[ 142 ] [Feb. 



A wykehamite's revenge against adams's antiquities.* 



The late learned and acute M. Dutens, in devoting so much inge- 

 nuity to vindicate the title of the ancients to many of what we deem 

 modern inventions, seems, amidst his abtruse researches, to have over- 

 looked a claim peculiarly fortified by the texts of ancient writers. 



Few objects in the present day attract more attention from men of 

 rank and opulence than their carriages ; which surely would not be 

 thus esteemed if they were not objects of the highest importance. 



The ancients, therefore, will stand higher than ever, if proved not 

 merely to have possessed all the equipages which form so great a por- 

 tion of our national glory, but to have bestowed upon them names, 

 differing from ours only in termination. 



We will then boldly produce our authorities ; and though the great 

 Dutch and German critics usually strengthen their conjectures by bar- 

 barously torturing words and sentences — cramping, expanding, or per- 

 verting them into shapes, which the authors, were they to revive, would 

 never recognize — we will translate literally every passage that we adduce. 



Our regret at mortifying the antiquarians is overbalanced by the 

 prospect of ensuring triumph to our fashionable whips, who will find 

 their emulation of coachmen sanctioned by great examples, and those 

 pursuits which the wise men of modern days regard as evidences of a 

 feeble intellect, proved to have been the occupation of the mightiest 

 spirits of yore. Indeed they will not fail to perceive, that as the 

 heroes and statesmen, of Rome were charioteers, so by an inverted argu- 

 ment the charioteers of England must be heroes and statesmen. 



We proceed to our proofs, taking the carriages in the natural order 

 of their importance. 



For the early origin of the patrician phaeton we have the authority 

 of Ovid, who says, in his pathetic way : — 

 Metam : "1 " At phaeton 



Lib. ii, line 319. f " Volvitur in praeceps !" 



" But the phaeton is overturned !" 

 and a little before : — 



Metam : \ " fuit huic animis aequalis et annis. 



Lib. ij line 750.J " Sole satus phaeton." 



" There was a jih'deton equally dashing and equally old, 

 " That drew its birth from the sun." 



The Sun was, perhaps, a famous inn. 



For the existence of the Sociable we have an unexceptionable witness. 

 Pliny the naturalist, a writer, not like the poet whom we have just 

 quoted, somewhat addicted to fiction, but a plain matter-of-fact man, 

 has the following words : — 



Lib. xvi. — 42. " Abies sociabilis glutino." 



This passage has been long misunderstood, from the omission of a 

 comma before the last letter of " abies,"f which should be thus 

 written : — 



" Abie's sociabilis glutino." 



* Few Wykehamites have forgot the agony of hearing : " senior part of the 5th up 

 to books!" and desperately begging round for tlie loan of this essential -but evasive 

 book. 



t The Romans had most of their manuscripts copied by slaves. Atticus derived 

 much of his immense wealth from the literary labours of slaves whom he kept for 

 that purpose. 



