they are all of them fo univerfally understood by the learned. I own to you, fays Philander, if they only defign to deliver down to posterity the feveral parts of their Great Monarch's hiftory, it is no matter for the other circumstances of a Medal; but I fancy it would be as great a pleafure and inftruction for future ages, to see the Dreffes and Cuftoms of their ancestors, as their Buildings and Victories. Befides, I do not think they have always chofen a proper Occafion for a Medal. There is one ftruck, for example, on the English failing in their attempts on Dunkirk, when in the laft 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 infcription, DVNKIRKA ILLÆSA. Not to cavil. at the two K's in Dunkirka, or the impropriety of the word Illafa, the whole Medal, in my opinion, tends not fo much to the honour of the French as of the English,

-quos opimus

Fallere et effugere eft triumphus.

I could

I could mention a few other faults, or at leaft what I take for fuch. But at the fame time must be forced to allow, that this Series of Medals is the most perfect of any among the woderns in the beauty of the Work, the aptnefs of the Device, and the propriety of the Legend. In thefe 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 beft lights that have been given to the whole fcience in general.

I must not here forget to mention the Medallic hiftory 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 fet. 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 unfuitable to the character of the Prince they reprefent. Thus when Innocent XI. lay under terrible apprehenfions of the French King, he put out a Coin, that on the reverse of it had a ship toffed on the waves to represent the Church. Before it, was the figure of our Saviour walking on the waters, and St. Peter ready to fink at his feet. The infcription, if I remember, was in Latin. Help Lord, or elfe I perish. This puts me in mind, fays Cynthio, of a Pasquinade, that at the fame time 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, fays Philander, that till about the end of the third Cen

tury,

tury, when there was a general decay in all the arts of defigning, I do not remember to have feen the head of a Roman Emperor drawn with a full face. They always appear in profil, to ufe a French term of art, which gives us the view of a head, that, in my opinion, has fomething in it very majestic, and at the same time fuits beft with the dimenfions of a Medal. Befides that, it shows the nofe and eyebrows, with the feveral prominencies and fallings in of the features, much more diftinctly than any other kind of figure. In the lower Empire you have abundance of broad Gothic faces, like fo many full Moons on the fide of a Coin. Among the moderns too, we have of both forts, though the finest are made after the antique. In the next place, you find the figures of many ancient Coins rifing 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 Empe rors, fo that you fee the face finking by degrees in the feveral declenfions of the Empire, till about Conftantine's time it lies almoft even with the furface of the Medal. After this it appears fo very plain and uniform, that one would think the Coiner look'd on the flatnefs of a figure as one of the greatest beauties in Sculpture. I fancy, fays Eugenius, the Sculptors of that age had the fame relifh as a Greek Prieft that was buying fome religious pictures at Venice. Among others he was fhown a noble piece of Titian. The Prieft having well furvey'd it, was very much scandalized at the extravagance of the relief, as he termed it. You know, fays he, our religion forbids all idolatry: We admit of no Images but fuch as are drawn on a smooth fur

face:

face: The figure you have here shown me, ftands so much out to the eye, that I would no fooner suffer it in my Church than a Statue. I could recommend your Greek Prieft, fays Philander, to abundance of celebrated Painters on this fide of the Alps that would not fail to please him. We must own however, that the figures on feveral 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 univerfally for the latter.

Cynthio and Eugenius, though they were well pleafed with Philander's difcourfe, were glad however to find it at an end: for the Sun began to gather ftrength upon them, and had pierced the shelter of their walks in feveral places. Philander had no fooner done talking, but he grew fenfible of the heat himself, and immediately proposed to his friends the retiring to his lodg ings, and getting a thicker fhade 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.

THREE