ANTIQUITIES

ANTIQUITIES, a term implying all testimonies,
or authentic accounts, that have come down to us of
ancient nations. Bacon calls antiquities the wrecks of
history, or such particulars as industrious and learned
persons have collected from genealogies, inscriptions,
monuments, coins, names, etymologies, archives, in-
struments, fragments of history, &c.

Antiquities form a very extensive science, including
VOL. II. Part I.

“an historical knowledge of the edifices, magistrates, Antiquities
offices, habiliments, manners, customs, ceremonies,
worship, and other objects worthy of curiosity, of all
the principal ancient nations of the earth.”

This science is not a matter of mere curiosity, but
is indispensable to the theologian; who ought to be
thoroughly acquainted with the antiquities of the Jews,
to enable him properly to explain numberless passages
in the Old and New Testaments: to the lawyer; who,
without the knowledge of the antiquities of Greece
and Rome, can never well understand, and properly ap-
ply, the greatest part of the Roman laws: to the
physician and the philosopher, that they may have a
complete knowledge of the history and principles of
the physics and philosophy of the ancients: to the critic,
that he may be able to understand and interpret
ancient authors: to the orator and poet; who will be
thereby enabled to ornament their writings with num-
berless images, illusions, comparisons, &c.

Antiquities are divided into sacred and profane, into
public and private, universal and particular, &c. It is
true, that the antiquaries (especially such as are infected
with a spirit of pendantry, and the number of these is
great) frequently carry their inquiries too far, and em-
ploy themselves in laborious researches after learned
trifles; but the abuse of a science ought never to make
us neglect the applying it to rational and useful pur-
poses.

Many antiquaries also restrain their learned labours to
the elucidation of the antiquities of Greece and
Rome: but this field is far too confined, and by no
means contains the whole of this science, seeing it pro-
perly includes the antiquities of the Jews, Egyptians,
Persians, Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Hetruscans, Ger-
mans, and, in general, all those principal nations men-
tioned in ancient history: so far as any accounts of
them are come down to us.

If to the general subjects above mentioned we add
the particular study of antiquities, of the statues, bass-
reliefs, and the precious relics of architecture, paint-
ing, cameaus, medals, &c. it is easy to conceive that
antiquities form a science very extensive and very com-
plicated, and with which only a very small acquaintance
could have been attainable by any one man, if our pre-
decessors had not prepared the way for us: if they had
not left us such inestimable works as those of Gronovius,
Gravius, Montfaucon, Count Caylus, Winckelman,
the Hebraic antiquities of D. Iken of Bremen, the
Grecian antiquities of Brunings, the Roman antiqui-
ties of Nieupoort, and especially that work which is
intitled Bibliographia Antiquaria Joh. Alberti Fabricii,
professor at Hamburg; &c. &c. Nor must we here
forget that very valuable work, with which our coun-
tryman Mr Robert Wood has lately enriched this
science, and which is so well known, and so justly es-
teemed by all true connoisseurs, under the title of the
Ruins of Palmyra, and those of Balbeck. It is by this
work that we are fully convinced of the grandeur and
magnificence, the taste and elegance, of the buildings
of the ancients. We here see that the invention of
these matters is not all owing to the Greeks, but that
there were other nations who served them as models.
For, tho' many of the edifices of Palmyra are to be at-
tributed to the emperor Aurelian, and to Odenatus and
his wife Zenobia, who reigned there about the year

Antiquities 264, yet there are found at the same place, ruins of buildings, that appear to be of far greater antiquity, and that are not less beautiful. The ancient Persepolis is sufficient to prove this assertion. When we duly reflect on all these matters, and especially if we attempt to acquire any knowledge of this science, we shall soon be convinced that it but ill becomes a petit-maitre to laugh at a learned antiquary.

The knowledge of those monuments of the ancients, the works of sculpture, statuary, graving, painting, &c. which they call antiques, requires a strict attention with regard to the matter itself on which the art has been exercised; as the wax, clay, wood, ivory, stones of every kind, marble, flint, bronze, and every sort of metal. We should begin by learning on what matter each ancient nation principally worked, and in which of the fine arts they excelled. For the matter itself, as the different sorts of marble, compositions of metals, and the species of precious stones, serve frequently to characterize the true antique, and to discover the counterfeit. The connoisseurs pretend also to know, by certain distinct characters in the design and execution of a work of art, the age and nation where it was made. They find, moreover, in the invention and execution, a degree of excellence, which modern artists are not able to imitate. Now, though we ought to allow, in general, the great merit of the ancients in the polite arts, we should not, however, suffer our admiration to lead us into a blind superstition. There are pieces of antiquity of every sort, which have come down to us; some that are perfectly excellent; and others so wretched, that the meanest among modern artists would not acknowledge them. The mixture of the good and bad has taken place in all subjects, at all times, and in all nations. The misfortune is, that most of our great antiquaries have been so little skilled in designing, as scarcely to know how to draw a circle with a pair of compasses. It is prejudice, therefore, which frequently directs them to give the palm to the ancients, rather than a judgment directed by a knowledge of the art. That character of expression, which they find so marvellous in the works of antiquity, is often nothing more than a mere chimera. They pretend that the artists of our days constantly exaggerate their expressions; that a modern Bacchus has the appearance of a man distracted with intoxication; that a Mercury seems to be animated with the spirit of a fury; and so of the rest. But let them not decide too hastily. Almost all the antique figures are totally void of all spirit of expression; we are forced to guess at their characters. Every artificial expression requires, moreover, to be somewhat exaggerated. A statue or portrait is an inanimate figure; and must therefore have a very different effect from one which, being endowed with life, has the muscles constantly in play, and where the continual change of the features, the motion of the eyes, and the looks, more or less lively, easily and clearly express the passions and sentiments. Whereas, in a figure that is the produce of art, the delicate touches, that should express the passions, are lost to the eyes of the spectators: they must therefore be struck by strong, bold characters, which can effect them at the first glance of the eye. A very moderate artist is sensible, at the

same time, that he is not to give his figures extravagant expressions, nor to place them in distorted attitudes. Antiquity expressions, nor to place them in distorted attitudes. Antiseptics ANTIQUITY signifies times or ages past long ago. Thus, we say, the heroes of antiquity, &c. ANTIQUITY is also used to denote the works or monuments of antiquity. See ANTIQUITIES.

ANTIQUITY likewise expresses the great age of a thing; and in this sense we say the antiquity of a family, the antiquity of a kingdom.