S

EE the wild Waste of all-devouring years!

How Rome her own fad Sepulchre appears, With nodding arches, broken temples spread! The very Tombs now vanifh'd like their dead!

NOTES.

THIS was originally | written in the year 1715, when Mr Addison intended to publish his book of medals; it was fome time before he was Secretary of State; but not published

till Mr Tickell's Edition of his works; at which time the verfes on Mr Craggs, which conclude the poem, were added, viz. in 1720. P.

EPIST. V.] As the third Epiftle treated of the ex

Imperial wonders rais'd on Nations spoil'd,

5

Where mix'd with Slaves the groaning Martyr

toil'd:

Huge Theatres, that now unpeopled Woods,
Now drain'd a diftant country of her Floods:
Fanes, which admiring Gods with pride furvey,
Statues of Men, scarce less alive than they!

NOTES.

the fourth.

10

tremes of Avarice and Pro- | is, therefore, a corollary to
fufion; and the fourth took
up one particular branch of
the latter, namely, the va-
nity of expence in people of
wealth and quality, and was
therefore a corollary to the
third; fo this treats of one
circumstance of that Vanity,
as it appears in the common
collectors of old coins; and

VER. 6. Where mix'd
with flaves the groaning
Martyr toil'd] The inatten-
tive reader might wonder
how this circumftance came
to find a place here.
But
let him compare it with
13, 14, and he will fee the
Reason,

Barbarian blindness, Christian zeal conspire,
And Papal piety, and Gothic fire.

For the Slaves mentioned ruin what those were so in-
above were of the fame na-juriously employed in rear-
tion with the Barbarians ing for the poet never
here and the Chriftians lofeth fight of his great prin-
here, the Succeffors of the ciple.
Martyrs there: Providence
ordaining, that thefe fhould

VER. 9. Fanes, which admiring Gods with pride.

Some felt the filent stroke of mould'ring age,
Some hoftile fury, fome religious rage.
Barbarian blindnefs, Chriftian zeal confpire,
And Papal piety, and Gothic fire.

15

Perhaps, by its own ruins fav'd from flame,
Some bury'd marble half preferves a name;
That Name the learn'd with fierce difputes purfue,
And give to Titus old Vespasian's due.

Ambition figh'd: She found it vain to trust

The faithlefs Column and the crumbling Buft:

20

Huge moles, whofe fhadow ftretch'd from fhore to

fhore,

Their ruins perifh'd, and their place no more!

NOTES.

furvey,] Thefe Gods were | the then Tyrants of Rome, to whom the Empire raised Temples. The epithet, admiring, conveys a strong ri

dicule; that paffion, in the opinion of Philofophy, always conveying the ideas of ignorance and mifery:

Nil admirari prope res eft una, Numici,
Solaque quæ poffit facere & fervare beatum.

Admiration implying our | A fine infinuation of the en

ignorance of other things; pride, our ignorance of our felves.

VER. 18. And give to Titus old Vefpafian's due.]

tire want of Tafte in Antiquaries; whofe ignorance of Characters misleads them, (fupported only by a name) againft Reafon and Hiftory.

Convinc'd, the now contracts her vast design,
And all her Triumphs fhrink into a Coin.
A narrow orb each crouded conquest keeps,
Beneath her Palm here fad Judæa weeps.
Now fcantier limits the proud Arch cónfine,
And scarce are feen the proftrate Nile or Rhine;
A fmall Euphrates thro' the piece is roll'd,

And little Eagles wave their wings in gold.

25

The Medal, faithful to its charge of fame, Thro' climes and ages bears each form and name : In one short view fubjected to our eye Gods, Emp'rors, Heroes, Sages, Beauties, lie. With sharpen'd fight pale Antiquaries pore, Th' infcription value, but the ruft adore.

VER. 25.

NOTES.

A narrow

30

35

VER. 35. With fharpen'd fight pale Antiquaries pore,] Microscopic glaffes, invent

Orb each crowded Conqueft keeps,] A ridicule on the pompous title of Orbis Ro-ed by philofophers to difmanus, which the Romans gave to their empire. VER. 27. the proud Arch] i. e. The triumphal Arch, which was generally an enormous mass of build-dals. ing.

cover the beauties in the minuter works of nature, ridiculously applied by Antiquaries, to detect the cheats of counterfeit me

This the blue varnish, that the green endears,
The facred ruft of twice ten hundred years!
To gain Pefcennius one employs his schemes,
One grafps a Cecrops in ecftatic dreams.
Poor Vadius, long with learned fpleen devour'd,
Can tafte no pleasure fince his Shield was fcour'd:
And Curio, restless by the Fair-one's fide,

Sighs for an Otho, and neglects his bride.

40

45

Theirs is the Vanity, the Learning thine: Touch'd by thy hand, again Rome's glories fhine; Her Gods, and god-like Heroes rife to view, And all her faded garlands bloom a-new. Nor blush, these studies thy regard engage; These pleas'd the Fathers of poetic rage;

NOTES.

VER. 37. This the blue | varnish, that the green endears,] i. e. This a collector of filver; That, of brass coins.

VER. 41. Poor Vadius] See his hiftory, and that of his Shield, in the Memoirs of Scriblerus.

VER. 49. Nor blush, thefe Studies thy regard engage ;] A fenfelefs affectation which

50

fome writers of eminence have betrayed; who when fortune, or their talents, have raised them to a condition to do without those arts, for which only they gained our esteem, have pretended to think letters below their Character. This falfe fhame M. Voltaire has very well, and with proper indignation, expofed in his