Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 5.djvu/477

Rh it; for I do not question but that the curious part of my readers will be very well pleased to see so much matter, and so many useful hints upon this subject, laid together in so clear and concise a manner:

"The English have not been so careful as other polite nations to preserve the memory of their great actions and events on medals. Their subjects are few, their mottoes and devices mean, and the coins themselves not numerous enough to spread among the people, or descend to posterity.

"The French have outdone us in these particulars, and by the establishment of a society for the invention of proper inscriptions and designs, have the whole history of their present king in a regular series of medals.

"They have failed, as well as the English, in coining so small a number of each kind, and those of such costly metals that each species may be lost in a few ages, and is at present no where to be met with but in the cabinets of the curious.

"The ancient Romans took the only effectual method to disperse and preserve their medals, by making them their current money.

"Every thing glorious or useful, as well in peace as war, gave occasion to a different coin. Not only an expedition, victory, or triumph, but the exercise of a solemn devotion, the remission of a duty or tax, a new temple, seaport, or highway, were transmitted to posterity after this manner.

"The greatest variety of devices are on their copper money, which have most of the designs " that