Beneath her palm here sad Judæa weeps;
Now scantier limits the proud arch confine;
And scarce are seen the prostrate Nile or Rhine;
A small Euphrates thro’ the piece is rolled,
And little eagles wave their wings in gold.
The Medal, faithful to its charge of fame,
Through climes and ages bears each form and name;
In one short view subjected to our eye,
Gods, emperors, heroes, sages, beauties, lie.
Regarded simply as works of art the coins of Magna Græcia and Sicily, more especially those of Syracuse and its tyrants, as well as those of Thasos, Opus, and Elis, also the regal coins of Philip, Alexander, Mithridates, and some of the Seleucidæ, are amongst the most exquisite productions of antiquity. Not even in gem-engraving, an art derived by Greece from Egypt and Assyria, but carried by her to the highest conceivable perfection, do we find anything superior to these. I must, before quitting the subject of numismatics, congratulate the University on the acquisition of one of the largest and most carefully selected private collections of Greek coins ever formed, viz. the cabinet of the late Col. Leake, which is now one of the principal treasures of the Fitzwilliam Museum.