Pythagoras; Keep innocency, and behave yourself well here upon earth, and then, when you are released from the prison of the body; Εσσεαι ἀθάνατος Θεὸς ἄμβροτος, ἐκ ἔτι θνητός. "Eris Deus immortalis, et non amplius homo." But if our poet was an Epicurean, (a point which we will consider presently,) it was not his business to guard the doctrine of the soul's immortality against the objections with which his brethren and friends used to assault it. Virgil, after having shone out with full splendour through the sixth book, sets in a cloud. He first represents the state of departed souls in Aïdes as a reality, and this he was obliged to do by the very nature of his subject; and then he intimates that the whole is a lying fable, and he intimates it in such a manner, that it seems scarcely possible to clear him from this imputation. But then, on the other hand, it is hard, say Virgil's friends, to suppose the serious and judicious poet would act so strangely as to overset an elegant system which he had put together and embellished with no small pains, and which was partly calculated to promote religion and morality, and the hopes and fears of a future state of retribution. The objection is by no means contemptible; indeed it is so far from deserving that character, that, I believe, most of us readers and admirers of Virgil have felt the force of it, have been offended more or less at the close of this book, and have been very willing so to interpret it, as to discharge the poet from Epicurism, and to listen with a favourable prejudice to all attempts of this kind. But I am afraid that such attempts cannot invalidate the obvious and the natural way of interpreting him, which hath been adopted by Servius, Ruæus, and other critics; whom if I follow, it is with some reluctance, and from whom I should be glad to differ. Virgil drew up a poetical description of the infernal regions, upon the commonly received notions of posthumous rewards and punishments. His system might pass on still as true or probable in the main, and might have its use and influence, such as it was, though he thought fit to intimate at the same time that he himself was of another school. Indeed he had done that already in the Eclogues, and in the Georgics, and he took care always to do it decently and obliquely, and so as not openly to attack and insult the public religion. "Cum igitur Virgilius Æneam eburnea porta emittit, indicat profecto, quicquid a se de illo inferorum aditu dictum est, in fabulis esse numerandum." Ruæus. "Vult autem intelligi falsa esse omnia, quæ dixit." Servius. Let us suppose that Virgil by the descent of Æneas intended to represent his initiation, still the troublesome conclusion remains as it was; and from the man Q ner in which the hero is dismissed after the ceremonies, we learn that in those initiations the machinery and the whole show was (in the poet's opinion) a representation of things which had no truth and reality. Virgil lets Æneas out at the gate of Sleep. The consequence of this seems to be, that the hero had been asleep, and had seen all these marvellous things in a dream or vision. If the poet had said no more, I should have suspected that he alluded to the ancient and common custom of consulting the gods by sleeping in sacred places, and receiving information by dreams. Let the reader consider these lines of Virgil, and compare them with the descent of Æneas, and his adventures below, and thence he may perhaps be inclined to think that Æneas had slept, like Don Quixote, in the cave of Montesinos. "At rex sollicitus monstris, oracula Fauni, Consulit Albunea: nemorum quæ maxima sacro Pomponius Mela says; vii. 81. "Augila Manes tantum Deos putant: per eos de jerant, eos ut oracula consulunt; precatique quæ volunt, ubi tumulis incubuere, pro responsis ferunt somnia." Pausanias, Attic. P. 65. ed. Wech., speaking of those who consulted Amphiaraus ; Κριὸν θύσαντες αὐτῷ, καὶ τὸ δέρμα ὑποσρωσάμενοι, καθεύδεσιν ἀναμείναντες δήλωσιν ὀνείρατος. "Ariete ei immolato, in substrata ejus pelle dormiunt, somnii monitum expectantes." See also Servius on Virgil. That Æneas saw these things in a dream is a conjecture much strengthened by this remarkable passage in Cicero: "His adjungatur etiam Æneæ somnium: quod in Numerii Fabii Pictoris Græcis Annalibus ejusmodi est, ut omnia, quæ ab Ænea gesta sunt, quæque illi acciderunt, ea fuerint, quæ ei secundum quietem visa sunt." i. 21. But let us proceed to Virgil's famous conclusion; vi. 894; "Sunt geminæ Somni portæ : quarum altera fertur "In this account of the gemina Somni porta, the particle sed is very oddly used, and I know not what to make of it. Surely instead of sed it should be qua." Trapp. Q2 He is certainly much mistaken, and the particle sed is extremely just and proper. The sense is this: the horn gate, plain, homely, and transparent, lets out true dreams: the ivory gate, fertur Candenti perfecta nitens elephanto," is far more elegant and resplendent, BUT it sendst forth false dreams. Truth is artless and simple: poetic fiction is far more laboured and adorned, more striking and alluring, but it is all mere error and illusion. Or, as Pindar says very honestly of his own trade, Η θαύματα πολλὰ Καί πε τι καὶ βροτῶν φρένας, Χάρις δ ̓ ἅπερ ἅπαντα τεύ χει τὰ μείλιχα θνατοῖς, Επιφέροισα τιμάν, Καὶ ἄπισον ἐμήσατο πισὸν Εμμεναι τὸ πολλάκις. So ancient tales record; Olymp. i. And oft those tales unheeding mortals charm; While gaudy Fiction deck'd with art, And dress'd in ev'ry winning grace, Clad in whose false majesty G. West. |