Now these kind of omens, for there were two sorts, were always supposed to be produced by the intervention of a supernatural power; as was the raining of blood so frequently related by the Roman annalists. And the Poet was certainly within the bounds of the probable, while he told no more than what the gravest historians recorded in every page of their annals. But this was not done to make us stare. He is, as we observe, in a legislative capacity, and writes to possess the people of the interposition of the Gods, in omens and prodigies; which was in the method of the old Lawgivers. So Plutarch, as quoted above, tells us that" with divinations and omens Lycurgus sanctified the Lacedaemonians, Numa the Romans, Ion the Athenians, and "Deucalion all the Greeks in general; and by hopes and fears "kept up in them the awe and reverence of Religion." The scene of this adventure is laid, with the utmost propriety, on the uncivilized, inhospitable shores of Thrace, to inspire horror for barbarous manners, and an inclination and appetite for civil policy. 66 On this account it is that our Poet here deserts the Mythologists, and makes the age of civil Policy, (the time when men were first brought out of a state of nature) the golden age, and Saturn to govern in it. Thus Evander says, (Lib. 8.) 66 "Haec nemora indigenae fauni nymphaeque tenebant"Queis neque mos, neque cultus erat; neque jungere tauros, "Aut componere opes norant, aut parcere parto: "Sed rami atque asper victu venatus alebat. "Primus ab aetherio venit Saturnus Olympo,"Is genus indocile, ac indocile, ac dispersum montibus altis, 66 Composuit legesque dedit." Ulysses, in Homer, mentions both these sorts in the following lines: Ζευς πάτερ, εἴ με Φήμην τίς μοι φάσθω ἐγειρομένων ἀνθρώπων Ενδοθεν, ἔκτοσθεν δε Διὸς τέρας ἄλλο φανήτω. But to be more particular, and exact; the word Omen in its proper sense signifies "futurae rei signum, quod ex sermone loquentis capitur." Tully says, 1. 1. Divin. "Pythagorei non solum voces deorum observarunt, sed etiam hominum quae vocant Omina." This sort of Omen was supposed to depend much upon the will of the person concerned in it. Hence the phrases" accepit omen, arripuit "omen." This, as we say, was its primary and proper signification. It was afterwards applied to things, as well as words. So Paterculus speaking of the head of Sulpicius, on the rostrum, says it was velut omen imminentis proscrip❝tionis." And Suetonius of Augustus," Auspicia quaedam et omina pro certis"simis observabat. Si mane sibi calceus perperam, ac sinister pro dextero in"duceretur, ut dirum:" It was used still in a larger sense, to signify an Augury, as by Tully de div. 1. 1. "Sic aquilae clarum firmavit Jupiter omen." And lastly in the most generical sense of all, for a prodigy in general, as in the place before us. From hence it appears, as we said above, that Omens were of two sorts, the proper and improper; the proper sort was supposed to be natural; the improper sort, supernatural. But the Omen in question is of the latter kind, Whereas Ovid, who speaks the sense of the Mythologists, makes the golden age to be the state of nature, and Saturn to govern there, before the erection of civil policy. 66 "Aurea prima sata est aetas, quae, vindice nullo, Sponte sua SINE LEGE fidem rectumque colebat. "Ipsa quoque immunis rastroque intacta, nec ullis "Arbuteos foetus, montanaque fragra legebant, "Postquam Saturno tenebrosa in Tartara misso.- "Semina tum primum longis Cerealia sulcis "Obruta sunt, pressique jugo gemuere juvenci"." For it served the grave purpose of the philosophic poet to decry the state of nature; and it suited the fanciful paintings of the mythologic poet to recommend it. But everything in this poem points to great and public ends. The turning the ships into sea-deities in the IXth book, has the appearance of something infinitely more extravagant, than the myrtle dropping blood, and has been more generally and severely censured; and, indeed, if defended, it must be on other principles. The philosophic commentators on Homer's poem, had brought the fantastic refinement of allegory into great vogue. We may estimate the capacity of Virgil's judgment in not catching at so alluring a bait, by observing that some of the greatest of modern epic poets, who approached nearest to Virgil in genius, have been betrayed by it. Yet, here and there, our poet, to convey a political precept, has employed an ingenious allegory in passing. And the adventure in question is, I think, of this number. By the transformation of the ships into sea-deities, he would insinuate, I suppose, the great advantage of cultivating a naval power; such as extended commerce, and the dominion of the ocean; which in poetical language, is becoming deities of the sea. 66 "Mortalem eripiam formam, magnique jubebo He explains the allegory more clearly in the following book, h Metam. Lib. 1. where he makes these transformed sea-nymphs accompany Aeneas, and his fleetof auxiliaries, through the Tyrrhene sea. "Atque illi medio in spatio chorus, ecce, suarum "Occurrit comitum; nymphae, quas alma Cybele, "Numen habere maris, nymphasque e navibus esse "Jusserat. 66 Agnoscunt longe regem, lustrantque choreis." This ministerial hint was the more important and seasonable, as all Octavius's traverses, in his way to empire, were from his want of a sufficient naval power; first, in his war with Brutus and Cassius, and afterwards with Sextus, the son of Pompey the Great. Nor was it at this time less flattering to Augustus; to whom the Alexandrians erected a magnificent temple, porticoes, and sacred groves, where he was worshipped under the title of Caesar, the Protector and Patron of Sailors. So he became a sea-god at the head of these goddesses. For, as one of his flatterers said "Praesenti tibi maturos largimur honores: As the not taking the true scope of the Aeneis, has occasioned mistakes, to Virgil's disadvantage, concerning the Plan and Conduct of the Poem; so hath it likewise concerning the characters. The piety of Aeneas, and his high veneration for the Gods, so much offends a celebrated French writer, that he says "the hero was fitter to found a Religion than a Monarchy." But he did not know that the image of a perfect Lawgiver is held out to us in Aeneas; and had he known that, he had perhaps been ignorant, that it was the office of such to found Religions and Colleges of Priests, as well as States and Corporations. And that Virgil tells us this was his, But his humanity as much offends our Critic as his piety, and he calls him a mere St. Swithin, always raining. The beauty of this representation escaped him. It was necessary to shew a perfect Lawgiver as touched with all the affections of humanity; and the example was the more to be enforced, because we experience vulgar Politicians but too much divested of these common notices. Nor is the view in which we place this Poem, less serviceable to the vindication of his other characters. The learned author of the inquiry into the Life and Writings of Homer, who hath now first initiated i Monsieur De St. Evremont. 66 us into the mysteries of the Greek Poet, will forgive me for differing from him, in thinking that that uniformity of manners in the Aeneis was the effect of design, not, as he would have it, of custom and habit: "Virgil," says he," had seen much "of the splendour of a Court, the magnificence of a Palace, "and the grandeur of a Royal Equipage: accordingly his re"presentations of that part of life, are more august and stately "than Homer's. He has a greater regard to decency, and those polished manners, that render men so much of a piece, and "make them all resemble one another in their conduct and be“haviour.” For this work being a system of Politics, the eternity of a government, the form of a magistrature, and plan of dominion being, as this fine writer observes, familiar with the Roman Poet, nothing could be more to his purpose, than this re presentation of polished manners: it being the Legislator's office to tame and break men to humanity; and to make them disguise at least, if they cannot be brought to lay aside their savage manners. But this key to the Aeneis not only clears up a great many passages obnoxious to the critics, but adds, an infinite beauty to a vast number of incidents throughout the whole poem. Permit me only to observe, that this was the second species of the Epic poem; our own countryman, the great Milton, having produced the third: for just as Virgil rivalled Homer, so Milton emulated them both. He found Homer possessed of the province of Morality; Virgil of Politics; and nothing left for him but that of Religion. This he seized, as aspiring to share with them in the government of the poetic world. And, by means of the superior dignity of his subject, he hath got to the head of that Triumvirate which took so many ages in forming. These are the three species of the Epic Poem; for its largest province is human action, which can be considered but in a moral, a political, or religious view; and these the three great Creators of them; for each of these Poems was struck out at a heat, and came to perfection from its first essay. Here then the grand scene is closed, and all further improvements of the Epic at an end. It being granted then, that the Aeneis is in the style of antient legislation, it is hard to think so great a master in his art would overlook a doctrine, that we have shewn, was the foundation and support of antient politics; namely, that of a future state of Rewards and Punishments. Accordingly, in imitation of his models, Plato and Tully, in their Vision of Erus and Dream of Scipio, he hath given us a complete system of it. Again, as the Legislator took care to support this doctrine by a very extraor * Page 325. dinary institution and commemorated it therein, with all the pomp of spectacle; we cannot but confess a description of those Shews would add a peculiar grace and elegance to the poem; and that the pomp and solemnity of the representations would be apt to invite him to attempt it, as affording matter for all the embellishments of poetical description. Accordingly we say, he hath done this likewise; and, that the descent of Aeneas into Hell, is no other, than an enigmatical representation of his initiation into the Mysteries. Virgil, in this poem, was to represent a perfect Lawgiver, in the person of Aeneas; but initiation into the Mysteries was what sanctified his character and function. For it was no wonder that the Legislator should endeavour by his own example, to ennoble an institution that was of his own creating: accordingly, we find all the antient Heroes and Legislators were initiated. There was another reason for the Legislator's initiation, which held particularly with regard to the Greek Legislator's participation of the Egyptian Mysteries, and that was the important instructions he there received in matters of the highest moment concerning mankind, as we may see in the second Section of the third Book'. Now all this the Poet seems clearly to have intimated in the speech Anchises's Shade makes to his son. "Lectos Juvenes, fortissima corda, "Defer in Italiam. Gens dura atque aspera cultu 66 Huc casta Sibylla "Nigrarum multo pecudum te sanguine ducet, "Tum genus omne tuum, et, quae dentur moenia disces"." While the Mysteries were confined to their native country, Egypt; and while the Grecian Legislators went thither for initiation, as a kind of designation to their office; the ceremony would naturally be spoken of in high allegorical terms. The genius of the Egyptian manners partly contributed thereto; much more the humour of travellers; but most of all the arts of Legislators; who, returning into their own country, to civilize a barbarous people by Laws and Arts, found it very profitable for themselves, and necessary for the people, in order to raise their own characters, and to establish the fundamental principle of a future state, to represent that initiation, in which they saw the state of departed mortals represented in machinery, as an actual descent into Hell. Thus did Orpheus, |
