תמונות בעמוד
PDF
ePub

us with the offer of a kindness that you might well imagine we should have asked you.

Our three friends had been fo intent on their difcourfe, that they had rambled very far into the fields without taking notice of it. Philander first put them in mind, that unless they turned back quickly they would endanger being benighted. Their conversation ran infenfibly into other fubjects, but as I defign only to report fuch parts of it as have any relation to Medals, I fhall leave them to return home as faft as they please, without troubling myself with their talk on the way thither, or with their ceremonies at parting.

[ocr errors]

DIALOGUE II.

OME of the finest treatifes of the most polite Latin and Greek writers are in Dialogue, as many very valued pieces of French, Italian, and English appear in the fame drefs. I have fometimes however been very much distasted at this way of writing, by reafon of the long Prefaces and exordiums into which it often betrays an author. There is fo much time taken up in ceremony, that before they enter on their fubject the Dialogue is half ended. To avoid the fault I have found in others, I fhall not troublemyself nor my Reader with the first falutes of our three friends, nor with any part of their difcourse over the Tea-table. We will suppose the China difhes taken off, and a Drawer of Medals fupplying their room. Philander, who is to be the Hero in my Dialogue, takes it in his hand, and addreffing himself to Cynthia and Eugenius, I will first of all, fays he, fhow you an assembly of the moft virtuous Ladies that you have ever perhaps converfed with. I do not know, fays Cynthio, regarding them, what their virtue may be, but methinks they are a little fantastical in their drefs. You will find, fays Philander, there is good fenfe in it. They have not a fingle ornament that they cannot give a reason for. I was going to afk you, fays Eugenius, in what country you

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

find thefe Ladies. But I fee they are fome of thofe imaginary perfons you told us of last night that inhabit old Coins, and appear no where else but on the reverfe of a Medal. Their proper country, fays Philander, is the breaft of a good man: for I think they are most of them the figures of Virtues. It is a great compliment methinks to the fex, fays Cynthio, that your Virtues. are generally shown in petticoats. I can give no other reafon for it, fays Philander, but because they chanced to be of the feminine gender in the learned languages. You find howFirst Series. ever fomething bold and mafculine FIGURE 1. in the air and pofture of the firft figure, which is that of Virtue herfelf, and agrees very well with the description we find of her in Silius Italicus.

Virtutis difpar habitus, frons hirta, nec unquam
Compofitâ, mutata comâ, ftans vultus, et ore
Inceffuque viro propior, latique pudoris,
Celfa humeris, nivea fulgebat ftamine palla.
Sil. It. L. 15-

A different form did Virtue wear,
Rude from her forehead fell th' unplaited hair,
With dauntless mien aloft fhe rear'd her head,
And next to manly was the virgin's tread;
Her height,her fprightly blush,the Goddess show,
And robes unfullied as the falling fnow..

FIG. 2.

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

[Virtus

[Virtus loquitur.]

Mecum Honor, et Laudes, et læta gloria vultu,
Et Decus, et niveis Victoria concolor alis.

[Virtue fpeaks.]

Ibid.

With me the foremost place let Honour gain,
Fame, and the Praifes mingling in her train;
Gay Glory next, and Victory on high,
White like myself, on fnowy wings fhall fly.

Tu cujus placido pofuere in pectore fedem
Blandus Honos, hilarifque (tamen cum pondere) Vir-
Stat. Silv. Lib. 2.

tus.

The head of Honour is crowned with a Laurel, as Martial has adorned his Glory after the fame manner, which indeed is but another name for the fame perfon.

Mitte coronatas Gloria mæfta comas.

I find, fays Cynthio, the Latins mean Courage by the figure of Virtue, as well as by the word it felf. Courage was efteemed the greatest perfection among them, and therefore went under the name of Virtue in general, as the modern Italians give the fame name on the fame account to the Knowledge of Curiofities. Should a Roman Painter at prefent draw the picture of Virtue, inftead of the Spear and Paratonium that The bears on old coins, he would give her a Buft in one hand and a Fiddle in the other.

The next, fays Philander, is a

Lady of a more peaceful character, FIG. 3. and had her temple at Rome.

[ocr errors]

Salutato

Salutato crepitat Concordia nido.

She is often placed on the reverfe of an Imperial coin to fhow the good understanding between the Emperor and the Emprefs. She has always a Cornu-copia in her hand, to denote that Plenty is the fruit of Concord. After this short account of the Goddess, 1 defire you will give me your opinion of the Deity that is defcribed in the following verfes of Seneca, who would have her propitious to the marriage of Jafon and Creufa. He mentions her by her qualities, and not by

her name.

Afperi

Martis fanguineas que cohibit manus,
Qu dat belligeris fœdera gentibus,

Et cornu retinet divite Co Lam. Sen. Med. A&. x.

Who fooths great Mars the warrior God,
And checks his arm diftain'd with blood,
Who joins in leagues the jarring lands,
The horn of Plenty fills her hands.

The defcription, fays Eugenius, is a copy of the figure we have before us: and for the future, inftead of any further note on this paffage, I would have the reverfe you have shown us ftamped on the fide of it. The interpreters of Seneca, fays Philander, will understand the precedent verfes as a defcription of Venus, though. in my opinion there is only the first of them that can aptly relate to her, which at the fame time agrees as well with Concord: and that this was a Goddefs who used to intereft herself in marriages, we may fee in the following defcription.. -Jan

« הקודםהמשך »