For, amidst all his devotion to poetry and pantheism, Mr. KNIGHT carried on the pursuits of connoisseurship with insatiable ardour. [Sidenote: _Spec. of Ancient Sculp._, pl. 55 and 56.] Among the choicer acquisitions which speedily followed the _Diomede_[?] purchased in 1785, were the mystical _Bacchus_—a bronze of the Macedonian period—found near Aquila in 1775; a colossal head of _Minerva_, found near Rome by Gavin HAMILTON; and a figure of _Mercury_ of great beauty. The last-named bronze had been found, in 1732, at Pierre-Luisit, in the Pays de Bugey and diocese of Lyons. [Sidenote: _Ib._, 33, 34.] A dry rock had sheltered the little figure from injury, so that it retained the perfection of its form, as if it had but just left the sculptor’s hand. It passed through the hands of three French owners in succession before it was sold to Mr. KNIGHT, by the last of them, at the beginning of the Reign of Terror. The year 1792, in which he acquired this much-prized ‘Mercury,’ is also the date of a remarkable discovery of no less than nineteen choice bronzes in one hoard, at Paramythia, in Epirus. They had, in all probability, been buried during nearly two thousand years. The story of the find is, in itself, curious. [Sidenote: THE HOARD OF BRONZES FOUND AT PARAMYTHIA, IN EPIRUS.] It shows too, in relief, the energy and perseverance which Mr. KNIGHT brought to his work of collectorship, and in which he was so much better employed—both for himself and for his country—than in philosophising upon human progress, from the standpoint of LUCRETIUS. Some incident or other of the weather had disclosed appearances which led, fortuitously, to a search of the ground into which these bronzes had been cast—perhaps during the invasion of Epirus, _B.C._ 167—and, by the finder, they were looked upon as so much saleable metal. Bought, as old brass, by a coppersmith of Joannina, they presently caught the eye of a Greek merchant, who called to mind that he had seen similar figures shown as treasures in a museum at Moscow. He made the purchase, and sent part of it, on speculation, to St. Petersburgh. The receiver brought them to the knowledge of the Empress CATHERINE, who intimated that she would buy, but died before the acquisition was paid for. They were then shared, it seems, between a Polish connoisseur and a Russian dealer. One bronze was brought to London by a Greek dragoman and shown to Mr. KNIGHT, who eagerly secured it, heard the story of the discovery, and sent an agent into Russia, who succeeded in obtaining nine or ten of the sculptures found at Paramythia. Two others were given to Mr. KNIGHT by Lord ABERDEEN, who had met with them in his travels. They were all of early Greek work. Amongst them are figures of _Serapis_, of _Apollo Didymæus_, of _Jupiter_, and of one of the _Sons of Leda_. All these have been engraved among the _Specimens of Ancient Sculpture_, published by the Society of Dilettanti.