Obf. III. trifling ornaments in the Gothic Architecture was productive of no other pleasure than that of wondering at the patience and minuteness of the artist, and which like that too, by men of taste hath long been exploded "The art has now gained much freedom and enlargement from those minute and severe laws, and is returning nearer to its antient fimplicity." IV. * In examining the funereal monuments of the moderns, however valuable in the illuftration of Genealogical Antiquities, the Antiquary in vain expects to meet with that entertainment, which he receives from the Sepulchral Infcriptions of the Ancients, Perhaps there is no fpecies of compofition, in which the moderns fo generally fall short of the Ancients, as in this. The infcriptions of the latter are characterised by a tenderness Obf. IV. and delicacy of fentiment, expreffed with the greatest fimplicity and elegance of Language. Of the former there are few which are not remarkable on one hand for an affected antithefis in the expreffion; and on the other, for an extravagance of panegyric: or diftinguished by a pompous display of titles fuperadded often to much fuperfluous decoration, and cumbersome magnificence. Of the Greek Epitaph it is unneceffary to produce here any particular instances; as a as a large collection of Carmina fepulchralia may be seen in the Anthologia of Reiske, of which they form a diftinct part. Tibullus has given us in Eleg. VIII. Lib. I. a specimen of a fepulchral infcription, which has at least one of the ancient Characteristics: Quod fi fatales jam nunc explevimus annos, Το Obf. IV. To which we may add another by Virgil at the end of the Culex ; His tumulus fuper inferitur; tum fronte locatur The reader may compare with this of Virgil, two Infcriptions in the Greek Anthologia of Reifke, 572, and 573. one in locuftam, and the other in locuftam and cicadam. Such infcriptions are not uncommon in the Anthologia. There is one which immediately follows, εις δέλφινα εκβρασθεντα εκ θαλασσης εν τη χερσῳ, by Archias the friend of Cicero : ουκετι παφλάζοντα διαίσσων βαθυν άλμης, ουδε προς ευτρήτοιο μέλος καλαμοιο χορεύων πρηώνι Μαλείης, ως εκυκήθη, There There is a paffage in Horace, Od. 28. Lib. I. which has very much the manner of a Greek Infcription. Me quoque devexi rapidus comes Orionis Illyricis Notus obruit undis. At tu, nauta, vaga ne parce malignus arenæ Particulam dare: fic, quodcunque minabitur Eurus Plectantur fylvæ, te fofpite; multaque merces, Ab Jove, Neptunoque facri cuftode Tarenti. The reader, who thinks of Homer's Elpenor, or Virgil's Palinurus, and of Horace's profeffed imitation of the Greek Poets, will not, I believe, give much credit to Baxter's fuppofed Allegory contained under the plain, fimple fenfe of this beautiful Ode. The observations of Heyne, at the conclufion of his difcourfe de Carmine Bucolico, in the first Volume of his excellent edition of Virgil, may be applied to the allegorical refinements of Baxter. Obf. IV. Obf. IV. Among the few inftances in which the ancient Inscription has been happily imitated, may be mentioned an Inscription written by Dr. JORTIN, which was published in his Miscellaneous Obfervations, Vol. I. and afterwards in his Lufus Poetici. Quæ te fub tenera rapuerunt, Pæta, juventa, The idea of the four laft lines feems to have Τ8το σοι ἡμετέρης μνημήίον, εθλε Σαβινε, except the conclufion of the Latin, which perhaps might serve as an example of An thologic |