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and restored Eurydice was just approaching the regions above, following him; for Proserpina had given him that law; when a sudden frenzy seized the unwary lover, pardonable, indeed, if the Manes knew to pardon. He stopped, and on the very verge of light, ah! unmindful, and not master of himself, looked back on his Eurydice: there was all his labour wasted, and the law of the relentless tyrant broken; and thrice a dismal groan was heard through the Avernian lake. Orpheus, she says, who hath both unhappy me and thee undone: what so great frenzy is this? see once more the cruel Fates call me back, and sleep closes my swimming eyes. And now farewell: I am snatched away, encompassed with thick night, and stretching forth to thee my feeble hands! ah, thine no more. She spoke; and suddenly fled from his sight a different way,3 like smoke blended with the thin air: nor more was seen by him grasping the shades in vain, and wishing to say a thousand things; nor did the ferryman of hell suffer him again to cross the intervening fen. What should he do? whither should he turn himself, his love twice snatched away? with what tears move the Manes, with what words the gods? She already cold was sailing in the Stygian boat. For seven whole months, it is said, he mourned beneath a weather-beaten rock, by the streams of desert Strymon, and unfolded these his woes under the cold caves, softening the very tigers, and leading the oaks with his song: as mourning Philomel under a poplar shade bemoans her lost young, which the hard-hearted clown observing in the nest has stolen unfledged; but she weeps through the night, and, perched upon a bough, renews her doleful song, and fills the places all around with piteous wailings. No loves, no hymeneal joys, could bend his soul. Alone he traversed the Hyperborean tracts of ice, the snowy Tanais, and fields never free from Riphæan frosts, deploring his ravished Eurydice, and Pluto's useless gifts; for which despised rite 37 the Ciconian matrons, amidst the sacred service of the

36 I have always felt dissatisfied with this participle "diversa," although, I believe, Servius and all MSS. support it. I think "dilapsa" is more Virgilian. Cf. Georg. iv. 410. So Lucan, in an evident imitation of this passage, iii. 34, "Sic fata, refugit Umbra per amplexus trepidi dilapsa mariti." So" delapsa," Ovid, Art. Am. i. 43; "relapsa," Met. x. 57. B. The attempts to explain this passage are confessedly hopeless. See Anthon. Munere" probably arose from a gloss upon the preceding "dona." Can "quo nomina" (= on what pretext) be the true reading? B.

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gods and nocturnal orgies of Bacchus, having torn the youth in pieces, scattered his limbs over the wide fields. And even then, whilst Eagrian Hebrus rolled down the middle of its tide, his head torn from the alabaster neck, the voice itself, and his chilling tongue, invoked Eurydice, ah, unfortunate Eurydice! with his fleeting breath: the banks re-echoed Eurydice all along the river. Thus Proteus sang, and plunged with a bound into the deep sea; and, where he plunged, he tossed up the foaming billows under the whirling tide.

But not so Cyrene: for kindly she bespoke the trembling [Aristeas]: My son, you may ease your mind of vexatious cares. This is the whole cause of your disaster; hence the nymphs, with whom she used to celebrate the mingled dances in the deep groves, have sent this mournful destruction on your bees: but suppliant bear offerings, beseeching peace, and venerate the gentle wood-nymphs; for at your supplications they will grant forgiveness, and mitigate their wrath. But first will I show you in order what must be your manner of worship. Single out four choice bulls of beauteous form, which now graze for you the tops of green Lycæus; and as many heifers, whose necks are untouched [by the yoke]. For these erect four altars at the lofty temples of the goddesses: from their throats emit the sacred blood, and leave the bodies of the cattle in the leafy grove. Afterwards, when the ninth morn has displayed her rising beams, you may offer Lethaan poppies as funeral rites to Orpheus, venerate appeased Eurydice with a slain calf, sacrifice a black ewe, and revisit the grove.

Without delay, he instantly executes the orders of his mother; repairs to the temple; raises the altars as directed; leads up four chosen bulls of surpassing form, and as many heifers, whose necks were untouched. Thereafter, the ninth morning having ushered in her rising beams, he offers the funeral rites to Orpheus, and revisits the grove. But here they behold a sudden prodigy, and wonderful to relate; bees through all the belly hum amidst the decomposed bowels of the cattle; pour forth with the fermenting juices from the burst sides, and in immense clouds roll along; then swarm together on the top of a tree, and hang down in a cluster from the bending boughs.

Thus of the culture of fields, and flocks, and of trees, I

sung; whilst great Cæsar at the deep Euphrates was thundering in war, was victoriously dispensing laws among the willing nations, and pursuing the path to Olympus. At that time, me, Virgil, sweet Parthenope 38 nourished, flourishing in the studies of inglorious ease; who warbled pastoral songs, and, adventurous through youth, sung thee, O Tityrus, under the covert of a spreading beech.

38 Parthenope, afterwards called Neapolis, (Naples,) a celebrated city of Campania, in Italy, seated on a beautiful bay, from which it rises like an amphitheatre. It received the name of Parthenope from one of the Sirens who was buried there.

VIRGIL'S ENEID.

BOOK I.

The subject of the Æneid is the settlement of Æneas in Italy. This noble Poem, on the composition of which Virgil was engaged eleven years, consists of twelve books, and comprehends a period of eight years. In the First Book, the hero is introduced, in the seventh year of his expedition, sailing from Sicily, and shipwrecked upon the coast of Africa, where he is kindly received by Dido, queen of Carthage. The description of the storm in this book is particularly admired.

ARMS I sing,' and the hero, who first, exiled by fate, came from the coast of Troy to Italy, and the Lavinian2 shore: much was he tossed both on sea and land, by the power of those above, on account of the unrelenting rage of cruel Juno: much too he suffered in war till he founded a city, and brought his gods into Latium: from whence the Latin progeny, the Alban fathers, and the walls of lofty Rome.

Declare to me, O Muse! the causes, in what3 the deity being offended, by what the queen of heaven was provoked to drive a man of distinguished piety to struggle with so many calamities, to encounter so many hardships. Is there such resentment in heavenly minds?

An ancient city there was, Carthage, (inhabited by a colony of Tyrians,) fronting Italy and the mouth of the Tiber, far remote; vast in riches, and extremely hardy in warlike exercises; which [city] Juno is said to have honoured more

Respecting the four verses usually prefixed to the Eneid, see Anthon. B. 2 Lavinium, (Pratica,) a city of Latium, built by Æneas, and called by that name in honour of Lavinia.

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3 i. e. 66 quo modo." It is a mistake to suppose that we should join quo numine," since Juno has been already mentioned. B.

Carthage, a powerful city of ancient Africa, on a peninsula, 12 miles north-east of Tunis, was built by a colony of Tyrians under Dido, about 100 years before the foundation of Rome. After having been long mistress at sea, and the rival of Rome, Carthage was totally destroyed by Scipio Africanus the younger, in the third Punic war, B. c. 146, an event to which the memorable words, "Delenda est Carthago," of the elder Cato, mainly contributed.

than any other place of her residence, Samos5 being set aside. Here lay her arms; here was her chariot; here the goddess even then designs and fondly hopes to establish a seat of universal empire, would only the Fates permit. But she had heard of a race to be descended from Trojan blood, that was one day to overturn the Tyrian towers: that hence a people of extensive regal sway, and proud in war, would come to the destruction of Libya: so the destinies ordained. This the daughter of Saturn dreading, and mindful of the old war which she had the principal hand in carrying on before Troy," in behalf of her beloved Argos;7 nor as yet were the causes of her rage and keen resentment worn out of her mind; the judgment of Paris dwells deeply rooted in her soul, the affront offered to her neglected beauty, the detested [Trojan] race, and the honours conferred on ravished Ganymede: she, by these things fired, having tossed on the whole ocean the Trojans, whom the Greeks and merciless Achilles had left, drove them far from Latium;9 and thus, for many years, they, driven by fate, roamed round every sea: so vast a work it was to found the Roman state.

Samos, an island in the Ægean Sea, near the coast of Ionia. It is extremely fertile, producing the most delicious fruits, and is famous as being the birth-place of Pythagoras. Samos was sacred to Juno, who had here a most magnificent temple.

6 Troy, or Ilium, one of the most renowned cities of antiquity, the capital of Troas in Asia Minor, was built on a small eminence near Mount Ida, between the Simois and Scamander, a short distance above their confluence, and about four miles from the Ægean shore. Of all the wars that have been carried on among the ancients, that of Troy is the most famous, whether we regard the celebrity of the chiefs engaged in it, or the deeds in arms which it called forth. According to the generally received account, the Trojan war was undertaken by the Greeks to recover Helen, the wife of Menelaus, whom Paris, the son of Priam, king of Troy, had carried away. All Greece united to avenge the cause of Menelaus, and Troy, after a siege of ten years, was taken and burnt, B. C. 1184. No vestige now remains of ancient Troy; and even its site has become matter of uncertainty.

7 Argos, the capital of Argolis, a district of Peloponnesus, of which Juno was the chief deity. During the Trojan war, Agamemnon was king of the united kingdom of Argos and Mycena.

• Ganymede, the son of Tros, king of Troy, feigned to have been taken up to heaven by Jupiter, and there became the cupbearer of the gods in the place of Juno's daughter Hebe.

Latium, (Campagna di Roma,) a country of Italy, on the east of the Tiber. The Latins rose into importance when Romulus had founded the city of Rome in their country.