Mr. Alderman Boydell, show to admiration, how poetry may assist painting; and Collins's descriptive and allegorical odes, how poetry may be assisted by painting. For Collins's odes are all painting; and it seems not impro. bable that he derived some of his ideas from the art itself:-be this, however, as it may, were I in a humour to give advice to a young painter, I should say, Study the poets; and to a young poet, Study the painters.

I cannot close this essay better than by adding the following description of Raphael's celebrated painting of Poetry Personified. "She is crowned with immortal laurel, and having winged shoulders, she covers her breast in a white gown, and spreads from her bosom to her feet her sky-coloured mantle, as being chaste, sublime, and originating from heaven: she holds in one hand the harmonic lyre; with the other she lays open on her knee a book of heroic poetry, and arresting herself in this position she seems inspired with divine fury*."

Ella e coronata di lauro immortale, ed avendo le spalle alate, vela il petto in candida gonna, e sparge dal seno a piedi il suo ceruleo manto; conforme ella e casta, sublime, ed originata dal cielo tiene con una mano l'armonica lira, con l'altra appogia sulla coscia il libro degli heroici carmi, ed in tali posamento arrestandosi sembra inspirata da fiato divino. Bellori.

CHAPTER XII.

MEDALS.

T HE study of Medals has been sometimes made the subject of ridicule :-but triflers only are the objects of ridi. cule and on what subjects may not men trifle? It is made a rule of philosophy by an ancient writer, "to perform nothing merely for the sake of pleasure, but with the agreeable to mix the useful." Whoever does not thus mingle his pursuits, and give them consequence, is a trifler, whether he is gay or serious. And as some men trifle over subjects which are allowedly serious, so others may be serious over studies which are apparently light and trifling.

Pope liked to play off his wit on antiquaries; and medallists have not escaped:

With sharpen'd sight pale antiquaries pore,
Th' inscription value, but the rust adore :
This the blue varnish, that the green endears,
The sacred rust of twice ten hundred years!

n

To gain Pescenius one employs his schemes,
One grasps a Cecrops in ecstatic dreams.

Poor Vadius, long with learned spleen devour'd,
Can taste no pleasure since his shield was scour'd: '
And Curio, restless by the fair one's side,
Sighs for an Otho, and neglects his bride.

Pope's Epistle to Addison.

But he distinguishes the enlightened scholar from the trifler. His Epistle is not a mere compliment to a man of taste and Addison's Dialogues have placed the subject beyond the reach of any man's ridicule or contempt. Theirs is the vanity, the learning thine:

Touch'd by thy-hand, again Rome's glories shine;
Her gods and godlike heroes rise to view,

And all her faded garlands bloom anew.

Pope, ib

Indeed, the importance of medals, as reflecting light on various branches of ancient literature, is readily seen by all who have properly considered the subject. Nothing more, then, is attempted here than to expand a few gene-ral ideas, in order to show, how medals may be brought within the sphere of poetry: and as an ancient philosopher said to a friend, who saw him warming himself by a kitchen-fire-side, "Enter, for here also are the gods ;' so, in reference to its use in poetry, may be said of the study of ancient coins.

It is unnecessary to inquire when medals were first invented, a question rather curious than useful; and, though it might be plausibly agitated, it cannot be satisfactorily settled. Suffice it to observe, that the more original way of commerce was to exchange one commodity for another; that when metals were first employed as money, they were made use of in rough bars, valued by weight and bulk, as the original word in several languages imports *.

The principal Hebrew coin, the shekel, is derived from sha

Medals, then, may be serviceable to poetry, by virtue of its general sympathies with literature, in various ways.

And first, the religion or mythology of a country may be frequently illustrated by medals. On considering the importance of any discovery, the ancients were fond of ascribing the inventions to their gods. Thus Ceres, we are told, discovered corn; Bacchus, the vine; and Triptolemus, the plough.

Liber, et alma Ceres; vestro si munere tellus
Chaoniam pingui glandem mutavit arista,
Poculaque inventis Acheloïa miscuit uvis.

Virg. Georg. lib. i.

Bacchus, and fostering Ceres, powers divine,
Who give us corn for meat, for water, wine.

-oleæque Minerva

Inventrix, uncique puer monstrator aratri.

Inventor Pallas of the fatt'ning oil,

Virg. Georg. lib.i.

And thou the plough, and ploughman's useful toil,
Who erst did teach.

kal to weigh; the Greek sarng, from sava to weigh, answers to the Hebrew: in like manner among the Romans, pendere, to weigh, is the original word: impendere, expendere, and other similar words, are, to pay and spend money. Vide Joannem Villalpandum de Ponderibus et Numismatibus. And the word ponderitus may remind the reader, that our pound (Saxon pond) comes from pondus weight, pondo, and pondero, to weigh. See further Plinii Nat. Hist. lib. xxxiii. cap. 3.

Some, in like manner, have attributed the discovery of medals to Janus or Saturn. Be this as it may, the ancients carried their religious ideas to their medals; and to treat with disrespect a coin stamped with the heads of their princes, was punished as impiety (for their coins were considered as sacred): and agreeably to this idea, they were fond of adorning the reverse of their coins with the heads of their deities. Thus we have Jupiter with his thunderbolt and eagle; Neptune with his trident; Mars in his chariot, and with his spear; Minerva with her shield and helmet; Mercury with his caduceus ; Apollo with his lyre; Cupid sharpening his darts, and bearing his quiver of arrows; Castor and Pollux on horseback; Pegasus, the flying horse; with various other personages of a similar kind, together with their appropriate symbols, natural accoutrements, and local distinctions.

The principal gods of ancient Greece and Rome are by some reckoned, as already hinted, little more than impressive species of personifications, described as so many powers presiding over the different parts of nature, resembling such as were called in the ancient Chaldaic philosophy, Dii Zonai *. In like manner among the Indians, Indra, in subordination to other powers, presides over the elements, and forms matter for a fine de

Est enim apud eos genus Deorum Zonæum, cui attributæ sunt sensibilis mundi partes, et quod cingit divisiones sorte acceptas, circa materialem locum. Stanleii Hist. Philos. Orient. per Joannem Clericum, lib. 1. sect. 1. cap. viii.