neus, 110; the balanus of Rondejetius de Teftaceis, 28; and the dattili of the modern Italians, which are to this day eaten, and even pickled. To this list of fea-fish, which were admitted in thofe days to table, may be added the fturgeon, and ling; and there is twice mention, in archbishop Nevill's great feast, of a certain fifh, both roafted and baked, unknown at present, called a thirl-poole. The feal was also reckoned a fish, and, with the fturgeon and porpefs, were the only fresh fish which, by the 33d of Henry VIII. were permitted to be bought of any ftranger at fea, between England and France, Flanders, and Zealand. On April 11th of the prefent year, I paffed through Billingfgate, and obferved, on the ground, fome large pieces of ice, in which I was told the falmon from Berwick, and others of our northern fishery, was packed in boxes. The ice is preferved in ice-houses throughout the. winter entirely for that purpose. Fifty-one great veales, at Thirty-four porkes, at Ninety-one pigs, at Capons of Greece, of one poulter (for he had three) ten dozens, at (apiece) Capons of Kent, nine dozen and fix, at Cocks of grofe, seven dozen and nine, at Cocks courfe xiii dozen, at 8 d. and 3 d. apiece, Pullets, the best 2 d. each. Other pullets Pigeons, 37 dozen, each dozen Swans xiii dozen. I 4 O 2 10 04 8 03 3 0 I 8 2 Larkes 340 dozen, each dozen 00 2 0 0 5 MISCELLANEOUS MISCELLANEOUS ESSAYS. Remarks on fome Paffages of the fixth Book of the Eneid, by James Beattie, LL. D. &c. from Tranfactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. TH HERE is nothing in Virgil more explicit than the account of Tartarus; and I know not why it has been fo generally mifunderstood. Dr. Warburton fays, in one place, that Eneas faw the fights of Tartarus at a distance, and in another, that Eneas paffed through Tartarus. In fact, he did neither. He could not pass through without entering; and this, we are told, was to him impoffible: "Nulli fas cafto fceleratum infiftere limen." And though he had been permitted to enter, he could not pass through, without first croffing a river of fire, and then descending into an immenfe gulph, twice as deep beneath the level of the other regions of darkness, as those are remote from heaven. It was equally impoffible for him to fee from a diftance what was doing in fuch a gulph, even though the gate that led to it had been open, which, however, at this time, happened to be fhut." You fee, faid the Sybil, what a centinel fits without in the porch, (meaning Tifiphone); another, ftill dreadful, has her ftation within;" which, as he could not fee it, fhe informs hm is a huge ferpent, or 5 more hydra, with fifty heads. An opening of the gate is indeed mentioned, which Rueus understands to have taken place at the very time when the Trojan and the Sybil were looking at it. But that is a mistake. The Sybil only tells her companion, that, when Rhadamanthus has made the criminals confefs their guilt, then at length (tum demum) the gate opens for their reception into the place of torment. It is ftrange that Rueus and Dr. Warburton did not fee that this is the obvious import of the words of Virgil; and that, if we do not understand them in this fenfe, the paffage must appear confufed, if not ungrammatical. In a word; of the infide of Tartarus the Trojan hero faw nothing; he faw the outfide only, the walls, the gates, the tower of iron, &c. and these he faw at some distance. What was paffing within he learns from the Sybil's information. "And now," fays fhe, "let us be going. Yonder, on the right hand, is the palace of Proferpine, where, in the vaulted porch that fronts us, we are commanded to depofit the golden bough." This ceremony Eneas performs, after having fprinkled himself with pure water; which was cuftomary with those who made offerings to the gods. They then went onward to Elyfium, the gay fcenery of which, immediately mediately fucceeding the gloom of purgatory and the horrors of Tartarus, is fo charming, that every reader feels himself refreshed by it. Here were groves, and plains, and meadows, clothed with perpetual verdure, the abodes of tranquillity and joy, and illuminated by a fun and ftars of the moft refulgent beauty. Here were feafting, and dancing, and music, and poets accompanying their verfes with the harmony of the lyre. Here thofe warlike exercifes were renewed, in which the heroes while on earth had fo much delighted; and here were horfes, and chariots, and arms, and every thing that could gratify an heroic mind. It must be owned, that all this is very inadequate to the defires and the capacity of an Immortal foul: but Virgil had heard of nothing better; and it was impoffible for him to describe what he could not conceive. In this Elyfium, which, with all its imperfection, is, as well as the infernal world, founded on the best ideas of retributive juftice that could be expected from a pagan, the poet places in a state of endless felicity "the fhades of the pure and the pious; of heroes who have died in defence of their country; of ingenious men who have employed their talents in adorning human life with elegant' arts, or in recommending .piety and virtue ; and of all who, by acts of beneficence, have merited the love and the gratitude of their fellow-creatures." To a company of thefe happy beings, who had flocked round the two ftrangers, and especially to the poet Mufeus, whom the knew, the Sybil addreffed herself, defiring to be informed where Anchises refided. We have no certain habita tions, returned the poet; we wander about, and amuse ourselves wherever we please; but follow me to yonder rifing ground, and I fhall put you in a path that will conduct you to him. Some writers blame Virgil for not making Eneas find Homer in this part of Elyfium; and infinuate, that the Roman poet must have been both invidious and ungrateful, in neglecting fuch an opportunity of doing honour to his great mafter, to whom he owed fo much. Thofe critics do not confider that Eneas was dead an hundred years before Homer was born. Our poet has been cenfured for a fuppofed anachronifm, in making Eneas and Dido contemporary; and here he is found fault with for having judicioufly avoided a real anachronism. It chanced that Anchifes was at this time in a remote valley, reviewing, in their ftate of pre-exifience, fome of his pofterity, who were afterwards to diftinguish themfelves in the Roman republic. When he faw his fon advancing towards him, he held forth both his hands, gave him an affectionate welcome, and wept for joy. The hero would have embraced his father; but found that the fhade, though vifible, eluded the touch. After a fhort converfation; Eneas happening to fee, in a grove through which a river was flowing, an innumerable multitude of human beings flying about, afked his father who they were, and what river it was. The river, faid he, is Lethe, of which thofe fouls are taking a draught, being about to return to the upper world, in order to animate new bodies. Is it to be imagined, exclaims Eneas, that fouls hould ever leave this happy place; and and go back to the imprisonment of the body, and all the wretchedness of mortality? I will explain the whole matter to you, replies Anchifes. rity which the foul has contracted. Know, then, that all the parts of this visible univerfe, the heavens, ánd earth, and fky, the fun, moon, and stars, are, like one vaft' body, animated by an univerfal fpirit, whereof the fouls, or vital principles, of all animals, of men and beafts, of fishes and fowl, are emanations. This vital principle is, in every animal, the fource of fenfation and motion; but, from the,influence that the body has over it, becomes fubject to inordinate paffions, and forgetful of its heavenly original. The foul of man, in particular, (for nothing further is faid of the other animals) contracts, while fhut up in the dark prifon of the body, a degree of debasement which does not Icave it at death, and from which the fufferings of a subsequent state of purgation are neceffary to purify it. Having ended this account, AnThese are of different kinds and de-chifes, with his fon and the Sybil, grees, according to the different de- paffes to a rifing ground, and points grees and kinds of guilt or impu- out in a state of pre-existence, a *I fuppofe the words Et pauci læta arva tenemus, to be a parenthesis; which, in my opinion, clears the text of all obfcurity. By the change of the perfon, in the four laft lines of the fpeech,-Has omnes,volvere,-incipiant,-revifant, it appears, that Anchifes does not include hinfelf among thefe who were to return to the world; which afcertains fufficiently the import of tenemus. The learned Rueus conftrues the paffage in a way fomewhat different; but his general account of the poet's doctrine differs not effentially from mine. More literally, "When they have rolled the wheel, or circle, for a thousand years;" that is, when the revolution of a thousand years is completed. For this interpretation we are indebted to Servius, who tells us further, that this fingular phrafe was taken from Ennius. Anciently perhaps rota might mean a circle, as well as a wheel,) and poetically a year; fo that, in Ennius's time, volvere rotam might be a figurative phrafe of the fame import with annum peragere, to pass a year. The original meaning of annus is a circle, whence the diminutive annulus, a ring. The fame reference to the circular nature of the year, may be feen in the Greek mauros, which Virgil certainly had in his mind when he wrote, Atque in fe fua per veftigia volvitur annus." When this is attended to, our author's ufe of the phrafe in queftion will appear not fo harsh as it might otherwife be thought to be, and not at all too figurative in this very folemn part of the poem. proceffion proceffion of Roman heroes, who were in due time to defcend from him; briefly defcribing their feveral characters, in a moft fublime ftrain of poetical prophecy. I fhall fubjoin a few remarks on the concluding fcene of this noble epifode; on the gates of horn and ivory. These gates have given no little trouble to critics, both ancient and modern; who, after all, seem to have been not very fortunate in their conjectures. This is owing, not to obfcurity in the poet, but to the refinement of thofe interpreters, who mistook a plain paffage for a profound allegory, and were determined to find a fecret meaning in it. The gate of ivory, fay they, tranfmits falfe dreams, and that of horn true ones; and Eneas and his companion are difmiffed from Elyfium, and let into the upper world, through the ivory gate. What can this imply, but that the poet meant to infinuate, that every thing he had faid concerning a state of future retribution, was nothing more than a fallacious dream? And, in fupport of this conjecture, they generally quote from the Georgic three verfes to prove, that Virgil was in his heart an Epicurean, and confequently difbelieved both a future ftate and a providence. The verses are- Felix qui potuit rerum cognofcere caufas, Atque metus omnes, et inexorabile fatum, Subjecit pedibus, ftrepitumque Acherontis avari." Now, in the first place, it does not appear to me, that these lines can prove their author ever to have been an Epicurean, or that he meant to fay more than "Happy is the man whofe mind philofophy has raised above the fear of death, as well as above all other fears." For, in the Georgic, he not only recom mends religion and prayer, which Epicureans could not do confiftently with their principles, but again and again afferts à providence; and, in terms equally elegant and juft, vindicates the Divine wifdom in establifhing phyfical evil as the means of improving and elevating the mind of man. But does he not, in his fixth eclogue, give an account of the formation of the world according to the Epicurean theory? He does; and he makes it part of the fong of a drunkard: no proof that he held it in very high esteem. But, zdly, Suppofing our poet's admiration of Lucretius might have made him formerly partial to the tenets of Epicurus, it does not follow that he continued so to the end of his life, or that he was so while employed upon the Eneid. The dus ties of religion, and the fuperintending care of providence, are by no other Pagan author fo warmly enforced as in this poem; and the energy with which, in the fixth book, and in one paffage of the eighth, (v. 666,) he afferts a futurė retribution, feems to prove, that he was fo far in earnest with regard to this matter, as to believe, that it was not, as the Epicureans affirmed, either abfurd or improbable. Let it be remarked, in the third place, that no poet ever thought of fo prepofterous a method of pleaf ing and inftructing his readers, as first to employ all his skill in adorn ing his fable, and then tell them, that they ought not to believe a word of it. The true poet's aim is very different. He adapts himself to the opinions that prevail among the people for whom he writes; that they may the more eafily acquiefce in his narrative; or he is careful, at leaft, to make his fable confiftent |