: the contemplation of places, once the scene of actions, that, perhaps, decided the fate of empire, established the laws of government, or rescued an oppressed people from slavery and superstition or were once frequented by some of the few who have distinguished themselves from the great body of mankind, and commended their names to the reverence and admiration of posterity, by the invention of arts which contribute to the use and ornament of life; or stand foremost in the annals of science. And farther, these impressions become doubly powerful, when confirmed by the immediate inspection of any surviving monument of antiquity, the prospect of which excites our reverence in a manner perhaps less rational, yet seemingly not dissimilar to that natural and irresistible impulse which we feel to respect the hoary honours of age. Of the various monuments of antiquity some are public and some domestic. They record the transactions and conventions of states: and preserve memorials of private life, and specimens of domestic convenience. Some are immediately connected with the scene of action, and existed as present and perpetual monuments of the events which they record. Some preserve in and other specimens of ancient art, the memory of actions, the consideration of which carries us back to the remotest ages of antiquity. A diligent examination, therefore, of the remaining monuments of antiquity must be productive of great utility, if taken in that view only, by which the progress of art may be ascertained, and a comparison of the several periods and their different productions be formed, conducive even to the ordinary purposes as well as elegance of modern life; as new modifications of art may be struck out, and new methods of convenience suggested. But the study of antiquities will appear perhaps more useful and interesting, when it is considered, that there is no one branch of it, if followed with a liberal spirit of research, which does not tend immediately, or ultimately, to the illustration of ancient manners: in the discussion of which we for awhile forget the refinement of modern times, and insensibly accommodate our thoughts and feelings to the romantic and poetical simplicity of former ages. I. The study of antiquities is divided into various branches, political and monumental, accordingly as they regard the ancient manners and customs of a people, and the monuments of ancient art. In every nation the state of the arts and sciences has at all times been intimately connected with manners and customs. The arts especially, which receive their form and perfection, as well as derive their origin in great VOL. I. I meaure, from the finer feelings of the mind, bear so lively an image of the character of the people by whose united efforts they have been cultivated, that an accurate investigation of their origin and progress, their revolutions, and comparative analogy, together with the monuments of them which have descended to posterity, while it explains the causes which operated on their progress, affords the most effectual means of learning the genius and manners of the various nations of the world. 1. The first object which strikes us, as the first in order and natural pre-eminence, is the language of a people: in tracing which through the many changes which it has assumed, up to its original and naked form; and thence again following it through the several periods of culture and growth to its last maturity and perfection, frequent opportunities occur of discovering the origin of important customs and institutions, and the causes of their denomination, in the simple occupations and amusements of rude uncultivated nature. The extensive influence of opinions and manners on language and even of language on a See Taylor's Elements of Civil Law, p. 553. b Harris's Hermes, p. 407. Richardson's Dissertation on the Languages, etc. of Eastern Nations, chap. i. sect. i. Traité sur la Formation Méchanique des Langues, by the president De Brosses, vol. i. chap. ii. sect. 20. Vigneul Marville has a curious passage opinions, has reached the most civilized and polished ages but in the earlier periods of society they are closely and intimately connected. While man is yet unacquainted with those arts which administer the conveniences and luxuries of life, and procure so many blessings to enlarged and humanized society, his roughness and impetuosity of temper, unrestrained by law or civil intercourse, the peculiarities of his situation, the nature and variety of his occupations, all conspire to impress their several signatures on the language, which he makes use of to denote his imperfect and newly-formed ideas. The inhabitants of the rough and barren Attica, early habituated to naval affairs and commerce, have left no obscure testimony of their situation and manners in a dialect which, rough in its pronunciations, while it retained many of the simplest and oldest forms, contracted others, and thus became suited to despatch and business. The most daring metaphors derived from naval on the character of the English language in Mélanges d'histoire et littérature, p. 31. édit. Paris, 1699. The long, laboured periods, which he so much complains of, were adopted by the most learned writers of the age, Milton, Clarendon, etc. They were formed on the imitation of the best ancient classic authors; and were then thought more suitable to the gravity and simplicity of historical narration, than the shorter pointed periods of the French. The reader will meet many just and useful observations on those favourite models of French composition, Sallust and Tacitus, in lord Monboddo's learned and elaborate work on the Origin and Progress of Language affairs abound in the writings of the Attic poets: from which however the interval of two thousand years has worn off that disgusting appearance, which in similar expressions, frequent also in our own language, and from the same cause, the homeliness of familiar usage renders so unfit for the sublimer kinds of poetry. While the Romans, ambitious only of dominion, whose delight was in war, and whose very profession was the sword, drew their metaphors from the camp, and thus transfused into their language, as well as civil government, the image of their common genius. 2. The history of architecture, like that of the other arts, marks out the progression of manners. Among the Dorians it carried with it the austerity of their national character, which displayed itself in their language and music. The Ionians added to its original simplicity an elegance which has excited the universal admiration of posterity. The Corinthians, a rich and luxurious people, not contented with former improvements, extended the art to the very verge of vicious refinement. And thus (so connected in their origin are the arts, so similar in their progress and revolutions) the same genius produced those three characters of style in architecture, which one of the most judicious critics of Greece remarked in its lan c Dionysius Hal. Пɛpì Σúv0. sect. 21, etc. Dr. Warton, in his elegant and judicious Essay on Pope, p. 175, has bestowed a very |