300 G E 
OTjj^Oie contrary, whenever a Roman knight liad difli- 
pated his v/ealtli, he was compelled to give up his gold 
ling; and if any difgraceful a6t rendered a citizen inca¬ 
pable of I'loldinga public office, he was defpoiled of his 
ritig, and his feai was erafed. 
This famous republic for a long time regarded the 
liberal arts with difdain, not diflinguifhing them from 
mere manual employments; they thereforc.made fcarcely 
any progrefs in them. Afterwards, when they pene¬ 
trated with their arms into Greece and Alia, and ob- 
ferved the high efteem in which artifts were held, they 
feeined to podefs other eyes and finer feelings. The 
rude conquerors admired and pillaged thefe treafures of 
Greece, and invited Diofeorides, Solon, and their nume¬ 
rous brethren, to the Roma;i capital. Yet for a lengtli 
ot time the Romans were debarred by their religious in- 
llitutions from the ufe of the graver. Numa, ibllowing 
tlie example of Pythagoras, ha.d long conceived that a 
knowledge of the divinity could only be acquired t'y the 
mind, and imagined that it was derogatoiy to en\ploy 
material and perilhable objedts to reprefent it. The 
Romans therefore abftained from engraving any ima^e 
of the gods ; but afterwards adopting the religious rites 
of other nations, they became, like thofe nations, the 
fiaves of fiiperltition. Caprice at length invented all 
kinds of (iibjedfs to be engraven on their feal-rings. 
A multiplicity of rings, which had been hitherto 
prohibited, w;« now allowed ; and, from having been 
originally ufed as feals, became curious as well as ne- 
ceffary ornaments. They adorned the ftatues of their 
gods with tiiem, that they might have a plea for their 
own profulion, and at length became fo fallidioufiy de¬ 
licate, that they had lighter rings to wear in the I'um- 
iner. The Greeks and other nations had adopted the 
finger on the left hand for the honourable diftinftion of 
the ring ; oh the left hand it was more conveniently 
worn ; more fecure from fridtion, while the right was 
tree to adl. But when magnificence fucceeded to the 
ancient frugality, they covered all their fingers with 
rings, and even carried feveral on one finger, and mount¬ 
ed feveral engraved ftones in one ring. 
Among their domeftic ufes of rings and feals was 
that of their being fubftituted for the ufe we make of 
keys; one p>art of the feal formed the wards of a key. 
They fealed their chefis, and their wine veffels, and 
whatever tliey wifiied to preferve from the rapacity of 
their domeftics. But their chief ufe was to feal their 
letters. After the letter was folded, or their tablet 
clofed, they tied round it a flaxen firing, and at the 
point where the tie finiffied they put their wax. The 
letter thus fealed became a facred depofit; and when 
the bearer prefented it to the perfon addrelTed, he was 
very particular to make liim oblerve both the cover and 
the leal. This cufiom has been prelerved from age to 
age- In the middle ages they appear at times to have 
been difirelfed for feals ; for St. Bernard apologifes, in 
one of his letters, for not having fealed them, having 
millaid liis ring ; and he informs pope Eugenius, that 
his feal having been counterfeited, he intends for the fu¬ 
ture to have a feal which lhall bear his portrait and his 
name. 
As the head of every family had his own ring, no en¬ 
graver was permitted to make the fame ring for two dif¬ 
ferent perfons, and they employed the molt fevere pro¬ 
hibitions ag'ainfi it. Yet forgeries were numerous ; and 
frauds and firatagems were fuccelsfully accomplilhed by 
fuch means, by tiie enemies of the Romans. Pompey, 
(the fon of Pompey the Great) a naval commander, an¬ 
ticipating his melancholy end, and fearful of the pur- 
pofe to which his enemies might convert h,is ring, threw' 
it into the fea after his defeat-. At the bed alio of a 
•dying man, his IViends and heirs folicitoufly (food to 
watch the fate of his ring. From various motives many 
■called aloud to inclofe it in his funeral urn; and if the 
■dying man was lilent refpe\iting its defiiny, they inde- 
M. 
cently fnatched it from his finger ere he expired : a’ 
circumfiance which the moral Seneca condemns among 
the perverted manners of his age. 
Julius Caefar had for his feal, a Venus armed with a 
dart, of which there are numerous copies; this was to 
flatter his pride of anccltr)', pretending that he de- 
feended from Venus and Aineas. Augultus, when lie 
affumed the empire, had a fphynx, which, at length, he 
abandoned to elude the pleafantries of the wits ; this 
fphynx, they laid, portends riddles. Afterwards he 
adopted the head of Alexander; and at length his own 
portrait, engraved by Diofeorides. Pompey’s feal was 
a lion holding a fword: wdien, after his alfalfination, it 
was prefented to Casfar, the crafty rival burfi into tears. 
The feal of Mecaenas was a frog ; an animal whiclt he 
made highly dreadful to the people ; for as it was ufu- 
ally annexed to his tax bills, the hoarfe voice of the 
frog they declared to be truly unmufical. It was faid 
that this amphibious animal was fymbolical of tlie power 
Mecasnas was invefied with, both in land and fea aft'airs. 
Sylla, become haughty by taking Jugurtha prifoner, 
had the event engraven on tlie feal wdth which lie con- 
ftantly fealed his letters. This (fays Plutarch) touched 
Marius to the quick ; fo flight and frivolous was the 
beginning of the enmity of thofe celebrated rivals, 
wliicli afterwards produced fuch implacable animofity, 
and caufed fo much Roman blood to be Ihed. Scipio 
Africanus bore on his feal the portrait of Syphax, whom 
he had conquered. Thefe infiances lufficiently fiiew 
that engraved fiones recorded hifiorical events of the 
liighefi importance, at the fame time tliat they performed 
the office of feals. And thus we find that gems preferve 
to us a multitude of figns and fymbols interefiing to¬ 
wards the liifiory of the manners and cufioms of anti¬ 
quity. The finefi copies of fiatues and groupes, foma 
of which fiill exifi, while others are lofi and gone, are 
executed on precious ftones ; the faces and features of 
iiluftrious men, eminent for their genius or their power, 
are faithfully retained, and often more perfeiifly than on 
medals, w'hich are fo frequently injured by fritfion and 
time. In gems, the artifis have found an infinite num¬ 
ber of fubjetls for their imitation and improvement, 
from the age of Raphael and Michael Angelo, to Rey¬ 
nolds and Fufeli; poets and hifiorians are no lefs in¬ 
debted. From thefe precious treafures of antiquity we. 
may every day learn more and more to perfect our tafte, 
exercife our curiofity, and adorn our imagination with 
the moft elevated and the moll beautiful ideas. They 
conftitute a library without books, a gallery of pidtiues 
without paintings, and fculpture without marble. 
Cold and phlegmatic minds, however, have frequently 
murmured at the ex pence of time necellary to invefti- 
gate and acquire this art, as well as againft tJiofe charm¬ 
ing fRlions with which Homer, Hefiod, and fucceeding 
poets, liave embellilhed their works ; but did thefe in¬ 
ventions not difclofe important truths, and frequently 
the moft ufeful inftrudtions, fiill can it be wife to dellroy 
a fyfiem w'hich peopled and animated all nature, a my¬ 
thology which made a folemn temple of the valt uni- 
verfe ? “ Thofe flowers whofe fparkling and varied 
beauty we lb much admire, are the tears of Aurora. 
It is the.,breath of Zephyrus which gently agitates the 
leaves, while the murmurs of the waters are the fighs 
ot the Naiads. A god impels the wind; a god pours 
out the rivers ! Grapes are the gift of Bacchus. Ceres 
prelides over the harvefi. Orchards are the care of Po¬ 
mona. Does a ftiepherd found liis reed oti the fummit 
of a mountain, it is Pan who wdth his palloral pipe re¬ 
turns tlie amorous lay. When the I'portfman’s liorn 
roufes tlie inchanted ear, it is Diana armed with her bow 
and quiver ; more nimjjle than the ftag (he purfues, 
when file takes the diverfion of the chafe. The fun 
is a god, who, riding on a car of fire, (batters through 
the univerfe a flood of light. The (lars are divinities, 
wlio meafure the eternal path of time with their golden 
beams. 
