DIALOGUES UPON THE USEFULNESS OF ANCIENT MEDALS ESPECIALLY IN RELATION TO THE LATIN AND GREEK POETS -Quoniam hæc ratio plerumque videtur Tristior esse, quibus non est tractata, retroque Et quasi musæo dulci contingere melle, Si tibi forte animum tali ratione tenerem. LUCRETIUS INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. THIS is one of the most graceful of Addison's works, and next to Dryden's Dialogue on Dramatic Poetry, the best specimen in our language of this style of writing. Addison tells us in a letter to Mr. Stepney, English Envoy at Vienna, that when he wrote it he had Fontenelle's Dialogue on the Plurality of Worlds in his eye; and it is no slight praise to say that he has fully equalled his model. The first part was written at Vienna, and though the work was shown to his friends and approved by them, it was not published till after his death. The general subject of numisma tics has since been treated by several English writers, and both the excellent introduction of Ackerman, and Humphrey's valuable Manual. contain more normation than Addison's Dialogues. But, there is no vook in which the lover of Latin poetry will find within the same compass, so many important suggestions and happy illustrations. Of this work Ogle says: "The 'Dialogues on Medals' rather prove the ability of the scholar to attain so complex and unconnected a kind of knowledge in a short period, than profound information on the subject. Ficcorini was his master, and says, 'He did not go any depth in the study of medals: all the knowledge he had of that kind, I believe, he had from me; and I did not give him above twenty lessons upon that subject.' There are two sorts of informa tion usually possessed by men of literature and research: the one rudimental, which is generally received from instructors; the other the knowledge a learner obtains by his own labor. We may therefore conclude that Addison obtained the former in the twenty lessons given him by Ficcorini, and that he added more by his own investigation, and by studying the treatise on Medals and Inscriptions of Bernardin Maffæus, then in general use among travellers and the learned.”—OGLE-Life of Addison, pp. 21, 22. And Miss Aikin : "It was thus that he introduced to his friend his beautiful 'Dialogues on the usefulness of ancient medals;' perhaps the most perfect, certainly the most graceful examples in our language of this form of composition. Dr. Johnson's assertion,-whose scanty acquaintance with French literature probably did not include even the celebrated and popular work of Fontenelle, that Dryden's Dialogue on Dramatic poetry was Addison's model, is thus disproved; and this information of the real prototype suggests a curious national contrast. The informing spirit of the dialogues of Fontenelle is that of gallantry; and the fair pupil whom he addresses imbibes the principles of the astronomy of Descartes diluted and dulcified with at least an equal portion of flattery, on the graces of her person and the charms of her mind; but although the study of medals could scarcely be regarded as less within the sphere of female inquiry than worlds and their vortices,-and in fact there had been ladies in this country of a former and a better age celebrated for their numismatic attainments,—the English wit carefully exonerates himself from all obligation to compliment the ladies on the occasion, and admits not even a humble listener of the feminine gender. A knowledge of the pattern on which he worked might likewise have shielded the author from a criticism of Bishop Hurd, who imputes it as a fault to these dialogues that they deviate from the classical examples in not exhibiting real characters as the interlocutors. In any case, this appears an ill-considered objection; and it is probable that the judgment of the bishop was warped by his own practice. Whatever dignity or seeming authority this kind of artifice,- -an offensive one at the best to the true lover of historical and biographical truth,-might lend to the discussion of questions of philosophy, politics or history, it would be difficult to point out any advantage to be gained by it on such a topic as the usefulness of medals, essentially a branch of erudition; while the dif ficulties and objections are obvious. The part of a leading speaker must in all propriety have been assigned to some one of the very small number of learned persons who had distinguished themselves by devoting their lives to profound investigations in this dark and difficult science; and with what modesty could a writer who had only skimmed its surface, have uttered conjectures or remarks of his own under the sanction of names such as those of Spanheim or Le Vailliant? "It appears that the study of medals had been a favorite object of pursuit with Addison in Italy, and especially at Rome, where he had availed himself of the technical instructions of a professor of this branch of antiquities besides embracing the opportunity of inspecting the most cele brated collections. According to his general plan in the study of antiquity, he applied his knowledge of these objects to the illustration of pas ages in the Latin poets, by which, in return, he frequently explained the signification of medals. Several examples of this application of his read ing occur in his Travels. "The two first of these dialogues are much more thickly interspersed than even his Travels with quotations from ancient writers, brought to explain the objects, customs, and events represented by the charges |