a reader of plain sense but without a
fine taste, turning over these parts of the Volume which make more than
half of it, and wondering how an Author who seems to have so solid an
understanding when he treats of more weighty subjects in the other pages,
should dwell upon such trifles, and give up so much room to matters of
mere amusement. There are indeed but few men so fond of the Ancients, as
to be transported with every little accident which introduces to their
intimate acquaintance. Persons of that cast may here have the
satisfaction of seeing Annotations upon an old Roman Poem, gathered from
the hills and valleys where it was written. The Tiber and the Po serve to
explain the verses which were made upon their banks; and the Alps and
Apennines are made Commentators on those Authors, to whom they were
subjects, so many centuries ago.

Next to personal conversation with the Writers themselves, this is the
surest way of coming at their sense; a compendious and engaging kind of
Criticism which convinces at first sight, and shews the vanity of
conjectures made by Antiquaries at a distance. If the knowledge of Polite
Literature has its use, there is certainly a merit in illustrating the
Perfect Models of it; and the Learned World will think some years of a
man's life not misspent in so elegant an employment. I shall conclude
what I had to say on this Performance, by observing that the fame of it
increased from year to year; and the demand for copies was so urgent,
that their price rose to four or five times the original value, before it
came out in a second edition.

The _Letter from Italy_ to my Lord HALIFAX may be considered as the Text,
upon which the book of _Travels_ is a large Comment; and has been esteemed
by those who have a relish for Antiquity, as the most exquisite of his
poetical performances. A Translation of it, by Signor SALVINI, Professor
of the Greek tongue, at Florence, is inserted in this edition; not only
on account of its merit, but because it is the language of the country,
which is the subject of the Poem.

The materials for the _Dialogues upon Medals_, now first printed from a
manuscript of the Author, were collected in the native country of those
coins. The book itself was begun to be cast in form, at Vienna; as
appears from a letter to Mr. STEPNEY, then Minister at that Court, dated
in November, 1702.

Some time before the date of this letter, Mr. ADDISON had designed to
return to England; wh