for cutting out the clay, that filled up the spaces of the letters, and with very little labour made the infcription legible, which is here exhibited to the public:

POST-GENITIS.

Cum lapidem hunc, magni
Qui nunc jacet incola stagni,
Vel pede equus tanget,

Vel arator vomere franget,`

Sentiet ægra metus,

Effundet patria fletus,

Littoraque ut fluctu,
Refonabunt oppida luctu:

Nam fæcunda rubri
Serpent per prata colubri,

Gramina vaftantes,

Flores fructufque vorantes,

Omnia fœdantes,

Vitiantes, et fpoliantes;

Quanquam haud pugnaces,
Ibunt per cuncta minaces,

Fures abfque timore,
Et pingues abfque labore.

Horrida dementes

Rapiet difcordia gentes,

"Plurima tunc leges

Mutabit, plurima reges

Natio, converfá

In rabiem tunc contremet urfä

B 3

Cynthia,

Cynthia, tunc latis

Florebunt lilia pratis,
Nec fremere audebit
Leo, fed violare timebit,
Omnia confuetus

Populari pafcua lætus.

Ante oculos natos
Calceatos et cruciatos

Jam feret ignavus,
Vetitâque libidine pravus.
En quoque quod mirum,
Quod dicas denique dirum,
Sanguinem equus fugit,

Neque bellua vita remugit.

These lines he carefully copied, accompanied in his letter of July 19, with the following translation.

To POSTERITY.

Whene'er this stone, now hid beneath the lake,
The horse fhall trample, or the plough fhall break,
Then, O my country! fhalt thou groan diftreft,
Grief fwell thine eyes, and terror chill thy breaft.
Thy Streets with violence of woe shall sound,
Loud as the billows bursting on the ground.
Then thro' thy fields fhall fcarlet reptiles ftray,
And rapine and pollution mark their way.
Their hungry fwarms the peaceful vale fhall fright
Still fierce to threaten, ftill afraid to fight ;

The

The teeming year's whole product shall devour,
Infatiate pluck the fruit, and crop the flow'r :
Shall glutton on the industrious peasants spoil,
Rob without fear, and fatten without toil.

Then o'er the world fhall difcord ftretch her wings,
Kings change their laws, and kingdoms change their kings.
The bear enrag'd th' affrighted moon shall dread;
The lilies o'er the vales triumphant spread;

Nor fall the lyon, wont of old to reign
Defpotic d'er the defolated plain,
Henceforth th' inviolable bloom invade,
Or dare to murmur in the flow'ry glade;
His tortur'd fons fhall die before his face,
While be lies melting in a lewd embrace;

And, yet more ftrange! his veins a horse shall drain,
Nor fhall the paffive coward once complain.

I make not the least doubt, but that this learned perfon has given us, as an antiquary, a true and uncontrovertible representation of the writer's meaning, and am fure he can confirm it by innumerable quotations from the authors of the middle age, fhould he be publicly called upon by any man of eminent rank in the republic of letters; nor will he deny the world that fatisfaction, provided the animadverter proceeds with that sobriety and modefty, with which it becomes every learned man to treat a fubject of fuch importance.

Yet with all proper deference to a name so justly ce-" lebrated, I will take the freedom of obferving that he has fucceeded better as a scholar than a poet; having fallen below the ftrength, the concifenefs, and at the

fame time below the perfpicuity of his author.. I shall not point out the particular paffages in which this difparity is remarkable, but content myfelf with faying in general, that the criticisms, which there is room for on this tranflation, may be almost an incitement to fome lawyer, ftudious of antiquity, to learn Latin.

The infcription which I now proceed to confider, wants no arguments to prove its antiquity to thofe among the learned, who are verfed in the writers of the darker ages, and know that the Latin Poetry of thofe times was of a peculiar caft and air, not eafy to be understood, and very difficult to be imitated, nor can it be conceived that any man would lay out his abilities on a way of writing, which though attained with much study could gain him no reputation, and engrave his chimeras on a stone to astonish pofterity.

Its antiquity therefore is out of dispute, but how high a degree of antiquity is to be affigned it, there is more ground for enquiry than determination. How early Latin rhymes made their appearance in the world is yet undecided by the critics. Verfes of this kind were called Leonine, but whence they derived that appellation the learned Camden confeffes himself ignorant, fo that the ftile carries no certain marks of its age. I fhall only obferve farther on "this head, that the characters are

See his Remains, 1614, p. 337, " Riming verfes which are • called Verfus Leanini, I know not wherefore (for a lyon's taile doth not answer to the middle parts as thefe verfes doe) began: in the time of Carolus Magnus, and were only in request then. and in many ages following, which delighted in nothing more then in this minftrelfie of meeters." E.

nearly

nearly of the fame form with those on King Arthur's coffin; but whether from their fimilitude we may venture to pronounce them of the fame date, I must refer to the decifion of better judges.

Our inability to fix the age of this infcription neceffarily infers our ignorance of its author, with relation to whom many controverfies may be started worthy of the moft profound learning, and most indefatigable diligence. The first question that naturally arifes is, Whether he was a Briton or a Saxon? I had at firft conceived fome hope, that in this queftion, in which not only the idle curiofity of virtuofos, but the honour of two mighty nations is concerned, fome information might be drawn from the word Patria, [my country] in the third line; England being not in propriety of fpeech the country of the Saxons; at least not at their first arrival. But upon farther reflection this argument appeared not conclufive, fince we find that in all ages, foreigners have affected to. call England their country, even when like the Saxons of old they came only to plunder it,

An argument in favour of the Britons, may indeed be drawn from the tenderness, with which the author seems to lament his country, and the compaffion he fhows for its approaching calamities. I, who am a defcendant from the Saxons, and therefore unwilling to fay any thing derogatory from the reputation of my forefathers, must yet allow this argument its full force: for it has been rarely, very rarely, known that foreigners, however well treated, careffed, enriched, flattered or exalted, have regarded this country with the leaft gratitude or affection,

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