Retrospect of French Literature—Miscellanies. 
we are indebted for all the master-pieces, 
which excite the admiration of the con- 
“noisseur, 
The most ancient specimens of wri- 
ting are those which are to be met with 
in sacred or hieroglyphical characters on 
the edifices and idols of the Egyptians, 
and the narrow fillets which envelope 
their coins. The ruins ef Persepolis con- 
tain Persian i inscriptions, w juich have not 
hitherto been decyphered. The Etruscan 
Monuments also present us with very 
_ ancient ones in the language of that coun- 
try. There are some in Phenician. But 
none are more abundant than the Greek 
and Reman inscriptions, which desiynate 
almost every edifice aud work, more espe- 
cially, if they appertained to the public. 
They are to be found on common and 
precious stones; and marble and bronze. 
Writings preserved on the pupyrus of 
Egypt, on bark, and on parchment, do 
not go so far back as the Christian 
wera: the rolls of the Herculaneum are, 
however, an exception to thisrule. ‘The 
Mer rovingian, Lombard, Saxon, and Muzso- 
gothic writings appertain to the tine of 
the fallof the Western empire. The most 
ancient of the Chinese, as it is pre- 
tended, go as far back as the seventh 
century, The Runic strains of the 
Northern nations are less ancient. The 
writing-painting of Mexico is not long an- 
terior to the discovery of that country. 
Grater has edited a collection of Ro- 
man inscriptions ina very convenient 
form. Reinesius, Fabretti, Gori, and 
ochers, have followed his example. Sca- 
liger has also preserved the same order, 
Jn his Index to Gruter. Fleetwood bas 
selected a variety, of interesting incrip- 
tions. Bonada, Ferretius, and Burmann, 
‘have collected sucli asare in verse. 
We find medals of gold, silver, and 
bronze, struck by the Phenicians, Car- 
thaginians, Etruscans, Greeks, Hebrews, 
Romans, Arabians, Celts, Britons, Goths, 
Anglo-Saxons, Franks, &c. In chese 
we may distinguish the head, field, le- 
geod, exergue. Attention is paid to the 
figures they represent. In the cabinets, 
the different metals are separated ; the 
medallions form a particular class, The 
bronzes are divided into great, middle, 
and small. DGetore Gessner, no one con- 
ceived the idea of a numismatic col- 
lection of all the nations of antiquity. 
The vases, and, in short, the instru- 
ments, both sacred and profane, whether 
jo metal, marble, ylass, or earth, all 
merit examination, Some grand vases, 
formed entirely our of precious stones, 
the sake of the metal. 
653 
are still in existence, Of those com- 
posed of clay, the Etruscan are the nist 
remarkable. 
The enquiry after, and examination of, 
all these kinds of monuments, ought to be 
accuvinpanied witha greatdeal of ciream- 
spection, without which one is liable te 
be deceived every instant: for, to say 
nothing of the charming remains of anti- 
quity, which the indiilerence of the age 
has permutted to fall into ruins, othersare 
changed, altered, aud counterfeited. The 
antiquary, thereture, stands in need of a 
certain degree of discernment, a certain 
degree of finesse in the feeling as it were,. 
in order to distinguish authentic picces 
from those witich are false or altered. 
He onghe still mare to be on his guard, 
against those figures which exhibit bad 
representations of monuments; as also 
against rash explanations, which fre- 
quently bave no other foundation than in 
the umagination, or ignorance of au- 
thors. 
There are certain monuments which 
perish from mere antiquity. Every eli- 
mate is not adapted to their preserva+ 
tion, and the powerful action of the ele- 
ments on such bodies is sufficiently 
known. In Eng‘and, the marble resolves 
itself into air ; thence the famous 
Parian marbles are no longer legible. An 
inscription, discovered at Strasburg in 
1766, and engraved in the Museum 
Schoepflini, is now effaced from the stone 
which it adorned, in consequence of its 
sculing off by degrees. The mummies in 
Egypt, after resisting the air during whole 
ages, at length become rotten. It be- 
longs to engraving and typography, 
perpetuate the memory of similar monu- 
ments ; but there are others which are 
destroyed by malice, iguorance, avarice, 
negligence, or even by the means in- 
tended for their preservation, 
The pretended inauuscript of St. Mark, 
at Venice, is rozting, in cgmsequence of 
the humidity of the place where it is 
kept. The charming remains of some 
of the ancient figures of bronze, found 
in Herculaneum, have been melted. 
Moriconi’s varnish has destroyed severat 
fine pictures, procured with great pains 
and difficulty. Gold and silver medals, 
precious on many accounts, ‘have often 
been pu into the crucible, merely for 
Pere Sicard caused 
whole rolls of writings, discovered in 
Egypt, to be destroyed. The pluce- 
d’armes of Metz is payed with a fine Mo- 
saic, dug up during the latter part of 
the last century, and engraved in the 
; history 
