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edifices as effectually as a Goth or Vandal. You would laugh at me, fays Philander, fhould I make you a learned differtation on the nature of Rufts I fhall only tell you there are two or three forts of them which are extremely beautiful in the eye of an Antiquary, and preserve a Coin better than the beft artificial varnish. As for other kinds, a skilful Medallist knows very well how to deal with them. He will recover you a Temple or a triumphal Arch out of its rubbish, if I may fo call it, and with a few reparations of the graving tool reftore it to its firft fplendour and magnificence. I have known an Emperor quite hid under a cruft of drofs, who after two or three days cleanfing has appeared with all his titles about him as fresh and beautiful as at his firft coming out of the Mint. I am forry, fays Eugenius, I did not know this laft ufe of Medals when I was at Rome. It might perhaps have given me a greater taste of its Antiquities, and have fixed in my memory feveral of the ruins that I have now forgotten. For my part, fays Cynthio, I think there are at Rome enow modern works of Architecture to employ any reasonable man, I never could have a tafte for old bricks and rubbish, nor would trouble myself about the ruins of Auguftus's Palace fo long as I could fee the Vatican, the Borghefe, and the Farnefe as they now ftand; I must own to you at the fame time this is talking like an ignorant man. Were I in other company I would perhaps change my ftile, and tell them that would rather fee the fragments of Apollo's temple than St. Peter's. I remember wheн our Antiquary at Rome had led us a whole

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day together from one ruin to another, he at last brought us to the Rotunda: And this, fays he, is the most valuable Antiquity in Italy, notwithftanding it is fo entire.

The fame kind of fancy, fays Philander, has formerly gained upon feveral of your Medallifts, who were for hoarding up fuch pieces of money only as had been half confumed by time or ruft. There were no Coins pleased them more than those which had paffed 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 fee on them too the Models of many ancient Statues that are now loft. There are feveral Reverses which are owned to be the reprefentations 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 fufpicion of it. The Hercules Farnefe, the Venus of Medicis, the Apollo in the Belvidera, and the famous Marcus Aurelius on horfe-back, which are perhaps the four most beautiful Statues extant, make their appearance all of them on ancient Medals, though the figures that reprefent them were never thought to be the copies of ftatues till the ftatues themselves were discovered. There is no queftion, I think, but the fame reflexion may extend itself to antique Pictures: for I doubt not but in the defigns of feveral Greek Medals in particular, one might often fee the hand of an Apelles or Protogenes, were we as well acquainted with their works as we are with Titian's or Vandike's. I might here make a much VOL. III. greater

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greater fhow of the Usefulness of Medals, if I would take the Method of others, and prove to you that all arts and sciences receive a confiderable illustration from this ftudy. I must however tell you, that Medals and the Civil Law, as we are affured by those who are well read in both, give a confiderable Light to each other, and that several old Coins are like so many maps for explaining of the ancient Geography. But besides the more folid parts of learning, there are feveral little intimations to be met with on Medals that are very pleasant to fuch as are converfant in this kind of ftudy. Should I tell you gravely, that without the help of Coins we fhould never have known which was the first of the Emperors that wore a beard, or rode in stirrups, I might turn my fcience into ridicule. Yet it is certain there are a thousand little impertinences of this nature that are very gratifying to curiofity, tho' perhaps not very improving to the understanding. To fee the dress that fuch an Empress delighted to be drawn in, the titles that were moft agreeable to fuch an Emperor, the flatteries that he lay moft open to, the honours that he paid to his children, wives, predeceffors, friends or collegues, with the like particularities only to be met with on Medals, are certainly not a little pleasing to that inquifitive temper which is so natural to the mind of

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I declare to you, fays Cynthio, you have aftonifhed me with the feveral parts of knowledge, that you have discovered on Medals. I could never fancy before this evening, that a Coin could have any nobler use in it than to pay a reckoning.!

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You have not heard all yet, fays Philander, there is still an advantage to be drawn from Medals, which I am fure will heighten your efter for them. It is indeed an ufe that no body has hitherto dwelt upon. If any of the Antiquaries have touched upon it, they have immediately quitted it, without confidering it in its full latitude, light, and extent. Not to keep you in fufpenfe, I think there is a great affinity between Coins and Poetry, and that your Medallift and Critic are much nearer related than the world generally imagines. A reverse often clears up the paffage of an old poet, as the poet often ferves to unriddle a reverfe. I could be longer on this head, but I fear I have already tired you, Nay, fays Eugenius, fince you have gone fo far with us, we must beg you to finish your lecture, especially fince you are on a fubject, that I dare promife you will be very agreeable to Cynthio, who is fo profeffed an admirer of the ancient poets. I must only warn you, that you do not charge your Coins with more ufes than they can bear. It is generally the method of fuch as are in love with any particular science to dif cover all others in it. Who would imagine, for example, that architecture fhould comprehend the knowledge of hiftory, ethics, mufic, aftronomy, natural philofophy, phyfic, and the civil law? Yet Vitruvius will give you his reafons, fuch as they are, why a good architect is mafter of these feveral arts and tciences. Sure, fays Cynthio, Martial had never read Vitruvius when he threw the Crier and the Architect into the fame class.

Duri fi puer ingení videtur
Praconem facias vel architectum.

If of dull parts the strippling you fufpect;
A herald make him, or an architect.

But to give you an instance out of a very cele brated difcourfe on poetry, because we are on that subject, of an author's finding out imaginary beauties in his own art. I have Voffius de obferved, fays he, (fpeaking of the natural propenfion that all men have to numbers and harmony) that my bar

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ber has often combed my head in Dactyls and Spondees, that is with two short flrokes and a long one, or with two long ones fucceffively. Nay, fays he, I have known him fometimes run even into Pyrrichius's and Anapaus's. This you will think perhaps a very extravagant fancy, but I must own I fhould as foon expect to find the Profodia in a Comb as Poetry in a Medal. Before I endeavour to convince you of it, fays Philander, I must confess to you that this science has its vifionaries as well as all others. There are feveral, for example, that will find a mystery in every tooth of Neptune's trident, and are amazed at the wisdom of the ancients that represented a thunder-bolt with three forks, fince, they will tell you, nothing could have better explained its triple quality of piercing, burning and melting. I have feen a long difcourfe on the figure and nature of horn, to fhew it was impoffible to have found out a fitter emblem for plenty than the Cornu-copia. Thefe are a fort of authors who fcorn to take up with appearances, and fancy an interpretation vulgar when it is natural. What could have been more proper to fhew the beauty and friendship of the three Graces, than to represent them naked and knit together in a kind

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