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O illustrate the poetry of Horace by the aid of antique

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gems is far from being a novel idea; in fact, there is a very obvious analogy in nature between these works of the most elaborate and imaginative of all ancient arts, and those most polished and graceful of all productions of the classic muse. Several attempts have consequently been made with the same view, at the head of which stands pre-eminent the edition brought out by Pine in the years 1733-7, under the patronage of Frederick, Prince of Wales, and WilliamAugustus, Duke of Cumberland, a sumptuous and beautiful specimen of copper-plate engraving at its best period, but which has long ago passed into the category of rare and expensive bibliographical curiosities.

There is however one essential difference between Pine's system of illustration and that projected by myself as more consistent with the nature of the undertaking, on which (together with the employment of the sister-art, now superseding chalcography for all such purposes,) the present edition may justly claim some originality in its plan. The former, with all subsequent imitators, has drawn upon other branches of ancient art besides the glyptic for his supply of materials, copying medals to as large an extent as engraved gems; and even, by a much more censurable incon

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gruity, introducing, when their assistance failed him, numerous fancy designs, inspired by the taste of the age of Louis XV., not of Augustus. There is yet another, and more serious defect, common to all the attempts of my predecessors in this direction. The gem-subjects they employ are in no one instance drawn after the originals, but are merely the reduced copies of other copies, being wholly taken from published plates, and necessarily losing in the repetition of the drawing, all the spirit, and too often the real intention of their supposed prototypes. Besides this drawback, the selection of the gems themselves was in many instances made with small critical discrimination, compositions glaringly modern by their style, being often admitted in all good faith as antique examples of the best period. Add to this that Pine had but a very limited supply of even these unsatisfactory aids at his command, the large and magnificent publications that bring the more important cabinets within our reach, not having made their appearance until somewhat later in the century.

As to the edition now offered to the lovers of Horace and of classical art, all its originality and all its value as a pictorial work, consist in an exclusive dependence upon the resources of the glyptic art alone, and upon the judicious employment of those resources. Through their instrumentality I hope to call up, still bright and unchanged, before the reader's eye, the actual forms that in town and country surrounded the living poet, and moulded his thoughts after their own image. Thus far and no farther do my editorial labours extend; I have no ambition to be ranked amongst the innumerable host of commentators and critics,

'whose unwearied pains

Made Horace dull,'

my object being to make his beauties shine forth more brightly upon the modern world by supplying it with the means for the better appreciation of them. I boldly under

take, in good hope of success, to illustrate my author's ideas by precisely the same pictorial renderings of them as he would himself have selected had such a method of enhancing the attractions of a book been fashionable in his day. And this assertion, presumptuous as it may appear to the uninitiated, may be substantiated with little difficulty. All persons conversant with ancient art are aware that engraved gems filled exactly the same place in the Roman world as prints on paper do in the modern: all subjects,

"Quidquid agunt homines, votum, timor, ira, voluptas,"

being embodied in their medium, and by means of impressions, circulated all over the empire. No theme was too high or too low for their scope, the profoundest mysteries of religion, and the broadest caricature, imperial majesty and the puffs of a quack-doctor, with every other expression of the various feelings of our nature, claimed gems for their exponents.

The resources therefore of the glyptic art are of all others the most unfailing, when accessible in all their fulness, to him that seeks after such remains of antiquity as throw light upon ancient customs and modes of thought. Gems comprehend within their proper domain the subjects of all the other branches of creative art, statuary, painting, numismatics; nay, go far beyond them all in what relates to religious usages, portraiture, domestic life, and the creations of fancy and of humour. And, for my special purpose, their representations of all such objects possess the inestimable advantage of being already reduced, and presented to the eye in the form sanctioned beforehand by antique taste as the best adapted for the embellishment of the printed page.

Gems moreover have a peculiar claim to be enlisted in the service of that poet, who was the favourite and intimate friend

'quem vocas "dilecte" Mæcenas'—

of one, himself the most enthusiastic amateur in them, and the

warmest patron of gem-engravers. Horace, doubtless, had often been called upon to admire each fresh addition to the cabinet of his Etruscan benefactor, and discussed with him its beauties as they reclined 'sub arta vite' at his Sabine farm, whilst the invalid statesman 'smoothed his care-worn brow' in cheerful converse with the bard. Perhaps the latter caught from such a sight many a bright and joyous thought now enshrined in his verse; nay more, the unfading immortality of these vehicles of art tempts one to indulge the pleasing illusion, truly an 'amabilis insania,' that amongst the numerous intagli decorating these pages, some one or two may actually have charmed the eye and stimulated the imagination of the tasteful poet.

The main principle directing my choice amongst the immense store of such materials placed at my disposal by the kind assistance of many eminent amateurs (whom I now thank for their essential services in furthering my object) has been to consult the interests of archæology no less than those of fancy and the muse. With this view historic portraits and memorials of important events were the primary object of my researches, and have been introduced as extensively as my success permitted; and this, indeed, has so far exceeded my first expectations as to render my ancient portrait gallery unusually complete. But, from the very nature of the art supplying my materials, by far the larger part fall within the province of mythology, a branch of classical study on which, if critically examined, they throw the clearest light. It has therefore been my endeavour to make the most of their assistance in this particular by the largest possible variety in the choice of subjects, and by bringing together all the different types that set forth the same religious idea in the various phases of its development. For this purpose my collection will offer the gods and heroes of Greece and Italy, imaged forth in every successive style from the solemn grotesqueness of Pelasgic and Etruscan art (whence much has here been drawn, it being a rich mine as yet almost unexplored for such

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