652 
; 
The history of ancient mations, so in- 
teresting on account of their political 
and religious establishments, would be 
still more so, we are here told, were we to 
call in to our assistance those monuments 
of art, which time has respected. With 
this torch in our hands, we should be 
enabled to pierce through the darkness 
which the defects, or contradictions of 
aneient authors have produced, relative 
toathousand important poimts. Every 
one knows what light bas been thrown on 
the art of war among the Romans, by 
Folard, m consequence of lis studying 
the monuments of antiquity. [Hommel 
has explained several chapters of the 
Roman laws, by means of ancient coins, 
while Spanheim, has shewn that this 
species of knowledge is susceptible of a 
still more general use. 
It is at the sight of the ancient speci- 
mens of architecture, sculpture, painting, 
medals, and pottery, that taste is torm- 
ed, the genius of the artist is aroused, 
and bis emulation becomes whetted. 
Sulzer, Mengs, and Winkelmann,ought to 
be consulted on these subjects. 
But it is more especially at the sight of 
the heroes of antiquity, that the courage 
of vreat minds will be inflamed, and they 
will become stimulated with the desire to 
imitate them. Noble actions will always 
find congenial souls ready to applaud; 
the friends of the social virtues, the lovers 
and defenders of liberty, will there behold 
their models. 
Monuments may be distingmished into 
five classes, the first of which consist of 
edifices, the second of the works of sculp- 
ture.and painting; the third, inscriptions 
and manuscripts; the fourth, medals ; 
the fifth, vases and instruments. 
The monuments of architecture, whe- 
ther yet standing or in ruins, serve to ex- 
hibit the taste, and instruct us relative to 
the customs of nations. We find temples 
and tombs among the Egyptians, Persians, 
Greeks, Romans, Gauls, Goths. Egypt 
stilt contains obelisks and pyramids; the 
Greeks and Romans have left us theatres, 
hyppodromes, circuses, amphitheatres, 
triumphal arches, historical columns, 
aqueducts, hot and cold baths, and roads 
furnished with stones at the end of every 
mile; these attest the grandeur and in- 
dustry of the Romans. 
The different buildings still remaining 
announce that the Egyptians and Per- 
sians -aifected the marvellous, and en- 
deavoured to astonish posterity; that 
among the Greeks of the early ages, 
Retrospect of French Literature—Miscellanies. 
greater attention was paid to solidity, 
and simplicity, than to elegance; that the 
charming orders of architecture, with 
their appropriate proportions and deco- 
rations, were invented successively by 
the Greeks ; that the Romans, have with 
very little variation, confined themselves 
entirely to the discoveries of the latter ; 
that this species of beauty was unknown 
to the Gauls, while the Goths, or Ger- 
mans, invented for themselves a system 
of architecture, different from any species 
before known. On this article, Vitru- 
vius, as translated by Perrault, Felibien, 
and Winkelniann, may be consulted. 
The works of seu Ipture, of which great 
numbers yet remain in our possession, 
represent the images of divinities and 
illustrious men; of ceremonies sacred and 
profane; remarkable facts and events ; 
and traces of philosophy. There’ still 
exist a great number of statues,” busts, 
alto and basso relievos in stone, marble, 
metal, and earth; either confined tothe 
spots they were destined to ornament, or 
collected in the cabinets of the curious. 
Perrier, Bartoli, Maffei, Winkelmann, 
and others, bave published them; Wedg- 
wood and Bentley have succeeded won- 
derfully in this kind of figures, which they 
have imitated in porcelain, biscuit, and 
plaster. 
The ancient paintings, both in fresco 
and water colours, are also very instruc- 
tive. Their number has been greatly 
auginented since the discovery of Her- 
culaneum. 
What.a prodigious number of engraved 
stones, both in cameo and intaglio, ex- 
hibit the skill of ancient masters? Ma- 
riette, Maffei, Stosch, Ficoroni, and many 
others have published copies of them. 
But what augments the enjoyment, is the 
consideration that they are imitated in 
clay, and that the casts are multiplied at 
pleasure in sutphur, plaster, and other 
materials. The charming colleetions of 
red sulphurs of Italy are well known, as 
are also the white casts by Lipperts, and 
the black ones by Wedgwood and 
Bentley. 
The works in Mosaic, in 
of painting, also merit the 
of the curious. Ciampini, Fabretti, 
and Fougeroux de Bondaroi, ought to 
be consulted respecting this species of 
monuments. 
In other respects, the arts in their in- 
fancy have been nearly the same every 
where; but it was the Greeks alone who 
carried them to perfection: it ig to them 
we 
imitation 
attention 
