THE FOUR AGES. THE Ancients, as Ovid elegantly shews in his Metamorphofis, held, that the different states of fociety were aptly expreffed by being termed the Golden Age, the Silver, the Brazen, and the Iron Aurea prima fata eft Ætas, &c. -fubiit argentea Proles Auro deterior, fulvo pretiofior Ære, &c. Sævior ingeniis, &c. -de duro eft ultima ferro. METAM. LIB. I. They conceived that the first state of man was fuperior to all fucceeding states, as gold is beyond other metals; that the fecond B fecond Age had as much degenerated from the perfection of the first, as the value of filver is below gold; that the third was fo far removed from primitive excellence, as to deferve the appellation of the Brazen-Age; and that the fourth, unhappily for us, is the last state of degeneracy, and deserves no better epithet than what the cheapest and most worthlefs metal afforded. We then live in the Iron-Age. In compliance with a custom fanctioned by fuch early antiquity, I fhall make ufe of the fame terms, and call the different Ages by the names of the four metals, which, if not very elegant, are expreffive enough of the meaning. But, in direct contradiction to the opinion of the ancients, and perhaps of the moderns, I fhall, in treating this fubject, invert the order, and endeavour to prove, that the first was the Iron-Age, and the last, when it shall please Heaven to fend it, will be that of Gold-no Golden-Age having yet existed, except in the imagination of poets. But to avoid being misunderstood, it is neceffary to premife, that the different states of mankind do not depend upon A. M. or A. U. C. or A. D.—for, in the first year of our æra, Italy was refined, and England barbarous; and in the eighteenth century, fome nations have attained a point of perfection unknown to all which have preceded, while others are still unenlightened and ignorant. It is not then from the age of the world, but from the age of fociety, that the dates in this effay are computed. All works, whether of art or literature, long fince produced, are ancient, as far as time only is concerned. But if we mean to distinguish between elegant and barbarous antiquity, it is neceffary to confider in what state of society the works B 2 were were produced. The want of this diftinction has been of great differvice to the polite arts, and given a false direction to a good principle. At the revival of the arts in Italy, architects, painters, and sculptors studied the remains of ancient Rome as fpecimens of their art carried in an enlightened age to the height of perfection. The Roman Antiquities then are valuable, because they are the productions of artists who poffeffed all the knowledge of an advanced state of fociety; but the Saxon and Gothic Antiquities, tho' juftly objects of curiofity, and even of admiration, are still the remains of society in its infancy, and therefore barbarous and falfe. Nothing is more common than finding in nations widely feparated, a refemblance of manners and cuftoms;* from whence * "Meet Highlanders near Montauban like thofe in Scotland.” YOUNG. |