ur_ subject has _its_ interest, both in
having a _practical_ bearing, and in being _new_; and, as we have
adopted it, we must make the best of it. Therefore, we propose to give a
series of _ana_, rambling like our last, (as all "_ana_" claim a right
to be,) but purporting to make some remarks, didactic and miscellaneous,
on coins, gems, marbles, bronzes, _terra cotta_, and glass, each in due
order of succession, our present lucubration confining itself to the
mere introduction of our reader to the _Antiquari_ themselves. Allusion
has already been made to the very large sums wasted every year on the
Continent by our countrymen in pursuit of the "antique," though it might
be difficult to determine to what extent pubic credulity is thus
annually imposed upon; difficult, because self-love is here at variance
with self-interest, (_silencing_ many a victim, who fears, lest if his
mistakes were blabbed abroad, the world might append some more
unflattering name to his own than that of _dupe_;) and difficult again,
because there are gulls that _will not_ be so called; and _gudgeons_ who
_won't_ believe in a pike till he swallows them up alive! Thus, while
the fraud practised is great, the stir it makes, in consequence of these
things, is small; and it becomes, therefore, the more necessary to
apprise amateurs, that the money laid out to _learn_ experience may come
to more than would purchase them a commission in the Guards!

"Not to admire's the simplest art we know,
To keep your fortune in its _statu quo_;
Who holds loose cash, nor _cheques_ his changeling gold,
Buy what he will, is certain to be _sold_."

Much more had we to say in the way of advice to the untutored, but we
refrain, for nobody has given us "salary, or chair;" and who, then, has
given us the right to lecture "_ex cathedra_?" We throw out, therefore,
no further "hints to freshmen," but proceed forthwith to describe a few
of the more noted and sly of our antiquarian acquaintances in Italy.
Some years back, we remember, all the English in Rome used to turn out a
fox-hunting; it was considered an exploit, and so perhaps it was, to
kill under the _Arc of Veii_, amidst the moist meadows of the Crembra;
and to teach the Sabine Echo to respond from her hills to the sound of
the British Tally-ho! Now, whilst the followers of the Chesterfield
kennel sought their foxes _without_ the walls, we always knew where to
look for ours _within_; and, whatever _their_ succ