~ 
Vox. IV.] 
purple, was the money of that republic ful- 
lied with the image of a mortal, 
Anage of polithed fervility, followed by 
along night of Cimmerian darknefs, fuc- 
ceeded, 
deified monfters of the moral worid, whofe 
claim to the godhead feems to have been 
founded on the excefs of their crimes, 
affaumed on their coins all! the fymbols of. 
divinity. Chriftianity too,’ no longer 
crawling meekly on the earth, but with 
her foot fixed on the neck of proftrate Pa 
ganifm, converted the Augur’s /iuvs into 
the Bithop’s crofier, &c. borrowed the 
nimbus, or glory, with which the heads of 
the eaftern emperors were arrayed, in or- 
der to adorn her faints and irradiate her 
gods.* | 
At length, literature and the arts, 
which had been rooted up by the barba- 
rians, revived together, and Europe be- 
held with aftonifhment a prince+,feated on 
the throne of fuperftition, by a itrange fa- 
tality, encouraging thole very purfuits that 
were deftined to fhake prieftcraft to its 
centre. 
Louis XIV, imitating Auguftus in a 
protedting defpotifm, \ike him, cherithed 
genius, and, like him too, found it ever 
ready to court the files and lick the feet 
of that very tyranny which it was doom- 
ed fo fpeedily to fubvert. The vain-glory 
of this prince fupplied a hberal patron- 
age to the arts: His numerous dies, 
which form, as it were, a zedalic biflory 
of his reign, difplay, however, ali the fan- 
tafticalnets of defpotifm ; for we behold 
him, at one tme, ftriking a fuperb me- 
dallion on the junction of the o¢ean and 
the Mediterranean, and, at another, eter- 
nizing the revocation of the ediét of Nantz. 
In 1683, he records his juft vengeance 
on Algiers; and celebrates the recovery of 
his fubjeéts from flavery.; in 1686, he 
perpetuates the difcovery of the fatellites 
of Saturn; while, in 1685, he tells pofte- 
rity, that a tyrant king of France was 
bafe enough to make the firft magifirare 
of a free ftate fupplicate, in perfon, his 
forgivenefs f. 
BER OTS ERS A SE 
* The ancient fympulum, from which the 
libations were poured out on the heads of the 
victims, in the temple of Jupiter, feems to 
have been converted into the beneticr, or holy- 
water pot of modern times. 
Leo X. 
t As the five medals alluded to are now be- 
fore me, I fhall tranfciibe the mottos, &c. 
No. 1. SubjeF. 
Neptune fmiting an Ifthmus with his trident, 
and forming a Union between the Seas, 
Legend, 
Magia jvvora, 
On-Medals, 
Tiberius, Nero, Caligula, thofe 
Sap 
The effeminate and diffolute reign of 
Louis XV, added but little for the pen of 
the hiftorian, the pencil of the painter, or 
the durim of the engravers. and yet all 
thefe were employed to flatter his vanity 
and footh his pride. ; 
The age of Lows XVI, is that of po-. 
litical, aracles. The American revolu- . 
tion was but the forerunner of others infi- 
nitely more important. On this occafion 
was ftruck one. of the fineft medals that 
modern times have witneffed. J ihall here 
defcribe it from a f{pecimen lately in my- 
own poffeffion, but now appertaining to 
Profeffor Ogilvie, of King’s College, Old 
Aberdeen, On‘ the face, is a bufto of a 
beautiful maiden, with’ her treffes float- 
ing in the wind. The head furmounted 
by the ¢mp of dderty, fufpended at the end 
of the wrdicta, or rod, ufed by the Ro- 
man magifirate on enfranchifing a flave: 
‘“ Hee mera libertas: banc nobis pilea do- 
tg Pers, Sat. 5. 
Mant. 
-——fainulefque juga laxarus perilt 
Ducitur, SD grato remeat fecurior. itu. 
Triftis conditis pullata fronte recedit : 
In ciuem, Ce 
ae 

Craup. 


Lxergue. _ 
, Fossa A, Gar, AD. 
Port SETIuM 
M.DC.LXVIt. 
No. 2. | SubyeG. 
Religion (Superftition) planting a Crucifix on 
the deiolated Altars of ¢he Hugunots, or 
Proteftants. 
Legend. ; 
Revicio Vicrrix. 
: Exergue. 
Tempris CauvintanonumM EveErsis, 
M, DiC. E XX XiVesrs 
No.'3.. Subj2ée. 
France releafing her captive Citizens: with one 
Hand, and terrifying, a: Figure in arTurkith 
drels, by means of the Meduia’s Head on her 
Shield, which the upholds with the other. 
Legend. Be ity 
i CIuEs A PIRATIs RECUPERATI. 
ite’ ter rue. | ys 
ALGERIA FULMINATA, - 
Mocces sti: ss 
No? 4." Sabje&.* 
Saturn farrounded by his Satellites: 
: Legend. Te 
SaTurw, Satetcites Prinum:Cocnith 
M.D. LEKHVIEt ho. - 
No.5... Sulyecte 5 
The Doge of Genoa holding his ducal Crowns, 
in his Right Hand, foliciting the» Forgive-. 
nefs of Louis XIV. akan ‘ 
Legend. : 
OxBsEQUENS 
Exergue. 
Dox, Lecatus fr 
DEPRECATOR, 
M.DC,LXXXV. 
’ 
GENUA, 
Legend: 
