Near Cincinnati are seen low circular earthbanks, mounds, and tumuli: at Marietta on the Ohio are, also, extensive Indian fortifications of earth; exSimilar hibiting no inconsiderable portion of skill. earthworks have been also found near the Lake Papin, and on the coasts of Florida. As to the gold coins, which were dug up (1815) in Kentucky,-one of Anthony, and the other of Faustina, there is no credit to be given to them. They were either impositions in themselves; or they were buried for the sake of being dug up again. Their having been carried thither in the eleventh century by Madoc is a supposition, as idle as the history of Madoc himself. If Madoc did ever traverse the Atlantic, it is not likely he should have fixed his residence at Kentucky; and still less probable is it, that he should have taken a coin with him, belonging to an age, previous to the Roman settlement in his own country.

In Mexico are witnessed pyramidal tombs, symbolical paintings, and other monuments of art, civil, religious, and military; the efforts of uncertain ages. In Peru have been found barrows, the interior of which contained curious specimens of the arts; an ancient road of more than twelve hundred miles; and buildings, denoting an age of what has been descriptively called "barbaric civilization:" some of which seeming to challenge an almost eternal duration. Such are the obelisks of Tiahuanacu; the edifices of Quito; the fortresses of Herbay and Caxahuana; the mausolea of Chahapoyas; the fragments of Pachacamac; and the ruined aqueducts of Lucanas and Condesayos.

CHAPTER VII.

Cicero tells us, that when he was at Athens, he could scarcely move one step without meeting some monument of art, or some record, as it were, of illustrious men. They were continually before his eyes. He seemed, as if he heard the thundering eloquence of Demosthenes, or listened to the divine ethics of Plato. At Salamis he thought of Themistocles; and at Marathon of Miltiades :-the Parthenon reminded him of Pericles; and other monuments, of Phocion the good.

Feelings, analagous to these, may be experienced even in the British Museum of London. For with what pleasure does an accomplished mind pause over the Torso of Hercules; the Ceres; the Venus; the Barberini Fawn; the Belvidere Torso; and the Lao coon, restored to something of its primitive beauty" With what delight, too, does it dwell upon the Ilissus, or the Theseus; and the mysteries of the Portland Vase. From these masterpieces of art, we turn to the head of the younger Memnon; the Sarcophagus of Alexander; and the porphyric columns of the ancient Leptis. With what interest do we behold the base of a column, brought from the plains of Troy; a fragment from the tomb of Agamemnon; and a circular altar, taken from Delos, ornamented with the heads of animals, festooned with flowers and fruits. Then, too, we see Hyperion, rising out of the sea; the battle of the Centaurs

and Lapithæ;-the sacred procession at the festival of Panathenæa; and associating the whole with Athenian genius, a double pleasure is elicited from the reflection, that in these fragments we have witnessed specimens of the celebrated Parthenon.

XI

Respect for antiquity, without indulging those associations, to which we have referred so often, were an unfortunate malady of the mind, since it would appear to have its probable origin, in the desire of undervaluing all that is modern :-but by virtue of that noble quality, which constitutes one of the surest indications of the sacredness of mind, even those places and ruins, which, in themselves, present little to excite admiration or sympathy, possess a power of interesting our hearts, provided any remarkable deed has been transacted in their walls, or any illustrious person been connected with their history. There was nothing in the promontory of Actium, worthy of observation; yet GERMANICUS travelled many miles to see it, because the battle of Actium was fought in the bay below. He visited, also, the scite of Anthony's camp; and was, as Tacitus informs us, highly affected at the images, which there presented themselves, of the success of one ancestor, and of the misfortunes of another.

SOLYMAN, the Magnificent, dwelt with pleasure on the ruins of Troas:-LE BRUN took a voyage to Persia, solely for the purpose of seeing the ruins of Persepolis* -and no one but the idle, the dissipated, and the

worldly, ever visited Florence, Athens, or the shores of Lesbos, without veneration and delight.

Something of this kind was acknowledged even by the barbarous Totilas. Being master of Rome, he threatened to destroy that city by fire; and not to leave one stone upon another. Belisarius, hearing of this, wrote him a letter; in which he observed, "that if Totilus conquered, he ought, for his own sake, to preserve a city, which would then be his own, by right of conquest; and would, at the same time, be the most beautiful city in his dominions. That it would be his own loss, if he destroyed it, and redound to his utter dishonour. For Rome, having been raised to so great a grandeur and majesty by the virtue and industry of former ages, posterity would consider him as a common enemy of mankind, in depriving them of an example and living representation of their ancestors." In consequence of this letter, Totilas permitted his resolution to be diverted. Thus respect for national monuments prevented Rome, and all its noble buildings, not only from becoming a huge mass of ruins, but from sharing the fate of Nineveh; of which not a single monument remains.

III.

The ruins of Dinas Bran stand upon a conic mountain. The eminence, on which they are situated, is not so high, as to render every object inferior to it; nor so low, as to lose any considerable portion of grandeur. If it want the sublimity of Arran Fowddy or of Carnedd Llewellyn, it more than compensates

the loss, by being far more beautiful than either. More than fifty mountains rise around it; forming partial screens to each other, and exhibiting a variety of amphitheatres, all increasing in height and in width, till the more distant lose themselves in the clouds. Below-lies the celebrated vale of LANGOLLEN!

Seated on an eminence, commanding a range so varied, so beautiful, and so magnificent, the small ruins of Dinas would entirely lose their effect, did we not recal to mind, that the castle, of which they are the fragments, was once the residence of the lovely Myfanway Vechan, celebrated and beloved by Hoel ap Eynion.

A few mounds of earth, and a few solitary walls, are all, that remain of the ancient city of VeruLAM. Who, that stands upon those earth-works, seeing little immediately around him, but a few enclosures, and a few dry ditches, feels the slightest emotion of pleasure, or curiosity? Connect this dull and uninteresting scene with its history:-how solemn are our reflections! This city once enjoyed all the rights of Roman citizenship. Near this spot Boadicea1 defeated a Roman army, and massacred seventy thousand inhabitants! On this mound of earth, St. Alban received the honours of martyrdom: to the north is seen the abbey and monastery of St. Albans, erected by Offa: and in that abbey repose the mortal remains of Humphrey the Good, Duke of Gloucester. On this spot, too, we remember, that Britain has known six general dynasties:1. British; 2. Roman; 3. i Tacitus, Ann., lib. xiv. c. 35, 36.

VOL. IV.

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