cromlechs of our Celtic ancestors. In respect to all these vestiges, even the voice of tradition is silent.

Near Cincinnati are seen low circular earth-banks, mounds, and tumuli: at Marietta, on the Ohio, are, also, extensive Indian fortifications of earth; exhibiting no inconsiderable portion of skill. Similar earthworks have been found also near the Lake Papin, and on the coasts of Florida. As to the gold coins, which were dug up (1815) in Kentucky,— one of Antony, 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 in 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 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 civilisation:" some of which seemed 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.

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, analogous 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 Laocoon, 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 of 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.

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 is nothing in the bay of Actium,

worthy of observation. says, that two frigates can scarcely manoeuvre in it; yet GERMANICUS travelled many miles to see it, because the battle between Antony and Octavius was fought in the bay below. He visited, also, the site of Antony'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.

It is so small, that Lord Byron

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, Syracuse, or the shores of the Mediterranean, 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 Totilas 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

a" A man, who has not been in Italy, is always conscious of an inferiority, from his not having seen what it is expected a man should see. The grand object of travelling is to see the shores of the Mediterranean. On those shores were the four great empires of the world; the Assyrian, the Persian, the Grecian, and the Roman. All our religion, almost all our law, almost all our arts, almost all, that sets us above savages, have come to us from the shores of the Mediterranean."-Johnson to General Oglethorpe.

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. Where once stood Nineveh, wandering tribes slake their thirst at a solitary fountain !

PLEASURES ARISING FROM LOCAL ASSOCIATIONS.

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 LLANGOLLEN. 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 recall 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 but 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 Near this spot Boadicea a

the rights of Roman citizenship. 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, Duke of Gloucester. On this spot, too, we remember, that Britain has known six general dynasties:-1. British; 2. Roman; 3. Saxon; 4. Danish; 5. Saxon; 6. Norman ;-and that we are, in consequence, descendants of them all. That is the abbey which Offa erected, in atonement for his sins, and which was exempted from all episcopal jurisdiction by Adrian, the only Englishman that ever sat in the chair of St. Peter: and who, when sitting there, declared, that all the misfortunes of his former life were mere amusements in comparison with the Popedom. A little farther, stands the cross, built by Edward the First, in honour of Eleonora ;-on the hills, not far distant, stood the camp of Ostorius; and in the plain below, Cassibelan was defeated by the irresistible Cæsar.

What sensation moves us, when we walk in the fields of the small village of KENCHESTER, in the county of Hereford? When we visit the foundations of what is supposed to have been a Roman temple; and survey the spot, on which were found a tesselated pavement, and a Roman bath; our ideas diverge from the mere circumstance of property and the nature of soil, to contrast its present comparative insignificance, with the more splendid era, when it far exceeded the city of Hereford, in the magnitude of its buildings, and in the number of its inhabitants. When we visit the city of ELY, and have surveyed its cathedral, what can recompense us for the sight of fens, rivers, and dykes, which surround us on all sides? We revert to its history, and acknowledge its importance, in the annals of our country. We pause, with melancholy, too, on the fate of Alfred, son of the Pearl of Normandy. He was deprived of his eyes; and, being shut in this monastery, died within a few days. His atten

a Cæsar, de Bell. Gallic., lib. v. c. 17.