INTRODUCTION, kiy 



ing-inftruments ; their ornaments; their utenfils ; which 

 in defign and in execution, may vie with whatever modern 

 Europe, or claflical antiquity can exhibit ? 



It is a favourite fludy with the fcholar to trace the remains 

 of Grecian or Roman workmanfhip j he turns over his 

 Montfaucon with learned fatisfacfhion ; and he gazes with 

 rapture on the noble colledion of Sir William Hamilton. 

 The amufement is rational and inftrudlive. But will not 

 his curiofity be more awakened, will he not find even more 

 real matter for important refledlion, by paffing an hour in 

 furveying the numerous fpecimcns of the ingenuity our 

 newly difcovered friends brought from the utmoft recefTes 

 of the globe, to enrich the Britifli Mufeum, and the valuable 

 repofitory of Sir Afliton Lever I If the curiofities of Sir 

 Afhton's Sandwich-room alone, were the only acquifition 

 gained by our vifits to the Pacific Ocean, who that has tafte 

 to admire, or even eyes to behold, could hcfitate to pro- 

 nounce, that Captain Cook had not failed in vain ? The ex- 

 pence of his three voyages did not, perhaps, far exceed that 

 of digging out the buried contents of Herculaneum. And 

 we may add, that the novelties of the Society or Sandwich 

 iflands, feem better calculated to engage the attention of the 

 fludious in our times, than the. atitiquities, which exhibit proofs 

 of Roman magnificence. 



The grounds for making this remark cannot be better 

 explained, than in the words of a very ingenious writer; 

 *' In an age (fays Mr. "Vv'"arton *), advanced to the higheft 

 '• degree of refinement, that fpecies of curiofity com- 

 " mences, which is bufied in contemplating the progrcfs of 

 *' focial life, in difplaying the gradation of fociety, and in 



* Preface to his Hiftory of Englifh Poetry, 



1" ** tracing 



