opening of the poem, must have been an aukward cir→ cumftance; when Juno Romana was the favourite Deity of Rome.

« Tum voş, o Tyrii, ftirpem et genus omne futurum
"Exercete odiis; cinerique haec mittite noftro
« Munera: nullus amor populis, nec foedera funto.
"Exoriare aliquis noftris ex offibus ultor,
"Qui face Dardanios ferroque fequare colonos;
"Nunc, olim, quocunque dabunt fe tempore vires. "
Æneid. 1. 4. v. 622.

It was not proper, that the reader fhould wait for the unravelling of the plot to have this matter explained; he is therefore apprized in the firft book, that this enmity of the goddess is to be converted into protection and regard; and Jupiter promises,

"Confilia in melius referet; mecumque fovebit
"Romanos rerum dominos, &c."

Accordingly, towards the conclufion of the last book this reconciliation is effected:

"Annuit his Juno, et mentem laetata retorfit.”

The great point being thus fettled, Turnus is killed, and the poem ends. From this digreffion on the conduct of the Roman poet, with regard to the event which he chose for his fubject, I would infer, that, notwithstanding the powerful prejudices of Rome in its favour, he was apprehenfive of objections, which might be drawn as well from Homer's authority, as from the incredible fingularity of a colony's retaining no traces of the names, language, drefs, or religious rites of their ancestors."

X.

Laftly, the art of Virgil is never so powerfully felt, as when he attempts to move the paffions, especially the more tender ones. The pathetic was the grand, diftin

guishing

guishing characteristic of his genius and temper. And
this perhaps is the reason why Æneas is painted of so soft
and compaffionate a turn of mind. Our poet began fo
early as in his Eclogues (see the second and tenth) to steep
his fong in tears. And the ftory of Orpheus is excelled by
nothing but that of Dido, of Nifus and Euryalus and his
mother, the mournful picture of Troy, the lamentations
of Evander, and the diftreffes of Latinus, Juturna, and
Turnus. Quintilian has exactly drawn Virgil's charac-
ter under that of Euripides: IN AFFECTIBUS CUM OMNI-
BUS MIRUS, TUM IIS QUI MISERATIONE CONSTANT, FA-
CILE PRAECIPUUS, Lib. X, c. 1. It lay in his power
alone, to have enriched the Roman poefy with what it so
greatly wanted, and what is perhaps a more useful work
than even an epic poem itself, A PERFECT TRAGEDY,

INDEX.

INDE X.

The first Number marks the Volume; the fecond, the
Pages of each: the Letter n. a Nate.

A.

ENEID, its nature and Eneas meets with Venus dif-

A defign, according to Mr.

Spence,
vol. i. p. 17
Its defign, according to
Boffu
ii. 2, & feq.

Is a SYSTEM of POLI-
TICS, according to Warbur-
ton; and represents a per-
fect lawgiver, in the perfon
of Eneas iii. 2, & feq.
Achates, his true character ii.
117, n.
is the first person that dif
covers Italy
ii. 277
Achemenides, his moving ap-
pearance and hiftory

11.

guifed, who informs him of
the name of the country, and
the history of Dido the queen
of it
ii. 89, to 93
-Praises himfelf ii. 95
-Discovers his mother Ve-

nus

-

ii. 97

Goes to Carthage ii. ib.
Sees in a temple the pic-
tures of the Trojan war,
(artfully introduced by the
poet, as they contain all the
principal events that pre-
ceded the taking of Troy,
which he defcribes in the
fecond book)
ii. 101

-While he is concealed in
the cloud, fees Gyas, &c.
approaching Dido

ii. 107

Breaks from the cloud,
and fpeaks to Dido

Eneas fets out from

Sicily

ii. 63

ii.

67

69

Sups with her

ii. 77

ii.

Meets with a storm

His first speech

-Lands on an unknown

coaft

-Comforts his companions

ii.

79

-Mourns fecretly for the
fuppofed lofs of Gyas ii. 81

Relates to her the deftruc-
tion of Troy

ii. 133

Is warned by Hector's
ghoft to fly from Troy, and
carry the gods with him ii.

157

neas