A Defence Of Archaeology.

Roman poets , when they emerged from the shades of Erebus into the clear lig ht and pure breezes of Elysium , Devenere locos ltetos et amcena virefca Fortnnatorum nemorum , sedesque quietas ; Largior hie campos ajther et lumine vestit Purpureo , solemque suumsua sidera n 6 runt .

But Ave may rise higher . We may claim for archaeology a nobler prerogative than this . It emancipates us from the thraldom of modern prepossessions and prejudices , and frees us from the tyranny of ephemeral passions and local conventionalities . It makes us contemporaries with every age , and citizens of every clime . We are too prone to be absorbed and engrossed by the things of to-day , aud to be tbe slaves of personal interests and party

trammels . We need to be liberated from such vassalage . Archaeology does this , if studied aright , and especially if it is connected , as your present visit to Lincoln is , with a tour and pilgrimage to places hallowed by the memories of great men in bygone ages . Pardon a personal reminiscence . About fortyseven years ago , when returning from Greece and Italy , I read with delight a passage of the great Roman oratorstatesmanancl philosopherCicerowhich

, , , , exactly describes this feeling . At the beginning of the fifth book of his p hilosophical treatise , " De Finibis , " he is describing an afternoon walk which he took ivith his brother and friends from the Avestern gate of Athens to the gardens of the Academy . He there observes that we are more affected by visiting places in which great men have lived , than we are ivhen ive read their writings , or hear of their deeds . " Magis movemur , quum loca videmus in

quibus viros memoria dignos versatos esse accepinius , quam quum scripta eorum legimus , aut facta audimus . " And he illustrates this by a reference to objects which he and his friends saw that afternoon . Among these were the tombs of Pericles , and the spot where Demosthenes trained himself to become the greatest orator of Greece , ancl the grove of the Academy , immortalised by the School of Plato , and the beautiful Colonus , the birthplace of Sophocles and the death place of GEdipus . If I might illustrate this bi' referring to

sacred archaeology and topography , I would clo so by a notice of the earliest Christian itinerary of the Holy Land , the letter of St . Jerome , in the fourth century , describing his visit , in company ivith the noble , pious , and munificent Roman matron , Paulla , the descendant of the Sci p ios , to the most celebrated sites and remains of Biblical history in Palestine . But I forbear , and -will pass on to observe that in our archtBological excursions and researches during the present Aveek in Lincoln and its neighbourhoodour thoughts will be

, extended from the narrow range of to-day , and we shall be made contemporaries Avith nineteen centuries . In the Roman Arch standing in the northern wall of the ancient citadel of Lindum , and spanning the military road Avhich stretched from Lincoln to the Humber , we may imagine ourselves spectators of the warlike legions of the ancient mistress of the world , Avhich marched along those great martial hihivaysmarked by milestonesof which one ivas

g , , disinterred the other day from its grave of 1600 years ; and near it Ave may listen in fancy to oratorical pleadings of lawyers in the ancient Roman Basilica , of which the columns of the facade has just been revealed to our view . Near them we are brought into contact ivith the greatest of Saxon kings , ancl of Norman conquerors in his feudal castle of Lincoln , and , with one of the greatest of Norman bishops , St . Hugh ; and with St . Hugh you will also bold

spiritual communion in your visit to the noble Minster of Stow and to Stow I ark ; and when you make your pilgrimage to Southwell and its grand Collegiate Church , soon , we hope , about to become a cethedral of a new diocese , you will be brought into union with Paullinus , the apostle of ^ orthumbria and Lindissi , in the seventh century , who built a church at Lincoln , and with Cardinal Wolsey , Dean and Bishop of Lincoln in the sixteenth , and with King Charles I . in his later days , in the seventeenth century .