dispute for preference between the ancient and modern
music. It would, perhaps, be no impertinent design to take off all their
models in wood, which might not only give us some notion of the ancient
music, but help us to pleasanter instruments than are now in use. By the
appearance they make in marble, there is not one string-instrument that
seems comparable to our violins, for they are all played on either by
the bare fingers, or the plectrum, so that they were incapable of adding
any length to their notes, or of varying them by those insensible
swellings, and wearings away of sound upon the same string, which give
so wonderful a sweetness to our modern music. Besides that, the
string-instruments must have had very low and feeble voices, as may be
guessed from the small proportion of wood about them, which could not
contain air enough to render the strokes, in any considerable measure,
full and sonorous. There is a great deal of difference in the make, not
only of the several kinds of instruments, but even among those of the
same name. The syringa, for example, has sometimes four, and sometimes
more pipes, as high as the twelve. The same variety of strings may be
observed on their harps, and of stops on their tibiae, which shows the
little foundation that such writers have gone upon, who, from a verse
perhaps in Virgil's Eclogues, or a short passage in a classic author,
have been so very nice in determining the precise shape of the ancient
musical instruments, with the exact number of their pipes, strings, and
stops....

Tho the statues that have been found among the ruins of old Rome are
already very numerous, there is no question but posterity will have the
pleasure of seeing many noble pieces of sculpture which are still
undiscovered; for, doubtless, there are greater treasures of this nature
under ground, than what are yet brought to light.[5] They have often dug
into lands that are described in old authors, as the places where such
particular statues or obelisks stood, and have seldom failed of success
in their pursuits. There are still many such promising spots of ground
that have never been searched into. A great part of the Palatine
mountain, for example, lies untouched, which was formerly the seat of
the imperial palace, and may be presumed to abound with more treasures
of this nature than any other part of Rome.

But whether it be that the richest of these discoveries fall into the
Pope's hands, or for some