government, and an establishment of their liberties were the confequence :) After this, I fay, we see the same spirit exert itself against a foreign enemy, who attempted to enflave or plunder a free people. It is generally agreed, that it was not Manlius or Camillus, but the gold of Rome, which drove back its adverfaries. However, the popular opinion was to the poet's purpose : In fummo cuftos Tarpeia Manlius arcis Stabat pro templo, et Capitolia celfa tenebat. The Capitol was doubtlefs a confiderable edifice in the time of Manlius, tho' not to be compared with that of Sylla, Vefpafian, or Domitian afterwards. Virgil, to make it appear as grand as poffible, has placed in contraft to it, the thatched cottage of Romulus : Romuleoque recens horrebat regia culmo. And by this means puts us in mind once more of the low condition from whence Rome raifed itfelf; which, as I obferved above, was one defign of the whole reprefenta tion. Mr. Addison is of opinion, that the veneration paid to the lady of Loretto's temple, took its rife from the superftition of the old Romans with regard to this hut of their founder's, which they continually repaired as it fell to decay. The custom of repairing it is, I suppose, intended to be expreffed in the words, recens horrebat. That nothing which was of fervice to the poet's country, might be paffed by in filence, the very geefe are celebrated for their alarming the centinels : Atque hic auratis volitans argenteus anfer Porticibus, Gallos in limine adeffe canebat. What follows to the end of the description is poetical painting, tho' not merely fo, for it very accurately informs us of the dress and persons of the Gauls, and their manner of engaging in arms: Galli Galli per dumos aderant, arcemque tenebant, This affair of the Gauls is the laft piece of direct hiftory we are prefented with, till we come to the battle of Actium. Several heroes between the times of Tarquin and Manlius, have paffed without mention, and many more between Manlius and Auguftus Cæfar. But I believe, if we turn to the fixth book, we fhall obferve most of them either exprefly named, or their actions fo pointed out to us, that we cannot mistake them. I fhall now therefore leave the hiftorical part, and confider the poet's design in another light. Mr. Warburton has brought many arguments from the descent into hell, and feveral other parts of Virgil's poem, to prove the political and legislative nature of it; and I think we may find fome uncommon teftimonics in this small sketch, to confirm his opinion. If we look back to the particulars already paft, we shall fee among the few which are mentioned, a treaty entered into with the utmoft folemnity, and the obfervance of another enforced with a rigorous punishment; we have feen likewise the spirit of liberty acting vigorously against a domestic tyrant, and a foreign enemy. The perfons named are not recorded on account of private virtues, but are those only who had done eminent fervice to the public. Nor are indeed, any of the feuds and animofities between the Patricians and Plebeians even hinted at any-where. But what immediately follows is the strongest proof of Mr. Warburton's affertion. Virgil could not think his state complete, even in miniature, without the additional fanction of religion; and Numa's inftitutions under a supposed inspiration, were the most proper to be reprefented, Nor has the poet brought in his ceremonies without a manifeft connection with the foregoing representation. They immediately follow the invafion of the Gauls, and may appear a kind of religious rejoicings, and proceffions, and honours paid to the gods by the Romans, on account of their deliverance from their enemies: Hinc exultantes Salios, nudofque Lupercos, The next lines, which continue the proceffion, are a pretty compliment to the Roman matrons: The story is too well known to need an explanation : Cafe ducebant facra per urbem Pilentis matres in mollibus. I would take notice however, with what addrefs the compliment is brought in: The attention of the ladies to the religion of their country, and a due obfervance of its ceremonies, is the subject of the picture; their being carried in litters to the performance of them, which is the compliment, is introduced as it were by the bye. I fhould imagine too there is fome inftruction couched under the epithet cafta, and that the poet would infinuate that the violation of the marriage-bed is the bane of fociety, and a difregard or negligence on that head, the sure forerunner of the deftruction of a state. Horace is very explicit on the fsubject : Fecunda culpa fæcula nuptias Primum inquinavere, et genus, et domes 2 Hoc fonte derivata Clades · In patriam populofque fluxit. As religion was neceffary to perfect his state, so was the doctrine of a future state of rewards and punishments full as neceflary to perfect his religion: For which reason as a kind of moral to the whole, he concludes like a true le giflator giflator with his hell for bad citizens, and his elyfium for the good: Hinc procul addit Tartareas etiam fedes, alta oftia Ditis: Et fcelerum poenas, et te, Catilina, minaci What other reafon could he poffibly have for introducing again his Tartarus and Elyfium, after having bestowed a whole book upon them before? It is worth our while to observe likewise who the perfons are, that are selected out as proper inftances of the punifhed and rewarded, Catiline, and Cato the younger. One, the most flagitious incendiary that ever attempted the deftruction of his country, and the other the nobleft example of fincere patriotifm. The greatest, and moft infamous, of public characters. The mentioning Catiline here, tho' Julius Cæfar is fhrewdly conjectured to have been embarked in the fame pernicious defign with him, is, perhaps, a barefaced denial of the afperfion; and the poet, by inferting it in a work manifeftly written under the protection of Auguftus, feems utterly to difclaim the notion, and to take it for granted no one ever fufpected it. As to Cato, the commentators have great doubts, for which of the two this compliment was intended. But if the poet's defign be, as I have represented it, we have certainly no occafion to hesitate a moment. It was no affront to the Julian family to celebrate the just and heroic notions of Cato, if they at the fame time confeffed that he applied them at an improper time, and erred thro' too much virtue. The manner in which the flatterers of that age talked, and which had a mixture of truth in it, was this, "That corrup❝tions and animofities had rifen to fo great an height, "and the ftate of the commonwealth was fuch, that it "neceffarily required a mafter, and Cæfar was the beft "they could poffibly receive." Dr. Middleton has drawn. Ff3 a fine a fine comparison between the tenets of Cato, Cicero, and Atticus, and fhewn that the rigid precepts of the former were by no means fuited to the times in which he lived; and I cannot help coming into the opinion, that Virgil had fome meaning of the fame kind, by his manner of placing him in Elyfium. His opinions, tho' juft and virtuous, and deferving of all the encomiums the poet could pay to them, yet seem to be calculated for a nation of philofophers, "For the polity of Plato,' and not the dregs of "Romulus." They were the PII only, who could obey the jura Catonis. This is not laughing at Cato, as fome ridiculous commentators would fuppofe, but paying him, I think, the greatest compliment he could poffibly receive, and avoiding at the fame time any reflection on the tyrant he oppofed. I'confefs the mere words, his dantem jura Catonem, may very well be applied to the rigid laws of Cato the Cenfor. But I would chufe, for the reafons already mentioned, they should relate to the younger. I may add too, that what is alledged against the naming Cato here with honour, would hold as ftrongly at least against Pompey, and yet we find him in the fixth book of the neis, in the fame verfes, and addreffed equally with Julius Cæfar himfelf: Ille autem paribus quas fulgere cernis in armis Concordes animæ nunc-- &c. If it is objected, that Pompey fought only for himself, and his faction, but that Cato really meant his country; and therefore it was a greater difgrace to the Cæfarians to be opposed by a real, than a feigned patriot; I would offer in anfwer, what I have mentioned above, the improper time in which Cato exerted his virtue. To conclude, those remarkable words, "Catonis nobile Lethum," would never have been found in an ode of Horace particularly defigned for |