-properat curfu

Vita citato, volucrique die

Rota præcipitis volvitur anni. Herc. Fur. A&t. 1..

Life poft's away,

And day from day drives on with fwift career
The wheel that hurries on the headlong year.

As the circle of marble in His hand reprefents:
the common year, fo this that encompaffes.
him is a proper reprefentation of the great
year, which is the whole round and compre-
henfion of Time.. For when this is finished,
the heavenly bodies are fuppofed to begin their
courses anew, and to measure over again the
feveral periods and divifions of years, months,
days, &c. into which the great year is diftin--
guished..

onfumpto, Magnus qui dicitur, anno
Rufus in antiquum venient vaga fidera curfum :
Qualia difpofiti feterant ab origine mundi.
Aufon. Eidyll. 18.

When round the great Platonic year has turn'd,.
In their old ranks the wandring ftars fhall ftand.
As when first marfhall'd by th' Almighty's hand.

To fum up therefore the thoughts of this
Medal. The infcription teaches us that the
whole defign muft refer to the Golden Age
which it lively reprefents, if we fuppofe the
circle that encompafles Time, or if you pleafe
Jupiter, fignifies the finifhing of the great year,
and that the Phanix figures out the begin-
ning of a new feries of time. So that the
compliment on this Medal to the Emperor

Adrian,

Adrian, is in all refpects the fame that Virgil
makes to Pollio's fon, at whofe birth he fup-
poses the annus magnus or platonical year run
out, and renewed again with the opening of
the Golden Age.

Magnus ab integro faclorum nafcitur ordo;
fam redit et Virgo, redeunt Saturnia regna:
Et
nova progenies cælo demittitur alto.

Virg. Ec. 4.
The time is come the Sibyls long foretold.
And the bleft maid reftores the Age of Gold,
In the great wheel of Time before enroll'd.
Now a new progeny from Heav'n descends.
Ld. Lauderdale.

-nunc adeft mundo dies

Supremus ille, qui premat genus impium
Cali ruinâ; rurfus ut ftirpem novam
Generet renafcens melior: ut quondam tulit
Juvenis tenente regna Saturno poli.

Sen. Oet. Ac. 2.

-The last great day is come,

When earth and all her impious fons fhall lie
Crufh'd in the ruins of the falling sky,
Whence fresh fhall rife, her new-born realms to
grace,

A pious offspring and a purer race,
Such as ere-while in golden ages sprung,
When Saturn govern'd, and the world was young.

You may compare the defign of this reverfe,
if you pleafe, with one of Conftantine, fo far
as the Phanix is concerned in both. As for
the other figure, we may have occafion to

fpeak

fpeak of it in another place. Vid. 15 figure. King of France's Medallions.

The next figure shadows out FIG. 16. Eternity to us, by the Sun in one

hand and the Moon in the other, which in the language of facred poetry is as long as the Sun and Moon endureth. The heathens made choice of these Lights as apt fymbols of Eternity, becaufe, contrary to all fublunary Beings, though they seem to perifh every night, they renew themfelves every morning.

Soles occidere et redire poffunt;
Nobis cum femel occidit brevis lux,
Nox eft perpetua una dormienda.

The Suns fhall often fall and rife:
But when the fhort-liv'd mortal dies,
A night eternal feals his eyes.

Catul.

Horace, whether in imitation of Catullus or not, has applied the fame thought to the Moon: and that too in the plural number.

Damna tamen celeres reparant cæleftia lunæ;
Nos ubi decidimus
Què pius Eneas, quò Tullus dives, et Ancus,
Pulvis et umbra fumus. Hor. Od. 7. Lib. 4.

Each lofs the hastning Moon repairs again.

But we, when once our race is done,
With Tullus and Anchifes' fon,

(Tho' rich like one, like t'other good) To duft and fhades, without a Sun, Defcend, and fink in dark oblivion's flood.

Sir W. Temple.

In the next figure Eternity fits FIG. 17. on a globe of the heavens adorned with stars. We have already feen how proper an emblem of Eternity the globe is, and may find the duration of the ftars made ufe of by the Poets, as an expreffion of what is never like to end.

Lucida dum current annofi fidera mundi, &c.

Sen. Med..

I might here tell you that Vid. FIG. 13. Eternity has a covering on her head, because we can never find out her beginning; that her legs are bare, becaufe we fee only thofe parts of her that are actually running on; that he fits on a globe and bears a fcepter in her hand, to fhew that the is fovereign Miftrefs of all things: but for any_of those affertions I have no warrant from. the Poets.

You must excufe me, if I have been longer than ordinary on fuch a fubject FIG. 18. as Eternity. The next you fee is Victory, to whom the Medallifts as well as Poets never fail to give a pair of

wings.

Adfuit ipfa fuis Ales Victoria

Claud, de 6. Conf. Honor,

-dubiis volitat Victoria pennis.

-niveis Victoria concolor alis.

Ov.

Sil. It.

The palm branch and laurel were both the rewards of Conquerors, and therefore no improper ornaments for Victory.

་

-lenta Victoris præmia palma. Ov. Met.

Et palme pretium Victoribus.

Virg. Æn. 5.

Tu ducibus lætis aderis cum læta triumphum
Vox canet, & longas vifent capitolia pompas.

Apollo ad Laurum. Ov. Met.

Thou shalt the Roman feftivals adorn;
Thou shalt returning Cafar's triumphs grace,
When pomps fhall in a long proceffion pafs.

Dryden.

By the way you may obferve the lower plaits of the Drapery that feem to have gathered the wind into them. I have feen abundance of antique figures in Sculpture and Painting, with juft the fame turn in the lower foldings of the Veft, when the perfon that wears it is in a pofture of tripping forward.

Obviaque adverfas vibrabant flamina Veftes.

Ov. Met. Lib. i.

-As