136 
As, before the ftudy of a fcience is 
entered on, it is effential duly to appre- 
ciate whether it merits the time that is 
to be beftowed on it, I fhall endeavour to 
rove, by. a few examples, how very in- 
difpenfable the fludy of entiquity is to 
him even who merely feeks to acquire a 
feperficial information on fubjects in ge- 
neral. . 
The produStions of the celebrated wri- 
ters, both ancient and modern, are replete 
with allufions relative to the manners and 
ufages of antiquity. Now, may I be 
permitted to afk, how the delicacy of 
thefe alluGions can be felt, and the merit 
of the compojitions which contain them 
appreciated, withouta fomewhat profound 
knowledge of the cuftcms, ufages, and 
opinions of the ancients? 
Our great pcets have attained the ele- 
vation by which they are diftinguifhed in 
no other way than by an attentive ftudy 
of the ancients. For inftance, in the 
Phedre of Racine is to be found whatever 
belongs to remote antiquity and to the 
mythology of the Greeks. Again, in 
his ‘Athalie, we trace the cufloms and 
ufagés of the ancient Hebrews. It is im- 
poflible to form a competent opinion of 
thefe two mafterly produétions, without 4 
knowledge of all that has been handed 
down tous relatively to the Greeks and 
the Hebrews. 
The violent difpute which fubfifted be- 
tween feveral célebrated characters in the 
yeign of Louis XIV. would not have 
been entered on, if thofe who endcavoured 
to turn into ridicule the fine paflages 
of the ancients, to fecure the fuccefs of 
the caufe of the moderns, had been better 
acquainted with archeology. They would 
then have feen that the iceas which ap- 
peared to them to be fo extraordinary, 
refulted from the ufages of antiquity; 
and that Homer, Sophocles, and Arifto- 
phanes, could not, in their immortal pro- 
duétions, conform themfelves to the cui- 
toms of our times. 
Tt is this want of archeological know- 
ledge which has occafioned fo many harfh 
fentences to be pronounced on the works 
oe the ancients. The chorufes of their 
tragedies will certainly be found very 
unnatural, if an eftimate be formed of 
them’ ‘from our prefent manners: but 
when we reflect that the poets, to con- 
form themfelves to the tafte of their con- 
temporaties; were under the necefflity of 
introducing chorufes in which ‘ political 
-queftions were’ difcuffed, we cannot refrain 
from admiring the art with which the 
ancient dramatic authors contrived to 
conne& thefe chorufles with the action. ° 
Introduétion to the Study of Archeology. 
- (March 4, 
Thofe who are ignorant of the im-. 
portance annexed by the Greeks to their 
charict-races, will confider Sophocles as 
having been guilty of a great fault in — 
his Ele&tra, when he puts into the mouth 
of the perfon who comes to recount the 
death of Oreftes, a long defcription of 
the above fports. 
Thofe who are unacquainted with the 
Tomeric cuftoms, may be led to make ma- 
ny injudicious criticifms relative to the 
works of Homer. That pompous and 
folem mode of expreflion which the Greek 
and Trojan heroes conftantly adopt, will 
appear to them to be unnatural. They 
will be difguited with the poet, on account 
of the barbarity with which he makes 
the warriors of Homer treat their prifon- 
ers, as well as with their ferocity to~ 
wards the bodies of their vanquifhed 
enemies, which they either deftine as food 
for their dogs, cr praétice on thein every 
mark of barbarity. The Princefs Nau- 
fice, playing with a ball, and wafhing 
her linen, will appear to them as ridicu- 
lous as the Princes who prepare their 
own repats. The fage Neftor will have 
the air of wifhing to ftimulate the Greeks 
to a brutal aétion, when he holds out to 
each of them the profpe€t of bringing 
back withhim a Trojan woman, to attend 
on him, and fhare his bed, to fuch as are 
not aware that this was the lot which the 
conquerots invariably deftined for the 
vanguifhed ; and that whatever makes us 
fhudder, in thefe concepticns and ideas, 
belongs to the cuftoms of the time, not 
to Homer, who was under the neceility 
of conforming to them. mites 
It is, therefore, impoffible to form a 
found and correét judgment’ of the tafe 
and genius of the ancients, without a 
knowledge of antiquity. What is fill 
more, it is impoffible, without fuch a 
knowledge, to comprehend’ the fenfe of 
ertain paflages in the ancient authors. 
For inftance, the well known verfe: of 
- Horace which has been fo often quoted, © 
“ One tulit punflum qui mifcuit utile dulct,” 
cannot be fully comprehended by any one 
who is ignorant of the mode adopted by 
the Romans in chufing their magiftrates, 
namely, that of making a dot at the end 
of the name of the individual on whom 
their choice fell. I could cite a thoufand 
fimilar inflances of the neceflity of the 
ftudy of archeology, in acquiring a tho- 
rough knowledge of claffical authars. 
This obfervation is not confined to the 
poets alone, feeing that the hiftorians and 
orators are in the fame predicament, and 
equally unintelligible to thofe who have 
not been initiated in the myfteries of an- 
: ; tiquity, 
