DIALOGUES UPON THE USEFULNESS OF ANCIENT MEDALS. ESPECIALLY IN RELATION TO THE LATIN AND GREEK POETS. -Quoniam hæc ratio plerumque videtur LUCRETIUS, Occasioned by Mr. Addison's Treatise on Medals. SEE the wild waste of all-devouring years! Perhaps by its own ruins sav'd from flame, Ambition sigh'd. She found it vain to trust Their ruins perish'd, and their place no more! The medal, faithful to its charge of fame, To gain Pescennius one employs his schemes; Poor Vadius, long with learned spleen devour'd, Theirs is the vanity, the learning thine. Touch'd by thy hand, again Rome's glories shine: O when shall Britain, conscious of her claim, Then shall thy Craggs (and let me call him mine) With aspect open shall erect his head, Who broke no promise, serv'd no private end, And prais'd, unenvy'd, by the muse he lov'd." A. POPE. |