34 STUDIES OF NATURE, 



and to the age of Marins. It would not be ealy 

 for me to defcribe all the fucceffive emotions which 

 were excited in my bread. In the firft place, this 

 monument, though eredled over the fofFerings of 

 Mankind, as all the triumphal arches in Europe 

 are, gave me no pain, for I recollected that the 

 Cimbri had come to invade Italy, like bands of 

 Robbers. I remarked, that if this triumphal arch 

 v/as a memorial of the viélories of the Romans 

 over the Cimbri, it was likewife a monument of the 

 triumph of Time over the Romans. I could di- 

 dinguifh upon it, in the bafs-relief of the frize, 

 which reprefents a battle, an enfign, containing 

 rhefccharafters, clearly legible, S. P. Q^R. Senaius 

 Popidus êlîie Romanns 'i and another infcribed with 



M. O the meaning of which I could not make 



out. As to the warriors, they were fo completely 

 effaced, that neither their arms nor their features 

 were diftinguifhable. Even the limbs of fome 

 of them were worn our. The mafs of this mo- 

 nument was, in other refpecls, in excellent pre- 

 fervation, excepting one of the fquare pillars that 

 Supported the arch, which a vicar in the neigh- 

 bourhood had demolifhed, to repair his parfonage- 

 houfe. This modern ruin fuggefted another train 

 of refledion, refpefting the exquilite ikill of the 

 Ancients, in the conQ-rudtion of their public mo- 

 numents ; for, though the pillar which fupported 

 ooe of the arches, on one fide, had been demo- 

 lifhed 



