■2 
 
 76S SPENf I (Joseph) Polymetis: Or. An Enquiry concerning the Agreement Between the 
 Works ol the Roman Poets, And the Remains of the Antient Artists. Being An Attempt to 
 illustrate them mutually from one another. In Ten Books. London: for R. Dodslev. 1747. 
 Polio, First Edition, xii, 362 pp., with engravings in text; and portrait and 41 plates, 
 contemporary polished calf, gilt hack, neatly repaired, a pleasing and fresh copy of one of the 
 most handsome folios of this period to be produced in England. £15 | 5 S 
 
 I SPENCE (Joseph) Polymetis : or an t-nqum^xmeerning the Agreement 
 between the Works of the Roman Poets, and the remains of Ancient Artists, being 
 an attempt to illustrated them mutually from one another. Portrait and 31 Plates, 
 some folding, and 16 tailpieces, engraved by F. Boitard, folio, calf. Third Edition. 
 £6 1 Os London, 1774 
 
 Herbert ^rtbuv (£bims, 
 
 76 Spence, Joseph. Polymetis: or an Enquiry concerning the Agreement be¬ 
 tween the Works of the Roman Poets, and the Remains of the Ancient Artists. 188 
 leaves of text, list of subscribers, index, engravings in the text and 41 plates, some- 
 folding. by Louis Philippe Boitard, portrait frontispiece by Vertue after Isaac Wood. 
 Folio. Cont. calf, rebacked. London 1747. FIRST EDITION. Jefferson Library 
 4230. Ex-Library copy in very good condition. $85.00 
 
 The First Edition of the much read treatise on ancient mythology and art includes 
 on p. '291 the satirical vignette of the Provost of Eton and his pupils, suppressed 
 from later editions. 
 
 225 SPENCE (J.l. Polymetis : or, an Enquiry concerning the Agreement between the Works ol 
 the Roman Poets, and the Remains of the antient Artists. Being an Attempt to illustrate 
 them mutually from one another. In Ten Books. The Second Edition, corrected by the Author. 
 
 Folio, with engraved portrait of Spence by Vertue after the painting by Isaack Whood, 41 plates 
 and 17 smaller illustrations; contemporary calf, repaired. 1755 £15 $42.00 
 
 Joseph Spence, anecdotist and friend of Pope, was held in considerable esteem by the leading 
 literary men of his time and his Polymetis "remains an agreeable book owing to the urbanity 
 of its old-fashioned scholarship, the justice of some incidental observations and its affluent 
 stores of quotation". Diet. Nat. Biog. 
 

 I 
 
 jm 
 
 fatmm 
 
POLYMETIS 
 
 O R, 
 
 An Enquiry concerning the 
 
 AGREEMENT 
 
 Between the WORKS of the 
 
 ROMAN POETS, 
 
 And the REMAINS of the 
 
 ANTIENT ARTISTS. 
 
 BEING 
 
 An Attempt to illuftrate them mutually from 
 one another. 
 
 IN TEN BOOKS. 
 
 By the Rev J . Mr. Spence. 
 
 The Second Edition, corredted by the Author. 
 
 Omnes artes, quas ad humanitatem pertinent, habent quoddam commune vinculum; 
 & quafi cognatione quadam inter fe continentur. Cicero ; pro Arch. 
 
 The Verfe and Sculpture bore an equal part; 
 
 And Art reflected images to Art. 
 
 fope ; of Poetry and Statuary. 
 
 -Each from each contradi new ftrength and light. 
 
 Id. of Poetry and Painting. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 Printed for R. and J. Dodsley, in Pall-Mall. 
 M.DCC.LV. 
 
* wiM/ <V '\&Y li 
 
iii 
 
 E F A 
 
 'HERE is not any fort of writing that I fit down to with 
 lo much unwillingnefs, as that of Prefaces : and as I believe 
 moft people are not much fonder of reading them, than I 
 am of writing them, I lhall get over this as faft as I can ; both for the 
 reader’s lake, and my own. 
 
 The following work is the refult of two very different fcenes of life 
 in which I have happened to be engaged. The one, was my having 
 been Profeffor of Poetry, in the Univerfity of Oxford, for tea Years^ 
 and the other, my being abroad, for above half that fpacc of time' 
 The former obliged me to deal in Poetical Criticifm; as the latter, 
 (and particularly the confiderable ftay that I made, both at Florence’ 
 and at Rome,) led me naturally enough into forne oblervation and love 
 for the fine remains of the antient artifts. As thefe two periods of my 
 life happened partly to coincide, this put me on the thoughts of join¬ 
 ing thefe ftudies together: and in doing this indeed I found very little 
 difficulty; for, (as Cicero fays in the motto to my book,) there is a 
 natural connexion between all the polite arts : and confequently, they 
 may rather feem to meet one another, than to have been brought too-e- 
 ther by any contrivance. 
 
 Several oi the bell antient and modern writers have fpoke of this 
 connexion, in general: but I do not know of any one, that has entered 
 into any particular enquiry in relation to it; except Mr. Addifon, in his 
 Treatile on Medals. I wilh that gentleman had gone much farther, 
 than he has; or indeed that any one, tho’ of much lels tafte than Mr. 
 Addifon, had made a track before me; for I lhould then have been 
 enabled to find my way thro’ fo various a fubjeft, with much more eafe; 
 and to have made my obfervations, with much lefs inaccuracy : but I 
 entered upon it, as one does on a country newly difcovered; without 
 any paths made, and generally much embaraffed. Had any work of 
 this kind been publiihed, before I went abroad ; I could certainly have 
 made this much more peneft, with extremely lefs pains: whereas all I 
 can beg for ,t now is, that the difficulty of making one’s way almoft 
 every where, may be duly confidered ; and that the manyJmperfec- 
 
 ^ tions 
 
R E F A C E. 
 
 tions and errors which that nuift occalion, inay meet with the indul¬ 
 gence that the cafe deferves. 
 
 1 have endeavoured too at another thing, which I believe all good 
 judo-es will allow to be pretty difficult: and that was to take off fome of 
 the'Vullennefs, and feverity, that has generally been thrown over the 
 ftudies of Criticifin, and Antiquities. This labour, (for it is a very great 
 labour to make fome things read eafy,) 1 thought partly due to the pre¬ 
 vailing tulle of the prelent age ; in which, we ol this country at 1 1 a 11, 
 feem to be not near fo much inclined to profound reading, as we were 
 hall a century ago ; and partly, to good-nature j any breach ol which is 
 certainly one of the moll unpardonable faults that a wr itei can commit, 
 in any age and in all countries. I do not know what others may think, 
 but for my own part I have long thought it particularly mifplaced and 
 abfurd, to put on a very grave face, in this kind of lubjedls: which, 
 after all that one can fay for them, are certainly not of the higheft im¬ 
 portance to mankind; and if they are not entertaining, can have but 
 very little elfe to recommend them. Inftead of this, I know not how it 
 has happened, that Criticifin has generally appeared like a nicer fcold, 
 and Antiquity like an old pedant. Socrates gave an agreeable turn to all 
 his leffons of morality, which till his time had been ufually taught in a 
 dry and dilgufting manner. Horace introduced the fame pleafmg way 
 of teaching, among the Romans ; as the authors of the Spectator, 
 have done among us. Something like this, I doubt not, might be 
 praftifed in treatifes of Criticifin and Antiquities : and tho’ I may have 
 failed intirely in attempting it, I cannot help thinking, that I have at 
 lcaft given no bad hint for fome one that may come after me ; who I 
 hope may fuccced much better in it, than I have done. 
 
 And indeed this was one reafon for my calling the whole work into 
 the form of Dialogue : for the introducing a feene, and characters, 
 helps to give life to a lubjeft, that wants enlivening; and can do no 
 harm to one that has no need of any fuch help. Befide which, I have 
 fome other reafons that make me fond of writing by way of Dialogue, 
 in general; and particularly, in the prefent cafe.—By this means one 
 avoids the frequent ufe of that moll difagreeable of all monofyllablcs, I. 
 -—The affertions are put into the mouth of other perfons ; and the 
 author, at leall feems the lefs arrogant and affuming.—The want of 
 connexion may be hid, or fupplied, by a little addrels in the fpeakers— 
 
 and 
 
P R E F A C E. 
 
 and any inaccuracies m the language are lefs apt to be obferved, (and 
 when obferved, are perhaps more pardonable.) in fuch chit-chat as 
 mine is, than in a let difeourfe. 
 
 The Plan, that I at firft defigned for this work, lay much wider ; 
 but 1 found myfelf obliged to contradi it: and therefore confined myfelfi 
 folely to the confideration of the Imaginary, or Allegorical Beings; as 
 received among the Romans, in the better ages of their ftate. Stridlly 
 (peaking, I have nodring to do with their Theology : my fubjedl, beino- 
 the Defcriptions and Reprefentations of their Deities ; and not the doc¬ 
 trines they held, in relation to them. However, in (ome more mate¬ 
 rial points, I could not forbear touching now and then on their Theology 
 itfelf: fuch as their Philofophical Belief of one true God only; and that 
 peculiar regard that was generally paid by them, to three of their no¬ 
 minal deities, above all the reft: both of which points, I think I have 
 proved rather more clearly, than has been hitherto done; at lead bv 
 any author, that I have happened to read. 
 
 My confining myfelf to the Roman writers only, or fuch of the 
 Greeks as were quite Romanized; has been of great ufe to me, toward 
 making the whole work the lefs perplexed. My chief dock was laid 
 in from all the Roman poets, quite from Ennius down to Juvenal - 
 and from feveral of their profe-writers, from Varro down to Macrobius. 
 Had I gone lower, the authorities would have grown ftill weaker and 
 weaker ; and my fubjedl would have been the more liable to have been 
 confufed. It would have been ftill word, if I had mixed the deities 
 and the opinions of the people of other nations, with thofe of the Ro¬ 
 mans : and word of all, if I had confulted the modern writers on an¬ 
 tiquities ; and ufed their authorities indifferently with thofe of the 
 antients. W hat I endeavoured, was to learn the thoughts and prac^ 
 tices of the Romans, from the Romans themfelves : and if I have 
 founded any little affertion whatever in relation to them, on a modern 
 authority only; I have generally introduced it in the Dialogue, with 
 “ It is faid,” or “ It has been drought,” or (bine equivalent exprellion; 
 on purpofe to diftinguilh it, from what is founded on the authority of 
 the antients. 
 
 In 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 In the laft Dialogue, I have laid down the rough draught of a plan, 
 for carrying on this work as far as I at firft intended to have done : and 
 I ihall juft add here, that if any body had leifure and inclination for fuch 
 a work, they might double the whole Icheme ; by making the fame en¬ 
 quiry into the Greek writers, as is there propofed for the Latin. It fuch 
 a thing ihould ever happen to be put in execution ; this book, (which 
 is of itfelf but too large,) would then be no more than one quarter of 
 the whole work ; tho’, was it all properly executed, I think 1 may 
 venture to fay, it might make a more ufeful and more compleat body 
 of Antiquities, than any that has been as yet publilhed; and at the 
 fame time would be lels voluminous, than the Angle colleftions of either 
 Graevius, or Gronovius, or Montfaucon. 
 
POLYMETIS: 
 
 O R, 
 
 An Enquiry concerning the Agreement 
 
 BETWEEN 
 
 The WORKS of the ROMAN POETS, 
 
 and 
 
 The Remains of the Antient Artists. 
 
 BOOK the Firft. 
 
 THE INTRODUCTION. 
 
 DIAL. I, 
 
 The General Defign of the Work. 
 
 P OLA METIS, who is as well known for his faile in the polite arts, as for his 
 fuperior talents in affairs of Rate, took two or three of his friends with him the 
 lalf fummer to his villa near the town; to breathe frefh air, and relax themfelves 
 after the bufinefs of a long feffion. It was cuftomary with the old Greeks and 
 Romans, to talk over points of philofophy at their tables. Polymetis kept up this o-ood 
 old cuftom at his houfe ; and the part of the entertainment that was generally the moft 
 agreeable to his friends, confifted in the difcourfes he gave them on learning, or on the 
 polite arts ; of which he was extreamly fond. They came thither always with fome 
 expectation of it; and feldom left his table without being pleafed, and perhaps improved, 
 by their treat. 
 
 At prefent the party confifted only of himfelf. Philander, and Myfagetes; two per- 
 ions equally friends to Polymetis; tho’ very different in their own tempers : This, of a 
 gayer turn ; the other, of a ferious one. Myfagetes, had a fine tafte and genius; Phi¬ 
 lander, a good deal of induftry and obfervation. The former had acquired a great pre- 
 heminence by the pieces he had given the world; but look’d on fame itfelf as a tridin^ 
 acquifition: the other, had got fome fhare of reputation; and was labouring on, very 
 ferioufly, to get more. Philander was rather apt to obferve much, than to talk : Myfa¬ 
 getes talked much, but for the molt part to the purpofe. Myfagetes would fometimes 
 laugh at things, that he efteem’d ; and Philander often feem’d to efteem things, that 
 he laughed at. 
 
 The\ came early to the villa : and fat down to their tea, in the library; which looks 
 direaiy upon the gardens, that were juft then finifhed and brought to their prefent per- 
 
 B feCtion. 
 
POLY M E T I S. 
 
 fedtion. You fee, lays Polymetis, I have followed the talle in falhion (which, as it 
 happens, is certainly the heft talk too) of making my gardens rather wild than regular. 
 Their general air, I hope, has nothing ftiff and unnatural in it; and the lower part, in 
 particular, joins in with the view of the country, as if it made a part of it. Indeed the 
 mode has allowed me to have as many temples as I could with, in fuch a fpace of ground: 
 but I would not have you imagine that they are temples only for Ihew; 1 have found 
 out a ufe for them, which you might not think of. The ftatues I got formerly from 
 Italy, and which ufed to croud up all my houfe, are placed in them : and what I a little 
 value myfelf upon, is the order in which I have placed them. Indeed, fays Myfagetes, 
 in coming through your hall, I was furpriz’d to fee it deferted by all the heathen gods; 
 that ufed to feem to be met there, as in council. But what is this order, I befeech you, 
 that you value yourfelf fo much upon ? That, replied Polymetis, may lead me into a 
 larger account than you may care for. No, interpofed Myfagetes, as we fliall go and 
 fee them I fuppole this afternoon, I beg you would let us into your difpofition of them 
 beforehand; that we may be fufficiently prepared to admire it as we ought. 
 
 The deities of the Romans (fays Polymetis) were fo numerous, that they might well 
 complain of wanting a Nomenclatour to help them to remember all their names. Their 
 vulgar religion, as indeed that of the heathens in general, was a fort of Manicheifm. 
 Whatever was able to do good or to do harm (0 to man, was immediately looked on as 
 a fuperiour power; which, in their language, was the fame as a deity. It was hence 
 that they had 1'uch a multitude of gods, that their temples were better peopled with ila- 
 tues, than their cities with men. It is a pcrfedl mob of deities, if you look upon them 
 all together : but they are reducible enough to order ; and fall into fewer dalles, than 
 one would at firft imagine. 1 have reduced them to fix; and confidering their vaft num¬ 
 ber, it was no little trouble to bring them into that compafs. 
 
 You fee that Rotonda, with a Colonnade running round it, on the brow of the hill ? 
 Within that, are the great celellial deities; as the milder ones relating to the human 
 mind and civil life, (Fidelity, Clemency; Peace, Concord; Plenty, Health; all the 
 Mental or Moral Deities, of the better fort;) are placed in the Colonnade about it; one 
 in each opening between the pillars. That temple, lower down the hill to the right, 
 contains the beings which prelide over the element of fire : which, according to the 
 .antients, had its place next to the fupream manfion of the gods. You may call this, if 
 you pleafe, the temple of the Sun and Stars. There I have lodged all my antiques that 
 relate to the Sun, to the Planets, to the Confkllations; and to the Times and Seafons, as 
 meafured by the former. That Odtogon, oppofite to it on the left, is the temple of the 
 Winds, and of the imaginary beings of the air. Thofe two temples on either hand be¬ 
 low them contain, one the deities of the Waters, and the other the deities of the Earth : 
 
 and 
 
 4 deferiptis ; morbifque, &: multis etiam pedibus ; 
 4 dum cfi'c placatos trepiJo metu cupimus. Ideoque 
 4 etiam publice Febri fanum in Palatio dicatum eft ; 
 4 Orbonte, ad a’dem Larium : ara & Mala; Fortuna 1 , 
 4 Exquiliis. Quamobrcm major ccelitum populus, 
 4 etiam quam hominum intelligi potefl.’ Nat. Hilt. 
 
 1. 2. c. 7. p. 82. Ed. EI?..- This laft fentiment is 
 
 more humouroufly expreti by Petronius ; Noflra re¬ 
 gio tam pnefentibus plena cfl numinibus, ut facilius 
 poflis deum quam hominem invenire. Satyricon. 
 P- 35- 
 
 The rcafon for their worfhipping bad gods as 
 well as good ones, is given us by Valerius Maximus ; 
 where he is fpcaking of the goddefs of diflempers. 
 Creteros quidem ad benefaciendum venerabantur ; Fe¬ 
 brem autem, ad minus nocendum, templis colebant : 
 quorum adhuc unum in Palatio, alterum in area Ma¬ 
 rianorum monumentorum, tertium in fumma parts 
 Vici Longi cxt.it. Lib. 2. Cap. 5. 
 
 i The Greeks had their Bad Gods, as well as their 
 Good ones; &Aiy.ovi< kakoi kai AyAdoi : as we fee by 
 their authors ; and in antient inferiptions. There is 
 a gem in the cabinet at St. Genevieve at Paris, in 
 particular, which was ufed formerly as an amulet ; 
 with this infeription, Ato tav]o( kak* 
 
 In the fame manner, the vulgar fcheme of religion 
 among the Romans admitted as ealily of bad, as 
 of good deities; as one learns, very plainly, from 
 Pliny. 4 Innumeros quidem (deos) credere ; atque 
 4 etiam ex virtutibus vitiilque hominum, ut pudi- 
 ‘ citiam, concordiam, mentem, fpem, honorem, cle- 
 4 mentiam, fidem ; aut ut Democrito placuit duos 
 4 omnino, pcenam Sc beneficium ; majorem ad focor- 
 ‘ diam accedit. Fragilis & laboriofa mortalitas in 
 4 partes illa digefln, infirmitatis fute memor; ut por- 
 4 tionibus quifque coleret, quo maxime indigeret. 
 ' Itaque nomina alia aliis gentibus & numina in iifdcm 
 4 innumerabilia reperimus: inferis quoque in genera 
 
 
Dialogue the Fir ft■ 
 
 and if J had a temple for the Infernal beings, with the Vires of men round it, in the 
 fame manner as their Virtues are placed round the celeftial one, I queftion whether you 
 could name any one imaginary being in all the theology of the antients, that might 
 not properly enough be placed in one or other of thefe fix repofitories. 
 
 What a pity it is, fays Myfagetes fmiling, that you fliould not get a Hell to adorn 
 your garden with, and make the work compleat ? Why ferioufly, replied Polymetis, 
 I have thought even of that. One might have contrived a deep wood, toward the bot¬ 
 tom of the hill, which fliould have led you through a narrow'walk (growing every ftep 
 darker and darker, as more thickened with yew and cyprefs) down to a vail, rouvh, 
 horrid cave: in which fuch a gloomy light let in from above, as fails about the middle 
 of the grotto of Paufilipo, might have half fhewn you and half concealed the difmal 
 deities and inhabitants of the lower world. But had this been proper for a garden that 
 does not belong to Benediftins (a) or Carthufians, it might however be very well fpared 
 m my prefent defign. My colleflion, you know, confifls wholly of antiques: and there 
 are fo few antient ftatues that any way relate to the fubterraneous world, that I fhould 
 have been at feme lofs for the moil proper furniture for fuch a repofitory j had I been 
 ever fo fond of introducing it. As to what other remains there are of this kind, tho’ 
 you do not meet with them in my garden, I may perhaps find another place more con¬ 
 venient to fliew you fome of them; if you fliould be fond of fuch terrible fights. So that 
 on the whole, I think I have done right in contenting mylelf here with the temples of 
 the heavens, and the four elementary ones, which you fee under it: in which are all 
 the figures I have of the imaginary beings that belong to either of them; difpofed each 
 according to his rank and character. 
 
 i i 
 
 The ftatues are placed in niches made for them; and ornamented with copies of 
 
 fuch antient relievo's or piftures as relate to them. In their pedeftals, I have contrived 
 drawers, to put in the medals, gems, prints and drawings, I have been fo lonv getting 
 together : fuch under each, as have any reference to the deity they are placed under*: 
 much in the manner as the books of the Sibyls were kept by Auguftus in the ( 3 ) bafe of 
 the Palatine Apollo. And thus I have difpofed of all my colleftion, with fomewhat 
 more of regularity and order, than is generally obferved in much better colledlions than 
 I am matter of. 
 
 
 You, Philander, know that my principal view in making this colleftion was to'com¬ 
 pare the deferiptions and expreffions in the Roman poets that any way relate to the ima¬ 
 ginary beings, with the works that remain to us of the old artifts; and to pleafe myfelf 
 with the mutual lights they might give each to the other. I have often thought when 
 in Italy, and at Rome in particular, that they enjoy there the convenience of a fort of 
 cotemporary comments on Virgil and Horace, in the nobler remains of the antient fta- 
 tuaries and painters. When you look on the old pidures or fculptures, you look on the 
 works of men who thought much in the fame train with the old poets. There was ge¬ 
 nerally the greateft union in their defigns : and where they are engaged on the fame fub- 
 jedts, they ntuft be the bell explainers of one another. As we lie fo far north from this 
 laft great feat of empire, we are placed out of the reach of confulting thefe finer remains 
 of antiquity fo much, and fo frequently, as one could with. The only way of fupplying 
 this defect to any degree among us, is by copies, prints, and drawings : and as I have 
 long had this thought, my collection is at length grown very numerous ; and indeed al- 
 
 Uioft 
 
 (2) r he Religious of the feverer orders abroad, in- (3) Poftquam pontificatum maximum fufccpit,quic- 
 llcad of fummet-houfes, and places for pleafurc, have quid fatidicorum librorunf, Grteci Latiniquc generis, 
 often a fort of penitential caves in their gardens ; con- nullis vel parum idoneis aufloribus vulgi ferebatur’ 
 trived fo as to call a gloom over the tnind : with a fupra duo millia, contraria undique cremavit ; ac 
 
 fingle t.ipcr in its inmoft recefs ; that fhews you the 
 iigure of a Magdalen weeping over a death’s head, or 
 fome fuch melancholy object. 
 
 folos retinuit Sibyllinos; hos quoque deledtu habito; 
 condiditque duobus forulis auratis, fub Palatini Apolli¬ 
 nis bafi. Suet, in Aug. c. 31. 
 
 3 
 
 (I 
 
4 
 
 POLYMETIS. 
 
 moll as full as I could defire it, as to the point which has all along been my particular 
 aim. 
 
 I have always admired your collection, fays Philander; but might not one who has 
 no fuch collection, make a fhift with father Montfaucon ? That father’s work, replied 
 Polymetis, is largely ftockt with figures; and perhaps too largely, to be of fervice in the 
 defign we are talking of. We are much obliged to him for his induftry : but his choice 
 is rather too ( 4 ) loofe and unconhned. He has taken in all the different figures he could 
 meet with ; of whatever age, or country. You have, even in the better part of his col¬ 
 lection, Tufcan gods mixt with Roman; old Gallick figures, with thofe of Syria : and 
 the monfters of Egypt, with the deities of Athens. This muff bring in a great deal of 
 confufion, and ftrangely multiply the appearance and ( 5 ) attributes of almoff every deity. 
 As you fee them there, the deferiptions of them in the Roman poets do not agree with 
 
 the 
 
 (4) This charge againft father Montfaucon may 
 perhaps feem too fevere. It is founded on two things: 
 on his deiign itfelf being laid rather too wide ; and 
 on that defign’s not being executed fo regularly, as it 
 fhould be. 
 
 The father gives us the defign of his work in the 
 following words. ‘ II s’agit ici de toutc l’antiquite. 
 
 * On en rapportc toutes les parties. On donne fur 
 
 * chacune un grand nombre de figures. Ccs figures 
 ‘ font expliquees, avec toute l’exaftitude, & toute la 
 ‘ precifion, dont j’ai ete capable. Quand les figures 
 ‘ manquent fur certains fujets, je ne laific pas d’ex- 
 ‘ pliquer ces fujets, pour fairc une fuite complete. 
 
 * Voila le plan de tout l’ouvrage.’ His antiques arc 
 therefore of all nations : and one may add, of all 
 ages : from the very carlicft that are found, quite 
 down to the reign of the younger Theodofius. Montf. 
 Pref. p. xiv, & xv. 
 
 In the execution of this defign the father promifes 
 to fet apart the firft and fecond volumes of his work, 
 for the gods of the Greeks and Romans: the third, for 
 the temples, vafes, and inftruments they made ufe of 
 in the worfliip of their gods : and the fourth, for 
 the deities and worlhip of other nations. Ib. p. viii, 
 
 Tho’ the defign itfelf is laid too wide for any one 
 man to be able to execute it as it ought to bo; father 
 Montfaucon would have done much better had he 
 followed it in the method he propofes, than in the 
 manner he has done : for he is fo far from confining 
 the gods of the other nations to his fourth volume, 
 that he has given fomc of all forts in his firft, which 
 was to be fet apart for Greek and Roman figures only: 
 at leaft, he has given fome of all the four forts men¬ 
 tioned above; to wit, Tufcan, Gallick, Syrian and 
 Egyptian. 
 
 Whoever would be convinced of this, need only 
 turn to one fingle article; that of Jupiter; in the 
 beginning of father Montfaucon’s firft volume : where 
 he will meet with figures of each of the other kinds 
 juft mentioned ; and moft of them acknowledged by 
 the father’s own words, not to be Greek or Roman. 
 
 And, 1, as to Tufcan figures. There is a Jupiter, 
 and four other gods with him ; Plate 17. No. 1. All 
 of a bad manner, unlike the Roman ; taken from 
 an antient bafs-relief, of which father Montfaucon 
 fays ; ‘ Ce monument Etrufquc eft tres remarquablc.’ 
 p. 4S. 
 
 2. As to Gallick figures. In the next plate, PI. 18. 
 No. 2. there is a Jupiter, called Jupiter Dolichenius ; 
 who, as the father fays very truly, 1 a plutot Pair 
 d’un Mars, que d’un Jupiter.’ This is what I fhould 
 call a Gallick figure. It is confefiediy no Roman Ju¬ 
 piter ; it is a Dolichenian Jupiter; and that, probably, 
 ill-formed by fomc old French artift. At leaft, the 
 father fays it was found in France. c Elle a ea- 
 * treuvee a Marfeilles ; d’ou elle a etc apportee au 
 ‘ cabinet du Due de Wirtembcrg.’ p. 50. 
 
 3. As to Syrian figures, the laft mentioned might 
 ferve for an inftance; for Doliche is an inland city of 
 Syria ; placed by the beft antient authorities in the 
 province of Samofata; now called the kingdom of 
 Comagene. ‘ Villc de la Comagcne,’ fays Mont¬ 
 faucon. ib. But if any body fhould be for a new in¬ 
 ftance, there are five all together; (Plate 12. No. 11, 
 12, 13, 14, 15.) four of Jupiter Cafius ; and the fifth, 
 of one Agreus, a god unknown to the claflicks. One 
 at leaft of thefe Cafian Jupitcrs, muft be Syrian. Jt 
 has the name of Syria upon it; with the figure of a 
 mountain, which the father calls ; ‘ 1c mont Cafius, 
 dans la Syrie.’ p. 44. 
 
 4. As to Egyptian figures, we have Serapis, and 
 Ids; two of the moft known among the Egyptian dei¬ 
 fies. Serapis makes his appearance more than once : 
 PI. 10. Nd. 7, 14, &c. ‘ C’eft Jupiter Serapis ;’ fays the 
 father, in lpcaking of one of them. p. 36. Ifis is re- 
 prefented with Jupiter; PI. 17. No. 2. ‘ Jupiter cou- 
 ronne de laurier, eft avec Ifis, dans 1’image l'uivante;’ 
 Id. p. 49. 
 
 There are feveral other figures under this article of 
 Jupiter, which I fhould fuppofc to be neither Greek, 
 nor Roman ; fuch as PI. 8. Fig. 8, & 9.—PI. 9. Fig. 9. 
 —PI. 13. Fig. 1, & 2.—PI. 14. Fig. 3, 4, & 5.—& 
 PI. 18. Fig. 1, & 3. But I fliall omit any particu¬ 
 lar obfervations on them ; becaufe I think what is al¬ 
 ready faid is fufficient to juftify, what is aUcrted 
 above. 
 
 (5) The figures of the Roman deities have gene¬ 
 rally fomething about them, to diftinguifh them, and 
 mark out who they are : fuch as the trident in the 
 hand of Neptune, or the fpcar in that of Mars ; 
 the crown of ivy wreath’d round Bacchus’s head, or 
 the laurel round Apollo's. Thefe the Romans 
 called, figna ; as the modern artifts call them, attri¬ 
 butes. 
 
D I A 
 
 the artifts ; nor the works of the artifts with the poets. As my view was a more parti ¬ 
 cular one, I found myfelf obliged to. confine my collection to the deities as received in 
 Italy; and even in fuch parts of Italy only, where they were uniformly received. This 
 cuts off any figures that were not of the growth, or at leaft made free of Rome. The 
 forms ufed in the different parts of Italy, were not indifferently copies to the Roman 
 poets. Hetruria had certainly a manner to itfelf; and the figures ufed in the Cifalpine 
 Gaul, for example, might have very great variations from the Roman. On the other 
 hand, we are by no means to omit the figures of the true Roman deities, becaufe made 
 by Greek artifts. Almoft all (6) their beft were fo; for the Romans defpifed the practice 
 of the arts themfelves ; and a Roman workman in the iEmilian fquare was probably 
 pretty near on a level with our artifts by Hyde-park-corner; even at the very time that 
 they were bringing in all the moft beautiful pieces of antiquity from Greece, and en¬ 
 couraging the beft living artifts of that country to come and fettle at Rome. Hence many 
 of the Grecian deities, together with the modes of drefting them, were in a manner 
 naturalized in Rome; and after that, may be looked upon as Roman deities. But there 
 are fome ( 7 ) that never were fo received there; and fuch I have endeavoured to exclude 
 too, out of my collection. 
 
 I am very glad, fays Myfagetes, to hear that you have decimated your gods : for I 
 fliould have been heartily vext to fee a deity with a dog’s, or a hawk’s head, upon its 
 fhoulders : and could never have been brought to view a Squat-Jug (8) with the refpeCt 
 that may, perhaps, be due to whatever was formerly the divinity of a great and learned 
 nation. But as you have thinned your deities fo confiderably, may I afk whether you 
 have fhewn more indulgence to the poets, or whether you have not made a reform 
 among them too ? I have taken a good deal of pains, replied Polymetis, in collecting 
 the moft confiderable paflages from the greater number of them ; which I have ranged 
 in order, according to the times in which they wrote : for there is a great deal of diffe¬ 
 rence in the authority of a poet near the fecond Punic war, and one who lived in Au- 
 guftus’s time. This muft naturally be fettled according to the growth of poetry, and the 
 improvement of the arts among the Romans; and if you plsafe to have me anfwer your 
 queftion fully, I muft give you a long hiftory of each. Tho’ you do not feem to offer 
 this ferioufly, interpofed Philander, I very ferioully beg that you would oblige us with 
 an account of each. They are fubjeCts I have often heard you fpeak of, and which I 
 
 know 
 
 (6) It is remarkable that in the collection of fuch 
 gems as have the names of the artifts engraved on 
 them (which was publifhed by Baron Stofche, a few 
 years ago, at Florence) they are all Greeks : and a- 
 mon» the feveral infcriptions under ftatues and ballo 
 relievo’s, given by the fame author in his preface, 
 there is only one artift among them that is Ro¬ 
 man. 
 
 The Romans praCtifed painting as little. One per- 
 fon of diftinCtion indeed, among the Romans them- 
 felves, happened pretty early to fall into it. He was 
 of the great Fabian family ; and was hence called 
 Fabius PiCtor. After him, fays Pliny, ‘ Non eft 
 fpeCtata honeftis manibus.’ Nat. Hift. L- 35 - c - 4 - 
 Fabius himfelf was fo pleafed with the art, that he 
 wrote his name under his pictures. This, tho’ fo 
 ■ul'ual now, was looked on as very low and ridiculous 
 in him. Gloria interdum etiam a claris viris, ex hu¬ 
 milibus rebus petita eft. Nam quid fibi voluit C. 
 Fabius, nobiliffimus civis, qui cum in a?de Salutis, 
 quamC. Junius 'Bubalcus dedicaverat, parietes pinx- 
 ilTet, nomen his l'uum infcripfit ? Id enim demum 
 
 ornamentum familia?, confulatibus & facerdotiis & tri¬ 
 umphis celeberrimre, deerat ? Casterum fordido ftu- 
 dio deditum ingenium, qualemcunque illum labo¬ 
 rem fuum, filentio obliterari noluit. Val. Maxin 
 Lib. 8. Cap. 14. §. 6. 
 
 (7) They were fometimes quite oppofite. Thus 
 the Grecian Juno was often reprefented naked ; 
 whereas the Roman Juno is always dreft in all the 
 decency of a Roman matron. The Grecian Idea of 
 Fortitude was expreft by a pcrfon finely armed, with 
 a face that has as much of beauty as fevcrity in it; 
 but the Roman Virtus is rougher, and of a lower 
 ftamp ; and is often only dreft like one of their own 
 common foldiers. 
 
6 
 
 POLYMETIS. 
 
 know you We long fince turned much in your mind. The morning does not look lit 
 
 for walking: and 1 intreat you-Nay, no intreaties, I befeech you, fays Polymetis. 
 
 If you are willing to hear it, I am as willing to tell you whatever I can recoiled on thofe 
 heads: and indeed I have been fo ufed to think on thefe fubjeds, that I could talk them 
 over I believe with fome fort of method: however, it will be better, if you will allow 
 me an hour or two to run over the particulars by myfelf3 and in the mean time I will 
 leave you to divert yourfelves, either here in my library3 or in my gardens 3 or 
 wherever you pleafe. 
 
Dialogue the Second, 
 
 7 
 
 DIAL. II. 
 
 Of the Rife of Poetry among the Romans. 
 
 P OLYMETIS made his appearance no more all the morning. He feemed a 
 little thoughtful even at dinner j which was no fooner over, than Philander put 
 him in mind of his promife. We long, fays he, to hear your two hiftories of the 
 Roman Poetry, and of the arts of Rome : or do you intend to weave them together into 
 one ? for I have often heard you fay, that their fate and fortunes were very much alike 
 No, fays Polymetis, they are likely to run into fuch a length, that I Ihall give them to 
 you feparately ; that you may have the more diftind idea of each : and I°lhall begin 
 With what account I can give you of the progrefs of their poetry. 
 
 The Romans, in the infancy of their fate, were intirely rude W and unpolilhed. They 
 came from ihepherds; they were increafed from the (a) refufe of the nations round them- 
 and their manners agreed with their original. As they lived wholly on tilling their ground 
 at home, or on plunder from their neighbours; war was their bufinefs, and agriculture 
 the chief art they followed to any degree. Long after this, wfen they had fpread their 
 conquefts over a great part of Italy, and began to make a confiderable figure in the 
 world; even their great men retained a roughnefs, which they raifed into a virtue by 
 calling it Roman fpirit; and which might often much better have been called Roman 
 barbarity. It feems to me, that there was more of (3) aufterity than judice, and more 
 of infolence than courage, in feme of their mod celebrated adtions. However that be, 
 this is certain, that they were at fird a nation of foldiers and huibandmen : roughnefs 
 was long an applauded charader among them : and a fort of (4) rufticity reigned^ even 
 in their fenate-houfe. 
 
 In a nation originally of fuch a temper as this; taken up almoft always in extending 
 their territories very often in fettling the balance (5) of power among themfelves , and 
 not unfrequently in both thefe at the fame time; it was long before the politer arts 
 made any appearance ; and very ( 6 ) long before they took root or flouriihed to any de¬ 
 gree. Poetry was the fird that did fo; but fuch a poetry, as one might exped among 
 a warlike, bulled, unpolilhed people. 
 
 Not 
 
 (1) R udis fuit prifeorum vita, & fine literis. Pliny, 
 Nat. Hift. L. 18. c. 29. 
 
 (2) As their firft increafe was owing to the place 
 of refuge fet up by Romulus, to invite all the murder¬ 
 ers and fugitives in their neighbourhood to join 
 them. 
 
 (3) l n Valerius Maximus’s inftances of feverity, 
 there are twelve from his own nation, to three from 
 all the kingdoms round about them. He himfelf 
 begins the account of the former, with thefe words : 
 
 ‘ Armet l'e duritia pedtus needle eft, dum horrida ac 
 triftis feveritatis adta narruntur j ut humaniore cogita¬ 
 tione fepofita, rebus auditu afperis vacet and clofes 
 it with thefe; ‘ Etfi Romanae feveritatis exemplis totus 
 terrarum orbis inftrui poteft; tamen externa,’ &c. 
 Lib. 6. cap. 5. 
 
 6 
 
 (4) Horace calls Italy, in this period, ‘ Agrefte La¬ 
 tium ;’ and fays, a little after, 
 
 ■-- In longum tamen zvum 
 
 Manferunt, hodieque manent veltigia ruris. 
 
 Lib. 2. Ep. i. > l . 160, 
 
 (5) The ftrugglcs, between the Patricians and Ple¬ 
 beians, for power, take up the greateft part of this age. 
 
 (6) Serus enim Grtecis admovit acumina chartis; 
 
 Et, poll Punica bella quietus, quterere cccpit. 
 
 Quid Sophocles Sc Thefpis & jEfchilus utile ferrent. 
 
 Hor. Lib. 2. Ep. i. jr. 163, 
 
 ■ Delicias quoque vitse funditus omnes. 
 
 Carmina, pidluras, & Dxdala figna polire, 
 
 Ufus & impigra fimul experientia mentis 
 Paulatim docuit pede ten tim progredienteis. 
 
 Lucr. L. 5. St. 1452. 
 
 / 
 
8 
 
 POLY M E T I S. 
 
 Not to enquire about the (7) fongs of triumph, mentioned even in Romulus's time ; 
 there was certainly fomething of poetry among them in the next reign under Numa . a 
 prince who pretended to converfe with the mufes, as well as with Egeria ; and who 
 might poffibly ( 8 ) himfelf have made the verfes, which the Salian Priefts fung in his time. 
 Pythagoras, either in the fame reign, or if you pleafe fome time after, gave the Romans 
 a tindture of poetry (9) as well as philofophy; for Cicero affurcs us that the Pythago¬ 
 reans made great ufe of poetry and mufic : and probably they, like our old Druids, de¬ 
 livered moil of their precepts in verfe. Indeed the chief employment of poetry in that 
 and the following ages among the Romans, was of a religious kind. Their very prayers, 
 and perhaps their whole (mf liturgy, was poetical. They had alfo a fort of prophetic, 
 or facred writers, who feem to have wrote generally in verfe; and were fo numerous, 
 that there were above (n) two thoufand of their volumes remaining even to Auguflus's 
 time. They had a (12) kind of plays too in thefe early times, derived from what they 
 
 had 
 
 (7) O J'i P upn-Kof, *>< dv y.dhird Tnv iux>iv rco 
 
 X.iX a f ,,r l J - ivnV Kttl T0,f l ^ i,V TrtpatJfO/, 
 
 ffK.f\d(JtVO( £T/ rpa.TSTsJ'is / p\!V IfSpiV V-rip/Ji^id», Adi 
 J'li/JOpifUlTiV UffVt P TpOttdlOV, Kdt TUV oitKuv 1*« Anpavof 
 t/.cirov tv rct^ti Tsp/Hp/^oo-' y.cti KxlnprifiV duTOf J'i rnv 
 IJ.IV t&HTd Tipit^eoaetTO, J'dQV II J'i iTi-ldTO THV KiQ&AHV 
 XOUUtTdV. TtoKaCcoV J'i TU J'i'lU TO TpOTdliV 7 rpO(T- 
 tptiJ'o/jtvov opSov tCaJ'i(tv, ttcuclvoc 
 
 tv OTTKOK tiropjtvn TD rpttT ict, J'iX°l J - c - vuv " TUV TTohncov 
 
 pJiTd X*? A < KAI 3<*V//*T0{. H ptV KV TOfJ T.l TUV dU$l{ 
 dptct/jCuv dpyjiv v.ca %nKov vtdpi% C -V. Plutarch, in Vita 
 Korn. p. 27. Ed. Par- 1624. 
 
 What fort of fongs thefe were, we may guefs a little 
 from fome expreffions relating to them, in Livy. 
 Dutfli ante currum hoftium duces ; militaria figna 
 praelata; fecutus exercitus praeda onuftus. Epulre in- 
 ftrudfce dicuntur fuiiTe ante omnium domos ; epulan- 
 tcfquc, cum carmine triumphali & folcnmbus jocis, 
 comeflantium modo, currum fecuti funt. Livy, Lib. 3. 
 ^ 2 g.____— Longe maximum triumphi fpedaculum 
 fuit Cofius ; fpolia opima regis interfe&i gerens : in 
 cum milites carmina incondita, aequantes cum Romu¬ 
 lo, canere. Id. Lib. 4. §. 20.-Itaque cum ex fo 
 
 natus confulto urbem ovans introiret, alternis incon¬ 
 diti verfus militari licentia jaftati : quibus conful in¬ 
 crepitus, Menenii celebre nomen laudibus fuit. Ibid. 
 
 §• 53 * 
 
 (8) Ovid feems to hint that Numa wrote fome of 
 their old religious forms, in fome kind of verfe : 
 
 Conjugc qui felix nympha, ducibufque Camaenis, 
 Sacrificos docuit ritus ; gentemque feroci 
 Affueram bello pacis traduxit ad artes. 
 
 Met. 15. 484. 
 
 And Horaee calls the old Salian verfes, in particular, 
 Numa’s verfes. L. 2. Ep. i. 86. 
 
 (9) Cicero afTcrts this in general, Tufc. Quseft. L. 4. 
 and Vitruvius fays in particular, that Pythagoras and 
 his followers delivered their precepts in a certain num¬ 
 ber of verfes; or in a cube of 216 Verfes, as he calls 
 it: L. 5. Prooem. 
 
 (io) Cadis cum pueris ignara puella mariti 
 
 Difceret unde preces, vatem ni mula dediffet ? 
 
 Pofcit opem chorus, & prxfentia numina feniit: 
 
 Cccledes implorat aquas dofla prece blandus; 
 
 Avertit morbos; metuenda pericula pellit: 
 
 Impetrat & pacem,&locupletem frugibus annum: 
 
 Carmine Ditfuperi placantur; carmine manes. 
 
 Horaee, L. 2. Ep. 1. jE 138, 
 
 (11) Thefe are probably what Horace calls; 
 
 Pontificum libros, annofa volumina vatum. 
 
 L. 2. Ep. 1. 26. 
 
 For their number, fee Dial. 1. Note 3. I do not ima¬ 
 gine that thefe were all written in verfe : for tho’ the 
 authors arc called Vates, and their works Carmina, 
 thofe words do not neccflarily imply that they were 
 all poetry. 
 
 The name of carmen is ufed often for a charm : as 
 particularly in Pliny, L. 28. C. 2. Perhaps too it was 
 ufed for any thing that was worded in an high poeti¬ 
 cal ftyle : for the fame author calls the form of words 
 by which the Decii devoted themfelves to death, car¬ 
 men. Ibid. That form, he fays, was extant in his 
 time : and was probably the fame with that wc have 
 
 in Livy, L. 8- §. 9--Jane, Jupiter, Mars Pater, 
 
 Quirine, Bellona, Lares ! Divi Novenfilcs, Dii In- 
 digetes! Divi quorum eft poteflas noftrorum hoftium- 
 que. Diique Manes ! Vos precor, veneror ; veniam 
 peto, feroque ; uti Populi Romani Quiritium vim vic¬ 
 toriamque profpcrctis; hoftefque Populi Romani Qui¬ 
 ritium, terrore, formidine, morteque, afficiatis : ficut 
 verbis nuncupavi, ita pro republic^ Quiritium, exer¬ 
 citu, legionibus, auxiliis Populi Romani Quiritium, 
 legiones auxiliaque hoftiuin mccum Diis Manibus 
 Tellurique devoveo. 
 
 Perhaps the folemn forms, prophecies, and charms, 
 in ufe among the old Romans, were all originally, 
 and moft of them afterwards, written in verfe; and 
 thence the terms of Carmen, Cantare, Incantare, & 
 Decantare, might come to be ufed of them even 
 when they were in profe. 
 
 Some of thefe terms are made ufe of in fpeaking of 
 charjns, fo early as in the laws of the twelve tables. 
 Quei malom carmen incantaffit, malomque venenum 
 faefit duitve, paraccidad eftod. 
 
 As to the ufe of the word Vates fur profe writers j 
 fee Note 17, pofth. 
 
 (12) Ludi Scenici inter alia coeleftis irae placamina 
 inftituti dicuntur : exterum parva quoque, ut fcrmt* 
 principia omnia, & ea ipfa peregrina res fuit. Sine 
 carmine ullo, fine imitandorum carminum a£tu, lu¬ 
 diones ex Hetruria acciti ad tibicinis modos faltantes 
 haud indecoros motus more Thufco dabant. Imitari 
 deinde eos juventus fimul inconditis inter fc jocularia 
 fundentes verfibus coepere; nec abfoni a voce motus 
 erant. Accepta igitur re, ftepiulque ufurpando ex¬ 
 citata ; vernaculis artificibus, quia Hiftcr 1 hufco 
 verbo ludio vocabatur, nomen hiftrionibus inditum : 
 
 qui 
 
Dialogue 
 
 Second. 
 
 had Teen of the Tufcan adtors, when fent for to Rome to expiate a plague that raged iri 
 the city. Thefe feem to have been, either like our dumb-lhews; or elic, a kind of ex¬ 
 tempore farces : a thing to this day a good deal in ul'e, all over Italy5 and in Tufcany, in 
 a more particular manner. Add to thefe (13), that extempore kind of jefting dialogues, 
 begun at their harveft and vintage-feafts; and carried on fo rudely and fo abufively after¬ 
 wards, as to occafion a very fevere law to reftrain their licentioufnefs: and thofe lovers of 
 poetry and good eating, who feem to have attended the tables of the richer fort much 
 like the old Provincial poets, or our own Britifh bards; and fang there, to fome infl.ru- 
 ment of mufic ( I 4 ), the achievements of their anceflors, and the noble deeds ol thofe 
 who had gone before them, to inflame others to follow their great examples. 
 
 The names of almofl: all thefe poets fleep in peace, with all their works : and if we 
 may take the word of the other Roman writers of a better age, it is no great lofs to us. 
 One of their bell poets reprefents them as (15) very obfeure and very ( I ^>) contemptible; 
 one of their bell; hiftorians ( I 7 ) avoids quoting them, as too barbarous for politei ears; 
 
 and 
 
 qui non ficut ante Fefcennino verl'u fimilem incompo- 
 fitum temere ac rudem alternis jaciebant ; fed impletas 
 modis fatiras, deferipto jam ad tibicinem cantu, mo¬ 
 tuque congruenti peragebant. Livius port aliquot 
 annos, qui ab fatiris aufus eft primus argumento tabu¬ 
 lam ferere, idem fcilicet id quod omnes tum erant Tuo¬ 
 rum carminum adtor, dicitur (cum fiepius revocatus 
 vocem obtudiflet) venia petita puerum ad canendum 
 ante tibicinem ftatuiflc, canticumque egifle aliquanto 
 magis vigente motu quia nihil vocis ufus impediebat. 
 Inde ad manum cantari hiftrionibuS cceptum : diver¬ 
 biaque tantum ipforum voci relidta. Poftquam lege 
 hac fabularum ab rifu ac foluto joco res avocabatur ; 
 & ludus in artem paulatim verterat : juventus, hiflri- 
 onibus fabellarum adtu relidlo, ipla inter fe more an¬ 
 tiquo ridicula intexta verfibus jactitare ccepit ; qua: 
 inde Exodia poftea appellata, confertaque fabellis po- 
 tiflimum Atellanis funt: quod genus ludorum ab Ofcis 
 acceptum tenuit juventus, nec ab hiftrionibus pollui 
 palla eft. Eo inftitutum manet, ut adores Atellana¬ 
 rum nec tribu moveantur, Sc ftipendia tanquam ex¬ 
 pertes artis ludicra faciant. Inter aliarum parva prin¬ 
 cipia rerum, ludorum quoque prima origo ponenda 
 vifa eft; ut appareret quam ab fano initio res in hanc 
 vix opulentis regnis tolerabilem infaniam venerit. 
 Nec tamen ludorum primum initium procurandis re¬ 
 ligionibus datum, aut religione animos aut corpora 
 
 morbis levavit, &c. Livy, L. 7. §. 3.-Valerius 
 
 Maximus fpealcs, much in the fame manner, both of 
 the origin, and the abufe of the ftage, at Rome. Lib. 2. 
 Cap. 4. §. 1, 4, & 6. 
 
 (13) Agricola prifei, fortes parvoque beati. 
 
 Condita poll frumenta, levantes tempore fello 
 Corpus & ipfum animum fpe finis dura ferentem, 
 Cum fociis operum pueris & conjuge fida, 
 Tellurem porco, Sylvanum ladle piabant; 
 
 Floribus & vino Genium, memorem brevis aevi. 
 Fefcennina per hunc inventa licentia morem 
 Verfibus alternis opprobria rullica fudit: 
 Libertafque recurrentes accepta per annos 
 Lufit amabiliter; donec jam ftevus apertam 
 In rabiem ccepit verti jocus, & per honellas 
 Irc domos impune minax. Doluere cruento 
 Dente lacelliti ; fuit intaftis quoque cura 
 Conditione fuper communi: quin etiam lex 
 Pcenaque lata, malo quas nollet carmine quenquam 
 
 Defcribi.--- 
 
 Horat. L. 2. Ep. 1. jh 154. 
 
 - I fuppofe this Fefccnnine poetry was a fort of dia¬ 
 logues, from Horace’s expreffion of, Verfibus alternis; 
 like fome of Virgil’s eclogues ; particularly the be¬ 
 ginning of the third : and not unlike thofe, fo much 
 ul'ed at prefent among the extempore poets in Italy. 
 Alternis dicetis : amant alterna Camcenx. 
 
 Virg. Ecl. 3. 59. 
 
 (14) Eft in Originibus, folitos efie in epulis canere 
 Convivas ad tibicinem, de clarorum hominum virtu¬ 
 tibus. Cicero. Tufc. Qtiasft. Lib. 1. p. 289. Ed. Elz. 
 
 -Majores natu in conviviis ad tibias egregia fupe- 
 
 riorum opera, carmine comprchenfa, pangebant; quo 
 ad ea imitanda juventutem alacriorem redderent. Va¬ 
 lerius Max. Lib. 2. Cap. I. §. 10. 
 
 (15) - Saliare Numx carmen qui laudat; & illud 
 
 Quod mecum ignoret, folus vult fcire videri. 
 
 Horat. L. 2. Ep. 1, f. 87. 
 
 (19) Sic fautor veterum., ut tabulas peccare vetantes 
 Quas bis quinque viri fanxerunt; fccdera regum 
 Vel Gabiis vel cum rigidis xquata Sabinis, 
 Pontificum libros, annofa volumina vatum, 
 Didtitec Albano mufas in monte locutas. 
 
 Ibid- f. 27. 
 
 •-Sic horridus ille 
 
 Defluxit numerus Saturnius; &: grave virus 
 Munditia: pepulere.- 
 
 Ibid. jr, 139. 
 
 (17) Tum feptem St viginti virgines, longam in¬ 
 duta: veftem, carmen in Junonem Reginam canentes 
 ibant ; illa tempeftate forfitan laudabile rudibus in¬ 
 geniis ; nunc abhorrens Sc inconditum, fi referatur. 
 Livy, L. 27. §. 38. 
 
 Martius was one of the moft famous among thefe 
 old Vates ; and Livy therefore forhetiines does him 
 the honour to quote fome things from his Carmina— 
 Religio deinde nova objedta eft ex carminibus Mar- 
 tianis. Vates hic Martius illuftris fuerat; & cum in- 
 quilitio priore anno ex fenatus-confulto talium libro¬ 
 rum fierat, in M. TEmilii praetoris Urbani qui eam 
 rem agebat manus venerant.-Ex hujus Martii duo¬ 
 
 bus carminibus, alterius poftea audi a declarato audto- 
 ritas eventu, alteri quoque cujus nondum tempus ve¬ 
 nerat afferebat fidem. Priore carmine Cannenfis pra- 
 didla clades in haic ferme verba erat : “ Amnem 
 “ Trojugena Cannam, Romane, fuge ; ne te alicni- 
 ) genae 
 
 I; •, 
 
and one of their mod judicious emperors ( J 8) ordered the greated part of their writings 
 to be burnt, that the world might be troubled with them no longer. 
 
 All thefe poets therefore may very well be dropt in the account; there being nothing 
 remaining of their works, and probably no merit to be found in them if they had re¬ 
 mained: and fo we may date the beginning of the Roman poetry from Livius Andronicus, 
 the fird of their poets of whom any thing does remain to us; and from whom the Ro j 
 mans themfelves feem to have (19) dated the beginning of their poetry, even in the Au- 
 guftan age. 
 
 The firit kind of poetry, that was followed with any fuccefs among the Romans, was 
 that for the dage. They were a very religious people ; and fhige-plays, in thole times, 
 made no inconliderable part in their public (20) devotions. It is hence perhaps that the 
 greated number of their olded poets of whom we have any remains, and indeed almod 
 all of them, are dramatic poets. 
 
 The foremod in this lid were Livius, Nsevius, and Ennius. Livius’s fird play (and 
 it was the (21) fird written play that ever appeared at Rome, whence perhaps Horace ( 22 ) 
 calls him Livius Scriptor) was adted ( 2 3 ) in the 514th year from the building of the city. 
 He feems to have got whatever reputation he had, rather as their fird, than as a good 
 writer; for Cicero, who admired thefe old poets more than they were afterwards ad¬ 
 mired, is forced to give up Livius; and fays that his pieces did not deferve ( 2 +) a fecond 
 reading. He was for fome time the foie writer for the dage ; till Navius refe to rival him; 
 and probably far exceeded his mader. Navius ventured too on an epic, or rather an hi- 
 dorical poem, on the fird Carthaginian war. Ennius followed his deps in this, as well as 
 in the dramatic way : and feems to have excelled him as much, as he had excelled Livius; 
 fo much at lead, that Lucretius fays of him, “ That he was the fird of their poets who 
 deferved a (25) lading crown from the Mufes.” Thefe three poets, were (26) adtors as 
 ‘1 as poets; and feem, all of them, to have wrote whatever was wanted for the dage 
 rather than to have confultcd their own turn or genius. Each of them published fome- 
 times tragedies, fometimes comedies, and fometimes a kind of dramatic fatires : fuch 
 fatires, I luppofe, as had been occalioned (27) by the extempore poetry that had been in 
 fafhion the century before them. All the mod celebrated dramatic writers, of antiquity 
 excel only in one kind. There is no tragedy of Terence, or Menander; and no comedy 
 of Adtius, or Euripides. But thefe fird dramatic poets among the Romans attempted 
 every thing indifferently ; jud as the prefent fancy, or the demand of the people led 
 them. 
 
 The 
 
 genas cogant in campo Diomedis confererc manus : 
 led neque credes tu mihi, donec compleris fanguine 
 campum : multaque millia occifa tua deferat amnis, 
 in pontum magnum ex terra frugifera. Pifcibus at¬ 
 que avibus, ferifque qure incolunt terras, iis fiet efca 
 caro tua; nam mihi ita Jupiter fatus clt.” L. 25. 
 
 (18) Auguftus. Dialogue 1. 
 
 (19) --Habet hos numeratque poetas, 
 
 Ad noilrum tempus Livi feriptoris ab tevo. 
 
 Herat. L. 2. Ep. 
 
 (20) See Note 12, anteh. 
 
 (21) The plays in the age before Livius were ex¬ 
 tempore; (fee Note 12, anteh.) He was the firft who 
 compofed one in form, and wrote it down for the 
 aiftors to learn by heart. Livius qui primus fabulam, 
 C. Clodio Cxci filio & Tuditano confulibus, docuit; 
 
 anno ipfo antequam natus cft Ennius, U. C. 514. Ci- 
 de claris Orat. §.72. Ed. Oxon. 1716. In giving 
 the date, he follows the authority of his friend Atticus ; 
 there was a difputc about it. Id. ibid. 
 
 (22) See Note 19, anteh. 
 
 (23) See Note 21, anteh. 
 
 (24) Liviante fabula?, non fatis digna; qute iterum 
 legantur. Cicero, de claris Orat. §. 71. Ed. Oxon. 
 
 6 . 
 
 (25) Ennius u 
 Detulit e 
 
 nolter cecinit; qui primus amceno 
 Helicone perenni fronde coronam. 
 
 (26) See Note 12, anteh. 
 
 (27) See Note 13, anteh. 
 
Dialogue the Second. 
 
 1 1 
 
 The quiet the Romans enjoyed after (*8) the l'econd Punic war, when they had humbled 
 their great rival Carthage; and their carrying on their conquefis afterwards, without any 
 great difficulties, into Greece; gave them leifure and opportunities for making very great 
 improvements in their poetry. Their dramatic writers began to aft with more fteddinefs 
 and judgment; they followed one point of view: they had the benefit of the excellent 
 patterns the Greek writers had fet them, and formed themfelves on thofe models. 
 
 Plautus was the firfi: that confulted his own genius, and confined himfelf to that 
 fpecies of dramatic writing for which he was the bell: fitted by nature. Indeed his co¬ 
 medy (like the old comedy at Athens) is of a (29) ruder kind; and far enough from the 
 polifh that was afterwards given it, among the Romans. His jells are oftenrough; and 
 his wit, coarfe : but there is a Rrength and fpirit in him, that makes one read him with 
 pleafure. At leaft, he is much to be commended for being the firfi that conlidered what 
 he was mofl capable of excelling in, and not endeavouring tofhine in too many different 
 ways at once. Caecilius followed his example in this particular; but improved their co¬ 
 medy fo much beyond him, that he is named by Cicero (3°) as perhaps the bell of all the 
 comic writers they ever had. This high character of him was not for his language, 
 which (3O is given up by Cicero himfelf as faulty and incorreft; but (32) either for the 
 dignity of his charaders, or the ftrength and weight of his fentiments. 
 
 Terence made his firfi: appearance, when Cjecilius was in high reputation. It is laid 
 (33) that when he offered his firfi play to the Ediles, they fent him with it to CtEcilius for 
 his judgment of the piece. Cascilius was at fupper when he came to him; and as Te¬ 
 rence was dreft very meanly, he was placed on a little ftool, and defired to read away ; 
 but upon his having read a very few lines only, Ctecilius altered his behaviour, and placed 
 him next himfelf at the table. They all admired him as a rifing genius ; and the ap- 
 plaufe he received from the public, anfwered the compliments they had made him in 
 private. His Eunuchus in particular was aded twice in (34) one day; and he was paid 
 more for that piece, than ever had been given before for a comedy: and yet, by the way, 
 it was not much above thirty pound. We may fee by that and the refl of his plays which 
 remain to us, to what a degree of exadnefs and elegance the Roman comedy was arrived 
 in his time. There is a beautiful fimplicity, which reigns thro’ all his works. There 
 
 is 
 
 (28) See the firfi: quotation in Note 6, anteh. 
 
 Gcftit enim nummum in loculos demittere; poll hoc 
 Securus, cadat an retto ftet fabula talo. 
 
 (29) At noflri proavi Plautinos & numeros, & 
 
 Laudavere fales ; nimium patienter utrumque. 
 Ne dicam ftuJte, mirati; fi modii ego & vos 
 Scimus inurbanum lepido feponere ditto; 
 
 Lib. 2. Ep. 1. jr. 176, 
 
 (30) Itaque licet dicere et Ennium fummum epi¬ 
 
 cum poetam, ficut ita videtur; & Pacuvium, tragi- 
 
 Legitimuraquc fonum digitis callemus & aure. cum; & Caecilium fortafle, comicum. Cicero, de 
 
 Horat. ad Pifones, 274. C pt. gen. Orat, fub initio. 
 
 Perhaps Horaee fpeaks with the more referve in (31) Mitto C. Lrelium, P. Scipionem, itatis 
 this cafe, bccaufe Cicero had cried up Plautus’s wit illius ifta fuit laus, tanquam innocentia?, fic Latine lo- 
 as elegant and fine. Duplex eft jocandi genus: unum quendi. Ncc omnium tamen ; nam illorum requales 
 illiberale, petulans, flagitiofum, obfccenum ; alterum Crecilium & Pacuvium male locutos videmus; fed 
 elegans, urbanum, ingeniofum, facetum ; quo genere omnes tum fere, qui nec extra urbem hanc vixerant, 
 non modo Plautus nofter & Atticorum antiqua co- nec eos aliqua barbaries domeftica infulcaverat, recle 
 mcedia, fed etiam philofophorum Socraticorum libri loquebantur. Cicero. Brutus, §. 74. 
 referti funt. Dc Officiis, L. 1. §. 29. 
 
 Horaee had fcarce fo good an opinion of the old ( 3 2 ) Ambigitur quoties uter utro fit prior, aufert 
 comedy at Athens neither; (fee Note 47, pofth.) and Pacuvius dotti famam fenis, Attius alti; 
 
 has n foverer ftrnke nt Plautus in annther of hic .-,0- Dicitur Afrani toga convenilfe Menandro ; 
 
 has a feverer ftroke at Plautus, in another of his po- 
 
 Plautus ad exemplar Siculi properare Epicharmi; 
 Vincere Caiciiius gravitate, Terentius arte. 
 
 ems, for his negligence in writing : 
 
 Quo patto partes tutetur amantis ephebi; 
 Ut patris attenti, lenonis ut infidiofi; 
 Quantus fit Dorfennus edacibus in parafitis: 
 Quam non adilritto percurrat pulpita focco. 
 
 (33) In Dacier’s Life of Terence, 
 
 ( 34 ) Ib'd- 
 
POLYMETI S. 
 
 is no fcarching after wit, and no oftentation of ornament in him. All his fpeakers feem 
 to fay juft what they fhould fay, and no more. The ftory is always going on; and goes 
 on juft as it ought. This whole age, long before Terence and long after, is rather re¬ 
 markable for ftrength than beauty in writing. Were we to compare it with the follow¬ 
 ing age, the compofitions of this would appear to thofe of the Auguftan, as the Doric 
 order in building if compared with the Corinthian; but Terences work is to thofe ot 
 the Auguftan age, as the Ionic is to the Corinthian order : it is not fo ornamented, or fo 
 rich ; but nothing can be more exadt and pleafmg. The Roman language itfelf in his 
 hands feems to be improved beyond what one could ever expedt; and to be advanced al- 
 moft a hundred years forwarder than the times he lived in. There are fome (and 1 
 think you, Philander, was formerly of that number) who look upon this as one of the 
 ft ranged: phenomena in the learned world : but it is a phenomenon which may be well 
 enough explained from Cicero. He fays, that in feveral families the Roman language 
 was fpoken (35) in perfedtion even in thofe times: and inftances particularly in the 
 families of the Lcclii and the Scipio s. Every one knows that Terence was extremely 
 intimate in both thefe families : and as the language of his pieces is that of familiar 
 conversation, he had indeed little more to do, than to write as they talked at their 
 tables. Perhaps too, interpofed Myfagetes, he was obliged to Scipio and Ladius, for 
 more than their bare converfations. That is not at all improbable, replied Polymetis ; 
 and indeed the Romans themfelves feem generally to have imagined, that he was (36) 
 aftifted by them in the writing part too. If it was really fo, that will account ftill better 
 for the elegance of the language in his plays : becaufe Terence himfelf was born out of 
 Italy; and tho’ he was brought thither very young, he received the firft part of his edu¬ 
 cation in a family, where they might not fpeak with fo much corredtnefs, as Lrelius and 
 Scipio had been ufed to from their very infancy. Thus much for the language of Te¬ 
 rence’s plays': as for the reft, it feems from what he fays (37) himfelf, that his molt 
 ufual method was to take his plans chiefly, and his characters wholly, from the Greek 
 
 comic 
 
 (35) See Note 31, anteh. 
 
 (36) Licet Terentii feripta ad Scipionem Africanum 
 
 referantur. Quintilian. Inftit. L. 10. C- 1. p. 749. Ed. 
 Hack. 1665.- Terentium, cujus fabellre prop¬ 
 
 ter elegantiam fermonis putabantur a C. Lrelio feribi. 
 Cicero, ad Attic. L. 7. Ep. 3. 
 
 Donatus (in his life of this poet) quotes Memmius 
 to fhew that Terence was aflifted by Scipio, and Ne¬ 
 pos to {hew that he was aflifted by Ltelius : in the 
 following words. Q. Memmius in oratione pro fe 
 ait; ‘ P. Africanus, qui a Terentio perfonam mutua- 
 ‘ tus, qure domi luferat ipfe, nomine illius in feenam 
 ‘ detulit.’ Nepos authore certo compcriiTc fe ait: 
 C. Lrelium quondam in Puteolano, calendis Martiis, 
 admonitum ab uxore temporius ut dilcumberet, pe- 
 tiifll-abea ne interpellaretur; ferius tandem ingreflum 
 triclinium dixifle, non fcepe in feribendo magis fuc- 
 ceiTiiTe filii: deinde rogatum ut feripta illa proferret, 
 pronuntiafle verius qui funt in Heautontimorumeno: 
 
 Satis pol proterw me Syri promifla huc induxerunt. 
 
 Terence himfelf feems rather to be plcafcd with 
 this opinion, than to difown it : 
 
 Nam quod illi dicunt malevoli, homines nobiles 
 
 Eum adjutare ; afiiducque unii feribere : 
 
 Quod illi maledidtum vehemens efle exiftumant. 
 
 Eam laudem hic ducit maxumam; 4 cum illis placet 
 
 « Qui vobis univerfis et populo placent: 
 
 * Quorum opera in bello, in otio, in negotio, 
 
 * Suo quifque tempore ufu’ eft fine fuperbia. 
 
 Prol. to the Adelphi. 
 
 I take what he fays before another of his plays, to 
 be juft the fame fentiment: 
 
 Tum quod malevolus vetus poeta didlitat, 
 
 -Repente ad ftudium hunc fe applicafle muficum. 
 Amicum ingenio fretum, haud natura fua; 
 
 4 Arbitrium voftrum, voftra exillimatio 
 Valebit.’- 
 
 Prol. to the Heautontimorumenos. 
 
 (37) Of the fix plays we have of Terence’s, he 
 himfelf tells us that five are from the Greek : he does 
 not fayany thing of his copying his Hecyra from them. 
 He mentions this of the Phormio and Heautontimo¬ 
 rumenos, only in general : part of the Adelphi, he 
 fays, he tranflated literally from Diphilus ; that he 
 took the Eunuchus, and the Andria, from two plays 
 of the fame names, by Menander ; and that in each 
 he inferted a character or two from other plays of the 
 fame author. 
 
 Menander fecit Andriam & Perinthiam : 
 
 Qui utramvis redte norit, ambas noverit. 
 
 Qua; convenere, in Andriam ex Perinthia 
 Fatetur tranftulifle, atque ufum pro fuis. 
 
 Prol. to Andria, jr. 14. 
 
 -Nunc quam afluri fumus 
 
 Menandri Eunuchum, pollquam iEdiles emerunt. 
 Perfecit; fibi ut infpiciundi eflet copia. 
 
 Prol. to Eunuchus, f. 21. 
 Colax Menandri cfl; in ea eft parafitus Colax, 
 
 Et miles gloriofus; eas fe non negat 
 Perfonas tranftulifle in Eunuchum fuam. 
 
 Ibid. 32. 
 
 Synipothnefcontes Diphili comcedi.i eft ; 
 
 Eam Comroorientcs Plautus ‘ecit fabulam. 
 
 In Gratca, adolejcens eft qui lenoni eripit 
 Meretricem; in prima fabula. Eum Plautus locum 
 Reliquit 
 
 
Dial o g u E the Second. 
 
 comic poets; Thofe ( 3 8 ) who lay that he tranflated all the comedies of Menander, cer¬ 
 tainly carry the matter too far. They were probably more than Terence ever wrote. 
 Indeed this would be more likely to be true of Afranius than Terence; tho’, I fuppofe, 
 it would fcarce hold, were we to take both of them together. 
 
 We have a very great lofs in the works of Afranius : for he was regarded, even in 
 the ( 39 ) Auguftan age, as the moll exadt imitator of Menander. He owns himfelf, that 
 he had no rellraint in copying him; or any other of the Greek comic writers; when¬ 
 ever they fet him a good example. Afranius’s llories and perfons were Roman, as Te¬ 
 rence’s were Grecian. This was looked on as fo material a point in thofe days, that it 
 made two different fpecies of comedy. Thofe on a Greek llory were called, Palliata? ; 
 and thofe on a Roman, Togatfe. Terence (40) excelled all the Roman poets in the for¬ 
 mer, and Afranius in the latter. 
 
 About the fame time that comedy was improved fo confiderably, Pacuvius and Adlius 
 (one a cotemporary of Terence, and the other of Afranius) carried tragedy as far towards 
 perfection, as it ever arrived in Roman hands. The Hep from Ennius to Pacuvius, was 
 a very great one; fo great, that he was reckoned in Cicero’s time, the (4 1 ) belt of all their 
 tragic poets. Pacuvius, as well as Terence, enjoyed the acquaintance and friendfhip of 
 Lanius and Scipio ; but he did not profit fo much by it, as to the improvement of his 
 language. Indeed his flyle was not to be the common converfation Ryle, as Terence’s 
 was: and all the ftiffnings given to it might take juR as much from its elegance, as they 
 added to its dignity. What is remarkable in him is, that he was almoR as eminent for 
 painting, as he was for poetry. He made the decorations for his own plays; and Pliny 
 (42) fpeaks of fome paintings by him in a temple of Hercules, as the moR celebrated 
 work of their kind, done by any Roman of condition, after Fabius Pidtor. A dtius ( 43 ) 
 began to publifh, when Pacuvius was leaving off: his language was not fo fine, nor his 
 verfes fo well turned even as thofe of his predeceffor. There is a remarkable Rory of 
 him in an old critic ( 44 ), which as it may give fome light into their different manner of 
 writing, may be worth telling you. Pacuvius, in his old age, retired to Tarentum, to 
 enjoy the foft air and mild winters of that place. As Adtius was obliged on fome affairs 
 fo make a journey into Afia, he took Tarentum in his way, and Raid there fome days 
 with Pacuvius. It was in this vifit that he read his tragedy of A.treus to him, and de- 
 iired his opinion of it. Old Pacuvius after hearing it out, told him very honeRly, that 
 the poetry was fonorous and majeRic, but that it feemed to him too Riff and harfh. 
 Adtius replied, that he was himfelf very fenlible of that fault in his writings: but that he 
 
 was 
 
 Reliquit integrum. Eum hie locum fumfit fibi 
 In Adelphos : verbum de verbo expreflum extulit. 
 
 Prol. to Adelphi, jr. 1 1. 
 Ex integra Grteca integram comoediam 
 Hodie fum atturus Heautontimorumenon : 
 
 Duplex qua; ex argumento faila eft fimplici. 
 
 Novam efle oftendi, & qua eflet. Nunc qui fcripferit 
 Et cuja Grsca fit, ni partem maxumam 
 Exillimarem feire voftrum id dicerem. 
 
 Prol. to Heautontimorumenos, g. 
 Epidicazomenon quam vocant comoediam 
 Gratci, Latini Phormionem nominant. 
 
 Prol. to Phormio, jfr. 2 6. 
 
 He feems to have followed Menander more than 
 any other of the Greek comic writers ; both by what 
 he fays himfelf, and by what Julius Casfar fays of 
 him : 
 
 Tu quoque, tu in fummis, O dimidiate Menander, 
 Poneris, & merito ; puri fermonis amator. 
 
 Lenibus atque utinam feriptis adjunfta foret vis 
 Comica, ut atquato virtus polleret honore 
 
 Cum Grxcis; neque in hac defpeflus parte jaceres: 
 
 Unum hoc maceror & doleo tibi defle, Terenti. 
 
 Old Life of Terence, by Suetonius, 
 
 (38) See Dacier’s Life of Terence. 
 
 (39) See Note 32, anteh. 
 
 (40) See Note 58, pofth. 
 
 (41) See Note 30, anteh. 
 
 (42) Proxime celebrata eft, in foro Boario, jede 
 Herculis, Pacuvii poeta: piftura. Ennii forore geni¬ 
 tus hic fuit ; clariorcmque eam artem Ronne fecit, 
 gloria feenae. Pliny, Nat. Hift. L. 35. c. 4. 
 
 (43) Aelius iifdem AEdilibus ait fe et Pacuvium do- 
 cuille fabulam ; cum ille odloginta, ipfe triginta annos 
 natus cfiet. Cicero. Brutus, §. 64. 
 
 (44) Aul. Gellius, L. 13. c. 2, 
 
 E 
 
" ■ MS S 
 
 POLY METIS. 
 
 was not at all lorry for it: “ for, fays he, I have always been of opinion, that it is the 
 fame with writers, as with fruits; among which, thofe that are moll foft and palatable, 
 decay the fooneft; whereas thofe of a rough tafte, laft the longer; and have the finer 
 reliih, when once they come to be mellowed by time.” Whether his ltyle ever came 
 to be thus mellowed, I very much doubt; however that was, it is a point that feems 
 generally allowed, that (45) he and Pacuvius were the two bell tragic poets the Romans 
 ever had. 
 
 All this while, that is, for above an hundred years, the ftage as you fee was almofi: 
 the foie province of the Roman poets. It was now time for the other kinds of poetry 
 to have their turn ; however the firfl: that fprung up and flourifhed to any degree, was 
 Hill a cyon from the fame root. What I mean, is, fatire; the produce of the old co¬ 
 medy. * This kind of poetry had been attempted in a different manner by fome of the 
 former writers, and in particular by Ennius : but it was fo altered and fo improved (46) 
 by Lucilius, that he was called the inventor of it. This was a kind of poetry wholly of 
 the Roman growth and the only one they had that was fo: and even as to this, Lu¬ 
 cilius improved it a good deal by the fide lights he borrowed from the (47) old co¬ 
 medy at Athens. Not long after, Lucretius brought their poetry acquainted with phi- 
 lofophy; and Catullus began to fhew the Romans fomething of the excellence of the 
 Greek lyric poets. Lucretius difeovers a great deal of fpirit, wherever his fubjedt will 
 give him leave; and the firfl moment he fleps a little afide from it, in all his digreffions, 
 he is fuller of life and fire, and appears to have been of a more poetical turn, than Virgil 
 liimfelf: which is partly acknowledged in the fine compliment the latter feems (48) to 
 pay him in his Georgicks. His lubjedt often obliges him to go on heavily for a hundred 
 lines together: but wherever he breaks out, he breaks out like lightning from a dark 
 cloud • all at once, with force, and brightnefs. His charadter in this agrees with what 
 
 ( 45 ) Tragcedire feriptores Attius atque Pacuvius 
 ariflimi gravitate fententiarum, verborum pondere, 
 
 & auctoritate perfonarum ; casterum nitor & fumma 
 in excolendis operibus manus, magis videri poteft 
 poribus quam ipfis defuifle. Virium tamen Attio 
 plus tribuitur ; Pacuvium videri dottiorem, qui elfe 
 dotti affettant, volunt. Quintilian. Inftit. L. 10. c. 1. 
 p. 749. Ed. Hack. 1665. 
 
 Paterculus places the greateft excellence of the Ro¬ 
 man tragedy in the fame perfons. In Attio (fays he) 
 circaque eum Romana erat trageedia, (L. 1. c. 17.) 
 'I'bIs o-cneral expreffion of Attius, and fome about the 
 fame time, is fixt by himfclf to Attius and Pacuvius, 
 in another place, where he is fpeaking again of the 
 fame fubjett. Clara etiam per idem tevi fpatium fuere 
 ingenia, in togatis, Afranii ; in tragoediis, Pacuvii, 
 atque Attii ; ulque in Grsecorum ingeniorum compa¬ 
 rationem evetti, magnumque inter hos ipfos facientis 
 eperi fuo locum: adeo ut, in illis limae, in hoc paene 
 plus videatur fuifie fanguinis. Patere. L. 2. c. 9. 
 See Note 32, anteh. & 52, pofth. 
 
 (46) -Quid cum eft: Lucilius aufus 
 
 Primus in hunc operis componere carmina morem ? 
 
 Horat. Lib. 2. Sat. I. jr. 63. 
 
 —-Fuerit Lucilius, inquam. 
 
 Comis & urbanus; fuerit limatior idem, 
 
 Quam rudis; & Graecis intafti carminis autor; &c. 
 
 Horat. L. 1. Sat. 10. jr. 66. 
 
 Satira quidem tota noftra eft : in qua primus infig- 
 nem laudem adeptus eft Lucilius. Quintilian. Inftit. 
 L. 10. c. 1. p. 748. Ed. Hack. 1665. 
 
 (4;) Eupolis, atque Cratinus, Ariftophancfque poetae, 
 
 Atque alii quorum comccdia prifea virorum eft ; 
 
 Si quis erat dignus deferibi, quod malus aut fur. 
 Quod mcechus foret, aut ficarius, aut alioqui 
 Famofus, multa cum libertate notabant: 
 
 Hinc omnis pendet Lucilius, hofce fecutus, 
 
 Mutatis tantum pedibus numerifque facetus. 
 
 Horat. L. 1. Sat. 4. jL 7. 
 
 (48) The paftage here alluded to, is this : 
 
 Felix, qui potuit rerum cognofcere caufas! 
 
 Atque metus omnes, & inexorabile fatum 
 Subjecit pedibus, ftrepitumque Acherontis avari. 
 
 Virgil. Georg. 2. j/. 492. 
 
 Virgil had been faying that his greateft delight was 
 in the Mufes : that he could wifli to treat of natural 
 philofophy in verfe ; but that if he had not fpirit e- 
 nough for fo great an undertaking, he would however 
 pleafe liimfelf in rural fubjetts. “ Happy (fays he) 
 is the perfon that has done the former with fo good 
 an effett ; and not unhappy are thofe, that are en¬ 
 gaged, and can divert themfelves at leaft in the lat¬ 
 ter.” 
 
 Lucretius was the only one # of the Romans who had 
 wrote any philofophical poem, when Virgil faid this: 
 ■—all the points he mentions here, are treated of in 
 
 that poem :-the effetts of it fpoken of by Virgil, 
 
 are the very things which Lucretius aimed at :- 
 
 and Virgil in fpeaking of the author of it, ufes fome 
 words and cxprefllons taken direttly from this poem 
 of Lucretius. All which (conftdered together with 
 Virgil’s general manner of rather hinting at things, 
 than fpeaking them quite out) make it quite c 
 me, that it was Lucretius whom he means, in this 
 paflage. 
 
Dialogue the Second. 
 
 is ( 49 ) laid of him : that a philtre he took had given him a frenzy; and that he wrote in 
 his lucid intervals. He, and Catullus, wrote when letters in general began to flouriffi at 
 Rome much more than ever they had done. Catullus was too wife to rival him ; and 
 was the mod admired of all his other cotemporaries, in all the different ways of writing 
 he attempted. His odes perhaps are the lead valuable part of his works. The drokes 
 of fatire in his epigrams are very fevere : and the defcriptions in his idylliums, very full 
 and pidturefque. He paints drongly; but all his paintings have more of force than ele¬ 
 gance; and put one more in mind of Homer, than Virgil. 
 
 With thefe I fhould chufe to clofe the fil'd age of the Roman poetry : an age, more 
 remarkable for drength, than for refinement in writing. I have dwelt longer on it per¬ 
 haps than I ought; but the order and fuccefiion of thefe poets wanted much to be fettled: 
 and I was obliged to fay fomething of each of them, becaufe I may have recourfe to each, 
 
 on fome ocbafion or another, in diewing you my collection. All that remains to us of the 
 poetical works of this age, are the mifcellaneous poems of Catullus; the philofophical 
 poem of Lucretius ; lix comedies by Terence, and twenty by Plautus. Of all the red 
 there is nothing left us, except fuch paffages from their works as happened to be quoted 
 by the antient writers; and particularly by Cicero and the old critics. 
 
 You need not make any apologies, fays Philander, for having dwelt fo long on this 
 
 fubjeCt. It lies fo far back and fo much in the dark, that I diould have been better 
 pleafed, if you had enlarged more upon it. I could have widied, in particular, to have 
 heard your fentiments a little more fully, as to the characters and merit of thefe poets of 
 the fird age. The bed way to fettle that, replied Polymetis, where fo little of their 
 own works remains, is by confidering what is faid of them by the other Roman writers, 
 who were well acquainted with their works. The bed of the Roman critics we can 
 confult now, and perhaps the bed they ever had, are Cicero, Horace, and Quintilian. 
 If we compare their fentiments of thefe poets together, we fhall find a difagreement in 
 them, but a difagreement which I think may be accounted for without any great diffi¬ 
 culty. Cicero (as he lived before the Roman poetry was brought to perfection, and pof- 
 fibly (5°) was no very good judge of poetry himfelf,) feems to think more highly of them 
 than the others. He gives (S 1 ) up Livius indeed; but then he makes it up in commend¬ 
 ing Ntevius. All the other comic poets he quotes often with refpeCt; and as to the tragic, 
 he carries it fo far (52) as to feem drongly inclined to oppofe old Ennius to Efehilus, Pacu¬ 
 vius to Sophocles, and ACtius to Euripides.—This high notion of the old poets was pro¬ 
 bably the general fafhion in his time; and it continued afterwards (efpecially among the 
 more elderly fort of people) in the Augudan age : and indeed much longer. Horace in 
 his epidle to Augudus (53) combats it as a vulgar error in his time; and perhaps it was an 
 error from which that prince himfelf was not wholly free. However that be, Horace on 
 
 this 
 
 (49) By Creech ; in his Life of Lucretius. (51) See Note 24, anteh. 
 
 (50) Whatever difputes there may be among the (52) Quid caufte eft cur poetas Latinos Graecis li- 
 moderns on that head, it feems to have been the moil teris eruditi legant, philofophos non legant? An quia 
 common notion among the antients, that Cicero was deledtat Ennius, Pacuvius, Adtius, multi alii, qui non 
 no good poet himlclf: and Juvenal calls his poems, verba fed vim Grtecorum exprefferunt poetarum ? 
 
 teris eruditi legant, philofophos non legant? An quia 
 deledtat Ennius, Pacuvius, Adtius, multi alii, qui non 
 verba fed vim Grtecorum exprefferunt poetarum ? 
 Quanto magis philofophi deledlabunt, fi ut illi /Efchy- 
 lum, Sophoclem, Euripidem ; fic hi Platonem imi¬ 
 tentur, Ariftotelem, Theophraftum ? Cicero. Acad. 
 
 Quteft. L. 1. §. 3.-Id primum in poetis cerni licet, 
 
 quibus eft proxima cognatio cum oratoribus, quam 
 fint inter fefe Ennius, Pacuvius, Adtiufque difiimiles ; 
 quam apud Grtecos, /Efchylus, Sophocles, Euripides; 
 quanquam omnibus par paene laus in diffimili feri- 
 bendi genere tribuatur. Id. de Orat. L 3. §. 7. 
 
 by no better a name than that of. Ridiculous. 
 O fortunatam natum, me confule, Romam! 
 Antoni gladios potuit contemnere, fi fic 
 Omnia dixiflet. Ridenda poemata malo. 
 Quam te confpicux, divina Phillippica, famx. 
 
 no better a name than that of. Ridiculous. Quanto magis philofophi deledlabunt, fi ut illiriEfchy- 
 
 Juvenal. Sat. 10. jr. 1:5. 
 
 This affectation of writing in a fort of monkifh 
 rhime, (O fortunatam nat2m, &c.) which Juvenal 
 chufes to inflance in, was probably common in Cicero’s 
 poetical writings. There a rc le veral inftanccs of it, 
 in thofe verfes that remain tt^^^if Iris hand. 
 
 (53) L. z. Ep. 1. j>. »8, to jr. S9. 
 
 
i6 
 
 POLYMETIS. 
 
 
 this occafion enters into the queftion, very fully, and with a good deal of warmth. The 
 character he gives of the old dramatic poets, (which indeed includes all the poets I have 
 been fpeaking of, except Lucilius, Lucretius, and Catullus j) is perhaps rather toofevere, 
 He fays (54), “ That their language was in a great degree fuperannuated, even in his time, 
 that they are often negligent, and incorredt: and that there is generally a ftiffnefs in their 
 compofitions : that people indeed might pardon thefe things in them, as the fault of the 
 times they lived in ; but that it was provoking, they fhould think of commending them 
 for thole very faults.” In another piece of his which turns pretty much on the fame 
 fubjedt, he gives Lucilius’s character, much in the fame manner. He ( 55 ) owns “ that 
 he had a good deal of wit; but then it is rather of the farce-kind, than true genteel wit. 
 He is a rapid writer, and has a great many good things in him ; but is often v.ry fuper- 
 fluous and incorredt: his language is dalh’d affedtcdly with Greek: and his verfes are 
 hard and unharmonious.”— Quintilian fleers the middle way between both. Cicero per¬ 
 haps was a little milled by his nearnefs to their times ; and Horace by his lubjedt, which 
 was profelfedly to lpeak againft the old writers : Quintilian therefore does not commend 
 them fo generally as Cicero, nor fpeak againft them fo ftrongly as Horace; and is per¬ 
 haps more to be depended upon in this cafe, than either of them. He compares the 
 works of Ennius ( 5 6 ) to fome facred grove, in which the old oaks look rather venerable 
 than pleafing. He commends (57) Pacuvius and Adtius for the ftrength of their language 
 and the force of their fentiments ; but fays, they wanted that polilh which was fet on the 
 Roman poetry afterwards. He fpeaks (58) of Plautus and Ctecilius, as applauded writers; 
 of Terence, as a 1110ft elegant, and of Afranius as an excellent one; but they all, fays 
 he, fall (59) infinitely fhort of the grace and beauty which is to be found in the Attic 
 writers of comedy, and which is perhaps peculiar to the dialed! they wrote in. To 
 conclude, according to him Lucilius is too (60) much cried up by many, and too much 
 run down by Horace: Lucretius is more ( 6l ) to be read for his matter, than for his 
 ftyle : and Catullus is remarkable in the (62) fatirical part of his works ; but fcarce fo 
 in the reft of his lyric poetry. 
 
 As Polymctis was faying this, a fervant came in to let him know that there was com¬ 
 pany defired to fee him. It was a vilit of mere civility ; and, luckily, a very fhort one. 
 As foon as they were gone, he went on as follows. 
 
 (54) Si quardam nimis antiqu’, fi pleraque dure 
 Dicere credit eos, ignave multa fatetur; 
 
 Et fapit, & mecum facit; & Jove judicat xquo. 
 
 Horat. L. z. Ep. i. y 68. 
 Indignor quidquam reprehendi, non quia crafse 
 Compoficum illepidcve putetur; fed quia nuper: 
 Nec veniam antiquis, fed honorem & prtemia pofei. 
 
 ibid. f. 78. 
 
 (55) See Horaee, L. 1. Sat. 10. f. r, to 11 ; 20, 
 to 30; and 50, to 71. 
 
 (56) Ennium ficut facros vetuftate lucos, adoremus; 
 in quibus grandia & antiqua robora, jam non tantam 
 habent fpeciem, quantam religionem. Quintilian. In- 
 ftit. L. 10. c. 1. p. 746. Ed. 1665. 
 
 (57) See the beginning of Note 45, anteh. 
 
 (58) In comcedia maxime claudicamus : licet Varro 
 dicat Mufas, /Elii Stolonis fententia, Plautino fermone 
 locuturas fuifle, fi Latine loqui vellent; licet Teren¬ 
 tii feripta ad Scipionem Africanum referantur; qua; 
 
 7 
 
 tamen funt in hoc genere clegantiffima. ibid. -To¬ 
 
 gatis excellit Afranius, ib. p. 750. 
 
 (59) Vix levem confequimur umbram : adeo ut 
 mihi fermo ipfe Romanus non recipere videatur illam 
 folis conccflam Atticis Venerem ; quando eam ne 
 Gneci quidem in alio genere linguse obtinuerint, ib. 
 
 (60) Quofdam ita deditos fibi habet amatores (Lu¬ 
 cilius) ut eum non ejufdem modo operis audloribus, 
 fed omnibus poetis prxferrc non dubitent. Ego quan¬ 
 tum ab iliis, tantum ab Horatio dillentio. ib. p. 748. 
 
 (61) Macer & Lucretius legendi quidem (by young 
 orators) fed non ut phrafin, id eft corpus eloquentia;, 
 faciant : elegantes in fua quifque materia ; fed alter 
 humilis, alter difficilis, ib. p. 746. 
 
 (62) Speaking of Iambic verfe, he fays ; Cujus a- 
 
 cerbitas in Catullo, Bibaculo, Horatio :-at Lyri¬ 
 
 corum, idem Horatius fere folus legi dignus, ib. 
 
 P- 749 - 
 
 DIAL. 
 
 
Dialogue the Third. 
 
 DIAL. III. 
 
 Of the Flourifhing State of Poetry among the Remans. 
 
 T HE fir ft age was only as the dawning of the Roman poetry, in comparifon of 
 the clear full light that opened all at once afterwards, under Auguftus Csefar. 
 The ftate, which had been fo long tending towards a monarchy, was quite 
 fettled down to that form by this prince. When he had no longer any dangerous op¬ 
 ponents, he grew mild; or, at leaft, concealed the cruelty of his temper. He gave peace 
 and quiet to the people that were fallen into his hands; and looked kindly on the im¬ 
 provement of all the arts and elegancies of life among them. He had a minifter too un¬ 
 der him, who (tho’ a (0 very bad writer himfelf) knew how to encourage the beft: and 
 who admitted the beft poets, in particular, into a very great fhare of friendfhip and inti¬ 
 macy with him. Virgil was one of the foremoft in this lift : who at his firft fetting out 
 grew ( 2 ) foon their moll: applauded writer for genteel paftorals then gave them the moft 
 
 (i) Casterum fi, omiflo optimo illo & perfedtiffimo 
 genere eloquentia;, eligenda fit forma dicendi, malim 
 hercule C. Gracchi impetum aut L. Craffi maturita¬ 
 tem, quam calamiftros Mrecenatis, aut tinnitus Gal¬ 
 lionis : adeo malim oratorem vel hirta toga induere, 
 quam fucatis & meretriciis veftibus infignire. Quinti¬ 
 lian. deCaufis corruptee Eloquent. T. 2. p. 737. Ed. 
 1665. 
 
 Auguftus ufed to divert himfelf often in ridiculing 
 this affectation of Mzecenas’s ftyle. Cacozelos & an¬ 
 tiquarios, ut diverfo genere vitiofos, pari faftidio 
 fprevit. Exagitabat nonnunquam in primis Maece¬ 
 natem fuum ; cujus yvfoSftyin (ut ait) cincinnos uf- 
 quequaque perfequitur, & imitando per jocum irridet, 
 Suetonius in Aug. §. 86. 
 
 Macrobius has preferved part of one of Auguftus’s 
 letters to Mxcenas; in which that prince does the 
 very thing, that Suetonius here fpeaks of.—Auguftus, 
 quiaMtecenatem fuum noverat effe ftylo remiffo, molli 
 & delicato, talem fe in epiftolis quas ad eum feribebat 
 ftepius exhibebat; et contra caftigationem loquendi, 
 quam alias ille feribendo fervabat, in epiftola ad Mae¬ 
 cenatem familiari, plura in jocos effufa fubtexuit. 
 “ Vale, tncl gentium, melcule ! Ebur ex Hctruria, 
 lacunar Aretinum, adamas fupernas ! Tiberinum 
 margaritum, Cilniorum fmaragde, jafpis figulorum, 
 bervlle Porfennae ! Carbunculum habeas (me. avvrevu 
 -TTctvra. iActKd.yy.cLTa.) mcecharum !” Which piece of 
 burlefquc might, perhaps, run thus in Englilh : 
 “ Farewell, my dear honey, and the honey of all na¬ 
 tions ! Thou piece of ivory from Tufcany, thou 
 fretwork-ceiling of Arezzo, thou diamond over our 
 heads ! The pearl of Tiber, emerald of the Cilnian 
 family, jafper of the land of earthen-ware, and beril 
 for the finger of king Porfenna ! Among all thefe jew¬ 
 els, mayeft thou not fail of having the carbuncle of the 
 debauchees !” 
 
 Maecenas’s ftyle muft have been exceffively affected, 
 to have deferved fuch an imitation as this : and as it 
 happens, Seneca has given us two or three inftances 
 from fome works of Maecenas himfelf, which fhewthat 
 it could not well be fet in too ridiculous a light. It is 
 where that author is faying, that people’s manner of 
 writing is apt to take its call from their manner of 
 
 beautiful 
 
 living. To prove this, he mentions Miecenas in par¬ 
 ticular ; and gives us fome quotations, from different 
 parts of his works. Quomodo vixerit (fays he) no¬ 
 tius eft, quam ut nararri nunc debeat ; quomodo am¬ 
 bulaverit; quam delicatus fuerit, quam cupierit videri ; 
 quam vitia fua latere noluerit. Quid ergo ? Non oratio 
 ejus sequefoluta eft, quam ipfe difeindtus ? Non tam 
 infignita illius verba funt, quam cultus, quam comita¬ 
 tus, quam domus, quam uxor ? Magni ingenii vir fue¬ 
 rat, fi illud egiftet via redtiore ; fi non vitaffet intelligi ; 
 fi non etiam in oratione difflueret. Videbis itaque elo¬ 
 quentiam ebrii hominis, involutam, & errantem,& li¬ 
 centis plenam. Mxcenatis in cultu, quid turpius - - 
 
 “ Amne, fylvifque ripa comantibus? 
 
 “ Vide ut alveum lintribus arent; 
 
 “ Verfoque vado remittant hortos.”—Quid ? 
 
 “ Si quis femina: cirro crifpata: 
 
 “ Labris columbatur ; incipitque fuf- 
 “ Pirans, ut cervice laxa feratur.” -. — 
 
 “ Tyranni irremediabilis fadlio 
 “ Rimantur epulis; lagenaque tentant 
 
 “ Domos; & fepe mortem exigunt.”-- 
 
 “ Genium fello vix fuo tellem. 
 
 “ Tenuis Cereris fila, & crepacem molam.” 
 
 “ Focum mater Sc uxor invelliunt.”- 
 
 Non ftatim haec cum legeris hoc tibi occurrit, 
 hunc efle qui folutis tunicis in urbe femper incefferit ? 
 Seneca, Ep. 114. 
 
 (2) Phyllidis hic idem tenerofque Amaryllidis ignes 
 Bucolicis juvenis luferat ante modis. 
 
 Ovid. Trill. L. 2. 53S. 
 
 -Forte epos acer 
 
 Ut nemo Varius ducit: molle atque facetum 
 Virgilio annuerunt gaudentes rure Camcena?. 
 
 Horat. L. 1. Sat. 10. f. 45. 
 
 I fliould take molle here, to be meant of the fweet- 
 nefs of Virgil’s verfification in his paftorals : and fa¬ 
 cetum, of the elegance of his ftyle and manner of 
 writing. All writers of paftorals may be divided into 
 two claffes ; the rural, and the ruftic ; or if you 
 will, the genteel and the homely. This character ol 
 facetus, marks out Virgil’s excelling in the genteel 
 paftoral. 
 
beautiful and moft correft poem that ever was wrote in the Roman language, in his rules 
 of agriculture: (fo beautiful, that (3) fome of the antients feem to accufe Virgil of having 
 itudied beauty too much in that piece:) and laft of all undertook a political poem, in 
 fupport of the new eftabliihment. I have thought this to be the intent of the rEneid, 
 ever iince I firft read Boflu: and the more one confidcrs it, the more 1 think one is con¬ 
 firmed in that opinion. Virgil is (4) faid to have begun this poem the very year that A u - 
 guftus was freed from his great rival, Antony : the government of the Roman empire was 
 to be wholly in him: and tho' he chofe to be called their father (5); he was, in every 
 thing but the name, their king. This monarchical form of government muft naturally 
 be apt to difpleafe the people. Virgil feems to have laid the plan of his poem to reconcile 
 them to it. He takes advantage of their religious turn, and of fome old ( 6 ) prophecies that 
 muft have been very flattering to the Roman people, as promifing them the empire of 
 the whole world. He weaves this in with the moft (7) probable account of their origin - 
 that of their being defcended from the Trojans. To be a little more particular; Virgil 
 in his flEneid flicws that /'Eneas was called into their country by the ( 8 ) exprefs order of 
 
 the 
 
 (3) As Pliny and Seneca in particular. Sed nos 
 obi iterata quoque ferutabimur ; nec deterrebit qua- 
 
 rundam rerum humilitas. -Quanquam videmus 
 
 Virgilium, praecellentifllmum vatem, ea de caufa hor¬ 
 torum dotes fugiffe ; tantifquc quae retulit, flores mo¬ 
 do rerum deccrpifle. Pliny, I. 14. Procem.—Virgi- 
 lius noRer, qui non quid veriflime, fed quid decentif- 
 fime diceretur, afpexit ; nec agricolas docere voluit, 
 fed legentes delectare. Seneca. L. 13. Epift. 87. 
 
 ( 4 ) % De la Rue; in his Life of Virgil. 
 
 (5) Dum domus Asneas Capitoli immobile faxum 
 Accolet; imperiumque pater Romanus habebit. 
 
 Virgil. ALi 1. 9. y. 449. 
 
 Non aliud difeordantis patrite remedium fu i fle, quin 
 ut ab uno regeretur : non regno tamen, neque dicta¬ 
 tura, fed principis nomine conftitutam rempublicam. 
 Tacit. Annal. L. 1. where he is fpeaking for Au- 
 guRus.— Princeps here fignifies much the fame with 
 princeps fenatus; and fo falls in with the title of pater ; 
 the fenator by way of eminence, or the ruling fena- 
 tor; which was a title as modelt, as his power was 
 exorbitant. 
 
 He had the title of pater patriae too, given him by 
 all the three orders of the Rate; in theflrongeR man¬ 
 ner that could be. 
 
 San&e pater patriae, tibi plebs, tibi curia nomen 
 Hoc dedit, hoc dedimus nos tibi nomcn cques. 
 
 Ovid. Trift. 2. y. 126. 
 
 Patris patriae cognomen univerfi repentino maxi- 
 moque con fen fu detulerunt ei. Prima plebs, lega¬ 
 tione Antium mifsa ; dcin, quia non recipiebat, in¬ 
 eunti Romae fpeftacula, frequens & laureata: mox in 
 curia fenatus. Neque decreto, neque acclamatione, 
 fed per Valerium MelTallam, id mandantibus cunctis! 
 
 “ Quod bonum, inquit, fauRumque fit tibi domuique 
 tu*, C*far Augufte 9 fic enim nos perpetuam felici¬ 
 tatem reipublicae & laeta huic precari cxiRimamus ; 
 fenatus te, confentiens cum populo Romano, confalu- 
 tat patri* patrem.” Cui lacrimans refpondit Au- 
 guRus, his verbis; (ipfaenim, ficut Meflallae, po fui.) 
 
 “ Compos fadtus votorum meorum, Patres Confcripti, 
 quid habeo aliud Deos immortales precari, quam ut 
 hunc confenfum veRrum ad ultimum vitee finem mihi 
 perferre liceat ?” Suetonius, in Aug. c. 58. 
 
 (6) Plutarch, in his life of Julius C*far; and Notes 
 , & 11, poRh. 
 
 (7) As being that of Dionyfius Halicarnafleus, and 
 fome of the beR Roman hifloria 
 
 (8) This is marked veryRrongly throughout all the 
 firR part of the -Eneid. The very night Troy is burnt, 
 Eneas is ordered to go and build a city in Italy, and 
 to carry his gods to it; by the fpirits of Hector and 
 Creiifa. Cafiandra had foretold the fame frequently 
 
 ’ ‘ father before : 
 
 Nunc repeto hac generi portendere debita noftro: 
 Et fape Hefperiam, fape Itala regna vocare. 
 
 JEn. 3. y. 1S5. 
 
 Apollo orders the fame ; 
 
 - Antiquam exquirite matrem. 
 
 Hic domus JEnex cunttis dominabitur oris: 
 
 Et nati natorum, Se qui nafcentur ab il 
 
 E11. 3. 
 
 And his domeRic gods ; more exprefly : 
 
 -Venturos tollemus in aftra nepotes. 
 
 *• 9 «- 
 
 magnis 
 
 Imperiumque urbi dabimus. Tumcenia 
 
 Magna para.- 
 
 Mutanda fedes. Non hac tibi litora fuafic 
 Delius, aut Creta julfit confidere Apollo. 
 
 Eft locus, Hefperiam Graii cognomine dicunt,_ 
 
 Ha nobis propria fedes : hinc Dardanus autor, Se c. 
 
 En. 3. y. 167, 
 
 The fame orders are given to Eneas whilfl at Car¬ 
 thage, by the fpirit of his departed father ; En. 4. 
 *• 35 r - -And laRly, by the great melfenger of the 
 chief of all their gods: 
 
 Ipfcde&m tibi me claro demittit Olympo 
 Regnator, ccelum & terras qui numine torquet: 
 
 Ipfe hac ferre jubet celeres mandata per auras. 
 
 Quid Jlruis, aut qua fpe Lybicis teris otia terris ? 
 Afcanium furgentem & fpes haredis Iiili 
 Refpice : cui regnum Italia Romanaque tellus 
 Debentur.-—— 
 
 Asn. 4. y. 27S> 
 
 -Tot refponfa fecuti, 
 
 Qua Superi Manefque dabant,- 
 
 Italiam petiere.- 
 
 En. 10. y. 32— 
 
Dialogue the 'Third. 
 
 the gods. That he was made king of it by the (9) will of heaven; and by all the human 
 rights that could be. That there was (10) an uninterrupted fucceffion of kings from him, 
 to Romulus. That his heirs were to reign there for ever ; and that the Romans under 
 them (n) were to obtain the monarchy of the world. It appears from (12) Virgil and 
 me other Roman writers, that Julius Catfar was of this royal race, and that Auguftus 
 L 3> WaS h,S [ ole heir ' The natural «Mt of all this is, that the promifes made to the 
 Roman people, in and through this race, terminating in Auguftus; the Romans, if they 
 wouH obey the gods and be mailers of the world, were to yield obedience to the new 
 eftabhfhment under that prince. As odd a fcheme as this may feem now, it is fcarce fo 
 odd as that of fomc people among us, who perfuaded themfelves that an abfolute obe¬ 
 dience was owing to our kings, on their d+) fuppofed defeent from forne unknown pa¬ 
 triarch. And yet that had its effeft with many about a century ago; and feems not to 
 have quite loft all its influence, even in our remembrance. However that be, I think 
 
 (9) The divine right appears from what is Did in 
 the note before : Virgil takes care to join all the civil 
 rights to it that can be. 
 
 He has an hereditary claim from Dardanus and Ja- 
 
 fius. /En. 3. f. 168.-He has a right by conqueft. 
 
 d*En. 12. f. 1. He has a right by compact, JEn. 
 12. y. 175, to 225.-And he has a right, by mar¬ 
 
 rying the only daughter of the then king. d£n. 12. 
 it. 937 } and 7. y. 50,-52. 
 
 (10) ./Eneas fucceeds Latinus, /En. 1. y. 265. lulus 
 fucceeds ./Eneas, JEn. 1. y. 269. his race (which is 
 therefore called the Trojan line by Virgil, /En. 
 
 *• 2 73 -) rei g n f or the next three hundred years ; then 
 follows Romulus, /En. 1. y. 276, ftill of the Trojan 
 line, as grandfon of /Eneas Sylvius. /E11. 6. y. 778. 
 Romulus Affaraci quern fanguinis Ilia mater 
 Educet. --■ 
 
 grais. Agreeably to which, Virgil in inferring this 
 prophecy in his sEneid, fays the Trojan race, or fa¬ 
 mily of tEneas fhould reign in Italy, and obtain the 
 univerfal empire. 
 
 Hic domus /Enea: eundis dominabitur oris j 
 Et nati natorum, & qui nafcentur ab illis. 
 
 /En. 3. y. 57. 
 
 He ufes the fame, even proverbially : 
 
 Dum domus JEnex Capitoli immobile faxum 
 Accolet j imperiumque pater Romanus habebit. 
 
 /En. 9. y. 
 
 There are feveral other pafTages to the fame purpofe. 
 - Afpera Juno- 
 
 Confilia in melius referet, mecumque fovebit 
 Romanos rerum dominos, gentemque togatam 
 Sic placitam. Veniet Iullris labentibns mas 
 Cum domus Affatae! Phthiam clarafque Mycenas 
 Servitio premet.- J 
 
 JEn. 6 . y. 780. 
 
 /Eneas, Latinus, and the kings before him, re- 
 fided in old Latium, JEn. 7. 38, to 49 ; and 1. y. 265. 
 lulus removed the royal feat to Alba, /En. 1. y. 271, 
 &c. where it continued till Romulus transferred it to 
 Rome. So that this continued fucceffion of their 
 kings is intimated too by Virgil even in the propo- 
 fition of his poem : where every thing that is faid 
 ought to be of the greateft weight. 
 
 What he propofes is to « fing the great hero who 
 “ came from Troy, by the order of heaven, to fettle 
 “ in Italy; the difficulties he underwent in his voyage, 
 “ and the wars he fuftained; before he could found a 
 “ C1 ty 5 and mtroducehis religioninto Latium. Whence 
 “ fprung, firfr the Latian line of kings ; then, their 
 “ chiefs at Alba : and laftly, the powers of Rome, that 
 “ raifed herfelf f Q high among the nations.” 
 
 (11) Homer had faid, that /Eneas and his defen¬ 
 dants fhould be princes for ever; or, in the eaftern 
 ftyle, from generation to generation. 
 
 Opp* MVifpjf yc n „ Ksu ^ a „7 0f 
 AapJW, ov K ponfnt vtfi «tflw TraiJ'ay, 
 
 O/ «- 3 -s v ‘.&yivov\o yvyaiKavT s &y nT a*>r 
 HJ'u yap Tlpta/M y Sys „„ K povitoy. 
 
 Nur J ' s cfM Aivnao Cm Tpuiaj/y ava^u" 
 
 KAl rot Kiv tairoTriSn ysmlai . 
 
 Homeri II. t. y. 308. 
 That this prophecy was much infilled on by Au¬ 
 guftus and his favourers, appears probable from the 
 early care that was taken to alter the reading from 
 Tfosaj/y to n-ijis,/;.. See Ruieus in JEn. 3. y. gy. 
 Pope, on 11 . 20. ). 355, and Eochart's letter to Eel 
 
 5 
 
 7 fi cncrI , qoi langume nollrum 
 
 Nomen in aftra furent; quorumque ab ftirpe ne, 
 Omma fuh pedibus, qu 5 fol utrumque recurre' 
 Afpicit oceanum, vertique regique videbunt. 
 
 Faunus’ Oracle to Latinus. JEn. 7. y. 
 
 (12) Nafcetur pulchra Trojanus origine Caifar 
 Imperium oceano, famam qui terminet aftris; 
 
 Julius, a magno demiflum nomen Iulo. 
 
 /En. 1. y. 28S, 
 
 ■-Genus qui ducis Olympo, 
 
 Projice tela prior, fanguis meus_ 
 
 Anchifes, of Julius Ctcfar. JEn. 6 . y. 836. 
 
 Several of the Roman writers fpcak of this hfh de¬ 
 feent of Julius Caefar; and Suetonius in particular,who 
 mentions a funeral oration made by Julius Ctefar, over 
 one of his relations, in which he fays were thefe words • 
 “ Amita: me*, Juliae, maternum genus ab regibus 
 ortum ; paternum, cum diis immortalibus conjunc¬ 
 tum eft. Nam ab Anco Marcio funt reges, quo no¬ 
 mine fuit mater : a Venere, Julii ; cujus gentis fa¬ 
 milia eft noftra.” Suet, in Julio. §. 6. 
 
 (13) His uncle Julius adopted him for his fon; and 
 made him his heir. Utque primum occifum eum, h e- 
 redemque fe compedt; urbe repetita, hereditatem 
 adnt : atque ab eo tempore exercitibus comparatis, 
 primum cum M. Antonio Marcoque Lepido, dein 
 tantum cum Antonio, per duodecim fere annos j no- 
 viffime, per quatuor & quadraginta, folus rempubli- 
 cam tenuit. Suetonius in Aug. §.8. 
 
 (14) See Sir Robert Filmer's Patriarchal Scheme: 
 with Mr, Locke’s confutation of it. 
 
 r 9 
 

 I 
 
 I 
 
 POLY M E 
 
 I S. 
 
 • plain out h that the two great points aimed at by V irgil inhisiEneid, were 
 to maintain their old religious tenets ; and tofupport the new form of government, in the 
 family of the Crefars. That poem therefore may very well be conlidered as a religious 
 and political work : or rather (as the vulgar religion with them was fcarce any thing 
 more than an engine of Hate) it may fairly enough be confidered as a work merely po¬ 
 litical. If this was the cafe, Virgil was not fo highly encouraged by Auguftus and Mae¬ 
 cenas for nothing. To fpeak a little more plainly ; he wrote in the fervice of the new 
 ufurpation on the (late; and all that can be offered in vindication of him in this light is, 
 that the ufurper he wrote for was grown a tame one ; and that the temper and bent of 
 their conftitution at that time was fuch, that the reins of government muff have fallen 
 into the hands of fome one perfon or another; and might probably, on any new revolu¬ 
 tion, have fallen into the hands of fome one lefs mild and indulgent than Auguftus was 
 at the time when Virgil wrote this poem in his fervice. But whatever may be faid of 
 his reafons for writing it, the poem itfelf has been highly applauded in all ages, from its 
 firft appearance to this day : and tho’ left (15) unfinished by its author, has been always 
 reckoned as much fuperior to all the other epic poems among the Romans, as Homer’s is 
 among the Greeks. It preferves more to us of the religion of the Romans, than all the 
 other Latin poets (excepting only Ovid) put together : and gives us the forms and ap¬ 
 pearances of their deities as ftrongly, as if we had fo many pictures of them preferved to 
 us, done by fome of the heft hands in the Auguftan age. It is remarkable that he is 
 commended by fome of the antients themfelves, for the ftrength of his imagination ( ,6 ) 
 as to this particular; tho’ in general that is not his character, fo much as exadtnefs. He 
 was certainly the moft correct poet, even of his time; in which all falfe thoughts and 
 idle ornaments in writing were difeouraged : and it is as certain, that there is but little of 
 invention in his fEneid; much lefs, I believe, than is generally imagined. Almoft all 
 the little fads in it arc (17) built on hiftory; and even as to the particular lines, no one 
 perhaps ever (18) borrowed more from the poets that preceded him, than he did. He 
 goes fo far back as to old Ennius; and often inferts whole verfes, from him, and fome 
 
 other 
 
 (15) Tho’ this is mentioned by feveral antient wri¬ 
 ters ; I think the plained proof of it is the many 
 breaks, or hemiftics, in the poem itfelf; a thing never 
 done in any finifhed poem by any other Roman poet 
 of his time ; nor by Virgil himfelf, in any of his other 
 poems which were nnilhed. 
 
 (16) Magna: mentis opus-■ 
 
 - Currus & equos, faciefque deorum. 
 
 Concipere; & qualis Rutulum confundat Erinnys. 
 Nam fi Virgilio puer Sc tolerabile defit 
 Hofpitium, caderent omnes a crinibus hydri: 
 
 Surda nihil gemeret grave buccina.- 
 
 Juvenal. Sat. 7. jr. 71. 
 
 Juvenal on this occafion points to the very nobleft 
 efforts of imagination that Virgil has fhewn in his 
 whole poem ; and it is remarkable that they all relate 
 to their deities. Curros & cquos, may refer to that 
 terrible defeription of Mars in his chariot, Ain. 12. 
 ■j/. 332, or that mild one of Neptune, Ain. 1. f. 127, 
 146, and 155. as facies deorum, to that noble paflage, 
 in the defeription of Troy finking in its flames : 
 
 Afpice (namque omnem, qux nunc obdufta tuenti 
 Mortales hebetat vifus tibi, & humida circum 
 
 Caligat, nubem eripiam)- 
 
 Hic, ubi dejeftas moles avulfaquc faxis 
 Saxa vides, mixtoque undantem pulvere fumum, 
 Neptunus muros, magnoque emota tridenti 
 Fundamenta quatit; totumque ab fedibus urbem 
 Eruit. Hic Juno Scxas fseviflima portas 
 Prima tenet, fociumque furens a navibus agmen 
 
 Ferro accin&a vocat.-—— 
 
 Jam fummas arces Tritonia, refpice, Pallas 
 
 6 
 
 Iafcdit; nimbo effulgens, Sc Gorgone fxva.-- 
 
 Apparent dirx facies, inimicaque Trojx 
 Numina ma?na deum.— 
 
 JE n . 2 y-. fi::;. 
 
 The next words are, evidently, fpoken of this paf- 
 fage in the 7th ASneid : 
 
 Talibus Aletto diftis exarfit in iras. 
 
 At juveni oranti fubitus tremor occupat artus : 
 Diriguere oculi. Tot Erinnys fibilat hydris ! 
 Tantaque fe facies aperit! Tum flammea torquens 
 Lumina, cunflantem & quxrentem dicere plura 
 Reppulit; et geminos erexit crinibus angues; 
 Verberaque infonuit.- 
 
 JEn. 7. Jr. 451, 
 
 And the laft, as evidently, of this : 
 
 At fxva, e fpeculis tempus dea nadla nocendi 
 Ardua tefta petit ftabuli; & de culmine fummo 
 Pallorale canit fignum, cornuque rccurvo 
 Tartaream intendit vocem : qua protinus omne 
 Contremuit nemus, & fylvx intonuere profundx. 
 Audiit & Trivix longe lacus ; audiit amnis 
 Sulfurca Nar albus aqua, fontefque Velini : 
 
 Et trepidx matres preflere ad peftora natos. 
 
 JEn, 7. Jr. 518. 
 
 (17) There are feveral even of the minuteft paf- 
 fages in the Asneid, (fuch as Afcanius’s jeft, and the 
 like) which appear to have been traditional and hif- 
 torical, to any one that has read Dionyfius Halicar- 
 nafleus. 
 
 (18) This appears from Macrobius, and the other 
 colle&ors of Virgil’s imitations of Ilomer, &c. 
 
 twee jf 
 leavi [ 
 foldi I 
 
Dialogue the Third. 
 
 21 
 
 other of their earliefl writers. The obfoletenefs of their ftyle did not hinder him much 
 in this : for he (19) was a particular lover of their old language; and no doubt inferted 
 many more antiquated words in his poem, than we can difcover at prefent. Judgment 
 is his diflinguifhing character: and his great excellence coniilled in chufing and ranging 
 things aright. Whatever he borrowed, he had the flcill of making his own; by weav¬ 
 ing it fo well into his work, that it looks all of a piece: even thofe parts of his poem, 
 where this may be mofl: prattifed, refembling a fine piece of Mofaic; in which all the 
 parts, tho’ of fuch different marbles, unite together; and the various fhades and colours 
 are fo artfully difpofed, as to melt off infenfibly into one another. 
 
 One of the greateft beauties in Virgil’s private character was his modefty and (20) 
 good-nature. He was apt to think humbly of himfelf, and handfomely of others: and 
 was ready to fhew his love of merit, even where it might l'eem to clafli with his own. 
 He (21) was the firfl: who recommended Horace to Maecenas. Horace was the fitted; 
 man in the world for a court, where wit was fo particularly encouraged. No man feems 
 to have had more; and all of the genteeldl fort: or to have been better acquainted with 
 mankind. His gayety, and even his debauchery, made him hill the more agreeable to 
 Mrecenas. So that it is no wonder that his acquaintance with that minifier grew up to 
 fo high a degree of friendlhip, as is very uncommon between a firfl minifier and a poet; 
 and which had poffibly fuch an effedl on the latter, as one fhall fcarce ever hear of be¬ 
 tween any two friends, the mofl on a level; for there is fome room to (22) conjecture, 
 that he haflened himfelf out of this world, to accompany his great friend in the next. 
 Horace has been generally (23) mofl celebrated for his lyric poems; in which he far ex¬ 
 celled 
 
 19) Unde pichu vcftis, & aquai, Virgilius amantif- he fays to him in an ode, written when that minifier 
 
 fimus vctuftatis carminibus inferuit. Quintilian. Inftit. 
 
 Or. L. 1. c. 7-p. 70. Ed. Hack. 1665.-A great 
 
 many of thefc old words in Virgil have probably been 
 altered by the tranfcribers. Quid quod Ciceronis 
 temporibus, paulumque infra, fere quoties f litera me¬ 
 dia vocalium longarum, vel fubje&a longis eflet, ge¬ 
 minabatur ? ut caulla, cafTus, diviffiones. Quo modo 
 et ipfum, et Virgilium quoque fcripfiflc, manus eo¬ 
 rum docent, ib. p. 71.— And others have been mif- 
 taken by the critics.—Thus for inftance, they fay 
 Virgil ui’es fervere fhort, ./En. 8. jr. 677. that the 
 found may agree more with the fenfe of the word ; 
 whereas the true reafon was his imitating the pra&ice 
 of the antients; who, as we learn from the fame au¬ 
 thor, ufed fervo and ferveo indifferently, ib. L. 1. 
 c. 6. p. 57. 
 
 (20) Plotius, & Varius Sinueffe, Virgiliufque 
 
 Occurrunt; animae, quales neque candidiores 
 Terra tulit. - 
 
 Horat. L. 1. Sat. 5. jr. 41. 
 
 Refert Pedianus benignum cultoremque omnium 
 bonorum atque eruditorum fuilfe; & ufque adeo in¬ 
 vidiae expertem fuifTe, ut fi quid erudite diCtum in- 
 Jpiceret alterius, non minus gaudere ac fi fuum fuifiet. 
 Neminem vituperare, laudare bonos. Ea humanitate 
 effe, ut nift perverfus maxime quifque illum non di¬ 
 ligeret modo, fed amaret. Nihil proprii habere vide¬ 
 batur. Ejus bibliotheca non minus aliis dodtis pate¬ 
 bat, quam fibi.—— Corevos omnes poetas ita adjun&os 
 habuit, ut cum inter fc plurimum invidia arderent, 
 illum una omnes colerent. Donatus’s Life of V irgil. 
 
 (21) -Optimus olim 
 
 Virgilius; poli hunc Varius dixere quid eflem. 
 
 Horat. L. 1. Sat. 6. ji. 55. 
 
 (22) Confidering the manner in which Horace lived 
 with Maecenas, and the freedom with which he 
 writes, even when he is complimenting him ; what 
 
 was extremely ill, looks I think a little too feriou* 
 to be nothing but a poetical rhodomontade, 
 
 Cur me querelis exanimas tuis ? 
 
 Nec Dis amicum eft nec mihi, te prius 
 Obire, Maecenas: mearum 
 
 Grande decus columenque rerum. 
 
 Ah, te mea: fi partem anima: rapit 
 Maturior vis, quid moror altera ? 
 
 Nec carus teque, nec fuperftes 
 Integer. Ille dies utramque 
 Ducet ruinam. Non ego perfidum 
 Dixi facramentum. Ibimus, ibimus 
 Utcunque praecedes, fupremum 
 Carpere iter comites parati. 
 
 Horat. L. 2. Ode 17. f. 1:. 
 
 After fo folemn a profeffion of Horaee, that lie 
 would follow Maecenas foon, if he fhould die firfl ; 
 it feems at leaft a little odd, that Horace’s death 
 fhould follow his fo foon, as it is faid to have done.— 
 They both died in the end of the year 746 V. C. ac¬ 
 cording to Pere Sanadon : and according to the old 
 life of Horace, attributed to Suetonius, Maecenas 
 fpeaks mofl affectionately of him in his laft will; Ho¬ 
 race dies about three weeks after him; and orders 
 that his remains fhould be buried clofeby Maecenas's. 
 
 (23) Multb eft terfior, (he was fpeaking of Luci¬ 
 lius) & purus magis Horatius; & ad notandos homi¬ 
 num mores prrecipuus.-Lyricorum idem Horatius 
 
 fere folus legi dignus : nam & inlurgit aliquando; Sc 
 plenus eft jucunditatis, et gratiae ; & variis figuris, & 
 verbis, feliciffime audax. Quintilian. Inftit. Or. L. 10. 
 c. 1. p. 749. Ed. Hack. 1665. 
 
 His lyric poetry is the thing Ovid chufcs to com¬ 
 mend him for too, in his catalogue of the Auguftan 
 poets ; 
 
 Et tenuU noflras numerofus Horatius aures. 
 
 Dum ferit Aufonia carmina culta lyra. 
 
 Trill. L. 4. EI. 10. ?•-, 5# 
 
P O L Y M E T I 
 
 
 celled all the Roman poets, and perhaps was no unworthy rival of feveral of the Greek; 
 Which feems to have been (24) the heighth of his ambition. His next point of merit, as 
 it has been ufually reckoned, was his refining fatire; and bringing it from the coarfenefs 
 and harfhnefs of Lucilius, to that genteel eafy manner; which'he, and perhaps none 
 but he, and one perfon more in all the ages fince, has ever pofieffed. I do not remem¬ 
 ber that any one of the antients fays any thing of his cpiftles : and this has made me 
 fometimes imagine, that his epiftles and fatires might originally have palled under one 
 and the lame name; perhaps that of Sermones. They are generally written in a Ryle 
 approaching to that of converfation ; and are fo much alike, that feveral of the fatires 
 might juft as well be called epiftles, as feveral of his cpiftles have the fpirit of fatire in 
 them. This latter part of his works, by whatever name you pleafe to call them (whe¬ 
 ther fatires and epiftles, or difeourfes in verfe on moral and familiar fubjedts,) is what 
 1 muft own, I love much better even than the lyric part of his works. It is in thefe 
 that he fhews that talent for criticifm, in which he fo very much excelled: efpecially 
 in his long epiftle to Auguftus ; and that other to the Pifo’s, commonly called his Art of 
 poetry. They abound in ftrokes which fhew his great knowledge of mankind; and 
 in that pleafing way he had of teaching philofophy, of laughing (25) away vice, and 
 infinuating virtue into the minds of his readers. They may ferve, as much as almoft 
 any writings can, to make men wifer and better : for he has the moil agreeable way of 
 preaching that ever was. He was, in general, an honeft, good man himfclf; at leaft, 
 he does not feem to have had any one ill-natured vice about him. Other poets we ad¬ 
 mire : but there is not any of the antient poets that I fhould with to have been ac¬ 
 quainted with, fo much as Horace. One cannot be very converfant with his writings, 
 without having a friendthip for the man; and longing to have juft fuch another as he was 
 for one’s friend. 
 
 In that happy age, and in the fame court, flouritlied Tibullus. He enjoyed the acquain¬ 
 tance of Horace; who mentions him in a kind and friendly manner, both in his (26) odes 
 and in his epiftles. Tibullus is evidently the moil exadt and moil beautiful writer of love- 
 verfes among the Romans: and was (27) efteemed fo by their beft judges; tho’ there were 
 fome, it feems, even in their better ages of writing and judging, who preferred Propertius 
 to him. Tibullus’s talent feems to have been only for elegiac verfe : at leaft his compli¬ 
 ment on Mefialla, (which is his only poem out of it,) fhews I think too plainly, that he 
 was neither defigned for heroic verfe, nor panegyric. Elegance is as much his diftinguiftiing 
 character among the elegiac writers of this age, as it is Terence’s among the comic wri¬ 
 ters of the former : and if his fubjedt will never let him be fublime, his judgment at leaft 
 always keeps him from being faulty. His rival and cotemporary Propertius, feems to 
 have fet himlelf too many different models, to copy either of them fo well as he might 
 otherwife have done. In one (28) place, he calls himfelf the Roman Callimachus; in 
 
 another 
 
 (24) Te greges centum Siculique circum 
 Mligiunt vacca:: cibi tollit hinnitum 
 Apta quadrigis equa: te bis Afro 
 
 Murice tindla? 
 
 VeHiunt lana?. Mihi parva rura, & 
 
 Spiritum Graia: tenuem Camcente, 
 
 Parca non mendax dedit; & malignum 
 Spernere vulgus. 
 
 L. 2. Od. 16. jr. 40. 
 
 He has the fame turn of expreflion (according to 
 Mr. Markland’s reading) in his firft ode, to Mxcc- 
 nas.— 
 
 Te dodtarum hedera; prxmia frontium 
 Dis mifeent fuperis. Me gelidum nemus, &c. 
 And when he adds : 
 
 Quod ft me Lyricis vatibus inferes. 
 
 Sublimi feriam fidera vertice ; 
 
 He muft be underftood to fpeak of the Greek lyric 
 
 poets ; becaufe even the learned among the Romans, 
 ftudied no language but their own, and the Greek : 
 and they had no famous lyric poets of their own, be¬ 
 fore Horace. 
 
 (25) Omne vafer vitium ridenti Flaccus amic» 
 Tangit; & admifTus circum praxordia ludit. 
 
 Perfius, Sat. i. f. 117. 
 
 (26) Horaee, L. 1. Od. 33. ii L. 1. Ep. 4. 
 
 (27) ElcgiaGrtECos quoque provocamus: cujus mihi 
 terfus atque elegans maxime videtur audior Tibullus. 
 Sunt qui Propertium malunt. Ovidius utroque lafci- 
 vior, ficut durior Gallus. Quintilian. Inftit. Or. 
 L. 10. c. 1. p. 748. Ed. Hack. 1665. 
 
 (28) Propeifius. L. 4. EI. 1. jr. 64. 
 
 
Dialogue the 'Third. 
 
 another (* 9 ) he talks of rivaling Philetas : and heisfaid ( 3 °) tohaveftudied MimnenBtis, 
 and fome other of the Greek lyric writers, with the fame view. You may fee by this, and 
 the practice of all their poets in general, that it was the conflant method of the Romans 
 (whenever they endeavoured to excel) to fet fome Greek pattern or other before them. 
 Propertius perhaps might have fucceeded better, had he fixed on any one of thcfe; and 
 not endeavoured to improve by all of them indifferently. Ovid makes up the triumvirate 
 of the elegiac writers of this age; and is moreloofe and incorred than either of the other. 
 As Propertius followed too many mailers, Ovid endeavoured to thine in too many diffe¬ 
 rent kinds of writing’at the fame time. Befides, he had a redundant (31) genius; and 
 almoll always cbofe rather to indulge, than to give any reffraint to it. If one was to give 
 any opinion of the different merit of his feveral works, one thould not perhaps be much 
 betide the truth in faying, that he excels moft in his Fafti; then perhaps in his lovea 
 verfes : next, in his heroic epiffles ; and laffly, in his Metamorpholis. As for the verfes 
 he wrote after his misfortunes, he has quite loft his fpirit in them : and tho’ you may 
 difcover fome difference in his manner, after his banifhment (32) came to fet a little 
 lighter on him; his genius never (bines out fairly, after that fatal ftroke. His very love 
 of being witty had forfaken him ; tho' before it feems to have grown upon him, when it 
 was lead becoming, toward his old age; for his Metamorpholis (which was the laft poem 
 he wrote at Rome, and which indeed was not quite (33) finilhed when he was fent into 
 banifhment,) has more inftances of falfe wit in it, than perhaps all his former writings 
 put together. One of tile things I have heard him moft cried up for in that piece, is his 
 tranfitions from one ftory to another. The antients thought differently of this point; and 
 Quintilian, where he is fpeaking of them, endeavours rather ( 3 +) to excufe than to com¬ 
 mend him on that head. We have a confiderable lofs in the latter half of his Fafti; and in 
 his Medea, which is much commended. Dramatic poetry feems not to have flourifhed in 
 proportion to the other forts of poetry, in the Auguftan age. We fcarce hear any thing 
 of the comic poets of that time; and if tragedy had been much cultivated then, the 
 Roman writers would certainly produce fome names from it to ( 35 ) oppofe to the Greeks, 
 without going fo far back as to thofe of Aftius and Pacuvius. Indeed their own critics 
 in fpeaking of the dramatic writings of this age, boaft rather of Angle pieces, than of 
 authors : and the (36) two particular tragedies which they talk of in the higheft drain, 
 are this Medea of Ovid and Varius's Thyeftes. However, if it was not the age for plays; 
 it was certainly the age, in which almoft all the other kinds of poetry were in their 
 greateft excellence at Rome. 
 
 Uni 
 
 (29) Id. ib. El. 6. 3. 
 
 ( 3 °) By P* Crinitus ; in his life of Propertius. 
 
 (31) Ovidii Medea videtur mihi oftendere quantum 
 
 vir ille prasftarc potuerit ; fi ingenio fuo temperare, 
 quam indulgere maluiflet. Quintilian. Inftit.Or. L.io. 
 c. 1. p. 749. Ed. Hack. 1665. Quintilian almoft 
 always ufes the word, Lafcivus, to exprefs this charac¬ 
 ter of Ovid’s writings. Lafcivus quidem in heroicis 
 quoque Ovidius ; Sc nimium amator ingenii fui : lau¬ 
 dandus tamen in partibus, ib. p. 746.-Ovidius 
 
 utroque lafeivior (of his elegies) ib. p. 748.-Ut 
 
 Ovidius lafcivire in Metamorphofi folet. Ib. p. 
 286. 
 
 (32) He does not mention any thing of his (land¬ 
 ing up againft his misfortunes till the fifth book of his 
 Triftium : and the 2d and 3d epiftles of his third 
 book ex Ponto, are the firft in which he begins to tell 
 any ftory in his Fafti-ftyle. 
 
 ( 33 ) Diftaque funt nobis, quamvis manus ultima ccepto 
 
 Defuit, in facies corpora verfa novas. 
 
 Ovid. Trill. L. 2. jr. 556. 
 
 (34) Illa frigida & puerilis eft in fcholis affeiftatio, 
 ut ipfe tranfitus efficiat aliquam utique fententiam, 
 & hujus velut praeftigise plaufum petat ; ut Ovidius 
 lafcivire in Metamorphofi folet. Quem tamen excu- 
 fare neceffitas poteft ; res diverfiffimas in fpeciem u- 
 nius corporis colligentem. Oratori vero, &c. Inftitut. 
 Orat. L. 4. c. i. p. 286. Ed. Hack. 1665. 
 
 (35) See Dial. 2. Note 45. 
 
 (36) PI ures hodie reperies, qui Ciceronis gloriam 
 quam Virgilii detradent: nec ullus Afinii aut Mef- 
 fallte liber tarn illuftris eft, quam Medea Ovidii, aut 
 Varii Thyeftes. Quintilian, de Caufis Cor. Eloq. 
 
 1 .2. p. 718. Ed. Hack. 1665.-He mentions both 
 
 the fame tragedies, in the fame manner, in his Inftit. 
 Or. T. 1. p. 749. 
 
4 
 
 POLYMETIS. 
 
 Under this period of the belt writing, I fhould be inclined to infert Phaedrus. Fui 
 tho’ he publifhed after the good manner of writing was in general on the decline, he (37) 
 flourished and formed his Style under Auguftus : and his book, tho’ it did not appear till 
 the reign ( 3 8 ) of Tiberius, deferves on all accounts to be reckoned among the works of 
 the Auguftan age. Fabula? fEfopea? was probably the title ( 39 ) which he gave his fables. 
 He profeffcdly follows fEfop in them : and declares that he keeps to his ( 4 °) manner, 
 even where the fubjedt is of his own invention. By this it appears that fEfop’s way of 
 telling Stories was very Short, and plain ; for the distinguishing beauty of Plncdrus’s fa¬ 
 bles is, their concifenefs and fimplicity. The taSte was fo much fallen at the time when 
 he published them, that both thefe were obje&ed to him as faults. He ufed thofe critics 
 as they deferved. He tells a (40 long and tedious Story, to thofe who objected againSt 
 the concifenefs of his Style; and anfwers foine others who condemned the plainncls of 
 it, with a run of ( 4 2 ) bombaSt verfes, that have a great many noify elevated word:, in them 
 without any fenfe at the bottom. 
 
 Will you, Myfagetes, give me leave to add Manilius to this lilt of the Auguftan 
 poets ? I know you can fcarce allow him a place among them; and own, you have rea- 
 fon enough not to admire him. Place him where you pleafe, anlwered Myfagetes, you 
 will never reconcile me to his poetry ; in which I Shall always think him inferior to a 
 great many of the Latin poets, who have wrote in thefe lower ages; fo long Since Latin 
 has ceafed to be a living language. There is at leaft I believe no inftance, in any one 
 poet of the flourishing ages, of fuch (43) language, or fuch (44) versification, as we meet 
 with in Manilius ; and there is not any one antient writer that fpeaks one word of any fuch 
 poet about thofe times. I doubt not, there were bad poets enough in the AuguSlan age ; 
 but I queflion whether Manilius may deferve the honour of being reckoned even among 
 the bad poets of that time. What will you fay then, replied Polymetis, to the many 
 paflages in the poem which relate to the times in which the author lived; and which all 
 
 have 
 
 (37) See Phtedrus, L. 3. Fab. 10. , 4 . 8, Sc 39. 
 
 (38) See Phtedrus, L. 2. Fab. 5. 
 
 ( 39 ) - Quoniam caperis fabulis 
 
 Quas ALfopeas, non ./Efopi, nomino. 
 
 Lib. 5. Prol. 
 
 Nec tyrocinio peccet; circumque feratur. 
 Ore, magilterio, nodoque coercita virgo. 
 
 Et cum luce refert operum vadimonia terris. 
 Solis erit, numero nifi deefTet Olympias una. 
 
 .. 189 
 4. 190 
 1. 244 
 3. 596 
 
 (40) By what Phaedrus fays in his prologue to his 
 firft book, one would think that he fet out with the 
 defign of tranflating /Efop : 
 
 Asfopus audior quam materiam repperit, 
 
 Hanc ego polivi verfibus fenariis. 
 
 jr. 2. 
 
 In the next, he feems to have enlarged his defign ; 
 but ftill fays, that he will ftick clofe to the manner of 
 iEfop: 
 
 Quicumque fuerit ergo narrandi locus, 
 
 Dum capiat aurem & fervet propofitum fuum. 
 
 Re commendatur, non audloris nomine. 
 
 Equidem omni cura morem fervabo fenis: 
 
 Sed fi libuerit aliquid interponere, 
 
 Diftorum fenfus ut delcdlet varietas ; 
 
 Bonas in partes, lettor, accipias velim. 
 
 L. 2. Prol. if. 11. 
 
 (41) L. 3. Fab. 10. j/. 59, 60. 
 
 (42) Lib. 4. Fab. 6. 
 
 (43) Some inftancesof fuch language in Manilius, 
 as is not perhaps to be met with in any other poet of 
 the Auguftan age: 
 
 Et lenocinium vitx, prxfenfque voluptas. 
 
 Manilius, 5. 26S, 
 
 Fecit & ignotis itiner commercia terris. 
 
 1. 88. 
 
 Corda micant, & lingua rabit, latratque loquendo. 
 
 S- 2Z 4 - 
 
 Et ter vicenas partes patet atque trecentas 
 In longum, bis fex latefcit fafeia partes 
 
 1. 680. 
 
 Bifque novem, Ncmetce, dabis beflemque fub illis. 
 
 3 - 57 1, 
 
 Clepfiflet furto mundum, quo cunila reguntur. 
 
 1. 27. 
 
 Engonafi, ingenicla juvenis fub* imagine conllans. 
 
 5. 646. 
 
 Augebuntque novo vicinas momine fummas. 
 
 3 - +S 9 - 
 
 Crimen ubique frequens; & laudi noxiajunila e!t. 
 
 4. 417. 
 
 (44) Some inftar.ces of fuch verfification in Mani¬ 
 lius, as is not to be met with in any other of the Ro¬ 
 man poets in the Auguftan age : 
 
 Nec trahit in fe turn, quo fulget Delia, lumen. 
 
 4.8. M . 
 
 Tuncque in defertis habitabat montibus aurum. 
 Idcircoque manet Habilis, quia totus ab illa. 
 
 1. 168. 
 
 Atque eget alterius mundus; natura fuifmet. 
 
 5. 214. 
 Vel 
 
 s 
 
Dialogue the Third. 
 
 have (45) a regard to the Auguftan age? If the whole be not a modern forgery, I do not 
 fee how one can deny his being of that age : and if it be a modern forgery, it is very 
 lucky that it foould agree fo exaflly, in fo many little particulars, with the antient globe 
 of the heavens in the Farnefe palace. As to the badnefs of his ftyle, there is an argument 
 to be drawn from Vitruvius and other writers of the fame time.—Nay, foys Myfagetes, if 
 you begin to draw up your arguments in form againft me'; and from fo many different 
 quarters; it is high time for me to quit the field. I beg I may not interrupt you. If 
 Manilius s work will be of any ufe to you, let him be one of the moft fhining lights in 
 the Auguftan age, with all my heart. I will very readily give up all my objedions, or 
 prejudices, againft him; for your fervice. 
 
 I thank you, fays Polymetis; and indeed as he is at prefent generally reckoned of 
 that age, we had as good keep him where we found him. Allowing then Manilius's 
 poem to pafs for what it pretends to be; there is nothing remains to us, of the poetical 
 works of this Auguftan age befide what I have mentioned : except the garden poem of 
 Columella: the little hunting-piece of Gratius ; and, perhaps, an elegy or two of 
 Gallus. 
 
 These are but fmall remains for an age, in which poetry was fo well cultivated, and fol¬ 
 lowed by very great numbers; taking the good and the bad together. It is probable, moft 
 of the beft have come down to us. As for the others, we only hear of the elegies (46) of 
 Capella and Montanus; that Proculus (47), imitated Callimachus; and (48) Rufus, Pindar: 
 that Fontanus wrote a fort of pifeatory eclogue; and Macer (49), a poem on the nature 
 of biids, beafts, and plants. That the fame Macer, and Rabirius, and Marfus, and 
 Ponticus (50), and Pedo Albinovanus, and feveral others, were epic writers in that time; 
 
 (which 
 
 Vel fine luxuria tantum eft opus! Ipfa fuimet. 
 
 4 - 134. 
 
 Oftendifle deum nimis eft ; dabit ipfe fibimet. 
 
 4. 439. 
 
 His adice obliquos diverfaque fila legentes. 
 
 1. 664. 
 
 Fcemines veftes; nec infunt tegmina plantis. 
 
 Hoc genitum credas de genere Bellerophontem. 
 
 c . . 5- 97- 
 
 Sic etiam magno qusdam refpondere mundo. 
 
 Singulaque propriis parentia membra figuris. 
 
 Quintilian places this poet always in very good 
 company. Macer & Lucretius legendi quidem, fed 
 non ut phrafin, id eft corpus eloquentia?, faciant. 
 Elegantes in fua quifque materia; fed alter humilis, 
 alter difficilis. Inftit. Or. L. 10. c. 1. p. 746 Ed! 
 1665.-Quid ? Nicandrum fruftra fecuti Macer at¬ 
 
 que Virgilius ? Ib. p. yjg. 
 
 Paterculus pays the fame compliment, (or rather a 
 higher,) to Rabirius. Pene ftulta eft inhserentium 
 oculis ingeniorum enumeratio: inter qua: maxime 
 noftri xvi eminent, princeps carminum Virgilius, Ra- 
 biriufque. Hill. Lib. 2. Cap. 36. 
 
 (45) Thefc paflages are very numerous ; and very 
 exprefs. Befide feveral things of lefs note, he fpeaks 
 of Julius Ciefar’s death. L. 4. f. 60.—of the battles 
 
 at Philippi, and Adium. L. 1. 905, to 920._of 
 
 Agrippa, ib. jr. 795.-and of Varus’s defeat in 
 
 Germany, ib. j. 896. 
 
 (46) Quique vel imparibus numeris. Montane, vel squis 
 
 Suffccis; & gemino carmine nomen habes. 
 
 Ovid, de Ponto. L. 4. El, 16. jr. 12. 
 
 Naiadas a Satyris caneret Fontanus amatas; 
 
 Clauderet imparibus verba Capella modis. 
 
 Ibid. jr. 36. 
 
 (47) Callimachi Proculus molle teneret iter. 
 
 Ib. jr. 32. 
 
 (+8) Pindarics fidicen tu quoque, Rufe, lyra:. 
 
 Ib. jr. 28. 
 
 (49) Sspe fuas volucres legic mihi grandior svo; 
 
 Qusque necet ferpers, qus juvet herba, Macer. 
 
 Trill. L. 4. EI. 10. jr. 44. 
 
 (50) Ponticus Heroo, Baffiis quoque clarus Iambo. 
 
 Trill. L. 4. EI. jo. jr. 47, 
 Cum foret & Marfus, magnique Rabirius oris, 
 Iliacufque Macer, fidereufque Pedo : 
 
 Et qui Junonem lsfiflet in Hercule Carus, - 
 Junonis fi non jam gener ille foret: 
 
 Quique dedit Latio carmen regale Severus; 
 
 Et cum fubtili Prifcus uterque Numa. 
 
 Ex Pont. L. 4. EI. 16. jr. 10. 
 
 This Pedo Albinovanus was acquainted with Ovid • 
 who writes one of his Epiftles from Pontus to him : 
 by which we find the fubjed of his poem was the 
 adions of Thefeus. 
 
 At tu, non dubito, cum carmine Thefea laudes. 
 Materis titulos quin tueare tus ; 
 
 Quemque refers, imitcre virum. _ 
 
 L. 4. Ep. 10. t. 73 . 
 
 Quintilian fpeaks but flightly both of him and Ra¬ 
 birius; (at leaft, as helps to his young orator.) Ra¬ 
 birius ac Pedo, non indigni cognitione, fi vacet. In¬ 
 ftit. Or. L. 10. c. 1. p. 747. Ed. 1665. 
 
 H 
 
 
POLYMETIS. 
 
 (which by the way (51) feems to have fignified little more, than that they wrote in hex¬ 
 ameter verfe:) that Fundanius (52) was their bed; comic poet then, and Meliffus no bad 
 one ; that Varius (S 3 ) was the mod efteemed for epic poetry, before the fEneid appeared; 
 and one of the mod edeemed for tragedy always : Pollio (befides his other excellencies 
 at the bar, in the camp, and in affairs of date) is (54) much commended for tragedy; 
 and Varus (55) either for tragedy or epic poetry; for it does not quite appear which of 
 the two he wrote. Thefe lad are great names; but there remain fome of dill higher 
 dignity, who were, or at lead defired to be thought, poets in that time. In the former 
 part of Augudus’s reign, FIs fird minider for home affairs (56), Miecenas; and in the 
 latter part, his grandfon Germanicus, were of this number. Germanicus in particular 
 (57) tranffated Aratus ; and there are fome (I do not well know, on what grounds) who 
 pretend to have met with a considerable part of his tranflation. The emperor himfelf 
 feems to have been both a good critic, and a good author (58). He wrote chiefly in 
 profe; but fome things in verfe too; and particularly good part of a tragedy, called 
 Ajax. 
 
 It is no wonder, under fuch encouragements, and fo great examples, that poetry 
 fhould arife to a higher pitch than it had ever done among the Romans. They had 
 been gradually improving it for above two centuries: and in Augudus found a prince, 
 whofe own inclinations, the temper of whofe reign, and whofe very politics, led him to 
 nurfe all the arts; and poetry, in a more particular manner. The wonder is, when 
 they had got fo far toward perfection, that they fhould fall as it were all at once ; and 
 from their greated purity and ffmplicity, lhould degenerate fo immediately into a lower 
 and more affeCted manner of writing than had been ever known among them. But be¬ 
 fore 
 
 (5 1 ) Quintilian in fpeaking of their epic poets 
 reckons in Ovid for his Metainorpholis, and Lucre¬ 
 tius for his philofophical poem. See his Inftit. Or. 
 L. 10. c. 1. 
 
 (52) Arguta meretrice potes Davoque Chremeta 
 Eludente fenem comis garrire libellos 
 Unus vivorum, Fundani. ■ 
 
 L. 1. Sat. 10. jr. 42. 
 
 Mufaque Turrani tragicis innixa cothurnis; 
 
 Et tua cum focco mufa, Melifle, levis. 
 
 Ovid. ex Ponto, L. 4. Ep. 16. 30. 
 
 (-3) --Forte epos acer. 
 
 Ut nemo, Varius ducit.- 
 
 Horat. L. 1. Sat. 10. jr. 44. 
 Ilis Thycftes, and Ovid’s Medea, were generally 
 reckoned the two belt tragedies of the Auguftan age. 
 See Note 36, anteh. 
 
 (54) - Pollio regum 
 
 Fadta canit pede ter percuflo.- 
 
 Horat. L. 1. Sat. 10. $. 43. 
 Motum ex Metello confule civicum, 
 
 Eellique caufas, & vitia, & modos ; 
 
 Ludumque fortuna; ; gravefque 
 Principum amicitias, & arma 
 Nondum expiatis untta cruoribus, 
 
 Fericulofic plenum opus alea;, 
 
 Traftas : & incedis per ignes 
 Suppofitos cineri dolofo. 
 
 Paulum fevera: mufa tragoedia: 
 
 Defit theatris ; mox ubi publicas 
 Res ordinaris, grande munus 
 Cecropio repetes cothurno. 
 
 Horat. L. 2. Od. 1. ad Afmium Pollionem. 
 
 (55) - - Ncc Phcebo gratior ulla ell 
 
 Quam fibi qux Vari prcefcripfit pagina nomen. 
 
 Virgil. Ecl. 6. jL 12. 
 
 - Et me fecere poetam 
 Pierides; funt & mihi carmina ; me quoque dicunt 
 Vatem pallores. Sed non ego credulus illis: 
 
 Nam neque adhuc Varo videor, nec dicere Cinna 
 Digna; fed argutos interllrepere anfeF olores. 
 
 Id. Ecl. 9. jE 36. 
 Cum Varus Gracchufque darent fera diifta tyranni. 
 
 Ovid, ex Pont. L. 4. Ep. 16. jr. 3J. 
 
 (56) See Note 1, anteh. 
 
 (57) Ovid addrefles his Fafti to him ; and fpcaks 
 of him as a poet in that addrefs : 
 
 Qu;e fit enim culti facundia fenfimus oris 
 Civica pro trepidis cum tulit arma reis ; 
 
 Scimus & ad nollras cum fe tulit impetus artes. 
 Ingenii currant flumina quanta tui : 
 
 Si licet & fas ell, vates rege vatis habenas. 
 
 Fall. 1. f. 2;. 
 
 What is received as his tranflation of Aratus, has 
 been publilhed feveral times; and is inferted in the 
 Corpus Poetarum Lat. p. 1563, to 1566. 
 
 (58) Multa varii generis prosa oratione compofuit; 
 ex quibus nonnulla in ccetu familiarium, vel ut in au¬ 
 ditorio, recitavit. Poeticam fummatim attigit: unus 
 liber extat feriptus ab eo hexametris vcrfibus ; cujus 
 & argumentum & titulus eft Sicilia. Extat alter, 
 teque modicus, epigrammatum ; quae fere tempore 
 bainci meditabatur. Tragoediam magno impetu cx- 
 orfus, non fuccedente ftylo abolevit: quierentibufquc 
 amicis, quidnam Ajax ageret ? refpondit; Ajacem 
 
 fuum in fpongiam incubuifle.-Genus eloquendi 
 
 fecutus eft: elegans Sc temperatum ; vitatis fententia- 
 rum ineptiis atque inconcinnitate, & reconditorum 
 verborum (ut ipfe dicit) fcetoribus; pnecipuamque 
 curam duxit, fenfum animi quam apertiflime expri¬ 
 mere. Suetonius in Aug. §. 85, & 86.— To this, the 
 quotation from Macrobius ; Note 1, anteh. 
 
fore I enter on this third age, it might refrefh you a little to take a turn in the garden : 
 where, if you are not yet tired, I can go on with my ftory as well while we are walking. 
 On condition that you will proceed with that, fays Myfagetes, I am for a walk. At the 
 fame time Philander rofe from his feat; and they went all together for the garden. 
 When they came thither, they found the rain which had threatened all the morning, 
 was actually falling; and fo they were forced to content themfelves with the portico 
 which runs all along the garden front of the houfe: where, as they were taking their 
 turns backward and forward, Polymetis finifhed his account of the Roman poets in the 
 following manner. 
 
POLYMETIS. 
 
 DIAL. IV. 
 
 Of the Fall of Poetry among the Romans. 
 
 T HERE are fome who aflert that the great age of the Roman eloquence I 
 have been {peaking of, began (0 to decline a little even in the latter part of 
 Auguftus’s reign. It certainly fell very much under Tiberius ; and grew every 
 day weaker and weaker, till it was wholly changed under Caligula. Hence therefore we 
 may date the third age, or the fall of the Roman poetry. Auguftus, whatever his na¬ 
 tural temper was, put on at lcaft a mildnefs, that gave a calm to the Rate during his 
 time : the lucceeding emperors flung off the mafic : and not only were, but openly ap¬ 
 peared to be rather mongers than men. We need not go to their hiftorians for proofs 
 of their prodigious vilenefs: it is enough to mention the bare names of Tiberius, Caligula, 
 and Nero. Under fuch heads every thing that was good run to ruin. All difcipline in 
 war, all domeftic virtues, the very love of liberty, and all the taffe for found eloquence 
 and good poetry, funk gradually ; and faded away, as they had flourifhed, together. 
 Inftead of thefcnlible, chafle, and manly way of writing that had been in ufe in the for¬ 
 mer age, there now role up a defire of writing fmartly, and an affectation of fhining in 
 every thing they laid. A certain (a) prettinefs, and glitter, and luxuriance of ornaments, 
 was what diftinguifhed their molt applauded writers in profe; and their pcetry was quite 
 loft in high flights and obfeurity. Seneca, the (3) favourite profe-writer of thofe times; 
 and Petronius Arbiter, fo great a favourite with many of our own; afford too many 
 proofs of this, as to the profe in Nero’s time: and as to the poets, it is enough to fay, 
 that they had then Lucan and Perfius, inftead of Virgil and Horace. 
 
 Persius and Lucan, who were the moft celebrated poets under the reign of Nero, 
 may very well ferve for examples of the faults I juft mentioned; one of the levelling, and 
 the other of the obfeure ftyle, then in falhion. Lucan’s manner in general runs too 
 much into fuftian and bombaft. His mufe has a kind of droply ; and looks like the 
 foldier deferibed in his own Pharfalia, who in palling the defart fands of Africa was bit 
 by a ferpent, and levelled to fuch an immoderate fize “ that (4) he was loft fas he ex- 
 
 preffes it) in the tumours of his own body, 
 to make Quintilian fay fome good things 
 
 (1) Mediis Divi Augufti temporibus, -poftquam 
 
 longa temporum quies, k continuum populi otium, 
 k afiidua fenatus tranquillitas, k maximi principis dif- 
 ciplina, ipfam quoque eloquentiam (ficut omnia alia) 
 pacaverat. Quintilian, de Caulis cor. Eloq. T. 2. p. 754. 
 Ed. 1665. He was faying juft before (p. 753.) Quo 
 plures & intulerit ictus & exceperit, eo acrior, tanto 
 altiorSf excelfior (erit orator:) and he fays a little after 
 (p.755.) Non de otiosa k quieta re loquimur, k qua: 
 probitate k modeftia gaudeat ; fed eft magna ifta k 
 notabilis eloquentia, alumna licentia?, (quam ftulti 
 libertatem vocabant) comes feditionum, effrenati po¬ 
 puli incitamentum ; fine obfequio, fine fervitute ; 
 contumax, temeraria, arrogans; quie in bene conftitu- 
 
 tis civitatibus non oritur.- (It grows at laft .into a 
 
 compliment toVefpafian. p. 737, k ult.) 
 
 (2) Amcenitates, nitor, and laetitia ftyli, are the terms 
 that Quintilian ufes perpetually in fpeaking of this a^e ; 
 in his treatife on the fall of eloquence. 
 
 6 
 
 Some critics have been in too great hafte 
 of Lucan, which he never (5) meant to do. 
 
 What 
 
 (3) Poftquam ad providentiam fapientiamque flexit 
 (Nero, in his funeral panegyric on Claudius) nemo 
 rifui temperare ; quanquam oratio a Seneca compofita 
 multum cultus prseferret. Fuit illi viro ingenium a- 
 
 mcenum, k temporis ejus auribus accommodatum._ 
 
 T acit. Annal. L. 13, initio.-Senecam, tum maxi¬ 
 
 me placentem. Suetonius, in Caligula, c. 53. 
 
 ( 4 ) -Tendit cutem, pereunte figura, 
 
 Mifcens cumfla tumor; toto jam corpore major, 
 Humanumque egreffa modum, fuper omnia membra 
 Efflatur fanies : late pollente veneno, 
 
 Ipfe latet penitus congeflo corpore merfus. 
 
 Lucan. Pharf. L. 9. jr. 796. 
 
 (5) Several critics have quoted the following paf- 
 
 fage as an high commendation given by Quintilian, 
 to Lucan :- Exigitur jam ab oratore etiam poeti¬ 
 
 cus decor ; non Adtii aut Pacuvii veterno inquinatus; 
 fed ex Horatii, k Virgilii, k Lucani facrario prola¬ 
 tus.- But they have fcarce confidered who it is 
 
 that 
 
Fourth. 
 
 What this poet has been always admired for, and what he will ever deferve to be admired 
 for, are the feveral philofophical paffages that abound in his works; and his generous fen- 
 timcnts, particularly on the love of liberty, and the contempt of death. In his calm hours 
 he is very wile ; but he is often in his rants, and never more fo than when he is got into a 
 battle, or a ftorm at fea: but it is remarkable that even on thofe occafions, it is not fo much 
 a violence of rage, as a madnefs of affectation that appears moft ftrongly in him. I am no 
 great admirer of Lucan, fays Philander, for any thing except his fine fentiments on liberty 
 and virtue; but is not what you lay of him a little too fevere ? No, intcrpofed Myfagetes, I 
 mull do Polymetis the jullice to fide with him on this occafion. I have been a great reader 
 of Lucan formerly; and I believe every thing Polymetis has faidof him, might be very fully 
 proved from his own words. To give you a few inllances of it out of many : in the very 
 beginning of Lucan’s ftorm, when Caefar ventured to crofs the fea in fo fmall a veffel; 
 “ the ( 6 ) fixt liars themfelves feem to be put in motion.” Then the “ waves rife over 
 the mountains; and (7) carry away the tops of them.” Their next Hep is to heaven ; 
 where they catch ( 8 ) the rain “ in the clouds I fuppofe, to increafe their forces. The 
 fea opens in feveral places ; and leaves its bottom (9) dry land. All the foundations of 
 the univerfe are lhaken ; and (10) nature is afraid of afecond chaos. His little lkiff, in 
 the mean time, fometimes l 1 !) cuts along the clouds with her fails; and fometimes 
 feems in danger of being ftranded, on the lands at the bottom of the fea : and mull in¬ 
 evitably have been loft, had not the ftorm (by good fortune) been fo ftrong (12) from 
 every quarter, that Ihe did not know on which fide to bulge firft. 
 
 When the two armies are going to join battle in the plains of Pharfalia, we are told 
 that all the foldiers were (13) incapable of any fear for themfelves; becaufe they were 
 wholly taken up with their concern for the danger which threatened Pompey and the 
 commonwealth. On this great occafion the hills about them, according to his account, 
 feem to be more afraid, than the men ; for fome of the mountains looked as if they 
 
 would 
 
 that fay's fo. It is true, it is In a dialogue, which (for 
 my own part) I doubt not was written by Quintilian : 
 but then Quintilian’s two chief fpealcers in that dia¬ 
 logue, are of very oppofite charadters. Aper is a 
 very great advocate for the affedfed tafte grown fo 
 much in fafhion in fome of the bad reigns before, and 
 continued even under Vefpafian’s : Meflalla is as 
 ftrongly for the old eloquence of Cicero’s days. The 
 author of the dialogue appears very plainly, (from his 
 other works, and this very piece itfelf) to have been 
 of Mcflalla’s opinion; and confequcntly, to hold juft 
 the contrary of what Aper fays. Now this feverity 
 againft the old poets, and this high compliment to Lu¬ 
 can, make part of a warm fpeech of Apcr’s : after 
 which too are thefe words. Agnofcitifne—vim Sc 
 ardorem Apri noftri ? Quo torrente, quo impetu 
 feculum noftrum defendit ? Quam copiose ac varie 
 vexavit antiquos ? Lib. de Caufis corrupta: Eloquen¬ 
 tia:, annexed to Quintilian’s works, p. 734. 
 
 (6) -Non folum lapfa per ahum 
 
 Aera difperfos traxere cadentia fulcos 
 Sidera ; fed fummis etiam qua: fixa tenentur 
 Aftra polis, funt vifa quati. 
 
 Lucan’s Pharf. Lib. jr. 564. 
 
 (7) All, quoties fruflra pulfatos requore, montes 
 
 Obruit illa dies ! quam celfa cacumina pelTum 
 Tellus vidta dedit. -■ 
 
 Ibid. jr. 617. 
 
 ( 3 ) — ■ Fluftufque in nubibus accipit imbrem. 
 
 Ib. jr. 629. 
 
 (9) - -Scythici vicit rabies Aquilonis; & undas 
 
 Torfit: & abftrufas peuitus vada fecit arenas. 
 
 Pharf. Lib. 5. jr. 604, 
 
 (10) Tunc fuperum convexa tremunt; atque arduus axis 
 Infonuit ; motaque poli compage laborant: 
 Extimuit natura chaos... — ■ ■ — 
 
 lb. jr. 634. 
 
 (11) Nubila tanguntur velis, & terra carina. 
 
 Ib. jr. 642. 
 
 (12) Artis opem vicere metus; nefeitque magifter 
 Quam frangat, cui cedat aqua?. Difcordia ponti 
 Succurrit miferis; fluftufque evertere puppim 
 Non valet in fludtus: vidtum latus unda repellens 
 Erigit; atque omni furgit ratis ardua vento. 
 
 Ib. jr. 649. 
 
 This is of the fame kind with a monftrous thought of 
 Pacuvius ; ridiculed by Lucan’s cotemporary, Perfius. 
 That old poet, in fpeaking of Antiope, feems to have 
 imagined that fhe had fo many griefs all round her 
 heart, that it could not break ; as it would certainly 
 have done, if fhe had had fewer. See Perfius, Sat. 1. 
 
 (13) - Sua quifque pericula nefeit. 
 
 Attonitus majore metu. Quis litora ponto 
 Obruta, quis fummis cernens in montibus aquor, 
 Astheraque in terras dejeflo fole cadentem, 
 
 Tot rerum finem, timeat fibi ? Non vacat ullos 
 Pro fe ferre metus ; urbi, Magnoque timetur. 
 
 Pharf. Lib. 7. f, 138. 
 
 
 
 i 
 
 K I 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
3 ° 
 
 P O L Y M E T I S. 
 
 would (-+) thruff their heads together into fome corners and others, as if they wanted 
 to hide themfelves under the valleys at their feet. And thefe difturbances in nature were 
 univerfal : for that day, every fingle Roman (15), in whatever part of the world he was, 
 felt a ftrange gloom fpread all over his mind, on a fudden; and was ready to cry, thu' 
 he did not know why or wherefore. 
 
 T The fea-figbt oft Marfeilles, is a thing that might divert one, full as well as Eraftnus’s 
 Naufragium Joculare : and what is ftiil ftranger, the poet chufes to be molt diverting in 
 the wounds he gives the poor foldiers. The firft perfon killed in it, is pierced (16) a t the 
 fame inftant hy two fpears; one in his back, and the other in his breaft; fo nicely, that 
 both their points meet together in the middle of his body. They each, I fuppofc’, had 
 a right to kill him; and his foul was for fome time doubtful which it fhould obey. At 
 laft, it compounds the matter; drives out each of the fpears before it, at the fame in¬ 
 ftant ; and whips out of his body, half at one wound, and half at the other.—A little 
 alter this, there is an honeft Greek, who has his right hand cut off; and fights on with 
 his left, till he can leap into the leal-;) to recover the former; but there (as misfortunes 
 feldom come Angle) he has his left arm chopt off too : after which, like the hero in one 
 of our antient ballads, he fights on with the trunk of his body; and performs aftions, 
 greater than any Withrington’s that ever was.—When the battle grows warmer, there 
 are many who have the fame misfortune with this Greek. In endeavouring to clamber 
 up the enemies (hips, feveral have their arms ftruck off; fall into the fea (-8); and leave 
 their hands behind them! Some of thefe fwimming (-9) combatants encounter their ene¬ 
 mies in the water; fome fupply their friends flips with arms ; fome, that had no arms, 
 entangle themfelves with their enemies ; cling to them, and fink together to the bottom 
 of the lea : others ftick their bodies againft the beaks of their enemies fhips ; and fcarce 
 a man of them flung away the ufe of his carcafe, even when he fhould be dead. 
 
 But among all the contrivances of thefe pofthumous warriors, the thing moft to be 
 admired is the fagacity of the great Tyrrhenus. (, o) Tyrrhenus was Handing at the head 
 of one of the veffels, when a ball of lead, flung by an artful (linger, ftruck out both his 
 eyes. The violent dafli of the blow, and the deep darknefs that was fpread over him all 
 at once, made him at firft conclude that he was dead: but when he had recovered his 
 fenfes a little, and found he could advance one foot before the other, he defired his 
 fellow-foldiers to plant him j uft as they did their Bailiffs:; he hopes, he can ftiil fight as 
 
 (14) - Multis concurrere vifus Olympo 
 
 Pindus ; & abruptis mergi convallibus Haemus. 
 
 Pharf. Lib. 7. 174. 
 
 ('S) * Tyriis qui Gadibus hofpes 
 
 Adjacet, Armeniumque bibit Romanus Araxem, 
 Sub quocunque die, quocunque ell fidere mundi, 
 Mceret; & ignorat caufas: animumque dolentem 
 Corripit.- 
 
 Ib. f. 191. 
 
 (16) Terga limul pariter miliis & peftora telis 
 Tranligitur ; medio concurrit peftore ferrum : 
 
 Et lletit incertus fluerit quo vulnere fanguis. 
 
 Donec utrafque fimul largus eruor expulit haltas; 
 Divifitquc animam, fparfitque in vulnera lethum. 
 
 Ib. Lib. 3. j/. 591. 
 
 (17) Crevit in adverfis virtus. Plus nobilis ira: 
 
 1 runcus habet ; fortique infiaurat pradia laiva ; 
 Rapiurufque fuam procurrit in a-quora dextram, &c. 
 
 Ibid. jE 616. 
 
 Ib. >'■. 668. 
 
 well 
 
 (19) -Nec cefiat naufiaga virtus. 
 
 Tela legunt dejetta mari, ratibufque miniilrant; 
 Incertafque manus, i£tu languente, per undas 
 Exercent. Nunc rara datur fi copia ferri, 
 
 Utuntur pelago: fevus complebitur hortem 
 Hoftis j & implicitis gaudent fublidere membris, 
 
 Mergemeftjue mori-Non p„ dere )etom 
 
 M™ 1 c “ ra f “ ! '- -«Itus fu- vulnera puppi 
 Affixit moriens; & roliris abllulit iftus. 
 
 Ib. f. 708. 
 
 (20) Stantem fublimi Tyrrhenum culmine prora:, 
 Lygdamus excufsa Balearis tortor habena 
 Glande petens; folido fregit cava temporaplumbo : 
 Sedibus expulfi, poltquam eruor omnia rupit 
 Vincula, procumbunt oculi. Stat lumine rapto 
 Attonitus; mortifque illas putat effie tenebras. 
 
 At poftquam membris fenfit conllare vigorem ; 
 
 Vos ait, O focii, ficut tormenta foletis. 
 
 Me quoque mittendis reflum componite telis : 
 
 Egere quod fupereft anima:, Tyrrhene, per omnes 
 Bellorum cafus ! Ingentem militis ufum 
 Hoc hfibet ex magna defunbum parte cadaver. 
 Viventis fcricre Icco._. 
 
 Ib. 721. 
 
 (18) A manibus cecidere fuis_- 
 
Dialogue the Fourth. 
 
 well as a machine; and feems mightily pleafed, to think how he Ihall cheat the enemy, 
 who will fling away darts at him, that might have killed people who were alive. 
 
 Such flrange things as thefe, fays Polymetis, make me always wonder the more, how 
 Lucan can be fo wife as he is in fome parts of his poem. Indeed his fentences are more 
 folid than one could otherwife expert from fo young a writer, had he wanted fuch an 
 uncle as Seneca, and fuch a matter as Cornutus. The fwellings in the other parts of his 
 poem may be partly accounted for, perhaps, from his being born in Spain, and in that part 
 of it which was the fartheft removed from Greece and Rome; nay of that very city, which 
 is marked by Cicero (21) as particularly over-run with a bad tafte. After all, what I 
 moft diflike him for, is a blot in his moral character. He was at firft pretty (22) high in 
 the favour of Nero. On the difcovery of his being concerned in a plot againft him, 
 this philofopher (who had written fo much, and fo gallantly, about the plealure of dy¬ 
 ing) behaved himfelf in the moll defpicable manner. He named (23) his own mother as 
 guilty of the confpiracy, in hopes of faving himlelf. After this, he added fcveral of his 
 friends to his former confelTion; and thus continued labouring for a pardon, by making 
 facrifices to the tyrant of fuch lives, as any one much lefs a philofopher than he feems 
 to have been, ought to think dearer than their own. All this bafenefs was of no ufe to 
 him : for in the end Nero ordered him to execution too. His veins were opened ; and 
 the laft (24) words he fpoke, were fome verfes of his own. 
 
 Persius is faid to have been Lucan’s fchool-fellow (25) under Cornutus ; and like him 
 was bred up more a philofopher than a poet. He has the character of a good man ; but 
 fcarce deferves that of a good writer, in any other than the moral fenfe of the word : for 
 his writings are very virtuous, but not very poetical. His great fault is obfcurity. Seve¬ 
 ral 
 
 vin&o fafci® quam pe£lori detraxerat, in modum la¬ 
 quei ad arcum felire reftri&o indidit cervicem, & cor¬ 
 poris pondere connifa tenuem jam fpiritum expreflit. 
 Clariore exemplo libertina mulier, in tanta necellitate 
 alienos ac prope ignotos protegendo ; cum ingenui, 
 & viri, & equites Romani fenatorefque, inta&i tor¬ 
 mentis cariflima fuorum quifque pignorum proderent; 
 non enim omittebant Lucanus quoque, & Senicio, & 
 Quintilianus, paflim confcios edere. Tacitus, Annal. 
 L. 15. §. 56 & 57. 
 
 (24) Exin M. Anr.rei Lucani caedem imperat. Is 
 profluente fanguine, ubi frigefeere pedes manufque, 
 & paulatim ab extremis cedere fpiritum, fervido ad¬ 
 huc & compote mentis pe£lore, intclligit ; recordatus 
 carmen a fe compotitum, quo vulneratum militem 
 per cjufmodi mortis imaginem obiifle tradiderat, ver- 
 fus ipfos retulit: eaque illi fuprema vox fuit. Ibid. 
 
 §■ 70 - 
 
 The verfes, here intended by Tacitus, are thought’ 
 by fome to be thofe in the third book of thePharfalia ; 
 on the death of one of the Roman foldiers in the fca- 
 fight off Marfeilles. 
 
 Ferrea dum puppi rapidos manus inferit uncos. 
 
 Affixit Lycidam; merfus foret ille profundo ; 
 
 Sed prohibent focii, fufpenfaque crura retentant. 
 Scinditur avulfus. “ xXec, ficut vulnere, fanguis 
 Emicuit lentus; ruptis cadit undique venis: 
 Difcurfufque anima;, diverfa in membra meantis. 
 Interceptus aquis.”- 
 
 Pharf. Lib. 3. f. 641. 
 
 (25) Cum primum pavido cullos mihi purpura ccffit, 
 Buliaque fuccindtis Laribus donata pependit. 
 
 Me tibi fuppofui. Teneros tu fufeipis annos 
 
 Socratico, Cornute, finu.- 
 
 Perfms. Sat. 5. f. 37. 
 
 (21) Corduba ; in Mifpania Bcetica.-^—Qui (Me- 
 tellusPius) ufque eo de fuis rebus feribi cuperet, ute- 
 tiam Corduba? natis poetis, pingue quiddam fanantibus 
 atque peregrinum, tamen aureis fuas dederit. (Cicero, 
 pro Archia.) 
 
 (22) Provocatus Athenis a Nerone, cohortique a- 
 micorum additus ; atque etiam quaertura donatus. 
 Tradi, de claris Poetis, attributed to Suetonius. 
 
 (23) This was in (what was called) Pifo’s confpiracy; 
 it was difeovered by one Milichus. The firft he 
 named, wereSievinus and Natalis, who were ordered 
 to be put to the queftion. Tormentorum afpedlum 
 ac minas non tulere : prior tamen Natalis, totius con¬ 
 jurationis magis gnarus ; fimul arguendi peritior. De 
 Pifone primum fatetur : deinde adjicit Annaeum Se¬ 
 necam ; five internuntius inter eum Pifonemque fuit; 
 five ut Neronis gratiam pararet; qui infenfus Senecte 
 omnes ad eum opprimendum artes conquirebat. 
 Tum cognito Natalis indicio Sawinus quoque pari 
 imbecillitate, an cundla jam patefadla credens, nec 
 ullum filentii emolumentum, edidit casteros. Ex 
 quibus, Lucanus, Quindlianufque, & Senicio, diu 
 abnuere : port, promifsa impunitate corrupti, quo 
 tarditatem excufarent, Lucanus Atillam matrem fuam, 
 Quindlianus Glicium Gallum, Senicio Annium Pol¬ 
 lionem, amicorum prrecipuos nominavere. Atque 
 interim Nero, recordatus Volufii Proculi indicio Epi- 
 charim attineri ; ratufquc muliebre corpus impar do¬ 
 lori, tormentis dilacerari jubet. At illam non ver¬ 
 bera, non ignes, non ira eo acrius torquentium ne a 
 fcemina fpernerentur, pervicere, quin objedla dene¬ 
 garet. Sic primus quieftionis dies contemptus; po¬ 
 liero cum ad eofdem cruciatus retraheretur, geftamine 
 fell®, (nam diflblutis membris infifterc nequibat) 
 
 5 
 
POLYMETlS. 
 
 'll 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 ral have endeavoured to excufe, or palliate this fault in him, from the danger of the times 
 he lived in ; and the neceffity a fatirift then lay under of writing fo, for his own fecurity. 
 This may hold as to fome paflages in him : but to fay the truth, he feems to have a ten¬ 
 dency and love to obfcurity in himfelf: for it is not only to be found where he may 
 fpeak of the emperor, or the hate; but in the general courle of his fatires. So that, in 
 my confcience, I muft give him up for an obfcure writer; as I lliould Lucan for a 
 tumid and fwelling one. 
 
 Such was the Roman poetry under Nero. The three emperors after him, were 
 made in an hurry (26), and had fhort tumultuous reigns. Then the Flavian family came 
 in. Vefpalian, the firft emperor of that line (27) endeavoured to recover fomething of 
 the good tafte that had formerly flourifhed in .Rome; his fon Titus, the delight of 
 mankind, in his fhort reign encouraged poetry, by his example ( 2 &>\ as well as by his 
 liberalities : and even Domitian loved (29) to be thought a patron of the mules. After 
 him there was a fucceftion of good emperors, from Nerva to the Antonines. And this 
 extraordinary good fortune (for indeed, if one conliders the general run of the Roman 
 emperors, it would have been fuch to have had any two good ones only together) gave a 
 new fpirit to the arts that had long been in fo languilhing a condition; and made poetry 
 revive, and raife up its head again, once more among them. Not that there were very 
 good poets even now; but they were better at leaft, than they had been under the reign 
 of Nero. 
 
 This period produced three epic poets, whofe works remain to us; Silius (3°\ Sta¬ 
 tius, and Valerius Flaccus. Silius, as if he had been frightened at the high flight of Lu¬ 
 can, keeps almoft always on the ground; and fcarce once attempts to foar, throughout 
 his whole work. It is plain however, tho’ it is low : and if he has but little of the fpirit 
 of poetry, he is free at leaf!; from the affectation, and obfcurity, and bombalf, which 
 prevailed fo much among his immediate predecelfors. Silius was honoured with the 
 confulate; and lived to fee his fon in the fame high office. He was a great lover 
 and collector of pictures and ftatues (3 1 ); fome of which he worlhipped; cfpecially one 
 he had of Virgil. He ufed to offer facrifices too at his tomb, near Naples. It is a pity 
 that he could not get more of his fpirit in his writings : for he had fcarce enough to make 
 his offerings acceptable to the genius of that great poet. Statius had more of fpirit, with 
 a lefs fliare of prudence: for his Thebaid is certainly ill conducted, and fcarcely well 
 written. By the little we have of his Achilleid, that would probably have been a much 
 better poem, at leaft as to the writing part, had he lived to finifh it. As it is, his de- 
 feription ( 3 2 ) of Achilles’s behaviour at the feaft which Lycomedes makes for the Grecian 
 embafladors, and fome other parts of it, read more pleafingly to me than any part of the 
 
 Thebaid. 
 
 (26) Ex conditione tumultuque temporum : Sue¬ 
 tonius in Vefp. §. 10. (fpeaking of the reigns before 
 Vefpafian.) The three reigns before his, all together 
 do not take up two years and a half. 
 
 (27) Per totum imperii tempus nihil habuit anti¬ 
 quius, quam prope afflidtam nutantemque rempubli- 
 cam flabilire primo, deinde & ornare. Suetonius, in 
 
 Vefpaf. §. 8.-Ingenia & artes vel maxime fovit. 
 
 Primus e fifco Latinis Gnecifque rhetoribus annua 
 centena confli tuit. Prasflantes poetas, nec non & ar¬ 
 tifices, coemit. Ibid. §. 18. 
 
 (28) Peritiflimus Latinte Grsecteque lingure : vel ir 
 orando, vel in fingendis poematibus, promtub & facilis 
 ad extemporalitatem ufque. Id. in Tito, §, 3. 
 
 (29) Simulavit & ipfe mire modefliam ; inprimif- 
 que poetica; fludium. Id.inDomit, §.2. 
 
 4 
 
 (30) It is f.iid, that Silius did not write till he was 
 very old ; and indeed his flyle is as like that of an 
 elderly man, as it is unlike the flyle in fafhion tinder 
 Nero. I have therefore not reckoned him as a poet 
 under Nero ; tho’ he v/as conful the iafl year of that 
 reign. He lived long after ; and probably wrote his 
 poem after Nero’s death. 
 
 (31) Erat tpiKoKct\of, ufque ad emacitatis reprehen- 
 fionem. Plures iifdem in locis, (in the Campania fe¬ 
 lice) villas poflidebat; adamatifque novis, priores ne- 
 gligebat. Multum ubique librorum ; multum ftatu- 
 arum ; multum imaginum : quas non habebat modo, 
 verum etiam venerabatur. Virgilii ante omnes ; cu¬ 
 jus natalem rcligiofius quam fuum celebrabat: Nea¬ 
 poli maxime ; ubi monumentum ejus adire ut tem¬ 
 plum folebat. Plin. Lib. 3. Ep. 7. 
 
 (32) Statius, Achil. L. 2. 67, to 131. 
 
D I A L O g u e the Fourth. 
 
 Thebaid. I cannot help thinking, that the pafiage quoted fo often from Juvenal as an 
 (33) encomium on Statius, was meant as a l'atire on him. Martial feems (3+) to ftrike at 
 him too, under the borrowed name of Sabellus. As he did notfinilli his Achillcid, he may 
 deferve more reputation perhaps as a mifcellaneous than as an epic writer; for tho’the odes 
 and other copies of verfes in his Sylvas are not without their faults, they are not fo faulty 
 as his Thebaid. The chief faults of Statius, in hisSylvte andThebaid, are faid ( 35 ) to have 
 proceeded from very different caufes : the former, from their having been written incor¬ 
 rectly and in a great deal of hafte; and the other from its being over corrected and hard. 
 Perhaps his greateft fault of all, or rather the greateft fign of his bad judgment, is his ad¬ 
 miring Lucan fo ( 3 6 ) extravagantly as he does. It is remarkable, that poetry run more 
 lineally in Statius’s family than perhaps in any other. He received it ( 37 ) from his father; 
 who had been an eminent poet in his time; and lived to fee his fon obtain the laurel- 
 crown, at the Alban games; as he had formerly done himfelf. Valerius Flaccus wrote 
 a little (38) before Statius. Fie died young; and left his poem unfinifhed; We have but 
 leven books of his Argonautics, and part of the eighth ; in which, the Argonauts are left 
 on the fea in their return homewards. Several of the (39) modem criticks, who have 
 been fome way or other concerned in publilliing Flaccus’s works, make no fcruple of 
 placing him next to Virgil, of all the Roman epic poets ; and I own I am a good deal 
 inclined to be ferioufly of their opinion : for he feems to me to have more fire than Silius ; 
 and to be more correCt than Statius; and as for Lucan, I cannot help looking upon 
 him as quite out of the queftion. He imitates ( 4 °) Virgil’s language much better than 
 
 Silius, 
 
 ( 33 ) There feems tome to bean allufion run quite 
 throughout it ; as if Juvenal had been fpeaking all the 
 while of a common proftitute. 
 
 Curritur ad vocem jucundam & carmen amicas 
 
 Thebaidos; lanam Fecit cum Statius urbem, 
 
 Promifitque diem. Tanta dulcedine captos 
 
 Afficit ille animos j tantaque libidine vulgi 
 
 Auditur.- 
 
 Juvenal. Sat. 7. jr. 86. 
 
 However that be, I fhould think that the ftngle ex- 
 prefiion of, libidine vulgi, would quite fpoil it for a 
 panegyric. 
 
 An extreme good judge looked upon it as a fatirc 
 rather than a panegyric, long ago. Non multum 
 adeo Statium a fuorum temporum feriptoribus ama¬ 
 tum ea ratione colligo, (fays he) quod ab iis ejus nul¬ 
 lam fere mentionem faciam vides, pneterquam ab Ju¬ 
 venale ; qui Si illum perftringcre potius fatirice vide¬ 
 tur, quam laudare : ita enim canit in feptima, Curri¬ 
 tur ad vocem jucundam, Sic. Gyraldus, Dial. 4. 
 
 (34) Gevartius, in his notes on the Sylvre, con¬ 
 jectures that Martial and Statius were not very good 
 friends : they had common acquaintance, as Stella 
 and others; and yet neither of them ever mentions 
 
 the other’s name.-Raderus carries it farther. He 
 
 imagines that Statius had the advantage over Martial 
 in fome extempore verfes. They both wrote on the 
 fame fubjedt, Hetrufcus’s baths. Statius’s copy of 
 verfes on them run to a great length ; and Martial 
 feems to ridicule him for it, under the name of Sa¬ 
 bellus, in an epigram that begins thus ; Laudas balnea 
 
 verfibus trecentis. -He is fuppofed too to have 
 
 aimed at him in fome other of his epigrams. 
 
 (35) Thebais, ut ipfemet cecinit, cc Multa cruciata 
 lima,” atque idcirco durior, Si inconcinnior alicubi, 
 quibufdam videtur : extant Si quinque Sylvarum libri, 
 ex quibus Sc vehemens in eo poematis genere illius & 
 pene extemporale ingenium, & fubitum calorem, ut 
 
 ipfe ait, percipere poffitis. Gyraldus, de Poet. Lat. 
 Dial. 4. 
 
 (36) In a copy of verfes of his on Lucan, (after 
 that poet’s death) the chief point he feems to drive at 
 is to prefer Lucan to Homer, and Virgil, and all the 
 Roman epic poets together. 
 
 Graio nobilior Melete Beetis : 
 
 Bcetin Mantua provocare noli! 
 
 Statius, Lib. 2. Sylv. 7. ■}■. 33; 
 
 No£lurnas alii Phrygum ruinas, 
 
 Et tardas reducis vias UlyfTci, 
 
 Et puppim temerarium Minerva:, 
 
 Trita vatibus orbita fcquanttfr. 
 
 Ibid. jr. ; 1. 
 
 Hzc primo juvenis canes fub atvo 
 
 Ante annos culicis Maroniani. 
 
 Ib. y. 74. , 
 
 Cedet mufa rudis ferocis Enni ; 
 
 Et dodti furor arduus Lucreti ; 
 
 Et qui per freta duxit Argonautas; 
 
 Et qui corpora prima transfigurat. 
 
 Ib. y. 78. 
 
 ( 37 ) Gyraldus, de Lat. Poet. D. 4. 
 
 (38) Flaccus addrefles his poem to Vefpafian ; and 
 Statius his Sylvae, to Domitian. 
 
 ( 39 ) I nter fcriptores Romanos qui poefm epicam 
 lucubrationibus fuis infignitam jam olim reddiderunt, 
 —haud quifquam nobis occurrit, quem C. Valerio 
 Flacco jure prseferamus, polt vere divinum & majo¬ 
 rem comparatione omni Maronem Virgilium. Nic. 
 
 Heinfius’s Pref. to the Elz. Ed. of Flaccus. -Quod 
 
 fi Lucano & Papinio componere tantum feriptorem 
 volueris, facile videbis quid illis fuperfit, quid huic 
 non defit, ut conftituatur ex tribus illis princeps poll: 
 Maronem. Gafpar Barthius Adverf. 1 . 56. c. 11. 
 
 (40) For an inftance of Flaccus imitating Virgil's 
 Ryle better than Statius, fee the deferiptions of the fu¬ 
 rious Venus, from each of them. Dial. 7. pofth. 
 
 K 
 
OLY M 
 
 I S. 
 
 Silius, or even (Statius; and his plan, or rather his ftory, is certainly lefs embarrafled and 
 confufed than the Thebaid. Some of the antients themfclves fpeak of Flaccus with a 
 great deal of refpedt; and particularly (4O Quintilian : who fays nothing at all of Silius, 
 or Statius; unlefs the latter is to be included in that ( 4 2 ) general expreffion of, feveral 
 others whom he leaves to be celebrated by pofterity. 
 
 As to the dramatic writers of this time, wc have not any one comedy; and only ten 
 tragedies, all publifhed under the name of Lucius Annams Seneca. They are probably 
 the work of ( 43 ) different hands; and might be a collection of favourite plays, put toge¬ 
 ther by fome bad grammarian : for either the Roman tragedies of this age were very in¬ 
 different, or thefe are not their belt. They have been attributed to authors as far 
 diftant as the reigns of Auguftus and Trajan. It is true, the perfon wh j itivethat 
 one of them in particular mu ft be of the Auguftan age, fays this of a piece that he feems 
 refolved to cry up at all rates; and I believe one fhould do no injury to any one of them, 
 in fuppofing them all to have been written in this third age; under the decline of the 
 Roman poetry. 
 
 Of all the other poets under this period, there are none whofe works remain to us, 
 except Martial and Juvenal. The former flourished under (44) Domitian and Nerva : 
 the latter under (45) Nerva, Trajan, and Adrian. 
 
 Martial is a dealer only in a little kind of writing : for Epigram is certainly (what 
 it is called by Dryden) the loweft ftep of poetry. He is at the very bottom of the hill; 
 but he diverts himlelf there in gathering flowers and playing with infeds, prettily enough. 
 If Martial made a new-year's gift, he was fure to fend a dillich with it: if a friend died, 
 he made a few verfes to be put on his tomb-ftone : if a ftatue was fet up, they came to 
 him for an infeription. Thefe were the common offices of his mufe. If he ftruck a 
 fault in life, he marked it down in a few lines ; and if he had a mind to pleafe a friend, 
 or to get the favour of the great, his ftyle was turned to panegyric; and thefe were her 
 higheft employments. He was however a good writer in his way; and there are in- 
 ftances even of his writing with fome dignity, on higher occafions. 
 
 Juvenal began to write after all I have mentioned; and, I do not know by what 
 good fortune, writes with a greater fpirit of poetry than any of them. He has fcarce 
 any thing of the gentility of Horace : yet he is not without humour; and exceeds all the 
 fatirifts in feverity. To fay the truth, he flaffies too much like an angry executioner : 
 but the depravity of the times, and the vices then in faffiion, may often excufe fome de¬ 
 gree of rage in him. It is (46) faid he did not write till he was elderly; and after he had 
 
 been 
 
 (41) After faying that Cornelius Severus would 
 have been their next poet to Virgil, had he lived to 
 finifli his work on the Sicilian war : but that he died 
 , and that what he had wrote (hewed a great 
 deal of genius, and a greater bent for writing juftly,. 
 than could be expected in fo young a man : he adds 
 immediately. Multum & in Valerio Flacco nuper 
 amifimus. Quintilian. Inft. Or. L. 10. c. 1. p. 747, 
 Ed. 1665. 
 
 praifes given it by Lipfius : and attributes the ten La¬ 
 tin tragedies to no lefs than five feveral authors. The 
 ift, 2d, 5th, and 8th, to Marcus Annaeus Seneca, 
 furnamed Tragicus: the 4th, 6th, and 7th, to L. 
 Annaeus Seneca the philofophcr : and the 3d, gth, 
 and 10th, to three different dcclaimers. See Brumoy’s 
 Theatre Gr. T. 2. p. 442. 
 
 (44) He has feveral epigrams addreffed to thofe 
 two emperors. 
 
 (45) This is, I think, very well proved by Dod- 
 wcll in a treatife on this fubjedt; and might be ftiil 
 farther confirmed, from feveral other paffages in Ju¬ 
 venal himfelf. 
 
 (46) Declamavit ad mediam fere aetatem : poftea 
 ad fatiras componendas animum appulit. Prateus 
 Life of Juvenal before the Delphin Ed. 
 
Dialogue the Fourth. 
 
 3S 
 
 been too much ufed to declaiming. However his linires have a great deal of fpirit in 
 them : and fhew a ftrong hatred of vice, with fome very fine and high fentiments of vir¬ 
 tue. They are indeed fo animated, that I do not know any poem of this age, which 
 one can read with near fo much pleafure as his fatires; 
 
 Juvenal may very well be called the laft of the Roman poets. After his time poetry 
 continued decaying more and more, quite down to the time of Conftantine: when all 
 the arts were fo far lofl and extinguifhed among the Romans, that from that time they 
 themfelves may very well be called by the name they (47) ufed to give to all the world, 
 except the Greeks: for the Romans then had fcarce any thing to diftinguifh them from 
 the Barbarians. 
 
 There are therefore but three ages of the Roman poetry, that can carry any weight 
 with them in an enquiry of this nature. The firft age, from the firft Punic war to the time 
 of Auguftus, is more remarkable for ftrength, than any great degree of beauty in writing. 
 The fecond age, or the Auguflan, is the time when they wrote with a due mixture of 
 beauty and ftrength. And the third, from the beginning of Nero’s reign to the end of 
 Adrian’s, when they endeavoured after beauty more than ftrength : when they loft much 
 of their vigour; and run too much into affectation. Their poetry, in its youth, was 
 ftrong and nervous in its middle age, it was manly and polite ; in its latter days, it 
 grew tawdry and feeble: and endeavoured to hide the decays of its former beauty and 
 ftrength, in fall'e ornaments of drefs, and a borrowed fiufii on the face; which did not fo 
 much render it pleafing, as it fiiewed that its natural complexion was faded and loft. 
 
 Thus, fays Polymetis, I have at laft got through the whole progrefs of poetry at Rome. 
 You fee I have found out fo much to fay upon it, that I am Pure you will ealily excufe 
 my entering on the fecond part of the fubjeft you have given me, till a farther occafion. 
 
 (47) Nam et gentibus proprii mores funt : nec Quintilian. Inft. Or. L. 5. c. 10. p. 363. Ed, 
 idem in liarbaro, Romano, Grsco, probabile eft. 1665. 
 
POLY M E 
 
 
 6 
 
 T I S. 
 
 DIAL. V. 
 
 Of the Introduction, Improvement, and Fall of the Arts 
 at Rome. 
 
 A FTER flipper, as they were talking over the different rifes and falls of poetry, 
 among the Romans; Myfagetes was faying, that what had been obferved by 
 Polymetis on the three characters of the Roman poetry, in its rife, its flourilh- 
 ing, and its decline, feemed to him to proceed from the natural temper and conftitution 
 of poetry in general. At leafl:; fays he, I believe it would be found in faCt to have made 
 the fame fort of progrefs, and to have taken the fame heps in molt other nations. What 
 has been laid of the Roman, would hold equally of the Grecian poetry : but without go¬ 
 ing fo far back as to the times of Alexander the great; in the modern world, which we 
 are a little better acquainted with, has not the courfe of poetry, in Italy, in France, and 
 here at home, been much the fame with what has been mentioned of the Roman ? In 
 each, the beginnings of their poetry have been rude, but ftrong : in their bed: ages, they 
 have had the trued taffe of fimplicity; not fo rude and naked, but modefily adorned and 
 well drefl: and when they come to fall, they have always run into affe&ation; by en¬ 
 deavouring to make an appearance above their ftrength. I lliould perhaps have eafily 
 been brought over, by your joint authorities, fays Philander, had I differed from you 
 before; but to fay the truth, I have long fince thought that the weaknefs and decline of 
 poetry in any country, appears firft in flutter and finery. I fuppofe we lliall find the 
 cafe is pretty much the fame too, with its filler arts of ftatuary and painting, when Po¬ 
 lymetis has been fo good as to give us an account of their progrefs and decline at Rome. 
 I underffand you, lays Polymetis; and am ready to give the account I promifed, as 
 well as I can. It will be, I believe, ftill more imperfedt than the former : but I can pro- 
 mife you at lead: that it lliall not be near fo long; and confequently, I hope, not near fo 
 tedious. 
 
 The city of Rome, as well as its inhabitants, was in the beginning rude and unadorned. 
 Thofe old rough foldiers looked on the effedts of the politer arts, as things fit only for an 
 effeminate people: as too apt to foften and unnerve men; and to take from that mar¬ 
 tial temper and ferocity, which they encouraged fo much and fo univerfally in the in¬ 
 fancy of their Rate. Their houfes were (what the name they gave them dignified) only 
 a (0 covering for them, and a defence again ft bad weather. Thefe flieds of theirs were 
 more like the caves of wild beafts, than the habitations of men: and were rather fluno- 
 together as chance led them (2), than formed into regular ftreets and openings. Their 
 walls were (3) half mud; and their roofs (4), pieces of boards Ruck together: nay even 
 this was an after-improvement; for in Romulus’s time, their houfes were (5) only covered 
 
 with 
 
 (1) TeiSta. I11 the fame manner perhaps the word (5) One may guefs a little at their other buildings, 
 culmina, for the roofs of their houfes, fhews their old from the palace of their kings. It was a little thatched 
 method of covering them with ftraw. houfe ; and very ill furnifhed. 
 
 Romuleoque recens horrebat regia culmo. 
 
 Virgil. JEn. 8. jr. 654. 
 Farva fuit, fi prima velis elementa referre, 
 
 Roma: fed in parva Ipcs tamen hujus erat. 
 
 Mcenia jam liabant populis angulta futuris; 
 
 Credita fed turbx tunc nimis ampla fux. 
 
 Qua: fuerit noftri li quteris regia nati, 
 
 Afpice de canna llraminibufquc domum : 
 
 In Ripula placidi carpebat munera fomni. 
 
 Ovid. Fall. L. 3. jr. iSj, 
 Dum cafa Martigenam capiebat parva Quirinum; 
 
 Et dabat exiguum fluminis alva torum. 
 
 Ib. L. 1 . jr. zoo. 
 
 Ovid 
 
 (2) Ovk iK J'la.i'o/j-tn t ivo( 11 TcL^iCH, a\k' u( iXArof, 
 iTai/nomlo! 11 CvKnrsos iyi, tuv yoptuv KATAhAfJ.CAVOfj.i- 
 
 VCcJV' J'lo KOI TijApAyfJiVMV TOli TiVCOTOIf, KAl (F\) fJTUpVp- 
 fxivnv t Ati oiKMtr iv AvnyAyt >v rnv orohiv, voro rjrxJ'nf kai 
 tax*<- Plutarch, in Camillo, p. 145. Ed. Steph. 
 
 (3) Caementa non calce durata, fed interlita luto ; 
 ftru&urae antiquae genere. Livy, L. 21. §. n. 
 
 (4) Scandula contectam fuiffe Romam, ad Pyrrhi 
 ufque bellum, annis 470, Cornelius Nepos autor eft. 
 
37 
 
 Dialogue the Fifth. 
 
 With ft raw. If they had any thing that was finer than ordinary, that was chiefly taken 
 up in fetting off the ( 6 ) temples of their gods : and when thefe began to be furnilhed with 
 ftatues (for they had none (7) till long after Numa’s time) they were probably more fit to 
 give terror than delight; and feerned rather formed fo as to be horrible enough to ftrike 
 ‘ an awe into thofe who worfhipped them, than handl'ome enough to invite any one to 
 look upon them for pleafure. Their defign, I fuppofe, was anfwerable to the materials 
 they were made of; and if their gods were of («) earthen-ware, they were reckoned 
 better than ordinary; for many of them were chopt out of wood. One of the chief 
 ornaments in thofe times, both of the temples and of private houfes (9), confifted in their 
 antient trophies: which were (10) trunks of trees cleared of their branches, and fo formed 
 into a rough kind of polls. Thefe were loaded with the arms they had taken in war : 
 and you may eafily conceive what fort of ornaments thefe polls mull make, when half 
 decayed by time, and hung about with old rufty arms, befmeared with the blood of 
 their enemies. Rome was not then that beautiful Rome, whofe very ruins at this day 
 are fought after with fo much pleafure: it was a town (n), which carried an air of ter¬ 
 ror in its appearance and which made people Ihudder, whenever they firft entered 
 within its gates. 
 
 Such was the Hate of this imperial city, when its citizens had made fo great a progrefs in 
 arms as to have conquered the better part of Italy, and to be able to engage in a war with the 
 Carthaginians j the iftrongell power then by land, and the abfolute mailers by fca. The 
 
 Romans, 
 
 Ovid is not the only one that calls it, a cottage. — Si 
 tota urbe nullum melius ampliufve tedium fieri poffit, 
 quam cafa illa conditoris eft noftri ; fays Camillus, 
 Livy, L. 5. §, 53.— Ortum e parvula Romuli casa, to¬ 
 tius terrarum orbis fecit columen. Val. Max. Lib. 2. 
 Cap. 8.-Per Romuli cafam, perque veteris Ca¬ 
 
 pitolii humilia tedla, & aeternos Veftre focos fidtilibus 
 ctiamnum vafis contentis juro, nullas divitias talium 
 virorum paupertati polle praeferri ! Id. Lib. 4. 
 Cap. 4. 
 
 (6) Vetera hoftium fpolia, detrahunt templis por- 
 ticibufque. Livy, L. 22. §. 57. (See L. 10. §. 46, 
 &c. &c.) 
 
 (7) AizKaMifiv avftpwjaetSn acti ^uoyopfov etKOVet 
 Si« Pi vycuoif npi^ar «S' nv tclp' civjoti «% ypavjov 
 «Ii vKaroir aSof Si« srporepov. Akk' «xarov tGSoyny.ovTa 
 To/f irpcoTOK stSo 7, va«f [iiV oty.oSoyxy.ivoi Stijihxv, Kai 
 KaXiaSat npaf 1 ruvTS(‘ ayaXya Si isJ'iv iyyoptpov rrot- 
 
 S/ersKv». Plutarch, in Numa. p. 65. Ed. Steph. 
 
 Par. 1624. 
 
 (8) Fictilibus crevere deis hree aurea templa ; 
 
 Nec fuit opprobrio fadta fine arte cafa. 
 
 Propert. L. 4. EI. 1. 6. 
 
 Jupiter antiqua vix totus Itabat in ade; 
 
 Inque Jovis dextra fidtile fulmen erat. 
 
 Ovid. Fall. L. 1. jl, 202. 
 Hanc rebus Latiis curam praeltare folebat, 
 
 Fidtilis Sc nullo violatus Jupiter auro, 
 
 Juvenal. Sat. 11. n6. 
 
 Lignea aut fidlilia deorum fimulacra in delubris di¬ 
 cata ufque ad devictam Afiam. Pliny, Nat. Hift. L. 34. 
 C. 7. 
 
 (9) This was a privilege at firft allowed only to the 
 patricians; and carried fome rights along with it.— 
 Quorum domos fpoliis hoftium affixis infignes inter 
 alias feceritis j is mentioned as one of the honours. 
 
 which the Patricians had fuffered thePlebeans to fhare 
 
 with them ; by Livy, L. 10. §. 7.-In making up 
 
 the defect of the fenators, after the defeat at Cannae, 
 they chofe firft out of fuch as had borne any of the 
 great offices in the ftate ; then of fuch as had borne the 
 inferior: and thirdly from thofe, qui fpolia ex hofte 
 fixa domi haberent, aut civicam coronam accepillent. 
 Id. L. 23. §. 23. 
 
 It was unlawful to remove thefe trophies ;-alire 
 
 fons & circa limina animorum ingentium imagines 
 erant; affixis hoftium fpoliis, quae nec emptori re¬ 
 fringere liceret: triumphabantque etiam dominis mu¬ 
 tatis ipfze domus. Pliny, Nat. Hift. L. 35. C. 2. 
 p. 415. Elz,—— -And they never did remove them, 
 but on very extraordinary occafions; as after the de¬ 
 feat at Cannte, See. See Note 6. 
 
 (10) - Indutos truncos holtilibus armis. 
 
 Virg. /En. 11. S3. 
 
 His defeription of the trophy of /Eneas over Me¬ 
 zentius is more particular; and juft like the trophies 
 we feeon medals, and the triumphal columns and arches 
 of the better ages of Rome. 
 
 Ingentem quercum, decifis undique ramis, 
 
 Conllituit tumulo; fulgentiaque induit arma: 
 Mezenti ducis exuvias; tibi magne tropsum 
 Bellipotens! Aptat rorantes fanguine criltas, 
 
 Telaquc trunca viri ; & bis fex thoraca petitum 
 Perfoflumque locis: clypeumque ex a:re finillra; 
 Subligat; atque enfem collo fufpendit eburnum. 
 
 JEn. 11. n. 
 
 (n) Ot iSiv yap &%IV (the city of Rome) «S' iyivutryt 
 rrponpov tup yoy-\uv y.a 1 mpnlav' «S s nv tv avi» *0 
 yjtpnv t«\o, y.ai yKa/pvpov, x at ayavuyivov. OorKuv 
 Si CapCapiy.uv yat Kayvpuv ivatyav aiavKtus tstra, 
 y.ai vtpirttpavuytvn SplayGuv vvoyvnyart yat rpo- 
 'raioift «X tKapov, «S' aipoGov, «Si SetKuv »v Staya 
 y.cu Tfvcpuvruv Siaruv. Plutarch, in Marcello, p. 31c. 
 Ed. Steph. Par. 1624. 
 
 L 
 
POLYMETIS. 
 
 Romans, in the fir ft Punic war, added Sicily to their dominions. In the fecond, they 
 greatly increafed their ftrength, both by fea and land; and acquired a tafte of the arts 
 and elegancies of life, with which till then they had been totally unacquainted. For 
 tho* before this they were mafters of Sicily, (which in the old Roman geography made 
 a part of (12) Greece) and of feveral cities in the eaftern part of Italy, which were in¬ 
 habited by colonies from Greece ; and were adorned with the pictures, and ftatues, and 
 other works, in which that nation delighted and excelled the reft of the world fo much; 
 they had hitherto looked upon them with fo carelefs an eye, that they had felt little or 
 nothing of their beauty. This infenftbility they preferved fo long, either from the grofT- 
 nefs of their minds; or perhaps from their luperftition, and a dread of reverencing foreign 
 deities as much as their own; or (which is the moft likely of all) out of mere politics, 
 and the defire of keeping up their martial fpirit and natural roughnefs, which they 
 thought the arts and elegancies of the Grecians would be but too apt to deftroy. How¬ 
 ever that was, they generally preferved themfelves from even the leaft fufpicion of tafte 
 for the polite arts pretty far into the fecond Punic war: as appears by the behaviour of 
 Fabius Maximus in that war, even after the feales were turned on their fide. When 
 that general took Tarentum, he found it full of riches, and (13) extremely adorned with 
 pictures and ftatues. Among others, there were fome very fine (14) colofteal figures of 
 the gods, reprefented as fighting againft the rebel giants. Thefe were made by fome of 
 the moft eminent mafters in Greece; and the Jupiter, not improbably, by (15) Lyfippus. 
 When Fabius was difpofing of the fpoil, he ordered the money and plate to be fent to 
 the treafury at Rome, but the ftatues and pictures to be left behind. The fecretary, who 
 attended him in his lurvey, was fomewhat ftruck with the largenefs and noble air of the 
 figures juft mentioned; and allced whether they too muft be left with the reft ? “ Yes, 
 replied Fabius, leave their angry gods to the Tarentines; we will have nothing to do 
 with them.” 
 
 Marcellus had indeed behaved himfelf very differently, in Sicily; a year or two be¬ 
 fore this happened. As he was to carry on the war in that province, he bent the whole 
 force of it againft Syracufe. There was at that time no one city which belonged to the 
 Greeks, more elegant, or better adorned, than the city of Syracufe: it abounded in the 
 works of the bell mafters. Marcellus, when he took the city, cleared it entirely; and 
 lent all their ftatues and pitflures to Rome. When I fay all, I ufe the language of the 
 people of Syracufe; who loon after laid a complaint againft Marcellus before the Roman 
 lenate, in which they charged him with ftripping all their houfes and temples, and 
 (16) leaving nothing but bare walls throughout the city. Marcellus himfelf, did not at all 
 difown it; but fairly confefied what he had done ; and ufed to declare that he had done 
 
 fo. 
 
 (12) Cum Gracis a Camillo nulla memorabilis 
 gefta res. Cujus populi ea, cujus gentis cladis fuerit, 
 nihil certi eft. Maxime Sicilia; fuifle tyrannos cre¬ 
 diderim : nam ulterior Gnecia ca tempeftate, inteftino 
 fella bello, jam Macedonum opes horrebat. Livy, 
 
 L. 7. §.26.-Et multa nobilia figna, quibus inter 
 
 primas Gnecia; urbes Syracufe ornatje fuerant. Id. 
 L. 26. §. 21.—Urbem, omnium ferme Gracarum 
 illa tempeftate pulcherrimam. Id. L. 25. §. 24. of 
 Syracufe.—Gloriam captae nobiliffima; pulcherrima; - 
 que urbis Graecarum dii tibi dederunt, Marcelle. Ib. 
 
 §. 29.-Cicero in the fame manner calls Syracufe, 
 
 nobiliffima Graeciae civitas. Tufc. Quaeft. L. 5. 
 
 (13) Ingens argenti vis facti fignatique : auri o&ua- 
 ginta feptem millia pondo: figna tabulaeque, prope ut 
 Syracufarum ornamenta aequarent. Livy, Lib. 27. §.17. 
 
 (14) Majore animo generis ejus praeda abftinuit 
 
 Fabius quam Marcellus; qui interroganti fcrib.-e quid 
 fieri de fignis vellet, (ingentis magnitudinis dii funt, 
 fuo quifque habitu in modum pugnantium formati ;) 
 deos iratos Tarentinis relinqui, juilit. Id. ibid. 
 
 (15) If thefe colofteal figures mentioned by Livy 
 reprefented the gods fighting againft the giants, that 
 of Jupiter could not be omitted. Lucilius fpeaks or 
 a remarkable vaft figure of Jupiter at Tarentum, and 
 fays it was made by Lyfippus. We learn from him 
 that the height of it was 60 foot. 
 
 -Lyfippi Jupiter ilia 
 
 Tranfivit quadraginta cubita altu’ Tarento. 
 
 Sat. Lib. 16. 
 
 (16) Certe prater moenia & tc&a exhauftse urbis, 
 ac refra&a ac fpoliata deorum delubra (diis ipfis, or- 
 namentifque eorum ablatis) nihil relidtum Svracufis 
 efle. Livy, Lib. 26. §. 30. 
 
 7 
 
59 
 
 Dialogue the Fifth. 
 
 fo, in order to adorn Rome; and to introduce (17) a tafte for the fine arts anion» his 
 countrymen. 
 
 Such a difference of behaviour in their two greateft leaders, Coon occafioned two dif¬ 
 ferent parties in Rome (18). The old people in general joined in crying up Fabius. 
 Fabius was not rapacious, as fome others were; but temperate in his conquefts. In 
 what he had done, he had acted not only with that moderation which becomes a Ro¬ 
 man general, but with much prudence and forefight. “ Thefe fineries, they cried, are 
 a pretty diverfion for an idle effeminate people : let us leave them to the Greeks. The 
 Romans defire no other ornaments of life, than a fimplicity of manners at home, and 
 “ fortitude againft our enemies abroad. It is by thefe arts that we have raifed our name 
 “ fo hi g h > and f P read our dominion fo far : and fhall we fuffer them now to be ex- 
 “ changed for a fine tafte, and what they call elegance of living ? No, great Jupiter, 
 “ who prefideft over the Capitol! let the Greeks keep their arts to themfelves; and let 
 “ the Romans learn only how to conquer and to govern mankind." Another fett, and 
 particularly the younger people, who were extremely delighted with the noble works of 
 the Grecian artifts that had been fet up for fome time in the temples, and portico's, and 
 all the mo# public places of the city; and who ufed frequently to fpend the greateft part 
 of the day in contemplating the beauties of them; extolled Marcellus as nfuch for the 
 pleafure he had given them. " We fhall now, faid they, no longer be reckoned among 
 the Barbarians. That ruft, which we have been fo long contraifting, will foon be 
 “ wom oft ' ° th cr generals have conquered our enemies; but Marcellus has conquered 
 our ignorance. We begin to fee with new eyes, and have a new world of beauties 
 opening before us. Let the Romans be polite, as well as victorious: and let us learn 
 “ to excel the nations in tafte, as well as to conquer them with our arms." 
 
 Which-evek fide was in the right, the party for Marcellus was the fuccefsful one ■ 
 for from this point of time we may date (19) the introduftion of the arts into Rome 
 The Romans by his means began to be fond of them : and the love of the arts is a paf- 
 fion, which grows very fail in any breaft, wherever it is once entertained. 
 
 We may fee how faft and how greatly it prevailed at Rome, by a fpeech which old 
 Cato the cenfor made in the fenate, not above feventeen years after the takino- of Syra- 
 cufe. He complains in it (20), that their people began to run into Greece and Afia; and 
 to be infedted with a defire of playing with their fine things : that as to fuch fpoils, there 
 was lefs honour in taking them, than there was danger of their being taken by them ■ 
 that the gods brought from Syracufe, had revenged the caufe of its citizens, in fpread- 
 ing this tafte among the Romans : that he heard but too many daily crying up the or¬ 
 naments of Corinth and Athens; and ridiculing the poor old'Roman gods : who had 
 hitherto been propitious to them; and who he hoped would ftill continue fo, if they 
 would but let their Hatues remain in peace upon their pedeftals. 
 
 It 
 
 ( 17 ) Ou y»v etWtx, Ttsjotf itriy.wviro, km irptx r ts{ 
 
 EaXHIsW, Uf 7a. KO.KO. KM 70. dovyoro. T)!f UmiFo; xk 
 frirctyzvx< 7iyo.it y.M &CLVy.o.?<-tv Pay.ce.txs J'tJ'a^o.i- 
 Plutarch, in Marcel, p. 310. Ed. Stcph. Par. 1624. 
 
 (18) This is chiefly founded on what Plutarch fays 
 of this affair ; in his life of Marcellus. 
 
 ( 19) Marcellus — ornamenta urbis, figna tabulafque 
 quibus abundabant Svracufas, Romam devexit. Ho- 
 ftium quidem illa fpolia; & parta belli jure : cauterum 
 inde primum initium mirandi Graecarum artium opera, 
 licentiicque hinc facra profanaque omnia vulgo fpoli- 
 andi, fa&um eft. Livy, L. 25. §. 40. 
 
 (20) “ Jam in Grrsciam Afiamque tranfeendimus, 
 
 omnibus libidinum illecebris repletas ; & regias e- 
 tiam attrectamus gazas. Eo plus horreo, ne illae ma¬ 
 gis res nos ceperint, quam nos illas. Infcfta, mihi 
 credite, figna ab Syracufis illata funt huic urbi. Jam 
 nimis multos audio Corinthi & Athenarum ornamenta 
 laudantes mirantefque ; & antefixa fi&ilia deorum Ro¬ 
 manorum ridentes. Ego hos malo propitios deos : & 
 ita fpero futuros, fi in fuis manere fedibus patiemur.” 
 Livy, L. 34. §. 4. 
 
 It appears that this grave old cenfor was no enemy 
 to a pun ; from his figna infefta, & ceperint, &c. a- 
 bove. Horace may poflibly allude to the latter, where 
 he fays ; 
 
 Gracia capta ferum viftorem cepit, Se artes 
 Intulit agrefti Latio.- 
 
 Lib. 2. Ep. 1. jr. 157. 
 

 O L Y M 
 
 It was in vain too that Cato lpoke again ft it ; for the love of the arts prevailed every 
 day more and more: and from henceforward the Roman generals, in their feveral con- 
 quods, teem to have drove who fliould bring away the greateft number of ftatues and pic¬ 
 ture;, to let oft’ their triumphs, and to adorn the city of Rome. It is furpriling what accef- 
 fion - of thi kind were made in thecompafs of a little more than half a century aft< r Marr 
 ce !iua ii.ul let the example. The elder Scipio Africanus brought in a (21) great number 
 of wrought vales from Spain and Afric, toward the end of the fecond Punic war : and the 
 very year after that was linilhed, the Romans entered into a war with Greece ; the great 
 lthocl of all the arts, and the chief repofitory of mold of the fin eft works that ever were 
 produc cd by dxm. It would be endlefs to mention all their acquifitions from hence; I jfhall 
 only nut you in mind of fome of the mold confiderable. Flaminius made a great (hew both 
 of U-) Idatucs and vales in his triumph over Philip king of Macedon ; but he was much ex- 
 redut .! that kingdom into a province. ./Emilius’s triumph (23) 
 lifted three days ; the nrld of which was wholly taken up in bringing in the fine ftatues 
 he had leleddcd in his expedition ; as the chief ornament of the lecond con lifted in vafes 
 and fculptured vcllels of all forts, by the mold eminent hands. Thefe (24) were all the 
 mold c hole n things, culled from the colledtion of that fucceflbr of Alexander the great; 
 for as to the inferior fpoils of no lei’s than feventy Grecian cities, fEmilius had left them 
 all to his foldiery, as not worthy to appear among the ornaments of his triumph. Not 
 many years alter this, the younger Scipio Africanus (the perfon who is mold celebrated 
 (25) for ids polite tafte of all the Romans hitherto, and who was fcarce exceeded by any 
 one of them in all the fuececding ages) deidroyed Carthage; and transferred many of the 
 chief ornaments of that city, which had fo long bid fair for being the feat of empire, to 
 Rome, which foon became undoubtedly fo. This mull have been a vaft acceftion : tho’ 
 that great man, who was as juft in his adions as he was elegant in his tafte, did not bring 
 all the fineft of his fpoils to Rome, but left a great part (26) of them in Sicily, from 
 whence they had formerly been taken by the Carthaginians. The very fame year that 
 Scipio freed Rome from its mold dangerous rival Carthage, Mummius (who was (27) as 
 remarkable for his rufticity, as Scipio was for elegance and tafte) added Achaia to the Ro¬ 
 man ftate; and lacked, among feveral others, the famous city of Corinth, which had 
 been long looked upon as one of the principal refervoirs of the fineft works of art. He 
 cleared it of all its beauties, without knowing any thing of them : even without know¬ 
 ing, that an old Grecian ftatue was better than a new Roman one. Fie ufed however the 
 fureft method of not being miftaken : for he took all indifferently as they came in his 
 
 way; 
 
 (21) Livy, L. 26. §. 47. 
 
 (22) Id. L. 34. §. 52. 
 
 (23) Plutarch, in vita /Em. p. 272, Ed.Francf. 
 
 (24) Livy, L. 4j. §. 33 & 34. 
 
 (25) Tu videlicet folus vafis Corinthiis delectaris ? 
 
 'I 11 illius reris temperationem, tu operum lineamenta 
 folertiflime pcrfpicis r Flare Scipio ille non intellige- 
 bat, homo doCtiflimus atque humaniffimus?-Vide 
 
 on folum temperantia, fed etiam intelligentia 
 te, atque iftos, qui fe elegantes dici volunt, vicerit. 
 Cicero. 4 in Verrem. 
 
 (27) Diverfi imperatoribus mores; diverfa fuere 
 ftudia. Quippe Scipio tam elegans liberalium ftu- 
 dionim, omnifque doCtrintc & auCtor Si admirator 
 fuit, ut Polybium Panretiumque prascellcntes ingenio 
 domi militireque fecum habuerit; neque enim 
 quifquam hoc Scipione elegantius intervalla negotio¬ 
 
 rum otio difpunxit:-Mummius tam rudis fuit, 
 
 ut capta Corintho, cum maximorum artificum per¬ 
 fectas manibus tabulas ac ftatuas in Italiam portandas 
 locaret, juberet jfsedici conducentibus ; fi eas perdi¬ 
 di fient, novas eos reddituros. Patere. L. 1. §.13. 
 
 There is a yetitronger inftanceof the ignorance of 
 this Mummius. In the fale of the plunder of Co¬ 
 rinth, there was a picture of Bacchus, by Ariftides, 
 for which king Attalus gave near 5000 pound. It had 
 been fo little regarded by the Roman foldicrs, that 
 fome of them had ufed it for a table to play at dice 
 upon. (See Strabo, Lib. 8. p. 381.) Their general, 
 who probably thought as contemptibly of it as they 
 could do, was aftonifhed at the vaft price given for it; 
 concluded there muft be fome fort of (magic) virtue 
 concealed under it: and actually went fo far, as to take 
 away the picture again from Attalus, on that account: 
 and to carry it with him to Rome. Pretium miratus, 
 (ufpicatufquc aliquid in ca virtutis quod ipfe nefeiret: 
 revocavit tabulam, Attalo multum querente, Si in 
 Cereris delubro pofuit. Pliny, Lib. 35. Cap. 4. p. 
 419. Elz. 
 
way; and broiight them off in fuch quantities, that he alone is laid (ts) to have filled 
 Rome with ftatues and piftures. Thus, partly from the tafte, and ;• tr . .. th! va¬ 
 nity of their generals, in lefs than feventy years time, (reckoning from Marcellus’s taking 
 of Syracufc to the year in which Carthage was deftroyed) Italy wa furnillted with the 
 nohleft productions of the antient artifts; that before lay Scattered all over Spain, Afric, 
 Sicily, and the reft of Greece. Sylla, befide many others, added vaitly to them after¬ 
 wards ; particularly by his taking of Athens, and by his conquefis in Alia : where by his 
 too great indulgence to his armies, he made tafte and rapine a general thing, even 
 among the G 9 ) common foldiers; as it had been, for a long time, among their leaders. 
 
 In this manner, the firft conftderable acquifitions were made bv their conquerin'* ar¬ 
 mies : and they were carried on by the perfons fent out to govern their provinces, when 
 conquered. As the behaviour of thefe in their governments in general was one of the 
 greateft blots on the Roman nation, we mull: not expeft a full account of their tranf- 
 adtions in the old hiftorians, who treat particularly of the Roman affairs : for fuch of thefe 
 as remain to us, are either Romans themfelves, or elfe Greeks who were too much at¬ 
 tached to the Roman intereft to fpeak out the whole truth in this affair. But what we 
 cannot have fully from their hiftorians, may be pretty well fupplied from other hands. 
 A poet of their own, who feems to have been a very honeft man, has fet the rapaciouf- 
 neis of their ( 3 °) governors in general in a very ftrong light; as Cicero has fet forth that 
 of Verres in particular, as itrongly. If wc may judge of their general behaviour by that 
 ot this governor of Sicily, tljjy were more like monfters and harpies, than men. For 
 that public robber (as Cicero calls him, more than once) hunted over every corner of 
 his lfland, with a couple of finders (one a Greek painter, and the other a ftatuary of the 
 fame nation) to get together his colleddon; and was fo curious and l'o rapacious in that 
 fearch, that Cicero fays (31), there was not a gem, or ftatue, or relievo, or pidture, in 
 all Sicily, which he did not fee; nor any one he liked, which he did not take away 
 from its owner. What he thus got, he fent into Italy. Rome was the center both of 
 their fpoils in war, and of their rapines in peace ; and if many of their praters and pro- 
 confuls aded but in half fo abandoned a manner as this Verres appears to have done, it is 
 very probable that Rome was more enriched in all thefe fort of things (32) fecretly by 
 their governors, than it had been openly by their generals. 
 
 Theke was another method of augmenting thefe treafures at Rome, not fo infamous 
 as this, and not fo glorious as the former. What I mean was the cuftom of the vEdiles, 
 when they exhibited their public games, of adorning the theatres and other places where 
 
 they 
 
 (28) Pliny’s Nat. Hid. L. 34. C. 7. 
 
 (29) L. Sulla exercitum quem in Afid du&averat, 
 quo fibi fidum faceret, contra morem majorum, luxu¬ 
 riose nimifque liberaliter, habuerat. - Ibi primum 
 
 infuevit exercitus populi Romani amare, potare; 
 fidjna, tabulas pi&as, vafa caelata, mirari ; ea priva¬ 
 rim ac publice rapere ; delubra deorum fpoliare ; fa- 
 cra profanaque omnia polluere. Salufr. Bel. Cat 
 §. 11. 
 
 Inde Dolabella eft; atque hinc Antonius : inde 
 Sacrilegus Verres. Referebant navibus altis 
 Occulta fpolia, & plures tic pace triumphos. 
 
 Nunc fociis juga pauca boum, &grcx parvus equarum, 
 Ec pater armenii capto eripietur agello : 
 
 Ipfi deinde Lares; fi quod fpeftabile fignum, 
 
 Si quis in aidicula deus unicus. 
 
 Juv. Sat. 8. >’•, 1 ii. 
 
 ( 3 ~) Juvenal. See his Sth Salire, 87, to 139 
 where, among other things, he fays ; 
 
 Non idem gemitus olim, nec vulnus erat par 
 Damnorum ; fociis florentibus, & modo viftis. 
 Plena domus tunc omnis, & ingens flabat acervus 
 Nummorum : Spartana chlamys, conchylia Coa : 
 
 L; cum Parrhafii tabulis fignifquc Myronis 
 Phidiacum vivebat ebur : nccnon Polycleti 
 Multus ubique labor ; rane flne Mentore menfte. 
 
42 . 
 
 POLYMETIS. 
 
 they were performed, with great numbers of datues and pictures; which they bought 
 up or borrowed, for that purpofe, all over Greece, and fomctimes even from Alia. 
 Scaurus, in particular, in his sedilelhip, had (33) no lefs than three thoufand datues and 
 relievo’s for the mere ornamenting of the ftage, in a theatre built only for four or five 
 days. This was the fame Scaurus who (whilft he was in the fame office too) brought 
 to Rome ( 34 ) all the pictures of Sicyon, which had been fo long one of the mod: emi¬ 
 nent lchools in Greece for painting; in lieu of a debt owing, or pretended to be owed, 
 from that city to the Roman people. 
 
 From thefe public methods of drawing the works of the bed antient artifls into Italy, 
 it grew at length to be a part of private luxury, affected by almoft every body that could 
 afford it, to adorn their lioufes, their portico’s, and their gardens, with the bed datues 
 and pictures they could procure out of Greece, or Alia. None went earlier into this 
 fade, than the family of the Luculli : and particularly Lucius Lucullus, who carried on 
 the war againd Mithridates. He was remarkable for his love of the arts and polite learn¬ 
 ing even from a ( 35 ) child : and in the latter part of his life, gave himfelf up fo much to 
 collections of this kind, that Plutarch reckons it among his follies. “ As I am fpeaking 
 of his faults (fays (36) that hidorian in his life) I fhould not omit his vad baths, and 
 piazzas for walking ; or his gardens, which were much more magnificent than any in his 
 time at Rome, and equal to any in the luxurious ages that followed : nor his exceffive 
 fondnefs for datues and pictures ; which he got from all parts, to adorn his works and 
 gardens ; at an immenfe expence; and with the vad riches he had heaped together in 
 the Mithridatic war.” There were feveral other families which fell about that time 
 into the fame fort of excefs; and among the red, the Julian. The fird emperor, who 
 was of that family, was a great collector: and, in particular, was as fond of old ( 37 ) gems; 
 as his fucceffor Augudus, was ( 3 8 ) of Corinthian vafes. 
 
 This may be called the fird age of the flourifhing of the politer arts at Rome; or ra¬ 
 ther the age in which they were introduced there: for the people in this period were 
 chiefly taken up in getting fine things and bringing them together. There were perhaps 
 feme particular perfons in it of a very good tade : but in general one may fay there was 
 rather a love, than any great knowledge of their beauties, during this age, among the 
 Romans. They were brought to Rome in the fird part of it in greater numbers than 
 can be eafily conceived; and in fome time, every body began to look upon them with 
 pleafure. The collection was continually augmenting afterwards, from the feveral me¬ 
 thods I have mentioned: and I doubt not but a good tade would have been a general 
 thing among them much earlier than it was, had it not been for the frequent convul- 
 lions in their date, and the perpetual druggies of fome great man or other to get the 
 reins of government into his hands. Thefe continued quite from Sylla’ s time, to the 
 
 edablidiment 
 
 /33) In M. Scauri sedi!itate tria millia Tignorum, 
 in l'cena tantum fuere; temporario theatro. Pliny, 
 Nat. Hift. L. 34. c. 7. Elz. 
 
 (34) Sicyone hic (Paufias) vitam egit : diuque fuit 
 illa patria pidturae. Tabulas inde e publico omnes 
 propter :es alienum civitatis addidtas Scauri redii itas 
 Romam tranftulit. Ib. L. 35. c. 11. 
 
 It was from thefe, and fuch other arts as thefe, that 
 the fame author fays of him, in another place— Pri¬ 
 vatis opibus M. Scauri : cujus nefeio an aidilit 
 xime proftravit mores civiles. Ib. L. 36. p. 493. 
 
 (3O Tm» TcivTiw x) teyoy.ivnv irt 
 
 'Tu Y.O.KW 'xportToieiTo va.1 Aiia.1', st/ y.0.1 y.‘ipo.x.iw ay. 
 
 Plutarch, in Lucui, p. 492. Ed. Francf, 
 
 Lucullo, p. 51S. Ed. Francf. 
 
 ( 37 ) Gemmas, toreumata, figna, tabulas operis 
 
 antiqui, femper animofiffime comparafle (prodide¬ 
 runt :)-immenfo pretio ; et cujus ipfum etiam pu¬ 
 
 deret, fic ut rationibus vetaret inferri. Suetonius, 
 in Julio Cref. §. 47. 
 
 Pliny (peaks of a fine collection of gems in particu¬ 
 lar which he placed in the temple he had built to Ve¬ 
 nus Genetrix. L. 37. c. 1. 
 
 (38) Notatus eft ut pretiofse fupclle&ilis Corinthio- 
 rumque prrecupidus. Suetonius, in Augufto C;ef. 
 
 ). He adds that, in the time of his profeription, 
 he marked down fome, only to get their fine Corin¬ 
 thian vales : which occafioncd the oldeft: Pafquinade, 
 perhaps, on record. For upon this action of his, fome- 
 body one night wrote under his ftatuc ; “ Pater, Ar¬ 
 gentarius ; ego, C01 inthiarius.” Ibid. 
 
 '/JIM _ U 
 
eftabliftiment of the ftate under Auguftus. The peaceful times that then fucceeded, and 
 the encouragement which was given by that emperor to all the arts, afforded the Ro¬ 
 mans full leifure to contemplate the fine works that were got together at Rome in the 
 age before, and to perfect their tafte in all the elegancies of life. The artifts who were 
 then much invited to Rome, worked in a ftyle greatly fuperior to what they had done 
 (39) even in Julius CaTar’s time: fo that it is under Auguftus that we may begin the 
 fecond, and moft perfedt age of fculpture and painting, as well as of poetry. Auguftus 
 changed the whole appearance of Rome itfelf: he found it (40) ill built; and left it a 
 city of marble. lie adorned it with buildings, extremely finer than any it could boaft 
 before his time; and fet off all thofe buildings, and even theUO common ftreets, with 
 an addition of fome of the fineft ftatues in the world. 
 
 On the death of Auguftus, tho’ the arts and the tafte for them, did not fuffcr fo great 
 a change, as appeared immediately in the tafte of eloquence and poetry, yet they muft 
 have buffered a good deal. There is a fecret union, a certain kind of fympathy between 
 all the polite arts, which makes them languifh and flourifh together. The fame circum - 
 ftances are either kind, or unfriendly, to all of them. The favour of Auguftus, and the 
 tranquillity of his reign, was as a gentle dew from heaven in a favourable feafon, that 
 made them bud forth and fiourifh : and the four reign of Tiberius, was as a fudden froft 
 that checked their growth, and at baft killed all their beauties. The vanity, and tyranny, 
 and difturbances of the times that followed, gave the finifhing ftroke to fculpture as well 
 as eloquence, and to painting as well as poetry. The Greek artifts at Rome were not fo 
 foon or fo much infedted by the bad tafte of the court, as the Roman writers were : but 
 it reached them too, tho’ by flower and more imperceptible degrees. Indeed what elfe 
 could be expedted from fuch a run of monfters, as Tiberius, Caligula, and Nero ? For 
 thefe were the emperors under whofe reigns the arts began to languifh : and they buffered 
 fo much from their baleful influence, that the Roman writers foon after them fpeak of all 
 the arts as being brought to a very low ebb. They talk of their being extremely fallen in 
 C4 2 ) general; and as to painting, in particular, they reprefent it as in a moft feeble (43) and 
 dying condition. The feries of fo many good emperors which happened after Domitian, 
 gave fome fpirit again to the arts : but foon after the Antonines, they all declined apace; 
 and by the time of the thirty tyrants were quite fallen; fo as never to rife again, under 
 any future Roman emperor. 
 
 (39) This appears moft ftrongly, by comparing the 
 medals about Julius Catfar’s time, with thofe of the 
 Auguftan age. 
 
 (40) Urbem neque pro majeftate imperii ornatam. 
 Si inundationibus incendiifque obnoxiam, excoluit 
 adeo, ut jure fit gloriatus ; “ Marmoream fe relin¬ 
 quere, quam lateritiam accepiflet.” Suetonius in 
 Aug. §. 28. For the particulars, fee ibid. §. 29. 
 Livy calls him, templorum omnium conditorem, aut 
 reftitutorem. L. 4. c. 20. 
 
 (41) Prctiofiffima deorum fimulacra mercatus, vi- 
 catim dedicabat. Suetonius in Aug. §. 57. 
 
 (42) Pace veftra liceat dixifte, primi omnium elo¬ 
 quentiam perdidillis. Petr. Arb. Sat. p. 2. Lond. 
 1693. 
 
 Stepe ex me requiris, cur cum priora frecula tot 
 eminentium oratorum ingeniis gloriaque effloruerint; 
 noftra poriflimum netas, deferta & laude orbata, vix 
 nomen ipfuin oratoris retineat. Quintii, de Caufis 
 corrupts Eloquentia, p. 701. Ed. Hack. 
 
 Quis ignorat et eloquentiam et cteteras artes defei- 
 vide ab ifta vetere gloria, non inopia hominum, fed 
 defidia juventutis, 5 c negligentia parentum, & infei- 
 entia praecipientium, & oblivione moris antiqui ? Id. 
 Ibid. p. 739. 
 
 Ita eft profeclo; artes defidia perdidit. Plinv, 
 L. 35. c. 2. p. 414. Elz. 
 
 There is a ftrong paflage on this, in a fatire attri¬ 
 buted by Scaliger toSuIpitia; who, he fays, flou- 
 rilhed under Domitian. 
 
 - Quidnam pater ille deorum 
 
 Cogitat ? An terras & patria fecula r 
 Quafque dedit quondam, morientibus eripit artes ? 
 Nofque jubet, tacitos & jam rationis egenos. 
 
 Non aliter primo quam cum furreximus a 
 Glandibus & pune rurfus procumbere lymphee ? 
 
44 
 
 POLYMETI S. 
 
 You may fee by thefe two accounts I have given you of the Roman poetry, and of 
 the other arts; that the great periods of their rife, their flourifhing, and their decline 
 agree very well; and as it were tally with one another. Their flyle was prepared, and a 
 vaft collection of fine works laid in, under the firft period, or in the times of the repub¬ 
 lic. In the fecond, or the Auguftan age, their writers and artifts were both in their 
 high elf perfection : and in the third, from Tiberius to the Antonines, they both began 
 to languifh; and then revived a little; and, at laft, funk totally together. 
 
 In comparing the deferiptions of their poets with the works of art, I fhould therefore 
 chufe to omit all the Roman poets after the Antonines. Among them all there is perhaps 
 no one whole omilfion need be regretted, except that of Claudian : and even as to him 
 it may be confidered that he wrote when the true knowledge of the arts was no more; 
 and when the true taflc of poetry was ftrangely corrupted and loll; even if we were to 
 judge of it by his own writings only, which are extremely better than any of the poets 
 Jong before and long after him. It is therefore much better to confine one’s felf to the 
 three great ages; than to run fo far out of one's way for a fingle poet, or two : whofe 
 authorities after all mull; be very difputable, and indeed fcarce of any weight. 
 
 There is a great deal of difference even as to the writers of the three allowed ages. 
 Thole of the firft, and especially toward the beginning of it, were but little acquainted 
 with the arts; and confequently are but of little authority. Ennius has the moil piCtu- 
 refque ftrokes of any of them : but he was a great imitator of foreign poets; and his de- 
 feriptions probably are more taken from his reading, than from any great tafte or know¬ 
 ledge in the things themfelves. Bcfides the appearances, and drefs, and attributes of the 
 imaginary beings, were not fo well fettled among the Romans in his time as they came 
 to be afterwards. One would therefore be very fparing in making ufe of pafiages from 
 him and his cotemporaries : and if one ufed any, they fhould be rather to illuftrate fuch 
 points as are confirmed by greater authorities, than to build any novelty on their own : 
 for they fometimes differ confiderably from the Auguftan writers; and where they differ, 
 it is ealy to fee on which fide the fcale Ihould turn. The poets of the Auguftan age are 
 on all accounts the moft to be depended upon; and Virgil more than any of them. His 
 fKneid muft be the facred writ in this fort of enquiries. His tafte, and judgment, and 
 exaCtnefs, give him this pre-eminence over all the poets of the happy age he lived in. 
 Ovid’s authority is but of a mixt kind : for tho’ he enjoyed the fame advantages of writ¬ 
 ing in the Auguftan age, and of living much in Auguftus his court, the luxuriance of 
 his fancy and the incorreCbiefs of his manner of writing, may render what he fays more 
 doubtful and uncertain. The poets of the third age have a middle kind of authority; 
 greater than thofe antient writers, and lefs than the Auguftan : as much better acquainted 
 with the works of art than the former, and much lefs exaCt than the latter. Silius may, 
 perhaps, be allowed the greateft authority of any poet of this age, for his carefulnefs, and 
 his particular love of the arts; as Lucan’s heat, ani Statius’s inexadtnefs, may make them 
 lefs fit to be depended upon than fome others who wrote under the decline of poctrv and 
 of the arts at Rome. But there is not fo great a difference in thefe, as to require that one 
 fhould fettle the rules of precedence punctually between them; at leaft I (hall leave that 
 trouble to the critics who may be nicer about it, than ever I lhall care to t>e. 
 
 D I A 
 
Dialogue the Sixth. 
 
 45 
 
 BOOK II. 
 
 Of the Twelve Great Celeftial Deities. 
 
 DIAL. VI. 
 
 Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva. 
 
 T H E rain, which continued all the night, and part of the next morning, hin¬ 
 dered Polymetis and his friends from going out fo foon as they would otherwife 
 have done. Almoft the moment it held up, they took a turn or two on the 
 terrace which runs along the brow of the hill. As Polymetis was very bufy in pointing 
 out fome of the beauties of the country and of the river to them; Philander, (who was 
 more defirous of feeing the new difpofition of his ftatues, than one of the mod pleading 
 profpedts in the world) interrupted him, to beg that they might go diredtly to his Ro- 
 tonda; which appeared at a little didance from them, on the chief eminence of the hill. 
 He longed yet more to hear Polymetis on the fubjeft he had promifed; and had been 
 juft faying fomething of the great difcoveries he expeded from fuch a comparifon. Since 
 you delire it, fays Polymetis, we will go thither diredly; but I would not have you 
 expcd too much. The dories told in marble may fometimes help one to find out the 
 meaning of a paffage in the antient poets; and the poetical dories may fometimes explain 
 an old marble ; but this does not happen very often. The chief ufe I have found in this 
 fort of ftudy, or amilfement, call it which you pleafe, has not been fo much in difcover- 
 ing what was wholly unknown; as in ftrengthening and beautifying what was known 
 before. When the day was fo much overcaft juft now, you faw all the fame objefts 
 that you do at prefent; thefe trees, that river, the foreft on the left hand, and thofe 
 fpreading vales to the right: but now the fun is broke out, you fee all of them more 
 clearly, and with more pleafure. It dicws fcarce any thing that you did not fee before; 
 but it gives a new life and luftre to every thing that you did fee. It is much the fame 
 with the writings of the old poets, when one is once got well acquainted with the finer 
 remains of tlie antient artifts. You knew before, for inftance, that 1 'uch a particular 
 defeription was a defeription of Venus; and perhaps underftood the general import of 
 every word in it: but when you have once got ftrong ideas of the tendernefs of that god- 
 defs’s form, and of the finenefs of her make, from the Venus of Medici and other cele¬ 
 brated reprefentations of her, you fee the fame defeription with other eyes; and find a 
 new brightnefs and enlightening diffufed all over it. It ftrikes you more ftrongly; and 
 touches the mind with a great deal more pleafure than it did before. This is the chief 
 ufe I think one fliould propofe from any enquiry of this kind; and if ever it went farther, 
 I diould look upon that as clear gains, rather than as an effeft which I expeaed 
 from it. 
 
 I am much of your mind, fays Myfagetes ; but for heaven s fake what is that eque- 
 Ilrian figure, at the hither corner of your Portico ? Did not you tell us this was the tem¬ 
 ple for your celeftial deities, and that the Virtues were placed round it ? \\ hat is that 
 then, a Virtue on horfeback ? 
 
 When I told you that this was the temple of the fupreme deities, anfwered Polymctis; 
 and that the Moral Beings and Virtues were placed round it ; I fhould have told you, 
 that I had placed fuch perfons, as the Romans fuppofed to have been admitted into the 
 
 jSJ fociety 
 
I 
 
 46 
 
 
 POLY M E T I S. 
 
 fociety of the great gods on account of their fuperior virtues, in the Portico of this 
 temple. I do not know how you could have chofen a properer place for them, lays 
 Philander; but are not there too many of them for any one Portico? No, lays Polymetis, 
 there were but fix admitted to that honour; and the ftrft which you fee of them is Pol¬ 
 lux ; one who was a particular friend to the Romans, and was therefore, I fuppofc, en¬ 
 rolled by them m this imall number. Put you may (0 hear mofe of this, when we come 
 to con ; - : -T them more particularly : at prefent we will begin, if you pleafe, with cl! due 
 r peft, from the great gods. In laying this, he wall 1 up t . heps, and k.i them 
 into the Rotonda itfelf, without lofmg any time in the Portico. 
 
 Tiro' his two friends expefted a good deal from Polymetis’s tafle, they were ftruck 
 more than they ex a t. On entering temple. Itwubuil . after the manner of 
 the famous Rotonda at Rome; only this was of the Compofite order, as that is of tiie 
 Corinthian : and all the infide of it was finifhed, in a very good tafle. Polymetis had got 
 fome additional figures to compleat his colledtion which were new to them; end which 
 " -ssi ry well' difpofed in their proper niches-all roa : ne, and in t j, ; g 
 
 « that referred to them. The middle fpace was all dear : and the light 
 
 fell in'from the top of the dome, in that pleafisg mam ft hhasbeen alwm 1 . ,ch 
 admired m the al re mentioned building, (hewed the ■ to a vei gre 
 That of Jupiter, fitting on his cutule chair, f ed them n< in. ( ; , 
 
 hand, flood Minerva; and Juno, on his left. Next to Mine: va, but at fon:c dhhmce 
 from her, was Neptune,- then Venas, Mai , and Vuft n : as | 1 
 
 , Diana, Ceres, and Mercury: all in the order they are m ntioned. Theft \ ere 
 all the Angle figures in the temple; but they were accompanied with relievo's, and other 
 ornaments; fome of them not inferior in beauty to theftatues themfclves. 
 
 The fitting figure in the midft of this circle 1 f deities, fays Polymetis, you will eafily 
 know to be Jupiter. The difiinguilhing charader of his perfon is Majclly; and every 
 thing about him carries dignity and authority with it. His look is meant to ftrike 
 fometimes with terror; and fometimes with gratitude; but always with refpefi. It is a 
 great pity that Wehave no better figures of Jupiter : among ail J have feen, I have never 
 l'een one which could by any means be placed in the firft chi's of the antient flatues that 
 remain to us. This (a) is a copy of that at the Verofpi palace in Rome; which is 
 reckoned the bed of all I have feen: but which falls Ihort even of the idea one might 
 form of a Jupiter in one’s oWn mind, by the help of the antient poets; and infinitely 
 
 fiiort of the celebrated Jupiter made by Phidias, at Athens; and, 1 r.bl , of many other 
 
 figures of this god in antient Rome. 
 
 You might however eafily know that this is Jupiter, by the dignity of his look; by 
 the i ulincis ot his hair about his face; by that venerable beard , I y th tt , i;1 J; of 
 
 command in id left hand, and the fulmen in his right: but 1 queftion whether you 
 can fo eafily know, what Jupiter in particular this is m. , fent. / to that, re- 
 
 phed Philander, I am l'o far from being able to fay what Jupiter, that I do not perfectly 
 know what you mean. I know indeed that Cicero m : : n that there were 1 1 
 
 piters ; but I never heard how one fliould didinguifli them from one another. The di- 
 verfity I am (peaking of, fays Polymetis, does not relate to th f u f ’ „ s of the 
 antient mythologifts; but only to downright matter of fadt. I (hall explain what I mean 
 
 (x) Dial. 9, poflh. 
 
 (2) Ovid, where he is deferibing a picture of the 
 12 great gods wrought in tapeflry (which, by the way, 
 would be an excellent defign for a piece of tapeflry 
 now) fpeaks of Majefty as the diftinguifhing cha¬ 
 racter of the figure of Jupiter, in that piece. 
 
 Bis fex cadcftes, medio Jove, fedibus altis 
 
 Augufia gravitate fedem. Sua quemque deorum 
 Infcribit facies: Jovis ell regalis imaon. 
 
 Met. 6. y. 74. 
 
 (3) In the llattic at the Verofpi palace this appears 
 only as a truncheon : it Is poflibly the remains of a lung 
 feepter, which may have been brute formerly; and cut 
 fmooth. This very Jupiter, on medals, has the Iona 
 feepter in that hand ; as in Plate 2. Fig. 1. 
 
47 
 
 Dialogue the Sixth. 
 
 more at large; bccaufe it is a point that is likely to occur extremely often, in what I may 
 have to fay to you. 
 
 The old Romans, as well as the reft of the heathen world, were very expert at mak¬ 
 ing diftindHons by names; where, according to their own notions, there was no manner 
 of difference in the things. The thinking part of them believed that there was (4) but 
 one great Being, that made, and preferved, and aftuated all things : which is juft as 
 much as to fay that they believed there was but one God, in our fenfe of the word. 
 Tf >r beft authors fay this exprefly, in books which they publilhed in their life-time ; 
 and : .me of them go fo far as even to give the reafons why they talked vulgarly of fo many 
 gods. ^ When they conlidcred this one great Being as influencing the affairs of the world 
 in different manners, they gave him as many different names; and hence came all their 
 variety of nominal gods. When he thundered or lightened, they called him, Jupiter j 
 when he calmed the feas, Neptune: when he guided their councils, it was Minerva; 
 and when he gave them ftrength in battle, it was Mars. This was their firft great di- 
 
 ftindtion 
 
 (4) "The heathens, in general, believed, i, That 
 there was but one fuprcmeGod: and 2. They believed, 
 or rather talked of a multitude of miniltcrs, deputies, 
 or inferior gods ; as ailing under this fupreme. The 
 firft may be called, the philofophical belief; and the 
 Second, the vulgar belief of the heathens. 
 
 1 nib might be well enough illuftrated from the Ro¬ 
 man catholics : who always affert there is but one 
 God; tho’ they worfhip fuch a number ofDivi, as 
 minifters and difpenfers of blellings, under that one 
 God. 
 
 That the antient Romans believed there was but 
 one God, appears from the concurrent teftimony 
 of the greateft philofophcrs they ever had among 
 them. 
 
 Tho’ fo much of Varro’s works is loft to us, yet we 
 learn from thofe who were well acquainted with his 
 works when they were more entire, (and from St. Auftin 
 in particular,) what Varro’s opinion was in this cafe. 
 Hi foli Varroni videntur animadvertilfequidefftt Deus; 
 qui crediderunt eum efi'e, animam motu ac ratione 
 mundum gubernantem. St. Auft. de Civ. Dei.Lib. 4. 
 Gap. 9. 
 
 Cicero was ftrongly of this opinion. He fays, in 
 one place, Princeps ille Deus, qui omnem hunc mun¬ 
 dum regit, ficut animus humanus id corpus cui prx- 
 
 pofitus eft. (Somn. Scip. §. 3.)--I n another : 
 
 Nec vero Deus ipfe alio modo intelligi poteft, nift 
 mens foluta quasdam & libera, fegregata ab omni con¬ 
 cretione mortali, omnia fentiens &r movens. (Tufc. 
 Qua;ft. Lib. 1.)- In a third : Effe prxftantem ali¬ 
 
 quam xternamque naturam, & eam fufpiciendam ad- 
 mirandamque hominum generi, pulchritudo mundi 
 ordoque rerum cceleftium cogit confiteri. Dc Divin. 
 Lib. 2.) And in a fourth : Omnes gentes una 
 lex, & fempiterna & immortalis, continebit; unufque 
 erit, quafi magifter & imperator omnium, Deus. 
 (Fragm. Lib. 3. de Repub.) 
 
 Seneca teaches us, that all the different names in 
 ufe among the Romans, really fignified but one and 
 the fame god. Quid aliud eft natura, quam Deus & 
 divina ratio toti mundo & partibus ejus inferta ? Quo¬ 
 ties voles, tibi licet aliter hunc audlorem rerum no- 
 ftrarum compellare ; et Jovem illum Optimum & Max¬ 
 imum rite dices, & Tonantem, & Statorem.—Hunc 
 eundem & fatum fi dixeris, non mentieris : nam cum 
 fatum nihil aliud fit quam feries implexa caufarum, 
 i!!e eft prima omnium caufa ex qua exterre pendent. 
 Quascunque voles illi nomina proprie aptabis, vim 
 
 aliquameffedlumque coelcftium rerum continentia: tot 
 appellationes ejus poffunt efle, quot munera. (De 
 Ben. Lib. 4. Cap. 7.) And in another place : Nc 
 hoc quidem crediderunt (antiqui) Jovem, qualem in 
 Capitolio & in exteris xdibus colimus, mittere manu 
 fulmina ; fed eundem, quem nos, Jovem intclligunt: 
 cuftodem redtoremque univerfi ; animum ac fpiritum, 
 mundani hujus operis dominum & artificem ; cui no¬ 
 men omne convenit. (Nat. Quxft. Lib. 2. Cap. 45.) 
 
 Pliny not only lpeaks of God, as one ; but gives us 
 the reafon, why they talked vulgarly of more than 
 one. Deus totus eft fenfus ; totus vifus ; totus au¬ 
 ditus; totus animx ; totus animi; totus fui. Innu¬ 
 meros quidem credere, atque etiam ex virtutibus vi- 
 tiiique hominum,—aut ut Democrito placuit, duos 
 omnino pcenam & beneficium, majorem ad focor- 
 diam accedit. Fragilis & laboriofa mortalitas in par¬ 
 tes ifta digeffit, infirmitatis fux memor ; ut portioni¬ 
 bus quifque coleret, quo maxime indigeret: itaque 
 nomina alia aliis gentibus, & numina in iifdem innu¬ 
 merabilia reperimus. (Nat. Hift. Lib. 2. Cap. 7.) 
 
 Thefe four philofophers, (Varro, Cicero, Seneca, 
 and Pliny,) may be very well looked on as the four 
 chief fathers, of the old Latin church : fo that their 
 joint teftimony as to this important point, mull I think 
 prove what was the opinion of the antient Romans in 
 relation to it, in the ftrongeft manner that can well 
 be required. 
 
 One might bring a multitude of teftimonies to 
 prove, that the fame was an univerfal tenet, among 
 the heathens of old : but as that is lefs my bufinefs at 
 prefent, and would run this into a book inftead of a 
 note, I fhall fatisfy myfelf only with a general aifertion 
 of it from Maximus Tyrius ; a Greek philosopher, 
 who is laid to have refided for fome time at Rome 
 under the Antonines : fo that this fentence from him 
 may follow, properly enough, as an appendix to that 
 quoted from Pliny. Ev rotr/Ja - itaKzptu, kai ra¬ 
 
 ce/, km 'S'lcttpuna., zva ij'ois av zv ircurn yn o/tituvoy 
 VOfJ-ov kai \oyov‘ oji Qzo { z/f itAv\»V Cct<ri\ivz Kit offalnp' 
 kcu &zot irahKat, -S-iK muJ'se, ffWAp^oyrzs izu. Taunt 
 J'z 0 Eaahi 1 \zyzt, Kcti 0 GapGapo; a zyzr kai 0 tnrzipa- 
 TIK, Kelt 0 £*A*t 7 tor KAI 0 <TO$ 0 (, KAI 0 A<T»<pOf. (Dif- 
 
 fert. 17. p. 193. Ed. Loud.) This then was the be¬ 
 lief of all the heathens ; that there was one great 
 God, the father and lord of all things, anJ Several 
 under-gods : that is, in our fenfe of the word, no 
 gods at all ; but deputies only, or agents under the 
 great God. 
 
 6 
 
4 8 
 
 P O L Y W E T I S. 
 
 ftination without a difference. They fcem at firft to have only made ufe of different 
 names; fuch as Jupiter, Neptune, Minerva, and the like; they afterwards carried it far¬ 
 ther, by ufing different reprefentations of this Jupiter, Neptune, and Minerva: and at laft 
 came to conftder them, vulgarly at leaft, as fo many different perfons. In time, as feveral 
 diftindt adls and characters were attributed even to eacli of thefe nominal deities, and as 
 the figures of each were multiplied and varied in different places, they came by degrees to 
 conftder each of them too in different views, and this was their fecond great diftindtion 
 without a difference. The Jupiter, for inftance, when fhowering down bleflings, was 
 called the Kind Jupiter; and when puniflfing, the Terrible Jupiter. There was one Ju¬ 
 piter for Europe, and another for Africa : and in Europe itfelf, there was one great Ju¬ 
 piter who was the particular friend of the Athenians, and another who was the particular 
 protector of the Romans. Nay, there was fcarce a town, or hamlet perhaps, in Italy, 
 that had not a Jupiter of its own : and the (5) Jupiter of Terracina, for inftance, was 
 reprefented as differently from the great Jupiter at the Capitol, as the fame great Jupiter 
 and Apollo. Thefe diftindtions were carried fo much farther than the bare names, that 
 I do not at all queftion but that, in the time of the Punic wars, it would have been 
 looked upon as highly wicked (or, at leaft, as very ablurd,) for any Roman to have of¬ 
 fered up a prayer, for the fuccefs of his countrymen againft the Carthaginians, to ( 6 ) 
 the African Jupiter. 
 
 We had, not many centuries ago, much the fame abfurditics in our own country; 
 and at any time may fee them pradtifed, the firft moment we pleafe to ftep out on the 
 continent. A little before the Reformation, when our devotions were almoft wholly en- 
 groffed by the virgin Mary, fhe had ftatues in every town, village, church, and chapel; 
 and had different names and reprefentations, according to the (7) place ftie was in, or the 
 character flic bore. There was then probably with us, as there is in Italy at prefent, one 
 virgin of the mountains, and another of the valleys ; one for thofe who travel by land to 
 
 pray to, and another for fuch as travel hy fe; 
 alkcd the queftion, would have faid, upon 
 
 (5) The Jupiter Anxur, (or Jupiter of Terracina,) 
 is reprefented on medals as young and bcardlcfs; with 
 rajs round his head ; and in his whole figure more like 
 an Apollo, than a Jupiter. Sec Montfaucon, Vol. 1. 
 
 PI. 22, 9. 
 
 (6) There is a remarkable paflage, fomewhat to 
 this purpofe, in Silius Italicus. It is where he is 
 fpcaking of the league made by Scipio with Syphax 
 king of Maftefylia, in the time of the fecond Punic 
 war: in making which, he fays, that they invoked both 
 the Roman Jupiter, and the African Jupiter; in their 
 joint prayers before the altar. 
 
 Audivit Ixto Mafiylus, & annuit, ore : 
 
 Complcxufque virum, “ Firmemus profpera, dixit. 
 
 Omina ; nec votis fuperi concordibus abfint : 
 
 Cornigerumque Jovem, Tarpeiumque, ore vocemus.” 
 
 Lib. 16- j/. 261. 
 
 This puts one in mind, of the forms ufed of old, 
 in their alliances, or treaties of peace; in the entrance 
 of which, they ufually named the different gods of 
 either nation. Thus, in the alliance made between 
 the Macedonians and Carthaginians, but a few years 
 
 before in the fame war ; which runs thus.-“ In 
 
 the prefence of Jupiter, and Juno, and Apollo ; in 
 the prefence of the tutelary Divinity of the Cartha¬ 
 ginians, and of Hercules, and of Iolaus ; in the pre- 
 l'ence of Mars, of Triton, and Neptune; in the pre- 
 l'ence of the Gods who accompany our expedition ; 
 and of the Sun, the Moon, and the Earth; in the 
 prefence of (the Gods of) the Rivers, the Meadows, 
 and the Waters ; in the prefence of all the Gods who 
 rule over Carthage ; in the prefence of all the Gods 
 
 1. Any body at that time, had they been 
 fecond thoughts, that there was but one 
 virgin 
 
 who rule over Macedon, and the reft of Greece ; in 
 the prefence of all the Gods who prefide over warlike 
 expeditions, and of thofe who ftood over us at the 
 taking this oath : Hanibal the general hath laid, and 
 all the fenators of Carthage that are with him, and all 
 the Carthaginians that are in his army (have faid.) As 
 it feems good unto you, and to us, let this (oath) he 
 an oath of amity and good-will between us, as friends, 
 relations, and brethren tic. The whole treaty is 
 in Polybius, Lib. 7. p. 502, to 505. Ed. Wcchcl. 
 1609. 
 
 (7) As the antients had their Capitoline and their 
 Olympian Jupiter, h> we had our virgin of Winche- 
 ftcr and our virgin of Walfingham : and asth /rc were 
 temples to the Capitoline Jupiter in other places, as 
 well as on the Capitoline hill, and one at Athens in 
 particular ; lb wc had places dedicated to the virgin 
 of Wincheftcr, in other places as well as Winchefler ; 
 and one at Oxford in particular. The foclcrv at Ox¬ 
 ford (to which I am obliged more than I could eafiiy 
 exprefs, for palling the beft part of my life, in a molt 
 agreeable manner) was eflablilhed before the light of 
 the Reformation had begun to dawn on fcingland ; by 
 one of the nobleft patrons of learning, that ever was. 
 As he was, in thofe times, bilhop of'Wincheftcr, he 
 founded a feminary there ; and a college to be fup- 
 plicd with ftudents from it, at Oxford. This col¬ 
 lege, at Oxford, was dedicated Sanfta; Marias Win - 
 tonienfi ; and both of them are called, the two St. 
 Mary-Winton colleges, on fome folemn occafions, to 
 this day. 
 
virgin Mary : yet they looked upon one figure (S) of her as more venerable than another t 
 and there were many devout people then that gave vaft prefents to the virgin of Win- 
 chefter, for example ; who would have grudged perhaps to make the molt inlignificant 
 offering to the virgin of W alfingham. They thought her more prefent in one place 
 than the other ; or had had feveral obligations to her figure at Winchefter, and none at 
 ail to that at Walilngham. 
 
 _ J UPITER w as almoft as much in fafliion among the old worfliippers of images, as the 
 virgin among the modern. He had temples, and different charadlers, almoft every 
 «'here. At Carthage, he was called Ammon : in Egypt, Serapis : at Athens, the great 
 Jupiter was the Olympian Jupiter; and at Rome, the greateft Jupiter was the Capito¬ 
 line. And to return to what occafioned this digrefllon, it is the laft mentioned, the Capi¬ 
 toline Jupiter, which I take to be reprefented in the ftatue you are now looking upon. 
 
 This Capitoline Jupiter was the great guardian of the Romans; and it was he who 
 was to give them the empire of the whole world : an idea, which (as I have faid already) 
 was very early and very ftrong among them. They reckoned his influence and power 
 fupenor to that of the African or Afiatic Jupiters; and called him (9', the beft and great- 
 eft Jupiter. For tho’ it has been generally taken otherwife, I cannot help imagining that 
 the title of Optimus Maximus was vulgarly ufed as a furname of this particular Jupiter 
 among the Romans ; much in the fame manner as the title of Auguftus, was particularly 
 appropriated for the furname of the lecond of their Cufiirs. 
 
 It appears from feveral medals, as well as from feveral palfages in the old Roman 
 authors, that the figure of this Capitoline Jupiter, or the Jupiter Optimus Maximus, 
 (which-ever you pleaie to call him) was reprefented, in his chief temple on the Capito¬ 
 line hill, as fitting on a curule chair; with the thunder in one hand, and afeepter in the 
 other. Such you fee him in the medal I have in my hand; but before we go on, I muft 
 beg you to confider him a little more particularly. 
 
 In Ills right hand, you fee, he grafps his fulmen; his thunder, as we are ufed to 
 tranflate that word, improperly enough; for we fhould rather call it, his (10) lightning. 
 
 Tlfis 
 
 Plate II, 
 Fig. i. 
 
 (8) This appears from the praclice of all the Ro¬ 
 man catholic countries at prefent; and particularly 
 from that of Rome itfclf. In that city, there is a 
 church dedicated to the virgin of Loretto. One 
 would think that the virgin of Loretto fhould be as 
 powerful, and as much efteemed at Rome, as ftie is 
 at Loretto ; but there is not near the fame refpe£ls 
 paid her there, nor fuch prefents made to her, as at 
 Loretto. The virgin, at Loretto itfclf, is exceffively 
 rich ; and at Rome very poor in comparifon : nay, 
 feveral of the inhabitants of Rome go every year to 
 pay their devotions to the ftatue of the virgin at Lo¬ 
 retto ; tho’ they have other ftatucs of her, fo near 
 their own doors. 
 
 (9) Cicero fays that they called their Capitoline 
 Jupiter the beft and the greateft. Quocirca te, Capi¬ 
 toline, quem propter beneficia populus Romanus Op¬ 
 timum, propter vim Maximum nominavit. Orat, 
 pro domo fua. 
 
 On medals too we have this infeription, “ The 
 Capitoline Jupiter, the Beft and the Greateft;” as in 
 that of Vitellius, PI. 2. N. 1. 
 
 Our great Archbifhop Tillotfon feems to under¬ 
 stand thefe names in a larger fenfe, and more worthy 
 ol his own way of thinking. “ Among the divine 
 titles, fays he, Goodnefs always had the pre-eminence; 
 
 both among the Greeks and Romans; Ei/<r 7 s juej-aovs, 
 Deus optimus maximus, was their conftant ftyle.” 
 (Vol. 2. Scrm. 90. p. 678.) And Cicero himfelf has 
 given him fufficient reafon for faying fo; for, on 
 another occafion, where he is fpeaking of Jupiter in 
 general, he fays : A poetis dicitur divum atque ho¬ 
 minum pater ; (or, the kind governour :) a majoribus 
 autem noftris, optimus maximus : et quidem ante 
 optimus, id eft beneficentiftimus, quam maximus; 
 quia majus eft, certeque gratius, prodeffe omnibus 
 quam opes magnas habere. De Nat. Deor. L. 2. 
 
 Cicero, in thefe two paffages quoted from him, ufes 
 thefe words optimus maximus in different fenfes ; in 
 the firft, as a name applied to a particular national 
 deity; and in the fecond, as a general character of the 
 Great Being : and this difference, I think, may be 
 eafily accounted for. The firft, or vulgar fenfe is 
 ufed in a fpcech of his to the people ; and the fecond 
 or philofophical fenfe, is ufed in one of the nioft phi- 
 lofophical treatifes he ever wrote. 
 
 
p O L Y M E T I S. 
 
 This fulmen, in the h.tnd of Jupiter, partook fomething of the nature of an hieroglyphic, 
 of old ; and had different meanings, according to the different manners in which it was 
 reprefen ted. 
 
 Theki: were three ways of reps: lining it mod: ufual among the old artifts. The frit is 
 a bundle of flames, as wreathed dole together, and formed much in the fhape of what 
 call the thunder.done at prefent. The fecond is the fame figure, with two tranfverfe 
 darts of lightning; and fometimes with wings added on each fide of it, to denote its 
 fwiftnefs. " Such was the device which all the foldiers of the thundering legion (as it is 
 called) bore on their (fields ; as you fee it frequently reprefented both on the Antonine, 
 and Trajan pillar, at Rome; and in feveral other remains of antiquity: which, by the 
 way, may ferve very well to explain ( !I ) fome lines in Valerius Flaccus, that would not 
 be near fo intelligible without their afiifiance. The third is an handful of flames, all let 
 loofe in their utmoft fury. Thefe three different reprefentations of the fulmen anfwer 
 very well to the (■*) three different forts of lightning, which the Roman philofophers 
 and divines fometimes fpeak of. 
 
 The old artifts, when they were to defignany figure of Jupiter, generally feem to have 
 adapted his fulmen to the character under which they were to reprefent him. If his ap¬ 
 pearance was to be mild and calm, they gave him the firft fort, or the conic fulmen, 
 held down in his hand. If punifhing, he holds up the fecond fort; or the three-forked 
 bolt of Jove, as the poets have very properly called it. And if going to do fome excm- 
 
 plary 
 
 Si in nube lu&etur flatus aut vapor, tonitrua ecli ; 
 fi erumpat ardens, fulmina: fi longiore tractu nitatur, 
 fulgetra. Pliny, Nat. Hift. L. 2. c. 43. 
 
 Quum autem fe in nubem induerint, ei ufque te- 
 nuiflimam quanque partem cceperint dividere ac dif- 
 rumpere, idque crebrius facere Sc vehementius, tum 
 et fulgores & tonitrua exiftere : ft autem nubium 
 conflictu ardor cxprclTus fe cmiferit, id cflb fulmen. 
 Cicero deDivin. L. 2. §. 64. 
 
 -Igneus ille 
 
 Vortex, quod patrio vocitamus nomine fulmen. 
 
 Lucretius 6. jr. 297. 
 
 When we are taught (as we generally are) to tranf- 
 late the word fulmen, by the word thunder : we ufe 
 a word that is apt to give an idea of noife, without any 
 idea of the light; for a Latin word which gave ail 
 idea of light, without any idea of the noife. 
 
 This miltakc is very apt to make people lofe the 
 beauty of feveral paflages in the old Roman writers ; 
 as, for inftance, where Cicero fpeaks of the fulmina 
 verborum, or where Virgil calls the two Scipios the 
 duo fulmina belli. 
 
 The meaning of Virgil in that exprdfion is opened 
 to us, more at large, in a fimilie of Lucan’s ; which, 
 bv the wav, is one of the belt perhaps in the whole 
 Pharfalia. It is where he is giving us the chara&er of 
 Julius Ctefar; toward the opening of that poem. 
 
 Acer, & indomitus, quo fpes quoque ira vocafl'et 
 Ferre manum ; & nunquam temerando parcere ferro; 
 SuccefTus urgere fuos, inllare favori 
 Numinis, impellens quicquid fibi fumma petenti 
 Obftaret; gaudenfquc viam fecifle ruina. 
 
 Qualiter expreilum ventis per nubila fulmen 
 ALtheris impulfi fonitu mundique fragore 
 Emicuit, rupitque diem ; populofque paventes 
 Terruit, obliqua praiftinguens lumina flamma : 
 
 In fua templa furit ; nullaquc exire vetante 
 Materia, magnamque cadens magnamque revertens 
 Dat ftragem late, fparfofque recolligit ignes. 
 
 Lib. 1. jr. 157. 
 
 Where Mr. Pope makes ufe of the fame image to 
 
 point out the particular chara&cr of the late Earl of 
 Peterborough ; 
 
 -He, whofc lightning pierc’d th’ Iberian lines ; 
 
 how much of the beauty and juftice of it would have 
 been loft, had he ufed the word thunder, inftead of 
 the word he has ufed ? 
 
 (n) This winged fulmcn generally fpread all over 
 the fhield ; as in Plate 2. Fig. 2. which is the copy 
 of a ftiield, on the Antonine pillar. This fort of fi¬ 
 gure on the Roman fhields is thus deferibed by Vale¬ 
 rius Flaccus : 
 
 Cunifta phalanx infigne Jovis Cidataque geflat 
 
 Tegmina; difperfos trifidis ardoribus ignes: 
 
 Nec primus radios, iniles Romane, corufci 
 
 Fulminis Sc rutilas fcutis diffuderis alas. 
 
 Argon. 6. jr. 5 6. 
 
 The make of his fulmcn there, (in three rays up¬ 
 wards, and as many downwards) agrees very well too 
 with the common epithets of trifidum Sc trifulcum, in 
 the Roman poets. 
 
 - Trifida flamma. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 2. j. 325. 
 
 - Cui dextra trifulcis 
 
 Ignibus armata eft—- 
 
 Id. Ibid. j. 849. 
 
 Flaccus fpeaks of them too as all on fire, in the pal- 
 fage above ; and feems to make them caft a bright 
 reflection, as fuch, on the wings in his fhield ; which 
 is a very juft, and very pidlurefque idea. 
 
 (12) Fulmina dicunt, (the augurs,) 2 Jove mitti ; Sc 
 tres illi manubias dant. Prima, ut aiunt, monet Sc 
 placata eft ; & ipfius confilio Jovis mittitur. Secun¬ 
 dam quidem Jupiter, fed ex concilii lententia; Duo- 
 decem enim Deos advocat: qua? prodeft quidem, fed 
 non impune. Tertiam manubiam idem Jupiter mittit, 
 fed adhibitis in confiliurfr diis, quos fuperiores & in¬ 
 volutos vocant; qum vaftat, & incendit, & rerum 
 mutat ftatum privatum & publicum. Seneca; Nat. 
 Quseft. L. 2. C. 41. 
 
 6 
 
5 1 
 
 Dialogue 
 
 the Sixth. 
 
 plary execution, they give him the third ; and fometimes fill even both his hands with 
 flames. There is a figure of Jupiter, in Senator Buonaroti’s collection at Florence, Plate 11. 
 where you fee him holding up the three-forked bolt as juft going to dart it on fome guilty Flu - 3* 
 wretch that has provoked him ; but with the conic fulmen lying under his feet, toftiew 
 that it is of no ufe to him on occafions of fuch feverity. The figures of the Capitoline 
 Jupiter had generally, I believe, the mildeft fulmen, and that held down; his character 
 being rather a character of goodnefs, than feverity. And when they gave him flames in 
 his right hand, even thofe are held down : to fignify, that he is always ready to over¬ 
 turn any nation or people that ihould infult the Roman ftate; without deftroying the 
 complacency of his character. 
 
 In his other hand, you fee, (*3) he holds his feepter; as the king, or father, (which 
 antiently fignified the fame thing) of all beings, whether human or divine. You muft 
 not expeCt jn his feepter to meet with fuch a fliort ornamented thing, as we have an 
 idea of at prefent whenever we make ufe of that word. The feepter of the antients was 
 plain, as you fee it here; and tho’ the figures of Jupiter ought not to beihort, his feep¬ 
 ter is generally longer than himlelf; whence it is, I fuppofe, that father Montfaucon fo 
 often calls it, his pike. To fay the truth, in the fimplicity of the earlier ages of the 
 world, the feepters of kings were really no other than long (14) walking-ftaves; and 
 thence had the very name of feepter, which now founds fo magnificently. Ovid, in 
 fpeaking of Jupiter, deferibes him as (15) refting on his feepter; which, if taken in the 
 modern fenfe of the word, would be almoft as ridiculous, as if one Ihould deferibe a ge¬ 
 neral, at the head of his troops, refting on his truncheon. 
 
 It was neither his feepter, nor even his fulmen, that {hewed the fuperiority of Ju¬ 
 piter fo much, as that air of majefty which the antient artifts endeavoured to exprefs in 
 his countenance. If fome of the nobler ftatues of Jupiter, as that of the Jupiter Olym¬ 
 pius made by Phidias, in particular, had remained to our times ; we might fee this more 
 ftrongly than we can at prefent: for that was reckoned the mafter-piece of the greateft 
 ftatuary that ever w'as; and thofe who beheld it are laid to have been aftonifhed at the 
 greatnefs of his ideas in it. When he was ( l6 ) afked how it was pofiible for him to con¬ 
 ceive that air of divinity he had exprefled in the face of his Jupiter; he anfwered, “ that 
 he had copied it from the celebrated defeription of that god in Homer.” It is obfervable 
 that the perfonal ftrokes in that defeription relate to nothing but the head of hair, the 
 eye-brows, and the beard : and indeed in the belt heads of Jupiter, I have ever feen, I 
 have obferved that it was thefe very particulars which gave his face the greateft {hare of 
 the dignity that appeared in it. 
 
 I have known judges, lays Myfagetes, who owed much of their folemn air to a full- 
 bottomed wig; but I never knew before, that Jupiter was fo very much obliged for his 
 to his, beard. Take care a little, fays Polymetis; you may be ealily led, by your 
 
 prejudice 
 
 (13) PI. 2. Fig. x. 
 
 (14) 'Zx.Mr']?ov, cluo T8 
 
 The old feepter's being as long as a hunting-pole, 
 may ferve to explain fome expreffions in Virgil relat¬ 
 ing to King Latinus’s feepter; which would not 
 be fo proper, if applied to a truncheon or modern 
 feepter. 
 
 Ut feeptrum hoc (dextra feeptrum nam forte gerebat) 
 
 Nunquam fronde levi fundet virgulta, nec umbras; 
 
 Cum femel in fylvis imo de Hirpe recifum 
 
 Matre caret; pofuitque comas & brachia ferro: 
 
 Olim arbos.-■ 
 
 JEn. iz. jr. 2io. 
 
 It was a whole young tree ; cut from the root, and 
 ftript of its branches. 
 
 (15) Celftor ipfe loco, feeptroque innixus eburno. 
 
 Terrificam capitis concufiii terque quaterque 
 Ctefariem.-. 
 
 Met. 1. f. 178. 
 
 (16) Phidias, cum Jovem Olympium fingeret, in¬ 
 terrogatus de quo exemplo divinam imitaretur effigi¬ 
 em ; refpondit, archetypum Jovis in his fc tribus 
 Homeri verfibus invenifle : 
 
 H, Y.tti y.vctvina-iv vtc oippvn vivffi Kpor/ay 
 AfzCpomu/ (P'apa. yanczi iTrepputravTi aeeuflsf 
 Kp ctroi <wr' ttSctvctroio- (Aiyav «N v OtopnaV- 
 
 Nam de fuperciliis & crinibus, totum fe Jovis vultum 
 collegifle. (Macrobius, Saturn. Lib. 5. c. 14.) We 
 have the fame anecdote, in Valerius Maximus; more 
 at large. Memorab. Lib, 3. Cap. 7. 
 
P O I, Y M E T I S. 
 
 prejudice for our j refent mo le-;, to advance fomething, which may contradid your own 
 eves and your own judgment, when you look farther into it. It is true we fcarce ever 
 l'ee a full heard on any but the lowed fort of people among us; and that has given us a 
 mean idea of the thing itfelf. Nature perhaps defigned it for the ornament of old age; 
 but cuftom has got the better of her. Vet when we were in Italy together, I remember 
 to have feen you admiring feveral repre fen tat ions of .the deity, which owed a great part 
 air the erally give them in that country, to their beards. 
 
 How particularly were you (truck with that celebrated pidure of (17) S. Antonio, at Bo¬ 
 logna ? And how often have I heard you quoting it fince, as one of the molt venerable 
 figures that could be conceived, for fuch a charader ?. Now that very S. Antonio, your 
 great favourite, owes much of his venerable air to that long folemn beard, that falls fo 
 nobly all down his bolbm. What is nobler too than the long beard in Michael Angelo's 
 Mofes ? A full beard furcly may give majefiy as well as a long one ; and you fee, in 
 effed, bow much it gives to the: heads of kings on Greek medals : and, permit me to 
 add, to the heads of the Greek Jupiters, in feveral of the bults and gems of him, which 
 we have had the pleafurc of feeing together. 
 
 A full beard Hill carries that idea of majelly with it, all over the Eaft: which it may, 
 pofiibly, have had ever fince the times of the patriarchal government there. The Gre¬ 
 cians had a fbare of this oriental notion of it. The very name is apt to carry fomething 
 low and ridiculous along with it among us : and to fay the truth, the Romans in their 
 beft ages leem to have had this Northern (or Gothic) idea of it, almoft as much as we 
 have at prefent. A true antiquarian might think this a very good opportunity of inform¬ 
 ing you of the great efteem that was paid to beards by the Romans, in the (18) earlier 
 ages of their flate ; who was the firfl perfon that ever was fhaved in Rome; when the 
 cuftom of having naked chins grew univerfal there; and how far the very idea of a beard 
 was become fordid and (19) contemptible, in the more polite ages of Rome. He would 
 tell you,-But I fee a fmile rifing on Myfagetes’s face; and for once will be fo ma¬ 
 
 licious as to difappoint him of his laugh. For heaven’s fake, fays Myfagetes, do not 
 he fo ftridl an qbferver of the movements in my face; or, at leaft, do not let them in¬ 
 terrupt you. However at prefent, I hope, they are pretty fafe : for the lofs of fo con- 
 iiderable an hiflory, as the hiftory of the Roman beards muft have been, aftefts me fo 
 deeply, that I (hall not be in any difpofition to fmile again, at leaft for this half hour. 
 Be that as it will, lays Polymetis, I fhall only add at prefent, that Virgil feems to have 
 
 had 
 
 (17) S. Antonio abbate, preaching : by Lewis Ca- 
 rache ; in a college dedicated to that faint. It is the 
 high altar-piece, in the chapel belonging to that 
 college 1 . 
 
 (18) Even as far down, as to the facking of Rome 
 
 by the Gaul:.- Haud fecus quam venerabundi in¬ 
 
 tuebantur in tedium veflibulis fedentes viros, praeter 
 ornatum habitumque humano auguftiorem, majeflate 
 etiam quam vultus gravitafque oris prae le ferebat fi- 
 millimos diis. Adeo velut limulacra verfi cum fla¬ 
 rent, M. Papyrius unus ex his dicitur Gallo barbam 
 luam, ut tum omnibus promilTa erat, permulcenti ; 
 &c. Livy, L. 5. §. 41. 
 
 (19) The Roman poets, of the fecond and third 
 ages, fpealc very difrefpedtfully of their forefathers ; 
 on account of their long beards, and rough heads of 
 hair. 
 
 In gradibus fedit populus de cefpite faftis; 
 
 Qualibet hirfutas fronde tegente comas. 
 
 Ovid. Art. Am. i. 108. 
 
 Hoc apud intonfos nomen habebat avos. 
 
 Id. Fall. 2. jr. 28. 
 
 ..... - Facile ell barbato imponere regi. 
 
 Juvenal. S. 4. 103. 
 
 — Credam dignum barba, dignumque capillis 
 Majorum- 
 
 Id. S. 16. f. 3 2 . 
 
 Horaee makes their beards a topic of ridicule, in 
 fpeaking of the philofophcrs of his time. 
 
 Solatus jufTit fapientem pafccre barbam. 
 
 Lib. 2. Sat. 3. jr. 35. 
 
 ■-Dii tc, Damafippe, dexque. 
 
 Verum ob confilium donent tonforc ! 
 
 Ib. 
 
 - Vellent tibi barbam 
 
 Lafcivi pueri; quos tu nifi fulle coerces, &c. 
 
 Lib. i. Sat. 3. y. 134. 
 
 Indeed about that time no body but thefe poor 
 philofophers, and fuch of the Romans as lay under 
 fome difgrace or misfortune, ever appeared with a 
 
 long beard.'- Sed erat vefte obfoleta, capilloque 
 
 & barba promifsa; praeferens in vultu habituque in- 
 
 fignem memoriam ignominije accepta; :-cenfores 
 
 eum tonderi, & fqualorem deponere, & in fenatum 
 venire fungique aliis publicis muneribus, coegerunt. 
 Livy, L. 27. §. 34. 
 
 Thus, as Suetonius tells us, Julius Csfar let his 
 beard grow, on the defeat of Tiberius; and Auguftus, 
 on that of Varus. 
 
had as defpicable an idea of beards as you can have ; or at lead, that he had fo much 
 complaifance for the prevailing idea of his countrymen, that where he (20) copies that 
 noble defcription of Jupiter from Homer, he omits all the pidturefque ftrokes on the 
 beard, hair, and eye-brows ; and fupplies them from other circumftances : which are 
 very great and (Hiking indeed ; but borrowed from things abroad, and not at all defcrip- 
 tive of the perfon of Jupiter: fo that an artift could not have conceived fuch noble ideas 
 from his defcription, as Phidias did from Homer's. It is for this very omiffion, that Ma¬ 
 crobius (21) has placed this paffage of Virgil, in his chapter of inftances of that poet's 
 falling fliort of his mailer. Scaliger on the contrary, like a true modern critic, cries up 
 Virgil for his judgment in this omiffion; and_flings away fome mirth upon Homer, as 
 being too frivolous and particular. One might, I think, eafily enough compound the 
 matter between them: by allowing (which is the very truth) that Virgil on this occaflon 
 has defcribed Jupiter in the propereft manner that could be, among the Romans; and 
 that Homer has defcribed him in the nobleft manner that could be, among the Greeks. 
 
 Among the different charaflers of Jupiter, I think I mentioned to you thofe of the 
 Mild and of the Terrible Jupiter. We have feveral heads of the Mild Jupiter, particu¬ 
 larly on antient feals ; and fuch is this that I ufually wear on my finger. His face, you 
 fee, has a mixture of dignity and eafe in it. That (22) ferene and fweeter kind of (23) 
 majefty; which Virgil gives him, where he is receiving Venus with fo much paternal 
 tendernefs; in the fir ft /Kneid. It is this character of Jupiter’s face in general that Elcu- 
 lapius refembles fo much; agreeably to which that deity of phyfic is called, {24) the 
 mild god, by fome of the poets ; and I believe you may have obferved the fame man¬ 
 ners, and the fame air of the face, in fome phyficians that I could mention to you of our 
 acquaintance. 
 
 The flatues of the Terrible Jupiter, were reprefented in every particular differently 
 from thofe of the former. Thefe were generally of black marble, as thofe were of 
 white. The one is fitting, with an air of tranquillity; the other is Handing, and more 
 or lefs diflurbed. The face of one, is pacific and ferene; of the other, angry or 
 clouded. On the heads of the one, the hair is regular and compofed; in the other it is 
 fo difcompofed, that it falls half way down the forehead. 
 
 The beft artifts however feem to have taken great care not to reprefent Jupiter, as too 
 angry. A great deity is not to be fo much in a pafiion as a little one; much lefs, in fuch 
 a paffion as a man. Jupiter is ftill to retain his majefty; which is apt to be fcattcred 
 away with too much paffion. I remember there is a figure in Montfaucon of this angry 
 fort of Jupiter from the work of fome low artift, who has gone fo far as to make 
 his face diflurbed, and (25) his cheeks fwelled out with rage. Horace, where he is 
 fpeaking humoroufly of Jupiter’s being in a violent paffion, feems to have had fome fuch 
 bad figure of him in his eye ; in which the ftatuary had reprefented this king of the 
 gods and men, very ridiculoufly, with both his cheeks as it were (26) bloated with ill 
 
 humour. 
 
 (20) Dixerat; idque ratum Stygii per flumina fratris. 
 Per pice torrentes atraque voragine ripas, 
 
 Annuit: et totum nutu tremefecit Olympum. 
 
 JSLn. 9. ]/. 106. 
 
 (21) Satum. Lib. 5. C. 14. 
 
 (22) Olli fubridens hominum fator atque deorum. 
 
 Vultu quo ccelum tempeftatelque ferenat, 
 
 Ofcula libavit nata:.- 
 
 JEn. 1. 256. 
 
 (23) -Mediis fefe arduus infert 
 
 Ipfe deis; placido, quatiens tamen omnia, vultu. 
 
 Statius. Theb. 1. 203. 
 
54 
 
 P O L Y M E T I S. 
 
 humour. How different is the air of that fine buff of the Jupiter Terribilis, at the Villa 
 Mattei at Rome? which has as much of majefty as terror in it; and which, where it 
 expreffes anger, expreffes (27) an anger not unworthy of Jupiter. 
 
 The face of the Jupiter Tonans has a good deal of refemblance to that of the Jupiter 
 Terribilis, as appears from fcveral of the gems (28) and medals where his figure is pre- 
 ferved to us. He is reprefented on them as holding up the triple bolt, in his right hand ; 
 and handing in a chariot, which feems to be whirled on impetuoufly by four horfes. 
 The poets deferibe him in the fame manner as (29) handing amidh his rapid horfes 
 or “ his horfes ( 3 °) that make the thunder.” For as the antients had a hrange idea of 
 the brazen vault of heaven, they feem to have attributed the noife in a thunder-horm 
 to the rattling of Jupiter’s chariot and horfes on that great (3O arch of brafs, all over their 
 heads; as they fuppofed that he himfelf flung the flames out of his hand, which dart at 
 the fame time out of the clouds, beneath this arch. Jupiter obtained this conflant prero¬ 
 gative of difpenfing the thunder-bolt, as Ovid (32) tells us, from his having conquered 
 the rebel giants with that weapon; and I remember there is a gem in the Great Duke’s 
 colleftion atFlorence (33), in which Jupiter is reprefented as driving on his chariot againft 
 one of them ; and grafping his fulmen, as ready to dart it at his head. By the way, the 
 artift has made ule of the lame artifice to inlinuate the vaft fize of Jupiter in this little 
 gem, that Timanthes was fo celebrated for in his paintings in miniature. For tbo’ the 
 chariots of the antients were of a very low make (and rather a landing-place only for 
 their feet, than any thing like what we now call a chariot) this of Jupiter is higher than 
 the giant who is oppofed to him : what then muft be the height of the deity himfelf? 
 
 The Jupiter Fulminans, and the Jupiter Fulgurator, feem to have been very much 
 of the fame kind : only thofe who were nicer might perhaps confider the Jupiter Ful¬ 
 minans as the difpenfer of the lightnings, which are darted forth from the clouds ; and 
 the Jupiter Fulgurator as the difpenfer of thofe lefl’er lightnings, that only fhoot about 
 and flruggle ( 34 ) amidft the clouds. Had the Aurora Borealis, for inflance, been as 
 common formerly at Rome, as it has been of late years among us; the augurs there 
 would have attributed thofe quivering lights to the Jupiter Fulgurator ; as they did the 
 ft reams of lightning that darted through the air, to the Jupiter Fulminans. I have already 
 faid, that the fulmen was reprefented by the artifts in different fhapes ; but of whatever 
 fliape it was, it was always fuppofed to confift chiefly of (35) fire. The poets often call 
 
 And of Jupiter himfelf; 
 
 Jupiter intumuit : quaque eft non ufa modefte 
 Eripuit linguam. - 
 
 Faft. 2. yr. 60S. 
 
 (27) —— Dignas Jove concipit iras. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 1. y. 1 66 . 
 
 (28) See Muf. Flor. Vol. I. PI. 57. Fig. 2. 
 
 (29) - Rapidis qui tonat altus equis. 
 
 Ovid. Detan. Here. V. zS. 
 
 (30) -- Tonantes 
 
 Egit equos, volucremque currum. 
 
 Horaee, Lib. 1. Od. 34. y. S. 
 
 (31) This notion of theirs may help to explain the 
 ftory of Salmoneus : who is faid to have built a greftt 
 bridge of brafs, in the middle of the city of Elis ; and 
 to have aefled the part of the Jupiter Tonans upon it; 
 or as Virgil fays. 
 
 Dum flammas Jovis & fonitus imitatur Olympi, 
 Quatuor hic inveftns equis, & lampada quartans, 
 
 Per Graium populos medixque per Elidis urbem 
 Ibat ovans; divumqne fibi pofccbat honores. 
 
 it 
 
 Demens, qui nimbos &: non imitabile fulmen 
 JEre & cornipedum pulfu (imukrat equorum. 
 
 .«•En. 6. y. 591. 
 
 (32) Fulmina poll aufos coalum affeflare gigantas 
 Sumpta Jovi: primo tempore inermis erat. 
 
 Falt. Lib. 3. y. 440. 
 
 (33) Mufeum Florentinum. Vol. I. Pl. 57. 
 Fig. 7. 
 
 (34) See Note 10, anteh. 
 
 (35) Ipfe pater rciEtorque deum, cui dextra trifukis 
 
 Ignibus armata eft.- 
 
 Ovid. Met. 2. y. S49. 
 -Trifida flamma. 
 
 id. ib. y. 32;. 
 
 -Jove tortus ab alto 
 
 Ignis.- Statius, Theb. 3. y. 39;. 
 
 Thus Virgil, in his compotit ion of the fulmen, (peaks 
 of fire oftener than any thing elfe in it. 
 
 His informatum manibus jam parte polita 
 Fulmen erat ; toto genitor qux plurima ccelo 
 Dejicit in terras; pars imperfe&a manebat. 
 
 Tres imbris torti radios, tres nubis aquofte 
 Addiderant ; rutuli tres ignis, & alicis auflri: 
 
 Fulgores 
 
it fo ; and there are fome expreffions in tliem relating to it, and the Jupiter who darted 
 it on the earth, which were probably taken from fome (36) paintings of old; tho' they 
 do not remain to be confronted with them. 
 
 There is another very confiderable charafter of Jupiter, that of the Jupiter Pluvius, 
 which I (hall perhaps have a good deal to fay to, on another occafion ; fo that if you 
 plcafe we will quit his figure for the prefent, to confider his confort a little. 
 
 Juno, as well as Jupiter, had a great variety of charadfers; but the favourite one of 
 them all, among the Romans, was that of the Juno Matrona. You fee (lie is dreft in a 
 long robe, which covers her from head to foot; juft in the fame manner as the Roman 
 matrons dreffed themfelves, out of a principle of decency ; which had prevailed fo far 
 among them, that it was reckoned fcandalous for any married woman to have any thing 
 uncovered ( 37 ) but her face. The figures of the Roman empreffes were often formed 
 under this character of Juno. It was a compliment very commonly paid them on the 
 reverfes of their medals; and not uncommon in their ftatues. Such is that very pretty 
 ftatue of Sabina, at the Villa Mattei in Rome; in which that emprefs appears dreffed 
 and ornamented exactly like the Juno Matrona. This Juno was called indifferently Juno 
 Matrona and Juno Romana; and thofe two names fignified one and the fame thing, as 
 much as Gens togata fignified the people of Rome. I make this obfervation to you, be- 
 caufe it may ferve to explain a (38) pailiige in Horace, which is otherwife liable enough 
 to be mifunderftood. It is where he is fetting the gods in array againft the rebel giants. 
 In that defeription, he mentions Juno under the name of Matrona : which in the gene¬ 
 ral fenfo of the word would be the moft improper he could have pitched on among 
 
 all 
 
 Fulgores nunc terrificos, fonitumque metumque 
 Mifcebant operi, flammifque fequacibu; 
 
 -En. 8. 432. 
 
 This compofltion of Virgil’s is partly natural, and 
 partly poetical. The natural ingredients for it are 
 clouds, wind, fire, rain, and hail; for his imber tor¬ 
 tus feems to ftgnify the fame, as durus imber does in 
 Columella. (De cultu Hort. .V'. 329, & 330.) The 
 word tres, fo often repeated in it, may have fome re¬ 
 lation to the epithets of trifidium and trifulcum fo of- 
 tep given to fulmen by the poets, and fo very well a- 
 greeing with the figures of it, in moll antiques ; as the 
 epithet of alitis, may have fome reference to the wings 
 given to it, in fome of them. 
 
 (36) Thus Horace’s, 
 
 Jam fatis terris nivis atque dira: 
 
 Grandinis mifit pater ; & rubente 
 Dextera facras jaculatus arces. 
 
 Terruit urbem. 
 
 Lib. 1. Od. 2, 
 
 And Virgil’s, 
 
 Ipfe pater media nimborum in no&e corufca 
 Fulmina molitur dextra- 
 
 Geor. L. 1. jh 329. 
 
 And Valerius Flaccus’s, 
 
 Cunfla phalanx infigne Jovis, cxlataque gcllat 
 Tegmina; difperfos trifidis ardoribus ignes; 
 
 Nec primus radios, miles Romane, corufci 
 Fulminis Sc rutilas fcutis diffuderis alas. 
 
 Argon. Lib. 6. 56. 
 
 If thefe llrolccs were not borrowed from paintings, 
 they arc at leaft fo piifhirefque, that they might be of 
 ufe to painters now. They all refer to that gleam 
 which is cad by lightning on the objc< 5 ls near it. In the 
 two firft paflages this ruddy brightnefs is deferibed on 
 Jupiter’s band who holds it; and in the lad, on the 
 wings which the old artids annex to it. 
 
 As the expreflions of corufcus, rubens, and rutilus 
 in thefe three padages, if borrowed at all, mud have 
 been borrowed from paintings ; there are other ex¬ 
 preflions in the poets relating to this fubjeiSt, which 
 might have been taken indifferently from ftatues or 
 pictures. 
 
 Thus: 
 
 In nos alta Jovis dextera fulmen habet. 
 
 Ovid. Lib. 3. El. 3, lo; 
 
 Fulminantis magna Jovis manus. 
 
 Horat. Lib. 3. Od. 3. f. 6. 
 
 Alta fignifies the up-lifted hand of Jove; as altus 
 applied to Jupiter himfelf, fignifies that he is Handing 
 in his chariot; Note 29, anteh. 
 
 (37) Efte procul vittx tenues, infigne pudoris ; 
 
 Quxque tegis medios inftita longa pedes. 
 
 Ovid, de Art. Am. Lib. 1. f. 32. 
 
 Quarum fubfuta talos tegat inflita veile. 
 
 Horat. Lib. 1. Sat. 2. jL 30. 
 
 Ad talos dola demiffa, & circundata p.illa. 
 
 Ibid. $■. 99. 
 
 Matrona: praeter faciem nil cernere poflis ; 
 
 Cxtera, ni Catia efl, demiffa vefle tegentis. 
 
 Ibid. jr. 95. 
 
in 
 
 L Y M E T I S. 
 
 6 
 
 P O 
 
 all the variety of titles given to this goddefs; but in this light, is a compliment to the 
 Roman Juno j the great patronefs of his country. It was the Roman Juno, it feems, 
 who appeared in arms, on this emergency. It was the Roman Juno who affifted in 
 perfon to fupport the empire of heaven, and confequently the happinefs of mankind, 
 again ft the moft formidable enemies that even the imagination of the poets could ever 
 raife up againft them. 
 
 In the antient gems and marbles the Juno Matrona is always reprefented in a modeft 
 and decent drefs ; as the Juno Regina, and the Juno Moneta, are always in a tine and 
 more magnificent one. Yet when one has formed an idea of Juno, either from the fim- 
 plicity of the one, or the magnificence of the others, one is ftill at a lofs what to make 
 of Virgil’s account of her ( 39 ) arms and military chariot in the firft /Eneid; or of that 
 angry and (40) warlike figure, he has given of her in the fecond. A critic of any fpirit 
 would be apt to conclude from hence immediately, that Virgil takes his nap fometimes 
 as well as Homeri and that this contrariety was owing to his forgetfulnefs: but it would 
 be better perhaps, wherever there feems at firft fight to be any blunder in fuch excellent 
 writers as Ilomer and Virgil (or indeed in lefs excellent poets, if they wrote in times fo 
 very far removed from us) rather to fufpedt that we ourfelves are ignorant of fome cuftom 
 or fad, very well known in their times; than that the poet is miftaken, or guilty of 
 fome blunder. I fihould think it would be very right to lay this down as a o-eneral rule 
 to ourfelves in reading the works of all fuch of the antients, as have been allowed in their 
 own times, and in the next fucceeding ages, to have been men of very good fenfe and 
 very careful writers. This opinion of mine is, I can aflure you, founded on fad; I 
 mean that of my having found myfelf very often miftaken in the end, where I thought 
 they were at firft: and to lay the truth this has happened to me in the very cafe I was 
 fpeaking of. At my firft confidering thefe warlike deferiptions of Juno in Virgil, I faw 
 they did not agree with the moft eftablilhed charaders of that goddefs among the Ro¬ 
 mans: I therefore thought, for fome time, that Virgil took a good deal of liberty in cafes 
 of this nature ■, and that thefe were to be reckoned among his negligences. But on a 
 more careful review, I found the fault was in myfelf; and that Virgil in both thofe 
 places intended to fpeak of Juno, not according to the appearance fhe ufed to make among 
 the Romans, but according to the reprefentations of her in other countries. In the firft 
 he certainly fpeaks of the (4 1 ) Carthaginian Juno; and in the fecond, of the Juno ArHva • 
 or, at leaft, fome particular Juno (42) of the Greeks. 
 
 It is true there was a Juno too received among the Romans, with which thefe attri¬ 
 butes, and this fort of charader, would not difagree. What I mean is the Juno Sofpita; 
 who appears on feveral (43) family medals, in a war-chariot, and with a fpear in her hand. 
 
 Tho* 
 
 (jg) Quam Juno fertur terris magis omnibus unam 
 Poiihabita coluilfe Samo : hic illius arma, 
 
 Hic currus fuit- 
 
 An. 1. 17. 
 
 (40) --Juno Scteas fawilfima portas 
 
 Prima tenet; fociumque furens e navibus agmen, 
 Ferro accindta vocat. - 
 
 JEn. 2. j/, 614. 
 
 (41) It appears from the context in Virgil, that it 
 was at Carthage, that Juno had her arms and a cha¬ 
 riot; and fo Ovid makes her fay, more exprefly, 
 
 Pceniteat quod non foveo Carthaginis arces ; 
 
 Cum mea fint illo currus Sc arma loco. 
 
 Fall. Lib. 6. jr. 46. 
 
 One would think from this, compared with what 
 Apuleius fays in his prayer of Pfyche, that the Car¬ 
 thaginians reprefented their Juno fometimes, in a cha¬ 
 riot drawn by lions.- Magni Jovis germana & 
 
 conjuga ! Sive tu Sami, quas querulo partu vagituque 
 h alimonia tua gloriatur, tenes vetufta delubra ! Sive 
 
 celfae Carthaginis, quae te virginem ve&ura leonis cado 
 commeantem percolit, beatas fedes frequentas ! Sive 
 prope ripas Inachi, qui te jam nuptam Tonantis, & re¬ 
 ginam dearum memorat! &c.—Af. Aur. Lib. 6. 
 
 (42) It fhould, by the rules of propriety, be fome 
 
 Grecian Juno, or other; becaufe fhe is aflifling the 
 Greeks, to overturn the empire of the Afiatics. One of 
 the moft celebrated among the Grecian Juno’s was the 
 Juno Argiva. She was worfhipped under that name 
 even in Italy ; and Ovid has a long delcription of a 
 proceffion to her at Falifci. Lib. 3. El. 13. Helenus 
 had ordered the Romans, by Alneas, to worfhip 
 Juno moft particularly ; to get her over to their party. 
 Virgil’s An. 3. jfr. 433—439. They did fo ; and 
 thought that, in time, file came to prefer them to all 
 her moft favourite nations. Ovid’s Faft. 6. 45. 
 
 48. 
 
 (43) See Montfaucon’s Antiquities. Tcm. 1. Pi. 
 22, 11. 
 
Dialogue the Sixth. 
 
 Tho' the idea of this Juno was fo well known and fo familiar to the Romans, that they 
 nfed to fee her with all her proper accoutrements about her even in their (4*}d dreams; 
 yet I fhould never have been at all inclined to think that thefe deferiptions were written 
 by Virgil with any eye to her. Her drefs is fo particular, that any defeription of it 
 in the poets would be eafily known; and yet, I believe, you cannot find out any one line 
 either in Virgil, or in any other of the Roman poets, which is deferiptive of her. In¬ 
 deed it feems to have been a general rule among them, to follow the great and national 
 ideas that were univerfally received among them, in deferibing the figure of any deity j 
 and to touch but very feldom, on the local and particular ones : among which we may 
 reckon the Juno Sofpita; who was much more worfnipped (45) at Lanuvium, than Hie 
 was at Rome. 
 
 There was a Mild Juno, as well as a Mild Jupiter, among the Romans. Pier face is 
 gentle, and more good-humoured than ufual. It has the lame air with which die ap¬ 
 pears on a Greek medal, in Montfaucon (46) ; where you fee her Handing in her chariot, 
 drawn by peacocks. This is an idea, which was received too among the Roman poets ; 
 and which I fiv.dl confider farther, together with that of the Jupiter Pluvius, when we 
 come to the (47) deities of the air. 
 
 The moft obvious and ftriking character of Juno, and that which we are apt to im¬ 
 bibe the moft early of any from the writings of Homer and Virgil, is quite contrary to 
 the former ; that of an imperious haughty wife. In both of thefe poets, we find her 
 much oftener fcolding at Jupiter, than carefling him : and in the tenth fEneid in particu¬ 
 lar, even in the council of the gods, her behaviour is all either fullen (48), or angry and 
 indecent. There is a relievo, in the court of the univerlity at Turin, which feems to be 
 meant to reprefent her in this very feene; and I could fay much more of it, and of this 
 ill-natured character of Juno in general. But as this goddefs was antiently looked on as 
 the great patronefs of marriage and a wedded life, I chufe to wave the fubjeift; and fhall 
 only add, that it is a great matter of furprize to me, how Virgil and Homer could be fo 
 wicked, as to reprefent her moft commonly in this character, under fo falfe, and fo dis¬ 
 agreeable a light. 
 
 On the right hand of Jupiter, you fee Minerva ; as Juno is on his left. Thefe three Pr ATE 
 deities are frequently joined together (49) by the Roman authors; as well as in antient Fig. 2. 
 
 inferiptions* 
 
 (44) — Illam noflram Sofpitam; quam tu nunquam 
 nee in fomniis vides, nifi cum pelle caprina, cum 
 hafla, cum fcutulo, cum calceis repandis. Cicero, 
 de Nat. Deor. Li'b. 1. 
 
 (45) She was particularly worlhipped at Lanu¬ 
 vium. 
 
 Quoscallrum, Phrygibufque gravis quondam Ardeamifit; 
 
 Quos, celfo devexa jugo Junonia fedes, 
 
 Lanuvium. - 
 
 Silius, Lib. 8. f. 36Z. 
 
 Lanuvio generate, 'inquit, quem Sofpita Juno 
 
 Dat nobis.- 
 
 Id. Lib. 13. f. 36;. 
 
 Date hoc ipfius pudori, date patri mortuo, date 
 generi & familiae, date etiam Lanuvio municipio ho- 
 neftiflimo, quod in hac tota cauia frequens maeftum- 
 que vidillis. Nolite a facris patriis Junonis Sofpita;, 
 cui omnes confules facere neccfle eft, domefticum Sc 
 fuum confulem potiflimum avellere. Cicero, pro 
 Murasna, fub fin. 
 
 They had in old times a temple to the Juno Sofpita 
 in Rome ; but her worlhip had been fo little regarded 
 there, that the very ruins of it were not eafily to be 
 found out, in the Auguftan age. 
 
 Principio menfis Phrygis contermina matri 
 Sofpita delubris dicitur autta novis; 
 
 Nunc ubi fur.t illis, quiris, facrata kalendis 
 Templa dei ? Longa procubuere die : 
 
 Citera ne fimili caderent labefatta ruina 
 Cavit facrati provida cura ducis : 
 
 Sub quo, &c. 
 
 Ovid. Fall. Lib. 2. jr.6n 
 
 (46) Vol. I. Pl. 22, 6. 
 
 (46) Dial. XIII. 
 
 (48) -Tum regia Juno 
 
 Atta furore gravi. “ Quid me alta filentia cogis 
 Rumpere, &obduttum verbis vulgare dolorem? &c. 
 
 See her whole fpeech, J£. n. 10. jr, 62 —95. 
 
 (49) This is frequent in the Roman authors in ge¬ 
 neral ; but I fhall only chufe out three or four paffages 
 from fome of the beft of them. 
 
 Cicero, in the clofe of his fpeech againft Verres, 
 invokes thefe three deities at the head of all the other 
 gods, whofe temples that impious governor had pro¬ 
 faned. “ Nunc te, Jupiter Optime Maxime ! cujus 
 
POLYMET! S. 
 
 ( 5 °) infer! ptions, and the (5 0 works of the at 
 as great a ( 5 2 ) fuperiority among the twelve 
 the multitude of divinities received among 
 the higheft kind of worlhip; and regards 
 the (53) guardian gods of their empire. Y 
 
 ifle donum regale, dignum tuo pulcherrimo templo, 
 dignum Capitolio, atque ifta arce omnium natio¬ 
 num :—Tequc, Juno regina 1 Tcque Minerva !” 
 
 &c. 
 
 In the peroration of Cicero’s fpccch a little before 
 his own banifhment, he invokes the fame threedeities, 
 in particular; and all the other Roman deities in ge¬ 
 neral • as it feems, in the words of fome form of 
 prayer ufed among the Romans. “ Nunc ego te, Ju¬ 
 piter Optime Maxime, cujus nutu ac ditione fold 
 terrarum gubernamur ! Tcque, particeps connubii, 
 focia regni, Regina Juno ! Tcque, Tritonia armipo¬ 
 tens Gorgophora Pallas Minerva ! Cmtcrique dii, dete- 
 que immortales !” 
 
 The fame manner of diflinguifhing Jupiter, Juno, 
 and Minerva, from all the other gods, is very frequent 
 in Livy ; as in his account of the Servile war, in par¬ 
 ticular.—Jupiter Optimus Maximus, Juno Regina, 
 & Minerva, aliique dii dereque obfidentur. Lib. 3. 
 §. 17. And in Manlius Capitolinus’s fpcech, when 
 they arc carrying him to prifon. Jupiter Optime 
 Maxime, Junoquc Regina, sc Minerva, ctetcrique 
 dii dciequc qui Capitolium arccmquc incolitis, fic- 
 cinc veftrum militem ac pnefidem finitis vexari ab 
 inimicis ?” Lib. 6. §. 16. 
 
 (150) Thefe fometimes only mention thefc three 
 deities ; as in that at Milan, in Gruter’s colleiSHon. 
 IOVI. IVNON. MINER. 
 
 And fometimes diftinguilh them from all the other 
 gods; as in that at Aulburg, in the fame author. 
 
 I. O. M. 
 
 IVNONI REGIN/E. MINERV 7 E. 
 OMNIBVS DIIS IMMORTALIBVS. 
 
 (51) Thefe three deities are frequently reprefented 
 together, on gems and medals; and, particularly, in 
 a jafper of the Great Duke’s at Florence, the draught 
 of which is given in PI. 3. Fig. 2. 
 
 Sometimes they reprefented them by proxy; as on 
 a medal of Antoninus, where you have the owl for 
 Minerva, an eagle for Jupiter, and a peacock for 
 Juno: and fometimes more fully ; as in the drawing 
 of a gem in Baron Stofche’s collection at Florence, 
 where you have the three deities fitting, with their 
 three particular birds at their feet, and Vulcan Hand¬ 
 ing near an altar by them. 
 
 (52) There were three deities which were looked 
 on by the Romans as. The Great and Powerful Gods. 
 Ante has tres aras trinis Diis parent, Magnis, Potenti¬ 
 bus, Valentibus. Tertullian. Lib. de SpeCtac. c. 4. 
 
 Who the three were, or at leaft whence this high 
 notion of them was derived, may perhaps fufficiently 
 appear from the following paflage in Macrobius. 
 Varro (fays he) rerum humanarum fecundo, Darda¬ 
 num refert Deos Penates ex Samothrace in Phrygiam, 
 
 & TF.ncam ex Phrygia in Italiam detulifle. Qui fint 
 autem Dii Penates, in libro quidem memorato Varro 
 
 tills. They were looked upon as having at leaft 
 great gods, as the reft of the twelve had ovef 
 the Romans. They worlhipped them with 
 d them as their particular defenders, and as 
 ou fee their niches arc joined together here; 
 
 as 
 
 non exprimit. Sed qui diligentius quterunt veritatem, 
 Penates efle dixerunt ; per quos penitus fpiramus, per 
 quos habemus corpus, per quos rationem animi pof- 
 fidcrrius. Efle autem medium aethera Jovem, Juno¬ 
 nem verb imum aera cum terra, et Minervam fum- 
 mum setheris cacumen, eo argumento utuntur ; quod 
 Tarquinius, Demarathi Corinthii filius, Samothraciis 
 religionibus myftice imbutus, uno templo ac fub eo¬ 
 dem tecto numina memorata conjungit. Caflius vero 
 Ilemina dicit, Samothracas deos, eofdemque Romano¬ 
 rum Penates, proprie dici 0{« Ms^aAar, 0 2sf Xpii- 
 06Bf At /vct]>s{. Macrobius. Saturnal. Lib. 3. 
 cap. 4. 
 
 Hence may appear too (by the way) the reafon why 
 Jupiter is generally placed in the midfl, Minerva on 
 his right hand, and Juno Jafl:; in the joint reprefenta- 
 tions of thefe three great divinities. 
 
 ( 53 ) This may be partly inferred from the quota¬ 
 tion from Macrobius, in the preceding note ; where 
 he calls thefc three deities, the Penates of the Ro¬ 
 mans ; for as the private Penates were the patrons and 
 guardian-gods of particular families, fo the public Pe¬ 
 nates were the guardian-gods of any Hate or people. 
 The diflindtion between private and public gods is 
 authorized by Livy. Hos omnes deos publicos pri- 
 vatofque, Quirites, deferturi eftis ? Lib. 5. §. 52. 
 And the fame author, after mentioning Jupiter, Juno, 
 and Minerva, in his account of the Servile war, and 
 the Capitol’s being befieged, adds immediately : 
 Caftra fervorum publicos veftros Penates tenent 
 Lib. 3. §. 17. 
 
 The Romans called thefe three deities by the very 
 name of guardians. Veneramini illum Jovem, cu- 
 
 Itodem hujus urbis. Cicero, in Catil. 3. §. 162._ 
 
 Eo ipfo die, (quinquatribus, or the firfl: of the five- 
 days feaft to Minerva) fenatus decrevit, ut Minerva 
 noflra, cuftos urbis, quam turba dejecerat, reftituc- 
 
 retur. Id. Lib. 12. Epift. 25.- Junoni conferva- 
 
 trici ; is common in antient inferiptions. See Gruter 
 p. 25. 
 
 One may add here, that as the Romans looked on 
 thefe three deities as their Great Guardian Gods it 
 muft have been one of the higheft compliments they 
 could pay to any of their emperors, to reprefent them 
 on the reverfc of their medals. Thus, for inftance 
 when we find thefc three deities on the reverfc of An¬ 
 toninus; this, in the language of the artifls, is directly 
 faying that Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius, and 
 Lucius Verus, were their guardian gods, or pre- 
 fervers of the empire. In the fame manner you have 
 Balbinus, Pupienus, and young Gordian engraved on 
 one fide of a jafper, in Signor Ficoroni’s collection at 
 Rome; and Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva on the o- 
 ther : which is faying hieroglvphically, (or by images) 
 much the fame as Ovid does in words, in the clofe 
 of the fourth book of his Fafli. 
 
 State Palatina? laurus ! prtetextaque qucrcu 
 Stet domus 1 aElernos tres habet una deos. 
 
59 
 
 Dialogue the Sixth. 
 
 asdieir flirines (54) formerly were, in the great temple of Jupiter, on the Capitoline 
 
 Minerva you fee, is a beauty; but a beauty of the feverer kind. She has not any 
 h.ng of the little graces, or of the foftnefs and prettineffes of Venus. It is that dignity! 
 that becoming air ; that firmnefs and compofure ; with fuch juft features, and a certain 
 ernnefs that has much more of (sj) mafculine than female in it; which make the di- 
 ft.nguiflnng chara&r of her face. This goddefs, as the antients ufed to rcprefent her 
 rs more apt to ftnke one with awe and terror, than to charm one, at firft light Her 
 die s and attributes are adapted to the cWter of her face. She mod ufually appeared 
 w, ha helmet on her head ; and a plume, that nodded formidably in the air. In her 
 ight hand Ihe iliook her fpear; and in the other grafped her Ihield, with the head of 
 e dying Mcduiii upon it. You have the fame figure again, with all its terrors and all 
 5 1 j S ' her bteaft-plate; and fometimes the goddefs herfelf is reprefented as 
 having living ferpents about her breafts, and about her ihoulders. I, is true the forms 
 e. her of wifdom or of virtue, are apt at firft to feem a little too fevere to the eyes of mor¬ 
 tals but in this cafe the antient artifts have rather over-done their part"; and have 
 worked up too much of outward terrors, about a peribnage, that is really, (and that 
 ought to be) fo amiable, ’’ K 1 
 
 Plats Hr, 
 
 Fm. 3. 
 
 folk of M r 3Sree T' * eVe " in thls eXCefs t00; for tIlo ’ the y fometimes 
 
 ,hnbe f ^fi rV Tb “ 7 beaut!fuli the y generally deferibe her as (56) more terrible, 
 
 than beautiful They never call her pretty, but handfome or graceful; and give her the 
 1 es ot the ( 57 ) dark-complexioned goddefs, the (58) ftern goddefs, and thefsQ) virago : 
 
 which 
 
 (54) Trina in Tarpeio fulgent confortla templo. 
 
 Aufonius, Edyl, n. jr. ^ 2 . 
 
 Thcfc three deities were before placed together, in 
 one and the fame chapel, in the Capitolium Vetus 
 by Tarquinius Prifcus; uno templo, ac fub eodem 
 lecto, as Macrobius fays; Note 52, anteh. And Varro 
 tells us that this Capitolium Vetus was fo called, Quod 
 ibi facelluin Jovis, Junonis, & Minerva:; &’id an¬ 
 tiquius quam aedis qua: in Capitolio fafla. De Lingua 
 Lat. Lib. 4. p. 39. Ed. Stevens. 
 
 By the way, the reafon that Varro here gives, why 
 the temple built by Tarquinius Prifcus, (near where 
 the Barbarini palace now Hands in Rome) was called 
 Capitolium, feems to overturn the vulgar derivation 
 of that word, from the head of one Tolus ; which 
 indeed, otherwife feems idle enough. He fays cx- 
 prcily it was called Capitolium, (or the chief temple) 
 becaufe their three chief gods were inlhrincd in it. 
 Thus the Greek authors too, call the Capitoline J u - 
 piter indifferently by the name of Ziv; KtrnMm, 
 or Zsvt K.pvpai.t : which (ignifies, (as coryphams 
 does in Latin,) the chief, or principal. 
 
 (55) The air of her face is fo mafculine, that her 
 heads are very like thofe of Alexander the Great ■ 
 (fee Pi. 3. Fig. 3.) and have been often taken by 
 miitake for his. There is a whole plate of thefe maf- 
 culineheads of her, inMontfauconj (Vol.I. PI. 84.) 
 among which there is one, in particular, extremely 
 like Lewis XIV. 
 
 Cupid, in Lucian’s Dialogues, tells his mother, 
 that he is always afraid to approach Minerva, Ihe looks 
 fo terrible, and fo much like a man. A ^ ip , 
 
 * v J ,,r 9°^?* y*P X*po7nu kcu J'siyaf ctyJ'f/Kii. 
 
 lorn. i. p. 216. Ed. Blaeu. 
 
 (56) The two diftinguilhing characters of the per- 
 fonage of Minerva in the Romah poets, are beauty 
 and terror. 
 
 — Deam formaque armifque decoram. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 2. jr. 773. 
 Bellipotens, cui torva genis horrore decoro 
 Callis, & afperfo crudefcit fanguine Gorgon. 
 
 Statius, Theb. 2. jr. jij. 
 The poets ufually compare foft beauties to Venus 
 majeftie ones to Juno, and fevere ones to Diana or 
 Minerva. 
 
 Non fecus ac fupero pariter fi cardine lapfie 
 Pallas Sc afperior Phcebi foror; utraque telis, 
 
 Utraque torva genis, flavoque in vertice nodo ; 
 
 Illa fuas Cyntho comites agat, haec Aracintho. 
 
 T une (fi fas oculis,) non unquam longa tuendo 
 F.xpedias, cui major honos, cui gratior, aut plus 
 De Jove : mutatofque velint tranfumere cultus. 
 
 Et Pallas deceat pharetras, & Delia criilas. 
 
 Statius, Theb. 2. jr. 243. 
 
 (57) Flava Minerva. 
 
 Ovid. Fall. 6. jr. 652. 
 Si pxta elt, Veneri fimilis; fi flava, Minervte. 
 
 Id. Art. Am. Lib. 2. jr. 659. 
 
 (58) Torva. 
 
 Statius, Theb. 2. jr. 238. 
 
 Ferox Pallas. 
 
 Id. Achil. 2. jr. 152, 
 
 (59) Flava virago. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 6 . jr. jjo, 
 The fame poet calls her Impavida, if the poem ad 
 Liviam be his ; and Lucian calls her, avai^vy]^ 
 both which epithets fall in with Silius’s exprelfion of 
 Hans vultus, in his defeription of Virtus ; where he 
 makes that goddefs appear to Scipio Africanus. 
 
6 o 
 
 POLYMETIS. 
 
 which (tho' too fevere for her intended charafter) agree exadtly with her perfonal one, at 
 it is reprefented in the ftatues and gems of the antients. 
 
 The poets do not only fpeak of a certain ferocity and threatning (6°) turn in the eyes 
 of Minerva; but the very colour of them too, it teems, was (61) adapted to tins cha¬ 
 rter of terror. I can remember, ever fince I was a boy, how very (hiking the eye of 
 a particular Blackmoor was to me, whenever he flung Ins face into a paffiom Minerva, 
 as a native (62), or inhabitant at lead, of Africa, has a great deal of the Moor in her com¬ 
 plexion ; together with a very light-coloured eye, which muft (hew this tlte ftronger. 
 I do not know that any one of the poets in the (63) Auguftan age has touched on this 
 particular colour of Minerva's eyes j tho' the Greeks took fo much notice of it, as to 
 give her one of the mod celebrated titles (64) among them from thence. Virgil, in fpeak- 
 ing of the Palladium, (the little tutelary datue of Minerva, which was kept at fird fo 
 carefully at Troy, and afterwards at Rome,) aferibes a certain fury and motion to the 
 eyes of that figure, in a very particular manner. It is when Diomed had dole the Pal¬ 
 ladium, and brought it into the Grecian camp. 
 
 Vix politum cadris fimulacrum, arfere corudae 
 Luminibus flamma arredtis; falfufque per artus 
 Sudor iit : terque ipfa folo (mirabile didtu) 
 
 Emicuit, parmamque ferens haftamque trementem (65). 
 
 Plats III. 
 Fig. 4. 
 
 Thf. figure of the Palladium is often to be met with on gems, with the little round 
 fhield (or parma) in one hand, and her fpear in the other. It is faid, that the famous 
 original flattie itfelf could ( 66 ) turn its eyes flrangely; and who knows whether the hea¬ 
 then priefts were not as dexterous in managing their old poppets, and giving them cer¬ 
 tain motions on certain occafions ; as fome others have ihewed them leives with the 
 modern ? Virgil (as of the Trojan party) fays that Diomed feized the Palladium with 
 his ( 6 /) hands all bloody; which according to their notions would have been an high 
 
 piece 
 
 (60) Vertit ad hanc torvi dea bellica luminis orbem. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 2. f. 752- 
 
 (61) T/ xv xyi kcu <rv, A- 5 -xva, tkv Kopw a^zAxaa, 
 TM' kzqaaiiv i'lriJ'eiy.vviii ; *xx' tTtffzizis tov ao- 
 
 £oi\ kai tov J'tKAfnv poffsif. H J'zJ'ias yn <toi zAzyyjt- 
 rui tu yAAVKov reov oyyetjuv, ttrsv rx ipoCzpx SAioroyt- 
 yov; Lucian. Dial. p. 89. Ed. Parii. 1615. 
 
 (62) Hinc qui ftagna colunt Tritonidos alta paludis: 
 Qua virgo, ut fama eft, bellatrix edita lympha, 
 Invento primam Libyen perfudit olivo. 
 
 Silius, Lib. 3. >’•• 324. 
 
 Even the poets had what one may call their real, 
 and their fabulous hiftory, of their divinities. The 
 former they believed, or pretended to believe; but 
 the latter they looked upon as doubtful. When they 
 tell any ftory of this kind, they generally ufher it in 
 with, Ut fertur. Ut perhibent, or Ut fama eft; to 
 lhevv that it is a thing only rumoured, and not abfo- 
 lutely received. This ftory of Minerva’s birth has 
 the mark of the fabulous hiftoiy annexed to it; and 
 indeed according to the more received account, Ihe 
 was not born, but only made her firft appearance 
 there. 
 
 Hanc & Pallas amat ; patrio qua: vertice nata 
 Terrarum primam Libyen (nam proxima ccclo eft, 
 
 Ut probat ipfc calor) tetigit: ftagnique quieta 
 Vultus vidit aqua, pofuitquc in margine plantas; 
 
 Et fe diletta Tritonida dixit ab unda- 
 
 Lucan. Lib. 9. f. 334. 
 
 It may be hence, that Juvenal calls Minerva the 
 African goddefs : 
 
 ._ Niveam regina: credimus agnam ; 
 
 Par vellus dabitur pugnanti Gorgone Maura:. 
 
 Sat. 12. f. 4. 
 
 For fo it feems it fhould be read ; and not Gorgone 
 Maura, the ufual reading: Minerva being often called 
 Tritonia, which is the lame with Maura ; and Me- 
 dufa not having any iuch general appellation from her 
 country, that 1 know of. 
 
 (63) Lucretius takes notice of it in the age before: 
 
 Nigra, yzuy_poos eft ; immunda Sc fcctida, AKOffyos' 
 Cxfia, n*AX*JW.--- 
 
 Lib. 4. f. 1155. 
 
 (64) TAd.vx.aTls A-Jin'#. 
 
 (65) xEn. 2. f. 175. 
 
 (66) There were ftories of this kind of the Palla¬ 
 dium at Troy, and of feveral other little figures of 
 
 Minerva of the fame kind. IrAyov - kcu to x]u 
 
 yvStVilV US TZ /X» y.OVOV KcoJa/AVAAI IpAIVOyZVOV, KA&ATZO 
 X.CU TO ‘V I A/a ATOSpA?VVCU Ka]a TOV KAAAVcTpAS ClACT- 
 y.ov, aAAa kcu kaJa/avov J'zikvv^ai' toAv J'z iTAyartpov 
 to toiavJa Totztv z* Ix/s KiKoytffyzva £oava, ot?AtpA<nv 
 01 avfypAipzis' kcu yA p zv Pw/xh, kcu zv A axiviu, kai zv 
 Axx.zptA, kcu zv Se/piT/J'/, Iaias A&hva KAAZITCU, as 
 ZKllSiV KOUt&ilfa.' KCU ToTpUAtS'av J'i TOAynyA TZpttfZ- 
 PZTAI ICOAAAyx, KCU ATIS-OV (pAlVz'jctl, KCUTZp J'WAjoV OV. 
 
 Strabo. Lib. 6. p. 182. 
 
 (67) xEn. 2, f. 167. 
 
 4 
 
Dialogue the Sixth. 
 
 piece of impiety : but the artifts, who were ufually Greeks, reprefent him 
 his hand in his robe j and fo taking the image with reverence; I fuppofe the Greek 
 writers too, would fcarcely have allowed of his miracle; or of the anger of the goddefs, 
 on this occafion. 
 
 The head of Medufa, which occurs fo frequently both on the bread-plates and on the 
 fhields of Minerva, is fometimes one of the moil beautiful, and at others one of the mod 
 Ihocking objects in the world. In fome figures of it, the face is reprefented as dead, but 
 with the mod perfect features that can be imagined j in others, her lace is full of paf- 
 fion, and her eyes convulfed and in many others, (if all that fort of heads arc really Me- 
 dufas, which are commonly taken for fuch). the look is all frightful, and formed on pur- 
 pofe to give terror. In the noble Medufa, in the Strozzi collection at Rome, her look Plate IV 
 is unpafiionate and dead; but with a beauty, that death itfelf is not capable of extin- 1IG ' I- 
 guidling: and in this other (which I always keep in tin's drawer within the fhrine < f Pi . i I\ 
 Minerva, as being one of the attributes of that goddefs) you fee that angry and painful 1 lG ' 
 turn of the eye, which is common in her figures. Whenever I have the pleafure of 
 ihewin® my collection here, to any ladies; I never f.iil of putting them in mind of Ovid’s 
 advice, to the Roman beauties in his time. He tells them, in his Art of Love ( 68 ), 
 
 « That they diould take care not to be angry, becaufe it difeompofes and lpoils a good 
 face and refers them to fome fuch figure as this of Medufa, for a proof of what he 
 lays. And indeed what an irrefiftible face would this be, were it all enlivened with love, 
 or foftened into finiles ; inffead of all that fpite and anger which you fee in it? The 
 beauties (69), and horrors ( 7 °), of Medufa’s face, are both mentioned by the Roman poets. 
 
 They fpeak frequently alfo of her ferpents : and particularly of two, that are verv much 
 diftirwuilhed from the reft, in feveral of her figures; as having their tails (7 1 ) twined to¬ 
 gether under her chin, and their heads reared over her forehead : as you law they were, 
 in the gem I have juft been lliewing you. 
 
 Some of the Roman poets, and Statius in particular, fpeak of other ferpents about 
 Minerva; diftinCt from thofe which belong to her Gorgon. Their expreflions are fuch, 
 that they feem to point at loofe ferpents, winding at liberty about her breaft; and ap¬ 
 pearing in very different manners, on different occafions. Sometimes they deferibe them 
 as quite ftill, and gentle ; and at others, as roufed and enraged. Thus Statius : 
 
 Ipfa metus Libycos, fervatricemque Medufam 
 PeCtoris, incufsa movit Tritonia parma : 
 
 Protinus ereCti toto fimul agmine Thebas 
 Refpexere angues.-( 7 2 ) 
 
 And in another place : 
 
 Pallada mulcet honos ; rediit ardore remiffo 
 Vultus, & ereCti federunt peCtoris angues. ( 73 ) 
 
 I USED 
 
 (68) Pertinet ad faciem rabidos compefcere mores ; 
 
 Candida pax homines, trux decet ira feras: 
 
 Ora tument ira ; nigrefeunt fanguine vente; 
 Lumina Gorgoneo ftevius igne micant. 
 
 Lib. 3. f. 504. 
 
 (69) --Clariflima forma, 
 
 Multorumque fuit fpes invidiofa procorum. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 4. it. 753. 
 
 (70) Quos habuit vultus hamati vulnere ferri 
 
 Caefa caput Gorgon ? Quanto fpirafle veneno 
 Ora rear, quantumque oculos effundere mortis? 
 
 Lucan. Lib. 9. jr, 680. 
 Gorgona, defefto vertentem lumina collo. 
 
 Virgil, ./En. 8. jr. 438. 
 
 This call of Medufa’s eyes (as in PI. 4. Fig. 2.) 
 may perhaps ferve to explain a paflage in Ovid ; where 
 that poet feems to infer: “ that tho’ your miftrefs is 
 apt to turn away her eves from you, as violently as 
 Medufa does ; yet if you do but flatter hef fufficiently, 
 fhe will turn them kindly on you again.” 
 
 Utfucrit torva violentior ipfa Medufa, 
 
 Piet amatori lenis & tequa fuo. 
 
 Art. Am. 2. >’•. 310. 
 
 (71) Nexaque nodofas angue Medufa comas. 
 
 Ovid, ex Ponto. Lib. 3. Ep. 1. jr. 124. 
 
 Connexofque angues - 
 
 Virgil. iEn. 8. f. 437 * 
 
 (72) Statius, Theb. Lib. 12. it. 609. 
 
 (73) lb. Lib. 8. it. 519. 
 
 R 
 
Tjnr 
 
 |V' 
 
 POLYMETIS. 
 
 I i srn formerly to think, that this was only a figurative way of fpeaking of tire fer- 
 
 : wr ight about the Gorgon’s head, on thebueaft-plate of Minerva, andasfucha 
 
 i; MTL would have been perhaps too bold, I was inclined to reckon it among the liberties 
 . ‘ fP* enou S h t0 take - ^ was by the help of feme antient gems and ita- 
 ‘ dlfco ™ red i;, f m,ftake - After feeing them, the very lines which before 
 
 .: t0 me > Changed their h ok,- and b< came very juft and deferiptive of the ap- 
 
 ; tw goddels ufed to make in the works of the old artifts. For in thefe you meet 
 
 1 ‘ :j fer P ents - fom ‘imes winding themfelves along the bread of Minerva • 
 
 , . L j' enraged, and lulling, and handing out from it; and fometimes, with theft 
 6 ' “ : lded U P d;) wielc within circle, as reding or afleep : in lhort, in every 
 
 a ■ attitude, in which they have been deferibed by any of the poets. 
 
 11 v '; 1 ‘ a vel 'y common thing among the Romans, to transfer the didinnuilhino- a ttri- 
 1 tesof their divinities to theftatues of their emperors. If anyone faid, that Auguftus 
 v " 8 od; ltwas 1‘ttle more in thofe times, and in their manner of fpeaking, than if he 
 i - , that em P er ° r was ll5> his patron : but to make a ftatne of Auguftus with the 
 ■ o< Jupiter in Ins hand, was faying he was the ford and governor of all the world 
 ! can fcarce lm agine how fond thegreateft men of antiquity were of this kind of flat- 
 t-ay. Auguftus himfelf loved to be reprefented with the attributes of Apollo • as his 
 great rival Marc Antony affefted thofe of Hercules. This fpecies of flattery was’earned 
 very far, m all its branches, by the old artifts ; but in no point farther, than in the Gor¬ 
 gon on Minerva s bread. I doubt not but one might make a feries of the Roman empe¬ 
 rors from Auguftus to Galhenus (which would be from the perfefting, to the abfolutefall 
 of all the arts at Rome) with this attribute of Minerva on their breaft-plates I could 
 name the places where the ftatues, or bulls, of the greater part of them are ; and if any 
 lhould be wanting to make up fuch a feries, it would only be two or three of their em¬ 
 perors, of whom we have fcarce any figures at all left to us. They feem all to have been 
 as fond, of being complimented with this outfide badge of wifdom ; as our James the Firft 
 was, of being called by the name of Solomon. Tire ftrongeft I remember in the whole 
 number, for the dying call of the eyes, is on the bull of Nero in the Great Duke’s nai¬ 
 lery : and I fcarce ever faw it, without its putting me in mind of that fine defeription of 
 Minerva’s breaft-plate (76) in Virgil. There is another on a Domitian, in the fame col¬ 
 lodion : to which emperor Martial addrefl'es one of his epigrams; with the very fame 
 turn of flattery in words, which is ufed by the artift in marble. ’ 
 
 Accipe belligera: crudum thoraca Minerva:, 
 Ipla Meduica: quem timet ira dea:: 
 
 Dum vacat base, Cicliir, poterit Lorica videri s 
 PeSore cum facro federit, flEgis erit (77). 
 
 A Breast-Plate (78) with this particular ornament on it, when worn by a dcitv, 
 was called Aigis. It is the mod; ufual ornament on the breaft-plates of Minerva. Her 
 
 11 tic IT 
 
 Connexofque angues : ipfamque in peflore diva 
 Gorgona, defefto vertentem lumina collo. 
 
 ■®n. 3. f. 43 
 
 (77) Martial. Lib. 7. Ep. 
 
 (78) -fligis proprie eft munimentum pectoris, ha- 
 bens in medio Gorgonis caput. Quod munimentum, 
 ft in peflore numinis fuerit, .fligis vocatur; fi i n pec¬ 
 tore hominis, ficut in antiquis imperatorum flatu is 
 videmus. Lorica dicitur. Says Servius on Virgil 
 JEn - 8 - 435 - and what he fays is entirely confirmed 
 
 by 
 
Dialogue the Sixth . A * 
 
 Ihield too had fometimes the fame device, and the fame (79) name; and was of fo much 
 dignity, that it feems to have been appropriated to herfelf and Jupiter alone of all the 
 gods. This Aegis, or If ere J ffffcld, was very antiently fuppofed to beheld by Jupiter 
 when he thundered : and Minerva -ufed it fometimes, on the fame 
 
 1 could eafily think, fays Philander, that Jupiter might make free with the aEgis of 
 Minerva; but I ihould never have imagined, that Minerva durft manage hi thunder. 
 
 If that furprizes you, fays Polymetis, it is not at all ftrange; becaufe you were never 
 initiated in the great Samothracian myfteries; or even in thofe of Athens or Rome. 
 
 Thefe, you mult know, I have long fancied to have been a fort of pagan I ree -mafonry. 
 
 At leaft this is certain, that there were many focieties of old, in which their moil impor¬ 
 tant fecretswere preferred with great devotion. Themoft famous lodge of this kindwas 
 in theifland of Samothrace ; from which the Greeks and Rot s de ived thei 1 
 
 lodges. Had we lived in thofe times, proved extraordinary good he ns, nd been 
 
 mitted into one of thefe focieties, I doubt not but we £1 km cftly well, 
 
 why Minerva is fometimes reprefen ted by the artifts, and poets {80), as dealing out the 
 thunderbolts of Jove ; and why this goddefs and Juno, and thofe two only of alf the hca- P. err ;v 
 then deities, are allowed to have an equal right to this diftinguilhing pri-. il,- - wit!) Jupi- 1 S' 
 ter himfelf. By what has tranfpired of thefe old fecrets it feems probable' l; or-- li, th r 
 tlie Romans confidered thefe three (81), as one and the fame divinity under three different 
 
 by the epigram from Martial above. The fame poet 
 has another epigram on their emperor’s bearing the 
 ■^Egis of Minerva. 
 
 Dic mihi, virgo ferox, cum fit tibi Caflis & Hafta, 
 Quare non habeas Asgida? Ccefar habcc. 
 
 Lib. 14. Ep. 179. 
 
 And, perhaps, Ovid : 
 
 A quacunque trahis ratione vocabula, Pallas; 
 
 Pro ducibus noftris Aigida femper habe. 
 
 Fall. 3. 848. 
 
 (79) The word ./Egis feems to be ufed for Minerva’s 
 Ihield, rather than her brcaft-plate, in the following 
 palTages. 
 
 Quid Rhrecus, evulfifque truncis 
 Enceladus jaculator audax, 
 
 Contra fonantem Palladis ALgida 
 
 Poffent ruentes ?- 
 
 Horat. Lib. 3. Od. 4. jr. 62. 
 Asgidc terrifica, quam ncc dea laflat habendo, 
 
 Nec pater; horrentem colubris, vultuque tremendam 
 Gorgoneo.-• 
 
 Flaccus, Argon. 6. jr. 176. 
 
 (80) The Roman poets (of all the three ages) give 
 this diftinguilhing attribute of Jupiter, to Juno and 
 Minerva. 
 
 As in the following paflages ; (oTMinerva.) 
 
 Ipfa Jovis rapidum jaculata e nubibus ignem 
 Disjecitque rates, evertitque requora ventis; 
 
 Illum expirantem transfixo pe&ore flammas 
 Turbine corripuit, fcopuloque infixit acuto. 
 
 Virgil. Ain. 1. jr. 45. 
 
 Prima corufcanti lignum dedit Aigide virgo, 
 Fulmineam jaculata facem : vixdum ardua cautes 
 Ccflerat, illa volans tenui per concita faxa 
 Luce fugit. Rediere viris animique manufque, 
 
 Ut videre viam. Sequor, O quicumque Deorum ! 
 Aifonides, vel fallor, ait; przecepfque fragores 
 Per medios ruit, & fumo fe condidit atro, 
 
 Flaccus, Argonaut. 4. 676. 
 
 ■-Fulmine irati Jovis 
 
 Armata Pallas, quicquid aut hafta minax, 
 
 Aut Asgidc, aut furore Gorgoneo poteft, 
 
 Aut igne patrio, tentat.- 
 
 Seneca, Agamem. Adi. 3. Sc. 1. 
 
 n.imes 3 
 
 And in thefe ; (of Juno.) 
 
 - Prajfcrvido fulgore- 
 
 Ardor injedtus Junonis dextera ingenti incidit. 
 
 Fragm. of Adlius; 
 
 -Flammis cindta fub ipfain 
 
 Starem aciem, traheremque inimica in pr.x'i.t Teucros. 
 
 Virgil. Ain. 12. j/. 812. 
 His ego nigrantem commixta grandine nimbum 
 Defuper infundam, & tonitru ccelum omne ciebo. 
 
 Ibid. 4, jr, 122, 
 
 Siderei regina poli, tumulumquc rebellem 
 Disjice ; & in Thebas aliud, potes, excute fulmen ! 
 
 Statius. Thcb. 10. 69; 
 
 -Imbrem & tenebras f.cvumque tridentem 
 
 Jam jam ego, & inviti torfilfem conjugis ignem. 
 
 Valerius Flaccus. Argon. 1. y. 116. 
 
 What is aflerted above, and proved hoe, may help 
 one to explain that paflage in Juvenal. 
 
 -Jurcs licet & Samothracum 
 
 Et noftrorum ar.V7, contemnere fulmina pauper 
 Crederis atque deos, diis ignofccntibus ipfis. 
 
 Sat. 3. >U 146. 
 
 “ Tho’ you fwear by the great gods, fo revered ;:i 
 the Samothracian myfteries, and received as the guar¬ 
 dian gods of our ftate ; yet, if you are poor, no one 
 will mind what you fay. They will think that you 
 defpife even thofe gods, and their thunder ; nay, that 
 thofe gods, (by whom they fuppofed, by the way, that 
 every man lived and breathed,) in their turn, have no 
 regard at all for you ; nor for any thing that you may 
 do, or fay.” 
 
 Whether it was that the artifts were looked on as a 
 meaner fort of people of old among the Romans, and 
 were therefore fcldom initiated in the mvfterics I 
 know not; but it is certain, that this point is not fo 
 frequently to be met with in their works, as it is in 
 thole of the poets. 1 never remember to have feen 
 any antique of Juno with the fulmen ; unlefsone might 
 reckon the figures of Juno Sofpita, who bears it on her 
 ftucld : and icarceany of Minerva, except that on the 
 medal of Domitian. PI. 4. Fig. 5. 
 
 (81) That this was the opinion of fome of their 
 philofophers, may be collcfled from that remarkable 
 pafi’age in Latftantiu;. Vana igitur perfuaftoeft corum, 
 
6 + 
 
 P O L Y M E 
 
 l 
 
 I S. 
 
 names; among which names, that of Jupiter might fignify the fupreme goodnefs ; that 
 cf Minerva, the fupreme wifdom ; and that of Juno, the fupreme power : fomewhat 
 after the manner, that our (82) Cudworth, and fome other very learned writers, have 
 imagined. I could go much farther on this fubjeit; but it is high time, I believe, that 
 w e fhould think a little of our dinner: and fo, if you pleafe, we will take our leave of 
 Minerva; and of all the ideas which the old Romans may have entertained of her and 
 her two affociates. 
 
 v,'.\ nomen Jovis fummo Deo tribuunt. Solent enim 
 quidam errores fuos hac excufatione defendere; qui 
 ( oin icti de unoDeo, cum id negare non poflunt, ipfum 
 it- colere affirmant; verum hoc fibi placere, ut Jupiter 
 nominetur. Quo quid abfurdius ? Jupiter enim fine 
 contubernio conjugis filireque coli nonfolet; unde quid 
 fit apparet : nec fas eft id nomen eo transferri, ubi nec 
 Minerva eft ulla nec Juno. Inftitut. Lib. 1. §. 11. 
 p. 49. Ed. 1684. 
 
 Arnobius too feems to have fomething like this. 
 Hos (Penates) Confentes & Complices Etrufci aiunt 
 & nominant, quod una oriantur & occidant una. Adv. 
 Gentes. Lib. 3. 
 
 Macrobius fays that thefe three deities were joined 
 uno templo, ac fub eodem tcifto, Note 51, anteh. and 
 Lactantius here, that they were worfliipped under the 
 fame tent, or fhrine; “ whence (fays he,) it is plain. 
 
 what they were.” That is, that they were as great as 
 Jupiter, and one with him : for the Romans could have 
 but one and the fame god, in the fame fhrine; as ap¬ 
 pears from the following paflage, in Valerius Maxi¬ 
 mus. Cum Marcellus — templum Honori & Virtuti— 
 confccrarc vellet, a collegio pontificum impeditus eft ; 
 negante, unam cellam duobus diis refle dicari: futu¬ 
 rum enim, fi quid prodigii in ea accidiflet, ne dignof- 
 ceretur utri rem divinam facere oporteret; nec duo¬ 
 bus, (nifi certis diis,) una facrificari folere. Memorab. 
 Lib. i. Cap. 1. 
 
 (82) Thefe three Capitoline gods, Jupiter, Juno, 
 and Minerva,— may be underftood to have been no¬ 
 thing elfc but fevcral names and notions of one fu¬ 
 preme deity, according to its feveral attributes and 
 manifeftations. Intcll. Syftcm, Book 1. Ch. 4. p.450. 
 
D I A 
 
 DIAL. VII. 
 
 Neptune; Venus; Mars; Vulcan, and Vefta. 
 
 F T E R dinner. Polymetis returned with his two friends to his Rotonda : 
 went on in (hewing them his collection, without making any new prefaces. 
 
 That deity, fays he, next to Minerva, you fee is Neptune; and this figure of him is 
 the fame figure in large, which you may have often feen in miniature, on a very com¬ 
 mon medal (i) of Adrian. As the little figures on medals and gems were without doubt 
 frequently copies of fome of the more celebrated ftatues among the antients, they might 
 be of great ufe for a fupply where the originals are loft : and furely, on occafion, it may 
 be full as fair to revive a ftatue, from a medal; as it was at firft to take the reverfe of 
 the medal from a ftatue. I have therefore done it in this cafe; and in fome others, where 
 it was difficult to find out a good ftatue to copy for my collection. Neptune, in this 
 figure of him, holds his trident in his right hand ; which is his fcepter, as lord of all the 
 (2) Mediterranean feas; the dolphin in his left hand, and the prow of a fhip on which he 
 refts one of his feet, refer to the fame ; for as matter of the inland feas, he was mafter of 
 all the navigation of thofe times. His afpeCt in this, and in all the good figures I have 
 feen of him, is (3) majeftic and ferene. The lower fort of artifts reprefent him fome- 
 times with an angry and difturbed air; and one may obferve the fame difference in this 
 particular between the great and inferior poets, as there is between the bad and the good 
 artifts. Thus Ovid (4) deferibes Neptune with a fullen look; whereas Virgil exprefly 
 tells us that he has a (5) mild face, even where he is reprefenting him in a paffion. 
 
 Neptune, as having a feat in the fupreme council of the gods, is often fpoken of as 
 in the higheft heaven ; and I have therefore given his ftatue a place here among the 
 Twelve Great Gods. But we fliall meet with him, in his proper character, in the tem¬ 
 ple of the Water-deities ; where we may conlider him more particularly. Let us there¬ 
 fore at prefent go on to a fofter figure, this Venus; which is a copy of the famous 
 Venus of Medici. 
 
 (1) See Plate 30. Fig. 1. after Dial. 14. 
 
 (2) As Oceanus and Amphitrite prefided over the 
 great body of waters that furrounded the earth ; fo 
 their fon-in-law, Neptune, had the dominion of the 
 waters inclofed between the coafts of Europe and 
 Africa. Hence Statius, (probably from fome of the 
 old Grecian poets) makes Neptune keep his refidence 
 in the port of Ttenaros ; the moll confiderable gulph 
 on the coaft of Greece, toward the main courfe of 
 the Mediterranean fea. Theb. 2. 45. And Juvenal 
 calls him exprefly, “Lord of the jEgean fea;” a 
 principal part of the Mediterranean. 
 
 Per folis radios, Tarpeiaque fulmina jurat; 
 
 Per Martis frameam & Cirrhiei fpicula vatis ; 
 
 Per calamos venatricis pharetramque puellx ; 
 
 Perque tuum, pater 2Egei Neptune, triden' 
 
 Sat. 13. jfr. 81. 
 
 What was of old called the ./Egean fea, is what we 
 now call the Archipelago ; and may very well be ufed 
 here, by way of eminence, for the whole Mediterra¬ 
 
 nean. It was yet more eminent, among the Greek and 
 Latin poets ; from its neighbourhood to Athens, 
 
66 
 
 POLYMETIS. 
 
 Venus in general has one of the prettieft, as Minerva has fometimes one of the hand- 
 fomeft faces, that can be conceived. Her look, as fhe is reprefented by the antient artifts 
 and poets, has all the taking airs, wantonnefles, and graces, that they could give it. Her 
 fhape is the molt exadt and elegant imaginable; all loft, and full of tendernefs. The 
 finenefs of her lkin and the beauty of her complexion were fo exquifite, that it was the 
 mailer-piece, even of Apelles, to exprefs it as it ought to be. Her eyes were either wanton, 
 or quick, or languishing, or infolent, according to the occafion; and her face and all 
 her air agreed with them. She is very frequently deferibed too, as having a treacherous 
 infulting fmile on her face. But however fhe appears, or whatever die is doing, every 
 thing about her, and every little motion of her, is all graceful, and bewitching, and 
 charming. 
 
 T he Venus of Medici has often put me in mind of a paffage in Statius; 
 
 Effulfere ( 6 ) artus, membrorumque omnis aperta eft 
 Laetitia; infignefque humeri, nec pedlora nudis 
 Deteriora genis ; latuitque in corpore vultus :• 
 
 For either the general tendernefs and fine proportions of her whole make., feen thus all 
 at once, take a great deal from the beauty of her face; or the head is really, (as has been 
 fufpedted by fome) not of the fame artift, who made the body. As to the latter, it will 
 ever be the Standard of all female beauty and foftnefs. When one looks on it, one is apt 
 to make the fame exclamation, with the fervant in Plautus; (were there not that mixture 
 of drollery in it:) 
 
 (7) Proh, dii immortales, Veneris effigia htec quidem eft! 
 
 Ut in ocellis hilaritudo eft ! Eja, corpus cujufmodi, 
 
 Subvolturium- (illud quidem Subaquilum volui dicere)— 
 
 Vel papillas cujufmodi !—- 
 
 One might very well, with him too, infill particularly on the beauty of the breads ; 
 which in the ftatue itfelf are the fined that can be conceived. They are Small, diftindt, 
 and delicate to the higheft degree; with an idea of foftnefs, much beyond what any 
 one can conceive, that has not feen the original : for all copies do her an injury ; and 
 prints more particularly. And yet with all that foftnefs, they have a firmnels too; for 
 as old Lucilius fays, (on what occafion does not appear, as we have only a piece here 
 and there of his poems;) 
 
 Flic corpus folidum invenies : hic dare ( 8 ) papillas 
 Pedtore marmoreo. — 
 
 From her breads, her lliape begins to diminish gradually down to her waift; which 
 I remember to have heard an English lady, at Florence, criticifing at firft fight, as not 
 fine and taper enough. This probably proceeded from our beauties in England carrying 
 this nicety generally too far; as fome of the Grecian (9) beauties did formerly too at 
 
 (6) This is fpoken of Parthenopieus, in Statius’s 
 Games : Theb. 6. jE 573. They admired his face, 
 on his firft appearance ; but when he ftripped for the 
 race, the fine turn of his limbs in general, and the 
 apparent ftrength and exadt proportions of his whole 
 body, made them forget the particular beauties of his 
 face : —Latuitque in corpore vultus. 
 
 (7) Rudens. Act. 2. Sc. 4. 
 
 (8) Fragm. of Lucilius’s 28th fatire. Stantia pedto- 
 ra, are mentioned by Statius ton, as a great beauty. 
 Sylv. Lib. 1. 2, 270. This circumftance of beauty 
 appears, very remarkably, in the Venus of Medici. 
 
 5 
 
 Athens. 
 
 (9) The perfonages in Terence’s plays are all 
 Greeks; and confequcntly the cuftoms they talk of 
 are Grecian cuftoms. He mentions this affedhition 
 of the ladies in thofe times, of prefling their waifts 
 into the fmalleft compafs they could; (which, by the 
 way, docs much more harm to the conftitution and 
 complexion, than it ever did good to the Ihape :) 
 
 Haud flmilis virgo eft virginum noftrarum; quas matres 
 fludent 
 
 Demiflis humeris efle; vinifto pedlore; ut Tracilx feient: 
 
 Si qua eft habitior paulo, pugilem efl'c aiunt; deducunt 
 cibum : 
 
 Tametfi bona eft natura-, reddunt curatura junceas. 
 
 Cinerea in Eun. Aft. 2. Sc. 3. 
 
Dialogue the Seventh. 
 
 Athens. And I am the more perfuaded that this was the cafe, becaufe the fame lady, 
 (who one would think fliould be a good judge of beauty, becaufe it is what Ihe mull 
 fee, at lead, every time Ihe looks in her glafs,) after having feen die Venus of Medici fe- 
 veral times, had the grace to own herfelf in the wrong; and even to exclaim againft 
 the excefs of this mode among us. The Venus of Medici, with all her finenefs of iliape, 
 has what the Romans call (10) corpus folidum, and the French the embonpoint; (1 do 
 not know that we have any right word for it in Englifh:) and her waift, in particular, 
 is not reprefented as dinted by art; but as exaflly proportioned by nature, to all the 
 other parts of her body. 
 
 Venus, in all attitudes, is graceful; but in no one more, than in that of the Venus of 
 Medici; in which figure of her, if Ihe is not really modefl, Ihe at lead counterfeits mo- 
 dedy extremely well. Were one to deferibe exafily what that attitude is, one might do 
 it in two verfes of Ovid’s. 
 
 Ipfa Venus pubem, quoties velamina ponit. 
 
 Protegitur IxvZ (n> femiredufta manu. 
 
 There is a tendernefs and elegance in all the red of her form, as well as in the parts I 
 have mentioned. Her legs are neat and (lender; the (ra) fmall of them is finely rounded; 
 and her very feet are little, white, and pretty. So that one might very well fay of this 
 datue, what one of the perfons in Plautus's Epidicus fays of a complete beauty: 
 
 Ab unguiculo, ad capillum fummum, ed fedividima ! (13) 
 
 To 1 etui 11 to the eyes and look of Venus; the poets are fuller as to the former than 
 any datue can be. They had the painters to copy from, as well as the datuaries; and 
 could draw fcveral ideas from the life, which are not to be expreffed in marble. ’ The 
 fculptor can only give you the proportions of things, and one Jingle attitude of a perfon 
 in any one datue or relievo. The painter can do the fame, and add the natural colours 
 as they appear on the furfaces of things ; and by the management of lights and (hades, 
 may fling them into their proper didances. The poet can deferibe all that either of the 
 others exprefs by ihape, or colours; and can farther put the figure into a fuccefiion of 
 different motions in the fame defeription. So that of the three fider-arts of imitation, 
 poetry (in this at lead) has the advantage over both the others; as it has more power’ 
 and can take a larger compafs than either of them. This mud have given the poets an 
 advantage, in deferibing the quick and uncertain motions of Venus’s eyes; and occafions 
 our meeting with fomc expredions in them, which cannot be explained either from da- 
 
 tues. 
 
 (10) Hie corpus folidum invenies - 
 
 Lucii. Sat. 28. 
 
 Chrer. Color verus ; corpus folidum, & fucci plenum. 
 Parm. Anni ? Chxr. Sedecim. 
 
 Parm. Flos ipfe ! Hanc cu mihi, vi, clam, precario, 
 
 Fac tradas !-- 
 
 Teren. Eun. A&. 2 . Sc. 3. 
 
 (11) Art. Am. 2. 614. The famous Venus of 
 
 Cnidos, made by Praxiteles, was partly in this modeft 
 pofture. Evra J'' mavui tok (puroif inpip^u^zv, ct^ u 
 t* na Tra.pnay.iv. H yiv w Qzot iv yuru •'KaQiJ'pvrai' 
 Tlapiaz J'i A/-3-» J'atJ'ahya., y.aXhtrov, WKzpw^ctvov' 
 xj comport yz\co]i yupov viroyaJ'tuaa. Tlav J'z to 
 y.aKKoz av ruf anaMirrov, vS'iy.ias i&nrtif ay^zy^cm, 
 yzyvyvaraf irhnv 01 a th inpa yzipt rnv atJ'co A5Ah- 
 •&5T0f iTT/upvTmtv. Lucian.Tom. 1. p. 882. Ed. Blaeu. 
 
 (12) All thofe IcfTer beauties, which the poets have 
 marked out in the female make, are eminently to be 
 found in the Venus of Medici. As the teretes furas, 
 
 (Morat. Lib. 2. Od. 4. jr. 21.) and the pes candidus, 
 (Id. Lib. 4. Od. 1. f. 27.) and exiguus. (Ovid. Am. 
 Lib. 3. El. 3. jr. ? .) 
 
 As the foot was uncovered antiently, the Roman 
 poets fpcak of the beauty of their miftrefles feet. 
 
 Et Thetidi quales vix reor dfe pedes. 
 
 Ovid. Her. Ep. 20. jr. 60, 
 
 Nay, the antients were fo much nicer in obferving 
 this part of the body, than we ; that one of the Ro¬ 
 man hiftorians, in fpeaking of an emperor, thinks it 
 worth hiswhile toacquaint mankind, in all future ages, 
 that he had not handfome toes. Pulcher, & decens 
 maxime in juventa ; & quidem toto corpore, exceptis 
 pedibus ; quorum digitos reflriciiores habebat. Sue¬ 
 tonius, of Domitian ; §. 18. 
 
 (13) Plaut. Epidicus. A£E 5. Sc. r.-Thus Ve¬ 
 
 nus fays very juftly of herfelf, in Lucian. Ement 
 «/// -sr ana, x) oyoicof x«A«. Tom. I. p. 223. Ed, 
 Blaeu. 
 
68 
 
 POLY METI 
 
 S. 
 
 tries, or paintings. Such is that epithet of (14) Pa?ta, in particular, which the Roman 
 writers give to Venus; and which refers, perhaps, to a certain turn of her eye, and her 
 catching it away again, the moment ihe is obferved; as your favourite does, Philander, 
 when flie is kinder to you in her heart, than die would appear to be by her eyes. 
 
 The critics in datuary are perhaps as apt to find out imaginary beauties, in a favou¬ 
 rite figure; as the critcs in poetry are, in a favourite author. There are fome that have 
 pradtifed this in regard to the figure before you. You fee, her face is turned away a 
 little from you. This fingle article has given feveral people occafion to obferve, that 
 there are three different padions expreffed in the air of the head of this Venus. At 
 your fird approaching her, as die dands in the fine apartment adigned to this figure 
 in the Great Duke’s gallery, you fee averfion or denial in her look; move on but a dep 
 or two farther, and die has compliance in it: and one dep more to the right, they tell 
 you, turns it into a little infidious and infulting fmile; fuch as any lady has, when die 
 plainly tells you by her dice, that die has made a fure conqued of you. The moral of 
 all this may be very true and natural; but I think it is not judified by the datue itfelf: 
 for tho’ I have paid, perhaps, a hundred vilits to the Venus of Medici in perfon ; and 
 have often confidcred her, in this very view; I could never find out the malicious fort 
 of fmile, which your antiquarians talk fo much of. 
 
 But whether this fort of fmile be really on the face of the Venus of Medici, or not; 
 Venus certainly was reprefented fmiling, in many of her figures of old. Such probably 
 were the figures of the Venus Erycina, whom Horace calls (15) Erycina ridens; and fuch 
 the Venus Appias, whom Ovid (16) frequently defcribes with a malicious fort of fmile 
 on her face, and as delighting in little mifchiefs. 
 
 As far as I can find, fays Myfagetes, you intend to favour us with as many different 
 Venus’s, as we had diderent Jupiters in your account of that god; but why have not 
 you been fo good, all this while, as to tell us what particular Venus this before us re- 
 prefents ? I was fomewhat inclined to have dropt that point, fays Polymetis; but tince 
 you mud have it, it is the Venus Marina, that Horace O7) Ipeaks of. As this is the 
 temple fet apart by me, for the great celedial deities; it would have been more proper, 
 to have had a figure of the Venus Cceledis in it: but, to confefs the truth to you, I am 
 fo much in love with the Venus of Medici, that I rather chofe to commit this impropriety, 
 than to prefer any other figure to hers. The thing perhaps is not quite fo reafonable as it 
 fhould be; but when did lovers adt with reafon ? 
 
 In 
 
 (14) Non hxc res dc Venere pstn lirabam facit. 
 
 Varro, in O&ogefi. 
 
 Si preta eft, Veneri fimilis; fi Hava, Minerva:. 
 
 Ovid. Art. Am. Lib. 2. 6 $j. 
 
 The general character of Venus's eyes is particular¬ 
 ly well defcribedby Silius, in his choice of Scipio be- 
 tweenVirtue and Pleafure; where he fays, of the latter: 
 
 -Lafcivaque crebras 
 
 Ancipiti motu jaciebant lumina flammas. 
 
 De Bello Punico. Lib. 15. jfr. 27. 
 
 There is fomething like this, I think, meant in a 
 pafl’age of Petronius. Oculorum ni£lu, meus inno¬ 
 tuit amor Doridi ; & mihi, “ blanda occulorum pe¬ 
 tulantia,” Doris annuit : adeo ut haec tacita loquela, 
 linguam antecedens, quam animorum propenfionem 
 eodem momento fenferamus, furtim exprefferit. 
 Petr. Arb. Satyricon. p. 12. 
 
 Et quos Deos ? Si non ftrabones, at paetulos efle ar¬ 
 bitramur. Cicero de Nat. Deor. Lib. /.§.29. The 
 difference of ftrabo & patus is thus given us, by an 
 old grammarian. Strabo dicitur, qui cft diftortis ocu¬ 
 
 lis ; pretus, qui leviter declinatis, cujus huc & illuc 
 tremuli volvuntur. Porph. 
 
 (15) Horat. Lib. 1. Od. 2. 33. 
 
 (16) There was a ffatue of the Venus Appias, near 
 the Forum where the lawyers ufed to plead. Ovid 
 often alludes to it; and its fituation. 
 
 Illo ffepeloco, capitur confultus amore ; 
 
 Quique aliis cavit, non cavet ipfe fibi. 
 
 Illo fepe loco, defunt fua verba diferto; 
 
 Rcfque nova: veniunt, caufaque agenda fuaefl: 
 Hunc Venus e templis, qua: funt confinia, ridet. 
 
 Art. Am. Lib. 1. f, 88. 
 Redde meum, clamant fpoliata: frepe puella:. 
 
 Redde meum ! toto voce boante foro: 
 
 Has Venus e templis multo radiantibus auro 
 Lceta videt lites. ■ 
 
 Ib - Lib. 3. /. 452. 
 
 Turpe vir & mulier, jundli modo, protenus holies • 
 Non illas lites Appias ipfa probat. 
 
 Rem. Am. jt. 660, 
 
 (17) Horat. Lib, 4. Od. 11. y. 15. 
 
In the bafe of this ftatue of Venus, I keep feveral drawings that relate to her attend¬ 
 ants, as well as to herfelf. Her chief attendants are perfons very well adapted to l'uch 
 a goddcfs; the Cupids, Nymphs, and Graces. As to the Cupids; they were fuppofed 
 of old to be (iS) very numerous; but there were two, which were the chiefs of all that 
 number ; and which may be the very fame which you fee playing about the dolphin', at 
 the foot of this ftatue. Hence it is, that Venus is called, “ the mother of the (19) two 
 Cupids.” One of thefe chief Cupids was looked on as the caufe of love; and the other 
 as the caufe of its ccaling. Accordingly, the antiquarians now at Florence ufually call the 
 two little Cupids at the foot of the Venus of Medici, by the names of Eros and Anteros- 
 and there is fomething, not only in the air of their faces, but in their very make and 
 attitudes, which agrees well enough with thofe names: the upper one, being lighter, 
 and of a more pleafing look; and the lower one, more heavy and fullen. Ovid calls the 
 latter (20), Lethams Amor; and Cicero (21), Anteros. Were we to follow a figure, that 
 father Montfaucon gives us C 3 *) for Anteros, we mull make him an old man : his ap¬ 
 pearance in it is much more like that of a Hercules, than of a Cupid; and nothing I 
 think but the likenefs of the name of the artift, which happened, (in this cafe unluckily,) 
 to be engraved upon the gem, could have induced that father to have placed it where he 
 has. Ovid certainly fpeaks of this very Cupid (23), as a boy; and I do not know any one 
 of the poets, that ever fpeaks of Cupid, as an old man. I formerly ufied to think, from 
 his name, that Anteros was looked on by the antients as the caufe of averfion; but 
 that, I believe, is a miftake too: for Ovid, the great mailer in all affairs relating to love, 
 reprefents him only as making the paffion of love ceafe, but not as creating averfion; 
 where he fpeaks (24) moft fully of this deity; and in another of his poems, (hews that 
 love and averfion were then fuppofed to proceed, not from different Cupids, but from 
 (25) different arrows of the fame Cupid. 
 
 Thee a. are fcarce any figures more common in the works of the antient artift* than 
 thofe of Cupids, in general; and they always reprefent them, as young, pleafing, and 
 handfome. I remember a pretty ftatue of one, at the Veneri, (a feat of the King of 
 Sardinia, near Turin) in which he appears like a youth of about feventeen, or eighteen 
 years old; and Raphael, (who may almoft pafs for an authority, when we are fpeak- 
 ing of the Roman antiquities) reprefents him as of about the fame age, in his marriage 
 of Cupid and Pfyche. But the moft common way of reprefenting Cupid, in the works 
 of the antients themfelves, is quite as a child; of not above feven or eight years old; 
 
 and. 
 
 — Volucrumque exercitus omnis amorum. 
 
 Val. Flaccus, Arg. 6. jfr. 457. 
 Natorum de plebe putat; fed non erat illi 
 Arcus, Sc ex humeris nullas fulgentibus umbrte. 
 Statius, Lib. 3. Sylv. 4. )>. 30. (of Earinus.) 
 It is in this fenfe, that Venus is called Dulcium 
 Mater Cupidinum, by Horaee, (Lib. 4. Od. 1, 5.) 
 and Tenerorum Mater Amorum, by Ovid. Amor. 
 Lib. 3. EI. 15. f. I, 
 
 --Geir.ir.orum mater Amorum. 
 
 Ovid. Fall. 4. t, 
 Diva, non miti generata ponto. 
 
 Quam vocat matrem gemicus Cupido ! 
 
 Impotens flammis fimul & fagittis 
 Ille lafcivus puer ac renidens 
 Tela quam certo jaculatur arcu ? 
 
 Hippo!. A<Et. 1. Chor, 
 
 (20) Plus amat e natis mater plerumque duobus 
 Pro cujus reditu quod gerit arma timet. 
 
 Eli prope Collinam templum venerabile portam, 
 Impoiuit templo nomina cclfus Eryx; 
 
 EU illic Lethseus amor: qui pcflora fanat, 
 
 Inquc fuas gelidam lampadas addit aquam ; 
 Illic & juvencj votis oblivia pofcunt, 
 
 Et fi quas ell duro capta puella viro. 
 
 Ovid. Rem. Ani. >'-. 554, 
 
 (21) De Nat. Deor. p. 71, & 72. Ed. Aid. 
 
 (22) Montf. Vol. I. Pl. xi8. Fig. 5. 
 
POLYMETIS. 
 
 and, fometimes, even younger than that. His look is, almoft always, like that (26) 0 f a 
 child: generally, pretty (27); and fometimes, a little idle, or fly; according to the oc- 
 cafion. His hair, which is very loft and fine in the bell fiatues of him, is fometimes (28) 
 dreft up too, in a very pretty manner; as particularly in that celebrated figure of him 
 with Pfyche, in the Great Duke’s gallery; a good copy of which begins now to be not 
 uncommon in England. He is almoft always (29) naked, and of a good fhape; rather 
 inclining to plumpnefs, but not too much: it being ufually only enough to exprefs the 
 healthful and thriving air, that becomes his age. His wings, are ornamental as well as 
 ufeful; and were probably fometimes reprefented in the paintings of the antients, as of 
 various ( 3 °) pleafing colours. His bow, his quiver, and his darts, are fpoken of fo vul¬ 
 garly among our poets to this day, that they fcarce need be mentioned here. Belide 
 which, the antient poets fometimes give him, (as well as Hymen,) a (3O lighted torch : 
 and fome of them feem to fpeak of his arrows themfelves as all burning (32); or at lead:, 
 as tinged with fire. 
 
 The antient artifts and poets reprefent their Cupids in general two forts of ways, that 
 are very different from each other: either as idle, and playful; or as very powerful, and 
 as governing all things. I have feveral inftances of both among my drawings here. 
 
 It is partly from the wanton or playful char after of thefe little (33) fluttering beings, 
 .that they are almoft always given us under the figures of children : as Ovid, (who un- 
 derffood the paflion they reprefent, as well as any man,) teaches us : 
 
 Et puer es, nec te quicquam niff ludere oportet; 
 
 Lude ; decent annos mollia regna tuos (34) : 
 
 Or, as a lady of our own country fays, (in one of the poems flic has been fo unkind as to 
 keep in her clofet, much beyond the term preferibed by Horace :) 
 
 Thus let us gently kifs, and fondly gaze ! 
 
 “ Love is a child; and like a child, it plays.” 
 
 Hence 
 
 (:6) - Notos pueri puer indue vultus. 
 
 (Venus, to Cupid;) Virgil. JE n. i. 682. 
 
 (27) Laudaret faciem Livor quoque; qualia namque 
 
 Corpora nudorum tabula pinguntur Amorum, 
 Talis erat.- 
 
 Ovid. Met. 10. jr. 517. (of Adonis.) 
 
 (28) Tu, penna pulchros gemina variante capillos. 
 
 Ibis in auratis aureus ipfe rotis. 
 
 Ovid. Am. Lib. 1. EI. 2. f. 42. 
 Nec torquem collo, nec habens crinale capillis; 
 Nec bene compofitas comtus, ut ante, comas. 
 
 Ovid, ex Pont. Lib. 3. Ep. 3. 16. 
 
 (29) Et puer e 11 , Sc nudus amor. Sinefordibus annos. 
 
 Et nullas velles ut fit apertus habet. 
 
 Ovid. Am. Lib. 1. El. 10. jr. 16. 
 Ovid’s reafons here are not general; but adapted 
 to the occafion. It is in a copy of verfes to one of 
 his miftrefles, who had behaved artfully to him ; and 
 had been trying to wheedle him out of a prefent. 
 
 (30) Nec nos purpureas pueri refecabimus alas; 
 
 Nec facer arte mea laxior arcus erit. 
 
 Ovid. Rem. Am. jr. 702. 
 Ha:c ego. Movit amor gemmatas aureus alas; 
 Etmihi, propofitum perfice, dixit, opus. 
 
 Id. Ibid. jr. 40. 
 
 (31) Non ego Dulichias furiali more fagittas. 
 
 Nec raptas aufim tingere in amne faces. 
 
 Id. Ibid. y-. 700. 
 
 Per Venerem, nimiumque mihi facientia tela: 
 Altera tela, arcus; altera tela, faces. 
 
 Id. Heroid. Ep. z. f. 40. (Phyllis, Dem.) 
 Lt mihi cedet amor; quamvis mea vulneret arcu 
 Pedtora, jadlatas cxcutiatque faces. 
 
 Id. de Art. Am. 1. jr. zz. 
 
 (32) Ridet hoc, inquam, Venus ipfa ; rident 
 Simplices nympha:; ferus Se Cupido, 
 
 Semper ardentes acuens fagittas 
 
 Cote cruenta. 
 
 Horat. Lib. 2. Od. 8. y. 16. 
 \ olucrem efle amorem fingit immitem Deum 
 Mortalis error, armat & telis manus; 
 
 Arcufque facros inilruit fieva face : 
 
 Genitumque credit Venere, Vulcano fatum. 
 
 Odlavia. Adi. z. Sc. 2. 
 
 ( 33 ) The fulleft defeription I have ever feen of 
 the wantonnefs, and littlenefs of a Cupid, is in Lon- 
 gus’s amours of Daphnis and Chloe, Lib. 2. The 
 old fhepherd there miftakes him, at firft, for a bird ; 
 as fome of the old poets make his mother compare 
 him to a bee. 
 
 (34) Ovid. Rem. Am 24. 
 
Dialogue the Seventh. 
 
 Hence in gems, and other pieces of antiquity, wherever you meet with Cupids, you al- 
 moft always meet with them concerned in fome little diverfion, or forne little foolery or 
 another. As in this drawing, for example, where you fee fome of them driving a hoop 
 or playing with quoits, and others wreftling or fighting in jeft; in a little fort of circus of 
 their own : and this other, where they are got about their mother, (or perhaps fome 
 nymph,) by the water-fide; and are diverting themfelves in their different manners. 
 Here are two of them very ferioufiy employed about the catching of a butterfly; and 
 there another, as intent to burn one with the torch he holds in his hand. Tho' this in¬ 
 deed might be brought as an inftance of their power, as well as of their idle tricks ; for 
 the butterfly is generally ufed by the Greek artiffs as (351 an emblem for the human lcul; 
 and a Cupid fondling or burning a butterfly, is juft the fame with them as a Cupid C’- 
 reffing or tormenting the goddefs Pfyche, or the foul. It is remarkable enough that in 
 the Greek language, the fame (36) word is ufed indifferently, for this little fluttering infeft 
 and the foul; (or the Animula vagula, blandula, as Adrian (37) called it;) and it is as re¬ 
 markable that, tho the old artifts have reprefented Cupids playing with butterflies fo 
 many different ways, there is fcarce any one of them, for which I could not produce 
 fome parallel in their reprefentations of Cupid and Pfyche. 
 
 Out of the many inftances I could mention, I remember to have feen an antique in 
 which Cupid was reprefented in a car, drawn by two Pfyches (38); and another, in which 
 a Cupid was drawn, in the fame manner, by two butterflies. And this latter mitdrt 
 have yet a farther meaning: for as the car denotes triumph, and the drawing any one 
 in a car is a mark of the utmoft fubmiffion ; this might be principally intended by the 
 artift to exprefs the abfolute power of love, over all the beings of the air. In like manner 
 they exprefs his dominion over all the other elements; thus in this drawing you fee him 
 riding on a lion ; in this, on a ( 39 ) dolphin : and in this third, breaking the fiery bolt of 
 Jove. His power over all things on earth is reprefented fevcral other ways (40), befide 
 his riding on a lion; but I chofe to have a drawing of this preferably to any other, in 
 regard to its beauty and expreffivenefs of the thought which it carries with it. You fee 
 this little Cupid is playing on a lyre; and the favage creature he rides on, looks as if he 
 had quite forgot his nature, in liftening to him. The moral of this gem is juft the fame 
 with that of the known ftory of Cimon and Iphigenia, in Boccace : and the artift here 
 tells us, at the firft glance of the eye, what one muft read fo many pages to learn from 
 the author.—Do not think, Myfagetes, that I am getting into a new region of hiero¬ 
 glyphics, as obfeure as that of the old Egyptian priefts. Thefe are of°a far different 
 kind. They are drawn, immediately from nature ; and point, direfllv back to her 
 
 Plate VI. 
 Fig. i. 
 
 Plate VI. 
 Fig. 2. 
 
 Plate VI. 
 Fig. 3, & 4. 
 
 Plate VI. 
 Fig. 5, & 0 . 
 
 Pl. VII. 
 Fig. 1,a, 3. 
 
 
 E AM 
 
 ik 1 
 
 
 ( 35 ) There might have been a great deal of good 
 fenfe, (and perhaps fomething above good fenfe,) in 
 the fixing on this emblem. Atleaft, nothing, I think, 
 could point out the furvival and liberty of the foul 
 after its feparation from the body, in a ftronger and 
 more argumentative manner, than an animal, which 
 is firft a grofs, heavy, creeping infedt ; and which, 
 after dropping its Hough, becomes (by an amazing 
 change) a light, airy, flying, tree, and happy, crea¬ 
 ture. 
 
 (36) Ti iyn, Anima, Vita.-Item, Papilio, apud 
 
 Pint. Symp. 2. Prob. 3. et Arift. Hift. An. 1 . 5. r. 9. 
 Scapula. 
 
 ( 37 ) 1 ° the known verfes, recorded by Spartian; 
 in his life of that emperor. 
 
 (38) Thefe arc both, in Baron Stofche’s noble col¬ 
 lection of drawings j at Florence. 
 
 Cupid 
 
 (39) Thus Neptune’s dominion over the fea, is 
 often denoted by his having a dolphin in his hand ; 
 and fo was Cupid’s fometimes, in the fame manner: 
 according to that old infeription under one of his fta- 
 tues, which I have met with fomewhere ; and if 1 
 miftake not, it was i 
 Theocritus. 
 
 1 
 
 an old Frankfort edition of 
 
 ruy.vo( Epaf J'ia t*1o yzK*., x) jj.uhiypi er/, 
 
 Ov ya.p -TO^OV Xj t7s poiVTA SiAir 
 
 Ouj'i y-ctlnv Kitjiyu S'ihiptva. x) avdof, 
 
 Tit pt.iv yetpyaiav, Til J't SaKavav lyjt. 
 
 (40) Sometimes he is riding on a Centaur, who 
 has his hands tied behind him ; fometimes on a Chi¬ 
 mera, See. ; to fhew that love can conquer all the 
 fierceft monfters, that ever were fuppofed to have been 
 upon the earth. 
 
P o L Y M E T I S. 
 
 Pi.. Vir. 
 
 Kio. 4 
 
 Ct'PiD w. H conflant (41) an attendant of the figures of Venn?, of old ; that lie may 
 be idmoli looked upon as one of her attributes : as the Bambino is often conlidered only 
 as an attribute of the virgin by the artifts, (and perhaps by many of the vulgar (42), in 
 Italy now. The other chief attendants of Venus are (43) the Nymphs and Graces. The 
 Graces w<re, i oil generally, reprefented naked; as you fee them in this drawing: like 
 three beautiful fiders, and connected together. The Roman poets take notice of ell 
 thefe (•: :) particulars; and fo do even their (45) prole-writers too. Horace, in one place, 
 fpvaio; ol their dancing (46) with the Nymphs; and, in , ti er, of the Graces and 
 Nymphs dancing ( 47 ), with Venus at the head of them. Ovid gives a mighty pretty de- 
 lcription of the Nymphs, with the Her®, (or Hours,) in the garden of Flora (4s); of 
 • ; ■ K- i ll. ill be < Mi' j -.. 
 
 U ( 1 tl 1 ( 
 
 t<* fa-inkle f! v.v over a iww-m..tried couple. Thefe I am fure would each have ferved 
 to hav 10 *tle a very pretty pidture, had either Raphael or Guido, been fo kind as to 
 hw. 'i i .win worn the poets : but I do not well know what to make of another paf- 
 sem t< allude to ( n fen theGr 
 
 his time; under the figure of a woman, with three pair of hands. Such a Grace, (if 
 ew i there was fuc.li an one,) would have been fitter to make a wife for Briareus, than 
 an attendant for Venus. 
 
 VII. 
 c. 5. 
 
 • in of three . ymphs, dancing h nd in hand; a:- a companion 
 • or 'h it ol the 'free naked Graces. The poets fpeak of tliefe Nymphs, for the moll 
 p. on!; v in general terms: but there is a half-poet, (or in other words, a romance- 
 • v: ,r £ h-ft ribes them much n the fame manner, as you fee them here. The per- 
 
 fon I mean, is Longus ; who thus fpeaks of them (s 2 ), in his amours of Daphnis and Chloe. 
 ‘ As Daphnis was in a deep fleep, there appeared to him the three Nymphs, in the 
 
 il l ape 
 
 ■- Comitata Cupidine parvo 
 
 Sponfor conjugii flat dea plfila fui. 
 
 (Parr ; fpcakingof the fliip, in which he carried off 
 Helen.) Ovid. Her. Ep. 16. 114. 
 
 Proh Venus, S, Lenera volucer cum matre Cupido ! 
 
 Id. Met. 9. $■. 4S1. 
 
 --Vcncremcjue, & illi 
 
 Semper hxrcntcm puerum. -■— 
 
 Horat. Lib. 1. Od. 32. 10. 
 
 (42} I fear this may be underftood of the great 
 vulgar, as. well as; the fmall. The child in the vir¬ 
 gin’s arms is as much a mark or charactcriflic only of 
 her, as the ferpent under her feet, or the crown of 
 liars over her head. The feeing our Saviour moll ge¬ 
 nerally ufed as a mark only, or at bcil as a child 
 wholly dependant on his mother, mull be apt to 
 give her worftrippers higher notions of the mother 
 than the foil; and may partly have helped to lead 
 them into the ul’c of fuch llrangc petitions, as that 
 of. Jure matris filio impera, and the like; even in 
 their moll authorifed books of devotion. 
 
 (43} Fervidus tecum puer, & folutis 
 
 Grati;’- Zonis, properentque Nymphx. 
 
 Horat. Lib. t. Od. 30. 
 
 6 . 
 
 • Od. 4. jf. 6. 
 
 - -— Gratix dcccntes. 
 
 Horat. Lib. 
 
 Solutis Gratis zonis. 
 
 Id. Ib. 30. f. 6. 
 
 Gratia nudis junlia foroxibus. 
 
 Id. Lib, 3. Od. 
 
 6 
 
 Scgnefque nodum folverc Gratia*. 
 
 Id. Ib, u. 22. 
 
 (45) Num dicatu ; quare tres Gratis, & quare fo- 
 rorcs Tint, St quare manibus implexis ; quare riden¬ 
 tes» juvenes, & virgines ; folutaque, ac pellucidi 
 velle ? Seneca, de Uencf. Lib. 1. Cap. 3. He then 
 gives the moral reafons for each of thefe particulars . 
 under one of which, he calls them ; Ille confert:';, 
 manibus in fe redeuntium chorus, ibid. 
 
 (46) Gratia cum Nymphis, geminifque fororibus, audet 
 Ducere nuda choros. 
 
 Horat. Lib. 4. Od. 7. f. 7. 
 
 (47) Jam Cytherea chorosducit Venus,imminente Lqfla; 
 
 Jundxque Nymphis Gratia: decentes 
 Alterno terram quatiunt pede. 
 
 Horat. Lib. 1. Od. 4. ;J. 
 
 (48) Ovid. Fafl. 5. y. 2C9, to 220. 
 
 (49) Dial. 15, poflh. 
 
 (50) __ Nec blandus Amor, nec Gratia ceflat. 
 Amplexum virides optatx conjugis artus. 
 
 Floribus innumeris & olenti fpargcie nymbo. 
 
 Statius. Lib, 1. Sylv. 2. >\ 2;. 
 
 (51) -Ilanc multo Paphie fatu rabat amomo; 
 
 Hunc nova tergemina pedebat Gratia dextra. 
 
 Id. de com. Earini. Lib. 3. Sylv. 4. s';. 
 
 9- r 7* (52) Lib. 2. 
 
Dialogue the Seventh. 
 
 Ibape of women ; beautiful, and of a fine ftature. They had only a flight robe about 
 them ; their feet were bare ; and their hair played loofely in the wind. In a word, they 
 were in every particular juft like the flatues he had fo often worlliipped in the grotto of 
 the Nymphs.” If you fhould rather be inclined to think, that the drawing in my hand 
 may relate to the Graces themfelves, as well as the former; I would not difpute with 
 you at all, on that head. For it is certain that the Graces were reprefented fometimes 
 with juft fuch loofe flying robes; and, perhaps, dancing tOQ : as one would imagine 
 from fome expreflions in Seneca, relating to the Graces; which agree with the repre- 
 fentation of thefe three ladies here as exactly ( 53 ), as if they had been wrote on purpofe 
 for it. 
 
 But it is high time to quit thefe attendants of Venus; that we may return to the god- 
 
 defs herfelf.-As I obferved to you, that Venus had a little infidious fmile in fome of 
 
 her figures; fo is fhe reprefented in a wheedling pofture, in others. Such is the defign 
 on the reverfe of a medal of Marcus Aurelius; in which Venus is begging fome fa¬ 
 vour of Mars. It is inferibed, Veneri Vi&rici; and fo may teach us, by the way, that 
 this goddefs carries her point, whenever file condefcends to wheedle even the roughed: 
 of her admirers. There is a ftatue of Venus with Mars, in the Great Duke’s gallery at 
 Florence, exa&ly in the fame attitude; and fo, probably, were the figures of thefe two 
 deities, which flood antiently (5+) before the temple of Mars Ultor at Rome. The goddefs p 
 holds one hand round his neck, and the other on his bread:; and feems enticing him to Fig, i. 
 grant her requefl: as the god, amidft all his dernnefs, has an air of complying with her. 
 
 She is reprefented in the fame manner, with other people, as well as Mars; both by 
 the ( 55 ) poets, and in the remains of the (56) antient artids. 
 
 There is another way of reprefenting Venus, not much to her honour, tho’ very 
 common among the antients. This one might call, the Venus Defidiofi; and poflibly 
 fome of the figures of this kind, which pafs now with every body for Venus, were, 
 originally meant for the goddefs Defidia. At lead that goddefs might be more eafily 
 midaken for a Venus, than for the fon of Venus; as die was ( 57 ) apt to be, among the 
 antients themfelves. However that be, the Venus I am fpeaking of, is reprefented as 
 the Genius of indolence : lying, in a languid podure, on a bed ; and generally attended 
 
 by 
 
 (53) Ille, confertis manibus, in fe redeuntium 
 chorus. Seneca, de Ben. See Note 45. anteh. 
 
 (54) Stat Venus Ultori junfta viro ante fores. 
 
 Ovid. Trill. Lib. 2. it. 296. 
 
 The medal, above mentioned, calls the goddefs 
 Vicftrix ; which would agree very well with Venus on 
 that occafion : fhe being reprefented there, as defiring 
 Mars to revenge the death of Julius Ctefar ; which 
 was granted her fo fully, in the fuccefs of the fecond 
 battle of Philippi. It is poflible that both the medal, 
 and the ftatue of Mars and Venus in the Florentine 
 gallery, were copies of the Mars and Venus before 
 the temple of Mars Ultor. 
 
 Venus embracing and wheedling Mars, juft in the 
 fame manner as in the ftatue and medal juft men¬ 
 tioned, was an idea very generally followed. It is on 
 a gem, in the Great Duke’s collection ; and on a 
 relievo, in the court of the Juftiniani palace at Rome. 
 As it appears fo often, there certainly was fome cele¬ 
 brated figure which the different artifts copied from : 
 as we fee they ufed to do, by the various antient 
 copies of the Venus of Medici, the Hercules Farnefe, 
 and the Apollo Belvidere. 
 
 Statius gives a like view of Venus and Mars; on 
 another occafion. 
 
 Viderat hanc cadi jamdudum in parte remota 
 Gradivum complexa Venus; dumque anxia Thebas 
 Commemorat, preflum tacito fub corde dolorem 
 
 Tempelliva movet.-— 
 
 Defiluit jullis commotus in arma querelis 
 Bellipotens.- 
 
 Thcb. 9. f. 832» 
 
 (55) Thus, Virgil deferibes her, when fhe is wheed¬ 
 ling her hufband. 
 
 -Niveis hinc atque hinc diva lacertis 
 
 Cunftantem molli amplexu fovet: ille repente 
 
 Accepit folitam flammam.- 
 
 Seniit la:ta dolis & forma; confcia conjux. 
 
 sEn. 8. it. 394. 
 
 (56) There is a relievo in the court of the uni- 
 verfity at Turin, in which Venus is reprefented ca- 
 reffing Jupiter ; in the fame manner as fhe does the 
 Mars in the Florentine gallery. 
 
 (57) Ergo defidiam quicunque vocabit amorem, 
 
 Definat.- 
 
 Ovid. Am. Lib. 1. El. 9. it. 32. 
 
 - Namque ha;c, quoties chelyn exuit ille, 
 
 Defidia eft : hic Aoniis Amor avocat antris. 
 
 Statius. Lib. 4. Sylv. 6. it. 31. 
 (Speaking of his friend’s lkill, in diftinguifhing 
 figures.) 
 
 u 
 
 
 
 I' 
 
 
 I f 
 
 i 
 
 ; 1 
 
74 
 
 POLYMETI S. 
 
 by Cupids, as ready to receive her orders, and bring her every thing that (lie wants that 
 fhe may not be put to the intolerable fatigue of /landing up upon her feet. Jt is this Ve¬ 
 nus which makes her appearance in one of the finell-colour’d pictures that is left us of 
 the antients ; that in the Barbarini palace at Rome : the air of whofe head, may be com¬ 
 pared with Guido's ; as the colouring of the flefli, puts one in mind of Titian. Part of 
 this pidlure you know is loft, and part reftored by Carlo Murat. Marat has painted 
 fome Cupids about her, (as there might, perhaps, have been the traces of fome in the 
 original piece;) which however look but clumiily when compared with their mother: 
 and which, if Marat be really fo great a painter as I think he is generally efteemed to be 
 at prefent, may ferve to do a great deal of honour to the painting of the antients. Venus 
 is defcribed (58J by Statius, much in the fame manner as fhe is reprefented in the Barba¬ 
 rini pidlure. 
 
 I have feen a very pretty reprefentation of Venus, yetmore indolent than this. It is 
 on an antient fepulchral lamp, of which this is a ■ : ng. You fee, not only Venus 
 herfelf, but the Cupids about her are all fall afleep As it was found in a fe pulchre; 
 we may juftly obferve by the way, that it probably related to fome fine lady who was in¬ 
 terred there, with feveral of her children : and fo were all in that ftate, which in its be¬ 
 ginning looks fo like fleep, that it has been generally compared to it; not only by the 
 poets, but even by the profe-writers, of all ages. 
 
 Indolence is the mother of love, in a moral fenfe; as Venus is the mother of Cupid, 
 in the allegorical. It was therefore a very juft thought toreprefent Venus under this in¬ 
 dolent character. 
 
 Otia ft tollas, periere Cupidinis arcus ; 
 
 Contemptseque jacent, & fine luce, faces: 
 
 Qiiam platanus rivo gaudet, quam populus unda, 
 
 Et quam limosa canna paluftris humo; 
 
 Tam Venus otia amat.- (59) 
 
 It is for this reafon that Venus is fo often oppofed to Minerva, and Virtus; the two 
 deities w'hich prefided over an adtive and llirring life : as might be fhown, very fully both 
 from the poets and artifts of old. But as I chufe always to put things of a kind together; 
 
 I may fay fomething (60) more of this, when we are taking our round of the ftatues on 
 the outftde of this temple. 
 
 We meet with a character of Venus, on fome particular occafions, quite oppofite to 
 this; and which feems to regard her rather as the goddefs of Jealouly, than as the o-od- 
 defs of Love. I do not remember ever to have feen any figure of her under this charac¬ 
 ter ; and I believe there is not any defeription of it to be found in any of the Roman 
 poets, before thofe of the third age : in which Valerius Flaccus, and Statius, have 
 drawn two very (61) terrible pidtures of her. It is remarkable enough, that thefe horrid 
 
 defeription s 
 
 Sidereos difFufa finus. Eadem effera, & indens 
 Et maculis fuffe&a genas; pinumque Tonantem 
 Virginibus Stvgiis, nigramque fimillima pallam. 
 
 Val. Maccus. Argon, z. 106. 
 Illa Paphon veterem centumque altaria linquens, 
 
 (Nec vultu nec crine prior,) Tolviffe jugalem 
 Cefton, Sc Idalias procul abiegaffe volucres 
 Fepur. Erant certe, media qui noftis in umbra 
 Divam, alios ignes majoraque tela gerentem, 
 
 Tartareas inter thalamis volitaffe forores 
 Vulgarent: utque implicitis arcana domorum 
 Anguibus, & fieva formidine cunfta replevit. 
 
 Limina.- 
 
 Statius. Theb. j/. 6g % 
 
 4 
 
 (58) Alma Venus thalamo pulsd modo nofle jacebat ; 
 Amplexu duro Getici refoluta mariti: 
 
 Fulcra torofque des tenerum premit agmen A- 
 morum. 
 
 Signa petunt, quas ferre faces, qus pc&ora figi 
 Imperet.- 
 
 Statius, Lib. i. Sylv. 2. 56. 
 
 (59) 0vid - Rem. Am. f. 143. 
 
 (60) Sec Dial. xo. 
 
 (61) -Neque enim alma videri 
 
 Jam tumet; aut tereti crinem fubneditur auro, 
 
Dial 
 
 defcnptions of Venus are given by both thefe poets, on one and the fame occafion; they 
 being introduced by each of them, in their account of the women of Lemnos killing their 
 hulbands, and taking the government into their own hands. The ftory is this.° The 
 Lemnians had made an expedition into Thrace; conquered their enemies there ; brought 
 oft a great booty; and among the reft, a great number of Thracian women. Venus, 
 who was enraged againft the men of Lemnos for neglefling her temples, (on her fcanda- 
 lous infidelity to her hufcand, their great tutelar god;) raifes a ftrong report in Lemnos, 
 that the foldiery in general were fo much enamoured of their Thracian captives, that they 
 had a defign on their return to difeard their former wives and children ; or at leaft, to 
 make them lerve the new-comers. The Lemnian women were fo full of this perfuafion, 
 and fopofleffed with jealoufy and rage; that on the night of their return, (when every 
 body was buried in Deep after the rejoicings and debauches of the day,) they fell on the 
 men, and murthered them in their beds. Their king, Thoas, was the only man that was 
 left alive. He was concealed, and fent away to Pontus in a difguife; by his daughter 
 Hypilpile; and Hypfipile, as the firft of the blood-royal, was made queen of the ifland 
 by the women. Jafon, in his expedition to Colchos, flopped at Lemnos, with the Ar¬ 
 gonauts ; who found out the means of reconciling the ladies there fo far to men again, 
 that their queen herfelf had twins by their leader. It is on occafion of this cruel maffacre, 
 committed by the women of Lemnos on their huibands, that we fee Venus deferibed, 
 both in Flaccus and Statius, more like an infernal Fury than the goddefs of the fofter 
 paflions. Her very fhape, as well as her look, is totally changed by them. She appears 
 large, and ftrong; with a difturbed and furious air ; in black funeral robes; and armed 
 (62) with a torch, with a fword, and with ferpents: the diftinguifhing attributes of the 
 Furies. Indeed flie is fo like them, and fo unlike herfelf; that were one to find her in 
 this charadter on a relievo, one fliould moft probably miftake her for an Aledto, or a 
 Tifiphone. Who would think of the goddefs, that poliihes favages, and foftens all the 
 world, under fo Arrange and fo horrid a difguife ? 
 
 The Romans had certainly a bad Cupid, as well as a good one; and fo might very 
 wdl have a bad Venus too, as well as a good one. I do not remember, that any of 
 their poets of the two firft ages mention a bad Venus ; but one of the third aye, fneaks 
 exprefly of (63) the Venus Improba. 
 
 If the Venus Improba be not to be underftood of this furious Venus, there is another 
 charadter of the fame goddefs with which it might fuit very well: what I mean i the 
 Vitious Venus. Her infidelities to her poor hulband are notorious; and have been 
 
 ftrongly 
 
 (62) — Nudo flabat enfe videri 
 
 Clara mihi, fomnofque fuper. Quid proditis svutn ? 
 (Inquit) age, averfis thalamos purgate maritis ! 
 Dixit: & hoc ferrum ftratis, hoc (credite !) ferrum 
 Impofuit.- 
 
 Statius. Theb. 5. iq.o. 
 Hic fanxere fidem. Tu martia teftis Enyo, 
 
 Atque inferna Ceres; Stygizque Acheronte reclufo 
 Ante preces venere Dea; : fed fallit ubique 
 MixtaVenus;Venus arma tenet,Venus admonetiras. 
 
 Ibid. f. 158. 
 
 Stat funefla Venus; ferroque accin&a furentes 
 Adjuvat. Unde manus? unde hxc Mavortia .Dira: 
 Pe&ora ?- 
 
 lb. f. 283. 
 
 Ipfa Venus quaffans undantem turbine pinum 
 Adglomerat tenebras ; pugmeque accindla, fre¬ 
 mentem 
 
 Profilit in Lemnon : nimbifque & luce fragosa 
 Profequitur polus, & tonitru pater auget honoro. 
 Inde novam pavidas vocem furibunda per auras 
 Congeminat: qua primus Athos, & Pontus, & ingens 
 Thraca palus; pariterque toris exhorruit omnis 
 
 Mater; & adftri&o riguerunt ubere nati. 
 
 Adcelerat Pavor; & Ge-.icis Difcordia demens 
 E ftabulis; atneque genis pallentibus Jrx; 
 
 Et Dolus, & Rabies, & Leti major imago 
 Vifa truces exferta manus ; ut prima vocatu 
 Intonuit, fignumque dedit mavortia conjux. 
 
 Flaccus. Argon. 2. 208. 
 
 There is no need, I think, of obferving how much 
 Flaccus exceeds Statius here; it muft appear fo evi¬ 
 dently, to every body that only runs over thefe de- 
 feriptions from both. What 1 admire him for, more 
 particularly, is the propriety he (hews in calling Ve¬ 
 nus, Mavortia conjux, on this occafion ; and in 
 making her fet out with the very fame attendants 
 that the poets ufually give to Mars, when he is going 
 on any great expedition. 
 
POL 
 
 M E T I S. 
 
 
 jftrongly marked out, ever fince the earlieft: ages of the world. The poets, in particular, 
 have never fpared her; they paint her faults of this kind but too glaringly; and fpeak 
 often of the public fhame the was brought to, by her amours with Mars. There is a 
 mighty pretty gem, on this piece of penal juft ice executed on adultery in the heathen 
 heaven, in the Great Duke’s colleftion at Florence. It reprefents this vitious god dels, 
 and her paramour the captain among the heathen gods, caught in the net made by Vul¬ 
 can ; juft as Ovid (64) deferibes this affair: where he adds, that all the other gods were 
 called in to be witnefl'es of their crime, and to opprefs them with fhame. There is a re¬ 
 lievo on the fame fubjedt at Rome (65), in which Venus has her hands only chained : it 
 omits the net; but reprefents Sol in his chariot, as the perfon who firft difeovered them : 
 agreeably to what Ovid fays of this affair; and indeed agreeably to the ftory, as it is ge¬ 
 nerally told by the old Mythologifts. And perhaps there never was a ftory that has 
 been told (66) oftner; for there is fome reafon to imagine, that it was one of the moft 
 common lubjedfs for an (67) old kind of romances; which feem to have been in fafhion 
 much earlier, than any Monfieur Huet has made mention of, in his pretty treatife on 
 that fubjedt. 
 
 It is on the account of this old ftory, that I chofe to place Mars rather than Vul. an, 
 next to Venus ; in the circle of ftatues before you : for, in fpite of all the public fhame 
 
 they 
 
 (64) Piimus adulterium Veneris cum Marte putatur 
 Hic * vidifle deus ; videt hic deus omnia primus. 
 Indoluit fatto ; Junonigenajque marito "Sol. 
 Furta tori, furtique locum monftravit: at illi 
 
 Et mens, & quod opus fabrilis dextra tenebat. 
 Excidit. Extemplo graciles ex sre catenas 
 Rctiaque & laqueos qua: fallere lumina poliunt, 
 Elimat. Non illud opus tenuiffima vincant 
 Stamina ; non fummo qua: pendet aranea tigno. 
 Utque leves taftus, momentaque parva fcquamur, 
 Efficit ; Sc ledto circumdata collocat apte. 
 
 Ut venere torum conjux & adulter in unum ; 
 Lemnius extemplo valvas patefecit eburnas, 
 Admifitque deos. Illi jacuere, ligati 
 Turpiter.- 
 
 Ovid. Met. 4. >’•. 1S8. 
 
 This paflage inOvid is but too much explained, by 
 Lucian’s dialogue between Mercury and Apollo. 
 Tom. I p. 214. Ed. Blacu. 
 
 Fabula narratur toto notiflima ccelo ; 
 
 Mulciberis capti Marfque Venufquc dolis. 
 
 Indicio Solis, {quis Solem fallere pofiit i 
 Cognita Vulcano conjugis a£ta fux. 
 
 Mulciber obfcuros ledtum circaque fupraque 
 Difponit laqueos : lumina fallit opus. 
 
 Fingit iter Lemnon ; veniunt ad fcedus amantes j 
 Impliciti laqueis nudus uterque jacent. 
 
 Convocat ille deos ; probent fpedtacula capti; 
 
 Vix lacrimas Venerem continuifle putant: 
 
 Non vultus texifle fuos, &c. 
 
 Art. Am. 2. f. 590. 
 
 (65) In the Admiranda. Pl. 3. 
 
 (66) Virgil mentions this, as the mod noted a- 
 mong all the dories told by the water-nymphs in Cy- 
 rene’s grotto. 
 
 Inter quas curam Clymene narrabat inanem 
 Vulcani, Martifque dolos & dulcia furta ; 
 
 Aque Chao denfos divum numerabat amores. 
 
 Georg. 4. )L 347. 
 The water-nymphs telling this kind of dories to¬ 
 gether, was fo known a thing, that it was a fubje£b 
 even for datuary too. 
 
 Illic adfpicias fcopulis hrcrerc forores; 
 
 I-t canere antiqui dulcia furta Jovis: 
 
 Ut Semele ed combullus, ut efl deperditus Jb : 
 
 Denique ut ad Troja; tefla volarit avis. 
 
 Propertius. Lib. 2. EI. 23. jr. 20. 
 
 Leuconoe, and her fiders, divert themfelves in the 
 fame manner, whild they are at work ; and Leuconoe, 
 in particular, tells this very dory of Mars and Venus. 
 Ovid often calls it, “ The mod trite dory among the 
 gods.” Met. 4. f. 189.' —Art. Am. 2. y. 563. — 
 Amor. Lib. 1. El. 9. jr. 40. 
 
 (67) Both Virgil and Propertius call the fubjetds 
 of thefc dories, Dulcia : and the latter ufes the 
 word, canere, for the manner of tailin'»- them • as 
 the former fays. Carmine quo captae. The fubjedls 
 in general agree with thofe mod ufed in our novels 
 and romances : and they were told, either in verl'e, or 
 in an affe&ed poetical kind of profe ; for carmen is 
 ufed indifferently for the one or the other. Propertius 
 might have an eye to this affe&ed dyle, in thofe ex- 
 prclfions of his relating to Jupiter’s amours : 
 
 Ut Scmcle ell combullus, ut ell deperditus Id. 
 
 Apuleius makes ufe of this a defied, lulling dyle, 
 in his romance : as one may fee, by his very propo- 
 fition itfelf; which ought to be plain and cafy, even 
 in a poem. He begins thus. At ego tibi, fermone 
 ido Milefio, varias fabulas conferam ; auiefque tuas 
 benevolas lepido fufurro permulceam : mox, fi papy¬ 
 rum /Egyptiam argutia Nilotici calami inferiptam non 
 fpreveris infpicere, figuras fortunafque hominum in 
 alias imagines converfas, & in fe rurlum mutuo nexu 
 refedtas, ut mireris exordior. Which, (to pleafe 
 any of our ladies, that may happen to be particu¬ 
 larly fond of romances,) I have endeavoured to turn 
 into Englilh, as judly as I could, in the following 
 manner. “ Now will I weave together feveral do¬ 
 ries for you, in that known Milefian dyle; and footh 
 your benevolent cars, with a plcafing red-inviting 
 found. 1 hen, if you difdain not to cad one regard 
 on my Egyptian manufacture, marked with the cun¬ 
 ning of a pen from Nile ; thus do I begin to lay out 
 before your wondering eyes, the fhapes and fates of 
 men, changed into various figures, not their own ; 
 and drangely turning to their own again.” Exor¬ 
 dium, to Apulcius’s Afinus Aureus. 
 
Dialogue the Seventh. *-» 
 
 / / 
 
 they had been brought to, (lie feems always to have perfifted in loving this gallant of her'? 
 better than her hulband. 
 
 You fee Mars here has his ufual attributes, his helmet, and his fpear; and indeed Pi. VIII. 
 they were fo attached to him, that he does not quit them, even when lie is going on his Fl0, 3 ' 
 amours. This military god had feveral, you know; and was no more condant to Venus 
 than (lie was to Vulcan. His amour with Rhea was one of the mod celebrated among the 
 Romans. In a known relievo, (in poffeffion of the Mellini family at Rome,) relating to 
 the birth of Romulus and the founding of that city, you fee Mars defcended on the earth, 
 and moving toward Rhea who lies afleep on it. On the reverfe of this medal in my hand’ 
 he is reprefented in an earlier point of time; in the air, as defcending down to her. It was Fio. 4. 
 by the help of this medal that Mr. Addifon has fo finely and fo fully explained a palfage 
 111 Juvenal, which had been drangely mifunderdood before his time. As I always keep 
 the works of Mr. Addifon in this temple, and as no words can be fo proper as his own ; 
 it you will give me leave, I will read the whole palfage to you from him : not as a thing 
 new to you; but as one o( the dronged indances I know of, to (hew how ufeful the 
 works o( the old artids might be made, towards explaining the old poets. 
 
 The palfage from Juvenal, is this. 
 
 Tunc rudis 6c Graias mirari nefeius artes, 
 
 Urbibus everfis, prudanun in parte reperta 
 Magnorum artificum frangebat pocula miles, 
 
 Ut phaleris gauderet equus : caelataque cadis 
 Romulea; fimulacra feras manfuefeere juflie 
 imperii fato, & geminos fub rupe Quirinos ; 
 
 Ac nudam efiigiem clypeo fulgentis 6c hada, 
 
 Pendentifque dei, perituro odenderet hedi. (68) 
 
 “ Juvenal here, (fays (69) Mr. Addifon,) deferibes the fimplicity of the old Roman 
 foldiers ; and the figures that were generally engraven on their helmets. The fird of 
 them was the wolf, giving fuck to Romulus and Remus. The fecond, which is com¬ 
 prehended in the two lad verfes, is not fo intelligible. Some of the commentators tell 
 us, that the god here mentioned is Mars; that he comes to fee his two fons fucking the 
 wolf; and that the old fculptors generally drew their figures naked, that they might have 
 the advantage of reprefenting the different fwelling of the mufcles, and the turns of the 
 body: but they are extremely at a lofs, what is meant by the word, pendentis. Some 
 fancy it expreffes only the great embofl'ment of the figure : others believe it hung off the 
 helmet.—Lubin fuppofes that the god Mars was engraven on the (hield; and that he is 
 fin'd to be hanging, becaufe the fliield which bore him hung on the left droulder. One 
 of the old interpreters is of opinion, that by hanging is only meant a podure of bending 
 forward to dnke the enemy; another will have it, that whatever is placed on the 
 head may be faid to hang, as we call hanging-gardens fuch as are planted on the top 
 of the houfe. Several learned men, who like none of thefe explications, believe there 
 has been a fault in the tranferiber; and that pendentis, ought to be perdentis : but they 
 quote no manufcript in favour of their conjediure. The true meaning of the words is 
 certainly, as follows. The Roman foldiers, who were not a little proud of their founder 
 and the military genius of their republic, ufed to bear on their helmets the fird hidory of 
 Romulus ; who was begot by the god of war, and fuckled by a wolf. The figure of the 
 
 god was made as if defcending on the priedefs Ilia; or as others call her, Rhea Sylvia._. 
 
 As he was reprefented defcending, his figure appeared fufpended in the air over the vedal 
 
 virgin ; 
 
 (68) Juvenal, Satire ir. 107, 
 
 X 
 
 (69) Addifon s Travels’ p. 182. 
 
POLYMETIS. 
 
 
 i 
 
 
 
 78 
 
 virgin; in which fenfe the word, pendentis, is extremely proper and poetical. Befidd 
 tile antique Baffo Relievo that made me firft think of this interpretation, I have lince met 
 with the fame figures on the reverfes of a couple of antient coins, which were ftamped 
 in the reign of Antoninus Pius." 
 
 Thus tar Mr. Addifon : who, by a cafual hint from a Relievo, and afterwards by 
 the plain evidence of a medal, has at laft fixed fo doubtful an expreflion to fo clear and 
 poetical an idea, as it may now give every body who reads this paffage. 
 
 There is another Relievo at Rome, (to go from a very evident point, to one that is 
 altogether as obfeure,) which has puzzled all the antiquarians a great deal. It is very full 
 of perl'onages; among whom Mars evidently makes the moll confiderable figure. He is 
 attended by a number of other gods ; and among the reft by a Cupid, who is endeavour¬ 
 ing to wheedle his l'pear out of his hand. Juno, the goddefs of marriage, is feated on an 
 eminence; as prefiding over the aifembly. Mars directs his fteps to the figure of a beau¬ 
 tiful nymph lying on the ground; who is reprefented as Eve might be, when juft cre¬ 
 ated. Who this perfon lliould be, is what has made the great difficulty. Several of 
 the Roman, poets of the firft age fpeak of a wife of Mars, called (7°) Nerienc; of whom 
 we find no traces at all in their later poets. There is one of the (71) old critics however, 
 who has given us fome lights relating to her: without whole affiftance it is no wonder if 
 (lie had been quite unknown to us: fince, as he tells us, many of the Romans themfelves 
 knew nothing of her, in his time. We learn from him, that (lie was originally a god¬ 
 defs of the Sabines; and that people feem to have (hewn a very pretty kind of imagina¬ 
 tion, in making this new deity. They had a Mars, who fignified brutal courage: and 
 as they thought that even war itfelf ought to be in fume degree polifhed and civilized, 
 they gave their Mars this Neriene, (who, according to fome, fignifies mildnefs,) for his 
 confort; to foften and humanize the roughnefs of his temper. Should one apply the 
 ftory on the Relievo to this account of Neriene, there is nothing in them I believe that 
 would not agree very well together. But there are many keys will open a lock they 
 were not made for, and 1 have promifed not to build any thing folely on the authority 
 of the oldeft Roman poets. It is therefore that I (hall (till call it obfeure .- and indeed we 
 are very much in the dark as to the whole hiftory of Neriene. Who knows whether 
 the Romans had not fome account, and perhaps fome Relievo’s too, of Mars returning 
 in triumph to his Neriene, after the atchievement of fome great conqueft ? If there 
 was any fuch thing, it might add a great deal of force to a (72) paffage in Plautus’s Tru¬ 
 culentus, 
 
 (70) - —Neriene Mavortis. 
 
 Ennius. An. Lib. i. 
 
 Martis Nerienc. 
 
 Varro. Sat. Mcnip. 
 
 Nolo ego Ncatram te vocent, fed Nerienem; 
 
 Cum quidem Marti es in connubium data. 
 
 Licinius Imbrex. In Neara, Com. 
 
 (71) Aulus Gellius has a whole chapter on this god¬ 
 defs ; from which one learns. 
 
 1. That Ihe was a great deal unknown among the 
 Romans themfelves, in his time. He quotes a paf¬ 
 fage from Plautus, in which that poet mentions Ne¬ 
 riene ; and then adds : Super ea re audivi non ince¬ 
 lebrem hominem dicere, nimis comice Plautum im¬ 
 perito & incondito militi falfam novamque opinionem 
 tribuiiTe, ut Nerienem conjugem dic Martis putaret. 
 Gellius adds, that the critic was miftaken ; and that 
 Plautus had ufed thofe expreffions, from his know¬ 
 ledge, and not out of ridicule. 
 
 2. That flic was called Neria, and Ncrio, as well 
 as Neriene. Ncrio was probably the old name for 
 her, in the Sabine language : for Gellius fays, Ihe was 
 
 6 
 
 of Sabine extraction; and that one of the anceflors of 
 the Claudii, (a Sabine family,) had the furname of 
 Nero, from this goddefs. 
 
 3. Among feveral etymologies of her name, he 
 mentions one from an author ; poflibly, of this very 
 family. In commentario Servii Claudii feriptum in¬ 
 veni, Nerio di&um quafi Neirio, hoc eft, fine ira Sc 
 cum placiditate ; ut eo nomine mitem tranquillum-- 
 que fieri Martem preccmur. And fo is Ihe invoked 
 by Hcrfilia, in her fpeech to Tatius, the general 
 of the Sabines ; to entreat him to make a peace 
 with the Romans. In the end of that fpeech, flic 
 addrefles herfelf to this goddefs; and begs of her, 
 “ that they may obtain peace : and that the Sabine 
 wives may live as happily with their Roman hufbands, 
 as Ihe does with her hulband. Mars.” Aulus Gellius. 
 Nodi. Att. Lib. 13. C. 21. 
 
 (72) Stratophanes is an arrogant boafting captain, 
 that talks and looks very big in one of Plautus’s plays. 
 On his return from making a campaign, he goes im¬ 
 mediately to fee his miftrefs, Phroncfium; who pre¬ 
 tends 
 
Dialogue the Seventh. 
 
 79 
 
 culentus* which reads rather flatly at prefent: perhaps more for want of knowledge iii 
 us; than for any want of fpirit in the author. 
 
 It may however furprize you, to fee how far the flory, in the Relievo before us, 
 might tally with the account of Neriene, which I have given you from Aulus Gellius. 
 
 Neriene, you fee here, (for give me leave, if you pleafe, to call her fo,) is lying on the Pl. IX; 
 ground; as juft formed, but not yet animated ; and Mars approaches her with an atten¬ 
 tive and foftened air on his face. He has a lion at his feet, to fhew his character of fierce- 
 nefs ; and fhe a young kid by her, (the idea of which in Italy, is much the fame as that 
 of a lamb among us,) to fhew her mildnefs. There is a grave elderly man, near her, and 
 regarding her ftedfaftly; (in an odd fort of veil'd; which as I remember in the original 
 feemed to have more of the air of a boat, than it has in my copy.) This I take to be 
 Prometheus, coming to animate her; from his likenefs to the Prometheus in another Re¬ 
 lievo reprefenting this ftory: in which, he is adually applying the heavenly fire (73) to 
 the figure, that anfwers Neriene here.—On one fide are two water-deities, with a great deal 
 of dignity in their looks; (fo that poftibly, they may be Neptune and Oceanus :) on the 
 other fide, is Tellus, reclined; and with her head turned as regarding Neriene. Thefe, 
 with Juno, on the right hand above Tellus ; and Vulcan placed yet a little higher 
 than Juno; may be meant, partly, to fignify the four elements : the fineft parts of which, 
 we may fuppofe, were feledted to compofe the body of this new goddefs; (for the deities 
 of the heathens were fuppofed to have corporeal vehicles, or bodies only of a finer 
 make;) and it is ulual with the antient artifts to introduce the deities prefiding over the 
 four elements, wherever they reprefent any thing relating to the creation (74), or rather 
 to the new formation, of any perfon. Juno, (as I laid before,) may have a farther 
 meaning here; and is featcd with dignity, and in fo eminent a place, as prefiding over 
 the ceremony; which is to end in a marriage, between Mars and the new-made goddefs* 
 
 Near Juno, is Minerva; and Bacchus : and juft behind Mars, are Apollo, Diana, and 
 Mercury, in the order they are named. At the end, is a fine figure of Vidtory, a very pro¬ 
 per attendant of Mars; and juft over her head, appears part of the zodiac. It is remark¬ 
 able, that only two of the figns are wrought upon it; thofe ofScorpius, and Libra: the 
 former, perhaps, to fignify the fiery temper of A-Iars; and the latter, the moderating 
 and ballancing of it, by this conjunction of him with Neriene. Befide thefc, there are 
 feveral little Cupids about the piece; (one of which, as I faid before, is endeavouring 
 to wheedle Mars’s fpear out of his hand; a circumftanee very proper to the occafion;) 
 and two or three heads of deities who are not diftinguilhed enough to fay who they are : 
 but they are there, at leaft, to grace this great ceremony ; and feem all very attentive to' 
 it. Every thing elfe in this piece I have accounted for to you ; I think, in no forced 
 manner : I am lure at leaft, in that, which ftruck me naturally, and at the firft fight j 
 
 after 
 
 Anc. Aflum. Adduco tibi exoptatum Stratophanem,— ' 
 
 Phron. Ubi is eft, obfccro ? 
 
 Scrat. Mars, peregre adveniens, falutat Nerienem, uxo¬ 
 rem i'uam. 
 
 Cum tu re&e provenifti, cumque es aufta liberis, 
 
 Gratulor; cum mihi, tibique, magnum dedifti decus. 
 
 A little after, he talks of the vidtories he is returned 
 from ; and the fpoil and the captives that follow this 
 imaginary triumph of his. 
 
 - Adduxi ancillas tibi» eccas! ex Suria, duas : 
 
 Iis te dono. Adduce huc tu illas ! Sed iftx reginx, 
 domi 
 
 Sux, fuere ambre ; verum patriam ego excidi manu. 
 
 See Plautus. Truculentus. Aii. 2. Sc. 6, 
 
 (73) See Adm. Pl. 22. 
 
 (74) See Adm. Pl. 22, & 66. In which latter, by 
 the way, there are two figures reprefented juft likfl 
 Adam and Eve. 
 
 tends to be much out of order. He is received firft 
 by the waiting-maid ; and is introduced by her, to 
 her miftrefs. The maid walks before him ; and he 
 ftruts after her. This litlc piece of ceremony im¬ 
 mediately puts hiin in mind of the pompous returns 
 of Mars from foreign conquefts ; which, no doubt, 
 he mull have often feen in Relievo’s and pictures. 
 This makes him change his ftyle all of a fudden, to 
 this elevated idea : and methinks one fees him, in 
 Plautus, ftrutting along, with the air and gait of Mars 
 Gradivus. 
 
 Before it was : 
 
 -Pcperitne obfccro Phronefium ? 
 
 Anc. Pcperit puerum, nijnium lepidum :—Strat. Ecquid 
 mihi fimili’ eft i 
 
 But afterwards, he heightens and ftiffens his ftyle. 
 
 Anc. Confequerc ; atque illam faluta, & gratulare illi. — 
 Str. Sequor. 
 
 Phron. Ubi illa obfecro eft, qux me hic reliquit, atque 
 abftitic ! 
 
 
8o 
 
 Pl. X. 
 Fig. i. 
 
 POLYMETIS. 
 
 after I had once found out a key for this inexplicable ftory, as Bellori in his (75) notes 
 on Bartoli Teems to call it. 
 
 And fince I have mentioned Bartoli here ; I mud juft add, that one may very well be 
 furprized at his choice in this fubjefl. There are two Relievo’s relating to it, in the 
 fame palace at Rome, the Palazzo Mattei: one, on the flair-cafe ; and the other placed 
 pretty high againft the houfe, in the court. The former, is very bad work ; very ill 
 prcferved ; and patched up, in feveral parts, with ftucco-work by fome modem artifl: 
 the other is very fine work; and particularly well preferved; yet when Bartoli collefted 
 his Relievo’s for the Admiranda, he chofe to infert the former rather than the latter, in 
 that noble work. And why do you think he did fo ? Why, truly, becaufe there was 
 eafy fitting, to copy the bad one; and he muft have had a fcaffold eredled, to take the 
 good one : as my defigner was forced to have; and for which, the Duke of Mattei was 
 fo good as to grant his permiffion. A favour, which tho’ great in itfelf, was much the 
 greater ; becaufe his Grace was then aftually engaged, himfclf, in the defign of publifih- 
 ing all the fine remains of antiquity; not only in this palace, but at his Villa too in Rome: 
 which, when put together, will make one of the noblefl treafures of antiquities in the 
 whole world. 
 
 I could never yet meet with any Relievo of Mars going out to war. The poets de- 
 fcnbe this with a great deal of parade, and give him a number of attendants on that oc- 
 cafion ; who are very well adapted to the god of daughter and deilruaion, or (as it is 
 more handfomly flyled) of the art of war. Thefe (76) deferiptions are fo very picturekiue, 
 that I doubt not it was a fubjeft common enough among the artifls, as well as the poets' 
 of old. 
 
 That god, next to Mars, you fee is Vulcan : whom all the old poets, (perhaps ever 
 fince Homer’s days,) agree in defcribing („) as a nicer mortal blackfmith; only with the 
 addition, of his being (78) a lame one. The few figures I have feen of this god "in marble 
 agree entirely with their low deferiptions of him; excepting only a Relievo in Cardinal 
 Polignac’s colleflion at Paris; where he is reprefented as fitting with fome dignity, and 
 
 attended 
 
 (75) Quamvis marmoris hujus lateat argumentum, 
 
 aliqui tamen ad imperatorem Gallienum referunt pro- 
 Fcifccntem in Orientem ; cujus eft typus Sol in qua¬ 
 drigis ; & cum facies integra non fit, quandam adhuc 
 retinet Gallieni fimilitudinem.--In alio fimili mar¬ 
 
 more, quod in earundem ;edium atrii fummitate 
 fpe&atur, conveniunt alii dii ; Apollo, Bacchus, 
 
 Mercurius. Nos utrumque feliciori Oedipo relinqui¬ 
 mus. Bellori’s note to Adm. Pl. 22. 
 
 (76) Qualis apud gelidi cum flumina concitus Hebri 
 Sanguineus Mavors clypeo increpat, atque furentes 
 Bella movens immittit equos : illi xquore aperto 
 
 Ante Notos Zephyrumquevolant. Gemitultimapulfu 
 Thraca pedum : circumque atra Formidinis ora, 
 
 Irxque, Infidisque, dei comitatus, aguntur. 
 
 Virgil. JEa. 12. jr. 337. 
 
 Et jam nodivagas inter deus armiger umbras 
 Defuper Arcadia; fines Nemcxaque rura 
 Armorum tonitru ferit ; & trepidantia corda 
 Implet amore fui. Comunt Furor Iraque criftas : 
 
 I ra-na mimftrat equis Pavor armiger. At vigil omni 
 Fama fono, varios rerum fuccinda tumultus. 
 
 Ante volat currum ; flatuque impulfa gementum 
 Alipedum, trepidas denfo cum murmure plumas 
 Excutit; urget enim Hirnulis auriga cruentis 
 Fadta infeda loqui; curruque infeftus ab alto 
 Terga comafque dea Scythica pater increpat balla. 
 
 7 Statius. Theb. 3. jfr, 431. 
 
 (77) -At illi 
 
 Et mens, & quod opus fabrilis dextra tenebat. 
 Excidit.- 
 
 Ovid. Met. 4. 17J. 
 
 Inde ubi prima quies, medio jam nodis abadx 
 Curriculo, expulerat fomnum: cum femina primum. 
 Cui tolerare colo vitam tenuique Minerva, 
 Impofltum cinerem & fopitos fufeitat ignes 
 Nodem addens operi; famulafque ad lumina longo 
 Exercet penfo ; callum ut fervare cubile 
 Conjugis, & poflir parvos educere natos: 
 
 Haud (ecus Ignipotens, nec tempore fegniorillo. 
 Mollibus e liratis opera ad fabrilia furgit. 
 
 Virgil. JE n. 8. jfr. 415. 
 
 (78) Catullus calls Vulcan, “ the hobbling god 
 tardipedem deum. In Annal. Volufi. 
 
 It was reckoned an excellence, in one of the fineft 
 ftatues of this god, that his lamenefswas exprefled ; 
 but not grofly exprefled in it. Tenet vifentes Athe¬ 
 nas Vulcanus, Alcamenis manibus fabricatus : preeter 
 cmtera enim perfedlilumte artis in co pnecurrentia in¬ 
 dicia, etiam illud mirantur; quod flat diflimulata: 
 claudicationis fub velle leviter veftigium repnefentans ; 
 ut non tanquam exprobratum vitium, ita tamen cer¬ 
 tam propriamque dei notam, decore fignificans. Va¬ 
 lerius Max. Memorab. Lib. 8. Cap. u. This is 
 rather over done, Pl. 10. Fig. 1. where the artill, by 
 reprefenting Vulcan fitting, quite conceals his lame- 
 nefs indeed; but at the fame time, lofes one of the 
 moft diflinguifhing attributes of this god. 
 
 
Dialogue^? Seventh■ 
 
 attended by Fauns, inftead of the Cyclops. The ftory feems to be of modern invention ; 
 and the work itfelf carries a fufpicious air with it : fo that we may very fairly drop it, as 
 of no authority ; and confider him only in the meaner character, that is given him by the 
 general confent of antiquity. The poets deferibe him as blackened and hardened, from 
 the forge: with a face, red and fiery whilft at his work; and tired and heated after it. 
 Some of their deferiptions of his looks, on thefe occafions, feem (79) to have been copied 
 from fome antient paintings. 
 
 I should be very glad to meet with any Relievo of Vulcan after his fall from heaven; 
 reprefented in the fame manner as he is defcribed 180) by Valerius Flaccus. He has juil 
 recovered himfelf a little, by reding againd a rock; and is hobbling on, with fome of the 
 good people of Lemnos; who found him in his didrefs, and are very officious to fup- 
 port him and help him along. This poor god is almod always (81) thelubjett, either of 
 pity, or ridicule. He is the great cuckold of heaven : and his very lamenefs ferves to 
 fling all the gods into a violent fit of laughing, when they have a mind to divert 
 themfelves after fome accident that has chagrined them. Ovid makes his own wife (82) 
 mimic his lamenefs, to entertain her gallant. In ffiort, the Great Celedial Deities feem 
 to have admitted Vulcan among them only, (as great men formerly ufed to keep a fool at 
 their tables) to make them laugh, and to be the butt of the whole company. 
 
 I have not yet got any datueof Veda; who, if ever die fhould honour my collection 
 with her prefence, ought to dand here next to Vulcan. To tell you the truth, I have 
 fome doubts whether the figures, that are generally looked upon as Veda’s, do really 
 reprefent that goddefs or not. There is nothing I think about fuch as I have feen, which 
 would not be as proper for one of the Vedal Virgins, as for the goddefs who prefided 
 over them; and who knows whether the figures that are called Veda’s, even in the in- 
 feriptions of the artids who made them (83), may not fignify only one of the virgins, 
 
 who 
 
 (79) -Nec major ab antris 
 
 Lemniacis fragor ell ; ubi flammeus /Egida ctelat 
 Mulciber.- 
 
 Statius. Lib. 3. Sylv. 1. >’•. 133. 
 • ——AJhuc fefium. Siculaque incude rubentem. 
 
 Id. Lib. 1. Sylv. 5. y. 8. 
 Lemnos, ubi ignifera feflus refpirat ab /Etna 
 Mulciber.- 
 
 Id. Theb. 5.jfr. 51. 
 
 (80) -Prrerupti Vulcanum vertice cceli 
 
 Devolvit. Ruit ille polo nodtemque diemque, 
 Turbinis in morem ; Lemni cum litore tandem 
 Infonuit. Vox inde repens ut perculit urbem, 
 Adclinem fcopuloinveniunt: miferentque.foventque, 
 Alternos a:gro cunftantem poplite greflus. 
 
 Flac. Argon. 2. jr. 93. 
 
 (81) Where Minutius Felix is ridiculing the ap¬ 
 pearance of fonte of the heathen gods, Vulcan is the 
 
 very firft that he falls upon.-Quid formre ipfie St 
 
 habitus, nonne arguunt ludibria & dedecora deorum 
 veftrorum ? Vulcanus claudus deus & debilis : Apollo, 
 tot aetatibus laevis ; Efculapius, bene barbatus, etft 
 Temper adoiefeentis Apollinis filius : Neptunus, glau¬ 
 cis oculis ; Minerva, crefiis ; bubulis, Juno : pedibus 
 Mercurius alatis, Pan ungulatis, Saturnus compeditis : 
 &c. Min. Fel. §. 21. p. 107. Ed. Davif. 
 
 (82) Nec Venus oranti (neque enim dea mollior ulla eft.) 
 
 Rullica Gradivo, diflicilifve fuit. 
 
 Ah, quoties lafciva pedes rifilfe mariti 
 Dicitur ! et duras igne, vel arte, manus. 
 
 Marte palam, fimulatVulcanum : imitata decebat; 
 
 Multaque cum forma gratia mixta fuit. 
 
 Ovid, de Arte Am. 2. jr. 570. 
 
 (83) I do not remember to have feen any ftatue of 
 the better ages, which is called Vefta in the inferip- 
 tion : but this is a common thing in medals. When 
 we find any figure thus fixed to a particular deity, 
 by the infeription; we fhould naturally acquiefce in it, 
 without looking any farther : but one of the Roman 
 authors having faid fo exprefly, that they had no fi¬ 
 gures at all of this goddefs, may very well raife fome 
 doubt in the prefent cafe. It is true that on the reverfes 
 of feveral medals there are figures called VESTA : but 
 as one meets with the fame fort of figures, on other 
 reverfes, with the infeription VESTALIS ; poflibly 
 the former are Veftals too : and fo the goddefs, who 
 could not be reprefented in perfon, may be thus re¬ 
 prefented under the figure of one of her chief mini- 
 fters, or fubftitutes. (Compare Fig. 2, and 3. PI. X.) 
 
 On one of thefe medals inferibed with the name of 
 Vella, you have a perfon dreffed in the habit of the 
 Veftal Virgins, and reprefented as offering facrifice in 
 the temple of Vefta : which agrees very well with the 
 prieftefs, and cannot agree at all with the goddefs 
 her fel f. Sec PI. X. Fig. 4. 
 
 There is a lamp in Monfieur Girardon’s collection 
 at Paris, inferibed VESTA ; tho’ there is no figure 
 on it, at all. (See PI. X. Fig. 5.) How much more 
 natural would it be, to give her name to one of the 
 Veftal Virgins, (or, at lcaft, to the chief of the 
 Veftals) as her vifible reprefentative upon earth ? 
 
POLYMETIS. 
 
 who kept her eternal fire ? What firft led me fo far out of the common road of jink¬ 
 ing, was a pafiage in Ovid, which exprefly fays, they had no perfonal reprefentations of 
 this goddefs. To which I may add a thing, which would otherwife have appeared very 
 unaccountable to me. I have formerly I think told you, that I took the pains to read 
 over all the Roman poets, from the fragments of Livius Andronicus to the fatires of Ju¬ 
 venal ; and to mark down the mod firiking paflages in them, which any way related to 
 the figures and appearances of any of the imaginary beings, received as gods among the 
 Romans. When I came to put thefe collections in order, and to range them under 
 their proper heads ; I found I had but one Angle pafiage, out of all of them, relating 
 to Vefta. This Angle pafiage was from Ovid ; and from that very poem of Ovid’s, in 
 which he fays afterwards: 
 
 Efie diu ftultus Veftas fimulacra putavi : 
 
 Mox didici curvo nulla fubefle tholo. 
 
 Ignis inextinftus templo celatur in illo : 
 Effigiem (84) nullam Vefta nec ignis habent. 
 
 I would not hence abfolutely after t that the ladies which are called Vefta, in feveral 
 pieces of antiquity, are only fo many reprefentations of this goddefs by proxy; by one of 
 her great minifters, the Veftal Virgins; but it is enough to make one doubt, whether 
 there may not be fiome fuch thing at the bottom. And as I am ftill in fome doubt about 
 it, I have not yet placed any figure of her in this line of the other Great Deities, her 
 companions. 
 
 It was Numa, who introduced the worfiiip of Vefta and the Eternal Fire, into 
 Rome. A prince, who was too philofophical, to admit of any (85) ftatues at all; 
 either as the objects of devotion, or as helps to it. He thought that method muft de- 
 bafe the gods, more than it could affift men. I fhall not pretend to determine whether 
 he owed this juftnefs and refinement of thinking to his own good fenfe, or to the leflons of 
 Pythagoras; to whofe acquaintance, one of the beft writers of this age, (and whofefriend- 
 ftiip we have each of us the happinefs to have fome ffiare in,) has lately (86) r e- 
 jftored him. Pythagoras was learned in the dodtrine of the Brachmans, and the precepts 
 of Zoroafter; who admitted of no vifible objeCt of devotion, except fire; which they 
 confidered as the propereft emblem of the Great Invifible Being, in the whole material 
 world. The traces of this eaftern dodtrine feem to have been preferved, by Numa ; in 
 the ceremonies and worfiiip he ordained to Vefta. But that I may not run out of my 
 depth, in points that I know very little of, let us (if you pleafe) take a turn or two about 
 the garden; after which we may come back hither ; and finifti our view of the figures 
 in the infide of this temple. 
 
 goddefs, fuppofed to have been concealed in her moll 
 facred temple at Rome. 
 
 3. Even that was fuppofed without grounds : for 
 there was no figure of her concealed there ; as Ovid 
 fays, he learnt afterwards : that is, probably, when he 
 was initiated into the myfteries. That Ovid was 
 initiated, appears from many paflages in his works; 
 where, when he is telling any of the flories that have 
 regard to the myfteries, it is ufual with him to fay ; 
 “ This I am not allowed to tell you ; Thus far I may 
 tell you&c. 
 
 (85) See Dial. 5. Note 7. 
 
 (86) See Mr. Hooke’s Roman Hiflory; Vol. I. 
 p. 125, and 126. 
 
 DIAL. 
 
ii_. afei 
 
~V 3 L 
 
Mil 
 

Dialogue the Eighth, 
 
 o 
 
 DIAL. VIII. 
 
 Apollo y Diana ; Ceres $ and Mercury. 
 
 O N their return to the Rotonda, Polymetis led his friends diredtly to the ftatue of 
 
 Apollo; who (lands fo gracefully, in the a£t of (hooting off his bow. They Pl. 
 eafily knew it to be a copy of the Apollo Belvedere. Among all the (latues of 
 the antients, (fays Polymetis,) which the moderns have as yet difcovered, there are about 
 twenty that might be placed in the firft clafs; each as the chief beauty, in its kind. 
 
 For example, there is nothing in marble equal to the Venus of Medici, for foftnefs and 
 tendernefs; as there is nothing fo (Irong and nervous, as the Hercules Farnefe. The 
 face of the dying gladiator, is the mod expreffive of a human paflion; and the air of 
 the Apollo Belvedere, gives us an idea of fomething above human ; more (Irongly, than 
 any figure among the great numbers that remain to us. Thefe are all therefore conftantly 
 reckoned in this fuperior clafs: and as the excellence of the Apollo Belvedere confids in 
 the exprefiion of fomething divine, whereas the red excel only in things that are com¬ 
 mon to men ; this datue may, perhaps judly enough, claim the preference, even in this 
 didinguidied clafs of the bed remains of all antiquity. 
 
 Any one, who has been much ufed to fee colle&ions of antient datues, may remem¬ 
 ber that the fird and chief thing by which he ufed to didinguiih an Apollo, (at a didance, 
 or in a croud of figures,) was the beauty of his face. He is handfomer than Mer¬ 
 cury ; and not fo effeminate as B'acchus; his two chief rivals for beauty, among all the 
 deities of his own fex. And it is remarkable, by the way, that the Roman poets, when 
 they are fpeaking of the fofter beauties or fine air of any prince, or hero, generally com¬ 
 pare them (0 to one or other of thefe three gods; and oftner to Apollo, than to either 
 of the other. This mod ufual compliment of theirs is a very high one; for indeed no¬ 
 thing can be conceived finer than the face of Apollo. His features are all extremely 
 beautiful, according to our common ideas of beauty; befide which, his face has fome- 
 times an air of divinity diffufed over it, (and particularly in the Apollo Belvedere,) of 
 
 which 
 
 (i) Inftances of pcrfons compared for beauty, to 
 Apollo. 
 
 Aut quis Apollineo pulchrior ore fuit? 
 
 Martial. Lib. 6. Ep. 29. 
 Sic Phcebum fumtis jurabat ftare fagittis, 
 
 Ovid. Met. S. jr. 31. 
 
 Nec tales humeros pharetramque gerebat Apollo. 
 
 V. Flaccus. Argonaut. 2. jr. 492. 
 Tranquilli —.faces oculis, & plurima vultu 
 Mater inert : qualis Lycia venator Apollo 
 Cum redit, & favis permutat pledlra fagittis. 
 
 Statius. Achill. 1. f, 1C6. 
 
 -Ipfe ante alios pulcherrimus omnes 
 
 Infert fe focium Aineas, atque agmina jungit. 
 
 Qualis ubi hybernam Lyciam Xanthique fluenta 
 Delerit, ac Delum maternam invifit Apollo, 
 Inllauratque choros; mixtique altaria circum 
 CretefqueDryopcfque fremunt piclique Agathirfi. 
 
 Ipfe jugis Cynthi graditur; mollique fluentem 
 Fronde premit crinem lingens atque implicat auro: 
 Tela fonant humeris. Haud illo fegnioribat 
 ./Eneas; tantum egregio decus enitet ore. 
 
 Virgil. ^En. 4. jL 150. 
 Bacchus is fet almoft on a level with Apollo for 
 beauty ; in this fort of poetical comparifons. 
 
 Et dignos Baccho, dignos & Apolline crines. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 3. ^.421. 
 
 Formofa periere coma:; quas vellet Apollo, 
 
 Quas vellet capici Bacchus inefle fuo. 
 
 Id. Amor. Lib. 1. EI. 14. jfr. 32. 
 Non vinces * rigidas Hippoliti comas; ["Speaking 
 Phcebo colla licet fplendida compares. ofBacchus.] 
 Illum caifaries, nefeia colligi, 
 
 Perfundens humeros, ornat & integit: &c. 
 
 Hippolitus. Ad. 2. Chor. 755, & goc. 
 Cedent yEfonio duci 
 Si forma velit afpici, 
 
 Aptat qui juga tigribus ; 
 
 Necnon qui tripodas movet. 
 
 Medea. Adi. 1. Chor. jfr. 86. 
 Sume fidem & pharetram, lies manifeftus Apollo ; 
 Accedant capiti cornua, Bacchus eris. 
 
 Ovid. Her. Ep. 15. j,. 24. (Sappho, to Phaon.) 
 Mercury, tho’ much inferior to either of thefe, is 
 ufed too by the poets as an inflance of youth and 
 beauty. 
 
 Sive mutata juvenem figura 
 Ales in terris imitaris almae 
 Filius Maise.- 
 
 Horat. Lib. 1. Od. 2. 43. (of Auguflus.) 
 
 ■-Membraque, & vultu3 Deo 
 
 Similes volanti.-- 
 
 Odlavia. Adi. 1. Sc. 3. >’■. 173. (of Britannicus.'' 
 
 4 
 
POLYMETIS. 
 
 which we fhould have had no idea at all, without the help of the artift. He is always 
 young and beardlefs ; and his long beautiful hair, when unconfined, falls in natural eafy 
 waves, all down his fhoulders ; and fometimes over his bread. His dature is free and 
 eredt. His limbs are exactly proportioned; with as much of foftnefs in all of them, as 
 is confident with drength: and with a grace refulting from the whole, which is much 
 more eafily felt than defcribed ; and which indeed it would be very impertinent to pre¬ 
 tend to defcribe, to any one who has feen the Apollo Belvedere. 
 
 If we have fo high ideas of the beauty of Apollo from the datues we fee of him; 
 what ideas mud the old Roman poets have had, who faw him fo much oftner, both in 
 marble and in colours; and who fet their own imaginations to work, to form the fined 
 notions of him that they could ? It is hence that they fpeak fo very highly of his beauty. 
 Virgil calls him ( 2 ), the Beautiful; and (3) Tibullus, the Well-fhaped God. The latter 
 of thefe poets has a full defcription of his perfon, which I mud read to you ; the rather, 
 becaufe I fufpedt it contains feveral drokes taken from fome very celebrated pictures; 
 which might be generally known and admired at Rome in his time, tho’ they are lod to us. 
 
 Hic juvenis cada redimitus tempora lauro 
 Ed vifus nodra ponere fede pedem : 
 
 Non illo quicquam formofius ulla priorum 
 /Etas, humanum nec videt illud opus. 
 
 Intonfi crines longa cervice fluebant; 
 
 Stillabat Tyrio myrt:a rore coma. 
 
 Candor erat, qualem prrefert Latonia Luna; 
 
 Et color in niveo corpore purpureus : 
 
 Ut (4) juveni primum virgo dedudta marito 
 Inficitur teneras ore rubente genas ; 
 
 Ut quum contexunt amaranthis alba puellte 
 Lilia, Autumno candida mala rubent. 
 
 Tibullus. Lib. 3. EI. 4. jr. 34. 
 
 Nothing was looked upon as more eflential to the beauty of any young perfon 
 among the Romans, than (5) a long fine head of hair. This is one of the didinguifhing 
 things, in the heads of Apollo in old gems; and is extremely well exprefled in this defcrip¬ 
 tion. One meets with it often too in the datues of this god; and particularly, in a very 
 fine one ( 6 ), in the Great Duke’s gallery : which the modern artids have endeavoured 
 to change into a Prometheus; and which they ufed, fome time ago, to call by that name. 
 The Romans had a cudom of cutting their hair fliort, at a certain age; and of keeping it 
 
 fo 
 
 (2) Pulcher Apollo. 
 
 Virgil. JEn. 3. jF. 119. 
 
 (3) Formofus Apollo. 
 
 Tibullus. Lib. 2. El. 3. jh 11. 
 
 (4) This is one of the ftrokes which feems to me 
 to have been borrowed from fome painting in Rome; 
 in which the mixture of the colours here mentioned 
 to be blended together, was remarkably well exe¬ 
 cuted. Pliny, in fpeaking of the belt pieces by 
 Echion there, inftances in one on this very fubjeft. 
 Nova nupta, verecundia notabilis. (Nat. Hift. Lib. 
 35. c. 10. p. 433. Ed. Elz.) The famous picture at 
 the Aldobrandine palace in Rome is on the fame fub- 
 je£t: and the air of the new bride in it is remarkably 
 modeft. As that is fo good, tho’ done when the art 
 of painting was extremely fallen at Rome ; it was 
 very probably copied from fome celebrated pi&ure 
 there : and poflibly, from this piece of Echion’s. 
 The colours are all fo faded in it, (as one may very 
 
 3 
 
 well expeft, after the courfe of almoft fcventcen hun¬ 
 dred years,) that we can fee nothing now of the beau¬ 
 tiful blufh, that was probably on the face of the 
 bride. 
 
 (?) -Quid das ut Collum aliquando falutes? 
 
 Ille metit barbam, crinem hic deponit amati. 
 
 Juvenal. Sat. 3. , 4 . 186. 
 
 Infperata tu® cum veniet bruma fuperbi® ; 
 
 Et, qu® nunc humeris involitant, deciderint com®. 
 
 Florae Lib. 4* Od. 10. jf*. 3. 
 Spifsa te nitidum coma. 
 
 Puro te Jimilem, Telephe, Vefpero, 
 Tempelliva petit Chloe. 
 
 Id. Lib. 3. Od. 19. f, 2-. 
 
 Os humerofque Deo fimilis: namque ipfa decoram 
 
 C.xfariem nato genetrix, &c. 
 
 Virgil. JEn. j, >\ 590. 
 
 (6) There are two different views of this fioure 
 in the Mufaeum Florentinum. Vol. III. PI. 8, & 9, 
 
»5 
 
 Dialog 
 
 u E the Eighth. 
 
 o 
 
 To ever after. Tins ceremony, (for theymade a great ceremonyof it,) was performed in their 
 youth: when they were about leventeen, or eighteen: and tins is one reafon of their poets 
 taking fo much notice of (?) the long hair of Apollo, andof their giving him fo frequently 
 the (8) titles of Crinitus, and Intonfus. When they faid he had always long hair, it was 
 the fame as if they hid faid he was always young. In feeing the colleftions of antient 
 liatues, one ,s apt now and then to take a Bacchus for Apollo, on this very account: for 
 Bacchus 111 the beauty ol his face, and the length of his hair, comes nearcft to Apollo 
 of all the other deities; and they are often ipoke of together by the poets, as diftinguiflied 
 from all the other gods, and as the only rivals for excellence (9), in this point of beauty. 
 
 There is one thing however which feems peculiar to Apollo ; and of which we 
 might have had as ftrong an idea from the painters of old, as we have of his line hair 
 from tile ftatuanes, had the works of the former been fo durable as thofe of the latter 
 All one can fay of it now is, that there was probably, in the old piflures of Apollo, 1 
 certain bnghtnefs beaming from his eyes ; and, perhaps, difl'ufed all over his face ; ’in 
 the fame manner, as the bodyof the principal figure is all luminous and refplendent, in the 
 famous nativity by Correggio; and the transfiguration, by Raphael. What made me firft 
 fufpea this, was the antient poets fpeaking fo often of the brightnefs of Apollo's face, 
 and (10) the beaming fplendour of his eyes. And there is a pafiage in one of the Roman 
 hiftonans, that confirmed me very much in this conjedture ; and which at the fame time, 
 may ferve to mark out one of the molt inconceivable pieces of vanity, that perhaps was 
 ever heard of; even in a Roman emperor. I am forry the emperor I mull infiance in, 
 fhould happen to be Auguftus. It appears from the medals and other reprefentations of 
 this emperor, that his face is what the Romans called an (n) Apollinean face. Nature 
 perhaps had given him fome refemblance of Apollo; and the artifls no doubt underftood 
 flattery well enough to help it out, and to reprelent him more like than he really was. 
 Whatever the artifls have done in this cafe, the poets you may be fure did not let fo fine 
 a topic of flattery mifs them. Accordingly Ovid calls Auguftus (12), the handfomeft of 
 all created beings; and Virgil does not only compare his rEneas, (under whom he is flip- 
 
 pofed 
 
 (7) Utque raeum intonfis caput eft juvenile capillis. 
 
 Ovid. Met. i. f. 564. (Spoke by Apollo.) 
 Phcebe, qui Xantho lavis amne crines. 
 
 Horat. Lib. 4. Od. 6. jr. 26. 
 Qui rore puro Caftalix lavit 
 Crines folutos. 
 
 Id. Lib. 3. Od. 4. 62. 
 
 -Longoque decentia crine 
 
 Tempora cingebat de qualibet arbore Phcebus. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 1. jr. 451. 
 This was fo known a point among the Romans, 
 that it was even grown into a fort of proverbial way 
 of fpeaking with them. 
 
 Dum pecori lupus & nautis infeftus Orion 
 Turbaret hybernum mare; 
 
 Intonfofque agitaret Apollinis aura capillos; 
 
 Pore hunc amorem mutuum. 
 
 Horat. Epod. 15. 10. 
 
 (8) Virgil. JEn. q. jr. 638.-Horat. Lib. 1. 
 
 Od. Zl. 2.-Ovid. Met. 12. jr. 585. 
 
 (9) Et dignos Baccho, dignos & Apolline crines. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 3. jr. 421. 
 
 Perpetuo fic flore mices; fic denique non fint 
 Tam longa; Bromio quam tibi, Phcebe, coma:. 
 
 Martial. Lib. 1. Ep. 123, 
 Solis seterna eft Phoebo Bacchoque juventa ; 
 
 Nam decet intonfus crinis utrumque deum. 
 
 Tibullus. Lib. 1. EI. 4. j\ 33. 
 
 (10) Tranquillajquc faces oculis-. 
 
 Statius. Achil. 2. jr. 164. 
 Radiantibus oculis-. 
 
 Catullus, de At. jt. 40. 
 
 ■- Quid nunc, Hyperione nate, 
 
 Fornia colorque tibi, radiataque lumina profunt ? 
 
 Ovid. Met. 4. jr. 193. 
 
 Ovid fpeaks, in the fame poem, of the fplendour 
 of Apollo’s face; (ibid. j. 231.) and calls his head 
 illuminated, even after he has laid afide his crown 
 of rays. 
 
 Dixerat: at genitor circum enput omne micantes 
 
 Depofuit radios, propiufque accedere juflic. -_ 
 
 Pcenituit jurafle patrem ; qui terque quaterque 
 Concutiens illultre caput; &c. 
 
 Met. Lib. 2. jr. 40, to 50. 
 
 (11) Aut quis Apollineo pulchrior ore fuit ? 
 
 Martial. Lib. 6. Ep. 29. 
 
 Nero affetled to have this fort of face too as well 
 as Auguftus; as appears from the flattery paid him 
 by the common people, when they cried out to him - 
 “ The Beautiful Ctefar ! The Apollo! As like him as 
 Auguftus was ! nay, as like him, as Apollo is to him- 
 fclf!” O ku.\o( K ttiffttf 0 A-zoWuv 0 Avysw «r, u( 
 rii' 5 ;or. Xiphilin. ex Dione. 
 
 (12) Ergo erit ille dies qua tu, pulcherrime rerun), 
 Quatuor in niveis aureus ibis equis ? 
 
 n Ovid, de Art. Am. 1. jr, 214. 
 
86 
 
 POLY 
 
 METIS. 
 
 pofed generally to mean Auguftus,) (, 3 ) to Apollo, for beauty; but in another place 
 feems to call Auguftus himfelf, diredtly, by the name (14) of tliis god. The hiftorians 
 tell us that Auguftus (‘5) was really very beautiful; and that there were ftofics fpread 
 about of his being the (*6) fon of Apollo, in a literal fenfe. It is faid by one cf the 
 
 old commentators, that there were ftatues of him at Rome under the character and 
 with the attributes of Apollo; and in a certain (18) infamous feaft made by Auguftus, 
 (in which he and five of his courtiers reprefented the Great Celeftial Gods, as fome of 
 the ladies of his court reprefented the fix Great Goddefies, he himfelf chofe to appear 
 with the attributes of Apollo. All thefe circumftances put together fhew, but too plainly, 
 that he gave into the flattery that was paid him; and that he thought himfelf, or at leaft 
 loved to bethought by others, like Apollo in general. But the greateft abfurdity of all 
 was his pufhing it fo far, that becaufe Apollo was ufually reprefented with a particular 
 flow of light beaming from his eyes, he muff needs have it fuppofed that his eyes beamed 
 forth a brightnefs too; and that fo ffrongly, as to dazzle thole who looked upon them 
 too nearly, or too Readily. His eyes, it feems, were really very good ones ; they were 
 particularly clear and bright : and “ he affedfed, fays ( t9 ) my hiflorian, to have it 
 “ thought that there was fomething like a divine irradiation from them: and was mightily 
 “ ©leafed, when he looked full upon any body; if they held down their eyes, as people 
 “ are apt to do when the fun glares too lfrong upon them.” 
 
 This prepofferous piece of pride in Auguftus, may help toward explaining a palfage 
 in Virgil; which I have formerly thought fitter for the affectation of an Italian epic poem, 
 than for the propriety which generally reigns thro’ thefEneid. It is in a reprefentation 
 of the battle of Adtium ; where the poet is fpeaking of Auguftus’s appearance, on that 
 great occafion. 
 
 Ilinc Auguftus agens Italos in prafiia Ctefar,- 
 
 Stans celsa in puppi : geminas cui tempora flammas 
 La?ta vomunt; patriumque aperitur vertice fidus. (20) 
 
 Propertius 
 
 (17) Servius on Virgil’s, Tuus jam regnat Apollo. 
 Ecl. 4. jK 10. 
 
 (13) —— Ipfe ante alios pulcherrimus omnes 
 Infert fc focium Alneas atque agmina jungit. 
 
 Qualis ubi hybernam Lyciam Xanthiquc fluenta 
 Deferit, ac Delum maternam invifit Apollo, &c. 
 
 See Virgil. An. 4. f. 140, to 150. 
 
 (14) -Tuus jam regnat Apollo. 
 
 Virgil, Ecl. 4. jr. 10. 
 
 (15) Forma fuit eximia; &, per omnes retatis 
 gradus, venuftiffima. Suetonius, in Aug. §. 79. 
 
 (16) In Afclepiadis Mendetis Avyopzvuv libris lego; 
 Atiam, cum ad folemne Apollinis facrum media nodte 
 veniflet, pofita in templo ledtica, dum cretera: ma¬ 
 tronae dormirent obdormilTc : draconem repente ir- 
 rcpfifle ad cam, pauloque poft egreflum : iliamque 
 cxpergefadtam, quafi a concubitu mariti purificafie 
 
 fe :-Auguftum natum menfe decimo ; & ob hoc 
 
 Apollinis filium exiftimatum. Suetonius, in Aug. 
 
 §■ 94 - 
 
 Tho’ this ftrange ftory be almoft generally forgot 
 now, the memory and belief of it continued down 
 for feveral ages ; as appears from apaflage in Sidonius 
 Apollinaris, who wrote about the middle of the fifth 
 century: 
 
 Magnus Alexander nec non Auguftus habentur 
 Concepti ferpentedeo: Phcebumque Jovemque 
 Divifere fibi. Namque horum quxfjit unus 
 Cynifia fub Syrte patrem : maculis genetricis 
 Alter Phcebigenam fefe gaudebat haberi; 
 
 Pteonii jadlans Epidauria ligna draconis. 
 
 Sid. Apol. Carmen. 2. jr. 126. 
 
 (18) Coena quoque ejus fccretior in fabulis fuit; 
 quae vulgo AaJ'ex.et^iof vocabatur. In qua deorum 
 dearumque habitu difeubuifle convivas, & ipfum pro 
 Apolline ornatum, non Antonii modo epiftolae Pingu¬ 
 iorum nomina amariflime annumerantis exprobrant ; 
 fed $c fine audtore notiffimi verfus. 
 
 Cum primum illorum conduxit mcnfa choragum ; 
 Sexque deos vidit Mallia fexque deas: 
 
 Impia dum Phcebi Cxfar mendacia ludit; 
 
 Dum nova divorum ccenat adulteria j 
 
 Omnia fe a terris tunc cumina declinarunt. 
 
 Fugit & auratos Jupiter ipfe tholos. 
 
 Auxit ccenae rumorem fumma tunc in civitate pe¬ 
 nuria & fames ; acclamatumque eft poftridie, “ Fru¬ 
 mentum omne deos corned ifie Et, “ Caefarem efle 
 plane Apollinem, fed Tortorem.” Quo cognomine 
 is deus quadam in parte urbis colebatur. Suetonius, 
 in Aug. §. 70. 
 
 (1 9 ) Oculos habuit puros ac nitidos : quibus etiam 
 exiftimari volebat inefie quiddam divini vigoris; 
 gaudebatque fi quis fibi acrius contuenti, quafi ad 
 fulgorem folis, vultum fubmitteret. Suetonius, in 
 Aug. §. 79. 
 
 (20) JEn. 8. if. 678. 
 
 4 
 
§7 
 
 Dialogue the Eighth. 
 
 o 
 
 Propertius has (21) feme very difficult lines in fpeaking of the very fame fubjefl, which 
 as well as Viigil s feem to me to have Lome reference to this affectation in Auguftus ; 
 of having his eyes thought to beam light, like thofe of his fuppofed father, Apollo : 
 and there are a few other expreffions in (22) Virgil, which may poffibly have a fide view 
 to the fame extravagant imagination of this emperor. 
 
 To return to my cohesion : The Apollo, before you, is not perhaps the propereft I 
 could have found out for this place; but as it is the nobleft Apollo, (and, probably, the 
 flobleft ftatue in the world,) I have done in this cafe, as in that of the Venus of Medici; 
 and have chofen to commit a fmall impropriety, rather than lofe l'o great a beauty. As to 
 his particular character, you fee it is the Apollo Venator. But tho’ he prefides over the 
 chace, and feems actually engaged in it, he is drefled rather fine for his character. His hair 
 is in fome fort drelfed; and collected together a little above his forehead. His Chlamys, 
 which is only faftened with a gem over his breafl, falls loofely 'down his back, and is 
 tolled over his arm. On his feet you fee one fort of the fine bulkins, which they uled an- 
 tiently for the chace. All the reft of his body is naked. In fhort he is, in every thing, 
 juft as Maximus Tyrius has deferibed him (23): “ The god, in the bloom of youth; al~ 
 moft all naked, tho he has a Chlamys over his fhoulders: holding his bow; and feem- 
 “ ing not only going to move on, but to move on rapidly.’* He may be thus far adorned, 
 as the Apollo who is fo often deferibed in the poets, quitting (24) Lycia his great hunting- 
 feat, to go to Delos where he always appeared in more ftate; and much as Virgil in par¬ 
 ticular deferibes him, where he compares ^neas, (when going a hunting,) to this god. 
 
 -Ipfe ante alios pulcherrimus omnes 
 
 Infert fe focium /Eneas, atque agmina jungit : 
 
 Qualis ubi hybernam Lyciam Xanthique fluenta 
 Deferit, ac Delum maternam invifit Apollo, 
 
 Inftauratque choros ; mixtique altaria circum 
 Cretefque, Dryopefque fremunt, pidique Agathyrfi. 
 
 Ipfe jugis Cynthi graditur; mollique fluentem 
 Fronde premit crinem fingens, atque implicat auro : 
 
 Tela fonant humeris. Haud illo fegnior ibat 
 /Eneas; tantum egregio decus enitet ore. (25) 
 
 I would not affert that Virgil had this very figure of the Apollo Belvedere in his eye, 
 in writing this comparifon ; but thus much is plain : that they both relate to the Apollo 
 Venator, fet off more than he is ufually in that character; that, both in the poet, and in 
 the marble, this god is reprefented as the ftandard of beauty; that this divine beauty of 
 
 his, 
 
 (zi) Cum Phccbus linquens flantem fe vindice Delon, He may too.have had both this and the Julian ftar 
 (Nam tulit iratos mobilis una notos) in his thoughts, in fpeaking of the fon of Alneas ; 
 
 Aftitit A ugufti puppim fu per; & nova flamma when he deferibes the omen of royalty that appeared 
 
 Luxit in obliquam ter finuata facem. 
 
 on his head. 
 
 Ecce levis fummo de vertice vifus Iiili 
 Fundere lumen apex! Taftuque innoxia molli 
 Lambere flamma comas, et circum tempora pafei. 
 
 Propertius. Lib. 4. EI. 6. jr. 30. 
 
 This laft line is difficult enough to be underftood : 
 but I imagine it may refer to the rays of light 
 beaming from Apollo’s eyes, and thofe from Au- 
 guflus’s, croffing one another: fomething like what 
 the naturalifts call, (by a term that is hard enough 
 too,) radiorum decufTatio. 
 
 An. 2. jr. 684. 
 
 (23) lUipctKiov, yupvov ex to£otmv, J'ia- 
 
 100,1 IBUlUIUIUUU.uii.iuu. _ ~ .. _ 
 
 CetHxoVet To/f irotriv uam p tov $ioy]cc. Max. 1 yrius, 
 (22) Virgil, in fpeaking of Aneas, (his great type Diflcrt. 72. 
 of Auguftus,) fays in one place ; 
 
 - Tantum egregio decus enitet ore. 
 
 (24) Tranquillique faces oculis; & plurima vultu 
 Mater inert. Qualis Lycia venator Apollo 
 Cum redit, & fivis permutat pleflra fagittis. 
 
 and in another : 
 
 Os humerofque Deo fimilis. Namque ipfa decoram 
 Cifaricm nato genetrix, lumenque juventa: 
 Purpuream, & litos oculis afflarat honores. 
 
 Statius. Achil. 1. f. 1 66. 
 
 (25) Virgil. /En. 4. it. 150. 
 
88 
 
 POLYMETIS. 
 
 ?L. XII. 
 
 Pl. xir. 
 
 Fig. i. 
 
 Kis, and hi$ motion, are the two principal points aimed at by Virgil in this fimilitude, and 
 the two chief things that ftrike one in viewing the Apollo Belvedere; and, on the whole, 
 that if the one was not copied from the other, they are at leaft fo much alike, that they 
 may very well ferve to give a mutual light to each other. 
 
 One of the mod; known characters of Apollo, among us at prefent, is that of his pre- 
 fiding over poetry, and the Mules; of whom I have a drawing here: and as there has 
 been always a good deal of difficulty in diftinguifhing them from one another; I lhall 
 endeavour to remove that as far as I can, before I go on with this character of the god 
 himfelf. 
 
 The order of the nine Mules feems to have been quite arbitrary; and to have been 
 left wholly to the choice of the artift, who was to reprefent them. Was any order to 
 be followed, that of their names annexed to the nine books of Herodotus’s hiltory (26), 
 would certainly carry the greatelt authority with it; as that was done by the general de¬ 
 cree of all Greece, alTembled at the Olympic games. But I believe there was no fettled 
 method of ranging them ever intended, or obferved : their order in Aufonius’s inferip- 
 tion ( 2 7 ), for a Relievo of the nine Mules in his time, being different from that ufedfor 
 Herodotus’s hiffory; as the Relievo’s we now meet with, differ both from them, and 
 from each other; in their method of ranging the Mufes. 
 
 This makes it the more difficult to point out exaCtly who each of the perfons is, in the 
 drawing of the Mufes now before us: tho’ by the help of Aufonius, (who, on this oc- 
 cafion I mull: beg you to allow me as a good authority,) and of what is Hid here and 
 there by the poets of the better ages, relating to thefe goddeffes, we may be fare of above 
 half of them; and may guefs, perhaps, pretty well, at each of the reft. 
 
 The firfi: figure then is, Clio; by the volume, or roll in her hand. The fecond, 
 Thalia; by the old paftoral crook, and comic malic. The third, I lliould guefs, to be 
 Terpfichore. The fourth, probably, is Euterpe; by the Tibias, or (2S) pipes. The 
 fifth, from her penfive or amorous pofture, I take to be Erato. The fixth,.is Calliope; 
 from the tablets, or pocket-book, in her left hand. The feventh, (from her marking 
 out what flie fings, fo particularly (29), with her hand,) lliould be Polyhymnia. The 
 eighth is evidently Urania, from her globe and radius; and the ninth, (with a maik, 
 and without the pedum paftorale,) is, as evidently, Melpomene. 
 
 Clio prefided over the nobleft kind of poetry: her office it was to celebrate the 
 actions of departed heroes. She therefore has a roll, (or book,) in her hand, as here; 
 or elfe the longer, bolder pipe; as in the Relievo of the Mufes, in the Juftiniani palace 
 at Rome. Horace, in fpeaking of this pipe, feems to give it (30) the Ihrillnefs of the trum¬ 
 
 pet ; and indeed it is lliaped much in the 
 
 (26) Their order before the nine books of Hero¬ 
 dotus is thus : Clio, Euterpe, Thalia; Melpomene, 
 Tcrpfichore, Erato; Polyhymnia, Urania, and Cal¬ 
 liope. 
 
 (27) Clio, gefta canens, tranfadis tempora reddit. 
 Melpomene, tragico proclamat media boatu. 
 Comica lafcivo gaudet fermone Thalia. 
 Dulciloquos calamos Euterpe flatibus ur»et. 
 Terpfichore, afledus citharis movet, imperat,auget. 
 Pledra gerens Erato, faltat pede, carmine, vultu. 
 Carmina Calliope libris heroica mandat. 
 
 Uranie, cceli motus ferutatur & allra. 
 
 Signat eunda manu, loquitur Polyhymnia geflu. 
 Mentis Apollinex vis has movet undique Mufas : 
 In medio refidens coinpleditur omnia Phcebus. 
 
 Aufonius. Edyl, 20. 
 
 fame manner with the trumpets, which the 
 modern 
 
 (28) She has one pipe in her left hand ; and fhould 
 have its companion, in her right. The right hand is 
 broke off in the original, at the wrift. They have 
 lately refitted it, at the Capitol ; and have, very 
 juftly, added the pipe in that hand, as well as in the 
 other. 
 
 (29) Signat eunda n, anu, loquitur Polyhymnia geflu. 
 Aufonius’s Infcription : Note 27. anteh. 
 
 (30) Quem virum aut heroa lyra, vel acri 
 Tibia, fumes celebrare Clio l 
 
 lior. J.ib. 1 . OJ. ii. jr. z. 
 
D i a L o g u E the Eighth. 
 
 o 
 
 89 
 
 modern artifts give to their figures of Fame. As Pindar, and feveral other of the old 
 Lyric poets, dealt fo much in celebrating the a&ions of departed heroes, this Mufe may 
 perhaps have been lometjntes reprelented with a lyre too; tho’ I do not remember ever 
 to have feen any inftance of it, in the remains of the old artifts. Statius (31) makes her 
 defcend to lower offices ; as if fhe mail prefide over every thing that was wrote in heroic 
 verfe : and his miflake, (for it feems to be one,) may be eafily accounted for, from their 
 looking formerly, on every thing wrote in hexameters, as an epic poem ; as I have men¬ 
 tioned to you, I think, on a ( 3 2 ) former occafion. 
 
 Thalia, was the Mufe of comedy, and of (33) paftorals; of which they had a great p L . xil 
 mixture on the Roman ftage, in the earlieft ages of their poetry, and lone (34) after. Fig - 2 - 
 She is diftinguifhed from the other Mufes in general, by her mafic; and from the tragic 
 Mufe, by her fhepherd’s crook; not to fpeakof her look, which is meaner than that of 
 Melpomene; or her drefs, which is fhorter, (and confequentlylefs noble,) than that of 
 any other of the Mufes in this drawing. 
 
 Terpsichore has nothing hereto diftinguifh her. Aufonius gives her the Cithara ; Pl. XII. 
 and it is faid (35), that fhe was the inventrefs of that inflrument. On the medals (36) of Fig - 3 - 
 the Pomponian family, there are three of the nine Mufes with flringed inftruments in 
 their hands ; and juft the fame number in the famous Relievo (37) of the Apotheofis of 
 Homer : but the inifchief is, that we do not know thefe inftruments from one another; 
 and are ufed to call the Cithara, Barbitos and Teftudo, all indifferently by the name of 
 Lyres, or rather Fiddles, in down-right Englifh. Thefe three Mufes, which are fo 
 often reprelented with ftringed-inftruments, (and which are therefore fo difficult to be 
 known,) are the third, fifth, and feventll, in the drawing before you; the other fix be¬ 
 ing eafily known, from their different fort of attributes. The firft of thefe three, I call 
 Terpfichore, becaufe the other two feem to have fomething in their look and pofture 
 which may ferve to determine them to be Erato and Polyhymnia. But this is a good deal 
 conjectural: and perhaps we can never diftinguifh thefe three certainly unlefs we were 
 better acquainted with the names and fhape of the different ftringed inftruments, given 
 to each of them, in the other works of the antients relating to thefe deities. 
 
 It was very common with the muficians of old, to play on two pipes at once; agree- Pl X ii 
 ably to the remarks ( 3 8 ) before Terence’s plays ; and as we often actually find them re- Fig. 4. ’ 
 prefented in the remains of the artifts. It was over this fpecies of mafic that Euterpe pre- 
 flded ( 39 ); as one learns from the very firft ode of Horace. I have alfo feen her (40) re- 
 prefented with the Fiftula, or Calami, in her hand; it is under this lower character, 
 that Aufonius ( 4 1 ) fpeaks of her. 
 
 ERATO; 
 
 (31)- Dumque procax myrtis hederifque, foluta’ 
 
 Fronte, verecundo Clio mea ludit Etrufco. 
 
 Statius. Lib. i. Sylv. z. jr. io. in Balneum Etrufci. 
 
 (36) Sec Agoftini’s Med. p. 157. 
 
 (37) Admiranda, Pl. ult. 
 
 (32) See p. 26. Note 51. anteh. 
 
 (33) -Nec erubuit fylvas habitare Thalia. 
 
 (38) Where it is faid, before the Andria, that it 
 was acted Tibiis paribus, dextris & finiftris ; — the 
 Eunuchus, Tibiis duabus dextris ; — the Phormio, 
 Tibiis imparibus; &c. 
 
 Virgi!. Ecl. 6. jr. 2. 
 
 (34) Sylvis dedufti caveant me judice Fauni, 
 
 Ne velut innati triviis, ac pene forenfes. 
 
 Aut nimium teneris juvenentur verfibus unquam ; 
 Aut immunda erepent ignominiofaque didta. 
 
 (39)-Si neque tibias 
 
 Euterpe cohibet.- 
 
 Hor. Lib. 1. Od. 1. > l . 33, 
 
 (40) Agoilini. p. 157. Med. 4. 
 
 (35) ®y forne of the commentators on Juvenal, 
 
 Sat. 7. i'. 35. 
 
 (41) Note 27, anteh. 
 
 A a 
 
9 ° 
 
 POLY M E T I S. 
 
 Pl. XII. 
 i.o.s. 
 
 Pl. XII. 
 Fig. 6 . 
 
 Erato, who prcfided over love-fonnets and all the amorous kinds of poetry, you fee 
 here, is gentecly drefted; and has a pretty look, tho’ thoughtful : for lhe is reprefented 
 either l'o, or elfe all lull of gayety and motion; as Aulbnius del'cribes her, and as I have 
 feen her on (42) gems : both which characters, tho’ fo oppolite to one another, fuit very 
 well with lovers; and confequently with any patronefs of them. Ovid, one of the elder 
 votaries of this Mule, invokes her with much propriety ( i) in his Art of love ; and in the 
 fourth book of his Falli, for the month of April: which was reckoned the lovers month 
 among the Romans, as May is among us. I own I cannot fee the fame propriety in Vir¬ 
 gil’s invoking Erato (44), in the feventh book of his /Eneid, to give an account of the 
 antient fate of Italy; and juft before his entering on a fcene of battles and deft ruction : 
 unlefs it be from that war’s having been occafioned by, (what Horace calls the old cai fe 
 of war,) a woman ; in which view, all the deftrutftion confequent upon it, was an effect 
 of love. 
 
 Calliope, is fpoken of above once by Ovid, as the (45) chief of all the Mufes : and 
 it is therefore, perhaps, that Horace calls her Regina; and attributes the Ikill of play¬ 
 ing on what inftrument (4O fie pleafes, to this Mule; as comprehending the whole of 
 the art, almoft as much as Apollo himfelf. The book lhe holds in her left hand, is 
 much more like a modern book, than an antient one. The books of old were like the 
 rolls, in our offices for old records; and the form we ufe for hooks now, was then only 
 ufed for tablets, or pocket-books. Thele tablets, in the left hand of Calliope, mark 
 out the difinguilhing character of this Mufe; which was to note down the worthy 
 aCtions of the living; as Clio’s was, to celebrate thofe of departed heroes. Tho’ thele 
 are only tablets, Aufonius calls them, Libri : the common names for them ( 47 ), ufed by 
 Pliny in his epifles, and by feveral of the other Roman writers, are much more proper j 
 and more deferiptive of them. 
 
 (42) See Agoftini’s gems ; N° 6. 
 
 (43) Nuncmihi, fi quando, puer & Cytherea favete! 
 
 Nunc, Erato; nam tu nomen amoris habes. 
 
 Ovid. Art. Am. Lib. 2. >!•. 16. 
 Erato was fo much the patronefs of lovers, that 
 the fame author in his Falti fpeaks of her and Venus 
 as one and the fame. He fpeaks of her as Venus ; in 
 the following verfes : 
 
 Alma fave vati, geminorum mater Amorum ! 
 
 Fall. 4. f. 1. 
 
 Mota Cytheriaca leviter mea tempora myrto 
 Contigit; & cceptum perfice, dixit, opus. 
 
 lb. 16. 
 
 And as the Mufe; in thefe ; 
 
 Talibus Aonia; facunda voce Camxnx 
 Reddita quxfiti caufa furoris erat. 
 
 Ib. 246. 
 
 Subflitit hic Erato. ■ — 
 
 Ib. 349. 
 
 He farther fays, in one place, that the month of 
 April was dedicated to Venus ; and in another, that 
 it was the month of Erato. 
 
 Venimus ad quartum, quo tu celeberrima, menfem; 
 Et vatem & menfem feis, Venus, efle tuos. 
 
 Ib. 14. 
 
 Sic ego : fic Erato. Menfis Cythereius illi 
 Cellit, quod teneri nomen amoris habet. 
 
 Ib. 196. 
 
 (44) Nunc age qui reges, Erato, qux tempora rerum. 
 Quis Latio antiquo fuerit llatus, advena claflem 
 
 6 
 
 Polyhymnia. 
 
 Cum primum Aufoniis exercitus appulit oris, 
 Expediam ; & primie revocabo exordia pugnx : 
 
 Tu vatem, tu diva, mone ! Dicam horrida bella j 
 Dicam acies, adlofquc animis in funera reges ; 
 Tyrrhenamque manujn, totamquc fub arma coaftam 
 Hefpcriam : major rerum mihi nafeitur ordo ; 
 Majus opus moveo. - 
 
 iEn. 7. f. 45. 
 
 (45) ■ - Dedimus fummam certaminis uni. 
 
 Surgit; &, immiffos hedera collefla capillos. 
 Calliope querulas prxtentat pollice chordas ; 
 
 Atque hxc percuflis fubjungit carmina nervis. 
 
 Ovid. Met. ;. jfr. 340. 
 Tline fic, negleftos hedera redimita capillos. 
 
 Prima fui ccepit Calliopxa chori. 
 
 Id. Fall. 5. y. 8tr. 
 
 (46) Defcende ccclo ; & dic nge tibia 
 Regina longum Calliope melos: 
 
 Seu voce nunc mavis acutii; 
 
 Seu fidibus, citharave Phccbi. 
 
 Hor. Lib. 3. OJ. 4. >\ j. 
 
 (47) Ad retia fedebam. Erant in proximo, non 
 venabulum. & lancea, fed ftylus & pugillares. Medi 
 tabar aliquid, cnotabamque : ut fi manus vacuas, ple¬ 
 nas tamen ceras reportarem. Plin. Lib. 1. Epifh 7. 
 
 Pugillares, or libri pugillares, books to hold in 
 the hand and write on. Catullus calls them, moie 
 abfolutely, Pugillaria ; and Aufonius, (on another 
 occafion,) Pugillar bipatens : an cxpreilion, particu¬ 
 larly deferiptive of their make. 
 
9 1 
 
 Dialogue the Eighth. 
 
 o 
 
 Polyhymnia is the laft of thofe three Mufes, that are moil commonly diftinguiftied 
 by holding fome ftringed inftrument of mufic or other, in their hands. This in the hand 
 of Polyhymnia, is (4 8 ) perhaps what the Romans, (after the Greeks,) called Barbitos ; 
 and what we have no name for, in our language. It has a bottom to it very different, 
 both from theTeftudo, and the moll: common fort of Lyres : but as I know fo little ei¬ 
 ther of the make, or names, of the ffringed inftruments of the antients, I fliall venture 
 no farther on that head. 
 
 Urania, is the Mufe that prefided over aftronomy : and it is therefore that you fee 
 her here with the celeftial globe, at her feet; and the Radius (49), ufed by altronomers, 
 in her hand. In the ftatues of this Mufe you fometimes fee the globe in her hand; and 
 fometimes it is placed on a column before her, that {he may confider it the more nearly, 
 and the more attentively. Statius feems to allude to this laft ( 5 °); where he is {peaking 
 of the death of a poet and warrior, whofe fate this Mufe forefaw ; and whom the had in 
 vain endeavoured to keep from the wars. This agrees very well with the antient idea 
 of aftronomy, which was perpetually intermixed with judicial aftrology; as one fees by 
 Manilius, and the other writers on aftronomy in thofe times. 
 
 Melpomene, has her mafic here on her head ; and it is fometimes placed fo much 
 more backward, that it has been miftaken (5 1 ) for a fecond face. Her mafk fhews that 
 {he prefided over the ftage; and fhe is diftinguifhed from Thalia, (or the comic Mufe,) 
 by having more of dignity in her look, ftature, and drefs. Melpomene was fuppofed to 
 prefide over all melancholy fubjedts, as well as tragedy : as one would imagine, at leaft, 
 from (5 2 ) Horace’s invoking her, in one of his odes; and his defiring her to crown him 
 with laurel, in another. 
 
 As to the Mufes in general; it is remarkable that the poets fay but little of them, in 
 a deferiptive way : much lefs, than might indeed be expected for deities, to whom 
 they were fo particularly obliged. Where they do fpeak of them, belide what I have al¬ 
 ready mentioned, it is generally fomething in relation to themfelves. Thus Statius gives 
 us an image of all the Mufes together, mourning over a dead ( 53 ) poet, in filence; and 
 another of Calliope, as receiving Lucan (54) kindly at his birth. Horace has much fuch 
 another idea of Melpomene (55), on a like occafion : and I have a drawing here which 
 may relate to the fame fubjedt, tho’ I am not certain it does; but it is fo pretty, and 
 feems to hit fo well, that I was willing to give it a place in my ( 5 6 ) collection. You 
 fee the mother fitting here; with much the fame air that has been fo often obferved on 
 the face of Mary of Medici, after the birth of Lewis the Thirteenth; in Rubens’s 
 
 famous 
 
 (4.8)-Nec Polyhymnia 
 
 Lelboum refugit tendere barbiton. 
 
 Hor. Lib. 1. Od. 1. jt. 34. 
 
 (40) -Ccelique meatus 
 
 Defcribent radio, Sc furgentia fidera dicent. 
 
 Virgil. JEn. 6. 851. 
 
 (50) Jpfa diu pofitis lethum prxdixerat aftris 
 Uranic. Cupit ille tamen pugnafque, virofque; 
 Forfitan ut caneret: longa jacet ipfe canendus 
 Laude ; fed amiflum muta: flevere forores. 
 
 Statius. Theb. 8. jr. 554. 
 
 (51) HenccFathcrMontfaucon,inhisfetof the Mufes 
 from the medals of the Pomponian family, gives one 
 with two faces ; one before, and the other behind ; 
 exactly like the common heads of Janus, See Montf. 
 Vol. I. PI. 59, 9. 
 
 (32) •-Prscipe lugubres 
 
 Cantus Melpomene : cui liquidam pater 
 Vocem cum cithara dedit. 
 
 Hor. Lib. 1. Od. 24. j v . 4« 
 
 - Mihi Delphica 
 
 Lauro cinge volens Melpomene comam. 
 
 Id. Lib. 3. Od. 30. ]r. ult. 
 
 (53) Statius. Theb. 8. i\ 554. See Note 50. anteh. 
 
 (34) Natum protinus, atque humum per ipfam 
 Primo murmure dulce vagientem, 
 
 Blando Calliope finu recepit. 
 
 Statius, Lib. 2. Sylv. 7. 38» 
 
 (55) Q“ em tu > Melpomene, femel 
 
 Nafcentcm placido lumine videris; 
 
 Hor. Lib. 4. Od. 3. f. ?, 
 
 (56) See the bottom piece, in PI. Xfl, 
 
 Pl. X!I. 
 Fig. 7. 
 
 Pr.. xir. 
 Fig. 8. 
 
 Pi.. XII. 
 Fig. 9. 
 
92 
 
 POLYMETIS. 
 
 famous painting, in the Luxemburg-gallery. The nurfe is holding an infant, as juft born, 
 near the ground; and the perfon who ftands by, looking lb kindly upon the child, and 
 holding a robe open as ready to receive it, we will call (if you pleafe) a Mufe ; and 
 perhaps it is Erato : for ftie feems, I think, moft to refemble her, of any in the drawing 
 I (hewed you before. Urania ftands, on this fide, with her globe on a column ; as con- 
 Jidering and predicting the future fortunes of the new-born infant: and the perfon, be¬ 
 tween her and Erato, feems very attentive to what (he fays. I may be wrong, in making 
 Mufes and Deities of fome of the perfons you fee here. All I can fay is, that the firft 
 moment I faw the original, it put me in mind of thefe defcriptions in Horace and Statius; 
 and that if it was not meant for Mufes, it at leaft agrees exceedingly well with their 
 reprefentations of fome of thofe deities, on a like occafion. 
 
 The Mufes were a frequent ornament for their ( 57 ) libraries of old; as well as the 
 heads of philofophers and poets. We fee them often too on tombs ; and they had a 
 more particular propriety there, if the perfons interred in them were either poets, or 
 philofophers, or muficians, or aftronomers. On thefe you often meet with the whole 
 choir of the Mufes, with fome other deity, that had fome relation to them, in the midft 
 of them : fometimes the Hercules Mufarum; fometimes Minerva, the goddefs of wif- 
 dom; and fometimes, Apollo. The laft was the cafe in the Relievo, for which Aufo- 
 nius wrote his infcription ; where he gives us the reafon why Apollo is placed in the 
 midft of them : and there is a Sarcophagus ( 5 8 ) in the Juftiniani palace at Rome which 
 reprefents Apollo ftanding in the midft of the Mufes, juft as he is defcribed by Aufonius; 
 and with his lyre in his hand. 
 
 Apollo, confidered in his poetical character, is called indifferently either Vates, or 
 Lyriftes; muiic and poetry, in the earlieft ages of the world, having made but one and 
 the fame profeflion. Sometimes you fee him naked ; with his hair regularly compofed, 
 and collected over his forehead ; with his lyre in one hand, and his pleCtrum in the 
 other : and fometimes, in particular, leaning againft a rock; juft as he is defcribed (59) 
 by Propertius. At other times he has his hair finely drefied out; all flowing down at its 
 Pl. XIII. full length, and crowned with laurel; drafted in a long robe, that falls to his feet: which 
 Fig. i,&2. is indeed the proper and diftinguifhing habit, of the Apollo Vates or Lyriftes. The Ro¬ 
 man poets, and particularly (60) thofe of the Auguftan age, are very full in their defcrip¬ 
 tions of him. It was in this fort of drefs that Apollo was fuppofed to appear at the (61) 
 feafts of Jupiter; and particularly at that folemn one, after his victory over Saturn : 
 
 under 
 
 (57) Bacchas iftas cum Mulis Metelli comparas. 
 Quid fimile? Primum ipfas ego Mufas nunquam tanti 
 putafTem : fed tamen erat aptum bibliothecae, ftu- 
 diifquc noftris congruens : Bacchis vero ubi eft apud 
 me locus ? Ea figna ego emere foleo, qute ad fimili- 
 tudincm gymnafiorum exornent mihi in palxftra lo¬ 
 cum. Cicero. Lib. 7. Ep. 23. Fab. Gallo. 
 
 (58) In Montfaucon, Vol. I. Pl. LX. 1. 
 
 (59) -—Aurata nixus ad antra lyra. 
 
 Propertius. Lib. 3. EI. 3. jL 14. 
 
 (60) — Sacris indu&a capillis 
 Laurus erat: vates ille videndus adefl. 
 
 Ovid, de Art. Am. 2. i- 496. 
 Alterius crines humero jaflentur utroque : 
 
 Talis es aflumta, Phcebe canore, lyra. 
 
 Id. Ibid, 3. if. 142. 
 
 Ipfedeus vatum, palla fpeflabilis aurea, 
 
 Traftat inaurata: confona fila lyrte. 
 
 Id. Lib. 1. EI. 8. ir. 60. 
 Ille, caput flavum lauro Parnaflide vindlus, 
 
 Verrit humum Tyrio faturata murice palla : 
 Inftruftumque fidem gemmis fr dentibus Indi* 
 
 5 
 
 Suftinet a lnsva; tenuit manus altera pleflrum : 
 
 Artificis flatus ipfe fuit.- 
 
 Id. Met. 11. i 6 g. 
 Ima videbatur talis illudere palla; 
 
 Namque ha:c in nitido corpore veflis erat. 
 
 Artis opus raras, fulgens teftudine & auro 
 Pendebat heva garrula parte lyra. 
 
 Hanc primum veniens pleftro modulatus eburno 
 Felices cantus ore fonante dedit: 
 
 Sed pofiquam fuerant digiti cum voce locuti 
 Edidit hxc trifti dulcia verba modo. 
 
 Tibullus. Lib. 3. EI. 4. >'•. 4,. 
 
 (61) Phosbe, fave: novus ingreditur tua templa facerdos: 
 Huc age cum cithara carminibufque veni. 
 
 Nunc te vocales impellere pollice chordas; 
 
 Nunc precor ad laudes fleflcre verba meas. 
 
 Ipfe triumphali devimftus tempora lauro. 
 
 Dum cumulant aras, ad tua facra veni; 
 
 Sed nitidus pulcherque veni: nunc indue vcflem 
 Sepofitam ; longas nunc bene pette comas: 
 Qualem te memorant, Saturno rege fugato, 
 
 Viftori laudes concinuifle Jovi. 
 
 Tibullus. Lib. 2. EI. 5. y. 10. 
 
ALO 
 
 under which charaflerhe may mo» properly be called, the Feftal Apollo. It teat thus 
 too that poets, (or muficians of old,) were dreffed, when they fang to the lyre at the. 
 tables of the greeted princes ; and, in particular, Idpas in Virgil, at the feaft which Dido 
 gives to rLneas : as that poet gives us to underftand by (62) one Angle word only • in his 
 ufual way of rather hinting at things, than exprefling them diredUy, or at large ’ 
 
 One of the moil celebrated charadters of Apollo among the Romans, (particularly in 
 the Auguftan age,) was that of the Adlian Apollo. There was a promontory near Ac¬ 
 tium, (called indifferently the promontory of Aftium, or Leucate,) which was very fa¬ 
 mous in antient times for two things: the lovers leap (63), and the ftatue of Apollo 
 which flood very near the place, from which the lovers (who were fo difpofed) were 
 to take their leap. This ftatue of the Adlian Apollo, as he was called, flood high ■ 
 and was vifible to the mariners a good way out at fea: he was (64) very much revered by 
 them : and Auguftus himfelf, before his engagement with Antony off this cape addreffed 
 his devotions to him for the viftory; as I think I have fomewhere read, tho' I forget 
 where. This made him fo celebrated among the Roman poets : notwithftanding which 
 one lhould have lbme difficulty to determine exaffly what fort of appearance Apollo 
 made under the charafler of the Aftian or Leucadian god. It feems as if his drefs had 
 been of a mixed kind on this occafion ; partly that of the Apollo Venator, and partly that 
 of the Apollo Lyriftes. At leaft, the poets in general give him (65) a bow in his hand; 
 and on (66) a medal of Auguftus, he appears with the long flowing robe of the muiical 
 Apollo.. This is a confufion of his attributes and charaflers, which is very uncommon ; 
 but which however is not wholly without authority, in (67) other antient figures of this 
 god. 
 
 As 
 
 (6^) - Cithara crinitas lopas 
 
 Perfonat aurata. - 
 
 Virgil. JEn. i. . 
 
 As the Romans muft have been fo familiarly ac¬ 
 quainted with the drefs of the Feftal Apollo, his long 
 robe which he always wore then, and his full-dreffed 
 hair; Virgil’s applying the epithet Crinitus (the 
 known epithet of Apollo) to Iopas, on this occafion, 
 might imply, to them, that he was dreffed out like 
 the Feftal Apollo : in a long magnificent robe, and 
 with his hair all flowing down his back. This, by 
 the way, is a ftrong inftance of the ufe of being ac¬ 
 quainted with the antient Roman cuftoms, and with 
 the appearances their gods ufed to make on fuch and 
 fuch occafions, towards underftanding their poets. 
 Had the author of a piece publifhed a few years ago, 
 (under a name, that would make every body fond 
 of reading it,) been aware of this ; methinks he could 
 never have called Crinitus here : “ an epithet fo wholly 
 foreign to the purpofe.” See Difc. on antient and mo¬ 
 dern learning; by Mr. Addifon. p. 6. 
 
 ( 6 ;) Jam fragor armorum trepidantes perfonat aures, 
 Attiacofque finus & Apollinis arma timentes. 
 
 Petronius Arb. -j/. n j. 
 Attius hac cernens arcum intendebat Apollo 
 Defuper : omnis eo terrore Aigyptus & Indus, 
 Omnis Arabs, omnes vertebant terga Sabai. 
 
 Virgil. Asn. 8. i. 70 6. 
 
 Dixerat; Sc pharetra: pondus confumit in arcus : 
 
 Proxima port arcus Cafaris halla fuit. 
 
 Vincit Roma fide Phcebi.- 
 
 Propertius. Lib. 4. EI. 6. >’•. 57. 
 Attius hinc traxit Phrebus monumenta, quod ejus 
 Una decem vicit milia fagitta rates. 
 
 Id. Ibid. 68. 
 
 (63) '■ Quoniam non ignibus aquis 
 
 Ureris, Ambracias terra petenda tibi. 
 
 Phcebus ab excelfo quantum patet adfpicit aquor; 
 
 Attiacum populi, Leucadiumque vocant. 
 
 Hinc fe Deucalion Pyrrha fuccenfus amore 
 Mifit, & illafo corpore preflit aquas: 
 
 Nec mora, verfus amor tetigit leniflima Pyrrha 
 Pettora 
 
 Apollo was not only fuppofed to aflift Auguftus, 
 in the battle of A&ium ; but in that of Philippi too, 
 againft Brutus : as we learn from apaffage in Valerius 
 Maximus; (which, by the way, fhews that there 
 were Sortes Homerica of old, as well as Sortes Vir¬ 
 gil ianse.) M. Bruti dignus admiffo parricidio eventus 
 omine defignatus eft; fiquidem poft illud nefarium 
 opus natalem fuum celebrans, cum Gracum verfum 
 expromere vellet, ad illud potiflimum Homericum 
 referendum animo tetendit; “ poif 0A011 ^ 
 
 A» 7 »f eitjccvev u/of” qui deus, Philippenfi acie, a Ca- 
 fare Sc Antonio figno datus, in eum tela convertit. 
 Lib. 1. Cap. 5. 
 
 Ovid. Her. Epift. 15. 170. (Sappho, to Phaon.) 
 
 (64) Mox & Leucata nimbofa cacumina montis ; 
 Et formidatus nautis aperitur Apollo. 
 
 Virgil. JEn. 3. f 
 
94 
 
 P O L Y M E T I S. 
 
 As Auguftuswas fo particularly obliged to the Apollo of Attium, he built one temple 
 to him on the (pot j and another afterwards, ( 68 ) within the confines of his own homo, at 
 Rome. Augudus's houfe was called, the Palatium; (which, you know, was apat- 
 ticular name then; tho’ it has fince grown into a general one, for all royal houfes;) and 
 the noble figure of Apollo which flood in the temple he built to the Aflian Apollo there, 
 was thence called the Apollo Palatinus. This llatue was a work of the famous^ (69) 
 Scopas; and the defign of it was not fo precarious, as that of the Apollo at Attium. 
 It was reprefented folely under the charatter of the Apollo Lvriftes. The poets deferibe 
 him in a manner that confines his charatter abfolutely to this: they fpeak of him (/°) as 
 in his flowing robe, and as attually playing on his lyre. They even leem to hint (71) at 
 his having quitted his bow ; and to give ( y2 ) the reafon, why he has quitted it. ^ Ills 
 figure therefore mull have made much the fame appearance with the Attian Apollo’s, as 
 that god is reprefented on the reverfe of (73) Augullus’s medal; and Atthis Apollo on that 
 medal, and Palatinus (74) Apollo in the poets, may pofiibly refer to one and the fame 
 charatter, and one and the fame flatue; namely, this celebrated llatue of the Attian 
 Apollo, on the Palatine hill. 
 
 The 
 
 fcrpentemque ejus fagittis confici. Nat. Hitt. Lib. 
 34. c. 8. p. 384. Ed. Elz. 
 
 This puts me in mind of one of the moil puzzling 
 ftatues, I ever met with in Italy. It is in the en¬ 
 trance of the king of Sardinia’s palace, at Turin. 
 The face has the Greek air ; and the hair is collected 
 on the forehead, like Apollo’s. There is a lift, or 
 diadem, appears under the hair of the forehead ; and 
 then is loft, in the hair on each fide. I here is a par¬ 
 ticular fort of velum behind the head ; with two Tre- 
 niai, falling down a pretty way on the fhoulders and 
 breaft. It has a fort of Chlamys, fattened with a 
 round gem over the breaft ; and a Cingulum, ap¬ 
 pearing from under it, and going down to the left 
 fide. A veft under it, with large folds ; girt, a little 
 above the navel: then a Multitium, following clofely 
 the Ihape of the limbs, quite down to the feet; and 
 very plainly diftinguilhing the fex. From under this, 
 there is an odd fort of ribbed ftuff, that comes half 
 way over the feet; as the Solcte appear under them. 
 One foot is a little advanced before the other ; and 
 both the face, and attitude, are apt to put one in 
 mind of Apollo Ihooting. What it reprefents, is 
 very difficult to fay; and it is as difficult, I think, to 
 fix what nation it is of. If one was to fee only the 
 head, one Ihould think it Grecian ; if one was to fee 
 only the breaft and fhoulders, it might pafs for Ro¬ 
 man ; and if one was to fee it only from the navel 
 downwards, one fhould take it to be Egyptian. It 
 was of too doubtful a nature for me to make ufe of 
 any print of it: and I have deferibed it here fo mi¬ 
 nutely, rather as a riddle for the antiquarians to find 
 out; than as any authority in the prefent caie : tho’ a 
 very fenfible and learned gentleman I had the pleafure 
 of knowing at Turin, was always of the opinion, that 
 it reprefented Apollo in his robe, as a Mufician; and 
 in the attitude, of having juft ftiot oft" his bow. 
 
 (68) Vidlor deindc Casfar reverfus in urbem con- 
 tradlas emptionibus complures domos, quo laxior fie¬ 
 ret ipfius, publicis fe ufibus deftinare profellus cft ; 
 templumque Apollinis, & circa Porticus, fadturum 
 promifit : quod ab eo lingulari extrudfum munificen¬ 
 tia eft. Vel. Paterculus, Lib. 2. §. Si.-Tem¬ 
 
 plum Apollinis in ea parte Palatini domus excitavit, 
 quam fulmine iftam a deo deficlerari haiufpices pro¬ 
 nuntiarunt. Addidit Porticus; cum bibliotheca, La¬ 
 tina Grsecaque. Suetonius, in Aug. §. 29. 
 
 (69) Pliny, (fpeaking of the fineft pieces of this 
 ftatuary, at Rome,) fays. Is fecit Apollinem Pala¬ 
 tinum. Nat. Hift. Lib. 36. c. 5. p. 47 *• Elz - 
 
 (70) Propertius gives a long account of his having 
 been at the opening of the Portico’s belonging to this 
 temple of the Apollo Palatinus ; and among feveral 
 other remarkable things, mentions the figure of the 
 god himfelf. 
 
 Deinde inter matrem deus ipfc interque fororem 
 Pythius in longa carmina vefte fonat. 
 
 Propertius. Lib. 2. El. 31. jL 16, 
 
 (71) When Horace is writing on fo particular and 
 folemn an occafion, as the fecular games were among 
 the Romans ; it is probable that he applies to the fa¬ 
 vourite Apollo of the Romans, in his time : which 
 was this Apollo, the patron and favourite deity of 
 Auguftus Crefar. In his poem on that occafion, he 
 fays ; 
 
 Condito mitis placidufque telo, 
 
 Supplices audi pueros Apollo. 
 
 lior. Carm. Sic. y. 34. 
 
 (72) Propertius, after fpeaking of the figure of 
 Apollo at Aelium, which was armed; immediately 
 fays, 
 
 Bella fatis cccini: citharam jam pofeit Apollo 
 Vidlor ; Sc ad placidos exuit arma choros. 
 
 Lib. 4. El. 6. jt. 70. 
 
 (73) In that medal, fubferibed ACT, and re¬ 
 ferred to before, in Oilclius’s Thefaurus, (PI. 37. 11.) 
 Apollo appears in the long robe, but flung back loofe ; 
 and holds a lyre in his left hand, and the plc&rum in 
 his right. 
 
 (74) Scripta, Palatinus quicunquc recepit Apollo. 
 
 Horat. Lib. 1. Ep. 3. jr. 17. 
 
95 
 
 Dialogue the Eighth. 
 
 o 
 
 The reprefentations of Apollo as preliding over, the fun, will be more properly con- 
 fidered in another place ( 75 ): fo that, if you pleafe, we will now go on to fome other 
 chara&er of him. That of the Apollo Medicus is (76) often mentioned by the poets; and 
 it is on the account of this character, I fuppofe, that we fo frequently fee the ferpent, at 
 the feet of his ftatues : tho’ the antiquarians in Italy, at prefent, will almoft always have 
 it to be the ferpent Python. Let it be ever fo fmall, or in the mod: peaceable pollure 
 that can be imagined, (for it is often deeping, and always quiet;) our Cicerones, as you 
 may remember, were always pointing him out for that terrible inonder, which no lei's a 
 god than Apollo was forced to ule almoft all his arrows to rid the world of. I do not fee 
 any reafon they have to commit luch an outrage againd all appearances, when the cha¬ 
 racter of Apollo as the god of health is fo well known; and when all the other deities 
 who diare with Apollo in that character, have almod: always a ferpent by them. I do 
 not remember ever to have feen an Hygiea without a ferpent; andEfculapius has com¬ 
 monly one much larger, (and confequently much more like the Python,) than thole at 
 the feet of Apollo. But what, I think, puts this quite out of difpute, is; that in the 
 figures we fee of Apollo with a ferpent by him, he has generally an eafy mild look: 
 whereas was he to be reprelented as engaging the Python, his features would be all (77) 
 fevere and terrible. 
 
 There is fomething of this feverity difeovers itfelf in the eye of the Apollo Belvedere; 
 but it appears in all its force, when he is executing fome piece of judice, (or if you will, 
 fome piece of cruelty,) on thofe who have offended him. Thus you fee him with a face 
 that almod makes one tremble to look upon it, in this gem, where he is ordering Mar- p f> . XIII. 
 fyas to be fiea’d alive: a 1 'ubjeCt, that is entirely horrid and lhocking. The dice of Fig - 3 * 
 Marfyas exprefies pain, as drongly as the god’s does anger. Indeed I ought to add, in 
 judice to Apollo, that Nero is reprefented here, under the character of this god ; and I 
 know no one of his characters fitter for that tyrant, than this is. The figures relating 
 to this dory of Marfyas, were very common of old; and we have a great many dill left 
 of them. It is faid there was one, in particular, in the Forum ; very properly placed, 
 jud by the feat of judgment (in the fame manner as they have placed one now at the 
 entrance to the hall for hearing caufes, on Monte Citorio ;) and another, in fome part of 
 the city, with Apollo himfelf indicting the cruel punifhment upon him; from whence 
 he got (78) the name of Apollo the Tormentour. There are feveral drokes in the Ro¬ 
 man poets, alluding to the (79) former of thefe figures; which, I imagine, reprefented 
 
 (75) See Dial. XII. polth. 
 
 (76) Confilium eft. quodcunque cano; parete canenti : 
 
 Ucque facis, cceptis Phccba-faluber ades! 
 
 Ovid, Rem. Am. jr. 706. 
 Carminis, et medica: Phoebe repertor opis. 
 
 Id. Ibid. it. 76. 
 
 Inventum medicina meum ell; opiferqueperorbem 
 Dicor; & herbarum fubjefta potentia nobis. 
 
 Id. Met. 1. it. 524. 
 
 -Nihil audior Apollo 
 
 Subvenit.—— 
 
 Virgil. .TEn. 12. jt. 406. 
 
 (77) Non ille attulerat crines in colla folutos; 
 
 Aut teftudincx carmen inerme lvrx : 
 
 Sed quali afpexit Pelopeum Agamemnona vultu, 
 Egefiitque avidis Dorica caftra rogis; 
 
 Aut qualis flexos folvit Pythona per orbes. 
 
 Propertius. Lib. 4. EI. 6. it. 3;. 
 Te viridis Python, Thebanaque mater ovantem 
 
 Horruit in pharetris.- 
 
 Statius. Theb. 1. it . 712. 
 
 (78) Suetonius, in Aug. §. 70. 
 
 (79) -Fora litibus omnia fervent 
 
 Ipfe poteft fieri Marfya caufidicus. 
 
 Martial. Lib. 2. Ep.64. 
 
 Marfyas 
 
 Deinde eo dormitum : non follicitus mihi quod cras 
 Surgendum fit mane ; obeundus Marfya; qui fe 
 Vultum ferre negat Noviorum polle minoris. 
 
 Horat. Lib. 1. Sat. 6. it. 121. 
 Scire velim quare toties mihi, Nxvole, trillis 
 Occurras, fronte obdudta ceu Marfya vidlus: 
 
 Quid tibi cum vultu, qualem deprenfus habebat 
 Ravola i 
 
 Juvenal. Sat. 9. it. 4. 
 
 By the latter part of this paflage from Juvenal, I 
 fhould be apt to imagine, that this particular figure of 
 Marfyas near the feat of judgment, reprefented him 
 very much furprized. As he had vanity enough, to 
 challenge Apollo ; he had certainly enough too, to 
 think that the fentcnce mull have been given in his 
 favour. 
 
 By the paflage from Horace, I Ihould imagine that 
 he was reprefented in it turning his face from Apollo ; 
 as not bearing to look on his victorious rival. 
 
 If this was really the calc, there mull have been a 
 llrange mixture of the word pafiions on his fingle 
 face. Surprize, at his being judged inferior ; envy 
 and hatred, againll the rival that was preferred to 
 him ; a deep concern, for his lofs of glory; and hor¬ 
 ror, of the punilhment he expecled to undergo. All 
 of which together might very well make a face, dilni.il 
 enough to be made a proverb of. 
 
 5 
 
96 
 
 P O L Y M E T I 
 
 Marfyas as hearing, or as having juft heard, the terrible fentencc pronounced again ft 
 him. Hence, if any man had an extremely dejeded air, they afked ; “ Why do vou 
 come out, with this Marfyas-face upon you ?” And if a lawyer pleaded particularly ill, 
 they laid; “ That man lpeaks bad enough, to make Marfyas look fo much out of hu¬ 
 mour as he does.” There were numbers of other figures relating to the execution of this 
 Marfyas, as well as his condemnation; and I believe there are enough of them even 
 remaining to us, to Ihew the whole feries of that melancholy ftory, in all its different 
 periods. In fome, he appears juft fixed to a tree, in fuch a manner that his feet do not 
 quite reach to the ground ; in others, fometimes Apollo himlelf, and fometimes fome 
 other executioner, has begun fleaing him; and in others again, he appears with his body 
 quite flea’d, and all over one wound. We have defcriptions of him in the poets too, in 
 all thefe (80) different periods of his punilhment; which are fome of them fo horrid, 
 that it gives one a good deal of pain only to go through the reading of them. 
 
 Apollo probably had this angry and avenging air too, in the works of the antients 
 which reprefented the whole ftory of the punilhment of Niobe. Niobe had highly 
 incenfed Latona; who defired her two children, Apollo and Diana, to avenge the af¬ 
 front that had been offered to her. In api&ure, or relievo therefore of this ftory, (fuch 
 as was that (81) fine one, on one of the great folding-doors to the temple of the Apollo 
 Palatinus,) onefhould naturally expert to fee thefe two deities in the air; with their bows 
 bent, and aiming at fome of thofe many children Niobe was fo proud of. In the noble 
 collection of detached figures relating to this affair, at the Villa Medici in Rome, this 
 indeed was impracticable; but in a relievo or picture, where it is practicable, it would 
 have been an unaccountable omiffion to leave out the two principal perfons of the piece : 
 and accordingly Perier, where he gives you a print of the Medicean figures, takes the 
 liberty of adding the deities over them in the air (82). The poets who fiaw the ftory re¬ 
 prefented fo often, both in marble and on canvas, fpeak very exprefly of the prefence of 
 thefe two deities on this occafion; and of the vengeful appearance they made : and Ju¬ 
 venal, in particular, introduces Amphion as feeing them, and addrefling his prayers to 
 them, to deprecate their wrath. 
 
 ‘ Parce, precor, Pasan ; & tu, depone fagittas: 
 
 Nil pueri faciunt; ipfam configite matrem !” 
 Amphion clamat; fed Prean contrahit arcum. (83) 
 
 There is a figure among thofe relating to this ftory, in the Villa Medici; which, in 
 all probability, is meant for Amphion : and his attitude in it agrees exaCtly with this de- 
 feription of him by Juvenal. By the way, that poet has given us a mixture of humour 
 in it, not quite fo proper on this occafion. Ilis Amphion feems to beg two diftinCt fa¬ 
 vours of the gods his prayer is addrefled to. The firft is, that they would have com¬ 
 panion 
 
 (80)-Illuilres fatyro pendente Celaenas. 
 
 Statius. Theb. 4. 186. 
 
 -- Phcebo fuperante pependit; 
 
 Ctcfa recdTerunt a cute membra fua. 
 
 Ovid. Fall. 6. jr. 70S. 
 
 - Quid me mihi detrahis ? inquit; 
 
 Ah, piget! Ah, non ell, clamabat, tibia tanti! 
 
 Id. Met. 6. f. 386. 
 
 Clamanti cutis ell fummos direpta per artus ; 
 
 Nec quidquam nifi vulnus erat: eruor undique manat; 
 Detedique patent nervi: trepidteque fine ulla 
 Pelle micant vente. Salientia vifcera poliis. 
 
 Et perlucentes numerare in pedore fibras. 
 
 Id. Ibid. j.\ 391. 
 
 Altera, dejedos Parnafii vertice Gallos; 
 
 Altera, mcerebat funera Tantalido*. 
 
 Propertius. Lib. 2. EI. 31. jr. 14. 
 
 There was another famous work on this fubjeft, 
 fpoken of by Pliny, in another temple of Apollo ar. 
 Rome. Par hsefitatio eft, in templo Apollinis Solia- 
 ni, Nioben cum liberis morientein Scopas an Praxi¬ 
 teles fecerit. Nat. Hift. Lib. 36. c. 5. p. 472. Ed. 
 Elz. 
 
 (82) Perier’s Statues, PI. 87. 
 
 6 
 
 (81) Auro folis erat fupra falligia currus ; 
 Et valva; Libyci nobile dentis opus : 
 
 (83) Juvenal. Sat. 6. >'■. 173. 
 
Dialogue the Eighth. 
 
 paffion on his children ; and the fecond, that they would rid him of the haughty mother 
 of them. It founds to me, juft as if he had faid; 
 
 O, fpare my children ! and O-take my wife! 
 
 Ovid is very (84) full and diftindt in his account of this affair. He reprefents Apollo 
 and Diana with their bows, performing this piece of vengeance; and tells us, in particu¬ 
 lar, how and where each of the fons was wounded by the former. There is a great 
 deal of difference, as well as a great deal of agreement, between his manner of telling the 
 ftory, and the reprefentation of it in the Medicean figures. As to the points in which 
 they differ, they may generally be very well accounted for, from the different natures of 
 ftatuary and poetry : the latter of which can reprefen t perfons in the air as ealily, as on the 
 earth; whereas the former is more confined, in general; and, in particular, tied down, 
 to one point of time. As to their agreement, that is very clear in feveral things; and 
 more particularly in the principal figure, that of Niobe: who is reprefented as engaged 
 in the fame adtion, and with the very fame attitude, (or manner of doing it,) both in the 
 Medicean ftatue of her, and in Ovid’s account of the latter part of this tragical ftory. 
 
 Ultima reftabat, quam toto corpore mater; 
 
 Tota vefte tegens ; “ Unam minimamque relinque ! 
 
 De multis minimam pofco, clamavit, 6c unam.” (85) 
 
 Apollo and Diana were eonfidered by the heathens of old, as the Inflidlers of 
 plagues, and all fudden deaths; the former on men, and the latter on women. They 
 generally (86) talked of thefe two deities, as difeharging arrows on thefe occafions. The 
 wounds, the arrows, and the deities themfelves, were fometimes fuppofed to be all vifible; 
 and fometimes, to be invifible. But even in the latter cafe, the effedt was plain : the 
 dead body lay before them ; and their credulity helped out all the reft. The artift there¬ 
 fore, as he could not well introduce the gods in the Medicean groupe of figures, did very 
 
 well 
 
 (S.J.) Define, Phcebus ait, (pcenae mora longa,) querelas; 
 Dixit idem Phcebe : celerique per aera lapfu 
 Contigerant tetti Cadme'ida nubibus arcem. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 6. it. 217. 
 
 Planus erat lateque patens prope mccnia campus. 
 Pars ibi, de feptem genitis Amphione, fortes 
 Confcendunt in equos - 
 
 lb. Ibid. f. 222. 
 
 Of the brothers, he fays that: Ifmenos and Sipylus 
 were killed on their horfes ; Phaedimus and Tantalus, 
 as they are wreftling : and Alphenor, as he is try¬ 
 ing to lift them up : the itxth fon,- Damafichthon, is 
 fliot, firft through the leg; and, as he was ftooping 
 to o-ct out the dart, receives his mortal wound in the 
 neck. Ilioneus, the feventh and laft, falls in the acl 
 of praying to heaven for mercy, lb. ir. 224, to 
 266. 
 
 Amphion, on lofing all his fons, ftabs himfelf. 
 Niobe hears of the lofs of her hufband and foris ; flies 
 to the plain : and mourns over their dead bodies. 
 They are laid out on their biers ; and their filters 
 come in habits of mourning, and lament round them. 
 Niobc rebpfes into her blalphemies, and lofes her 
 daughters too. Ibid. jt. 267, to 286. 
 
 Of the daughters, the firft links over the body of 
 one of her brothers, as file is drawing the arrow from 
 his wound: the fecond, as fhe is trying to confole 
 her mother. The third drops as Hie is endeavouring 
 to make her efcitpc ; and the fourth falls on her dead 
 body. The fifth is killed, as fhe is feeking to hide 
 herlelf: and the fixth, in a pofturc of aftonifhment. 
 lbii. y. 288, to 296. 
 
 Sexque datis leto, diverfaque vulnera pallis. 
 
 Ultima reftabat: quam toto corpore mater. 
 
 Tota vefte tegens; “ Unam minimamque relinque! 
 De multis minimam pofco, clamavit, & unam !” 
 Dumque rogat, pro qua rogat occidit. Orba refedit. 
 Exanimes inter natas, natofque, virumque; 
 Diriguitque malis. — 
 
 Ibid. jr. 303. 
 
 (85) Ovid. Met. 6. f. 300.— See Pcrier’s Statues, 
 N° 87. or MafFei’s, N° 32. 
 
 (86) It is perhaps owing to this way of talking for¬ 
 merly, that when any perfon happens to die fuddenly 
 (on the road, or the like) it is ftill fo cuftomary, in 
 feveral nations to fay they are “ fun-ftruck ; or 
 fliot by the fun.” Thus the French coup du foleil ; 
 the Italian, colpo del foie : and the Spanifh, golpe 
 de fol. 
 
 That this was a very early notion among the Ro¬ 
 mans, appears from what is faid by fome of the cldeft 
 poets among them. 
 
 Fer mi auxilium ; peftem abige a me] 
 
 Flammiferam : hanc vim, qua: me excruciat. 
 Cseruleae, incinttae igni incedunt ; 
 
 Circumflant cum ardentibus taedis. 
 
 Intendit Crinitus Apollo 
 
 Arquum auratum :- 
 
 Diana facem jacit a lxva. 
 
 Ennius, in Alcmaeone. 
 Quod utinam me fuis arcitenens telis mattaflet dea! 
 
 Attius, in Erigone. 
 
 C c 
 
 97 
 
POLYMETIS- 
 
 well in (87) generally omitting the wounds too; which they were fuppofed to make 
 fometimes in the vitals, without leaving any mark on the outfideof the body; as it often 
 happens in the ftrokes given by lightning. Ovid follows both ways. He fpeaks of the 
 wounds as vifible (88) on the brothers, and as invifible on the lifters: and one would 
 think, by his account, that the gods were invifible too; even to the perfons who ( y 9 ) 
 fuftered fo much from their hands. 
 
 I HAVE been obliged to refer you to Perier’s print of the figures, relating to this ftory, 
 in the Medicean gardens; becaufe I have no copies, or drawing of them, in my collection. 
 To fay the truth, the manner of ranging the figures themfelves does not feem to me to 
 have been fettled fo judicioufly at firft, as the finenefs of the work, and the peculiarity 
 of the ftory, might have deferved. Niobe indeed herfelf with her youngeft daughter, 
 as the principal figure, may be not ill placed, in the middle point of view. On her right 
 hand you have a horfe, which ftiould rather have been by one of her fons ; for it is 
 meant to fignify that they had been taking their exercifes juft before this calamity fell 
 upon them. Then there is one of her grown daughters; (looping down, and regarding 
 her brother, that lies breathlefs and fupine before her. The next in the round, (for they 
 are placed almoft circularly,) is another fon, flying from the danger; and pulling his 
 loofe robe, like a fail, (a circumftance, which might poffibly give Ovid a hint for a 
 fimilie ufed by him ( 9 °), in relating part of this ftory,) over his head, as endeavouring 
 to fcreen himfelf with it. Then there is a daughter : and then, (in the midft of the 
 front,) is the fine figure of the wounded fon ; fallen on his knee; and reprefented as 
 in great pain. The two next, to your right hand, are both daughters: then the youngeft 
 fon; but a boy, and frightened as a boy. The next figure in the round, I ftiould take 
 to be Amphion; for he is much older than the reft, and is juft in the attitude in which 
 Juvenal defcribes the father : tho’ the difpofers of thefe figures feem to have miftook him 
 for one of his own children; there being feven daughters, and but (9O fix fons, unlefs 
 
 you 
 
 (87) The fon, who lies dead in the front of the 
 groupe, and is one of the fineft figures among them, 
 has a wound in his fide as made by a dart. There is 
 no wound, that I remember, on any of the others. 
 
 (88) He mentions the darts and wounds, as to 
 every one of the brothers, (and in fome very ftrongly,) 
 as vifible. 
 
 -Non evitabile telum 
 
 Confequitur ; fummaque tremens ccrvice fagitta 
 Htefit, & exltabat nudum de gutture ferrum. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 6. 237. of Sipylus. 
 
 At non intonfum iimplex Damafichthona vulnus 
 Adficit. Iftus erat qua crus effe incipit, & qua 
 Mollia nervofus facit internodia poples : 
 
 Dumque manu tentat trahere exitiabile telum. 
 Altera per jugulum pennis tenus afta fagitta eit. 
 
 Expulit hanc fanguis; &c.- 
 
 Id. Ibid. jf. 259. 
 
 He mentions nothing of the darts or wounds, as 
 vifible nn the filicis. His language then is relanguit, 
 collabitur, Sc immoritur. He gives you indeed to 
 underftand that they were wounded, j/. 286. but then 
 it was by a wound that was imperceptible ; vulnere 
 csco; y. 293. 
 
 (89) Brachia fultulerat: diique O communiter omnes. 
 
 Dixerat, (ignarus non omnes cflerogandos,) 
 Parcite !- 
 
 Ovid. Met. 6. 266. 
 
 So that Ovid fuppofes the gods who were deftroy- 
 ing them invifible to them : othervvife the fufferer 
 here would have applied, not to the gods in general, 
 but to Diana and Apollo; as Amphion does, in Ju¬ 
 venal. Sar. 6. f. 171. 
 
 (90) Proximus audito fonitu per inane pharetrx, 
 
 Frarna dabat Sipylus ; vclcti cum prasfeius imbris 
 
 4 
 
 Nube fugit visa, pendentiaque undique rector 
 Carbafa deducit, nc qua levis effluat aura. 
 
 Met. Lib. 6. jr. 233. 
 
 (91) The poets all agree in giving an equal num¬ 
 ber of fons, and daughters, to Niobe ; tho’ they differ 
 in their number, in general. 
 
 Propertius makes them only twelve in all. 
 
 Nec tantum Niobe bis fex ad bulla fuperba 
 Sollicito lachrymans depluit .1 Sipylo. 
 
 Lib. 2. El. 20. 8. 
 
 In which he has the authority of Homer on his fide. 
 
 K ot yoa t «vko/oos N/off» i[/.vturet]o ?[]*• 
 
 Tm 7T«p S'uS'iKtt •’reti S'ii s vi (j-iyofottriv ohovra, 
 
 F| [0iV SuyaTipif, J'’ IJSSf nCuoVTif. 
 
 Tuf fj.iV \m\KUV TTHpViV 0.1 t opyupioio Cioto, 
 Xua/xivof NioCn’ Tot S'' hpuput io%*tup&. 
 
 11 . o. y. 60S. 
 
 Ovid is very exprefs as to feven of each : (fee Note 
 27, anteh.) and is followed by the author of Medea. 
 Utinam fuperba; turba Tantalidos mco 
 Exiil'et utcro, bifque feptenos parens 
 Natos tuliflem ! --- 
 
 m. s . 9S4 . 
 
 It is fomewhat to be feared, that the firft difpofers of 
 thefe ftatucs in the Mcdicean gardens, (after miftaking 
 that of Amphion, for one of his fons,) might difeard 
 the figure of one of the fons, as a fupernumeraj v fi¬ 
 gure. There are finglc figures of the fons of Niobe, 
 relating to this ftory, fcattered ab mt in leveral col¬ 
 lections at Rome ; and fome, in the Villa Medici it- 
 fclf, befide the felect fet in the garden. 
 
 It is a pity that Flaminius Vacca is not more par¬ 
 ticular in his account of the firft finding the!’.- figures. 
 He only fays, that they were dug up in his time, near 
 the Porta di San Giovanni ; mid purchafed by the 
 Great Duke, Ferdinand. Mem. Art. -4. 
 
99 
 
 Dialogue the Eighth. 
 
 you reckon this for one. Next to Niobe, on this fide, is another daughter ; which com- 
 pleats the circular line of figures I was fpeaking of. In the fpace contained within this 
 circle, there are only three figures : one of the fons, near Niobe; another, near Am¬ 
 phion ; and a daughter, bending forward; near the brother who lies dead, and is the 
 only one who is fo. Thefe figures are all placed with their faces towards you; (like 
 bad adtors, who fpeak more to the people in the pit, than to the perfons they are con¬ 
 cerned with;) and are fo ranged, I think, as rather to render the {lory confufed, than 
 to tell it clearly and regularly. To do that, the perfons who gave them their places, 
 fhould have confidered perhaps a little more than they did, what point of time the artift 
 had chofen for this noble work ; how each perfon in it is affedted; and what connexions 
 they have, (or fhould have,) with one another. The point of time feems to me, to have 
 been very near the beginning of this tragedy: when one of the children only was killed; 
 a fecond, wounded j and all the reft ftruck, either with grief, or fear, or ama 
 On this {hocking alarm, fome are mourning over thofe who have already fuffered: and 
 others are providing for their own fafety. In this light, Niobe is reprefentcd fomewhat 
 differently here, from what fhe is in Ovid. She is flickering her youngeft daughter (not 
 as the laft left to her, but perhaps as her greatefl favourite, and as the leak: capable of 
 fhifting for herfelf,) with her own garments, and with her very perfon : for fhe bends 
 over her, as willing rather to receive the wound herfelf, than to lofe her favourite child. 
 The place where we fee Niobe is, I think, not ill chofen; except that it may be put 
 too far backward for a principal figure : but for the reft, I dare fay there is a meaning 
 in fome of them, which we are now apt to pafs over, or miftake ; from their being put 
 out of the places that were originally defigned for them, by the artift who made them. 
 The figures in the hiftory-pieces of the antients (I mean in pictures, as well as in relievo’s,) 
 are generally flung more forward, and more in a line, than thefe arc now dilpofed in. 
 The artifts then felt the ill effedts and inconveniencies, that arofe from their ignorance, 
 (or, at leaft, very fhallow knowledge, in perlpedtive: and therefore generally avoided 
 the flinging their figures backward, as much as poflible; and I believe never ranged a 
 number of figures, in any one relievo, or pidture, in the circular manner that we fee 
 thefe now placed. Thefe, indeed, are detached figures ; but that, I think, makes 
 no great difference in the prelent cafe. For as they belong all to one and the fame hi- 
 ftory, they mufthave their proper relations and bearings to one another; no artift of lo 
 much judgment (as any one muft necellarily have had, to make fuch fine figures as fome 
 of thefe are,) can ever be fuppofed to have fet about fuch a large and complicated fubjedt 
 as this is, without arranging all the parts of it in a previous defign; before he began to 
 touch the firft block of marble. In this defign, he muft have ranged them in the man¬ 
 ner that was ufual of old; which differs much, as I have laid already, from the manner 
 of difpofing figures in any hiftorical piece at prefent; and confequcntly from the manner, 
 in which we fee thefe figures difpofed in the Medici gardens. I do not pretend to fay 
 where each particular figure fhould be placed : that muft be left to the artifts to find out; 
 for it is among my Deliderata. Perhaps, it might not be an unworthy fubjedt for the aca¬ 
 demy of infcriptions at Paris to propofe among their prize-queftions, to the artifts: fome 
 of whom might pofllbiv be able to difcover, by the rules of their art, and the reafon of the 
 thing, (net forgetting the manner of the antients,) what particular fpot was intended for 
 each individual figure, in the original defign. But this is above my capacity: and all I 
 can lay is, that I did not chufe to have them copied in the manner that they ftand, at 
 prelent: be caule I fear that, in many particulars, that may be rather a falfe than a true 
 representation of the defign of the artift. 
 
 Apoi.i.o, as the indLler of plagues, is fometimes deferibed by the Roman poets, in 
 the fame manner that Homer paints him when fending a peftilencc into the Grecian camp; 
 
 furrounded 
 
100 
 
 
 ( 0 -) liirroundcd with clouds, or (as Horace tranflates Homer’s very words,) “ Wifi 
 clouds wrapped about his fhouldersand both he, and Diana, are thus deferibed by 
 Ovid, when coming to execute this piece of vengeance on Niobe’s children. You fee I 
 had, more reafons than one for placing Diana’s ftatue next to Apollo’s, in the circle of 
 deities before you : and I believe you may think it high time now to leave him, that we 
 may confider the goddefs his filter, in fome milder character than that of a deftroying 
 angel ; employed in fcattering peltilence, and death, among the nations. 
 
 Of all the various characters of this goddefs, there is no one more known, than that 
 of her prefiding over woods; and delighting in hunting. The Diana Venatrix, or god- 
 
 Pl. XIII. defs of the chace, is frequently reprelented as running on, and with her veil as flying 
 f IG - 4 - back with the wind; notwithftanding its being fhortened, and girt about her, for ex¬ 
 
 pedition. She is tall of flature ; and her face, tho’fo very handfome, is fomething 
 manly. Her legs are bare ; very well-fhaped, and very flrong. Her feet are fome- 
 tirr.es bare too ; and Sometimes adorned with a fort of bufkin, which was worn by the 
 huntreffes of old. She often has her quiver on her fhoulder ; and fometimes holds a 
 javelin, but more ufually her bow, in her right hand. It is thus lhe makes her appear¬ 
 ance in feveral of her llatues ; and it is thus the Roman poets deferibe her; particularly, 
 in the (93) epithets they give this goddefs; in the ufe of which they are fo happy, that 
 they often bring the idea of whole figures of her into your mind, by one fingle word. 
 
 I believe there is fcarce any one of all the little circumflances I have mentioned, 
 which has elcaped the poets. Her javelin and bow are as frequent in them, as in the 
 antiques which reprefent her. Ovid takes notice of the (9+) fhape of her leg; and Virgil 
 is fo good as to inform us, even what colour her bufkins were of. 
 
 The flatues of this Diana were very frequent in woods. She was reprefented there; 
 all the different ways they could think of. Sometimes, as hunting; fometimes, as bath¬ 
 ing ; and fometimes, as refling herfelf after her fatigue. Statius gives us (95) a very pretty 
 defeription of the latter; which I fliould be very glad to lee well executed in marble, or 
 colours. 
 
 It 
 
 Altera fuccindx religetur more Dianrc, 
 
 Ut folet attonitas cum petit illa feras. 
 
 Id. de Art. Am. 3. 144, 
 
 (92) Ilomer fays of Apollo, when he went to afHiA 
 the Grecian camp, that he walked in darknefs. 
 O cA’ iii’e vvkt 1 niKVf. Ix. a.. 47. and in another 
 
 place, he has the expreflion of Ns®5Xa/f i-rwpivof 
 
 apii' which latter paflage is tranflated literally by (9+) Talia pinguntur fuccindx crura Dianx, 
 
 Cum fcquitur fortes fortior ipfa feras. 
 
 Ovid. Lib. 3. El. 2. 3Z. 
 
 ■ Lxvi de marmore tota 
 Puniceo ftabis luras evinda cothurno. 
 
 Virgil. Eel. 7. jr. 3Z. 
 
 Horace, in his, Nube humeros amiiSlus. Lib. 1. Od. 2. 
 
 Statius has followed the fame idea. 
 
 Delius infurgit; fummaque biverticis umbra 
 Parnalli refidens, aicu crudelis iniquo 
 
 Peilifera arma jacit ; campofque & celfa Cyclopum This is fpoken of Diana, by Virgil : and one fees. 
 
 Teda fuperjedo nebularum incendit amictu. 
 
 by the fame author, that they gave her this part of 
 her drefs as a huntrefs ; for where he brings in Venus 
 difguifed as a Tyrian huntrefs, that goddefs fays: 
 
 —-Celerique per aera lapfu 
 
 Contigerant tedi Cadrueida nubibus arccm. 
 
 Virginibus Tyriis mos eft geftare pharetram j 
 Purpureoquc alte furas vincire cothurno. 
 
 Met. 6. jfr. 217. 
 
 yEn. 3. 33;. 
 
 (93) Jam mihi prima dea eft, arcu prxfignis adunco 
 
 Quis probet in fylvis Cererem regnare jugofis ? 
 Lege pharetrata: virginis arva coli ? 
 
 Inter Hamadryadas, jaculatricemque Dianam, 
 Callifto facri pars fuit una chori. 
 
 Ovid. lier. Ep. 4. jr. 40. (Phxdra, to Hippolitus.) 
 
 Crinibus infignem quis acuta cufpide Martem 
 Initruat, Aoniam Marte movente lyram ? 
 
 Id. Lib. 1. EI. 1. 1 z. 
 
 (95) Nec caret umbra deo : nemori Latonia cultrix 
 
 Additur. Hanc picea;, cedrique ; & robore in omni 
 Effidam fandis occultat fylva tenebris. 
 
 Hujus inafpedx luco ftridere fagittx; 
 
 Nodurniquc canum gemitus: ubi limina patrui 
 Effugit, inque novx melior redit ora Dianx. 
 
 Aft ubi fefla jugis, dulcefque altiflima fomnos 
 I.ux movet; hic late jaculis circum undique fixis, 
 Effufam pharetra cervicem excepta quiefeit. 
 
 Id. Faft. 2. 156. 
 
 Stati us. Theb. 4. 433. 
 
I t was, on one of thefe occafions, that Adtason had the misfortune to fee her once, fo 
 iatahy to himfelf: as the ftory is told in little, by an old artift, on this gem; and more at p L 
 large ( 9 6 ), by Ovid in verfe, and Apuleius in profe. Ovid takes particular notice that. Fig 
 vvhen the nymphs were firft alarmed by the appearance of a man, they huddled round 
 the goddefs, to hide her body, with their own ; a circumftance, which is very plainly 
 exprefied too in the gem which you have in your hands. 
 
 Ovid in his account of the ftory obferves, that tho’ her nymphs endeavoured fo much 
 to hide the goddefs, it was partly in vain; becaufe fhe was fo much taller, that her head 
 appeared eminently above them all. Indeed the heighth of Diana’s ftature is frequently 
 tnarked out in the poets; and that, generally, by comparing her with her nymphs. I 
 with we could now enjoy the light of that famous pidlure of this goddefs, by Apelles ; 
 m Which this was fo finely expreifed. Pliny ( 97 ) fays that Apelles formed his idea of it 
 
 from 
 
 (96) Vallis erat piceis & acuta denfa cupreflu, 
 
 Nomine Gargaphie ; fuccindta facra Diana:: 
 
 Cujus in extremo eft antrum nemorale recelTu, 
 
 Arte laboratum nulla. Simulaverat artem 
 Ingenio natura fuo; nam pumice vivo 
 Et levibus tophis nativum duxerat arcum. 
 
 Fons fonat a dextra, tenui perlucidus unda; 
 Margine gramineo patulos incindtus hiatus. 
 
 Hic dea fylvarum, venatu fefla, folebat 
 Virgineos artus liquido perfundere rore : 
 
 Qu6 pollquam fubiit, nympharum tradidit uni 
 Armigera.jaculum,pharetramque,arcufquc retentos: 
 Altera depofiue fubjecit brachia palis ; 
 
 Vincla dux pedibus demunt: nam dodtior illis 
 Ifmenis Crocale fparfos per colla capillos 
 Colligit in nodum, quamvis erat ipfa folutis. 
 Exciiiunt laticem Nephelcque, Hyaleque, Rha- 
 nifque. 
 
 Et Plecas, & Phiale ; funduntque capacibus urnis. 
 
 Dumque ibi perluitur /blita Titania lympha, 
 Ecce nepos Cadmi, dilata parte laborum, 
 
 Per nemus ignotum non certis paflibus errans 
 Pervenit in lucum ; fic illum fata ferebant! 
 
 Qui fimul intravit rorantia fontibus antra. 
 
 Sicut erant, vifo nuda; fua pedtora nymphae 
 Pcrcuflere viro, fubicifque ululatibus omne 
 Implevere nemus; circumfufxque Dianam 
 Corporibus texere fuis: tamen altior illis 
 Ipfa dea eft, colloque tenus fupereminet omnes. 
 Qui color in fc diis adverfi folis ab idiu 
 Nubibus eflefolet, aut purpurea; Aurorae; 
 
 Is fuit in vultu vifae line velle Diante. 
 
 Qux, quanquam comitum turba ftipata fuarum. 
 
 In latus obliquum tamen aftitit; oraque retro 
 Flexit. ——— 
 
 Ovid.Met. 3.*. 188. 
 
 This defeription of the place, of the undrefling, 
 and of the attitude of the goddefs herfelf, are all fo 
 picturefque, that I could not help tranferibing the 
 whole. Apuleius is ftill more particular, as to the 
 grotto ; and as his is probably a defeription of the 
 work of fome antient ftatuary, and contains in it a 
 fuller account perhaps than we have in any of the an¬ 
 tient authors, of fuch a grot; I {hall give that at 
 large too. 
 
 Dum hunc & hujufmodi fermonem altercamur, 
 paucis admodum confectis paflibus ad domum Byr- 
 rhenns pervenimus. Atria, longe pulcherrima, co- 
 lumnis-quadrifariam periingulos angulos flantibus at¬ 
 tollebant ftatuas Palmaris Dea:. Facies quasque, pin¬ 
 nis explicitis; fine grclfu pilas volubiles, inflabile ve- 
 ftigium plantis rofeidis decitantes, nec ut maneant in¬ 
 
 herent : etiam volare creduntur. E contra, lapis 
 Parius in Dianam faftus tenet libratam totius loci 
 medietatem. Signum, perfecte luculentum ; vefte 
 reflatum ; pro curfu vegetum ; introeuntibus ob¬ 
 vium, & majcftate numinis venerabile. Canes u- 
 trinque fccus deas latera muniunt; qui canes & ipft 
 lapis erant. His oculi minantur; aures rigent; nares 
 hiant; ora fasviunt : & fi quando de proximo latra¬ 
 tus ingruerit, eum putabis de faucibus lapidis exire. 
 Et (in quo fummum fpecimen opene fabrilis egregius 
 illefignifex prodidit) fublatis canibus, impetus arduus : 
 pedes imi refiftunt ; currunt priores. Pone tergum 
 deae, faxum infurgit in fpeluncas modum ; mufeis, & 
 herbis, & foliis, & virgulis, & ficubi pampinis, & 
 arbufculis alibi, de lapide florentibus. Splendet intus 
 umbra figni de nitore lapidis. Sub extrema faxi mar¬ 
 gine poma, uvas faberrime politas, dependent; 
 quas ars, aemula naturas, veritati fimiles explicuit. 
 Putes ad cibum inde quadam, cum muftulentus Au¬ 
 tumnus maturum colorem afflaverit, pofle decerpi : 
 & fi fontes (qui de® veltigio difeurrentes, in lenem 
 vibrantur undam) pronus afpcxeris, credas illos ut 
 rure pendentes racemos, inter castera veritatis nec 
 agitationis officio carere. Inter medias frondes lapi¬ 
 dis, Adtason fimulachrum ; curiofo obtutu in dorfo 
 projedus; jam in cervum ferinus; & in faxo fimul 
 & in fonte, loturam Dianam opperiens vifitur. Apu- 
 Icius. Afln. Aur. Lib. 2. Fol. 23. Ed. Bcroaldi, 
 1512. 
 
 (97) Dianam, facrificantium virginum choro mif- 
 tam ; quibus vicifle Homeri verfus videtur id ipfum 
 deferibentis. Pliny. Nat. Hift. Lib. 35. c. 10. p, 438. 
 Ed. Elz. 
 
 The verfes from Homer are the following. 
 OniAprs//if nat Kar’ vpzst if^zaipct, 
 
 H x.o.tu T11 uyzTov 7Tip///iJX5Toi' « Epv pia.vSoy, 
 TspTro/xei'M wTspoiat uK&nf z\apoiar 
 Tn Jz ay.a NvjUipat/, mspat Aio( Aiy/oyoia, 
 AypovopLoi TcLii^var yzynds Jz Te (ppzva. A11 ru. 
 Ua.aa.uv J' v %rgp nyz x.ap» gp^H, nJ g pjzrui to.' 
 
 Veto. J' apiyvurn arzhZTat, y.a\ai J'i ?z araaat. 
 
 Odyf. £. 108. (Of Nauficaa.) 
 
 Virgil’s imitation of them. 
 
 Qualis in Eurota: ripis, aut per juga Cynthi 
 Exercet Diana choros; quam mille fecuta: 
 
 Hinc atque hinc glomeranturOreades. Lia pharetram 
 Fert humero ; gradienfque deas fupereminet omnes. 
 Latona; tacitum pertentant gaudia pedtus. 
 
 ALn. i. 502. (Of Dido.) 
 
 D d 
 
102 
 
 POLYMETIS. 
 
 K. XIV. 
 Fio. i. 
 
 from a celebrated defcription in Homer; and that lie even furpafled his original. Virgil 
 has imitated the very fame defcription, in his/Eneid. What a pleafure might it have been, 
 to have compared the copies of two fuch feholars, as Apelles and Virgil, with the work 
 of fo great a matter as Homer ? At leaft, how much more pleafing, than to fill a difput- 
 i;ig(9 8 ), (as fcvcral of the critics have done,) whether Homer or Virgil have given the 
 finett ttrokes on this occafion ? This Diana, both in the pi&ure and in the deferiptions, 
 was the Diana Venatrix : tho’ ttie was not reprefented either by Virgil, or Apelles, or 
 Homer, as hunting with her nymphs ; but as employed with them ( 99 ) in that fort of 
 dances, which of old were regarded as very folemn ads of devotion. 
 
 Another great charader of Diana is that, under which ttie is reprefented as the in¬ 
 telligence which prelides over the planet of the moon ; and which will therefore come 
 more properly in our way, when (i°o) we are taking a view of my temple of the liars 
 and planets. 
 
 A third remarkable way of reprefen ting Diana was with three bodies. This is very 
 common among the antient figures of this goddefs; and it is hence the poets call her 
 (ioi) the triple, the three-headed, and the three-bodied Diana. Her diftinguilhingname, 
 under this triple appearance, is ( 102 ) Hecate, or Trivia. A goddefs, frequently invoked 
 in enchantments, and very fit for fuch black work: for this is the infernal Diana; and as 
 fuch, is reprefented with the charaderittics of a Fury, rather than as one of the twelve 
 Great Celeftial Deities. All her hands hold inttruments of terror; and generally grafp 
 either cords, or fwords, or ferpents, or flaming torches. 
 
 There are feveral other lefs diftinguifhed charaders of Diana: of which I lhall men¬ 
 tion only one, that feems to have been ufually overlooked. As there was a Venus, 
 which they called the Venus Cceleflis; fo there was a Diana, which one might pro¬ 
 perly enough call, the Diana Cceleflis. By which name, I ftiould not mean the power 
 Ihe has in the heavens, as oppofed to the powers Ihe had in hell and upon earth; but 
 the appearance fhe makes, when fhe was to aflift in the great council of the gods ; or 
 to Aand in the prefence of Jupiter. Under this charader ttie is larger, and moredrefied 
 out than ufual: with a full robe, that falls quite down to her feet; tho’ fhe flill retains 
 her bow, and the quiver on her fhoulders. In one word, much as ttie is deferibed by 
 Statius, in his Achillcid. 
 
 Sic 
 
 (98) We learn from Aulus Gellius, that Valerius 
 Probus, (whom he calls) a very learned and excellent 
 critic, always ufed to fay ; “ That Virgil had failed 
 more in this imitation of Homer, than he had in any 
 other.” (NoA. Att. Lib. 9. c. 9.) Scaliger, on the 
 contrary, in fpeaking of thefe two paflages, prelers 
 V:r■ > i 1 greatly : “ Virgil’s, he fays, appears to have 
 been written by a mafter ; and Homer’s by a fchool- 
 
 boy.” (Poet. Lib. 5. c. 3.)--Were Scaliger and 
 
 Probus both alive now, one might leave them to fight 
 it out. 
 
 (99) The exprefiion of irat^etr, ufed by Homer on 
 this occafion, is fcarce proper for hunting ; as that of. 
 Choros exercere, in Virgil, fliould be underftood of 
 the religious dances of old, becaufe dancing, in the 
 old Roman idea of it, was indecent even for men, in 
 public ; unlefs it were the fort of dances ufed in ho¬ 
 nour of Mars, or Bacchus, or fome other of their 
 gods. It is in confequcnce of this that Pliny, in 
 fpeaking of Diana’s nymphs on this very occafion, 
 ufes the word, facrificare, of them ; which quite de¬ 
 termines thefe dances of theirs to have been of the 
 religious kind. Lucian fays a great deal of thefe re¬ 
 ligious dances in his treatife, ris pi opx Tom. I. 
 P. 784, &c. 
 
 (100) Dialogue XII. pofth. 
 
 (tor) Per triplicis vultus arcanaquc facra Dianx. 
 
 Ovid. Her. Ep. 12. f. 79. (Medea, Jaf.) 
 
 Tuque, triceps Hecate !- 
 
 Id. Met. 7. j/, 194, 
 Montium cultos nemorumque virgo ! 
 
 Quae laborantes utero puellas 
 Ter vocata audis adimifque letho; 
 
 Diva triformis ! 
 
 Horat. Lib. 3. Od. 22. jl. 4. 
 
 (102) Tergeminamquc Hecaten, tria virginis oraDianx. 
 
 Virgil. JE n. 4. 511. 
 
 Ora vides Hecates, in tres vertentia partes. 
 
 Ovid. Faft. 1, jr. 141. 
 
 Diana interim eft, alte fuccinAa, venatrix ; Si E- 
 phefia, mammis multis, Si veribus exftrucla ; ScTrivia, 
 multis capitibus & multis manibus horrifica. Minu¬ 
 cius Felix, §. 21. p. 108. Ed. Davis. 
 
 Her own proper name under this appearance was 
 Hecate. Trivia is only an accidental one; from her 
 ftatue’s being ufually placed, where three ftreets (or 
 ways) met together. 
 
 Ora vides Hecates in tres vertenita partes. 
 
 Servet ut in ternas compita fedta vias. 
 
 Ovid. Fall. 1. jfr. 142.- 
 
Dialogue the Eighth, 
 
 Sic ubi virgineis Hecate laflata pharetris 
 Ad patrem fratremque redit, comes hasret eunti 
 Mater ; & ipfa humeros exertaque brachia velat : 
 
 Ip fa arcum pharetramque locat, veftefque latentes 
 Deducit; fparfofque ftudet componere crines. ( I0 3 ) 
 
 You fee how far this defcription tallies with the ftatue before you; for in this cafe, I p L . XIV, 
 have not done as with my Venus, and Apollo ; but have given you the Diana which is ^ IG * 2 * 
 the very propereft to appear in this circle, and at the fame time the bell that I know of. 
 
 We have the advantage of having the original itfelf, within our reach; and have had the 
 pleafure of feeing it together more than once, at my Lord Leicefter’s houfe in town. 
 
 Cicero gives a particular defcription (i°4) of a ftatue of Diana very much like this, which 
 was once in the pofieflion of Scipio Africanus ; a perfon of the moft elegant tafte (>05), 
 among all the Romans of his time. 
 
 The next goddefs to Diana here is Ceres. You fee her face is a very pretty one; and Pl. XIV. 
 I am apt to imagine, from fome ( IQ 6) exprefilons in the poets, that fhe was a beauty of ^ 1G ‘ 3 * 
 the brunette kind: but here, as ufual, we want fome good paintings of the antients, to 
 fhew whether that conjecture be true or falfe. If the was a brunette beauty, the colour 
 of her drefs was very well (107) adapted to her complexion. Her head is often crowned 
 either with corn, or poppies ; and her robes, as you fee, fall down to her feet; which fig- 
 nifies dignity, in the language of ftatuary. Moft of thefe particulars, which I have 
 mentioned from the figures of this goddefs, are marked out by the (108) 0 ld poets too j 
 and more particularly by Ovid, in different parts of his works. 
 
 There is one objection that maybe made to the beauty of Ceres, from moft of the 
 figures I have feen of her; which generally reprefent her breafts as none of the fmalleft. 
 
 Ovid, perhaps, was polite enough to have omitted this particular, on purpofe, in his ac¬ 
 counts of this goddefs; but fome of the earlier Roman poets, (as well as fome of the fa¬ 
 thers of the church,) are far from being (mg) fo complaifant to her. 
 
 Virgil, in his Georgies, gives us an idea of Ceres, as regarding the laborious hulband- 
 man ( II0 ) from heaven; and blefling the work of his hands with fuccefs. There is a 
 picture like this (m), in the famous old manufeript of Virgil in the Vatican : and Lu¬ 
 
 cretius 
 
 (10S) Annuit his ; capitifque fui pulcherrima motu, 
 Concuflit gravidis oneratos melfibus agros. 
 
 Id. Met. 8. f, 781. 
 Tum demum vultumqueCeres animumque recepit; 
 Impofuitque fu:e fpicea ferta coma;. 
 
 Id. Fall. 4. it. 616. 
 
 (103) Statius. Achii. 1. jt. 348. 
 
 (104) This ftatue had been taken from Sicily by 
 the Carthaginians; was retaken from them by Scipio: 
 and reftored by him, to the Sicilians. Cicero fays, 
 it was a very fine piece of workmanfhip ; and his par¬ 
 ticular defcription of it agrees, in moft points, with 
 that at Lord Leicefter’s. Erat admodum amplum & 
 excelfum fignum, cum ftola; veruntamen inerat in 
 illa magnitudine aetas atque habitus virginalis. Sagittae 
 pendebant ab humero. Siniftra manu retinebat ar- 
 
 (109) Balba loqui non quit, Tpcct/A/^sr muta, pudens eft: 
 
 At gemina & mammofa, Ceres eft ipfa ab Iaccho. 
 
 Lucretius. 4. jr. 1158. 
 
 Arnobius refers to this paflage in Lucretius, (and. 
 
 cum ; dextra, ardentem facem praeferebat. Cicero, by the way, determines the reading of it, which has 
 
 Or. 4. in Verrem. 
 
 been difputed ;) in his third book. Avet animus deos 
 deafque infpicere. Ab Iiiccho Cererem, mula ut prae¬ 
 dicat Lucretii, mammofatn ; Hellefpontiacum Pria¬ 
 pum ; &c. In his fifth, he fays; Ceres, mammis 
 cum grandibus. 
 
 (105) Sec Dial. V. Note 25. 
 
 (106) Et te, flava comas, frugum mitiilima mater. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 6. jr. 118. 
 Flava Ceres, tenues fpicis redimita capillos. 
 
 Id. Lib. 3. El. 10. $. 3. 
 Frigida cccleftum matres Arethufa vocabat; 
 Venerat ad l'acras Sc dea flava dapes. 
 
 Id. Fall. 4. 424. 
 
 (no) Multiim adeo, raftris glebas qui frangit inertes 
 Vimineafque trahit crates, juvat arva; nequeillum 
 Flava Ceres alto nequicquam fpeflat Olympo. 
 
 Virgil. Georg. 1. jr. 96. 
 
 (107) Alba decet Cererem vellis; cerealibus albas 
 Sumite : nunc pulli velleris ufus abeft. 
 
 id. Ibid. jr. 620. 
 
 (111) That which anfwers G. 3. 146. It is the 
 
 fecond plate, in Santo Bartoli’s prints of them. 
 
 6 
 
P O I 
 
 104 
 
 , Y M E 
 
 I S. 
 
 cretius has a ftrong defcription of another deity exadly in the fame (hj) attitude; tho’ 
 with a very different regard. 
 
 Teie laft deity in this circle is Mercury; on whom both the artifts and poets have 
 been much more copious, than on the goddefs we have been c;;:ilidering. As his chief 
 '• baradter is that of being the meffenger of Jupiter, this god feems to be all c ut out for 
 fwiftnefs. His make is young, airy, and light. His limbs are all very finely turned; 
 and tho’ he may yield much to Apollo and Bacchus in beauty, he certainly exceeds molt 
 of the other gods in it. This is the diffinguiihing character of his figures, as I have 
 drawn it from the numbers of them I have feen in marble; and if one had went firft 
 to the poets for it, one fiiould have learned juft the fame idea of him from them. They 
 call him the (113) young god; the fvvift, the flying, and the winged deity : and as to his 
 beauty, they mention that (114) often; and in a very ftrong manner. 
 
 There are feveral marks to know Mercury by; among which we may reckon this 
 lightnefs and agility of his perfon as the chief: but as to the things which are more pro¬ 
 perly called his diftinguiftiing attributes, the mod remarkable of thefe are his Petafus, or 
 winged cap; the Talaria, or wings to his feet; and his wan 1 with two ferpent ; 
 it, which they call his Caduceus. 
 
 Tins cap of his has generally two little wings attached to it, in the better remains 
 of antiquity; tho’ in fome of the very oldcft works, you fee him fometimes (‘15) on ]y 
 with two feathers ftuck in it. Even thefe wing! were fupp< :• .1 to be onlyfo tache 
 as to be eafily taken off, or fixed on (**&) upon it again, at plcafure; for in feveral figures, 
 you fee him in the fame fort of cap without any wings to it. It is like the ordinary cap 
 of the fervants of old; juft fuch an one in particular, as Sofia would naturally appear in, 
 whenever Amphitryon was adted at Rome. 
 
 ( 1 12) Humana ante oculos feede quom vita jaceret 
 In terris opprefla, gravi fub Relligione : 
 
 Qua: caput a cceli regionibus oftendebat; 
 Horribili fuper afpeftu mortalibus initans. 
 
 Lucretius, i. jr. 66- 
 
 (113) Velox Cyllenius - 
 
 Deus volans 
 
 Ales Tegeaticus— 
 
 Stati u 
 
 Ovid. Met. 2. f. 8tS. 
 Oftavia. Aft. 1. Sc. 4. 
 
 >. Lib. 4. Sylv. 5. ioz. 
 
 (114) Nec fe diflimulat; tanta ell fiducia formre. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 2. j/. 731. 
 
 Sive mutata juvenem figura 
 Ales in terris imitaris, alma: 
 
 Filius Mai*.- 
 
 Horat. Lib. 1. Od. 2. f. 43. (Of Auguftus.) 
 Membraque & vultus deo 
 Similes volanti. ■ 
 
 Oftavia. Aft. 1. Sc. 3. (Of Britannicus.) 
 Omnia Mercurio fimilis : vocemque, coloremque. 
 Ft crines flavos, & membra decora juvent*. 
 
 Virgil. JE n. 4. jr. 569. 
 
 We do not fee the full beauty of Mercury, under 
 the character of the meflenger of Jupiter, as he is 
 moft commonly reprefented ; for then, (as Statius 
 fays,) 
 
 Obnubitque comas; & temperat aflra galero. 
 
 Theb. 1. jr. 305. 
 
 (115) He appears thus on feveral of the Egyptian 
 antiquities ; (as particularly on a very celebrated one, 
 at the Palazzo Mattei ; in the Adna. PI. 16.) and pro¬ 
 bably was fo reprefented, in the ruder ages, at Rome 
 
 His 
 
 itfelf. Mercury, In the preface to Plautus's Amphi¬ 
 tryon, fays ; 
 
 Nunc in tern off.' et nos poflltis facilius. 
 
 Ego has habebo liic ufque in petafo pinnulas. 
 
 Hence perhaps was that cuftom of the Roman mef- 
 fengers flicking a feather in their caps, as a mark ofdif- 
 patch ; to which Cicero feems to allude in one of his 
 to C Hus. Pra tal 
 
 quum a me difeedunt, flagitant liter.;;. ; quum ad me 
 veniunt, nullas afterunt. Atque id ipfum facerent com¬ 
 modius, fi mihi aliquid fpatii ad I’cribcndum darent ; 
 fed petafati veniunt ; comites ad portam c.x-ievPare di¬ 
 cunt. Lib. 15. Ep. 17. 
 
 When any buflnefs was extremely preflino-, thev 
 put a feather into the letter itfelf too; for that I fliould 
 take to be the meaning of Juvenal in his fourth fatirc, 
 
 149. 
 
 ——Tsnqnam diverfis partibus orbis 
 Anxia prrccipiti veniflet epillola pinna, 
 rather than aflert, with any old fcholiaft whatever 
 that a feather ftuck into a letter was a mark of ill- 
 news, without giving any reafon for that allertion ; 
 or with fome later commentators, that this referred 
 to the cuflom of fending letters by pigeons : which 
 tho’ ufed from one part to another, in countries ad¬ 
 joining ; I have never heard was praclifed from coun¬ 
 tries, very far diftant from one another. 
 
 (116) There is a line on Mercury’s putting on his 
 wings, in Ovid; which may perhaps refer to thofe 
 on his cup, as well as thofe on his feet. 
 
 Tartara j ullus abit fumptis caducifer alis. 
 
 Fall. 4. 603. 
 
Dialogue the Eighth. 
 
 10; 
 
 Ills wings, for his feet, were of the fame kind. You fee feveral figures of Mercury 
 without them, as well as this before you; and the poets fpeak exprefly (117) of his fatten¬ 
 ing them to his feet, when Jupiter has given him any orders to take a flight down to the 
 earth. There is a very pretty figure in the Juftinian gallery at Rome, of a little Cupid 
 ( Il! 0 putting on the wings on Mercury’s feet. 
 
 His Caduceus is fo punctually defcribed by the poets, that one might almoft inflruCt 
 a painter from them, how to colour every part of it. It fliould rather be held lightly 
 (” 9 ) between his fingers, than grafped by the whole hand. The wand itfelf (120), fliould 
 be of the colour of gold : and the two ferpents of a greenifli viper-colour; and might 
 fling a call of the fame colour upon the gold, if the painter had fkill enough to do it as it 
 fhould be. In feveral antiques, the Caduceus itfelf is reprefented with wings to it; but 
 as I do not remember that the poets fay any thing of them, one might leave their colour 
 to the judgment of the painter, if he was refolved to have wings to it; for they might 
 be either inferted, or omitted, juft as he plcafed. 
 
 There are two celebrated old manufeript Virgils, in the Vatican library at Rome, 
 with paintings in them relating to foine of the molt remarkable paflages. The more an- 
 tient of the two is, I think, generally thought to be of Conftantine’s time, by thole who are 
 learned in the ages of manuferipts : but as the pictures are evidently of too good a manner 
 for that time, they are fuppofed by the bell judges to have been copied from forne done 
 in a better age : about the time of the Antonines f 121 ); or perhaps even higher. I have 
 therefore not ferupled to admit thefe pictures from the Vatican Virgil, wherever they 
 were wanted, in my collection; and the drawing I have juft taken out to fhew you, is 
 copied from one of them. It reprefents Mercury going with his meflage from Jupiter, 
 to order ./Eneas to quit Carthage. You fee the god palling thro’ the air, in a more na- p L ^iv 
 tural and eafy manner than one generally finds in modern pictures of flying figures. In his Fig. 5. 
 left hand, he holds his Caduceus; and with his right, points to the heavens; to fhew that 
 his commifiion is from Jupiter. He has his Petafus on his head, and his Talaria on his 
 feet. In a word, it agrees in every refpeCt with Virgil’s ( t22 ) defeription of him on this 
 occafion; excepting that the painter has added his Chlamys, which is fattened over his 
 
 fhoulders. 
 
 (117) Parva mora eft alas pedibus, virgamque potenti 
 Somniferam lumilfe manu, tegimenque capillis. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 1. $. 672. 
 
 (1 1 8) It is in Montfaucon. Vol. I. PI. 68. 4. 
 
 (119) Inque dei digitis aurea virga fuit. 
 
 Ovid. Her. Ep. 16. y. 63. (Paris, Hel.) 
 
 (120) Cyllenes ccelique decus ! facunde minifter, 
 Aurea cui torto virga dracone viret. 
 
 Martial. Lib. 7. Epigr. 74. 
 
 (121) Some of the moil fenfible antiquarians I 
 know, are of this opinion : tho’ in one of the libra¬ 
 ries in Italy, I have met with a teftimonial in form, 
 by Bellori and fome others, which carries it ftill 
 higher. Their opinion was, that thefe pidhjres were 
 done in Septimius Severus’s time; and perhaps copied 
 then from fome others, of their belt and moil flou- 
 rilhing ages. This teftimonial runs as follows 
 
 Anno 1686, die 16 Feb. In bibliotheca Vaticana 
 coram R. P. Joanne Mabillo.nio, ord. S. Benedict! ; 
 D. Joanne Petro Bellorio ; & me infra feripto ; vifus 
 eft codex manuferiptus, fub Num. 3225 in eadem 
 bibliotheca fervatus. Eft in quarto quadratus, lineis 
 inajufeulis, nulla diftindtione verborum confcriptus, 
 prasterquam in interpunctionibus : quarum qua: in fu- 
 
 periori, punCtum noftrum ; qua: in medio vel infimo 
 loco funt, commata noftra defignant.— Continet ubi¬ 
 que imagines coloribus effiCtas, qua: fteculo Conftan- 
 tini fuperiores videntur, & forte ad tempora Septimii 
 Severi IpeClant; cum in iis non folum confpiciantur 
 templa, viCtimse, aedificia, biremes, pilei Phrygii, 
 habitus, aliaqtle ad Trojanorum & Romanorum fa- 
 crificia ac arma pertinentia; fed etiam lineamenta per¬ 
 feriora, qua: melioris & fuperioris a:vi aetatem indi¬ 
 cant. Quinimo pictor harum imaginum videtur fe- 
 cutus fui fle ideam nobilioris & antiquioris piCtoris ; 
 nihilque in iis exhibetur, quod primam Romani im¬ 
 perii majeftatem non redoleat. 
 
 Emanuel a Schelftrate. 
 
 This was taken from the original, in Schelftrate’s 
 own hand writing ; who was keeper of the Vatican 
 library, in Innocent Xlth’s time. 
 
 (122) Dixerat: ille patris magni parere parabat 
 Imperio. Et primum pedibus talaria nedlit 
 Aurea ; quse fublimem alis, five ajquora fupra 
 Seu terram, rapido pariter cum flamine portant. 
 Tum virgam capit: hac animas ille evocat Orco 
 Pallentes, alias fub tri Ilia Tartara mittit: 
 
 Dat fomnos, adimitque ; & lumina morte refignat. 
 Illa fretus, agit ventos Sc turbida tranat 
 Nubila.- 
 
 Virgil. Asn. 4. 231. 
 
 There 
 
 E e 
 
 y 
 
 i\ 
 
POLY M E T I S. 
 
 106 
 
 flioulders, on his breaft; and floats behind him in the air. The reafon why he lias 
 added this is very obvious; the old artills generally marking out the motion of any per- 
 fon they reprefent as going on very fwifrly, by the {123) flying back of the drapery: and 
 he had very good authority for giving the Chlamys to Mercury; which is fo frequently 
 fpoken of in general by the poets (124), as part of his drefs : and who give it him, parti- 
 ticularly on this very occalion; when he is flying from the heavens, to the earth. 
 
 There is yet another diftinguifliing mark of this deity, which is his fword. It is of a 
 very particular make; and as they feenr inclined to give every thing belonging to Mer¬ 
 cury tome hard name; they call it his Harpe. It was with this Harpe that he killed 
 Argus j and he lent it to Perfeus (125) to perform his greateft exploits with it. Its fhape, 
 in the antiques which reprefent both thefe ftories, is alike: I have here, a drawing of 
 Pr. XV. Perfeus with it. It is a longer fort of fword, than was ufual of old; at lead, among the 
 1 'ig. 1. Romans ; with avery particular hook, or fpike, behind it. The deferiptive C126) epi¬ 
 thets given it by the poets, agree entirely with the old figures of it. 
 
 Whatever I have as yet faid of Mercury refers chiefly to his charafier of being fent 
 always on the particular commiflions of Jupiter. He had a general power too, of a large 
 extent, delegated upon him by the fame god : which was that of ('27) condufting the 
 fouls of men to their proper place, after their parting from the body; or re-condufting 
 them up to our world again, whenever there was any particular occafion for it. This 
 g ; . lV e him a great deal of authority in the regions of the happy fouls, as well as of the 
 unhappy; which were equally fuppofed by the antients to be lodged within the earth, 
 in a place called by one common name, that of Ades. Horace, in particular, gives us 
 a very extraordinary account of Mercury's defending to Ades (128), an d his caufing a 
 ceffation of the fufferings there : but as this perhaps may be a myftical part of bis cha¬ 
 racter. 
 
 There is a paflage in Statius very proper to be tub- 
 joined to this; not only as it is an imitation of it, 
 but bccaufe thefe two contain the fullcft account of 
 this god and his fcveral attributes that I know of, in 
 all the Roman poets. 
 
 Paret Atlantiades diftis genitoris : & inde 
 Summa pedum propere plantaribus illigat alis; 
 Obnubitque comas, et temperat aftra galero. 
 
 Tum dextrre virgam inferuit : qua pellere dulces, 
 Aut fuadere iterum fomnos; qua nigra fubire 
 Tartara, & exfangues animare aflueverat umbras. 
 Defiluit; tenuique exceptus inhorruit aura : 
 
 Nec mora, fublimes raptim per inane volatus 
 Carpit, & ingenti delignat nubila gyro. 
 
 Statius. Theb. i. j/. 311. 
 
 (123) The flying back of the clothes, which one 
 fees fo frequently in the beft old ftatues which repre¬ 
 fent any perfon as in a fwift motion, is ftrongly 
 marked out by Ovid ; in his Daphne flying from 
 Apollo. 
 
 - Nudabant corpora venti ; 
 
 Obviaque adverfas vibrabant flamina velles ; 
 
 Et levis impexos retrd dabat aura capillos 
 
 Ovid. Met. 1. f. 529. 
 
 (124) Nec fe diflimulat, tanta eft fiducia forma:; 
 
 Qux quanquam juftaell, cura tamen adjuvat illam. 
 Permulcetque comas; chlamidemque ut pendeatapte 
 Collocat; ut limbus totumque appareat aurum : 
 
 Ut teres in dextra, qua fomnos ducit & arcet, 
 
 Virga fit; ut terfis niteant talaria plantis. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 2. j/. 736. 
 
 •-Illum, Ardlox labentem cardine porta;, 
 
 Tempeftas xterna plaga: pra-tentaque ccelo 
 Agmina nimborum primique aquilonis hiatus 
 
 In diverfa ferunt. Crepat aurea grandine multo 
 Palla ; nec Arcadii bene protegit umbra galeri. 
 
 Statius. Theb. 7. jr. 39, 
 
 (125) -Subitus prapes Cyllenida fuflulit Harpen ; 
 
 Harpen, alterius monllri jam cade rubentem. 
 
 Lucan. Pharf. 9. jr. 663. 
 
 (126) — Pennis ligat ille refumtis 
 
 Parte ab utraque pedes; teloque accingitur unco. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 4. jr. 665. 
 
 -Falcato verberat enfe. 
 
 Id. Ibid. jr. 726. 
 
 -Hamati vulnere ferri. 
 
 Lucan. Pharf. 9. jr. 678. 
 
 Some read this, Lunati, inftead of Hamati ; and 
 have changed the word, I fuppofe, from not know¬ 
 ing any thing of the Hamus ; that appears fo particu¬ 
 larly on the back of this fword, in the works of the 
 old artifts. When they were about it, they fhould 
 have found out a new reading for this verfe in Ovid 
 too : 
 
 Inachides ferrum curvo tenus abdidit hamo. 
 
 Met. 4. jr. 719. 
 
 The very word Harpe exprelTcs this odd make of 
 Mercury’s fword ; (A pv», falx ; five, enfis falcatus ; 
 Scap.) tho’ without feeing the old figures of it, the 
 manner in which it is bent, would be very apt to be 
 miftaken. 
 
 (127) Tu pias lxtis animas reponis 
 
 Sedibus : virgaque levem coerces 
 
 Aurea turbam.-- 
 
 Horat. Lib. 1. Od. 10. jL 19. 
 
 (128) Lib. 3. Od. ji. 
 
I 
 
 Dialogue the Eighth. 
 
 reiter, we had better let it alone ; or if we mud touch upon it at all, I may poffibly find 
 ( I2 9 ) a more proper occafion of faying fomething farther upon it, than the prefent. 
 
 Horace, in the place I have juft hinted at, talks of Mercury as a wonderful mu- 
 fician; and reprefents him with a lyre. You know he was faid to be the inventor of 
 that indrument. There is a mighty ridiculous (13a) old legend, relating to this inven¬ 
 tion; which informs us, that Mercury, after dealing fome bulls which belonged to 
 Apollo, retired to a fecret grotto he uled to frequent» at the foot of a mountain in Arca¬ 
 dia. Jud as he was going in, he found a tortoife feeding by the entrance of his cave. He 
 killed the poor creature ; and perhaps eat the fieih of it: and as he was divertinghimfelf 
 with the diell, he was mightily pleafed with the noife it gave from its concave figure. 
 
 He had poffibly been cunning enough before to find out, that a thong pulled drait and 
 fadened at each end, when druck by the finger, made a fort of mufical found. How¬ 
 ever that was, he went immediately to work ; cut fever.il thongs out of the hides he had 
 lately dolen ; and fadened them on as tight as he could, to the diell of this tortoife; 
 and in playing with them, made a new kind of mufic to divert himfelf in his retreat. 
 
 This account, confidered only as an account of the fird invention of the lyre, is not al¬ 
 together fo unnatural. The Romans had a particular fort of lyre, which was called (131) 
 Tedudo ; or, the tortoife; and the mod antient lyres of all are reprefented in a manner, 
 that agrees very well with this account of the invention of that indrument. The lyre, 
 in particular, on the old celedial globes (13a), was reprefented as made of the entire diell 
 of a tortoife; and fo is that of Amphion, in the famous (133) grouDe of the Dirce, in the 
 Farnefe palace at Rome, But the mod remarkable one I have ever met with, is one at 
 the feet of a datue of Mercury in the Montalti gardens; which not only (hews the whole Pl. 
 belly of the tortoife, and part of what the drings were attached to there; but has two horns Fiq 
 above, exaflly like the horns of a bull; and drings like thongs of leather, fadened round 
 the bottom of them. In feveral figures of Apollo, (and in fome, I believe, of the 
 Mutes,) you dill fee the tortoife s diell: tbo’ it leffened gradually in procefs of time, and 
 at lad became only an C 1 34 ) ornament, indead of making the mod efl'ential part of the 
 lyre. I have dwelt the longer on this old fable of the original of this particular fort of 
 lyre, called Tedudo; becaufe there are feveral (13s) paffages in the poets which refer 
 to it, and which are not eafily to be underdood without it. 
 
 You 
 
 (129) Dial. XVI. pofth. 
 
 (130) Poftquam Mercurius boves Apollinis furatus 
 eft, eos in antro fuo occultavit ; duofque matftavit, 
 quorum pelles rupi affixit. Partem carnium coxit, ut 
 viiftum fibi pararet; reliqua vero omnia combuffit; 
 & Cyllenem fubito commigravit. Ante cavernam au¬ 
 tem fuam, teftudinem reperit herbam dcpafccntcm. 
 Qua capta interna omnia abftraxit; cochleaeque fi¬ 
 diculas aptavit, ex pelle boum concinnatas ; lyram¬ 
 que effecit. Apollodorus. Lib. 2. 
 
 There is a paffage in Ovid, in which he calls Mer¬ 
 cury, in the fame breath, the inventor of the lyre, 
 and the god of thieves : which terms feem to have 
 very little connexion to us ; but muft have agreed 
 very well among people, to whom this ftory was vul¬ 
 garly known. 
 
 At tu materno donafti nomine menfem, 
 
 Inventor curva; furibus apte lyra;. 
 
 Ovid. Fall. 5. jfr. 104. 
 
 Horace joins thefe two characters of Mercury in 
 the fame manner. Lib. 1. Od. 10. jr. 6, & 7 
 
 (131) Ipfe cava folans xgrum teftudine amorem. 
 
 Virgil. Georg. 4. >1.464. 
 
 Tuque telludo, refonare feptem 
 Callida nervis. 
 
 Horat. Lib. 3. Qd. j 1. >L 4. 
 
 That this Teftudo, or feven-ftringed lyre, was the 
 fame with that invented by Mercury, appears from 
 Ovid ; where, fpeaking of Mercury, he fays : 
 
 Nec pietas hxc prima tua ell ; feptena putaris, 
 Pleiadum numero, fila dediflb lyr.e. 
 
 Fall. 5. 106. 
 
 (132) See PI. XXIV. 
 
 (133) In Perier’s ftatues, PI. 100, 
 
 (134) When they left off making ufe of the con¬ 
 cave of the tortoife’s fhell, as a material part of this 
 inftrument; they ftill ufed fome of it by way of or¬ 
 nament, and inlaid pieces of it in the Cornua of the 
 lyre. As in one, held by an Apollo, in the open part 
 of the Great Duke’s gallery; which tho’ modern, may 
 be very well authorifed from fome lines in Tibullus’s 
 fine delcription of Apollo. 
 
 Artis opus varire, fulgens telludine & auro, 
 
 Pendebat lxva garrula parte lyra. 
 
 Lib. 3. El. 4. 38. 
 
 (135) It appears from this ftory, that the moft an¬ 
 tient lyres were made of the fhell of a tortoife: which, 
 as an amphibious creature, may be called indifferently 
 Pifcis, or Fera. This, I think, may ferve to clear 
 up a very difficult paffage in Statius ; and another, 
 
 6 tha« 
 
POLYMETIS. 
 
 You may fee too by this ftory, that Mercury was not quite To honefl as he fliould be; 
 and, to fay the truth, he was of old the god of thieves and pickpockets. One fliould be 
 u pt to fufpedt, that this mult have been a deity of Spartan growth ; as that was the only 
 nation perhaps, in which a clever thief was to be rewarded rather than puniflied. How¬ 
 ever that be. Mercury was certainly the god of ingenuity and thieving. I do not remem¬ 
 ber anv inflance of this character of his on any work of the antient artifts : unlefs it be 
 poflibly meant in a relievo, behind the great church at Florence ; which leems of l'o low 
 an ape, that I did not think it worth while to have a copy taken of it. To make fome 
 amends, the poets mark out this (' 3 6 ) charadter of Mercury very often, and very fully. 
 
 As Mercury was the god of rogues and pickpockets, fo was he alfo the god of fliop- 
 keepers and tradefmen; whom I will allow to be very angry with me for mentioning 
 them in fo bad company, as foon as ever they have left off the ufing fecret marks for 
 the prices of their goods. Mercury is faid to have derived his name (' 37 ) from prefiding 
 over tradefmen ; as they who gained much by any trade, or behaved cleverly in it, had 
 a name from him. This mercantile Mercury was reprefented of old, (as the modern 
 Mercury is at the exchange at Amfterdam,) with a purfe in his hand. The Romans 
 looked on this god as the great difpenfer of gain; and therefore the holding the purfe is 
 a frequent attribute of his, in all colledtions of antiquities of this kind. In this gem you 
 fee him give up his purfe to Fortune; in another, he is offering it to Minerva and flie 
 taking only a little out of it; as if Good Luck had more to do with gain, than Good 
 Senfe : tho’ both of them, it fliould feem (according to the moral of thefe reprefentations) 
 come at it, moil ufually, by the help of a little knavery. In a third, he is offering it to 
 a lady, with a veil on her head, like the figures of Pudicitia; who leems to refufe him 
 flrenuoufly. In this laft, Mercury feems in hafle; he is in the attitude of leaving her; 
 and of taking his flight, if flie will not accept his offer inftantly. This is more diredtly 
 exprefled on this gem; but I imagine the fame is generally meant in the figures of the 
 mercantile Mercury : for he is commonly reprefented at the fame time holding out a 
 purfe, and with his winged cap upon his head; which, in the language of the ffatuaries, 
 is as much as to fay : “ If you do not lay hold of any gain, the moment it is offered to 
 you, the opportunity will fly away; and who knows whether it may ever come in your 
 
 reach 
 
 that is not fo eafy as it may ufually have been ima¬ 
 gined, in Horace. 
 
 Non Helicona gravi pulfat chclys enthea pleflro; 
 
 Nec laflata voco toties mihi numina mufas : 
 
 Et te Phcebe choris, & te demittimus Evan. 
 
 Tu quoque muta fers, volucer Tegeate, fonoraj 
 
 Terga premas: alios pofcunt mea carmina ccctus. 
 
 Statius. Lib. i. Sylv. 5. S'. 5. 
 
 O tefludinis aurea: 
 
 Dulcem qua- ilrepitum, Pieri, temperas! 
 
 O mutis quoque pifdbus 
 
 Donatura cygni fi libeat fonum ! 
 
 Horat. Lib. 4. Od. 3. S'. 20. 
 
 If any of the commentators on thefe poets have 
 given any idea of a miifical beaft or a finding fifh, 
 without the help of this legend, they mud have had 
 a great deal of good luck. For my part 1 mud own 
 that, even with it, I think tills old notion of tedudo, 
 as a bead, a fidi, and a harp ; is the fitted fubjeift for 
 a riddle, that one could pick out even among all the 
 ftranged imaginations of the old poets. The only 
 author of poetical riddles, that I know of among the 
 antients, has indeed a very bad one on this very fub- 
 je£l: which I fliall take the liberty of quoting, not as 
 any authority, becaufe of the low age it was wrote 
 in; but barely as a curiofity, and to fhew how bad 
 riddles they could write formerly. In the lad line the 
 author feems to have an eye to the padage juft quoted 
 
 from Horace ; and to the old dory, about the origin 
 of the lyre. 
 
 Tarda gradu lento ; fpeciofo prxdita dorfo : 
 
 Dotta quidem lludio, fed fxvo pratdita fato : 
 
 Viva nihil dixi; qua: fic, modo mortua, canto. 
 
 Sympofius. ./Enigm, S’. 20. 
 
 (136) Te canam magni Jovis & deorum 
 Nuntium, curvreque lyra: parentem ; 
 
 Callidum quicquid placuit jocofo 
 
 Condere furto. 
 
 Te, boves olim nifi reddidifles 
 Per dolum amotas puerum minaci 
 Voce dum terret, viduus pharetra 
 Rifit Apollo. 
 
 Horat. Lib. 1. Od. 10. S r ■ 12. 
 Alipedis de llirpedei verfuta propago 
 Nafcitur Autolychus, furtum ingeniofus ad omne : 
 Qui facere alluerat, patre non degener artis. 
 Candida de nigris & de candentibus atra. 
 
 Ovid. Met. ii. y. 315. 
 
 The fame poet calls him, Furibus aptus. Note 130, 
 anteh. 
 
 (137) Mercurius a mercibus, dicitis efi ; hunc enim 
 negotiorum omnium cxiflimabant elie deum. Felt. 
 
 Pomp. Lib. i.' -The Romans called thofc who 
 
 throve in bufinefs, Viri Mercuriales. 
 
Dialogue the Eighth. 
 
 o 
 
 reach again ? The poets have (138) this idea of Mercury too ; and wc learn from them, 
 that it was a common fubjeft for (139) piftures as well as other works, of old. 
 
 It may feem ftrange, that Mercury, who was the patron of robbers, (hould at the 
 fame time be fuppofed to prefide over tile high roads. The ftatues that relate to this 
 Mercury are of that aukward terminal figure, which was fo much in falhion, (I have 
 often wondered why,) in all the beft ages of antiquity. Thefe old Termini were fome- 
 times without, but oftner with bulls, or half-figures of fome deity oil them ; and tllofe of 
 Mercury fo much more frequently than any other, that the Greeks gave them their 
 general name (>40), from this god. Such is the drawing I have in my hand. There is Pl¬ 
 an alliifion in Juvenal to fome figure of this kind, which I imagine would be more eafy Fig - 
 to be underflood, and would flrike us much more .ftrongly; were we ufed to fee thefe 
 Terminal Mercuries as commonly, as the Romans were of old. It is in his fatire on 
 the nobility of his time. 
 
 -At tu 
 
 Nil nifi Cecropides ; truncoque fimillimus I Icnnx ; 
 
 Nullo quippe alio vincis difcrimine ; quam quod 
 
 Illi marmoreum caput ell, tua vivit imago. (141) 
 
 The particular defign of this comparifon, (as appears both from what goes before, and 
 what follows it,) was to mark out more ftrongly the abfolute ufeleffnefs to the world of 
 one Rubellius Plancus ; a man, that had no one thing to boaft of, but his nobility: and 
 Juvenal feems inclined to take even that from him. He aflerts, (and that veryjuftly,) 
 that where there is no virtue, there cannot be any nobility. The great idea of the word 
 Virtus among the old Romans, (as I fliall fhew more fully (142) on another occafion,) 
 was “ a man’s exerting himfelf for the fervice of his country, or for the fervice of thofe 
 about him." Juvenal therefore infills upon it, that as this Plancus was not of any manner 
 of fervice to either, he mud be ignoble. All the firft part of his famous fatire on nobili¬ 
 ty, turns entirely on this fingle point: as you will plainly perceive, if you will be fo good 
 as to confider it with me ; and to give me leave to make ufe of the definition of Virtus, 
 according to the Roman idea of that word, inllead of the word itfeif. 
 
 What fignify pedigrees (143), fays he, and a croud of old broken ftatues of our 
 anceftors; if {144) we ourfelves are debauched and indolent ?—The (145) exerting our- 
 
 felves 
 
 (138) Accipe quod nunquam reddas, mihi, fi tibi dicam ; 
 Tunc infanus eris fi acceperis ? an magis excors 
 Rejedta prseda, quam praifens Mercurius fert! 
 
 Horat. Lib. 2. Sat. 3. 67. 
 
 (139) Qui prior es, cur mc in decurfu lampada pofcis ? 
 Sum tibi Mercurius; venio deus huc ego ut ille 
 Pingitur. An renuis ? &c. 
 
 Perfius. Sat. 6 . 63. 
 
 (14°) Ep//*r is ufcd, in Greek, for any terminal 
 figures in general. 
 
 (141) Juvenal. Sat. 8. i. 55. 
 
 (142) Dial. X. 
 
 (143) Stemmataquid faciunt? Quidprodeft,Pontice,longo 
 Sanguine cenferi; pi&ofque oftendere vultus 
 Majorum, & liantes in curribus Aimilianos; 
 
 Et Curios jam dimidios, humeroque minorem 
 Corvinum, & Galbam auriculis nafoque carentem * 
 Quis fruftus generis tabula jadtare capaci 
 Corvinum ; pollhac multa deducere virga 
 Fumofos equitum cum didtatore magiltro9 ? 
 
 Juvenal. Sat. 8. i/. 1—8. 
 
 (144) Si coram Lepidis male vivitur. • Effigies quo 
 Tot Bellatorum, fi luditur alea pernox 
 Ante Numantinos ? Si dormire incipis ortu 
 Luciferi, quo figna duces & callra movebant? 
 
 Cur Allobrogicis & magna gaudeat ara 
 Natus in Herculeo Fabius lare, fi cupidus; fi 
 Vanus, & Euganea quantumvis mollior agna ; 
 
 Si tenerum attritus Catincnfi pumice lumbum, 
 Squallentes traducit avos; emptorque veneni 
 Frangenda miferam funeftat imagine gentem ? 
 
 Ibid. jr. 9—19, 
 
 (143) Tota licet veteres exornent undique certe 
 Atria, nobilitas fola eil atque unica virtus. 
 
 Paulus, vel Co/Tus, vel Drufus, moribus efto ; 
 
 Hos ante effigies majorum pone tuorum : 
 Praecedant ipfas illi, te confule, virgas. 
 
 Prima mihi debes animi bona : fanftus haberi 
 Juflitiatquc tenax, fadlis diftifque, mereris? 
 Agnofco procerem. Salve Getulice, feu tu 
 Silanus; quocunque alio de fanguine, rarus 
 Civis & egregius patria contingis ovanti: 
 Exclamare libet, populus quod clamat Ofiri 
 Invento.---, 
 
 Ibid. 20—30, 
 
I IO 
 
 POLYMETIS. 
 
 fclves for the fervice of our country, and of thofe about us, is the only thing that can 
 render a man really noble.—If (h 6 ) any one has only a bare title, without this founda¬ 
 tion of all nobility; it is a fhameful abufe of words, to call that man, a great man. 
 My neighbour’s dwarf, that we call Atlas in derilion, might as well really pafs for a giant; 
 and that dog, (who is good for nothing but fleeping before the fire,) is as much, really 
 
 a lion, as he a nobleman.-Such (H 7 ) a nobleman, is Rubellius Plancus ! One who is 
 
 lb full of the blood of the Julii, that he defpifes the reft of mankind; and looks as big upon 
 you, as if he had the blood of all the kings fince Cecrops in his veins. Yet among us that 
 he defpifes fo much, there are fome who can plead his caufe for him; when lie has a law- 
 fuit: and others, who go abroad to fight, for the glory of their country. Now (* 4 8 ), Plan¬ 
 cus, let us hear what you can do? No one thing of ufe. You are juft like a ftatue, with 
 a great title fixed upon you, but without arms or legs ; like thofe which we fee fo often, 
 by our public roads : and indeed fo very like them, that I for my part can find out no 
 manner of difference between you, except that they are of folid marble, and that you 
 
 have a vent for breath.-Is (* 49 ) this the being a nobleman ? Can we call a man noble, 
 
 for what would not make a horfe fo ?—Well, I know not how it may be with men : 
 but this I am fure of; that the beft-bred horfe in the world-is ignoble, if he proves good 
 for nothing.” 
 
 This I take to be the true delign and intent of what Juvenal has laid down more at 
 large, for above fixty lines together, in the beginning of his moft excellent fatire againfl 
 the nobility of his time; and of that palfage in it, in particular, relating to the Terminal 
 flatues (15°) of Mercury: which ufed to puzzle me formerly, perhaps, as much as any 
 
 thought 
 
 (146) - Quis enim generofum dixerit hunc, qui 
 
 Indignus genere eft; pncclaro nomine tantum 
 Infignis f Nanum cujufdam, Atlanta vocamus; 
 ./Ethiopem, cygnum; parvam extortamquepuellam, 
 Europen : canibus pigris, fcabieque vetufta 
 Lxvibus & ficcx lambentibus ora Iucernx, 
 
 Nomen erit pardus, tigris, leo; ft quid adhuc eft 
 Quod fremat in terris violentius. Ergo cavebis. 
 
 Et metues, ne tu ftc Creticus aut Camerinus. 
 
 Ibid. 30—38. 
 
 (147) His egoquem monui ? Tccum eft mihi fermo,Rubelli 
 Plance. Tumes alto Druforum nomine, tanquam 
 Feceris ipfc aliquid, propter quod nobilis dies 
 
 Ut te conciperet qua: fanguine fulget Iiili, 
 
 Non qux ventofo condufta fub aggere texit. 
 
 Vos humiles, inquit; vulgi pars ultima noftri; 
 Quorum nemo queat patriam monftrare parentis: 
 Alt ego, Cecropides! Vivas; & originis hujus 
 Gaudia longa feras. Tamen, ima plebe, Quiritem 
 Facundum invenies; folet hic defendere caufas 
 Nobilis indotfti; veniet, de plebe togata. 
 
 Qui juris nodos & legum xnigmata folvat : 
 
 Hic petit Euphraten juvenis, domitique Batavi 
 
 Cuftodes aquilas, armis induftrius.-. 
 
 Ibid. 39—j2. 
 
 (148) -At tu, 
 
 Nil nifi Cecropides; truncoque ftmillimus Hermx ; 
 Nullo quippe alio vincis diferimine, quam quod 
 Illi marmoreum caput eft, tua vivit imago. 
 
 Ibid. 52—55. 
 
 (■49) Teucrorum proles, animalia muta 
 
 Quis generofa putet, nifi fortia ? Nempe volucrem 
 Sic laudamus equum, facili cui plurima palma 
 Fervet, & exultat rauco vidtoria circo. 
 
 Nobilis hic, quocumque venit de gramine, cujus 
 Clara fuga ante alios Se primus in xquore pulvis : 
 Sed venale pecus Corithx, pofteritas & 
 
 Hirpini; fi rara jugo vidtoria fedit. 
 
 Nil ibi majorum refpedtus: gratia nulla 
 Umbrarum. Dominos pretiis mutare jubentur 
 6 
 
 Exiguis, tritoque trahunt epirhedia collo; 
 
 Segnipedes, dignique molam veriare, nepotes. 
 
 Ibid. 56—67. 
 
 (150) The fatire, in that fimilitude would be very 
 ftrong, if it regarded only any terminal ftatue, in ge¬ 
 neral; but it is much ftronger, if we confider Plancus 
 here as compared to a terminal figure of Mercury, in 
 particular. As the diftinguilhing character of this 
 god was nimblenefs and activity, (whence the Greeks 
 called him, E ptvviof, the aiTtive or ufcful god,) he mult 
 look particularly idle and mif-named, whenever they 
 faw him on their road-fides or elfewhere, either with¬ 
 out any arms, or with them wrapped up in his cloak ; 
 without his legs, which were fo well made for dif- 
 patch ; without the wings, that were fuppofed to bear 
 him fo rapidly thro’ the air; in a word, without 
 any of the marks of fwiftnefs and a&ivity, which he 
 had in all the figures that reprefented him in any 
 other of his characters but this. 
 
 And this would be ftill ftronger, if Plancus was 
 very vicious, as well as very indolent; (and they ge¬ 
 nerally go together :) for it is remarkable in the ter¬ 
 minal ftatues of Mercury, that as he had loft fome 
 limbs, it was made up to him in others. Herodotus 
 informs us that there was fome myftical rcafon for this. 
 Op$A ey&y ta aiJ'oia. r'ctyA\y.etTa.Tis F.pyiv, Ad-m’cuoi 
 vrpuToi EKAnvuv -jrapet YliKu-aycov y-iStinn frrrain&Avto' 
 01 J'i UiActayoi ipov tiva hoyov mpt at/rs iX-%xv, ta c .v 
 Toiei sf Sa/y.o-S-pmxM y.vrnpioi<ri Awra;. Herodotus, 
 inEuterp. cap. 51. 
 
 If I knew this reafon, I fhould not care to reveal it 
 to the reader ; for in all thefe forts of things, I would 
 ftridlly keep to Horace’s rule, in relation to myfteries; 
 and think they are only fit, either to be told in Greek ; 
 or covered with vine-leaves, as that poet fays they 
 fhould be. 
 
 -Non ego, variis obfica frondibu'. 
 
 Sub dio rapiam. 
 
iri 
 
 Dialogue the Eighth. 
 
 thought in the poets borrowed from the ftatues or paintings of the antients, that I ever 
 met with. 
 
 I have now done with all the figures within this temple. I could have faid much 
 more on feveral of them, had not I feared the being too tedious to you. Even as it is, 
 the pleafure I always feel in talking over thefe matters, and the patience with which you 
 have heard me, have betrayed me into too great a length. However, I have at laft 
 done: and fo if you pleafe we will get out of our temple, that we may enjoy a little frefh 
 air before the night cotnes upon us. 
 
 '/A r ,,rn *-/ 
 

 
 
 
 
 
XIV 
 
Dialogue the Ninth. 
 
 11 3 
 
 BOOK the Third. 
 
 Of the Heroes, fuppofed by the Romans, 
 to have been received into the Higher 
 Heavens. 
 
 dial. ix. 
 
 Hercules, Bacchus; Efculapius, Romulus; Caftor and 
 
 Pollux. 
 
 A S Polymetis was going, the next morning, to /hew his friends the figures he 
 had placed in the portico of his Rotunda; Philander happened to fay, that 
 he had always imagined that the heroes received into the heavens had been 
 much more numerous than his, or any one portico, could hold. Polymetis readily 
 allowed, that there might have been great numbers that were fuppofed to have been re¬ 
 ceived into fome part or other of the heavens; either as ftars themfelves, or as inhabit¬ 
 ing and prefiding over ftars; and that thefe might very well be all confidered as divinities, 
 y the antient Romans: but the heroes I am going to fliew you, fays he, are thofe of 
 a fuperior order; fuch as were fuppofed to be admitted into the community of the twelve 
 Great Gods. There are only fix of thefe heroes: Hercules, Bacchus; Efculapius, Ro¬ 
 mulus ; Caftor, and Pollux. I ufed, for a long time, to confound thefe, with the com¬ 
 mon heroes fuppofed to have been deified of old; and what firft gave me any fufpi- 
 cion of their eminent fuperiority above the others, was my obferving that the Roman 
 poets, (whenever they fpeafc of men who had made the nobleft appearance upon earth, 
 and who were therefore received into the higheft heavens,) always inftance in fome or 
 other of the fix, I have juft mentioned. Thus Horace, on one (0 occafion, mentions Her¬ 
 cules, Bacchus, Pollux, Caftor, and Romulus; and on another (a), Hercules, Bacchus, 
 Pollux, and Romulus. Virgil, on a like occafion, inftances (3) in Bacchus and Hercu¬ 
 les; and Silius, in (4) Hercules, Bacchus, Pollux, Caftor, and Romulus. The fame is 
 obfervable in the Roman profe-writers, as well as in their poets. Thus Pliny, in fpeak- 
 ing of Pompey, compares him to Hercules and Bacchus (s), as the two greateft men that 
 
 (1) Romulus, & Liber Pater, & cum Caftore Pollux, 
 (Poll ingentia fadla deorum in templa recepti) 
 
 Dum terras hominumque colunt genus; afpera bella 
 Componunt, agros aflignant, oppida condunt; 
 Ploravere fuis non refpondere favorem 
 Speratum meritis: diram qui contudit hydram, 
 Notaque fatali portenta labore fubegit, 
 
 Comperit invidiam fupremo fine domari: 
 
 Pnrienti tibi maturos largimur honores, 
 Jurandafque tuum per nomen ponimus aras; 
 
 Nil oriturum alias, nil ortum tale fatentes. 
 
 Horaee; (in his compliment to Auguftus.) Lib z. £p i 
 it. 17. 
 
 (2) Hac arte Pollux, & vagus Hercules 
 
 Innixus, arces attigit igneas :_ 
 
 Hac te merentem, Bacche Pater, tua: 
 
 Vexere tigres; indocili jugum 
 
 Collo trahentes : hac Quirinus 
 Martis equis Acheronta fugit. 
 
 Id. (in another compliment to Auguftus.) Lib. 3. Od. 
 
 (3) Nec vero Alcides tantum telluris obivit; 
 
 Fixerit asripedem cervam licet, aut Erymanthi 
 Pacarit nemora, & Lernam tremefecerit arcu : 
 
 Nec qui pampineis viftorjuga fiec.it habenis 
 Liber, agens celfo Nyfa: de vertice tigres. 
 
 Virgil; (in a compliment to the fame prince.) Zin. 6 
 f. 806. 
 
 (4) -Queis fftherii fervatur feminis ortus 
 
 Cceli porta patet. Referam quid cunfta domantem 
 Amphitryoniaden ? Quid cui poli Seras & Indos, 
 Captivo Liber quum ligna referret ab Euro, 
 Caucafea: currum duxere per oppida ri">rcs : 
 
 Quid (fufpiratos magno in difcriminc nautis) 
 Ledrcos releram fratres; vellrumque Quirinum ? 
 
 Says Virtus, in her Ipeech to Scipio; in Silius Italicus, 
 Lib. 15. i. 83. 
 
 (5) ^Equato, non modo Alexandri Mr.-;',; rerum 
 fulgore; fed etiam Herculis prope, ac LiL-.i Patris, 
 
 16. Pliny. Nat. Hift. Lib. 7. Cap. 26. 
 
 ° S 
 
114 
 
 POLYMETIS. 
 
 ever lived- and Cicero mentions the names of (6) all theft fix Great Heroes, (and no 
 other names but theirs,) both in his treatife on the nature of the gods, in general; and 
 in another, where he is fpeaking of the laws of his own country, m particular. And 
 indeed it is chiefly on his authority, that I have admitted the ftatues of thefe fix Grea 
 Heroes, and theirs only, into the portico of my temple for the great Celeftial De.ties. 
 
 Hercules is the foremoft even in this diftinguiflied clafs. He was pointed out by 
 the antient heathens, as their great exemplar of virtue : and indeed as the idea of virtue 
 with them confided chiefly in feeking and undergoing fatigues with deddmefs and pa¬ 
 tience they could fcarce have chofen a fitter patron than Hercules ; the courts of 
 whofe life was almoft wholly taken up in (7) going about to feck adventures; and m k- 
 bouring for the benefit of mankind. You fee him here, as reding after the lad of I s 
 twelve mod noted labours; for in this Aatue, (which is a copy of the famous Hercules, 
 in the Farnefe palace at Rome,) he leans on his club, and holds the apples of the Hefpe- 
 ridcs in Iris hand. You may plainly fee, by this datue and the other figures of him, 
 that the principal idea which the artids endeavoured to exprefs in Hercules, was that of 
 a perfon Lade to endure the greated fatigues. I chofe to have this figure of him here, 
 rather than one that reprefented him after his deification. The latter would have been 
 more proper to the place; but this agrees better with the defcript.ons we find of him in 
 the poets, and is more adapted to my defign. 
 
 I no not know any of the twelve Great Gods themfelves that has ft many monuments 
 of antiquity relating to him as Hercules ; and of courfe the bafe of his datue here is as 
 well docked with drawings, medals, and gems, as that of Jupiter himfelf. Indeed he is 
 reprefented with Jupiter on fome old altars and relievos, with an (8) infcnption that 
 ferns to fet him on a level with that chief of all the gods; or at ead, with the great gods 
 in veneral. I mention this, that you may be fenfible of the ful dignity of the perfon, we 
 arc°going to confider more particularly: and who will probably take us up; the greated: 
 part of the morning. 
 
 You fe, in the datue before you, how he is all formed to exprefs drength. That 
 breadth of his ihoulders ; this fpacioufnefs of his ched; the vadnefs of h.s fixe and the 
 firmnefs of the mufcles all over him; diew more force and refiftance in his make than 
 I dare fay was ever really to be found in any of the mod celebrated gladiators or boxers 
 of old 1 even the’ one (hould fuppofe the race of men to have been dronger in thofe days, 
 than they are in ours. All thefe particulars which you fee in the datue are marked out 
 too by (9) the poets: and Horace, in particular, has been fuppofed by fome to allude to 
 
 
 (6) Sufccpit vita hominum, confuetudoquc com¬ 
 munis, ut beneficiis excellentes viros in ccelum fama 
 ac voluntate tollerent. Hinc, Hercules; hinc, Caftor 
 & Pollux ; hinc, Efculapius. Hinc Liber etiam ; 
 (hunc dico Semele natum, non eum quem noftri ma¬ 
 jores augufle famEtequc Liberum cum Cerere & Libera 
 confccraverunt; quod quale fit, cx myfteriis intelligi 
 poteft.) Hinc etiam Romulus; quem quidam eun¬ 
 dem efle Quirinum putant. (Spoke by Balbus the 
 Stoic, in Cicero’s de Nat. Deor. Lib. 2. p. 38. Ed. 
 Aid. 
 
 Ad divos adeunto cafte. Pietatem adhibento ; opes 
 amovento. Qui fccus faxit, deus ipfe vindex erit.— 
 Eos, qui ccelefles Temper habiti, colunto; & ollos quos 
 endo coelo merita collocaverunt, Herculem, Liberum, 
 /Efculapium, Caftorem, Pollucem, Quirinum : aft 
 olla propter quae datur homini adfcenfus in ccelum, 
 Mentem, Virtutem, Pietatem, Fidem, earumque lau¬ 
 dum delubra funto. Id. de Leg. Lib. 2. Cap. 8 : and 
 Laws of the Twelve Tables. Tab. 11. §. 4. 
 
 Thefe fix therefore feem to be, THE FEW, that 
 Virgil i'peaks of: 
 
 . ■ — Pauci, quos requus amavit 
 
 Jupiter; aut ardens evexit ad xthera virtus. 
 
 JEn. 6. y. 130. 
 
 (7)-Sxva terris gens religata ultimis ■ 
 
 Quas peragrans undique, omnem hinc feritatem 
 expuli. Aftius. in Trachyniis. 
 
 Nec vero Alcides tantum telluris obivit. 
 
 Virgil. /En. 6. jt. S02. 
 
 —— Vagus Hercules. 
 
 Horat. Lib. 3. Od. 3. jL 9• 
 
 (8) DIS MAGNIS. See Montfaucon, Vol. I. 
 P. 1. 16 ; &, ib. p. 47. 
 
 (g) --Agnofco toros, 
 
 Humerofque, & alto nobilem trunco manum. 
 
 Her. Fur. Aft. 3. Sc. 2. f. 6zj. 
 
 _- Neque enim tam lata videbam 
 
 Pcftora, Neptunus muros cum jungeret ailris. 
 
 (Spoke of Hercules.) V. Flac. z. jL 49 1 - 
 
Dialogue the Ninth. i 13 
 
 this very figure of Hercules j in a (*°) pafiage that, I think, would read better and 
 ftronger if fo underftood, than in the common way. 
 
 The chief attribute of Hercules, or themoft diftinguifiiing character of his figures, is 
 this incomparable ftrength that appears all over him. His other attributes (n) are his 
 lion’s fkin, his club, and his bow ; which are all too well known both from the poets 
 and ftatuaries, to want any particular enquiry about them. 1 ftiall only juft obferve, by 
 the way, that we fometimes fee Hercules, in the works of the artifts, drefled in his lion’s 
 flcin ; in fuch a manner, that the head and jaws of the lion appear over his head : a fort 
 of ( I2 ) military drefs, deferibed often by the poets; and particularly by fome of them, in 
 relation to this very god. 
 
 You know very well, that the whole life of Hercules was fcarce any thing but one. 
 continued feries of labours. As there are fo many of them, the writers who treat of 
 them, and of the antiquities relating to them, have generally fallen into a great deal of 
 confufion : fo far, that I fcarce know any one of them, that has perfe&ly well fettled 
 which were his twelve labours, that are fo much talked of. To avoid falling into the fame 
 confufion, one may divide all his adventures into three clafles. In the firft clafs, 1 ftiould 
 place fuch as were previous to his twelve celebrated labours. In the fecond, thofe twelve 
 labours themfelves ; which he was obliged to do by the order of Euriftheus, and the 
 fatality of his birth. And in the third, any fupernumerary exploits; that he undertook 
 voluntarily, and of himfelf. 
 
 If one had a greater number of the previous exploits of Hercules to mention, the firft 
 undoubtedly ftiould be that of his ftrangling the two ferpents, fent to deftroy him in his 
 
 cradle; 
 
 Et membra valla carpit avellens manu. 
 
 Hercules Oet. Aft. 3. Sc. 2. it. 827. 
 
 - Grandibus alte 
 
 Infurgens humeris, hominem fuper improbus exit; 
 Sed non ille rigor, patriumque in corpore robur. 
 (Spoke ofadefeendant of Hercules.) Stat. Theb. 6. it. 840. 
 
 (10) Non poliis oculo quantum contendere Lynceus 
 Non tamen idcirco contemnas lippus inungi ; 
 
 Nec, quia defperes invifti membra Glyconis, 
 Nodosa corpus nolis prohibere chiragra. 
 
 Horat. Lib. 1. Ep. 1. jr. 31. 
 
 The infeription on the bafe of theFarncfe Hercules 
 tells us, it was made by an artift called Glycon. As 
 we now call it, the Farnefe Hercules, for diftin&ion ; 
 they might very well of old have called it, the Her¬ 
 cules Glyconis, for the fame reafon. Such diftinc- 
 tions were more necefiary then, than now; becaufe 
 they had a much greater number of ftatucs in Rome 
 of old. If they did ufually call this figure, the Her¬ 
 cules Glyconis, in Horace’s time; he might very 
 well call it, the Glycon, in verfe. 
 
 If this may be allowed to have been the cafe, the 
 intent and true meaning of the pafiage from him, will 
 be as follows. “ You can never come to fee fo 
 lharply as Linceus; would you therefore fuffer your 
 eyes to go out ? You can never acquire the ftrength 
 and firmnefs of Hercules ; would you therefore fuller 
 your body to run to ruin, and to be crippled with 
 difeafes ? 
 
 I fhould the rather take this to be the cafe, becaufe 
 it feems more worthy of fo good a writer, in two in¬ 
 stances fo clofely united, to have taken them both 
 from the antient mythology ; than to take one from 
 that, and the other from a (fuppofed) gladiator of his 
 own time. 
 
 The epithet oflnvitftus too, would have a particu¬ 
 lar propriety, if applied to the Farnefe Hercules. For 
 
 that figure reprefents him as having juft finiflied the 
 laft labour enjoined him by the order of Juno ; that 
 is, juft when Ihc had given up her purfuit of him, as 
 a perfon not to be conquered, by any difficulties. 
 
 (11) Pone truces arcus agmenque immite pharetra:. 
 
 Et regum multo perfufum fanguine robur ; 
 Inftratumque humeris depone gerentibus hoflem. 
 
 Lib. 3. Sylv. 1. -jr. 36. 
 
 Ou)4 HpdXMK »7 s 5 er/l»; V/JIUW «tAAsf, y.ct 70V Hpct- 
 xAea. To to£ov, to p oirctKov, n Asorrn, to piy'd-ac 
 o\o( Hp*»A«f em Lucian. Tom. I. p. 298. Ed. 
 Blaeu. 
 
 (12) This was a very common drefs among the 
 Roman foldiers; and occurs perpetually, both on the 
 Trajan, and Antonine pillar, at Rome. 
 
 Thus Virgil ; of one of his warriors ; 
 
 Cui pellis latos humeros erepta juvenco 
 Pugnatori operit: caput ingens oris hiatus, 
 
 Et mala: texere lupi cum dentibus albis. 
 
 JEa. i i . it. 680. 
 
 And in another place : 
 
 Ipfe pedes, tegumen torquens immane leonis 
 Terribili impexum feta, cum dentibus albis. 
 Indutus capiti : fic regia tefta fubibat 
 Horridus, Herculeoque humeros innexus amiftu. 
 
 (Of a fon of Hercules.) JEn. 7. i'. 609. 
 
 —— Tergo videt hujus inanem 
 Impexis utrinquejubis horrere leonem; 
 
 Illius in fpeciem quem per Theumefia Tempe 
 Amphitryoniades viftum juvenilibus annis, 
 
 Ante Cleonan vellitur praelia monftri. 
 
 Statius. Theb. 1. it. 4.87. 
 
 -Cleonaeo jam tempora clufus hiatu 
 
 Alcides.-. 
 
 Val. Flaccus, j. >’■. ijy. 
 
 A figure, (perhaps of young Aventinus, a fon of 
 Hercules,) is given, PI. XVII, Fig. 5. on purpofe to 
 fhew the manner how they wore the lion’s Ikin over 
 their heads, the more exaiftly. 
 
 1; 1, 
 
 ► 
 
 I 
 
 1 
 
 
 A 
 
 
 
 •Y I 
 
 ! ii| 
 
 
 sj 
 
 
 J|. 
 
 p\ 
 
 
 1.1 
 
 III 
 
 /1 
 
 r i I', 
 
 I 
 
 fj-l 
 
 
 \ 
 
Is 
 
 U 
 
 i 
 
 ii 
 
 ii? 
 
 Pl, XVII. 
 Fig. j. 
 
 Pl. XVII. 
 Pig. 2. 
 
 POLYMETIS. 
 
 cradle; for this he feems to have performed, according to fome accounts of it, when he 
 was not above (13) half an hour old. This is extraordinary enough; but what is more ex¬ 
 traordinary than this is, that there are exploits fuppofed to have been atchieved by Hercules 
 even (h) before Alcmena brought him into the world. His killing of tlieferpents how¬ 
 ever is early enough for me; and therefore I fhall begin from that. The okl artifts feem 
 to have ihewed a great deal of fancy, in reprefenting this ftory. As Hercules was then 
 fo abfolutely an infant, they exprefs his ignorance of what the ferpents were, very plainly. 
 Sometimes he has a little fmile on his face, as if he was pleafed with their fine colours and 
 their motions : fometimes he looks concerned that he has killed them, and fo put an end 
 to the diverfion that they gave him. Sometimes they (hew the courage and fteddinefs of 
 this infant hero; his ftrong gripe of the ferpents, and his killing them at the fame time 
 with fo much eafe, that he fcarce deigns to look upon them. Sometimes the nurfe is in¬ 
 troduced with his twin-brother, the little Euriftheus, in her arms : Ihe, quite frightened • 
 but he not regarding her, nor wanting any of her affiftance. All thefe different ways I 
 have feen in gems, or marble ; and could (hew you mold of them, among my drawings 
 here : and, I think there is not any one of them, that the poets have not touched upon, 
 ( I 5 ) as well as the artifts. 
 
 Another of the previous exploits of Hercules, was killing a vail: lion. There are 
 feveral victories of his over lions, talked of by the antients ; one in particular, as done 
 when he was very young; and another, after he was entered on that great rcfolution of 
 paffing his whole life in a continued courfe of combating monllers, and of doing good. 
 The lion he killed in his youth was encountered by him in a valley, near his native city 
 of Thebes ; and the other, (which is the firft of his twelve celebrated labours,) was the 
 Cleonxan lion : if we may trull: to a paffage(i 6 ) in Statius. Hercules is dcfcribcd by the 
 poets, in his conquefts of lions, two different ways: either as fqueezing them to death 
 again ft his own breaft (17); or as tearing their jaws afunder. The former feems to have 
 Pl. XVII. been the method ufed by him in his earlier engagements. It was a very aukward way 
 * IC ' 3 - of killing fuch monfters; as appears but too much, in the figures (18) that reprefent it. 
 
 He 
 
 (13) See Plautus’s Amphitruo. Ad. 5. Sc. 1.}. 46, 
 to 67. 
 
 (14) This perhaps is one of the moft myfterious 
 points, in all the mythology of the antients. Tho’ 
 Hercules was born not long before the Trojan war, 
 they make him afiift the gods in conquering the rebel 
 giants ; (Virgil. -Tin. 8. f. 298.) and fome of them 
 talk of an oracle, or tradition in heaven, that the 
 gods could never conquer them, without the afliftance 
 of a man. Apollodorus. Bibl. Lib. 1. & Macrobius. 
 Sat. Lib. 1. Cap. 20. 
 
 (15) - Igneos ferpentium 
 
 Oculos, remiflb pedtore ac placido intuens. 
 
 Hercules Fur. Aft. 2. Sc. 1. jL 219. 
 — Cum prima noverca; 
 
 Monllra manu premeres, atque exanimata doleres. 
 
 Statius. Lib. 3. Sylv. 1. f. 48. 
 Elidit geminos infans, nec refpicit, angues. 
 
 Martial. Lib. 14. Ep. 177. 
 
 Ego cunas receflim, rurfum vorfum trahere & ducere ; 
 Metuens pueris, mihi formidans: tantoque angues acrius 
 Perfequi. Pollquam confpexit angues ille alter puer. 
 Citus e cunis exilic ; facit redla in angues impetum; 
 Alterum altera apprehendit eos manu perniciter. 
 
 The Nurfe, in Plautus’s Amphit. Adi. 5. Sc. 1. jr. 64. 
 
 (16) Illius in fpeciem, quem per Theumefia Tempe 
 Amphitryoniades, vidlum juvenilibus annis, 
 
 Ante Cleonau vellitur prxlia monftri. 
 
 Statius. Theb. 1. f. 437. 
 Tempe is fometimes ufed, by the antients, for any 
 very pleafant valley. This lion was killed in. the vale. 
 
 at the foot ofTheumefus ; a mountain, near Thebes. 
 Hercules was born in that city : and fo may very well 
 be fuppofed to have killed this lion in one of his 
 walks; before he fet out, to travel over morediftant 
 countries, on his profefled defign of clearing the world 
 of monfters. 
 
 (17) As fqueezing them againft his breaft. 
 
 ■-Hoc pedore prefius 
 
 Vallator Nemees. • 
 
 Statius. Lib. 4. Sylv. 6. f. 4 r. 
 
 •- Maximus Nemea; timor gemuit lacertis prelTus 
 
 Herculeis leo. 
 
 Her. Furens. Adi, 1. Sc. 1. f. 225. 
 
 -Rabidi cum colla minantia monitri 
 
 Angeret; & tumidos animam anguilaret in artus. 
 
 Statius. Theb. 4. jt. 828. (Of the Nemean 
 lion too. Ibid. jr. 825.) 
 
 - Anhelantem duro Tirynthius angens 
 
 Pedtoris attritu, fua frangit in ofla leonem. 
 
 Id. Ib. Lib. 6. 
 
 As tearing their jaws afunder. 
 
 In foribus, labor Alcidx ; Lernea recifls 
 Anguibus Hydra jacet ; nixuque elifa leonis 
 Ora Cleonxi, patulo celantur hiatu. 
 
 Silius. Ital. Lib. 3. 
 
 271. 
 
 (18) Statius feems to hint at this, in the pafl'a : >e 
 lall quoted from that poet: where he adds ; 
 
 Haud illum impavidi, quamvis & in xre, fuumquc 
 
 Inachida: videre decus. - 
 
 5 Theb. 6. jr, 273. 
 
He was all the while expofcd, both to their fangs and claws: and tho’ he might get the 
 better of them any way, by his immenfe ftrength; he mufl have buffered all the while 
 himfelf extremely, in fuch a method of deftroying them. 
 
 There is a figure of Hercules very young, and yet with the lion’s Ikin over his head. Pi. XVII. 
 in the Capitol at Rome. This may ferve to juftify leveral modern artills, who have been lu - 4 ‘ 
 generally thought to give Hercules this drefs too early. You have feen the picture de- 
 ligned by the late Lord Shaitefbury, which reprefents Hercules determining, (at his let-" 
 ting out in life,) whether he fhould follow virtue or pleafure; and chufing the former 
 with all her difficulties, rather than the latter with a load of ignominy. As his known 
 labours were the confequence of this refolution, and as the killing a lion was one of thefe 
 labours; every body almoft that fees this pi&ure is apt to obferve, that the lion’s fkin is 
 given him a little too foon in it. If this obfervation were true, it would fall on leveral 
 very eminent painters, as well as on Lord Shaftefhury; for they have generally followed 
 the fame method, in their pictures of this ftory. But if one lion’s fkin may not be allowed 
 them, we have others, you fee, at their fervice; and, for my own part, I own I fhould 
 not think it wrong, even if Hercules had never killed any lion before this determination 
 of his; bccaufe it feems to me more neceffary to mark out their hero, and not leave him 
 unknown, than to obferve the order of time fo very lcrupuloufly. Be that as it will, it 
 now appears that the faft too is for them ; Hercules having acquired fuch a fpoil in his 
 younger days, and before the point of time when he took up that noble refolution of 
 dedicating his whole life to virtue: the idea of which, in the old Roman fcheme, (di- 
 re&ly oppofite to the modern monkifh one,) confided entirely in adlivity; and in going 
 thorough the mod bufy fcenes of life, and all the difficulties of it, with dcddincfs and 
 refolution. 
 
 And this indeed is what feems to have been fhadowed out in the various exploits at¬ 
 tributed by the antients to Hercules; and to be pointed at in the very name they gave 
 them, when they called them his labours. The two previous exploits of his I have men¬ 
 tioned, are all that evidently appear to have been done before the celebrated ones, which 
 are called, by way of eminence, his Twelve Labours; and which he was obliged to go 
 thorough, by the fatality of his birth, and the malignity of Juno. The Roman poets 
 call them, (19) twelve; but what thefe twelve were, is much eafier to be fixed from the 
 old artids, than the poets: for. Martial, Ovid, Silius, and even Virgil himfelf, where 
 they fpeak of the exploits of Hercules, ufually blend his extraordinary and ordinary la¬ 
 bours fo much (20) together, that it is impoffible from them alone to know the one 
 from the other. However one may learn what the twelve were, from (21) feveral 
 
 relievo’s 
 
 (21) It may not be improper to infert here a lift 
 of the twelve labours of Hercules from fome of thefe 
 relievo’s ; and from fome of the lower poets : as 
 they probably wrote them, to ferve for inferiptio 
 other relievo’s of the fame kind. 
 
 The order of them on 
 the Albano Altar. 
 
 1. Lion 
 
 2. Hydra 
 
 3. Boar 
 
 4. Stag 
 
 5. Stymphalides 
 
 6. Stables 
 
 7. Bull 
 
 8. Horfes 
 
 9. Geryon 
 10. Amazon 
 1 r. Cerberus 
 12. Hefperides 
 
 On the Relievo, at the Villa 
 Cafali, in Rome, 
 
 (19) O cui jus cceli bis fex fecere labores ! 
 
 Ovid. Met. i$. jr. 39. 
 
 We learn from Petronius, that there were little 
 vulgar books about them ; (notunlike our little hi- 
 ftories of the feven champions, or the four fons of 
 Aymon, among the French.) For Trimalchio, in his 
 fatire, when he does not know what to do to carry 
 off a little time, fays : Rogo, Agamemnon mihi ca- 
 riffime, numquid duodecim iErumnas Herculis tenes ? 
 Aut de UlyfTe fabulam ? Petronius Arbiter, p. 
 
 (20) Martial mentions feven of the ordinary la¬ 
 bours, and two of the extraordinary. Lib. 9. Ep. 
 
 1O2. -Ovid, ten of the ordinary, and four of the 
 
 extraordinary. Met. 9. 180.-The author of 
 
 Hercules Furens, ten of the ordinary, and three of 
 the others. Aft. 2. Sc. 1.- Silius, fix of the or¬ 
 dinary, and two of the others. Lib. 3. 44.- 
 
 Virgil, but two of the ordinary ; and fix of the ex¬ 
 traordinary. PL n. 8. jr. 287. 
 
 H 
 
POLY M ETIS. 
 
 1 18 
 
 relievo’s, on this fubjedt, which are ftill remaining in Italy : and as to the particular orefef 
 of them, (in which the relievo’s thcmfelves do not agree,) 1 fhall chiefly follow this draw¬ 
 ing, taken from an altar which ufed to Hand, almoft negledted, by the gate of Albano; 
 but has been very lately removed, by the order of the pope, to the Capitoline gallery. 
 
 As this old altar for many years ferved only as a feat, for any idle perfon that chofe 
 to launter in the place where it flood; it has been ill ufed, and has luffered in feveral parts of 
 it: and particularly fo much in the three firft labours, that it is impoflible to make them 
 out from two feveral drawings I have of them. I fhall therefore fupply theft three, 
 from fome other antiques. The other nine, are moft of them very well preferved; and 
 all fo well, as not to ftand in need of any other fupply. 
 
 Pi.. XVIII. 
 Fig. i. 
 
 The firfl of thefe labours, is Hercules’s engagement with the Clconjean lion. I have 
 a drawing of it here : taken from a gem, in the Great Duke’s collection at Florence. 
 You fee Hercules is reprefented in it, killing that monfler, (in the fame manner that 
 Samfon is moft commonly drawn by our modern painters,) by tearing his jaws afunder: 
 and juft as Silius fays this aiftion was wrought (22) on the folding-doors of a very antient 
 temple of Hercules, at Gades, in Spain. 
 
 Pr XVIII This drawing of the fecond, or the conqueft of the Hydra, is taken from another 
 Fig. 2. gem in the fame collection. This feerns to have been one of the moft (23) difficult talks 
 Hercules was ever engaged in. The old artifts differ in their manner of reprefenting the 
 Hydra. Sometimes it is a ferpent, branched out into feveral other ferpents; and fbine- 
 times, a human head; defeending lefs and lefs, in ferpentine-folds; and with ferpents 
 upon it, inftead of hair. The poets feem to fpeak of (24) both; tho’ they have, perhaps, 
 been generally underftood only of the former. As any one of thefe ferpents heads were 
 faid to double upon being cut off, the number of heads muft have been very much at 
 the choice of any artift who reprefented this combat. The poets fpeak of them as very 
 numerous; and carry it fometimes as far as (25) a hundred. The artifts are much more 
 
 moderate 
 
 Aufonius’s infeription, probably for fomcold relievo 
 on this fubjcCL 
 
 Prima Cleonan tolerata srurana leonis. 
 
 Proxima Lernream ferro & face contudit Hydram. 
 Mox Erymantheum vis tertia perculit aprum. 
 ALripedis quarto tulit aurea cornua cervi. 
 Stymphalides pepulit volucres diferimine quinto. 
 Threiciam fexto fpoliavit Amazona baltheo. 
 
 Septima in Augea; ftabulis impenfa laboris. 
 
 Oiflava expulfo numeratur adorea Tauro. 
 
 In Diomedeis viCtoria nona quadrigis. 
 
 Geryone extinfto decimam dat Iberia palmam. 
 Undecimo mala Hefpcridum dcftri&a triumpho. 
 Cerberus extremi fuprema cft meta laboris. 
 Hilafius’s infeription, for another. 
 
 Compreflit Nemea: primum virtute leonem 
 Extinfta eft anguis qua; pullulat Hydra fecundo. 
 Tertius eviCtus fus eft Erymanthius ingens. 
 
 Cornibus auratis cervum necat ordine quarto. 
 
 Dejicit horrifono quinto Stymphalidas arcu. 
 
 Abftulit Hippolita: fexto fua vincula viCta;. 
 
 Septimus Augea: ftabulum labor egerit undis. 
 
 OCtavo domuit magno ludtamine taurum. 
 
 Tum Diomedis equos nono, cum rege, peremit. 
 Geryonem decimo triplici cum corpore vicit. 
 Undecimo abftraCtus vidit nova Cerberus aftra. 
 Poftremo Hefpcridum viCtor tulit aurea mala. 
 
 Thefe four, all a gree in the fame labours ; tho’ 
 they all differ, more or lefs, in the order of them. 
 The latter infeription I firfl: met with in an edition 
 of all Virgil’s works, by Theodore Pulman, at Ley¬ 
 den ; 1595. It is there attributed to Hilafius, an 
 old grammarian. Whoever the author be, he feerns 
 
 to miftake a little at his firfl fetting out; in calling 
 this lion, the Ncmean lion. It was rather, the Clco- 
 na\in, as Aufonius calls it ; and as one may infer from 
 what Statius fays, Theb. 1. 487. in Note 12, 
 
 anteh. 
 
 (22) Silius Ital. Lib. 3. y-. 4, 14, 18 ; Sc 33. (See 
 Note 17, anteh.) 
 
 (23) -Diram quid contudit Hydram, 
 
 Notaque fatali portenta labore fubegit. 
 
 Horat. Lib. 2. Ep. 1. f. n. 
 Non Hydra feClo corpore firmior 
 Vinci dolentem crevit in Herculem. 
 
 Id. Lib. 4. Od. 4. y-. 6’. 
 
 (24) -Non te rationis egentem 
 
 Lcrnreus turba capitum circumlletit anguis. 
 
 Virgil. ^Dn. 8. f. 300. 
 
 -Clypeoque, infigne paternum. 
 
 Centum angues, cinCtamque gerit ferpentibus 
 Hydram. Ibid. 7. ■}/. 658. 
 
 -Cum per artus Hydrafcecundum meos 
 
 Caput explicaret.- 
 
 Hercules Oi-t. ACI. 4. Sc. 2. f. 1293. 
 That is, fcecundum ferpentibus caput; not, capita. 
 The old part that lies by the ftatue of Hercules kil¬ 
 ling the Hydra, in the Capitol, has a human head 
 with great ferpents growing out of it. 
 
 (zj) Vulneribus fcecunda fuis fuit illa nec ullum 
 De centum numero caput eft impune recifum ; 
 Quin gemino cervix hrerede valcntior eflet. 
 
 Ovid Met. 9. 72. 
 
Dialogue the Ninth. 
 
 moderate in their numbers of them : they ufually give only feven : I fuppofe, to prevent 
 the confufion, that fuch a croud of heads mull have occafioned in a relievo or pidurc; 
 in the (ante manner as the painter in the Vatican Virgil reprefents Briareus, who was al- 
 ways faid to have an hundred hands, only with eight. 
 
 The third, or the Erymanthian boar, is reprefented here; from a gem, in the king 
 of France s collodion. You fee, he Iras tolled the monfter over his ihoulder ; and is car¬ 
 rying him away, as in triumph. I do not remember any tiling deferiptive relating'to 
 this, in any of the Roman poets : unlefs Martial may poffibly allude to forne whimlical 
 reprefentation ol it, in a verfe of his (26) which I do not well underhand. 
 
 Pi.. XVII!. 
 Fig. 3. 
 
 We come now to the fourth, or the wild flag; which, (as well as all the reft,) is 
 evident enough, on the altar in the Capitol. Ihis was a ftrange flag; and is’faid 
 hy the poets, to have been of a prodigious fize; and to have had (a7) brazen feet. Pt. .Will. 
 You fee him however here, brought to the ground; and Hercules kneeling on him,' Fig - +• 
 as quite conquered. 
 
 The Stymphalides, (agreeable to an expreflion (28) in Martial,) are fuppofed to 
 be fo high, that the artift has not exprefled them in this work. You only fee Hercules Pc. XVIII, 
 ftiooting with his bow, up into the air; and one of thele birds lying dead on the ground Fl °' 5 ' 
 before him. I have feen them exprefled on gems, as flying too: but then Hercules is 
 kneeling, to allow the greater diftance between him and the birds. Even fo, they look 
 much too near; and I think the beft way, where they are fo cramped for room, is to do 
 as the artift has done here: to omit the flight of the birds; and to afeertain the ftory, by 
 one or more of them dropped at his feet. 
 
 The fixth labour, is his cleanfing Augeas’s ftables. You fee him here, as retting after Pr.. XVIII, 
 it: fitting on his balket; and with a dung-fork, in his hand. This was, certainly, one FiC - 6i 
 of the meaneft employments that Eurittheus found out for Hercules: and that may be 
 the reafon why it is not mentioned by any of the Roman poets, that I know of, except 
 the author of one of their tragedies (29). They probably looked on it as too difgraceful 
 for their great hero, when taken according to the outward appearance; tho’ it muttit 
 perhaps include as high a myttic fenle, as any of his noblett exploits. 
 
 Hercules is reprefented here, in his feventh labour, as having flung the bull over his Pl. XVIII. 
 left Ihoulder; with as much eafe as he did the Erymanthian boar. I imagine too, from Fig - 7 * 
 a verfe in Ovid ( 3 °), that he was fometimes reprefented holding him by the horns; as he 
 does the ttag, in the drawing I ttiewed you a little before. 
 
 Hercules s eighth labour, is his killing Diomed and his horles. That tyrant of p L . XVIII. 
 Thrace, was mott infamous for his barbarities. Among other things, he is faid to have Fic> 8 
 drove four furious horfes in his war-chariot; and to give them the more fpirit and fierce- 
 nefs, he ufed to feed them with the flefli and blood of his fubjedts. I have feen antiques 
 in which fome of thofe miferable wretches are reprefented as flung alive into the manger, 
 before them. Hercules is faid to have freed the world from this barbarous prince; and 
 
 to 
 
 (26) Addidit Arcadio terga leonis apro. 
 
 Mart. Lib. 9. Ep. 102. 6. 
 
 (27) -Peftifque Erymanthia ;& altos 
 
 -Asripedis ramos fuperantia cornua cerva;. 
 
 Sil. Ital. Lib. 3. j/. 59. 
 
 (28) yEripedem fylvis cervam, Stymphalidas aftris 
 
 Abftulit.- 
 
 Mart. Lib. 10. Ep. 102. 8. 
 
 6 
 
 (29) And he too, marks its being fcandalous, or 
 difgraceful. 
 
 Nec ad omne clarum facinus audaces manus 
 Stabuli fugavit turpis Augise labor. 
 
 Here. Fur. Adi. 2. Sc. 1. 248. 
 
 (30) Vofne manus, validi preflillis cornua tauri ? 
 
 Ovid. Met. 9. >’•. 
 
 i3;. 
 
i 20 
 
 P O I 
 
 Pi.. XVIII. 
 Fio. 9. 
 
 Pr.. XVIII. 
 Fig. io. 
 
 Pr.. XVIII. 
 Fig. 11. 
 
 Pl. XVIII. 
 Fig. 12» 
 
 . Y M E T I S. 
 
 to have killed both him and his hollos : as is flgnificd by this drawing; and faid exprefly 
 (3 1 ) by feme of the poets. 
 
 This ninth labour of Hercules here, is his combat with Geryon. Geryon is generally 
 reprefented with three bodies ; agreeably to the expreflions ( 3 2 ) uted ol him by the poets. 
 Tho' they call him fo large, it mull be owned, that in this drawing he looks too much 
 like a little boy. But perhaps this is a calc of the fame kind with one I mentioned to you 
 before (33), in relation to Jupiter, and one of the rebel-giants ; and then ought rather to 
 be confidered as an aggrandizing of Hercules, than as a leffening of Geryon : for of what 
 a vail height mull the hero himfelf have been, fince the head of Geryon, (who was 
 himfelf a giant,) does not reach fo high as Hercules's navel ? 
 
 The tenth is his conqueft of the Amazon ; and in the works reprefenting this dory, 
 you generally fee him taking off her zone : as in this drawing, in particular; and as the 
 poets, 1 think, always chufe to deferibe him ( 34 ), on this occaflon. 
 
 The eleventh is his dragging Cerberus up from the infernal regions : a fubjefl, in 
 which the poets feem to have exceeded the fculptors very much. The latter only repre¬ 
 fenting Hercules dragging Cerberus after him ; whereas in the ( 35 ) poetical deferiptions 
 of this affair, you have Cerberus's trembling; his dread of the light, which he had never 
 feen before; his endeavouring to draw back from it, and his turning away of his eyes, to 
 avoid the torture of beholding it. All this is exprefled in fo piaurefque .. manner by \ ir- 
 gil and Ovid, that 1 cannot help thinking that they borrowed fome of their ftrokes, 
 from fome celebrated pidture or other on this Subject in their time. 
 
 The twelfth and lad, is Ills killing the ferpent and gaining the golden fruit, in the 
 gardens of the Hefperides. In the many antiques that reprelcnt this ftorv, you always 
 fee the ferpent twining round the tree ; as he is deferibed by (36) Lucan ; who, by the 
 way, gives a fuller account of this affair than any other of the Roman poets :) and in 
 fome of them, you have the nymphs themfelves, who took care of this heathen para- 
 dife; and more particularly, of this celebrated tree. The thing mod to be remarked in 
 the drawing before you, is the credl air of Hercules, and that look which feents to drew 
 fomething of fatisfadion and triumph, on his having thus at lad accomplifhed all the 
 orders of Euridheus. 
 
 I am glad we are got thorough thefe twelve fated labours of Hercules, as Horace ( 3 ?) 
 calls them: for as they were a fort of fyllematical thing among the antients, I was 
 
 willing 
 
 (31) Juxta, Thraces equi. - 
 
 Sil. Ital. Lib. 3. ■}'. 38. 
 Quid? cum Thracas equos humano fangui ne pingues, 
 Plenaque corporibus laceris priefepia vidi, 
 
 Vifaque dejeci ; dominumque, ipfofque peremi. 
 
 Ibid. >'•. 196. 
 
 (32) Tergemini nece Geryona: fpoliifque fuperbus 
 
 Alcides aderat.- 
 
 Virgil. JEn. 8. 203. 
 
 Ter amplum Geryonen.- 
 
 Horat. Lib. 2. Od. 14. jr. 8. 
 
 -Nec me palloris Iberi 
 
 Forma triplex; nec formatriplex tua,Cerbere,movit. 
 
 Met. 9. j!’. 185. 
 
 Quidve tripediora tergemini vis Geryona! ? 
 
 Lucret. 5. 28. 
 
 Forma tricorporis umbra:. 
 
 Virgil. JEn. 6. S'. 2S9. 
 
 ( 33 ) § ee Dial. 6. p. 54, anteh. 
 
 (34) -Veflra virtute relatus 
 
 Thermodoniiaco cailatus balteus auro. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 9. S’. 189. 
 
 Peltatam Scythico difeinxit Amazona nodo. 
 
 Martial. Lib. 9. Ep. 102. 
 
 (35) Tartareum iile manu cullodem in vincla petivit 
 Ipiius a folio regis ; traxique trementem. 
 
 Virgil. x€n. 6. S’. 393. 
 Eli via declivis, per quam Tyrinthius heros 
 Rellantem, contraque diem radiofque micantes 
 Obliquantem oculos, nexis adamante catenis 
 Cerberon abllraxit.- 
 
 Ovid. Met. 7. S'. 413. 
 
 (36) -Fuit aurea fylva, 
 
 Divitiifque gravis et fulvo germine rami: 
 Virgineufque chorus, nitidi cuilodia luci; 
 
 Et nunquam fomno damnatus lumina ferpens. 
 Robora complexus rutilo curvata metallo. 
 
 Abilulit arboribus pretium, nemorique laborem, 
 Alcides ; palfufque inopes fine pondere ramos. 
 Rettulit Argolico fulgentia poma tyranno. 
 
 Lucan. 9. S'. 367. 
 
 (37) Note 23, anteh. 
 
Dialogue the Ninth . 
 
 1 1 1 
 
 willing to mention them all, tho’ I had nothing material to obferve on fome of them. As 
 to the extraordinary exploits of Hercules, (fuch as he undertook voluntarily, and of his 
 own accord,) I need not be fo particular. There are (38) feveral mentioned by the poets; 
 but I fliall fhew you only two or three antiques of fuch among them, as feem the molt 
 likely either to give fome light to the dallies, or to receive fome light from them. 
 
 One of the molt: remarkable among thefe voluntary labours of Hercules was his com¬ 
 bat with Antaeus. Antasus, you know, was a vaft giant; and fo, according to the an- 
 tient mythology,) was very ( 39 ) naturally luppofed to be a fon of the earth. As Hercu¬ 
 les travelled all over the world to rid it of monfters, he fought out this giant in Africa; 
 and had a long combat with him there. Their way of fighting was a mixture between 
 wreftling and boxing : fuch as was frequently ufed in the Circus, at Rome ; and what 
 may be feen to this day, (perhaps in its greateft perfection,) in our Englilh Circus Maxi¬ 
 mus the celebrated Mr. Figg’s amphitheater. In this fort of combat, Hercules foiled 
 his antao-onill feveral times ; but as often as he fell on his mother the earth, flic con- 
 llantly fupplied him with new ftrength. Fie freed himfelf from Hercules; and always 
 rofe with frelh vigour for the fight. Hercules, after fatiguing himfelf a conllderable time 
 in vain, at length found out the myftery : and, inftead of flinging him on the ground, 
 (as he had done fo often to no purpofe,) he grafped him in his arms; lifted him up from 
 the earth ; and held him there, till lie had preffed him to death againft his own bofom. 
 Lucan has given us a very long account of this combat: and is very particular as to the 
 two chief points in it; Flercules’s flruggling with him in vain (40) oil the ground, and 
 his (40 holding him up and prefling him to death in the air. 
 
 The former part of this combat, I never yet met with on any antique. Perhaps they 
 did not care to reprefent Hercules even as likely ever to have been defeated, or at leaflr 
 baffled of his viftory. The ftatues of the latter part, or of his victory over Antteus, were 
 common of old ; and Martial fpeaks of one of them in particular, which was very pro¬ 
 perly placed (42) in the Circus at Rome; and leems to have given its name to that part of 
 the'Circus where it flood. This point of the (lory is ftill not uncommon; and I have 
 feen it on »ems and medals, as well as in ftatues. The large ftatue of this, in the Great 
 & Duke’s 
 
 (38) Such, as his bearing the heavens ; Ovid. Met. 
 $ jgg.—His opening mountains, and making a 
 
 paflage for the fea. Here. Furens. Aft. 2. Sc. 1. 
 
 235.—His conquering the Centaurs ; Virgil. JEn. 
 8. f. 294..—His killing Cacus in Europe, and Bufiris 
 and Antaeus in Africa ; Martial. Lib. 9. Ep. 102. 
 Ovid. Met. 9. if. 182, & 183and his taking feveral 
 cities in Europe, and Afia; Virgil. Ain. 8. 290. 
 
 (39) All the rebel giants had been fuppofed to be 
 fons of the earth, long before : and indeed, accord¬ 
 ing to fome, the very name of giant fignifies earth- 
 born, or fon of the earth. 
 
 (^o) -Jam terga viri cedentia vi£tor 
 
 Alligat, & medium compreffis ilibus arftat, 
 Inguinaque infertis pedibus dillendit; Se omnem 
 Explicuit per membra virum. Rapit arida tellus 
 Sudorem ; calido complentur fanguine vena:: 
 Intumuere tori, totofque induruit artus 5 
 Herculeofque novo laxavit corpore nodos. 
 
 Lucan. 4. if. 632. 
 
 (41) “ Hrcrcbis preffis intra mea pedora membris'. 
 Huc, Anta:c, cades.” Sic fatus fuRulit alte, 
 Nitentem in terras, juvenem. Morientis in artus 
 Non potuit nati Tellus fummitterc vires. 
 
 Alcides medium tenuit, jam peftora pigro 
 Stri&a gelu ; terrifque diu non credidit hoftem. 
 
 (42) Hxc rapit Antari velox in pulvere Draucus; 
 
 Grandia qui vano colla labore facit. 
 
 Martial. Lib. 14. Ep. 48. 
 
 As the area of their amphitheaters was called arena 
 by the Romans, fo the area of their circus’s was called 
 pulvis : and as the word arena was often ufed by 
 them for the whole amphitheater, fo was the word 
 pulvis ufed for the whole circus. 
 
 Pulvis is ufed for the area of the circus, by Sta¬ 
 tius ; 
 
 — Illum ipfe volantem 
 Pulvis Se incurva: gaudent agnofeeie metas. 
 
 Lib. 3. Sylv. 2. f. 26. 
 
 And for particular circus’s, by the fame : 
 
 — Aut quem de turribus altis 
 Arcadas Ogygio verfantem in pulvere meta3 
 Spectabant Tyria: non torvo lumine matres. 
 
 Ibid. 124. 
 
 — Et nuper Ncmeteo in pulvere felix 
 Alcidamas, primis quem callibus ipfe ligarat 
 Tyndarides.- 
 
 Id. Theb. 10. ir. 501. 
 
 Ovid ufes it, in general, for a circus. 
 
 Acer equiis quondam, magnxque in pulvere fama:. 
 
 Met. 7. i/. 542. 
 
 As the area of the circus, was called pulvis in ge¬ 
 neral ; fo that part of it, where the figures of Hercu¬ 
 les and Antaeus ftood, feems from Martial’s diftich 
 above cited to have been called, pulvis Antaei. 
 
 I i 
 
I 
 
 P O L Y M E T I S. 
 
 Pi.. XIX. 
 Fic. i. 
 
 Duke’s palace at Florence, reprefents Hercules’s Aeddinefs whilfthe is prefling Antaeus to 
 death ; and Antreus as far fpent, and endeavouring but faintly to rid himfelf from the 
 knot, in which Hercules grafps him round the middle. This is very like the figure we 
 lee on medals; and they might all perhaps have been copied from the famous flatue of 
 Polycletus on this fubjedt, mentioned by (43) Pliny to have been at Rome in his time. 
 It agrees very well with Lucan’s defcription of this combat (44), toward the end of it; as 
 poflibly there might have been other figures which agreed with Ovid's account: who 
 feems to make Hercules hold this vafl giant up under his (45) left arm only; whilft he 
 finilhes the combat, by throtling him with his right hand. 
 
 There is a little groupe relating to this ftory in the Florentine gallery, where you 
 have the figures of Antaeus and Plercules engaged, and Minerva Handing by ; to fignify 
 that Hercules gained this conqueft by policy as well as Arength. I take this to be the 
 intention of the artiA ; becaufe tho’ fome of the antient poets i’eem to make Minerva as 
 (46) conflant an attendant of Hercules, as Monfieur Fenelon has made her to his young 
 hero, yet (he is not generally reprefented with him by the artills in his other exploits; 
 and indeed in no one of them, that I know of, but this. 
 
 Bellori takes the fubjedl of one of the paintings, found in the fepulcher of the Nafo- 
 nian family, to be this combat of Hercules and Antteus. In the midfl of it is one man, 
 holding up another. Behind them. Hands Minerva as bufy and directing: and before 
 them is a figure of a woman, fitting; as in great concern. The perfon, who is held 
 up, has his foot ftretched out toward her. The fitting figure Bellori fays is the Earth, or 
 Tellus ; the mother of Antfeus. Cafaubon makes ufe of this picture, in his Juvenal il- 
 luflrated from antiques; to explain a paflage relating to Hercules and Antaeus: andMont- 
 faucon has received it under the fame notion, into his colledtion of antiquities. 
 
 There is a paflage (47) in Statius with which this particular in thepidture, of Antams’s 
 endeavouring to reach the goddefs Tellus, if it were only with the extremity of his foot, 
 would fquare much better; than it does with that in Juvenal, to which it is applied by 
 Cafaubon. I have not however admitted a drawing of this pidture into my colledtion as 
 yet, being in fome doubt about it: the two principal figures being too young for Her¬ 
 cules and Antaeus; and not at all anfwering their ftrength and character. To lay the 
 truth, as Santo Bartoli has given them, and as the others have copied them from him, 
 they look more like two boys playing together; than two fuch heroes, engaged in com¬ 
 bat. So that if it was originally meant for this flory, either the painter performed his 
 part in the principal figures, very poorly; or the engravers have copied them very ill. 
 
 The paflage in Juvenal, to which Cafaubon applies this pidture, maybe as well illuftrated 
 from any common figure of Hercules; or at leaft, any figure of Hercules holding up An¬ 
 taeus. It is where Juvenal is exclaiming againft the folly and extravagance of flatterers; 
 who do not only negledt to look out for fome excellence in thole, whom they extol lb 
 much; but cry them up, for the very things in which they are molt defedtive. “ They 
 
 are 
 
 (43) Among the famous works of Polycletus, that 
 writer mentions ; Herculem, qui Roms, Antaeum a 
 terra fuftinentem. Nat. Hift. Lib. 34. c. 8. p. 383. 
 Ed. Elz. 
 
 (44) Alcides medium tenuit, jam pedora pigro 
 
 Strida gelu.._ 
 
 Lucan. 4. jL 653. 
 
 ( 45 ) Quique inter lxvumque latus, lxvumque lacertum, 
 Prxgravc comprelsa fauce pependit onus. 
 
 Ovid. Her. Ep. 9. 98. 
 
 (46) Quantum hxc. Diva, manus? quoties fudaverit regi:; 
 
 Illa mihi ?- 
 
 Says Hercules to Minerva, in Statius’s Theb. 8. jt. 512. 
 Sic tibi non ullx focia fine Pallade pugna; ; 
 
 Nec facer invideat paribus Tirynthius adis. 
 
 (Spoke, to Thefeus j) lb. tz. >\ -84, 
 
 (47) - Herculeis preftum fic fama lacertis 
 
 Terrigenam fudafleLibyn, cum fraude reperta 
 Raptus in excelfum eft: ncc jam fpes ulla cadendi , 
 Nec licet extrema matrem contingere planta. 
 
 Statius. Theb. 6. jr. 896. 
 
Dialogue the Ninth. x-3 
 
 are fure (48), fays he, with all their wifdom, to commend the fine fenfe of the ignorant; 
 and the beauty, of the deformed : and if a man is of a weak make, and has a particular 
 long taper neck, they will compare it to the lliort thick neck of Hercules ; even when all 
 the veins of it too are fwelled, by his having preffed Antasus fo long againft his breaft.” 
 
 W hat an excefs they run to in fuch a comparifon, will appear to any one who is well 
 acquainted with the antient flatues and figures of Hercules, much more llrongly ; than 
 can be eafily imagined, by thofe who are unacquainted with them. 
 
 I HAVE been fo long on this combat of Hercules with Antasus, that I will mention but 
 one more of his fupernumerary exploits ; for fear of quite tiring you with accounts of 
 giants and monfters. As Hercules freed Africa from this deftroyer, fo when he was in 
 Italy he put an end to the villainies of a very notorious robber there. You will know, by 
 the character, that I mean Cacus. Virgil gives as ample an account of this exploit, as 
 Lucan does of the former. There are fome antient gems that reprefent Cacus, in the act 
 of Healing Hercules's oxen ; and dragging them to his cave by their tails, juft as the 
 ftory is related by Virgil (49); and, on the reverfe of a medal of Antoninus Pius, you fee 
 him lying dead at the feet of Hercules; and the country-people prefling towards the p L , XIX 
 hero; and killing his hand as their great deliverer : but I have never yet met with the Flc - 2 - 
 .combat itfelf, between them, on any medal, gem, or marble. As this was a fubjedl fomuch 
 more proper for { 5 ») painters, than for fculptors, it is no wonder that we do not meet with 
 it in the works of the latter : And as to the antient paintings, you know, there is but a 
 fmall Ihare of them that remains to us. Virgil and Ovid differ in their accounts of this 
 combat: the latter makes Hercules (sO dalh Cacus’s brains out, with his club ; whereas 
 the former fpeaks, very exprefly, of his fqueezing him to death. If this point were to 
 be determined by their Angle authorities, it is eafy to guefs on which fide the fcale mull 
 turn ; for Virgil was certainly the mod exadt of all the Roman poets; and Ovid the moll 
 inexadt of them; atleaft, of all in his time. Indeed Virgil, in this particular cafe, feems to 
 have very good reafon for what he fays. He makes Hercules go out with his ufual wea¬ 
 pon, his dub, to purfue Cacus ; but when he has found him out, and plunges into his 
 cave, which was all dark and full of fmoak ; his club would be of no ufe to him, as he 
 could not fee where to diredt his blows. He therefore makes him rulh on; and when 
 he meets Cacus, he lays hold of him with one hand, (in the manner of the Ludtantes of 
 old,) and throtles him with the other. Both Virgil and Juvenal (52) mention, that Her¬ 
 cules, after he had killed him, dragged him out of his cave by the feet; and Juvenal, in 
 particular, in fuch a manner, as fhews that he referred to fome known painting or fculp- 
 ture of this part of the ftory, in his time; in which Cacus feems to have made a very 
 contemptible and ignominious figure. 
 
 In the Palazzo Sampieri at Bologna, there are three ceilings painted by Lewis, Hani- 
 bal, and Auftin Carache. The fubjedl of the latter is this very ftory of Hercules killing 
 Cacus : and it is very remarkable in it, that he has given Cacus a human body with the 
 
 head 
 
 (+ 3 ) - Adulandi gens prudentiflima laudat 
 
 Sermonem indodti, faciem deformis amici; 
 
 Et longum invalidi collum cervicibus xquat 
 Herculis, Antxum procul a tellure tenentis. 
 
 Juvenal. Sat. 3. it. 89. 
 
 (49) -Hos, ne qua forent pedibus veftigia reftis, 
 
 Cauda in fpeluncam traftos, verfifque viarum 
 Indiciis raptos, faxo occultabat opaco. 
 
 iEn. 8. it. 211. 
 
 (50) Faucibus ingentem fumum, mirabile diftu. 
 Evomit, involvitque domum caligine caeca, 
 Profpectum eripiens oculis; glomeratque fub antro 
 Fumiferam nodem commiftis igne tenebris. 
 
 Non tulit Alcides animis; feque ipfe per ignem 
 Praecipiti injecit faltu, qua plurimus undam 
 
 Fumus agit, nebulaque ingens fpecus aeftuat atra. 
 Hic Cacum in tenebris incendia vana vomentem 
 Corripit, in nodum complexus; & angit inhxreni 
 Elifos oculos, & iiccum fanguine guttur. 
 
 Virgil. .(En. 8. it. 261, 
 
 (51) Ovid. Fall. I. it. 576. 
 
 (52) Duceris planta, velut iftus ab Hercule Cacus, 
 
 Et ponere foris; li quid lentaveris unquam 
 Hifccre.- 
 
 Juvenal. Sat. 5. it. 127. 
 
 -Pedibus informe cadaver 
 
 Protrahitur. Nequeunt expleri corda tuendo 
 Terribiles oculos; vultum, villofaque fetis 
 Peftora femiteri; atque extindlos faucibus ignes. 
 
 Virgil, n. 8. it. 267. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 'i 
 
 i 
 
 
 6 
 
Ii4 POLY M E T I S. 
 
 head of a bead. This work was done in the heighth of the fehool of the Caraches; arid 
 might poffibly be borrowed from fomeantique. What made me firft entertain this fancy, 
 was Virgil's calling (53) Cacus a monflcr, in one place ; and half a man and half a bead, 
 in others. It is true, I have yet never met with any antique that reprefents Cacus in this 
 manner; there arc fo few as yet difcovered, that relate to this ftory. Perhaps, one day 
 or other, fome others may come to light; in which we may fee him with as much ot 
 the brute in marble, as Carache has given him in his painting. 
 
 If one was to confidcr all thefe, and the many other exploits attributed to Hercules 
 together, one fhould be apt to think that his whole lile was made up of difficulties and 
 hardfllips ; quite from his being born into the world, to his agonies on mount Oeta. 
 Ovid has given (5+) a full account of this laft feene of his glorious life. Silius Italicus 
 mentions a fine relievo, reprefenting him ( 55 ) on the funeral pile, on the gates of a 
 temple dedicated to him of old ; and Pliny l'peaks of a very celebrated ( 5 6 ) ftatue of Her¬ 
 cules, in his laft torments, at Rome. There is now a very fine one there, in tile Pa- 
 Pl. XIX. l azz o Barbarini, which is evidently of the high Greek taiic: the face of which very 
 F, °- 3 - plainly expreffes the agonies he differed, from the envenomed robe that fl 1. k tc him 
 
 and infinuated its poifon, into all parts of his body. Ovid, after giving this account of 
 the fufferings of Hercules, deferibes bis being carried into heaven, where lie was re¬ 
 ceived into the fociety of Jupiter and the great j id ; and tal ; itici ofhi perfonage, 
 as enlarged and rendered more (57) auguft and venerable, than it was in ins Hate of mor¬ 
 tality. I wifh we had the famous pidture of hi affum] ion, which Pliny (58) m tions 
 
 as extant, in his time; in the Portico of Octavia. There is a Gi eck ieiievo, in (. Mont- 
 faucon, in which Hercules is reprefented, as received into the heavens : and thu’ it is 
 pretty oddly imagined, (for he is attended by Fauns and Satires there;) and is not per¬ 
 haps "of fo good an age, as one could wifh ; yet it reprefents this hero, as large and ma- 
 jeftic : and fufficiently agrees with what is faid of him after ills deification, by Ovid, 
 
 I CANNOT help obferving, interpofed Myfagetes, that there are fcvcral particulars in 
 the character of this great exemplar of virtue among the heathens, (as I think you called 
 him,) which would give infinite pleafure to the good bifhop that we uled to vifit at the 
 
 Propaganda, 
 
 (53) Huic monflro Vulcanus erat pater.- 
 
 JE n. 8. jr. 198. 
 
 Semihominis Caci. - 
 
 Pedtora femiferi.- 
 
 Ibid. jr. 194. 
 Ibid. j. 267. 
 
 (54) Dum potuit, folita gemitum virtute repreflit : 
 
 Vidla malis poftquam patientia, reppulit aras, 
 Implevitque fuis nemorofam vocibus Oeten. 
 
 Nec modus eft : forbent avidas prxeordia flamma:, 
 Csruleufque fluit toto de corpore fudor ; 
 Ambuftique fonant nervi : crecaque medullis 
 Tabe liquefadlis, tendens ad fidera palmas, 
 Cladibus, exclamat, Saturnia pafcere noftris ! 
 Pafcere, & hanc pcftem fpedla crudelis ab alto ; 
 Corque ferum fatia!- 
 
 Ovid. Met. 9. j. 168. 
 
 This is while he labours with the torments of the 
 poifoned Ihirt, that ftuck to all his fkin. After he 
 has made his funeral pile, and laid down on it, he is 
 quite compofed. 
 
 .- Dumque avidis comprenditur ignibus agger, 
 
 Congeriem fylva: Nemexo vellere fummam 
 Sternis, & impofna clava: cervice recumbis ; 
 
 Haud alio vultu, quam fi conviva jaceres 
 Inter plena meri redimitus pocula fertis. 
 
 Ibid. j. 238. 
 
 (56) In mentione ftatuarum cft et una non preter- 
 eunda, licet autoris incerti ; juxta roflra, Herculis 
 tunicati Eleo habitu, Roma: : torva facie, fentiente- 
 que; fuprema in tunica. Plir.y, Lib. 34. c. 8. p. 
 352. Ed. Elz. 
 
 (57) Interea quodcunque fuit populabile flammae 
 Mulciber abftulcrat: nec cognofcenda remanfit 
 Herculis effigies; nec quicquam ab imagine fump- 
 
 tum 
 
 Matris habet, tantumque Jovis vcftigia fervat. 
 Utque novus ferpeus polita cum pelle fenedta 
 Luxuriare folet, iquarnaque nitere recenti; 
 
 Sic ubi mortales 'I irynthius exuit artus. 
 
 Parte fui meliore viget; majorque videri 
 Cccpit, & augufla fieri gravitate verendus: 
 
 Quem pater omnipotens, inter cava nubila raptum 
 Quadrijugo curru, radiantibus intulit allris. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 9. j. z-2. 
 
 (58) Pliny, in fpeaking of the paintings of Arte¬ 
 mon, fays the nobleft of his works at Rome were, 
 in porticibus Odtavix- ; and among them mentions— 
 Herculem, ab Oiita monte Doridos, exut.i mortali¬ 
 tate, confenfu deorum in cerium euntem. Nat. Hilt, 
 lib. 35. c. 11. p. 448. Ed. E!z. 
 
 Ovid’s account tallies cxadtly with this : Exuit ar- 
 tus, fays Ovid ; and, exuta mortalitate, fays Pliny : 
 Cenfenfu deorum, fays Pliny ; and, aflenfere i . faj 
 Ovid. Met. 9. j. 259. 
 
 (55) Silius, Lib. 3. j. 43. 
 
 (59) Montf. Vol. I. PI. 141. 
 
 'wry 
 
Dialogue the Ninth. 
 
 iz 
 
 propaganda, when wc were at Rome. You know, he had found out mod: of the my- 
 ftcries of the chriftian religion, in the very earlieft writers among the Chinefe; and feemed 
 to have a great deal of inclination to do the fame, in the remains of the Greek and Ro¬ 
 man artifts. I remember to have heard, from a very good friend of the bifhop’s; that 
 when Cardinal Polignac was making, his collection of ftatues at Rome, and had juft pur- 
 chafed a young Hercules ftrangling the ferpents ; he fhewed it to ieveral of his friends 
 that happened to dine with him, to have their opinions of the figure. Some commended 
 the attitude of the little Hercules; fome, the fteddinefs of his face; and others, the cx- 
 preffion of pain in the ferpents. The bifhop, who was of the company, feemed to have 
 obferved the figure more curioufly than any of them; and yet had faid nothing in com¬ 
 mendation of it. After every body had given their opinions, the Cardinal at laft turned 
 to him; And pray, Monfignor, fays he, what may be your opinion of it? “ I think 
 of it, fays the bifliop, what I doubt not your Eminence mull have thought of it, long 
 lince ; it is moil evidently, a reprefentation of the great hero; deftroying the old fer- 
 pent; by his being born into the world.” How many particulars are there, my Poly¬ 
 metis, in what you have faid in your account of Hercules, that would have been full as 
 evident to the bifhop as this ? He would certainly have made a type of the hero, who 
 chofe virtue fo early, and who luftered and aCted for the good of mankind fo fteddily, 
 thro’ the general courfe of his life. His gaining the apples of the Hcfperides, and his 
 taking away Cerberus from the infernal regions, would have been clear points; and I 
 queftion whether there be anyone lion or giant that he killed, that would not have had 
 fome myftic meaning or other, which the biftiop could have eafily adapted to his fa¬ 
 vourite feheme. 
 
 As for my part, fays Polymetis, I have nothing to do with the bifhop’s parallel in 
 this cafe; it is befide my purpofe at prefent; and ftiould be (60) moft cautioufly handled, 
 at any time. But what I think would go a great way toward fpoiling it is, that Her¬ 
 cules is reprefented by the antients with very great faults, as well as very great virtues. 
 This killer of monfters was himfelf tamed by love ; and an abfolute Have to women : 
 he drank as immeafurably, as he fought courageoufty: he is fometimes reprefented as 
 tranfported with paflion ; and fometimes, as (60 cringing with fear. This indeed was 
 in his mad fits, when he killed his friends, and dafhed his children’s brains out; after 
 •which monftrous aftion, he fell into a deep gloomy melancholy. So that this great 
 hero might have fet for both the characters reprefented over the gate of our hofpital for 
 lunatics; and had there been a houfe of that kind in Greece in his time, would have 
 had a double right to an apartment in it. 
 
 And was he reprefented in all thefe bad parts of his character by the antient artifts, 
 fays Philander, as well as in the glorious ones ? Yes, fays Polymetis; I believe in all of 
 them. Pliny tells us of a picture of him, done by (62) Nicearchus; in which that great 
 artift had drawn Hercules in his deep concern, for the outrages he had committed whilft: 
 
 his 
 
 (60) In looking over the remains of the antient 
 artifts, I have met with a great many things of this 
 kind; fome of which were very furpriling ; but I 
 have generally forbore mentioning them, for feveral 
 rcafons ; and more particularly for that, given by 
 the great Lord Bacon, in his Wifdom of the Antients: 
 where, (fpeaking of an old ftory of Hercules,) he 
 fays, “ Thus have 1 delivered that which I thought 
 good to obferve out of this fo well known and com¬ 
 mon fable. And yet I will not deny, but that there 
 may be fome things in it, which have an admirable 
 confent with the myftcrics of chriftian religion. And 
 cfpecially, that failing of Hercules in a cup, to fet 
 Prometheus at liberty ; feems to reprefent an image 
 of the divine Word, coming in flefh as a frail veflel, 
 
 to redeem man from the flavery of hell. But I have 
 interdicted my pen all liberty of this kind ; left I 
 fhould ufe ftrange fire at the altar of the Lord.” 
 Lord Bacon’s Wifdom of the Antients. p. 83. 
 
 (61) Pacatus mitifque veni ! Nec turbidus ira. 
 
 Nec famulare timens: fed quem te Maenalis Auge 
 Confectum thyaiis & multo fratre madentem 
 Detinuit; qualemque vagx port crimina noftis 
 
 Thefpius obltupuit toties focer.- 
 
 Statius, Lib. 3. Sylv. i. ^.43. 
 
 (62) Nicearchus (fecit) Herculem triftem, infaniae 
 poenitentia. Pliny, Nat. Hift. Lib. 35. c, 11. p. 449- 
 Ed. Elz. 
 
 K k 
 
 TXS) 
 
n 6 
 
 POLYMETIS. 
 
 fils mad fit was upon him. The drunken Hercules is no uncommon figure ftill ; and 
 Hercules demeaned by his amours is commonly to met with ; and that reprefented in 
 feveral different manners, fome of which are as little to his honour as can well be 
 imagined. 
 
 In the frequent Ledlifterniums that the Romans made to Hercules, they ufed even to 
 invoke him under his drunken character, as one finds by Statius; and a particular friend 
 of that poet had a very remarkable little figure of this god, which he ufed to place (63) 
 upon his table, whenever any gayeties were carrying on there. I ipeak of this figure as 
 fo remarkable, becaufe it had run thorough a feries of the (64) higheft fortunes, of any 
 ftatue perhaps upon record. It was a Hercules (65) in miniature; of (66) brai's ; and caff 
 by the famous (67) Lyfippus. Before it came into the family of Statius’s friend, it be¬ 
 longed to (68) Sylla the dictator: before him it was in Hannibal’s pofleffion; and was a 
 particular favourite and fellow-traveller of his, in his expedition into Italy: as before 
 that, it had accompanied Alexander the Great, all through his expedition in the eaft. 
 It was not a foot high ; and fo was portable enough. Thefe great men, no doubt, did 
 not carry it about with them only for its beauty, but partly out of (69) devotion, or, 
 (which is generally the fame thing with great men,) out of a fhew of devotion. He 
 held (70) a Cyathus in one hand, and his club in the other, with a mild good-natured 
 look, that feemed to invite others to be as happy and well pleafed as himfelf: or polfibly 
 with the very fame look, and that fteddy pleafure in drinking, with which he is repre- 
 Pl. XIX. fented on an antient gem: copied ( 7 1 ) perhaps from this very figure, by Admon ; and be- 
 Fic. 4. longing at prefent to the Marquis Vcrofpi, at Rome. 
 
 As to Hercules’s amours, and his weakneffes for women: it was a very common fub- 
 je£t among the antient artifts, to make Cupids taking away his club; or to reprefent him, 
 (like the vaft St. Chriftophers of the modern ftatuaries,) bending under a little boy. 
 This was to fhew that he, who conquered all other difficulties, was a Have to love.; and 
 
 that 
 
 (63) This was the general ufe of this figure ; and 
 it was hence it had its name, of Hercules Epitrape- 
 zios. 
 
 (64.) . . — Semper claros ornare penates 
 
 Afluetum, & felix dominorum Itemmate fignum. 
 
 Statius, Lib. 4. Sylv. 3. f. 88. 
 
 (65) -Parvufque videri, 
 
 Sentirique ingens.- Ibid. jr. 38. 
 
 -Cum mirabilis intra 
 
 Stet menfura pedem, tamen, &c. Ib. 39. 
 
 (66) -Vultus alios in numine caro ; 
 
 iTraque fupremis timuit fudantia menfis. 
 
 (Of Alexander the Great, and this figure) Ibid. jL 74. 
 
 (67) Ibid. if. 109. 
 
 (68) All this hiftory of its fortunes, is given at 
 large, in this poem of Statius. 
 
 (69) This appears from feveral paflages in the 
 fame ; and particularly from one quoted already, 
 Note 66. 
 
 (;o) Nec torva effigies epnlifque aliena remiffis ; 
 
 Sed qualem parci domus admirata Molorchi, 
 
 Aut Alea lucis vidit Tegeaa facerdos: 
 
 Qualis & Oetxis emiffus in altra favillis 
 Neftar adhuc torva latus Junone bibebat. 
 
 Sic mitis vultus, vcluti de pettore gaudens 
 Hortetur menfas. Tenet hac marcentia fratris 
 Pocula; adhuc favameminit manus alteia cadis: 
 Suflinet occultum Nemeao tegmine faxum. 
 
 Statius, Lib. 4. Sylv. 6. JL5S. 
 
 (71) The reafon, that would chiefly induce one 
 to imagine this to have been the cafe, is that known 
 practice of the old fculptors of copying the bell and 
 mod celebrated ftatues. 
 
 The ftatue, here fpoken of, was made by the beft 
 artift of his kind, in the very beft age of ftatuary : and 
 muft have had an additional reputation from the re¬ 
 markable eminence of the perfons, in whofe poifef- 
 fion it had fucceffively been : fo that the chief que- 
 ftion feems to be, whether the figure on the gem be 
 the fame with that reprefented by this ftatue. 
 
 As to that, it is certainly the very fame deity ; in 
 the fame particular charaAer; and with the very fame 
 attributes in that character. It is Hercules; the Her¬ 
 cules Bibax ; and that Hercules, holding the Scyphus 
 in one hand, and his club, (his general charaAeriftic,) 
 in the other. His holding up the club, in the ^em, 
 (whereas one might rather have expected to fee him 
 leaning on it,) agrees particularly well with the me¬ 
 minit manus altera ctedis, of Statius, where he is 
 fpeaking of this ftatue of Lyfippus. 
 
 If there be any feeming objection to the probability 
 of this ; it is the want of the ftone and lion’s fkin on 
 the gem, which Statius mentions as belonging to the 
 ftatue: and this, I think, cannot be of any great force; 
 becaufe nothing is more ufual with the ftatuaries than 
 to introduce fome piece of rock, or even fome piece 
 without any meaning at all, to fupport their figures ; 
 (fuftinet :) and as this fort of fupports is ufeful to a 
 ftatue, but of no fignificance at all in a gem ; the 
 fculptor would be as much to be commended for 
 omitting it, as the ftatuary was for inferting it. 
 
Dialogue the Ninth. 
 
 that Cupid difarmcd him of all his force. And this, I think, is yet more ftrongly ex- 
 prelfed in all the figures, which Ihew his favourite miftrefles dreffed up in his lion’s 
 ficin, (which was his known military drefs;) or himfelf dreffed up in their clothes. 
 
 The chief fcene of his effeminacies was in Afia; whilfl he lived with Omphale, queen 
 of Lydia. She indeed was not the only perfon with whom he made fo defpicablc a 
 figure; but it was with her that he afted his low part themoft notorioufly. In fome of 
 his fits, Ovid tells us (72) he gave up his favourite robe, the lion’s fkin, to her; and put 
 on Omphale’s head-drefs, gown, bracelets, and necklace: in others, he attended her, like 
 a flave (73), with her umbrella, to keep the fun from her. Sometimes you hear of his hold¬ 
 ing (74) the women’s work-bafkets for them, whilfl; they are fpinning; and fometimes he 
 even joins them in their work; and lets down to fpin, himfelf. There is a ftatue of Her¬ 
 cules, with one of his miftrefles, (and moll probably it is Omphale, as it is generally 
 called,) in the Farnefe palace, at Rome; in which you fee him in a woman’s gown, and P , L - 
 with the fpindle in his hand. This ftatue of h im is ltfell little ; and the air of his face 1 ' 
 rendered fo mean, that he. looks much more like an old woman with a great beard, (as 
 Parfon Evans fays of Sir John Falfhff in his difguife,) than a hero. All his dignity is (with 
 much propriety) quite loft on this occafion: and it is probable that he fometimes made 
 even a worfe figure than this ; for we are told that the women ufed to fcold him for 
 working fo aukwardly as he was apt to do; and that he threw himfelf at their feet, to de¬ 
 precate the ( 75 ) lafhes they threatened him with. Indeed there are fo many of thefe faults 
 and meanneffes recorded of Hercules by the antients, that when one confiders them, 
 one is apt almoft to lofc fight of his great character: and to wonder how they could ever 
 have given him the very (76) foremoft place in this diftinguifhed clafs of heroes; of thofe 
 very few, who by their virtue obtained a place among the chief of all the celeftial deities, 
 in the higheft heaven. 
 
 But it is time to leave him ; and to turn to his companion here, on your right hand. Pl. XX. 
 You fee it is Bacchus; who, according to the antients, was almoft as illuftrious a con- Fl0, u 
 queror and hero, as the perfon we have juft quitted; tho’ one lhould not be apt to ima¬ 
 gine any fuch thing by his face, which is much more like that of a woman, than a 
 man’s. 
 
 It is certain however, that the old Roman writers, and their poets in particular, fpcak 
 of Bacchus ( 77 ) as a very great warrior. They fay, that he traverfed a great part of the 
 
 world, 
 
 (72) Dumque parant epulas potandaque vina miniftri, (76) Lucian introduces Efculapius difputing the 
 
 Cultibus Alciden inllruic illa fuis :- right of precedence with Hercules ; for the very rea- 
 
 Ipfa capit clavamque gravem, fpoliumque leonis. f 0Ils a b 0V e given. E yco Jii, « u.nJ'iv * tz c 
 
 Ovid. Fall. 2. jr. 32-5. 
 
 Aufus es hirfutos mitra redimire capillos ; 
 Aptior Herculex populus alba coma;. - 
 
 Non puduit fortes auro cohibere lacertos. 
 Et folidis gemmas appofuifle toris : -- 
 
 Detrahat Antxus duro redimicula collo. 
 Ne pigeat molli fuccubuiife viro. 
 
 ( 77 )-Pradiis audax Liber. 
 
 Horat. Lib. 1. Od. 12. jr. 21. 
 
 Id. Her. Ep. 9. f. 72. (Deianira, Here.) 
 
 (73) Ibat odoratis humeros perfufa capillis 
 Mxonis, aurato confpicienda finu : 
 
 Nec vero Alcides tantum telluris obivit; 
 
 Nec qui pampineis vidlor juga fledtit habenis 
 Liber, agens celfoNifx de vertice tigres. 
 
 Aurea pellebant rapidos umbracula foles ; 
 Qux tamen Hercules fultinuere manus. 
 
 Virgil. .TEn. 6. 805. 
 
 Id. Falt. 2. jt. 312. 
 
 -Oriens tibi vidlus ad ufque 
 
 Decolor extremo qux cingitur India Gange. 
 
 (74) Inter Ioniacas calathum tenuifle puellas. 
 Diceris.- 
 
 Ovid. Met. 4. 21. 
 
 -Gange, totoque oriente fubadlo. 
 
 Id. Fall. 3. jr. -jzg. 
 Hac te merentem, Bacche Pater, tux 
 Vexere tigres, indocili jugum 
 Collo trahentes : hac Quirinus 
 Martis equis Acheronta fugit. 
 
 Horat. Lib. 3. Od. 3. jr, 16. 
 
 Ovid. Her. Ep. 9. jr. 74. (Deianira, Here.) 
 
 (75) Craflaque robuilo deducis pollice fila ; 
 
 iEquaque formofx penfa rependis herx. 
 
 Ah quoties, digitis dum torques flamina duris, 
 Prxvalidx fufos comminuere manus ! 
 
 Crederis infelix, fcuticx tremefadlus habenis. 
 Ante pedes dominx pertimuiffe minas. 
 
 Ibid. •}’. 82. 
 
 5 
 
128 
 
 T 
 
 POLY M E 
 
 I S. 
 
 world, and made very confiderable conquefts in the eafh Pliny, in particular, fpeaks of 
 him as of a more celebrated conqueror than (78) Alexander the Great. The fame author 
 fays that Bacchus was the firft (79) inventor of triumphs : and there is fcarce any fubjeft 
 more frequent in the old relievo’s than Bacchus reprefented in a triumphal car, attended 
 by an (80) effeminate fantaftic let of women, fauns, and fa tires : and generally with ele¬ 
 phants, lions, or tigers, and other of the wild beads fo frequent in the Indies ; to fhew 
 that it refers to his great eadern expedition, and his conqueds in that part of the world. 
 The Thyrfus, fo much ufed in his triumphs, is (81) a mark of the fame kind. It is 
 from thefe great atchievements of his, that Bacchus got a place in the highed heavens; 
 and that you meet with his datue here, next to that of Hercules; with whom he is fo 
 often mentioned, as an indance of the two greated conquerors in the earlier ages of the 
 world. It feems to have been under this character too, that he was dyled, Liber Pater ; 
 or, Bacchu- the great prince and governor: a fenfe, in which Pater is often ufed in the 
 Roman authors; and which, (as I have faid before,) might poffibiy have been attached 
 to that word, ever fince the patriarchal form of government. 
 
 All this makes it the more drange to fee Bacchus reprefented always in the bed works 
 of the ancients, with a face as young, and perhaps more beautiful and effeminate, than 
 ever man had. From whatever reafons this might proceed, one finds that the Roman 
 
 poets 
 
 (78) TEquato, non modo Alexandri magni rerum 
 fulgore, fed etiam Herculis prope, ac Liberi Patris. 
 Pliny, Nat. Hift. Lib. 7. c. 26. p. 371. Ed. 
 Elz. 
 
 The moft ftrained compliment that the higheft flat¬ 
 terers of Alexander the Great could pay him, was to 
 fay that he equalled, or exceeded, Bacchus and Her¬ 
 cules, in the extent of his conqucfts. Thus the two 
 miferable poets, in Quintus Curtins : Hi turn coslum 
 ill i aperiebant ; Herculem que, et Patrem Liberum, 
 & cum Polluce Caftorem, novo numini cefluros efie 
 jactabant. Q : Curtius, Lib. 8. §. 18. And the petty 
 kings of India : Alexandro, fines Indiae ingreffo, gen¬ 
 tium fuarum Reguli occurrerunt imperata fafturi. 
 “ Illum tertium Jove genitum ad ipfos pervenifle, 
 memorantes. Pati em Liberum, atque Herculem, 
 fama cognitos cfie : ipfum coram adefle cernique.” 
 IbiJ. §. 32. 
 
 This was Alexander’s great aim in fetting out on 
 that expedition. Illos terrarum orbis liberatores, 
 emenl >fque olim Herculis & Liberi Patris terminos ; 
 non Perfis modo, fed etiam omnibus gentibus impofi- 
 turos jugum. Q. Curtius, Lib. 3. §.24. And his 
 conflant argument for the compleating it: Ne infre¬ 
 geritis in manibus meis palmam, qua Herculem Li¬ 
 berumque Patrem, fi invidia abfuerit, aequabo. Id. 
 
 Lib. 9. §. 6.-Ne inviderent fibi laudem quam 
 
 peteret Herculis & Liberi Patris terminos tranfituro. 
 
 Ibid. §. 9.- It is obfcrvable that the Roman hilto- 
 
 rians fpeak of thefe eaftern conqucfls of Bacchus 
 generally, by the way, and in a few words, as a thing 
 well known. Thus Curtius above ; and Juftin, (of 
 Mithridates s conquering Armenia ;) Primus huma¬ 
 norum poll Herculem & Liberum Patrem, qui reges 
 orientis fuifle traduntur, eam cceli plagam domuifle 
 dicitur. Lib. 42. c. 3. And of Alexander’s being 
 received at Nyfa; Cum ad Nyfam urbem veni flet, 
 oppidanis non repugnantibus, (fiducia religionis Li¬ 
 beri Patris, a quo condita urbs erat,) parci juflit : 
 laetus non militiam tantum, verum & veftigia fe dei 
 fecutum. Id. Lib. 12. c. 7. 
 
 ■The time of this expedition of Bacchus appears, 
 
 4 
 
 from a pa Huge in Statius, to have been before the 
 Theban war ; and not long before it. 
 
 Errabant gemina; Di'rcxa ad flumina tigres; 
 
 Mite jugum, belli quondam vaftator Eoi' 
 
 Currus ; Erythrais quas nuper vi> a or ab oris 
 Liber in Aonios meritas dimiferat agros. 
 
 Theb. 7. y. 567. 
 
 (79) Emere ac vendere inflituit Liber Pater. Idem 
 diadema, regum infigne, et triumphum invenit. Pliny, 
 Lib. 7. c. 56. p. 398. Ed. Elz. 
 
 (80) Juno, in Lucian, fays that flie fhould be 
 afhamed of having had fuch a fon as Bacchus j 
 ■ 5 )iXvf u/w. x) <A/zq>$ap(/.zro( vrro r»< [xz&nf pxnpa pxzv 
 avaJ'z^zpxzvoz vnv xo(xnv to. %okka J'z /xaivo/x.zvaif yu- 
 vai^i avvav, a£porzpt; avruv zxzivav' wo 'rv/xoravoif, >y 
 
 aukoif, x) xu/x£akoi( yopzvav. -To which Jupiter 
 
 anfwers : K at fxwr s rot yz 0 StiMpiTpHf, 0 aCporzpos 
 twv yvvaiv.uv, b pxovov t»v A vJ'iav zyztpa o-uto, x) tb? 
 x.aroiK.xvTcts iov Tfj.akov zkaCz, x) tbj Opaxaz wn- 
 yetyno • akka x) zt' Ir/uf zkauaz T<y yvva.ix.zia tbt a 
 •rpariuTixa, tbj tz zkztpavraz zikf $ tj if yapcLt 
 zxpaniffz' Xj tvv &a<rikza, vpoz okiyov avT/rnvai ■mk- 
 pxnaavra, Mypiaka-nv aornyayz. Kor ravra a^ravra 
 zirpa^zv, cpyjy.zi’0! a/xa x) yopzvar dvptro/f yjupxzvof 
 xnliYoic (xzSvuv, U( <pti{, x) zr$za£av. Ibid. p. 215. 
 The fame author deferibes him, and all his attendants, 
 more at large; in his Aiovvffof. Tom. II. p. 360, 
 361. 
 
 (81) Ettu, Thvrfigera Liber ab India. 
 
 Hippolitus. Aft. 2. Chor. f. 751. 
 
 When Marc Antony was bent on his eaftern expe¬ 
 dition, and thought of conquering the Indies, he imi¬ 
 tated Bacchus, and his triumph. Cum ante novum 
 fe Liberum Patrem appellari jufliftet ; cum redimitus 
 hederis, coronaque velatus aurea, et thyrfum tenens, 
 cothurnifque fuccin&us, curru velut Liber Pater vec¬ 
 tus eflet Alexandriae. Velleius Paterculus. L. 2. 
 §. 82. 
 
 
Dialogue the Ninth. 
 
 poets fall in with the artifts entirely, in this particular. They never once defcribe 
 Bacchus as old. On the contrary, they fpeak. as exprefly of his (82) eternal youth, as 
 they do of Apollo's; they talk much of his (83) extreme beauty: and mark out'the 
 (84) effeminacy of his face, very ftrongly. 
 
 There is one thing which the poets generally attribute to Bacchus, and which I have 
 therefore been furprized not to find more commonly in his ftatues; and that is, his {85) 
 horns. Even thefe were little, and pretty; and Ariadne, in Ovid, mentions them as (86) 
 one reafon why (lie fell in love with this god. I have fometimes thought of two diffe¬ 
 rent caufes, why we may fee them fo very feldoin in the figures of Bacchus that remain 
 to us. One is the ignorance of the prefent antiquaries abroad, who perhaps when they 
 have found a ftatue of Bacchus with horns, may have immediately taken it for a Faun • 
 and then added, (a thing they are but too apt to praftife,) fome attribute of a Faun to 
 the figure. The other, is the fmallnefs of the horns themfelves; which are therefore 
 very liable to be hid, by the crown of grapes, or ivy, which is almoft a conflant orna¬ 
 ment of the head of Bacchus. Some of the poets feem to hint at his horns being co¬ 
 vered by the crown of grapes he wore on his head. But after all, when one confiders 
 how much the poets agree with the artifts of old ; how frequent this attribute is in them 
 and how very uncommon in ftatues ; it is one of the greateft difficulties I have met with 
 in this fort of fearch into antiquities : and what, I own, I cannot yet account for fo as 
 to fatisfy myfelf. 
 
 Virgil (87) fpeaks of fome little heads of Bacchus, which the countrymen of old 
 hung up on trees, that the face might turn every way; out of a notion, that the regards 
 
 of 
 
 (82) Et tu Thyrfigera Liber ab India, 
 
 Intonsa juvenis perpetuum coma. 
 
 Hippolitus. Aft 2. Chor. 252. 
 ■ Ipfe puer Temper, juvenifque viderisi 
 Et media eft astas inter utrumque tibi. 
 
 Ovid. Faft. 3. j K 774. 
 Solis aeterna eft Phcebo, Bacchoque juventa. 
 
 Tibullus. Lib. 1. El. 4. jt. 37. 
 
 (S3) --. Cafus releves, pulcherrime, noftros. 
 
 Ovid. Trift. Lib. 5. El. 3. jr. 43. 
 Candida formofi venerabimur ora Lyxi. 
 
 Oedipus. Aft. 2. Chor. jr. 508. 
 - Quocunque deus caput egit honeftum. 
 
 Virgil. G. 2. 352. 
 
 (84) Huc adverte Favens virgineum caput. 
 
 Oedipus. Aft. 2. Chor. jr . 408. 
 Virginea puerum ducit per litora forma. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 3. jh 607. 
 
 -Tibi inconfumta juventas ; 
 
 Tu, puer seternus; tu formofiflimus alto 
 Confpiceris ccelo : tibi, cum fine cornibus adftas, 
 Virgineum caput eft.- 
 
 Id. Ib. 4. 20. 
 
 (83) Mite, pater, caput hue placataque cornua vertas; 
 
 Et des ingenio vela fecunda meo. 
 
 Ovid. Faft. 3. jr. 790. 
 Sume fidem & pharetram, fies manifeftus Apollo; 
 Accedant capiti cornua, Bacchus eris. 
 
 Id. Her. Ep.15. t. 24. (Sappho, Phaon.) 
 
 -Teneris addufta lacertis 
 
 ' Purpureus Bacchi cornua prelfit Amor. 
 
 Id. de Art. Am. i. jt. 23Z. 
 Infignis cornu Bacche, novemque dex. 
 
 Id. Ib. 3. i/. 348. 
 
 Molles thyrfos, Bacchxaque cornua.— 
 
 Statius. Theb. 9. jr, 436. 
 
 Refpiciens teneat virides velatus habenas 
 Ut pater, & nivea tumeant ut cornua mitra ; 
 
 Et facer ut Bacchum referat fcyphus.-_ 
 
 Valerius Flaccus. 2. jr. 2jz. 
 
 This paflage feems to refer to his horns being co¬ 
 vered with his head-drefs; as the following, to their 
 being covered fometimes with his crown of grapes. 
 
 Non crines, non ferta loco ; dextramqne reliquit 
 Thyrfus; & intafhe ceciderunt cornibus uva:. 
 
 Statius. Theb. 7. 
 
 In fome of his ftatues of old, thefe horns were 
 gilded. 
 
 Te vidit infons Cerberus aureo 
 Cornu decorum. —— 
 
 Horat. Lib. 2. Od. 19. 30. 
 
 Hermique vadum, quo Lydius intrat 
 Bacchus & aurato reficit fua cornua linio. 
 
 Statius. Lib. 3. Sylv. 3. f. 62. 
 
 From thefe horns Bacchus had antiently the title 
 of Bicorniger : as in Ovid’s Her. Ep. 13. 33. 
 
 Thefe horns were given to Bacchus, to fliew that 
 
 he was the fon of Jupiter Ammon.- E£«astd /* 
 
 *5 A\cta. v f f0( i/of uvu, $ nepa^opof ava- 
 
 irKa.T}c£rcu Tpof Tuy AyAh^A-mruuy. Clemens Alex- 
 
 andr. Protrept. p. 36.- Eodem nempe quo frater 
 
 Bacchus inftituto; cui ideo cornua adferibit Diodo¬ 
 rus, Lib. 3. p. 206. quod Cornigeri Ammonis eflet 
 filius. Spanheim, dc Numifm. DilTert. 7. 
 
 (86) C ceperunt matrem formofi cornua tauri ; 
 
 Me, tua.- 
 
 Ariadne, of Bacchus, Faft. 3. 500, 
 
 (87) Et te, Bacche, vocant per carmina lana, tibique 
 Ofcilla ex alta fufpendunt mollia pinu. 
 
 Hinc omnis largo pubefeit vinea fcetu ; 
 Complentur vallefque cava:, faltufque profundi; 
 Et quocumque deus circum caput egit honeftum. 
 
 Virgil. G. 2. jL 392. 
 
 L J 
 
POLYMETIS. 
 
 1 30 
 
 of this god gave fertility to their vineyards: and Ovid mentions Bacchus’s turning (88) 
 his face towards him as a blefling. The former, in a paflage, which is not very eafy to be 
 Pl xx underftood of itfelf; and for the full underftanding of which I was obliged to a gem, in 
 Fic. 2 . the Great Duke's colleflion at Florence. Virgil on this occalion fays, that there is plenty 
 wherever this god turns his beautiful face: Mr. Dryden, in his tranllation of the words, 
 feems to have borrowed his idea of Bacchus from the vulgar reprefentations of him on 
 our fign-pofts; and fo calls it, (in downright Englifh,) Bacchus’s honed: face. 
 
 I HAVE mentioned, on another occafion, that this god was reckoned equal (or, at lead, 
 next) to Apollo, for the beauty of his face, and the length and flow of his hair. You 
 fee in this figure of him, how it falls in large ringlets over his Ihoulders. The poets 
 touch often on this circumdance in fpeaking ( 89 ) of him and of Apollo. And it is an at¬ 
 tribute fo peculiar to them, that if one was to find the body of a deity without the head, 
 and with thefe ringlets waving down the bread, one might be pretty dire, that it belonged 
 to one or other of thefe two gods; tho' there were no circumdance befide to determine it. 
 Some other circumdance indeed would be necedary to didinguifli which of the two it 
 belonged to; for they are as like as brothers : only, in their bed figures, Apollo's face is 
 the more heavenly, and majedic, of the two; and Bacchus’s, the more charming, and 
 more like a woman's. 
 
 The mod ufual attributes of Bacchus in the figures that remain to us, befide thofe I 
 have already confidered, are his (9°) Thyrfus; his vine, and ivy crowns; his Syrma, or 
 long triumphal robe ; his Nebris, or Faun's fkin; and his Cothurni, or bulkins. Thefe 
 are all frequently defcribed too by the Roman poets; who moreover fometimes mention 
 his having a Mitra on his head, and fometimes wreaths of flowers; either of which I do 
 not remember to have ever obferved in any datue, or relievo. 
 
 The Cantharus, Calathus, or Scyphus (9>), in the hands of Bacchus; and the Tiger, 
 that one fees fo often in fome fond podure or other, at the feet of his datues; feem equally 
 
 to 
 
 (88) Faft. 3. jr. 789. quoted before, Note 8s- 
 (S9) Solis xterna eft Phcebo Bacchoque juventa ; 
 
 Nam decet intonfus crinis utrumque deum. 
 
 Tibullus. Lib. i. El. 4. >\ 38. 
 Et dignos Baccho, dignos & Apolline crines. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 3. j. 421. 
 Perpetuo fic flore mices: fle denique non fint 
 Tam longa: Bromio, quam tibi, Pbcebe, coma:. 
 
 Martial. Lib. 4. Ep. 45. j. 8. 
 Tigres pampinea cufpide territans 
 Ac mitra cohibens virgineum caput. 
 
 Non vinces rigidas Hippoliti comas.- — 
 
 Phoebo colla licet fplendida compares: 
 
 Illum caifaries nefeia colligi 
 Perfundens humeros ornat & integit. 
 
 Hippolitus. Ad. 2. Chor. j. 755, & 800. 
 
 (90) Thyrfus. 
 
 Ipfe, racemiferis frontem circundatus uvis. 
 Pampineis agitat velatam frondibus haftam. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 3. j. 667. 
 Vine, and ivy crowns. 
 
 -Deum 
 
 Cingentem viridi tempora pampino. 
 
 Horat. Lib. 3. Od. 25. j. ult. 
 Ornatus viridi tempora pampino. 
 
 Ib. Lib. 4. Od. 8. j. ult. 
 
 •-Non ille quidem turgentia fertis 
 
 Tempora, nec flava crinem diftinxerat uva. 
 
 Statius. Theb. 5. j. 269. 
 Bacche, racemiferos hedera redimite capillos. 
 
 Ovid. Faft. 6. jr. 483. 
 
 Fella corymbiferi——Bacchi,- 
 
 Ibid. 1. jr. 393. 
 
 Te decet cingi comam floribus vernis;-- 
 
 Hederavc mollem baccifera religare frontem. 
 
 Oedipus. Ad. 2. Chor. j. 415. 
 His Syrma. 
 
 •-Madibus myrrha crines, mollefque corona:; 
 
 Purpuraque, & pidis intextum vellibus aurum. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 3. f. 556. 
 Non erubefeit Bacchus efFufos tener 
 Sparfifle crines, nec manu molli levem 
 Vibrare thyrfum ; cum, parum forti gradu. 
 
 Auro decorum fyrma barbaricum trahit. 
 
 Hercules Fur. Ad. 2. Sc. 3. jr. 475. 
 His Nebris. 
 
 At procul ut Stellx thalamos fenfere parari 
 Latous vatum pater & Semeleius Evan ; 
 
 Hic movet Ortygia, movet hic rapida agmina Nysa: 
 Hic chelyn, hic flavam maculofo nebrida tergo j 
 
 Hic thyrfos, hic pledra ferit.- 
 
 Statius, Lib. 1. Sylv. 2. jr. 227. 
 His Cothurni. 
 
 Huc, pater, O Lenaee, veni: nudataque mullo 
 Tinge novo mecum direptis crura cothurnis. 
 
 Virgil. G. 2. j. S. 
 His Mitra is mentioned in the tragedy of Hippoli¬ 
 tus, in the foregoing note ; as the wreaths of flowers, 
 in the quotation from Oedipus, in this. 
 
 (91) Sacer ut Bacchum referat feyphus.- • 
 
 Val. Flaccus. 2. f. 272. 
 Nos Satyrus ; nos Bacchus amat ; nos ebria tigris, 
 Perfufos domini lambere doda pedes. 
 
 Martial. Lib. 14. Ep. 107. (Calathi.) 
 Cantharis potafle, Liberi Patris exemplo : fays 
 Pliny, of Caius Marius. Lib. 33. c. 11, p.365. Ed. 
 
 Liz. 
 
o g u E the Ninth. 
 
 to relate to his character of being the god of wine and jollity. It is faid fomewhere, I think 
 in Diodorus Siculus, that Bacchus firfl introduced the vine into Europe; and probably 
 he brought it with him after his conqueft of the Indies, in which country that plant 
 grew ( 93 ) naturally ; and, particularly about Nyfa; the place molt peculiarly facred to 
 Bacchus. Hence the antients gave him his known character of the god of drinking. 
 But tho’ he had that character, it is uncommon, in the old ftatues of Bacchus, to fee him 
 drunk ; and it is yet lefs common to find any defcriptions, in the old poets, that reprefent 
 him in that condition. I can recoiled but one of that kind that I ever met with 3 and 
 even in that it is rather faid that he (94) pretended to be drunk, than that he really was fo. 
 Our modern ideas of Bacchus feem to be taken from the old characters of Bacchus and 
 Silenus, confounded together. Silenus indeed is almoft always drunk, wherever one 
 meets with him. We have readily retained that idea of this attendant of Bacchus, in our 
 northern, drinking, part of the world ; and fo have mixed up the youth of Bacchus, 
 with the plumpnefs and fottilhnefs of Silenus ; and, to finifh all, initead of an afs, we 
 fct him ufually aftride a tun. This, indeed, is our very lowed: and mod vulgar idea of 
 Bacchus: but mod of our better modern painters and flatuaries have gone fo far into it, 
 as to have almod loft the original idea of Bacchus ; and to have brought him from the 
 fined diape and face that can be imagined, to a fat jolly boy, that is ufually above half 
 drunk. Horace calls Bacchus, in general, the (95) Moded decent god; on fome occa- 
 fions, (96) the Joyous god ; and once, in fpeaking of him as the caufe of drunkennefs (97), 
 the Immoded god. With us, he has lod all his modedy; and appears always either 
 drunk, or at lead very ready to be fo. 
 
 I suppose, it was under this joyous, or gayer character of Bacchus, that he was con- 
 fidered of old as the infpirer of poets: feveral of them, (and he who talks fo modedly of 
 him, in particular,) ufed fometimes to take a good diare of that juice, that this god in¬ 
 troduced into our part of the world : and as this kindled their fpirits, and gave a flow to 
 their imagination, it was but judice in them to acknowledge him for one of their chief 
 patrons. However that be, they certainly fpeak often of Bacchus and Apollo, as their 
 (98) joint-infpirers : their Parnaflus rofe with two didinCl fummits, one of which was 
 called Nyfa, and was facred to Bacchus; as the other, (called Cyrrha,) was to Apollo : 
 
 and 
 
 Elz.—And Valerius Maximus; of the fame: Poft 
 Jugurthinum, Cimbricumque, et Teutonicum tri¬ 
 umphum, cantharo femper potavit ; quod Liber Pa¬ 
 ter, inclytum ex Afia ducens triumphum, hoc ufus 
 poculi genere ferebatur. Memorab. Lib. 3. cap. 6. 
 
 (93) After Alexander the Great was received into 
 the city of Nyfa in his eaftern conquefts ; he led his 
 army to fee the famous mountain there, confecrated 
 to Bacchus: Ad fpectaculum facri montis, (fays Juftin,) 
 duxit exercitum; naturalibus bonis, vite hederaque, 
 non aliter vcftiti, quam fi manu cultus colentiumque 
 induftria exornatus eflet. Lib. 12. c. 7. There is a 
 fuller defeription of this mountain in Q. Curtius. 
 Lib. 8. §. 33. 
 
 (94) Virginea puerum ducit per litora forma. 
 
 Ille, mero fomnoque gravis, titubare videtur; 
 
 Vixque fcqui.- 
 
 Ovid. Met. 3. 609. 
 
 Mis whole appearance, in that ftory, is deferibed as 
 put on ; till he breaks out, in his full majefty. See, 
 ibid. f. 630, 652, 666, &c. 
 
 (95) —— Tollite barbarum 
 Morem ; verecundumque Bacchum 
 
 Sanguineis prohibete rixis. 
 
 Horat. Lib. j. Od. 27. jL 4. 
 
 (96) Nos & profertis lucibus & facris. 
 
 Inter jocofi munera Liberi, 
 
 Cum prole matronifque noftris 
 Rite deos priis apprecati, 
 
 Virtute fundtos (more patrum) duces 
 Lydis remifto carmine tibiis, 
 
 Trojamque, & Anchifen, & alm:e 
 Progeniem Veneris canemus. 
 
 Id. Lib. 4. Od. 15. f. ult. 
 
 s 
 
132 
 
 Polymetis. 
 
 ft. XX. 
 Fig. 3. 
 
 and the Roman poets of old feem to have worn their ( g9 ) ivy crowns, in refpeft to Bac¬ 
 chus ; even much more frequently, than their laurel crowns in refpedt to Apollo. 
 
 From what I have been faying, one might explain fome relievo’s I have feen of Bac¬ 
 chus attended by the whole choir of the mufes, much better than I have ever heard them 
 explained. The mufes arc the (100) proper attendants of Bacchus, under this character; 
 and (as Horace intimates in one of his odes,) are as juftly attached to him, as Cupid is to 
 Venus. 
 
 The ftatue here to the right of Bacchus, you may fee by his look, his habit, and his 
 ferpent, is Efculapius. This god was brought to Rome, (by the order of Apollo (ioi), w hea 
 a peftilence raged very much in that city;) in the times of the republic : and was ever 
 after considered there as their preferver, and one of the chief among their made-gods. 
 He Hole from his old worlhippers ; and came to them, under the thape of a ferpent: and 
 has a larger ferpent than ordinary always by his figures; perhaps, to diftinguilh it from 
 the other ferpents, which are the common attribute of all the deities that prcfide over 
 health. The ferpent was the fignal of thofe deities, becaufe the antient phyficians made 
 
 fuch ( I02 ) frequent ufe of ferpents in their 
 
 Sollicitare deum Bacchumque avertere Nysa: 
 
 Tu fatis ad vires Romana in carmina dandas. 
 
 (Says Liican, addrefling Nero,) i. y. 66. 
 Quis locus ingenio, nifi cum fe carmine folo 
 Vexant; & dominis Cyrrhze Nyfaque feruntur 
 Pedtora noftra duas non admittentia curas? 
 
 Juveaal. Sat. 7. y. 65. 
 The reafon, given above, why Bacchus was looked 
 on as fo great a patron of poets, is authorifed by 
 Ovid ; who, when he fpeaks of him as fuch, calls 
 him Vitis repertor; and by Horace, more ftrongly, 
 in the following paflage. 
 
 Prifco fi credis, Mxcenas dofte, Cratino ; 
 
 “ Nulla placere diu neque vivere carmina poliunt 
 Qua: feribuntur aqua: potoribus, ut male fanos 
 Adfcripfit Liber fatiris faunifque poetas.” 
 
 Horat. Lib. 1. Ep. 19. y. 4. 
 
 (99) The ivy-crown is mentioned frequently 
 by the antients, as worn by the poets, in thofe 
 days. 
 
 - Accipe j ullis 
 
 Carmina ccepta tuis ; atque hanc fine tempora circum 
 Inter vidtrices hederam tibi ferpere lauros. 
 
 Virgil, (to Pollio,) Ecl. 8. y. 13. 
 Pallores, hedera crefcentem ornate poetam ! 
 
 Id. Ecl. 7. y. 23. 
 
 -Seu condis amabile carmen. 
 
 Prima feres hedera: vidtricis prremia. 
 
 Horat. (to Julius Florus,) Lib. 1. Ep. 3. y. 25. 
 Ut dignus venias hederis & imagine macra. 
 
 Juvenal. Sat. 7. y. 29. 
 
 • ■ Pallidam Pyrenen 
 
 Illis relinquo, quorum imagines lambunt 
 Hedera: fequaccs.- 
 
 Perfius. in Prol. 
 
 -Enthea vittis 
 
 Atque hedera redimita cohors.——— 
 
 Statius. Lib. :. Sylv. 2. y. 249. 
 Ennius emeruit, Calabris in montibus ortus. 
 Contiguus poni, Scipio magne, tibi: 
 
 Nunc hedera: fine honore jacent.- 
 
 Ovid, de Art. Am. 3. f, 411. 
 It is as plain from them, that the poets wore thefe 
 ivy-crowns as ligns of their being infpired by Bac- 
 chus. 
 
 Quid poliunt hederx Bacchi dare ?- 
 
 Martial. Lib. 1, Ep. 77. y, 7. 
 
 preferiptions. Efculapius is drefled here in 
 
 the 
 
 Si quis habes nollris fimiles in imagine vultus. 
 
 Deme meis hederas, Bacchica ferta, comis: 
 
 Illa decent lictos felicia figna poetas. 
 
 Ovid. Trill. Lib. 1. EI. 6. jr. 3. 
 
 Pliny, fpeaking of the white Hedera, and after¬ 
 wards of the black, fays; Simili modo in nigra, ali¬ 
 cui & femen nigrum, alii crocatum ; cujus coronis 
 poeta: utuntur : foliis minus nigris ; quam quidam 
 Nyfiam, alii Bacchicam vocant. Nat. Hift. Lib. 6. 
 c- 34 - 
 
 The laurel-crown was, properly, the ornament of 
 great warriors: (as Apollo fays, in Ovid, when he 
 makes the laurel his tree :) 
 
 Tu ducibus Latiis aderis cum Ixta triumphum 
 Vox canet, & Iongx vilcent Capitolia pompa:. 
 
 Met. 1. y. 56,. 
 
 And was given perhaps fometimes to epic poets, and 
 thofe of the higher clafs ; becaufe they celebrated great 
 warriors and heroes. Thus Statius, (who had wrote 
 epic poems, as well as odes,) fpeaks of his having both 
 the laurel, and ivy-crowns. 
 
 *- Fugere meos Parnafia crine 
 
 Vellera : funeltamque hederis irrepere taxum 
 Extimui, trepidamque (nefas) arefeere laurum. 
 Statius, (fpeaking of the death of his father.) 
 
 Lib. 5. Sylv. 3. jfr. 9. 
 
 And fays of his father (who had carried the prize, 
 in thefe different kinds of poetry too,) that he had 
 both thefe crowns. 
 
 -Spccieque comam fubnexus utraque. 
 
 Ibid. >'•. 1 15. 
 
 ( 100 ) --- Bacche, novemquc dex! 
 
 Ovid, de Art. Am. 3. y. 348. 
 Liberum & mufas, Veneremque & illi 
 Semper hxrentcm puerum canebat. 
 
 Horat. Lib. 1. Od. 32. y. 10. 
 
 (ici) Ovid, Met, 15. and Livy’s Epit. hi. §. 1. 
 
 (102) Tunc, cum obfervatas augur defeendit in herbas; 
 
 Ulus & auxilio ell anguis ab angue dato. 
 
 Ovid. Fad. 6. y. 732. 
 Diflamni florentis opem, quoque anguis abundat 
 Spumatu.- 
 
 Statius. Lib. 1. Sylv. 4. y. 102. 
 
 Quin et ineffe ei (angui) remedia multa creduntur; 
 
 & ideo Efculapio dicatur. Pliny. Nat Hili. Lib. 29. 
 c. 4. p. 204. 
 
the habit ufed by the old (>03) phyficians : and has the mild look, which Ovid fpeaks of; 
 and which I think is remarkable to this day in feveral gentlemen I have feen of that 
 profeffion. I have obferved formerly to you that Efcu’lapius’s face has a great refemblance 
 to that of the mild Jupiter; and his hair and beard are not unlike that god’s. As the 
 phyficians were furgeons too of old, his right arm is bare; to be ready for any operation. 
 
 In his left, he holds his flick, with the ferpent twilled round it. All thefe (104) par¬ 
 ticulars are marked out by the poets ; and particularly by Ovid, in his account of the 
 firfl introduction of this deity into Rome. 
 
 The flatue which anfwers this, on the other fide of Hercules; and which is fo like a Pl- XX. 
 Mars, is Romulus: who was, you know, the fon of Mars; and is fometimes reprefented ^ IG ‘ 
 fo like his father, that it is difficult enough to diflinguifh their figures afunder. I have 
 often thought in particular that feveral of the figures called Mars Gradivus, with a trophy 
 on the fhoulder, may really belong rather to Romulus; the inventor of trophies, among 
 the Romans. He appears here you fee, like Mars Gradivus ; with his fpear in one hand, 
 and holding the trophy on his fhoulder with the other. The poets (105) fpeak of his 
 fhaking his arms, on his fhoulder; call him, armifer; and fay, he carries the glory 
 of his father Mars, in the divine air of his countenance. 
 
 It is eafy to fee, how Romulus came to be placed in this high clafs of heroes by the 
 Romans. They could not, they thought, pay too much honour to their founder. 
 
 They therefore made him the fon of a god; and of that god in particular, who muft 
 have been one of the mofl refpe&ed among them, in the firfl military ages of their flate. 
 
 Their befl authors however do not treat this as a (106) firm article of their creed : and in¬ 
 deed it feems to have made a part in their vulgar religion only; and not in the religion 
 of the wife. 
 
 The whole flory of Romulus’s divine birth is reprefented on a relievo at the Villa 
 Mellini, in Rome. It is divided into four compartiments. The firfl fhews you Mars, 
 going to Rhea Sylvia; who lies afleep, by the river Tiber. In the fecond, fhe is fitting 
 with her twins in her lap : Amulius feems to be charging her with the infamy of the 
 fadl ffie has committed; and fhe is looking up to heaven* as juflifying&er innocence. 
 
 The third, is the expofing of the two infants on the bank of the Tiber : and the fourth, 
 
 reprefents 
 
 (103) - Retorto 
 
 Psonium in morem fenior fuccin&us amidlu. 
 
 Virgil. Asn. 12. ^.402. 
 —— Ritu fe cingit uterque 
 Psonio.- 
 
 Statius. Lib. 1. Sylv. 4. S'. 108. 
 
 (104) - Et fedinantia fidens 
 
 Fata, falutifero mitis deus incubat angui. 
 
 Statius. Lib. 3. Sylv. 4. S'. 25. 
 — Dens in fomnis opifer confidere vifus; 
 
 -—— qualis in sde 
 
 EiTe folet, baculumque tenens agrede finidra : 
 Csfariem longs dextra deducere barbs. 
 
 Et placido tales emittere pedtore voces. 
 
 “ Pone metus: veniam ; fimulacraque noltra re¬ 
 linquam : 
 
 Hunc modo ferpentem, baculum qui nexibus ambit, 
 Perfpice, & ufque nota; vifu ut cognofcere poliis: 
 Vertar in hunc ; fed major ero: tantufque videbor 
 In quantum verti cceledia corpora debent. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 15. S'. 662. 
 
 (10;) Monllrabunt acies, Mavors Adheaque virgo; 
 
 Fledlere Cador equos; humeris quatere arma Qui¬ 
 rinus. Statius. Lib. 5. Sylv. 2. S'. 129. 
 — Armiferi gens facra Quirini. 
 
 Silius Italicus. 16. S'. 76. 
 
 •-Viden’ ut gemins dent vertice crids ; 
 
 Et pater ipfe fuo fuperum jam lignet honore ? 
 
 Virgil, (of Romulus.) JEn. 6. S'. 780. 
 
134 P O L Y M E T I S. 
 
 reprefents their being cherifhed by the wolf, and the furprife of the honeft fhepherd 
 FauRulus, on finding them in that Rrange fituation. 
 
 The work of this relievo is but indifferent; and is thought, by fome, to be of Aure- 
 lian’s time. I have therefore got no copy of it here in my collection. However moft 
 of the points in it, are to be met with in other works of the better ages. The defcent of 
 Mars to Rhea, as I have had occafion to mention before, is not uncommon ; and the in¬ 
 fant Romulus and Remus, fuckled by the wolf, is very common. You meet with it 
 • X 5 X - on medals and gems, as well as in Ratues and relievo’s. In fome of which you fee the 
 wolf in the fame attitude (107) that Virgil gives her in his defcription of this affair; which, 
 by the way, might be given as one inRance out of many, of Virgil’s borrowing ftrokes 
 from the Roman poets of the firR age; and which he did perhaps much more frequently, 
 than is commonly imagined. 
 
 This flory of Romulus’s being received into heaven is well known from the Roman 
 hiRorians. Their poets fay, that he was carried thither in (108) the chariot of Mars: 
 and I doubt not but this his affumption was a common fubject for paintings of old, tho’ 
 we have none fuch now remaining. The figures of Romulus as deified were of a (109) 
 more augufl appearance. He was then clad in the Trabea (no), a robe of Rate which 
 implied an ecclefiafiical dignity, as well as a fecular; and in confequence of the former 
 character, fometimes held (in) his Lituus, or Raff of augury, in his hand. This latter 
 mark ufually attends the heads of Julius Ciefar, in the old gems and medals; and when 
 we find it fo placed, feems to mean that he was high-prieR and king, by the fame right 
 as Romulus was. All thefe particulars relating to the appearance of Romulus as deified, 
 I ground folely on the poets : for I have never feen any figure of Romulus under this 
 character, that I remember; tho’ there may perhaps be fome, which may have efcaped 
 my obfervation. 
 
 The two heroes whom you fee anfwering one another, below the Reps on each fide, 
 are the two brothers, CaRor and Pollux. They are not placed there as inferior to thole 
 we have been confidering before; but meerly becaufe there was not fpace enough for 
 them, and their horfes, in the fame line. CaRor and Pollux were received into this 
 difiinguifhcd clafs of heroes, among the (m) Greeks; from whom the Romans took the 
 
 greater 
 
 (107) Fecerat & viridi fatam Mavortis in antro 
 Procubuifle lupam ; geminofque huic ubera circum 
 Ludere pendentes pueros, & lambere matrem 
 Impavidos: illam, tereti cervice reflexam, 
 Mulcere alternos & corpora fingere lingua. 
 
 Virgil. /En. 8. 634. 
 
 Moft of the ftrongeft expreflions, in this fine pic¬ 
 ture, are adapted to it from the elder poets, by 
 Virgil ; 
 
 -Gemineique huic ubera circum 
 
 Ludunt pendentes puerei.- 
 
 Ennius. An. 1 . 1. 
 
 Obftipum caput, & tereti cervice reflexum. 
 
 Cicero, de Nat. Deor. 1 . 2. §. 42. 
 As Ovid feems to have copied him ; in his account 
 of this ftory. 
 
 Venit ad expofitos (mirum) lupa fata gemellos : 
 
 Quis credat pueris non nocuifle feram ? 
 
 Conliitit; & cauda teneris blanditur alumnis : 
 
 Et fingit lingua corpora bina fua. 
 
 Marte fatos fcires; timor abfuit: ubera ducunt. 
 
 Ovid. Faft. 2. jr. 419. 
 
 (108) -Quirinus 
 
 Martis equis Acheronta fugit. 
 
 Horat. Lib. 3. Od. 3. ]/. 16. 
 Hinc tonat; hinc miflisabrumpitur ignibus aither. 
 Fit fuga : rex patriis aftra petebat equis. 
 
 Ovid. Fall. 2. f. 496. 
 
 The fame poet repeats the fame in Met. 14. 820. 
 
 where he gives the fulleft account of this ftory, that I 
 know of. 
 
 (109) Pulchra fubit facies, X: pulvinaribus altis 
 Dignior; & qualis trabeati forma Quirini. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 14. y. 82S. 
 Pulcher, & humano major, trabeaque decorus, 
 Romulus in media vifus adefle via. 
 
 Id. Fall. 2. f. 502. 
 
 (110) Trabeatus Quirinus. 
 
 Id. Fall. i. >'. 
 
 (111) -Lituo pulcher trabeaque Quirinus. 
 
 Ibid. 6. jr. 375. 
 
 Romuli lituus, id eft incurvum Sc leviter a fummo 
 inflexum bacillum. Cicero de Divin. 1. 17. As 
 
 Cicero calls this, Romuli lituus ; fo Virgil calls it, 
 Lituus Quirinalis. /En. 7. 187. 
 
 (112) This appears from a paflage quoted before 
 from Quintus Curtius. The flatterers of Alexander the 
 Great, according to that author, were for equalling 
 him, to thefe heroes received in the higheft heavens, 
 even in his life-time. Hi tum ccelum illi aperiebant : 
 Hcrculemque, Sc Patrem Liberum, & cum Polluce 
 Caftorem, novo numini cefturos efl'e jadlabant. Lib, 8. 
 
 §. 18. s 
 
Dialogue//^ Ninth. 
 
 greater part of their theology. Befide which, they had very particular obligations to 
 thefe two deities; and were therefore, no doubt, the more willing to retain them in this 
 high ftation. You mud remember, how they affifted the Roman army (113) at the lake 
 of Regillas ; and brought the news of the decifive vidtory of Paulus iEmilius to Rome, the 
 very day that it was obtained. Their ftatues were very common in Rome of old ; and 
 they were placed in particular, before the (1x4) temple of Jupiter Tonans on the Capito¬ 
 line hill; perhaps juft in the fame manner, as you fee them ftand here. The chief thing 
 to be remarked in their figures is, that they are exactly alike. They have each a chlamvs, 
 and yet are almoft wholly naked. Each has a ftar over his head. Each has his horle, 
 of the fame colour; and his fpear, held in one and the fame pofture. In a word, each 
 has the lame make, look, and features. Never were any twins more alike, than thefe 
 aie reprefented to have been ( 11 5) by the poets: and yet they are not more alike in 
 their defcriptions of them, than they are in the old figures; and particularly on the Pj.. XX. 
 Roman family-medals, where one meets with them extremely often. Fig.6, 7, 8. 
 
 I have now done with the made-gods of the fuperior order, among the Romans; 
 the few, whom they fuppofcd to have been received by Jupiter into thehigheft heavens 
 out of his (116) goodncls and equity, for the virtues they had lhewn here upon earth. 
 The next time we come here, if you pleafe, we will take a view of the virtues, which 
 they pradtiied lb much and fo fteadily ; and of fome other imaginary beings, which were 
 fuppofcd to prefide over the adlions of men ; or, at leaft, to be the givers of thofe things, 
 which help to render human life more comfortable and agreeable. 
 
 (113) Minucius Felix laughs at thefe legends, 
 where he fays of them; Teftes equeftrium fratrum 
 in lacu, ficut oftcndcrant fe, ftatua? confecratce ; qui 
 anhelis fpumantibus equis atque fumantibus, de 
 Perfe vi&oriam, eadem die qua fecerant, nunciave- 
 runt. Min. Fel. p. 43. 
 
 The flories are at large in Livy. Lib. 2. §. 20; 
 & Lib. 45. §. 6. 
 
 Balbus, (the Stoic, in Cicero) difputing for the 
 being of the gods, quotes the appearance of Caftor 
 and Pollux, at the lake of Regilla*, as a proof of it: 
 for which he is ridiculed by Cotta, the Academic, 
 when he comes to anfwer him. Cicero, de Nat. 
 Deor. lib. 2. p. 27 ; and lib. 3. p. 62. Ed. Aid. 
 
 (114) Hegite Minerva, Pyrrhufque rex laudatur; 
 Sc Caftor Sc Pollux, ante a;dem Jovis Tonantis. 
 Pliny, Lib. 34. c. 8. p. 388. Ed. Elz. 
 
 (115) Ambo confpicui, nive candidioribus, albis 
 
 Vciflabantur equis ; ambo vibrata per auras 
 
 Haftarum tremulo quatiebant fpicula moti% 
 
 Ovid. Met. 8. 375. 
 
 -Ambiguo vifus errore laceffunt 
 
 Oebalida: gemini. Chlamys huic, Chlamvs ardet & 
 illi; 
 
 Ambo hallile gerunt; humeros exertus uterque. 
 
 Nudus uterque genas; fimili coma fulgurat aftro. 
 
 Statius. Theb. 5. jr, 440. 
 
 Apollo, in Lucian, begs Mercury to give him 
 fomc mark how to know which is Caftor, and which 
 Pollux ; for, he fays, they are fo much alike, that 
 he is always miftaking the one for the other: and 
 feems much obliged to him, for telling him how to 
 diftinguifh them apart. Cli'tiettf, fays he, 
 yv up nr [to.? a., iirei t a. y* aK\a rrctVTa itra.' tis uts ro 
 H/x/To/xai', x) «triip VTnpctvu, x) etKoyrio v iv tm %«/>/, 
 x) rjTof iKATipu \iVK0{. Tom. I. p. 236. Ed. 
 Blaeu. 
 
 (n6) - Pauci, quos equus amavit 
 
 Jupiter. - 
 
 ^En. 6. f. 130. 
 
 /Se/AfSt/ 
 
 
 
 '1 I,’ 
 
 Y l 
 ; 1 . j 
 
 
 i 
 
 niti 
 
 ii ut 
 
Dialogue the 'Tenth. 
 
 1 j>/ 
 
 BOOK the Fourth. 
 
 dial. x. 
 
 Of the Moral Deities : or the Deities that prefided over the 
 Virtues of Men 5 and the Conduit of Human Life. 
 
 ' h E fisures 1 am g° in g to aew y™. (ftys Polymetis, when he carried his 
 friends the next morning, to take a round of the outline of his upper temple,) 
 relate all to what we may call, the Moral Beings ; to fuch of the deities, as were 
 fuppofed of old more immediately to infpire men with fome particular virtue; or to be 
 the givers oi thofe things, which tend to the glory or happinefs of mankind: or to prefide 
 over the conduft and events of human life. It is obfervable, that the Roman poets fay 
 lefs of the beft of thel'e Moral Beings, than might be expefled. The artifts are much 
 fuller on this head; and one who would fettle what appearances each of them made, 
 lliould go to the medals of the Roman emperors. There is fcarce a virtue, or bleffing of 
 life, which is not attributed to one or other of them, in the reverfes of their medals: and 
 you will often fee fome of the mod confiderable among them, thus attached to a Nero 
 or a Domitian; and diftinguifhed generally by a particular * mark, to fhew that it was 
 a national piece of flattery; and done by the order of the fupreme council of the whole 
 Roman empire. The poets, (in this one cafe,) were not fo great flatterers, as the fenate 
 and the artifts; and you will therefore pardon me, if I fltew you fome figures in the round 
 we are going to take, of which the poets fay little or nothing at all. ° 
 
 Tiie firft figure here, to begin on our right hand from the portico, is Philofophy } 
 or, to fpcak more properly. Moral Philofophy. Philofophy, originally among the 
 Greeks, and among the Romans long after, was called by the name (i) of Wildom. 
 
 You fee her here leaning on a column ; 'with a mild and ferene air, much as ihe is de- 
 fenbed (a) by Lucian : and both by her look and attitude, feeming to be engaged in con- 
 verfation with fome one of her favourite difciples. It is indeed Socrates tha°fine is (peak¬ 
 ing to : but whoever looks upon her, may imagine, if he pleafes, that die is giving her 
 inftrudhons to him. 1 here is a Sarcophagus, among the many fine pieces of antiquity 
 preferved at prefent in the gallery of the Capitol at Rome, on which the nine Mufcs are 
 reprefented in the front; at one end, is Moral Philofophy converting with Socrates : and Pt. XXI. 
 on the other, Horner, (as great a philofopher (3) almoft as Socrates,) converting with FxG * J > 2 * 
 his Mufe. It is from this- Sarcophagus that the figure before you was copied. She 
 
 looks 
 
 
 * S. C. for, Senatus Confulto. 
 
 (1) Cicero tells us that Philofophia was called Sa¬ 
 pientia, till Pythagoras’s time; Tufc. Quseft. lib. 4. 
 p. 487. Ed. Blaeu. 
 
 Nec quifquam Sophiam, Sapientia quai perhibetur. 
 In fomneis vidit, priu’ quam Samu’ difeere coipit. 
 
 Ennius, Annal. Lib. 1. 
 
 -Deus ille fuit, Deus, inclute Memmi, 
 
 Qui princeps vita; rationem invenit eam, qute 
 Nunc appellatur Sapientia; quique per attem 
 Fludlibus e tantis vitam, tantifque tenebris. 
 
 In tam tranquilla & tam clara luce locavit. 
 
 Lucretius. Lib. 5. >’■. 12. 
 Ratio perfe&a nominatur rite, Sapientia. Cicero, 
 de Legibus, 1. §. 7. 
 
 Magna quidem facris qute dat prtecepta libellis 
 Vidlrix fortuna: Sapientia; dicimus autem 
 Hos quoque felices, qui ferre incommoda vita:. 
 
 Nec jadlare jugum, vita didicere magillra. 
 
 Juvenal. 13. i\ 22. 
 
 (2) E vjaudra er Kzpny.ziKu wx>[XiVK[xzv a.\n\\v' iiJ'ii, 
 vJ'» mt api~ircu ‘T&visaa Ako.J'»/ xtai, u( irep itat»- 
 ffiti K) er tu rionaAir tbto yAp oGHUzpctt z&os sro/e/r 
 
 £tuTit.-MaAAor cfe tiJ'n srpsire/tr/r.- Opm t*v 
 
 xotru/orrnr ato tv ynuctTOf $ T«r irpormi ro Caiuu* ; 
 T»r ew/ ffvyvoiet. npe/aa CaJ'i^av ; Lucian, Tom. L 
 p. 397. Ed. Blaeu. 
 
 (3) Qui quid fit pulchrum, quid turpe; quid utile, quid non; 
 
 Pieriis, ac melius, Chrylippo St Crantore dicit. 
 
 Horat. Lib. 1. Fp. 2. *. 
 
 N a 
 
 
 /I r ■ r. 
 
 
Pr.. XXI. 
 Fig. 3, 
 
 Pl. XXI. 
 Fig. 4. 
 
 looks kindly, while flic inftrudts 3 and her face very well becomes her true character 3 
 for there is nothing of the fullen, or feverc, in it. You fee hie is here in a robe of 
 grandeur and dignity: but I fancy, from a verfe in one of the old poets, that Ihc might 
 poflibly have been reprefented fometimes by the artills in a (4) meaner garb 3 in allulion 
 perhaps to the poverty of the old philofophers, her profeffed followers. Another of the 
 poets of the firft age makes her the (5) daughter of Experience and Memory. What his 
 authority may be for faying fo, I know not 3 but whether he builds it on any authority 
 or not, I am fure there is very good fenfe in it. 
 
 The four figures, next in order after this, are the figures of the four Cardinal V irtues: 
 Prudence j Juffice 3 Fortitude 3 and Temperance. 
 
 Prudence, (or Good Scnfe,) ftands in the front of all the virtues, in ( 6 ) Cicero’s 
 catalogue of them, as well as here. The Romans feem to have called this indifferently 
 by the name of Prudentia, or Providentia 3 the reafon of which may be gathered from 
 Cicero’s (7) derivation of the word Prudentia. When they ufed Providentia for human 
 prudence, it was generally ( 8 ) diftinguifiicd by the words annexed to it. I imagine that 
 they fometimes ufed Mens, or Mens bona, for the fame. The goddefs of Prudence 
 here, appears as fire is reprefented on the reverfe of a medal of one of the Roman em¬ 
 perors 3 and has a rule (or meafure) in her hand, and a globe at her feet 3 to fhew that 
 that emperor by his prudence, kept the whole world in order. 1 he fame idea might 
 be adapted too as eafily to lower life, confidering that it is by prudence that all the affairs 
 of human life are regulated and difpofed, as they ought to be. She was received (9), 
 very early as a goddefs among the Romans : and had temples dedicated to her 3 and one 
 on the Capitoline hill, in particular. Petronius makes Poverty (10) her filler 3 and Ovid 
 hints at a di {graceful picture of her ( IJ ), following the triumphal chariot of Cupid, with 
 her hands tied behind her, as one of his flaves. 
 
 True Juffice, (or rather Equity, for the exa&eft execution of written laws may be 
 the caufe of very great injuffice) is reprefented, by aperlon with a balance or pair of icales 
 in her hand, held exadtly even. Juffice, according to the poets, was one of thole cele- 
 ffial beings that condefcended to inhabit our earth 3 in the firft happy ages of the world : 
 and was one of the laft of them that quitted it, when it grew corrupt and vile. Virgil ( I2 ) 
 
 (4) Stepc eft etiam fub fordido palliolo Sapientia. 
 
 Ciecilius. 
 
 (5) Ufus me genuit; mater peperit Memoria : 
 
 v, vocant me Graii; vos, Sapientiam. 
 
 Afranius, in Sella. 
 
 This is among his fragments ; fo that it does not 
 appear from what part of the play it is taken : but it 
 feems, by her addrefling herfelf to the audience, that 
 it was part of the prologue. If fo, Philofophy pro¬ 
 bably appeared as a perfon, and fpoke the prologue ; 
 as Plautus introduces Artturus, to fpeak the prologue 
 to one of his plays, 
 
 (6) Cic. de OfRciis. Lib. 1. c. 5. 
 
 (7) Sapientis eft providere; ex quo fapientia eft 
 appellata prudentia. Cic. in Orat. 
 
 (8) Thus, on medals : if the fubjedl be Divine Pro¬ 
 vidence, the ufual inlcription is, PROVIDENTIA 
 DEORVM; if Human Prudence, PROVIDEN¬ 
 TIA CAESARIS, PROVIDENTIA AVG. 
 or PROVIDENTIA AVGG. for Augufti, and 
 Auguftorum. 
 
 (9) Ex quo intelligitur prudentiam quoque & men¬ 
 tem a diis ad homines pervenifle : ob camquc caufam, 
 
 6 
 
 majorum inftitutis. Mens, Fides, Virtus, Concor¬ 
 dia, confccratae & publice dedicata; funt. Cicero, 
 de Nat. Deor. Lib. 2. p. 42. Ed. Aid. 
 
 Ut Fides, ut Mens; quas in Capitolio dedicatas 
 videmus. Ibid. p. 38. 
 
 iLdes Veneri Erycina; & Menti vovendas cfle. 
 Livy, Lib. 22. c. 9. This temple to Good-Senfe, 
 (or Prudence,) was built accordingly by Otacilius. 
 Ibid. c. 10. And, (as he tells us in another place,) 
 on the Capitoline hill. Id. Lib. 23. c. 31. 
 
 (10) Nefcio, inquam, quo modo Bonae Mentis 
 foror fit Paupertas, p. 141. Ed. Lond. 
 
 (11) Mens Bona ducetur, manibus poll terga revinflis; 
 
 Et Pudor; & caftris quicquid Amoris obeli. 
 
 Ovid. Amor. Lib. i. El. 2. jL 32. 
 
 (12) -At latis otia fundis ; 
 
 Spelunca;, vivique lacus: at frigida Tempe, 
 Mugitufque boum, mollefque fub arbore fomni 
 Non abfunt. Illic faltus ac lullra ferarum ; 
 
 Et patiens operum parvoque aflueta juventus: 
 Sacra deum, fan&ique patres. Extrema per illos 
 Jullitia excedens terris veltigia fecit. 
 
 Virg. Georg. 2. , 4 . 474. 
 
Dialogue the Tenth. 
 
 gives us one of his ufual hints, that ftie firft quitted courts and cities; and retired into the 
 country : and m Aratus, you may read (.3) a full account of the whole affair I ihall 
 have but very little to fay as to her figure, or to thofe of moll of the moral beings in thi- 
 circle ; becaufe, (as I mentioned before,) there is very little defcriptive of their perfons in 
 the Roman poets. They fpeak of them often as perfons ; but they do not generally fay 
 much of their attributes, or drefs, or the appearance they make. The onlv paffave I 
 can recollect at prefent in which there is any thing defcriptive of this goddefs in partfeu- 
 lar, is a defeription by contraries. It is in Petronius Arbiter {■+); where he is fpcakin» 
 of the breaking out of the civil war between Caifar and Pompey: on which occafion he 
 defenbes Peace, as hiding her head in a helmet; Honefty, with a dejefted air; Juftice 
 as difeompofed, with her hair all loofe and difordered; and Concord, with a forrowful 
 look, and her veil rent in two. 
 
 Fortitude, you may eafily know by her ere <3 air; and military drefs j the fpear fhe 
 reds on with one hand, and the fword which the holds in the other. She has here a 
 globe under her feet : I fuppofe to fliew, that the Romans by the means of this virtue 
 were to fubdue the whole world : an idea, that it is well known they received very early ■ 
 and encouraged very much, among the people. As this people was of fo military a 
 turn, they generally gave Fortitude the (15) name of Virtus, or the Virtue, by way of ex¬ 
 cellence : juft as the fame nation, now they are fo debafed and effeminated, call the love 
 of the fofter arts, Vertii. Virtus indeed, among the antient Romans, fignified fomething 
 more than military courage only; but it fignified that principally, and moil ufuallyt 
 In its larger fenfc, it included a (16) firmnefs of mind, and love of aftion ; or to be" a 
 little more explicit, a fteddy readinefs to do good, and a patient indurance of all evil. 
 Our word. Courage, may be extended to both thefe meanings. 
 
 Virtus is fpoken of perfonally not only by the Roman poets, but by their (17) profe 
 writers too. She had feveral temples dedicated to her at Rome; with reprefentations 
 
 of 
 
 (13) This is one of the fineft digrefiions in Aratus. periculo & in labore ac dolore patiens, tum procul ab 
 
 *39 
 
 . /. 97, to 136. 
 
 (14) Micis turba deum terras exofa furentes 
 
 Deferit; atque hominum damnatum deferit agmen. 
 Pax prima, ante alios, niveos pulfata lacertos 
 Abfcondit galea vittum caput; atque relifto 
 Orbe fugax Ditis petit implacabile regnum. 
 
 Huic comes it fubmifla Fides ; Sc crine foluto 
 Juftitia ; ac mcerens lacera Concordia palla. 
 
 Petr. jf. 253. 
 
 (15) 7 he temper of a people, (as it has been often 
 obferved,) is fometimes difcoverable from their ufage 
 of words. Thus the French call civility or polite 
 behaviour, by the name of Honnetete; the vulgar, 
 in our own ifland, call a downright behaviour, by 
 the name of Honefty ; and the ladies among us, (from 
 
 omni metu. Ibid. lib. 5. p.501. 
 
 In the fame treatife, he fays, more particularly : 
 Contemnenda; funt humana; res ; ncgligcnda mors 
 eft; patibiles & dolores & labores putandi. Hac 
 cum conftituta fint judicio atque fententia, tum eft 
 robufta illa & flabilis Fortitudo. Ib. Lib. 4. p. 469. 
 
 It includes a love of adtion : thus Cotta the acade- 
 mift’s argument, againft Velleius the epicurean, in 
 Cicero. Virtus aftuofa ; et vefter deus nihil agens : 
 expers virtutis igitur. De Nat. Deor. lib. 1. p. 23. 
 
 Ed. Aid.'-As Cicero fays here, that Virtue con- 
 
 fifts in a&ion ; fo Lucian fays ; H ptiv «perii iv ipyoit 
 JW* tUV otov iV 7C0 J'tuctiit TrpctTleiv, *) trotpa., *) 
 
 cLvfp&tt. Tom. I. p. 565. Ed. Blaeu.'- The very 
 
 ftatues of this goddefs fhewed her, as always ready 
 for aiftion. Solet virtutis fimulachrum depingi fuc- 
 
 fome old cuftom, I fuppofe,) ftill call chaftity, by the cin,ftum - Laftantius, Lib. 10. 
 
 name of Virtue. 
 
 (16) Cicero fpealcs of Virtus and Fortitudo as the 
 fame thing. Appellata eft a viro, virtus; viri autem 
 propria maxime eft fortitudo. Tufc. Qusft. Lib. 2. 
 p. 392. Ed. Blaeu. 
 
 The definitions he gives of Fortitudo, agree with 
 thofe above. As that from a Greek philofopher, 
 (Chryfippus ;) Fortitudo eft feientia perferendarum 
 rerum ; vel aftoftio animi, in patiendo ac perferendo, 
 fumma; legi parens, fine timore. Ibid. lib. 4. p. 468. 
 and that which he gives as his own ; Qua; eft enim 
 alia Fortitudo, nifi animi affectio, cum in adeundo 
 
 Horace expreffes the character of this, very fhortly 
 and fully; (on a different occafion :) Quidvis & fa- 
 cere & pati. Lib. 3. Od. 24, 44; and, in another 
 place; Multa tulit fecitque. —De Art. Poet. 413. 
 
 Tho’ I have given here fo many definitions of Vir¬ 
 tus, from Cicero and others; I fhould be more in¬ 
 clined to go to the New Teftament, for the beft de¬ 
 finition of it, that I know of. It is that of St. Paul, 
 in his epiftle to the Romans; where he calls Virtue, 
 “ A patient continuance in well doing.” Rom. ii. 7, 
 
 (17) Loquetur eorum voce Virtus ipfa tecum: 
 “ Tune,” &c. Cicero. 7 ’ufc. Qu.eft. Lib. 2. p. 393.. 
 Ed. Blaeu. 
 
 Pl. XXI. 
 Fig 
 
 5 - 
 
 u 
 
140 
 
 POLYMETIS. 
 
 of (18) her in them. Tho' thefe may be all loft, (for I do not remember ever to have 
 met with any piflure, or ftatue, of this goddefs in Rome,) her figure is common on the 
 medals of their emperors ; and more common, I believe, than has been (19) ufually ima¬ 
 gined, in the relievo's relating to their emperors. 
 
 Yon fee her in the latter, dreffed like a woman ; or rather, like an Amazon : for lhe 
 is generally reprefented as a military lady. She is lbmetimes in a coat of mail, or a ibort 
 factjnet veft; with her legs and arms bare, as the Roman foldiers ufed to be. She has 
 a manly face, and air j and generally grafps a fword, or fpear, in her hand. Herdrefs 
 (hews her charafter, of readinefs for adlion ; and her look, a firmnefs and refolution, not 
 to be conquered by any difficulties or dangers, that may meet her in her way. 
 
 The many difficulties that attend the following the diftates of the goddefs Virtus, as 
 they called it of old, (or of a virtuous life, as we call it now,) were ftrongly exprefied in 
 that vety juft and very antient emblem (2°), of a perfon climbing up the fide of avail, ftccp, 
 rocky mountain; often ready to fall, and meeting with many things to oppofe him or 
 divert him from his way; but, when he has once gained the fummit, finding hitnfelf 
 at once got into a delicious traft of country, with a purer air and a ferene fky, and with 
 every objeft about him pleafmg and charming to his fenfes. This is what Pythagoras 
 partly fhadowed out, (in that ffiort(zi) hieroglypbical way, which he probably learned 
 from the Egyptians,) by a fingle letter in the Greek alphabet of his time; and what 
 Cebes has laid out, fo much at large, in his mol excellent pidture of human life. 
 
 There can be no virtue without choice. Had all the labours of Hercules been as 
 fated and neceffary, as his twelve known ones, they could not fo well have made him 
 their great exemplar for virtue of old. Cicero in his very definition of Virtus inferts, 
 that it is the going thorough all manner of difficulties and troubles, out of judgment and 
 choice. And here you may obferve that the antients have done by Virtus, as I have 
 ibid before they did by Minerva ; they have made her charafter and appearance, rather 
 
 too 
 
 (18) Solet Virtutis fimulachrum depingi fuccinc- 
 tum. Ladtantius, Lib. I o. 
 
 (Ariftolai Pidtoris) funt Medea ; Virtus ; Thefcus ; 
 imago Attics plebis; &c. Pliny, Lib. 35. c. II. 
 p. 448. Ed, Elz.— (Pinxit Parrhafius) Liberum Pa¬ 
 trem, aftante Virtute. Ib. c. 10. p. 432. -Fecit 
 
 (Euphranor) Virtutem, et Gneciam ; utrafque co- 
 loffeas. Id. Lib. 34. c. 8. p. 388. 
 
 ( iq ) Thus in the famous collection of relievo’s by 
 P. Bartoli, called the Admiranda, what he takes to 
 be the genius of Rome, I fhould rather take to be 
 the goddefs Virtus. As where fhe is giving the globe 
 to Marcus Aurelius, Adm- PI. 6. and attending Bal- 
 binus, at the chace, ib. PI. 24. So in the old tri¬ 
 umphal arches, (publifhed by the fame author;) 
 where fhe is guiding T itus s triumphal chariot, Arc. 
 Tri. PI. 4- and where flic is conducing Trajan home, 
 lb. PI. 28. 
 
 (20) This the Roman poets often feem to allude 
 to. 
 
 Magnum pauperies opprobrium, jubet 
 Quidvis & facere & pati ; 
 
 Virtutifque viam deferit ardua:. 
 
 Horat. Lib. 3. Od. 24. i'■ 44- 
 Ardua molimur: fed nulla nifi ardua Virtus. 
 
 Ovid, de Art. Am. 2. 537. 
 
 Mille doli reflant ; clivo fudamus in imo. 
 
 Id. Her. Ep. 20. 41. Acontius, Cyd. 
 
 5 
 
 - Nil fine magno 
 
 Vita labore dedit mortalibus.- 
 
 Horat. Lib. 1. Sat. 9. )f’. 60. (Spoke by a buflling im¬ 
 pertinent fellow, alluding to liis great virtues.) 
 
 Calla mihi domus, & celfo liant colle penates. 
 Ardua faxofo perducit femita clivo ; 
 
 Afpera principio : (nec enim mihi fallere mos ell,) 
 Profequitur labor ad nitendum intrare volenti ; 
 
 Nec bona confendum, qua: fors infida dedi flet. 
 Atque eadem rapuifle valet. Mox celfus, ab alto 
 
 Infra te cernes hominum genus.- 
 
 Spoke by Virtus, in Sil. Ital. 15. jf. 107. 
 
 Lucian alludes very frequently to this fort of idea; 
 but no where fo fully, as in his Piflopw 
 Tom. II. p. 309, See. Ed. Blaeu. It was very fully 
 deferibed too, in the pidture of Cebes ; which we vul¬ 
 garly call, Cebes’s Table. 
 
 (21) Pythagoras ufed to point out the two diffe¬ 
 rent paths of life, to his difciplcs, in the make of the 
 old Ypftlon. The generality, he Lid, took the broad 
 eafy road, to the left hand ; and the virtuous, the 
 narrow ftcep line to the right. 
 
 Haud tibi inexpertum curvos deprendere mores, 
 Qu«que docet fapiens braccatis illita Medis 
 Porticus; infomnis quibus & detonfa juventus 
 Invigilat, filiquis & grandi palla polenta: 
 
 Et tibi, qua: Samios deduxit litera ramos, 
 Surgentem dextro monllravit tramite callem : 
 Stertis adhuc ? -- 
 
o g 0 e the Tenth. 
 
 toe ( 22 ) rigid and fovere. They generally oppofe Virtns, to Voluptas: and when they 
 talk of the two different paths of life ; this of the good, and that of the bad ; they ftrow 
 the latter with rofes, and the former with thorns. In a word, they have made the ways 
 of Virtue to appear at lead like the ways of unpleafantnefs : and yet they always fay, that 
 fhe is to be chofen with all her difficulties and troubles. She is to be chofen for the end; 
 (which is the chief thing always in determining one's choice :) for they deferibe (23) the 
 path of virtue as leading thro' difficulties and troubles, to glory and happinefs ; and the 
 path of plealure, as leading thro’ gaieties and enjoyments, to mifery and dilhonour. 
 
 As the determining this choice is the mod important thing to'every man that is born 
 into the world, we find it fhadowed out by the poets and moralifts of all ages : in fables 
 very different indeed, but all of them pointing to the fame end. 
 
 Silius Italicus introduces a Choice into his poem, where he is fpeaking of Scipio 
 Africanus ; the greateff man perhaps that ever Rome produced, if we take his character 
 all round. He fpeaks of him as very young ; for it was juft after his father and uncle had 
 loft their lives in fighting againft the Carthaginians. The fenate debate, who ftiall be 
 fent to head their armies in Spain : while they are debating, young Scipio retires in 
 the depth of his concern into a folitary place, to confider with himfelf whether he 
 fliould follow the example of his relations, and fling himfelf into the war ; or whether 
 he fliould retire, and fave the poor remains of his family. Whilft he is ruminating and 
 doubtful what to fix on (24), Virtus and Voluptas appear to him. Each makes a fpeech 
 
 to 
 
 (22) There is a head of Virtus, publiflied by Ful¬ 
 vio Orfini, with the hair lank and rude ; and en¬ 
 tirely with the look of a common foldier. 
 
 We meet with feveral deferiptions in the poets, 
 which fhew that they had much the fame idea of her. 
 
 When Lucan deferibes Scava, as all horrible with 
 wounds ; he fays, that his companions looked upon 
 him as an exadt reprefentation of this goddefs. 
 
 Perdiderat vultum rabies; ftetit imbre cruento 
 Informis facies.—Labentcm turba fuorum 
 Excipit, atque humeris defeftum imponere gaudet: 
 
 Ac veluti inclufum pcrfolfo in pedore numen 
 Et vivam magna: fpeciem Virtutis adorant. 
 
 Pharf. 6. f. 254. 
 
 Virtus, coming from the throne of Jupiter, and 
 changing herfelf into the lhape of Manto, (to per- 
 fuade Menaceus to facrifice his life for his country;) 
 is thus deferibed by Statius. 
 
 ——Abiit horrorque vigorque 
 Ex oculis : paulum decoris permanfit; honofque 
 Mollior: ec polito vatum geftamina ferro 
 Subdita: defeendunt velles, torvifque ligatur 
 Vitta comis; nam laurus erat. Tamenafpera produnt 
 Ora deam ; nimiique gradus.-. 
 
 Theb. 10. jr. 646. 
 
 This author is full of thefe ideas ; for he fays, in 
 another place : 
 
 Ridct Mars Pater, & cruenta Virtus. 
 
 Lib. 1. Sylv. 6. 62. 
 
 And, where he is deferibing the court of Mars 
 
 Innumeris llrepit aula Minis. Trilliilima Virtus 
 Stat medio; latufque Furor : vultuque cruento 
 Mors armata fedet.- 
 
 Theb. 7. S3 . 
 
 (23) Orandum ell ut fit mens fana in corpore fano ; 
 
 Fortem pofee animum Sr mortis terrore carentem 
 Qui fpatium vita: extrfflnum inter munera ponat 
 Natura ; qui ferre quest quofeumque labores ; 
 
 Nefciat irafei, cu ' fiihil: & potiores 
 Herculis arumnas c,«tiat favofque labores, 
 
 Et Venere, & ccenis & plumis Sardanapali. 
 
 Monllro quod ipfe tibi poliis dare. Semita certe 
 Tranquilla: per virtutem patet unica vita. 
 
 Juvenal. Sat. 10, jr. 364. 
 
 (24) Has lauri refidens juvenis viridante fub umbra, 
 sEdibus extremis, volvebat pedore curas ; 
 
 Quum fubitd adfiftunt dextra lavaque, per auras 
 Adlapfa, haud paulum mortali major imago. 
 
 Hinc Virtus, illinc Virtuti inimica Voluptas. 
 
 Altera Achemanium fpirabat vertice odorem, 
 Ambrofias diffufa comas; & velle refulgens, 
 
 Oflrum qua: fulvo Tyrium fuffuderat auro : 
 
 Fronte decor quafitus acu ; lafcivaque crebras 
 Ancipiti motu jaciebant lumina flammas. 
 
 Alterius difpar habitus. Frons hirta; nec unquam 
 Compofita mutata coma. Stans vultus: & ore 
 Incefluque viro propior; latique pudoris. 
 
 Celfa humeros nivea: fulgebat flamine palis. 
 
 Occupat inde prior, promiflis fifa, Voluptas. 
 
 “ Quis furor hic, non digne puer confumere bello 
 Florem avi ? Cannane tibi, graviorque palude 
 MaoniusStygia lacus excellere, Padufque? 
 
 Quem tandem ad finem bellando fata lacefles ? 
 Tune etiam tentare paras Atlantia regna, 
 Sidoniafque domos ? Moneo, certare periclis 
 Define, & armifona caput objedare procella. 
 
 Ni fugis hos ritus, Virtus te fava jubebit 
 Per medias volitare acies, mediofque per ignes. 
 Hac patrem patruumque tuos; hac prodiga Paulum 
 Hac Decios, Stygias Erebi detrufit ad undas; 
 
 Dum cineri titulum memorandaque nomina bullis 
 Prstendit, nec fenfura quid geflerit umbra. 
 
 At fi me comitere, puer, non limite duro 
 Jam tibi decurret concelfi temporis atas : 
 
 Haud unquam trepidos abrumpet buccina fomnos; 
 Non glaciem Ardoam, non experiere furentis 
 Ardorem Cancri; nec menfas, fape cruento 
 Gramine compolitas: aberunt litis afpera, & hauflus 
 Sub galea pulvis, partique timore labores : 
 
 Sed current albufque dies, horaque ferena ; 
 
 Et molli dabitur vidu fperare fenedam. 
 
 Quantas 
 
 O o 
 
POLYMETIS. 
 
 to draw him over to her party. lie is determined by what Virtus Gya to him ; h„;;X; 
 to the fenate; demands to lead the army into Spain; and goes on in a continued courfc 
 of great and good r ations. I know not whether Silius might borrow any firokes in the 
 defcriptive part of this ftory, from any pictures of a (25) choice, at Rome in his time ; 
 but his defcription might certainly furnifh a good painter now with all the ideas necellary 
 to make a good picture on this fubje< 5 t. The place; the perfonages; their air, their 
 looks, their robes, and the very colour of them, being all fixed by the poet; and only 
 wanting a good hand, totranfplant them on the canvas. 
 
 This ftory of Scipio in Silius, is evidently taken from that of Hercules in Xeno¬ 
 phon’s memoirs of Socrates. It was a teflon which that great philofopher gave his dil- 
 ciples ; and one of the nobleft lelfons in all antiquity. He borrowed it from Prodicus ; 
 who he fays, ufed to tell it in a much more ornamented manner than lie has done : but 
 perhaps we have not it the worfe, for having it plainer. I have heard you fay. Phi¬ 
 lander, that a particular friend of yours has turned it into verfe, in our own language, 
 from the Greek of Xenophon; and I think you promifed me fome time ago, that you 
 would be fo good as to fliew it to me. I am fo far from forgetting that promife, fays 
 Philander, that I brought it with me into the country, on purpofe. I took it with me 
 yefterday, when you was to confider the character of Hercules; and have it Hill abo, t 
 me. I would not interrupt you with it now ; but when you have finifhed your r> >und c , 
 the Virtues and Deities before us, if you will give me leave, 1 will have the plcal'urc of 
 reading it to you. 
 
 Wr. (hall be both obliged to you, fiiys Polymetis; but before I go on with my othe 
 
 goddefle:, I muft beg leave to explain a 
 
 Quantus ipfe deus lretos generavit in ulus 
 Res homini, plenaque dedit bona gaudia dextra ? 
 Atque idem, exemplar lenis mortalibus tevi. 
 Imperturbata placidus tenet otia mente. 
 
 Illa ego lum, Anchife Venerem Simoentis ad undas 
 Qua; junxi; generis vobis unde editus auflor : 
 
 Illa ego fum, verti fuperum qui flepe parentem. 
 Nunc avis in formam, nunc torvi in cornua tauri. 
 Huc adverte aures. Currit mortalibus ivura : 
 
 Nec nafei bis polle datur. Fugit hora ; rapitque 
 Tartareus torrens: ac fecum ferre fub umbras. 
 
 Si qua animo placuere, negat. Quis, luce fuprenia, 
 Dimifific meas fero non ingemit horas 1” 
 
 Poflquam conticuit, finifque eft addita diftis; 
 TumVirtus. “ Quafnam juvenem florentibus (inquit) 
 Pellicis in fraudes annis vita:que tenebras, 
 
 Cui ratio & magna; cceleilia femina mentis 
 Munere funt concefia deum ? Mortalibus alti 
 Quantum Ccclicolx, tantundem animalibus illi 
 Prxcellunt cunftis: tribuit namque ipfa minores 
 Hos terris natura deos ; fed, fcedere certo. 
 Degeneres tenebris animas damnavit Avernis: 
 
 At queis xtherei fervatur feminis ortus, 
 
 Cccli porta patet. Referam quid cunfta domantem 
 Amphitryoniadem? Quid, cui poli Seras & Indos, 
 Captivo Liber quum figna referret ab Euro, 
 Caucafete currum duxere per oppida tigres? 
 
 Quid fufpiratos magno in diferimine nautis 
 Ledaros referam fratres, veftrumque Quirinum ? 
 Nonne vides, hominum ut celfos ad iidera vulcus 
 Suftulerit deus, ac fublimia finxerit ora ; 
 
 Quum pecudesjVolucrumquegenus, form afq; ferarum. 
 Segnem atque obfccenam paflim llraviflet in alvum ? 
 Ad laudes genitum, capiat li munera divum, 
 
 Felix ad laudes hominum genus. Huc age, paullum 
 Adfpice, (nec longe repetam,) modii Roma minanti 
 Impar Fidente, contcntaque crcfcere afylo. 
 
 Quo fele extulerit dextris! idem adfpice, late 
 Florentes quondam luxus quas verterit urbes ! 
 Quippe nec ira deum tantum, nec tela; nec holies ; 
 Quantum fola noces, animis illapfa, Voluptas ! 
 
 thing, whi I I 
 
 faid 
 
 Circa te Temper volitans Ir.famia penni' : 
 
 Mccum, Honor, & Laudes, & 1 ,-feto Gloria vultu ; 
 
 Et Decus, & niveis Victoria concolor alis ; 
 
 Me, cinftus lauro, perducit ad aftra Triumphur. 
 Calla mihi domus, & cello liant colle penatis : 
 Ardua faxofo perducit femita clivo, 
 
 Afpera principio; (nec enim mihi fallere mos efl-;) 
 Profcquitur labor ad nitendum intrare volenti : 
 
 Nec bona cenfcndum qua: fors infida dediflet. 
 
 Atque eadem rapuilTe valet : mox celfus r.b alto 
 Infra te cernes hominum genus. Omnia contra 
 Experienda manet, quam fpondet blanda Voluptas, 
 Stramine projedlus duro, patiere fub allris 
 Infomnes noftes; frigufque famemque domabis. 
 Idem, juflitia: cultor, quacunque caprfies 
 Tefles factorum liare arbitrabere Divos. 
 
 Tunc, quoties patrie rerumque pericula pofccnt, 
 Arma feres primus ; primus te in moenia tolles 
 Hoflica : nec ferro mentem vincere, nec auro. 
 
 Hinc tibi, non Tyrio vitiatas murice velles; 
 
 Nec donum, deforme viro, flagrantis amomi : 
 
 Sed dabo, qui veilrum ftevo nunc Marte fatigat 
 Imperium, fuperare manu ; laurumque fuperbam 
 In gremio Jovis excifls deponere Panis.” 
 
 Qua: poflquam cecinit faernto pedlore Virtus, 
 Exemplis latum, vultuque audita probantem. 
 Convertit juvenem. Sed enim indignata Voluptas 
 Non tenuit voces. “ Nil vos jam demoror ultra. 
 Exclamat. Venient, venient mea tempora quondam ! 
 Quum docilis noftris, magno certamine, Roma 
 Serviet imperiis ; & honor mihi habebitur uni 
 Sic, quaflans caput, in nubes l‘c lullulic atras. 
 
 At juvenis, plenus monitis, ingentia corde 
 Molitur ; viixque cale: Virtutis amore. 
 
 Silius ital. Lib. ij. ijo. 
 
 (25) The choice of Hercules, in particular, v. :v 1 
 fubjecl for pictures of olfl. See Philoftratus in \' 
 Apollonii. Lib. 6. c. io. p. 239, 240, &q. Ed. 
 Lipf. 
 
Dialogue the Tenth. 
 
 laid that there choices were much more common in antiquity, than has been generally 
 imagined. Tims, I lufpedt at lealt, that the ftory of Ulyffes and Circe was Willing of 
 this kind; the debate there was, whether he Ihould give himfelf up to that godd -Is or 
 go on to feek Ithaca and tire chafte partner of his bed. The trial of the fame hero when 
 he refilled the bewitching mufic of the Sirens, is another drefs for the fame fort of 
 moral; and, if I miftake not, Horace (26) alludes to both thefe ftories of this hero 
 in a manner that may partly ferve to juftify this conjeSure. The Choke, or (as it is more 
 commonly called,) the Judgment of Paris, l'eems to me to be the Afiatic way of telling 
 the fame ftory j and it is formed on a larger plan, than any of the former. The n 0 ddefii 
 of (27) Wifdom, the goddefs of Pleafure, and the goddefs of Power, appear to Paris in 
 his youth. They each make him their offers. He prefers pleafure, to whatever the 
 others could give him : and the confequence of this bad choice of his was, the lofs of 
 his own life, the bufferings of all his friends, and of his country , and finally, the over¬ 
 turning of the Afiatic monarchy. But what dignifies this matter in general more than any 
 thing I have faid, and more than any thing I could fay, is; that one might give inftanccs 
 of fome ffrokes refcmbling this method of inftrudtion, from the facred writers • as in the 
 choice of Solomon, recorded in the Old Teftament; and that of a greater than Solomon, 
 in the New. 
 
 One word more on this fubjefl; and I have done with it. The account of thefe 
 Choices were fo familiar and well known of old, that the Roman poets often allude to 
 them, in other things belide fixing on a virtuous or vitious courfcof living. So Perfms, 
 (28) of chufing between two vices, Avaritia and Luxuria : and Ovid in his doubt (29)’ 
 Whether he Ihould take to writing elegies or tragedies. 
 
 The figure that you fee next to Virtus, is placed here to reprefent Temperantia ; who Pl. XXI, 
 was fuppofed to infpirc men with the refolutionof ( 3 °) bridling in their defires and appe- F,G - 
 tites; and it is therefore that you fee her with a bit, in her right hand. I could never 
 meet with any figure of Temperantia, on any Roman medal: and was therefore forced 
 to fteal this from a Grecian one; and to adapt it to my purpofc : for, to fay the truth, 
 the artift meant it for a different goddefs. What made me take this extraordinary licence, 
 
 was 
 
 (26) Hie, in redudta vallc Caniculx, 
 
 Vitabis a:itus ; Sc fide Teia 
 
 Dices laborantes in uno 
 Penelopen, vitreamque Circen. 
 
 Horat. Lib. i. Od. 17. f. 20. 
 Rurfiim quid Virtus & quod Sapientia poflit 
 Utile propofuit nobis exemplar Ulyffem ; 
 
 Qui domitor Trojte, multorum providus urbes 
 Et mores hominum infpexit: latumque per aiquor 
 Dum fibi, dum fociis reditum parat, afpera multa 
 Pertulit; adverfis rerum immerfabilis undis. 
 Sirenum voces, & Circes pocula noili: 
 
 Qua:, fi cum fociis llultus cupidufque bibi flet. 
 
 Sub domina meretrice fuilfet turpis Sc excors; 
 VixiiTet canis immundus, vel amica luto fus. 
 
 Ib. Lib. 1. Ep. 2. -jr . 26. 
 
 (27) -Venus, et cum Pallade Juno, 
 
 Graminibus teneros impofuere pedes.- 
 
 Tantaque vincendi cura elt, ingentibus ardent 
 Judicium donis follicitare meum : 
 
 Regna Jovis conjux, virtutem filia jaftat; 
 
 Ipfe potens dubito, fortis an effe velim. 
 
 Dulce Venus riiir, (“ Nec tc, Pari, munera tanpant 
 Utraque fufpenfi plena timoris, ait.) 
 
 “ Nos dabimus quod ames; & pulchra: filia Ledae 
 Ibit in amplexus, pulchrior ipfa, tuos.” 
 
 Dixit; &, ex <cquo donis formaque probata, 
 Viftorem coelo rettulit illa pedem. 
 
 Ovid. Her. Ep. 16. i. 88. (Paris, Hcl.) 
 
 Unaquc' cum regnum, belli daret altera laudem ; 
 
 Tyndaridos conjux tertia dixit, eris.- 
 
 Ergo ego fum Virtus ? Ego fum tibi nobile regnum ? 
 
 Id. Ibid. 17. it. 135. (Helena. Par.) 
 
 This whole ftory is told molt fully, and in the 
 molt pitfturefque manner that can be, by Lucian. 
 In him, Juno offers to make Paris king of all Alia; 
 or, in other words, the greateft monarch then in the 
 
 world :-Minerva promifes to make him great in 
 
 war, and always fuccefsful :-and Venus tempts 
 
 him with the fineft woman in the world. Tom. I. p. 
 224, & 225. Ed. Blaeu. 
 
 (28) Sat. 5. jr. 132—153. 
 
 (29) Lib, 3. El. i. That whole elegy is on this 
 fubjetft ; and flung into the manner of the an* 
 tient Choices. The place is the grove of Egeria ; 
 the perfon to determine, Ovid himfelf ; the god- 
 defles that appear to him, Elegeia and Tragoedia. 
 The character he has given to the former, rcfembles 
 that of Defidia ; as that of the latter, feems to anfwer 
 Virtus. —Lucian has ufed much the fame method in 
 his choice between Eloquence and Sculpture. Tom. 1. 
 p. 4. Ed. Blaeu. 
 
 (30) Temperantia, moderatio eft cupiditatum, ra¬ 
 tioni obediens. Cicero, 2. §. 19. dc Fin. 
 
144 
 
 P O L Y M E T I S. 
 
 was my delire of compleating my fet of Cardinal Virtues. I could not find out any 
 fitnire fitter for my purpofe; and one may prefume, from feveral exprcflions in the Ro¬ 
 man writers (3 1 ), that the goddefs Temperantia was reprefented among the Romans, in 
 the fame manner as the deity which you fee before you. Cicero's definitions ol Tempe¬ 
 rance fay juft the fame tiling, in words ; that this bit or bridle does, in the figure. The 
 fame author, in his Tufculan Queftions, fpeaks of all (3*) the Cardinal Virtues, in a per- 
 fonal manner. The moderns too reprefent them all perfonally; as, particularly, in the 
 celebrated paintings of them, in the Jefuits church at Rome: which, (as they were 
 done by one of the very heft, and moll judicious, of all our modern painters,) may I 
 think ferve as a very fair inftance, how much the antient artifts excel the moderns, in their 
 manner of treating allegorical fubjefts. The antients had more of fimplicity in their de- 
 figns: they exprcfs what they would mean in a fhorter, and ftronger manner, than the 
 moderns. Thus, in the ftatues of the four Cardinal Virtues before you, the charafler of 
 each is fully exprefled by one fingle attribute. Prudence, who is to guide cv cry tiling, 
 has the direfting wand in her hand ; Juftice, who is to weigh every thing aright, her 
 fcales; Fortitude, who is to aft, her fword; and Temperance who is to reftrain, a bit. 
 On the contrary, in the paintings I was fpeakingof, Dominiquin, (who is as much to be 
 admired for his corretftnefs, as any of the moderns perhaps, except Raphael,) expreifes 
 lefs, by endeavouring to exprefs too much. Prudence he paints as fupported by Time, 
 and holding a looking-glafs in her hand; (I fuppofe, to fliew that the is produced by 
 Experience and Refledtion:) and by her is a boy, holding a ferpent and a dove; (in 
 compliment, poffibly, to the Jefuits who employed him; and to lignify that they are 
 wife as ferpents, and innocent as doves.) Juftice, in his painting, cannot hold the fcales 
 for the feepter, llie has in her hand : there are three little angels (or Cupids) about her, 
 with a crown, the fcales, and the fafees; and flie is fupported, (I do not well know why,) 
 by Charity. Fortitude, is with a fword and lliield; fupported by a man with a dart in 
 his hand, and a lion : on her right hand, is the motto of the Jefuits ; and on her left, a 
 column ; not ereft. Temperance, has a bit in her right hand, and a palm-branch m her 
 left ■ a camel on one fide, and two boys with pitchers, (perhaps as pouring water into 
 
 wine) on the other: file is fupported by Chaftity.-By comparing Dominiqum's 
 
 manner of exprefling thefe Virtues, with my figures of them here, you may form fome 
 idea of the fuperior excellence of the antient artifts, in things of this nature : and of that 
 fimplicity, which indeed runs generally thorough all their defigns. 
 
 Next to the Cardinal Virtues, I have placed Piety. She is veiled, you fee; and in 
 the aft of carting fome frankincenfe, on the little altar that ftands by her. The Romans, 
 in their more folemn devotions, had their heads {33) covered with a long veil; and the 
 
 Veftal 
 
 (31) Cicero’s definitions of Temperantia, agree 
 cxaftly with the idea of a bit or bridle, in the hand 
 of that goddefs. There is one, from his treatife de 
 Finibus, quoted the note before this : wc have an¬ 
 other, in his Lib. de Inventione ; Temperantia eft 
 rationis, in libidinem atque in alios non reftos im¬ 
 petus animi, firma & moderata dominatio: and a third, 
 in his Tufculan Queftions ; Temperantia eft modera¬ 
 trix omnium commotionum. 
 
 The Roman writers feem to allude frequently to 
 this idea; in fpeaking of the effects of Temperance. 
 Thus, framarc animum, is ul'ed by Cicero; iras 
 frsenarc, by the author of Medea ; and, frienare fpes, 
 
 by Silius Italicus. -So, animum frrenis compefce, 
 
 in Horace ; and—pone irae fnena modumque, in 
 Juvenal. 
 
 In the fame manner when they fpcak of any thing 
 cxceflive, or intemperate; they ufe the words, effrse- 
 nus, and effnenatus. Thus animus effraenatus, ef¬ 
 frenata libido, cupiditas effrenata, furor effrenatus, 
 violentia hominis effrenata ; amor effrenus, & ju¬ 
 
 4 
 
 venta effrena ; all occur in fome or other of the beft 
 writers, in their heft ages. 
 
 (32) Jam tibi aderit princeps Fortitudo; que te 
 animo tanto effe coget, ut omnia que poffint homini 
 evenire contemnas, & pro nihil putes.—Aderit Tem¬ 
 perantia ; que te turpiter & nequiter facere nihil pa¬ 
 tietur.— Juftitia dicet, dupliciter effc te injuftum ; 
 cum Si alienum appetas qui mortalis natus conditio¬ 
 nem portulas immortalium, Si graviter feras te quod 
 utendum acceperis reddidiffe.—Prudentiae vero quid 
 refpondebis ? dicenti virtute fc effe contentam, quo 
 modo ad bene vivendum, fic ad beate. Cicero, Tufc. 
 Quasft. Lib. 3. §. 36, & 37. 
 
 (33) Conflitit; atque caput niveo velatus ami£tu, 
 
 jam bene diis notas fuflulit ille manus. 
 
 Ovid. Fall. L. 3. f. 364. (Of Numa.) 
 Nec pietas ulla eft, velatum fipe videre 
 Vertier ad lapidem ; atque omnes accedere ad aras. 
 
 Lucretius. 1 . 5. i/. ii§8. 
 
M5 
 
 Dialogue the Tenth. 
 
 Vcftal Virgins as people that were to be almoft always praying, went always veiled 
 
 her ( 3 P 5 )dref in the 7 m0dcft air ° f thi > g ° dd ^ : dcfcrib^ 
 
 tier 1351 drefs in the fame manner as yon fee it here : and add that Iter robes were white ■ 
 
 the colour ot innocence, and therefore the moft proper for devotion Statius invokes this 
 
 fn idef’of 0 T TV ' 36) tC3rS fr ° m thef3Ce ° f ag °° d man - that is in gt«t trouble- 
 an idea ot piety, which is very juft; and which might give, I think a very - od h‘nt 
 
 £ any f0D ’ ° r daUghter ’ ^ 
 ferve to ■ £j(for the ZoTof thelndent 
 
 produfhve of the good and virtuous offices of life. Thus inftead of an altar the has 
 
 fometimes a ftork by her; and then fignifies the dutiful aftions of children toward their 
 
 chdd ' * t b 7 T CS ’ n ' e flgnifieS the affeffionate behaviour of parents toward their 
 
 he in the to r^T ^ ^ ^ tW °’ “ d f ° mC ‘™ es thr “ child ™ before r 
 . In the latter cafe, die puts one ,11 mind of our modern figures of Charity ■ and 1 
 
 under this part of her charader, may fignify in general, that our love of God is bell 
 frown in our good deeds to one another. 
 
 r J HE "T f gure here ’ is that of Honelly, or Fidelity. The Romans called her p vvr 
 
 words' 7 h t 67 'f ^ 7 SOk Fid “' fCem t0 mCan th£ as -= d ° by t h ; the , 
 words, downright honelly. She is reprefented {38) with an ered open air ; and with 
 
 nothing but at thin robe on, fo fine that one might fee through it. Horace therefore calls 
 
 er( 39 ) thm-dreffed, in one of his odes; and tranfparent, in another. This, in the lan 
 
 gnage of the poets and ftatuarics, is juft the fame as when we fay, (in our pUffion. of 
 
 fidehty and honefty,) ^ I with you could fee into my breaft;" or, - I with that you 
 
 couid lee thorough me. The poets call her ( 4 °) Blamelcfs, and not to be corrupted ■ 
 
 and the (+0 Companion, or Sifter, of Juftice: and reprefent her as (4a) very oldf ami 
 
 fr7l think ; 3 P a " lcular whlch cannot appear in the figures of this goddeft; as they 
 are, 1 think, only to be met with on medals. y 
 
 XXL 
 . 8 . 
 
 When they promifed any thing of old. 
 
 (34) A versa casli Pictas in parte fedebat: 
 
 Non habitu quo nota prius, non ore fereno ; 
 
 Sed vittis exuta comam. -.— 
 
 Statius. Theb. 11. f. 4 6 0 . 
 Vitantem afpeftus etiam, pudibundaque longe 
 Ora reducentem - 
 
 Id. Ibid. Jr. 494. 
 
 ( 3 5) -Dejeftam in lumina pallam 
 
 Diva trahit. - 
 
 Statius. Theb. n. Jr. 496. 
 
 See the following note. 
 
 (36) Summa deum. Pietas ! cujus gratiflima ccelo 
 Rara profanatas infpettant numina terras; 
 
 Huc vittata comam niveoque infignis amiftu. 
 
 Qualis adhuc prsfens nullaque expulfa nocentum 
 Fraude rudes populos atque aurea regna colebas. 
 Mitibus exequiis ades! & lugentis Hetrufci 
 Cerne pios fletus, laudataque lumina terge ! 
 
 Statius. Lib. 3. Sylv. 3. f. 7. (To Hetrufcus, on 
 the death of his father.) 
 
 ( 37 ) Et Soli Fidei folenne inftituit. Livy, Lib. 1. 
 §•21. (of Numa.) Thus; fola innocentia vivere. 
 Id. Lib. 2. §. 3. 
 
 they gave their hand on it, (as wc do now;) 
 
 and 
 
 (38) Where Petronius is deferring the Virtues, by 
 contraries, he fays; 
 
 Huic comes it fubmifla Fides j & crine foluto 
 Jullitia: ac mrerens lacera Concordia palla. 
 
 2 53 - 
 
 (39) Te fpes, Si albo rara Fides colit 
 
 Velata panno _ 
 
 Horat. Lib. r. Od. 33. J-. 22. 
 Arcanique Fides prodiga, pellucidior vitro. 
 
 Id. Lib. 1. Od. 18. Jr. uJt. 
 
 (40) Incorrupta Fides. - 
 
 Id. Lib. 1. Od. 24. Jr. 7. 
 
 Culpari metuit Fides. - 
 
 lb. Lib. 4. Od. 5. Jr. 2 o. 
 
 (41) JuflitiiE confors. 
 
 Sil. ItaJ. 2. ^.484. 
 
 - Pudor, & Jullitia; foror 
 
 Incorrupta Fides, nudaque Veritas. 
 
 Horat. Lib. 1. Od. 24. J-. 7, 
 
 (42) Ante Jovem generata, decus divumque hominumque. 
 
 Silius Ital. 2. Jr. 484. 
 
 Cana Fides, & Vella, Remo cum fratre Quirinus 
 Jura dabunt.- 
 
 p ^ Virgil. Ain. 1. Jr. 293. 
 
 
 
146 
 
 Fl. XXL 
 Fig. 10. 
 
 Pl. XXL 
 Fig. 11. 
 
 Pl. XXII. 
 Fig. i. 
 
 Pi.. XXII. 
 Fig. 2. 
 
 POLYMETIS. 
 
 and therefore this goddefs, is reprefented fometimes, on medals ( 43 ), as giving her hand; 
 and fometimes, only by two hands joined together. 
 
 The following figure is that of Chaftity; which chiefly fignified, among the Romans, 
 one fpecies of fidelity, that to the marriage-bed. They called her, the goddefs Pudicitia ; 
 and reprefented her like a Roman matron. You fee, (lie has her veil on here; and is 
 in the model! attitude of pulling it over part of her face. Juvenal fpeaks of her perfo- 
 nally; and fays humoroufly enough (44), “ that lie believes lire was once upon our 
 earth ; in the reign of Saturn ; but that file quitted it about the time, that Jupiter began 
 to have a beard.” Even their profe ( 45 ) writers fpeak perfonally of her too. The Ro¬ 
 mans made an odd diftinftion in relation to this goddefs : there was one flame of her that 
 was to be worlhippcd (46) only by the ladies of quality; and others, for the women of a 
 lower rank. 
 
 This goddefs is Clemency; whofe diftinguilhing character, both in her flames and 
 in the poets, is the mildnefs of her countenance. She has an olive-branch in her hand, as 
 a mark of her peaceful and gentle temper. The Romans were at firfl: of fo rough a turn, 
 that I queftion whether Ihe was admitted as a goddefs among them in the earlier ages of 
 the flate. 1 do not remember that Ihe is ever mentioned as iuch, by any poet of the two 
 firfl ages; and the ( 47 ) fulleft paffage relating to her in one of the third, (peaks of an 
 altar to her indeed; but it is of an altar at Athens, and not at Rome. The Athenians as 
 lefs warlike, were more compaflionate : they made a goddefs of (48) Mifencordia too; 
 who, perhaps, was never received as a goddels among the Romans, at all. - 
 
 These are all the Virtues that I have as yet in my colleftion : we come now to thofe 
 Beings, who were fuppofed to be the givers of any of the comforts and bleffings of human 
 life. ° This firfl of them is Happinefs : you fee Ihe lias the Caduceus of Mercury in one 
 hand, and a Cornucopia in the other. This in the language of the ftatuaries leems to 
 fignify much the fame with the old Latin proverb, Quitque line fortuna: laber ; “ that 
 every one's own good fenfe is the maker of his good fortune, or happinefs in the world 
 Or the Caduceus may fignify peace, and the Cornucopia plenty; which are two of the 
 principal ingredients of happinefs. The medalifts call her, Felicitas; and it is the fame 
 goddefs, (or fome very near relation of hers,) that Horace fpeaks of (49), perfonally, by 
 the name of Fauftitas; where, by the way, he feems to hint, that Ihe chufes rather, to 
 dwell in the country, than in cities.—Health Hands next to her here; who is diftin- 
 guillicd (as Efculapius, and the medicinal Apollo,) by her ferpent. 1 he Roman poets 
 fcarce fly any thing of her; perhaps becaule they gave up fo large a part of her honour. 
 
 (43) Hujus imagine ante oculos pofitd, venerabile 
 Fidei numen dexteram fuatti, certiflimum falutis hu- 
 maniE pignus, oftentat. Valerius Max. Memorab. 
 Lib. 6. Cap. 6. de Fide publica.) 
 
 (44) Credo Pudicitiam Saturno rege moratam 
 
 In terris, vifamque diu : &c.- 
 
 -Et fub Jove; fed Jove nondum 
 
 Barbato- 
 
 Juvenal. Sat. 6. jL l6. 
 
 (45) Unde te, virorum pariter ac feminarum fir¬ 
 mamentum, Pudicitia, invocem ? Tu enim prifca re¬ 
 ligione confecratos Vcftae focos incolis : tu Capito¬ 
 lium Junonis pulvinaribus incubas : tu, Palatii colu¬ 
 men, auguflos penates, fanctiffimumque Julia; gentis 
 genialem thorum, afiidua {latione celebras. Valerius 
 Max. Memorab. Lib. 6. Cap. 1. 
 
 (46) In facello Pudicitias Patricix, qux in Foro Bo- 
 
 4 
 
 ario eft, ad xdem rotundam Herculis. Livy, Lib. 
 IO. 23.-Arx Pudicitix Plcbex. Ibid. 
 
 (47) Urbe fuit media nulli concefla potentum 
 
 Ara deum : mitis pofuit Clementia fedem; 
 
 Et miferi fecere facram,—- 
 
 -Non thurea flamma, nec altus 
 
 Accipitur fanguis. Lachrymis altaria fudant; 
 Mceltarumque fuper libamina ferta comarum 
 Pendent, Sc vcftes mutata forte relittae. 
 
 Mite nemus circa, cultuque infigne verendo; 
 Vittata; laurus, & fupplicis arbor olivse. 
 
 Statius. Theb. 12. f. 492. 
 
 (48) Si Mifericordiam commendabo judici, nihil 
 proderit, quod prudentiflima civitas Athenienfium non 
 eam pro affeftu, fed pro numine, accepit ? Quinti¬ 
 lian. Inftit. Orat. Lib. 5. c. 12. p. 400. Ed. Hack. 
 
 (49) Nutrit rura Ceres, almaque Fauflitas. 
 
 Horat. Lib. 4. Od. 5. i'. « 3 . 
 
and office, to their great favourite, Efculapius.-Liberty you may eafily know, by her Pl. XXII. 
 
 cap and wand: both of which refer to the cuftoms ufed among the Romans in fetting FlGl 3 ‘ 
 their flaves free. The poets allude to thefe (50) badges of liberty; but never defcribe the 
 goddefs herfelf, that I know of. 
 
 In this range of the Moral Beings relating to Happinefs, I fhould have done very wrong p L . xxil. 
 had I omitted the three that follow next in order; Serenity of Mind, Chearfulnels, and Fig - 4>5> 6 - 
 Jollity; (which laft I think had better have been called Joviality.) The Romans call 
 them. Tranquillitas, Hilaritas, and Lsetitia. As their poets are filent about them, I 
 ffiall fay but very little as to each of them. Serenity of Mind might very well have been 
 placed a little higher, with Health : but thefe three deities hit one another fo well, and 
 
 there is fuch a regular gradation in their charaders, that I chofe to fet them together._ 
 
 Serenity, looks firm and eafy; fhe refts on a column, with one hand; and holds a 
 fcepter, in the other. It is fhe that rules the mind, in the fteddieft and beft manner. 
 
 -Chearfulnefs has a fprig of myrtle, (the plant of Venus, or the goddefs of gaiety,) 
 
 for her diftinguifhing mark; and a Cornucopia. We may be eafy, under want ; but it 
 is a fufficiency, or plenty, that makes us chearful. I have feen this goddefs often on 
 medals with a palm-branch, (the token of peace,) fometimes with two or three children 
 about her; and fometimes without any. The former I fuppofe is meant to fignify the 
 
 happy flate of married men ; and the other, that of batchelors.-Joviality, is diflin- 
 
 guifhed, by the wreath of flowers in her hand : a thing, generally made ufe of among 
 the Romans, in their feflivals, and treats: and, indeed, the gaiety and fhort duration of 
 fuch pleafures, were very morally and flrongly pointed out to them, by the rofes which 
 they wore on their heads, and fcattered all about their couches and tables on thofe 
 occaflons. 
 
 Pr.. XXII. 
 Fig. 7. 
 
 The next figure to thefe three, is that of Spes, or the goddefs of Hope. Hope is the rrreat 
 foftner of the various diftreffes of life ; and was left, you know, at the bottom of P uuir 
 ra’s box, as the only refuge againfl all the evils fhe let loofe into the world. Like i , 
 fpring, flie is flill promifing fomething blooming and pleafing, after all the chillnefs ana 
 gloominefs of the winter. She is therefore very well reprefented with a bud, juft open- 
 ing, in her hand. This, I think, is as pretty an imagination, as any I have met with 
 among the works of the old artifts; and I wonder the poets have touched upon it only 
 fo (50 flightly, as they feem to have done. It is as juft too, as it is pretty. Had the 
 flower been full blown, it would have been too much for this goddefs to hold in her 
 hand ; and were the bud quite clofed up, it would not be enough. It is therefore only 
 opening; like a morning role, that promifes to difplay more of its beauties gradually, as 
 the fun gets higher and higher.—The fitting figure by her is Security; fhe refts her 
 head againfl her hand, in an eafy and carelefs pofture. I believe fhe was fometimes re¬ 
 prefented too, as leaning againfl a column : an attribute of this goddefs, which Horace 
 feems to ( 5 2 ) allude to; tho’ neither he, nor I believe any of the Roman poets defcribe 
 
 the goddefs herfelf.-The two next deities who are fo like one another, are Concord, 
 
 and Peace: one, the giver of amity and good-will, between the people under the fame 
 prince : and the other, between them, and the nations under different princes. They 
 are both of a mild countenance; and they are fometimes both crowned with laurel, in 
 
 their 
 
 (jo) - Donatum jam rude, quarris 
 
 Mtecenas iterum antiquo me includere ludo. 
 
 Horat. Lib. i. Ep. i. jr, 3. 
 
 Hare mera libertas ; hanc nobis pilea donant. 
 
 Perfius. Sat. 5. 82. 
 
 This latter was the mark of liberty, ufed of old 
 on all occafions. Flaminini de Philippo rege trium¬ 
 phantis currum—duo millia civium Romanorum pi¬ 
 leata comitata funt; quae Punicis bellis intercepta & 
 in Gracia fervientia, — in priftinum gradum reftitue- 
 rat. Valerius Max. Memorab. Lib. 5. Cap. 2 
 
ii 
 
 148 
 
 Pl. XXII. 
 Pig. ii. 
 
 Pl. XXII. 
 Fig. 12. 
 
 POLY M E T I S. 
 
 their figures; as they are defcribed too (53) by the poets. Concord, you fee, holds twcf 
 Cornucopia’s together, in one of her hands; a thing, which I do not remember to have 
 feen in any other figure but hers : and as agreement often doubles the advantages we re¬ 
 ceive in the world, they feem to be given her with more propriety, than perhaps they 
 could be to any other. Peace is difUnguilhed by her olive branch and Caduceus, held 
 together: which the Romans formerly ufed as the joint emblems of peace, with any of 
 their neighbours. She is fometimes reprefented too with corn in her hand, and feveral forts 
 of fruits in her lap : as on a medal given us by Mr. Addifon (54) ; and in the defeription 
 of this goddefs ( 55 ), quoted by the fame author, from Tibullus. Part of that deferip¬ 
 tion fiiews, that die was drelfed in white robes ; as indeed moft of the good Moral Beings 
 feem to have been. The author of one of the Latin tragedies gives a fketch for a pic¬ 
 ture of this goddefs (56) tying Mars his hands behind him. I have never met with it on 
 any relievo. There was indeed a reprefentation of War, or Difcord, in the temple of 
 Janus at Rome of old ; and a flatue of Peace, in the fame temple: and the meaning of 
 fhutting the gates of that temple in time of peace, feems to have been as much (57) to keep 
 this goddefs from flying away; as it was to hinder the god of war from breaking loofe, 
 and flinging the world into confufion.-Next to Peace and Concord, you have the god¬ 
 
 defs of Plenty. She is moll ufually called by the name of Copia in the poets, and that 
 of Abundantia on medals; for thefe two names, as I take it, fignify exadly the fame 
 goddefs. We meet indeed with another goddefs of this fort on medals, who is called 
 Annona ; and differs from the former as fire had a lefs diftrid, and prefided over one fea- 
 fon only ; for, (as the word feems to fignify,) fire was looked on as the giver of plenty of 
 provifion, for the current year: whereas Abundantia was the giver of other things, as 
 well as provifion, and that at all times, and in all places. You fee Abundantia here is 
 feated on a chair, not unlike the common Roman chairs in its make in general, only its 
 two fides are wrought into the fhape of Cornucopia’s ( 5 8 ), to denote the charader of this 
 goddefs: as Annona has corn in her hand, and the beak of a fhip by her ; to fhew fome 
 temporary lupply of corn, which was probably brought by fea to Rome, by the 
 
 emperor’s 
 
 (53) Frondibus Aftiacis comptos redimita capillos, 
 
 Pax ades, & toto mitis in orbe mane ! 
 
 Ovid. Fall. i. 712. 
 Venit Apollinea longas Concordia lauro 
 Nexa comas.-— 
 
 Ibid. 6. f. 92. 
 
 (54) Treatife on medals, p. 39. 
 
 (35) At nobis Pax alma veni, fpicamque teneto ; 
 Perfluat & pomis candidus ante flnus. 
 
 Tibullus, Lib, 1. EI. 10. j>. 70. 
 
 (56) -Afperi 
 
 Martis fanguineas qua; cohibet manus ; 
 
 Qux dat belligeris fcedera gentibus. 
 
 Et cornu retinet divite copiam ; 
 
 Donetur tenera mitior holtia. 
 
 Medea. A£t. 1. Chor. j? r . 66. 
 
 (57) Pace fores obdo, ne qnadifcedere poflit. 
 
 Says Janus, in Ovid. Fall. 1 
 
 2S1. 
 
 (5S) -Apparet beata pleno 
 
 Copia cornu. 
 
 Horat. Carm. Sxc. jr. 60. 
 
 -Aurea fruges 
 
 Italia: pleno diffudit copia cornu. 
 
 Id. Lib. i. Ep; 12. jr. 29. 
 
 -Hinc tibi copia 
 
 Manabit ad plenum benigno 
 Euris honprum opulenta cornu. 
 
 Id. Lib. 1. Od. 17. jr, 16. 
 
 Lac dabat illa deo; fed fregit in arbore cornu, 
 
 Truncaque dimidia parte decoris erat. (“Amalthea ) 
 Suflulit hoc Nymphe *; cimSumque recentibus herbis. 
 Et plenum pomis, ad Jovis ora tulit. 
 
 Ille (ubi res cadi tenuit folioque paterno 
 Sedit, & invifto nil Jove majus erat) 
 
 Sidera nutricem ; nutricis, fertile cornu 
 
 Fecit: quod domina: nunc quoque nomen habet. 
 
 Fall. 5. f, 128. 
 
 —-Rigidum fera dextera cornu 
 
 Dum tenet, infregit; truncaque a fronte revellit. 
 
 Naides hoc, pomis & odoro flore repletum. 
 
 Sacrarunt; divefque meo bona copia cornu eil 
 
 (Says Achelous,) Met. 9. f. S8. 
 If Plenty be ever reprefented with two Cornuco¬ 
 pia’s, (as Concord fometimes is,) one might account 
 for both of them from thefe two differing paflages, in 
 Ovid.—I do not love critical conjectures ; but beg leave 
 juft to offer one here.—If Ovid, in the laft line, had 
 wrote originally; divefque meo quoque Copia cornu 
 eft; it would have agreed very well with this account, 
 that the goddefs of Plenty had firft Amalthea’s horn ; 
 and then a fecond, from Achelous : and yet an editor, 
 who had never heard of the two ftories, might 
 think, quoque, a ftrange word there; and might 
 therefore according to cuftom, at his own (and the 
 author’s) peril, put in, bona. I queftion whether that 
 epithet be ever applied to this goddefs, in any an- 
 tient author ; and believe it is not : becaufe Copia is 
 never ufed in a bad fenfc ; and therefore never wants 
 this epithet, to diftinguifh her. Venus indeed is 
 fometimes called, Bona; but that is becaufe there was 
 a Venus Improba too. 
 
 6 
 
D I A i, o g u E the Tenth. 
 
 H9 f 
 
 emperor's order; when they were in great want of it. My figure of her here was borrow¬ 
 ed from the reverfe of a medal ftruck in honour of that good emperor, Antoninus Pius. 
 
 As this clafs of Moral Beings make the blefiings of thofe who live in a lower fpherc of 
 life; the two firft, in the following clafs, have (either from the caprice, or folly, of 
 mankind,) been moll ufually fuppofed to belong only to fuch as hie made a noife 
 a id bu t] in the world. Th iged with 
 
 her robe as carried back with the wind, is the goddefs of Vidtory. She holds a laurel- * 10- 
 crown in her hand; the peculiar CS 9 ) reward of fuccefsful generals and great conquerors, 
 of old. We learn from the poets, that her wings were (6c) white, and her robe of th 
 lame colour. They fometimes deferibe her hovering bet\ een two armit , 
 battle (61), as doubtful which fide the lhali chufe; and fometimes {landing (62) fixed 
 by one file is refolved to favour; as you often fee her on the medals of the Roman 
 emperors. 
 
 This goddefs is very frequently reprefented in a chariot, drawn rapidly along by two 
 horfes; and particularly in numbers of the Roman family-mcctals, which had their name 
 from her (63) ; as we learn from Pliny. The fame author fp< ks 
 at Rome, in which {he was afeending to heaven, in a chariot wit 1 : . 1 
 
 as file appears on the Antonine pillar, carrying fome heroe thither; and with a (65) 
 palm-branch in her hand. This, and the crown of laurel, were her general attributes ; 
 and a third was a trophy; and fometimes two, one on each tide of her. This was a pro¬ 
 perer mark for this goddefs at Rome, than any where elfe; for, of old, one could not 
 have walked through that city, without feeing one or more trophies before the houfe of 
 every officer, that had (66) ever gained any advantage over their enemies. 
 
 Victory isoneof the attendants of Virtus ; andfoisG! y, or Honos : the only male 
 in this circle of Moral Beings. He holds a fpearinhis right I ■ • I treads on a globe: Pr.. XXIII. 
 probably, for the fame realon that I gave you, when we were , . . r the figure of ^ IG - 2 ’ 
 
 Virtus, juft now. He is called Honos on a medal too, where you 1. , ned with 
 
 Virtus ; and they perhaps generally made a male of this deity, and cailt 
 name of Honos, rather than Gloria; becaul'e the latter was (67) fometimes uiea ; . ,1 bad 
 
 fenfe. 
 
 (59) Ilium non labor Ifthmius 
 
 Clarabit pugilem ; non equus impiger 
 Curru ducet Achaico 
 
 Viftorem : neque res bellica Deliis 
 Ornatum foliis ducem, 
 
 Quod regum tumidas contuderit minas, 
 Oftendet Capitolio. 
 
 Horat. Lib. 4. Od. 3. ^.9. 
 
 (60) » Niveis Viftoria concolor alis. 
 
 Silius Ital. 15. jL 99. 
 
 (61) Inter utrumque volat dubiis Viftoria pennis. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 8. j/. 13. 
 
 (62) - Vidtoria tecum 
 
 Stabit; eris magni vitior in arce Jovis. 
 
 Id. de Art. Am. 2. y. 540. 
 
 (63) Nota argenti fuere bigas, atque quadrigre ; Sc 
 inde Bigati Quadrigatiquc didti.—Qui nunc Victo¬ 
 riatus appellatur, lege Clodia percufius ef: ; antea 
 enim hic nummus cx Illyrico adveftus mercis 1 :co ha¬ 
 bebatur; eft autem fignatus Victoria, inde nomen. 
 Pliny, Lib. 33. c. 3. p. 34C. Ed. Eiz. 
 
 (64) Ibid. c. ro. p. 441. 
 
 (65) Horace may, poffibly, allude to fome fuch rc- 
 prefentation of Victory as this, where he fays ; 
 
 -Palma nobilis 
 
 Terrarum dominos evehit ad deos. 
 
 Lib. 1. Od. 1. 6. 
 
 (66) Alim foris, Sc circa limina, animorum inden¬ 
 tium imagines erant; affixis 
 
 nec emptori refringere liceret : triumphabnutque, 
 etiam dominis mutatis, ipfce domus. PIti-.y, Lib. 35. 
 c. 2. p. 415. Ed. Elz. 
 
 (67) I have never obferved any figure of Gloria, 
 among the antiques I have met with. The Roman 
 poets fpcak of her fometimes in a good, and fome¬ 
 times in a bad fenfe. 
 
 Thus Horace, in a bad fenfe : 
 
 Quem tulit ad feenam ventofo Gloria curru. 
 
 Lib. 2. Ep. i. f. 178. 
 
 And Silius, in a good : 
 
 Mecum Honor, & Laudes, & lsto Gloria vultu. 
 
 (Says Virtus.) Lib. 15./. 9 S. 
 
 So, Cicero. Virtus, no&es atque dies animum 
 Gloria: ftimulis concitat atque admonet. Pro Archia. 
 
 Flaccus gives us a fine image of this goddefs, en¬ 
 couraging and calling Jafon and his companions to 
 their famous expedition for the golden fleece. 
 
 - I u fola animos mentemque peruris, 
 
 Gloria! Te viridem videt immunemque feneftx, 
 Phafidis in ripa flantem, juvenefque vocantem. 
 
 Argon. 1. y. 78. 
 
 , <La 
 
J 5° 
 
 POLYMETIS. 
 
 fcnfe, (for Vain-Glory,) among them. The artifts give Honos a grave fteddy look, 
 perhaps on much the fame account; for if his face was too much elevated or afFefted, he 
 might feem too much like Vain-Glory : and fo ceafe to deferve a place, in the rank of 
 Virtues, or the good Moral Beings. 
 
 We are now got to the lad: figure in this round, which is that of Providentia, or di¬ 
 vine Providence : the giver and difpenfer of all the Virtues and Bleffings we have been con- 
 fidering. She therefore clofes the round of them, tho’ there are the drawings of fome 
 other deities, in the bafe, under her feet: which I placed there as fubjcdl to her, and 
 as not deferving to appear ranged on an equality with the other figures in this circle. 
 
 Ft. XXIII. 
 Fic. 3. 
 
 Ft. XXIII. 
 Fig. 4. 
 
 Providence, you fee, is reprefented here, as refting on her feepter with one hand ; 
 and pointing with the other, to a globe at her feet. This fignifies that fhe governs all 
 things here below. The globe indeed might ftand for the whole univerfe; but by her 
 pointing downwards, I rather believe that it was meant of our world only. For tho’ 
 the antient Romans fuppofed Providence to prefide over (68) the univerfe; they feem 
 generally to have followed that great and excellent rule, of reafoning only from what 
 they knew. They experienced the influence of Providence in the flation allotted to 
 them; and therefore reprefented her with the globe of the earth at her feet. I have feen 
 another reprefentation of Providence, which pleafed me better than this; but which could 
 not ferve foraftatue. It is on the reverfe of a medal of Pertinax. The o-oddefs flrands 
 in an ereCt noble pofture; with her hands lifted upwards, as if Ihe had juft flung the globe 
 on the earth, (which you there fee above her,) into the air; and as if fhe was fayin'-, 
 either “ Remain thou fixed in that pointor, “ Take the fettled courfe that I have 
 appointed you.” For if this idea among the artifts was of the higheft antiquity, it might 
 as well fignify the latter as the former. Might not one carry this idea yet farther ? For 
 as Pythagoras, and perhaps many of the philofophers before him, are faid to have believ¬ 
 ed the motion of the earth, and its fettled courfe thro’ fomany ages; it is not impoftible 
 but they had a notion too, of what we call the Projectile force; of which this 1 think 
 would be as ftrong a reprefentation, as any our artifts could poflibly invent; even fince 
 that dodtrine has been reftored, or difeovered, call it which you pleafe. 
 
 I do not know that any of the Roman poets, of the three good ages, have ever de- 
 feribed, or even fpoke of Providence, perfonally. With them, I fear, fome of the 
 deities I have here placed under her feet, ran away with the honours and acknowledg¬ 
 ments that were due rather to herfelf. I have obferved to you before, that Providentia 
 and Prudentia had much the fame fignification, and were ufed indifferently for one an¬ 
 other, among the Romans. Providentia indeed was fo unlucky a word for verfe that it 
 could not have a place in the writers of either of the forts that was moft ufual among them: 
 it is difqualified from appearing in any of their heroic or elegiac compofitions : but this 
 docs not help them'to any excufc; becaufe Prudentia, (which fignifies the fame thing,) 
 might have ferved very well in either: and I do not remember any defcription of this 
 deity in them under that name, any more than the other. I once imagined that fhe was 
 fpoken of by Juvenal, under the name of Prudentia ; in a line that would contain a very 
 great fentiment, if this might be allowed of: but from the force of the context, I am 
 now perfuaded, that lhe is not meant even (69) there. 
 
 The 
 
 (68) Providentia deorum mundus adminiftratur. 
 Cicero, de Divin. 1. §. 51. 
 
 (69) This pafiage of Juvenal is read differently. 
 By fome; 
 
 Nullum numen abeft, fj fit Prudentia ; fed te 
 Nos facimus, Fortuna, deam ; cccloque locamus. 
 
 Sat. 10. jr. 366. 
 
 I fome time thought Juvenal’s meaning in this 
 place, was; “ We have no need of all our multitude 
 of gods, if wc only allow a Providence prefiding over 
 all things : but inftead of difcarding our old gods, 
 we make new ones : we make a deity of Fortune 
 who antiently was not fuppofed to be of the number- 
 and give her a feat in heaven, which fhe never de- 
 ferved.” 
 
 The 
 
Dialogue the Tenth. 
 
 The deities I have placed here, under the feet of Providence, are fuch as have been 
 fuppofed, (from the dtfferent torts of ignorance, that have prevailed in different ages,) to 
 dtrefl the world, and gu.de the aflions of man , fuch as Neceffity, the Dellinies, Genius’s 
 and Fortune. ' * 
 
 In the old heathen (theme, (at leaft as high up as the days of Homer) every thing 
 was fuppofed to be fixed from the beginning: not only all the happy or unfoLmt! 
 
 07* m ut f! b " a!1 thC f ° 0d " nd bad Homer, in the very , ,Z 
 
 po.t.on to his Iliad, lays that both the milbehaviour of Achilles, and the deftruffion it 
 
 br °“ ght on the r G [ eCmnS ’ Were on] y thc Hilfilling of the decrees of Jupiter. Thefe eter- 
 r d “ rces ’ “ v/hat ever ? ont » do and fuffer, were reprefented among the antients 
 by orders written on tablets of brafs. kept by the Parca, or Detlinies : one of which, and 
 fometimes all three, were alio fuppofed to fpin out the thread of each man’s life, cliec- 
 quered unequally with two colours , with more of white, or more of black, according 
 as each man was to have a greater 11 ,are of happinefs or unhappinefs. This was the no¬ 
 tion among the Greeks; and was borrowed from them by the Romans : tho’ it was an 
 idea capable of undermining all the Virtues, and in particular their great favourite, In- 
 duftry : but it was the idea received among them; and I have nothing to do « ith their 
 wmys of realomng, but only with lifts. I do not well know whether there was any fuch 
 per onage as Fate, received among the Romans or not. I am rather inclined to think 
 that with them ,t included every thing that Jupiter had (70) faid 5 and what therefore 
 muff be If this be true, fata will fignify only the words, or decrees, of Jupiter; and 
 t penons to put thefe decrees in execution will be the Parcce ; or Dellinies, as we call 
 t em : for according to the old theology, whatever was originally faid (or decreed) bv 
 Jupiter, was neceffarily to have its effeft, in its proper time and place, bv the miniftry 
 ol thefe three deities. 3 
 
 I S I 
 
 Whether the Romans had any perfonal reprefentation of Fate or not, it is certat 
 that they made a perfon of this Neceffity. Horace fpeaks of her as fuch ; and arson 
 other of her attributes, mentions one which you may fee in the drawing of her, whic 
 I have juft taken out of the bafe before us. She holds, you fee, in her right hand on 
 o thofe vaft nails (or pins) which were antiently made ufe of by the Romans, for faftenin 
 the beams of brafs in fome of their ftrongeft buildings. I have feen one of them, whirl 
 was formeily thus ufed in Agrippa’s Portico to the Rotunda at Rome; and which is ftil 
 kept as a cunoiity in the Great Duke’s gallery at Florence. It is itfelf of brafs; and f 
 large, that it weighs near fifty pounds. The firmnefs of a building depended fo mucl 
 upon thefe Clavi trabales, that they are ufed as an emblem of firmnefs, or (lability : am 
 
 perhap 
 
 Fl. XXIII. 
 Fig. 5 . 
 
 The reading of this paflage, according to others, 
 is. 
 
 Nullum numen habes, fi fit prudentia ; fed te 
 Nos facimus, Fortuna, deam cceloquc locamus, 
 which, I fhould think, agrees beft with the con¬ 
 text. 
 
 Juvenal fays, jJ. 356, that “ the two things we 
 
 Hiould pray for, are good health, and good fenfe :_ 
 
 that we might be the authors of our own happinefs, 
 if we pleafed ; f. 363.—that virtue is the only way 
 to true happinefs; /’. 364.—that if we ourfelves are 
 prudent, Fortune has no power over us ;—and that 
 in truth {he is no goddefs at all ; and has only ufurp- 
 ed a feat in heaven, from the folly of mankind.” 
 
 366. 
 
 Agreeably to what is here faid, it appears from Note 
 
 79, pofth. that Fortune was not really looked upon as 
 a deity by thc old Romans ; but was made fo latterly, 
 by the devotion and folly of the vulgar. By which, 
 I would be underftood to mean the great vulgar, as 
 well as the fmall ; for there were feveral of the em¬ 
 perors, who paid a very particular refped: to this fur- 
 reptitious goddefs. 
 
 (70) What was faid, or fpoken, by Jupiter; fa- 
 
 turn.- Fatum eft, quod Dii fantur. An old poet, 
 
 quoted by Servius.—Fatum dicunt efte, quo d Dii 
 fantur ; vel quod Jupiter fatur. Ifidorus. Orio-in. 
 
 Lib. 8. Cap. 2.-Minutius Felix has chriftianized 
 
 this idea, where he fays; Quid aliud eft fatum, quam 
 quod de unoquoque noftrum Deus fatus eft ? Min. 
 Fel. §. 36. p. 175. Ed. Davis. 
 
 

 Pl. XXIII. 
 Fig. 6 . 
 
 POLYMETIS. 
 
 perhaps all the other attributes of this goddefs, mentioned with this by C 7 1 ) Horace, had 
 much the fame fignification. 
 
 The three Deftinies, as I faid before, were looked upon as the difpenfers of the eternal 
 decrees of Jupiter ; and were, all of them, l'ometimes fuppofed to fpin the particoloured 
 thread of each man’s life. Thus are they reprefented on this medal; each with a diftaft 
 in her hand. Martial calls them, ( 7 2 ) the Three Spinning Sifters: and feveral ( 73 ) oi the 
 Roman poets have expreflions that refer to the fame idea. 
 
 Tiie figures of thefe goddcfics are very uncommon; I do not know that I ever met 
 with them any where but on this medal: unlefs they are meant by the figures on a Sar¬ 
 cophagus, in that noble collection made by the late, and prefent Pope, in the gallery of 
 the Capitol at Rome. The long flip in the front of the cover of tins Sarcophagus is full 
 worked; and the figures on it are divided into five compartiments : which all relate to the 
 death, and future ftate, of fome old Roman and his wife. In the firft compartimcnt, 
 you fee them reclined on a tricliniar bed, as ftill alive ; the ufual way of reprefenting per- 
 fons departed on the old Roman fepulchres, and which (by the way) fhewed their gene¬ 
 ral belief of the immortality of the foul. In the fccond, is Mercury; the conductor of 
 departed fouls to the regions of mifery or blils. In the third, is Proferpine and Pluto; the 
 deities that prefide over thofe regions. In the fourth, is a fpeCtre or departed foul : and 
 in the fifth, three perfons Handing in the middle, with a woman kneeling on one fide of 
 
 them 
 
 (71) Tc femper antcit farva neceflitas: 
 
 Clavos trabales & cuneos manu 
 Gellans ahena ; nec feverus 
 Uncus abell liquidumque plumbum. 
 
 Ilorat. Lib. i. Od. 35. jr. 20. 
 
 I ufed formerly to think, (as, I believe, it gene¬ 
 rally is thought,) that thefe were indruments of pu- 
 nifhing criminals : but there are fome things here that 
 cannot be underftood that way, and they may all be 
 underftood as figns of liability ; and confcquently arc 
 very properattributes for Neceflitas. 
 
 The Clavi trabales are fo called becaufc they were 
 ufed to pin and fallen the great beams in their ftrongeft 
 
 buildings.-The Cunci were fometimes ufed to 
 
 make things elofer and firmer: and thence, cu¬ 
 neo, firm lies “ to fallen with a wedge or pin; to 
 join or fallen i:i buildings, as one joint or (tone is co¬ 
 quetted within another;” as the word is explained in 
 the bed vocabulary we have for the Latin tongue : 
 fee the word, cunco, in Ainfworth.—The Romans 
 ufed no cement in their noblell buildings. The 
 Hones were very large ; and were often fallened to¬ 
 gether by cramping-irons, and lead poured into the 
 interdices : as is to be fecn in mod of the nobled re¬ 
 mains now at Rome ; and particularly, in the Co- 
 lofleum. This anfwcrs very well to the uncus, and 
 liquidum plumbum, in this paflage. The uncus may 
 be called feverus, becaufc it was fometimes ufed in 
 the executions of criminals. That might annex the 
 idea of feverus to it; and when it was fo annexed to 
 it, it may be ufed with it as a general character : or 
 pouibly feverus uncus, in this place, may fignify 
 fomething equivalent to our term, cramping-iron, in 
 Englifh. 
 
 T he expreflion of manu ahena here, has fomething 
 that Hill wants to be explained. This ode of Horace 
 is a hymn, addrefl'cd to the great goddefs of Fortune, 
 at Antium : and he feems, in this part of it, to al¬ 
 lude to fome of the proceflions antiently ufed in ho¬ 
 nour of that goddefs. The datuc of Neceffity feems 
 to have been carried before the figure of the goddefs 
 
 herfelf. Te femper antcit Leva Neceflitas. This 
 datuc was probably of brafs ; the known emblem of 
 liability or firmnefs, of old. The antient datuarics 
 obferved a certain propriety, even in the materials 
 they worked upon, on fuch and fuch occafions ; as 
 might be proved from a number of indanccs in the 
 datues dill remaining to us. 
 
 Brafs and Adamant were always ufed, as the expref- 
 fions for the mod durable things. The tablets, on 
 which the eternal decrees were fuppofed to be en¬ 
 graved, were of brafs ; the datuc of Neceflitas might, 
 for die fame rcafon, be of the fame metal : as Ho¬ 
 race, in another place, where he fpeaks of the clavi 
 of this goddefs, fays they were of adamant. . 
 
 Inta&is opulentior 
 
 TJiefauris Arabum Sc divitis Indite, 
 
 Cxmcntis licet occupes 
 Tyrrhenum omne tuis & mare Ponticum ; 
 
 Si figit adamantinos 
 
 Summis verticibus dira Neceflitas 
 Clavos, non animum metu, 
 
 Non mortis laqueis expedies caput. 
 
 Lib. 3. Od. 24. /. S. 
 
 Valerius Maximus feems to allude to the nail, 
 which this o-oddefs holds in her hand ; and which is 
 not unlike'the dyle they wrpte with formerly ; in a 
 paflage, where he fpeaks very difrefpeiStfully of her. 
 Non ergo Patrum Confcriptorum voluntas; fed tua, 
 teterrima Neceflitas, truculenta manus, illi cor.fulto 
 Itylum impreflit. Memorat. Lib. 7. Cap. 6. 
 
 (72) Lanificas nulli tres exorare forores 
 
 Contigit.-- 
 
 Lib. 4. Ep. 54. 
 
 (73) Talia fscla fuis dixerunt, currite, fufis 
 Concordes flabili fatorum numine Pares. 
 
 Virgil. Eel. 4. jr. 47. 
 Hanc lucem celeri turbine Parca neat. 
 
 Ovid, (of his own death,) ad Liv. f. 164. 
 Septima lux venit, non exhibitura fequentem. 
 
 Et flabat vacua jam tibi Parca colo. 
 
 (On the death of a parrot,) Id. Lib. 2. El. 6. 46. 
 
Dialogue the Tenth. 
 
 them, and a man on the other. Thefe three deities, which they addrefs themfelves to, 
 1 imagine to be the three Deftinies. She, in the midft of the three holds a balance’ 
 even in her hand ; and may fignify the juftice of the eternal decrees ofheaven : another 
 is reading to them out of a roll ( , 4 ), (or volume,) that the holds in her hands ; and may 
 lignify the declaration of their fate to them ; (anfwerable to that expreffion in feripture, 
 “ In the volume of the book it is written :”) and the third, who is fpinning, may fignify 
 the execution of the divine decree ; and the determination of their hate, in the other life 
 I mention this only as a curiofity, and as an uncommon thing; for I have no paffages iri 
 the poets to confront with it : and indeed the adion of the laft, with the fenfe I have 
 given to it, attributes fomething farther to the Deftinies, than feems to have been allowed 
 them by the poets. 
 
 The fulleft and beft defeription of the Deftinies I have met with, in any of the poets, 
 is ( 75 ) in Catullils. He reprefents them all as fpinning; and at the fame time finding’ 
 and foretelling the birth and fortunes of Achilles, at Peleus' wedding. His defeription 
 is an abfolute pldure of them. They are extremely old ; and dreffed clofe in long robes, 
 that reach down to their feet. Their robes, he fays, are white ; edged at the bottom’ 
 with purple. They have rofe-coloured veils on their heads, faftened with white vitta-, or 
 rubans. Catullus is not only fo particular, as to their drefs; but has given us too, the form 
 of one of their fongs. It is divided into feveral ftanza's, with a chorus ; fo that one may 
 fuppofe each of them to fmg a ftanza, by turns ; and to join all in the concluding line of 
 each ftanza, which is always the fame, and what I therefore before called the chorus. 
 
 Besides thefe great directors of the lives and fortunes of men ; the old Romans had an 
 idea of a fort of divinity, which conftantly attended each Angle perfon, thro' the whole 
 courfe of his life. Thefe were certainly divinities of the loweft rank : each of them be¬ 
 ginning to exift only at the fame time that the perfons they were to attend, were bom 
 into the world; and ceafmg to exift, the moment they died. Thofe that attended 
 women were females, and called Junones (76); as thofe which attended men were males, 
 and called Genius s. They leem to be nothing elfe but the particular bent and temper 
 
 of 
 
 (74) This, according tb Lucian, fhould be Clotho : 
 for he introduces her in one of his dialogues, with a 
 written roll in her hand ; and makes her fay : Tlpujoy 
 y.01 tiTcfli, OTraf atrodteyoyrif )Mi]i ; Ma.k\ov c/'s cLutm, 
 
 Tpo! t* yiyp&[xiJ.‘vd., v[/.ett ‘■may.i^.oy.cu' -IToAe- 
 
 t/.XVTctS ATTO^CtVeiV iJ'ei iV MlliJ'lA, TlTjctpcCf i 7TI 
 
 oyJ\o»Kovra.- Sic. Tom. I. p. 426. Ed. Blaeu. 
 
 (75) Interea, infirmo quatientes corpora motu. 
 
 Veridicos Parca: cceperunt edere cantus ; 
 
 His corpus tremulum comple&ens undique vellis 
 Candida purpurea talos incinxerat ora ; 
 
 At rofeo nivea: refidebant vertice vitta: ; 
 yEternumque manus carpebant rite laborem. 
 
 Lxva colum molli lana retinebat amidlum : 
 
 Dextra tum leviter deducens fila, fupir.is 
 Formabat digitis; tum, prono in pollice torquens. 
 Libratum tereti verfabat turbine fufum. 
 
 Atque ita decerpens xquabat femperopus dens; 
 Laneaque aridulis luerebant morfa labellis. 
 
 Quas prius in leni fuerant extantia filo : 
 
 Ante pedes autem candentis mollia lanx 
 Vellera virgati culloiibant calathifci, 
 
 Catullus dcNupt. Pelei, 62. f. 319. 
 
 Their fong follows in that poem ; and the chorus¬ 
 line, is ; 
 
 Currite ducentes fubtemina, currite fufi ! 
 
 To which Virgil feems to allude, as to an old 
 known verfe ; in his famous eclogue, to Pollio : 
 
 Talia fecla fuis dicebant, currite, fufis 
 Concordes Habili fatorum numine Parcx. 
 
 Ecl. 4 . t. 47 . 
 
 (76) Quamobrem major cxlitum populus quam 
 hominum intelligi poteft ; cum iinguli quoque ex 
 femetipfis totidem deos faciunt, Junones Geniofque 
 adoptando ftbi. Pliny, Lib. 2. c. 7. p. 82. Ed. 
 Elz. 
 
 The women fwore by their Juno’s, or prefiding 
 Genius’s. Thus that pleafant oath in Petronius. 
 Junonem meam iratam habeam, fi me unquam virgi¬ 
 nem fuifle memini ! 
 
 And the lovers fwore fometimes by the fame ; as 
 Tibullus to his miftrefs: 
 
 Nunc licet e cceIo mittatur amica Tibullo ; 
 
 Mittetur frullra deficietque Venus: 
 
 Hic per fandla tux Junonis numina juro ! 
 
 Qux fola ante alios ell mihi magna deos. 
 
 Lib. 4. EI. 13. jr, 16. 
 
 This fliews the force of that line in Juvenal: 
 
 Et per Junonem domini, jurante miniftro. 
 
 Sat. 2. f, 98. 
 
 On which the old fcholiaft fays : Servi illi jurant, 
 quomodo folebant ancillx Neronis, ipfi adulantes; 
 “ Per Junonem tuam !” 
 
 R r 
 
 
 
 fi :* 1 * 
 
 

 \r 
 
 It 
 
 m i 
 
 k i 
 
 1 
 
 *54 
 
 Pl. XXIII. 
 Fig. 7. 
 
 Pl. XXIII. 
 Fig. 8. 
 
 Pl. XXIII. 
 Fig. g. 
 
 P O L Y M E T I S. 
 
 of each perfon, made into a deity : and as every body’s own temper is in a great meafhrd 
 the caufe of his happinefs, or mifery; each of thefe were fuppofed to lliare, and have an 
 equal feeling, in all the enjoyments and fufferings of the perfons they attended. Hence, 
 
 I imagine, come thole exprcffions among the antients, of indulging or defrauding your 
 ( 77 ) Genius: for, in their l'cheme, when you took any diverlion, your Genius partook 
 of the pleafure; and whenever you punifhed yourfelf, you mull; make him uneafy. A 
 man’s turn and temper is the chief caufe and former of his good or bad fortune, faid (78) 
 the antients; and therefore this Genius may be faid to prefide over every man’s life. 
 Thefe ideas, if well grounded, will go a great way toward explaining three lines in Ho¬ 
 race (79), that I ufed to think as difficult as any in that author. He clofes them with 
 laying that this deity had two very different airs in his face; that he looked fometimes 
 white, and fometimes black upon you. Which may fignify no more, than that your 
 Genius looks pleafed and chearful, when things go well with you; and fad and gloomy, 
 when they go ill: as Hanibal’s Genius came finding to him, when he is faid to have 
 appeared to that general, amidffc his fucceffies in Spain, to animate him to go into Italy; 
 and as Brutus’s Genius looked frowning on him, a little before the fatal battle of Philippi. 
 
 I do not know that the poets fay any thing as to thedrefs or attributes of thefe deities: but 
 I have met with them in forne antiques; and particularly on medals: from which we learn, 
 that they were fometimes drelfed juft like the perfons over whom they prefided : for the 
 Juno (or female Genius) of a Veftal, appears in the habit of that order of nuns. This 
 medal thews you the appearance of the Genius of one of the Roman emprelfes : and as 
 the artiils were very great flatterers, die holds you fee the emblem of Spes in one hand, 
 and of Virtus in the other; to fignify, that the Genius of this emprefs was the defence 
 and hope of the empire. Their compliments indeed arc not at all to be regarded ; for 
 they reprefent the Genius’s of the vileft tyrants that ever were, (and in particular that of 
 Nero,) with an altar, patera, and cornucopia; as marks of that emperor’s fignal piety, 
 and of the general plenty and profperity under his reign. 
 
 Oxe would have thought, that all the events of human life might have been fuffi- 
 ciently accounted for, between thefe Deflinies, and Genius’s: but the Romans were not 
 fatisfied with this. They foon found out another deity for the fame purpofes; who, in 
 time, came to be regarded by them more than either of the others. This was the goddefs 
 Fortune. She was looked on indeed by the wife as an ufurper, rather than as a natural 
 inhabitant of heaven (80). It was the populace, that firfl: gave her that high Ration; 
 which made them apply to her, at laft, for every thing that they wanted: altho’ their 
 own writers all the while treated her, as a divinity that could not deferve much refpedt; 
 
 for 
 
 (77) Indulge Genio ; carpamus dulcia. - 
 
 Perfius.Sat. 5. 151. 
 
 Quod ille unciatim vix dc demenfo luo. 
 
 Suum defraudans Genium, comparfit mifer. 
 
 Terence, Phormio, Adt. 1. Sc. 1. 
 
 (-8) Sus quifque fortunse faber. 
 
 (79) The whole paflage is as follows. 
 
 Cur alter fratrum cellare Sc ludere Sc ungi, 
 
 Praferat Herodis palmetis pinguibus; alter 
 Hives Sc importunus ad umbram lucis ab ortu 
 Sylveftrem Hammis & ferro mitiget agrum ; 
 
 “ Scit Genius, natale comes qui temperat altrum : 
 Naturx deus humana;; mortalis in unum 
 Quodque caput; vultu mutabilis, albus Sc ater.” 
 
 Horat. Lib. 2. Ep. 2. jr. 1S9. 
 
 Invenit inter has utrafque fententias, (that of one 
 great God, and that of an infinity of leflcr ones,) me¬ 
 dium fibi ip fa mortalitas numen ; quo minus etiam 
 plana de deo conjeflatio eflet ; Toto quippe mundo, 
 & locis omnibus, omnibufque horis, omnium voci¬ 
 bus Fortuna fola invocatur. Una nominatur, 
 accufatur ; una agitur rea, una cogitatur; fola lauda¬ 
 tur, fola arguitur; & cum conviciis colitur. Volu¬ 
 bilis a plerifque vero, & cteca etiam exiftimata ; va¬ 
 ga, inconftans, incerta, varia, indignorum fautrix. 
 Huic omnia cxpcnfa, huic omnia feruntur accepta; 
 & in tota ratione mortalium, fola utramque paginam 
 facit. Pliny, Lib. 2. c. 7. p. 84. Ed.Elz. 
 
 I have feen an antient gem, in which Cybele, (the 
 mother of all the gods,) is reprefented as turning away 
 her head, from Fortune ; in an attitude of difownino- 
 and rejecting her. It is publifhed byGorlasus, in his 
 gems, 1. 142. and Montfaucon, in his Antiquities. 
 Vol. I. Pl. 2. 8. 
 

 Dialogue the 'Tenth. 
 
 for they ufually fpeak of her as blind (8i) ; inconfhnt (82). un j u ft (83) ; and as (84) de- 
 lighting in mifehiefs. 
 
 I CAN recoiled! but one paflage in the Roman poets, that fpeaks of Fortune as (85) 
 Handing on a wheel: and never law her fo reprefented in any work of the antient artills. 
 Indeed they fometimes reprefent her with wings, and a wheel by her; to flier, her incon- 
 ftancy; and fometimes without wings, and a wheel by her; to (hew that file prelided 
 over the expeditions of their emperors into other countries, and their happy return home 
 again: for where you fee her thus on medals, file is generally called Fortuna Redux. 
 Her mod ufual attributes are her Cornucopia, as the giver of all riches ; and the Rudder 
 in her hand, which is often reded on a globe; to fhew that Ihc is the diredtrel's of all 
 worldly affairs. 
 
 The incoherences in this goddefs's character, obliged the Romans to make feveral di- 
 ftindtions ; they had a (86) Good, and a Bad I'ortune: a Conftant, and an Inconftant one. 
 It fhould Teem from a (87) paflage in Horace that the Bona Fortuna was drefled in a rich 
 habit, and the Mala Fortuna in a mean one. The Conftant Fortune, or Fortuna Ma¬ 
 nens, you fee on this medal, is without wings; and fitting in a fteddy pofture: fhe has 
 a horfe by her, as an animal noted for fwiftnefs, which fhe holds ftill by the bridle. 
 The Inconftant Fortune, is winged; as ready to take her flight. Horace fpeaks of both 
 of them,(88) in a paflage which fhews that he deferved the favour, of the former; and 
 that he was above the power, of the latter. 
 
 It was common among the old Romans to talk of theftatues of the deities they wor- 
 fhipped, as turning their faces toward them, if they aflented to their prayers; and from 
 them, if they diflented. No doubt, the priefts of thofe days ufed many more pradtices of 
 this kind, than we can well imagine: and had not only the art of making fome of their 
 ftatues move their heads, but could make them weep, or roll their eyes; and even fpeak 
 too, upon fome occafions. From this turning of her head, Fortune had one of her titles 
 among the Romans : fhe was called Fortuna Refpiciens. Statius ufes this (89) word, of 
 Fortune; and Virgil, in relation to the goddefs of Liberty. I have feen the figure of the 
 latter on a ( 9 °) medal, inferibed Libertas Reftituta; juft in the fame attitude, that one 
 would imagine the Fortuna Refpiciens to have been reprefented. Livy fpeaks of a (91) 
 Fortuna Vertens, or averfe Fortune; whofe figure turned its head from you, as this 
 would toward you. 
 
 Juvenal alludes to a ( 9 2 ) ftatue of Fortune, which reprefented her under a very good 
 character; as the patronefs of the poor infants, that were expofed by their parents in the 
 
 ftreets. 
 
 (81) Quaque ruit, furibunda ruit: totumque per orbem 
 
 Fulminat, & ctecis caca triumphat equis. 
 
 Ovid. ad Liv. f. 374. 
 
 (82) -Hinc apicem rapax 
 
 Fortuna, cum itridore acuto, 
 
 Suflulit; hic pofuifle gaudet. 
 
 Horat. Lib. 1. Od. 34. jfr. 26. 
 
 (83) —— A juftis Fortuna recederet aris. 
 
 Statius. Theb. 12. it. 505. 
 
 (84) Fortuna, fevo lxta negotio Se 
 Ludum infolentem ludere pertinax, 
 
 Tranfmutat incertos honores. 
 
 Horat. Lib. 3. Od. 29. it. 51. 
 
 (85) -Per hos etiam Fortuna: injuria mores 
 
 Regnat; & incerta eft hic quoque nixa rota. 
 
 Ovid, (fpcaking of good princes,) ad Lib. it. 52. 
 
 (86) Bonae Fortunae fimulacra in Capitolio. Pliny, 
 
 Lib. 36. c. 5. p. 471. Ed. Elz.-Ara & malfe 
 
 Fortunae, Exquiliis. Id. Lib. 2. c. 7. p. 82. 
 
 4 
 
 *55 
 
 Pl. XXIII. 
 Fig. io. 
 
 Pl. XXIII. 
 
 (87) Utcumque mutata potentes 
 
 Velle domos inimica linquis. 
 
 Horat. Lib. 1. Od. 35. it. 24. 
 
 (88) Fortuna, fevo Ista negotio Se 
 Ludum infolcntem'ludere pertinax, 
 
 Tranfmutat incertos honores; 
 
 Nunc mihi, nunc alii benigna. 
 
 Laudo manentem : !i celeres quatit 
 Pennas, religno qua: dedit, Se mea 
 Virtute me involvo ; probamque 
 Pauperiem fine dota quiero. 
 
 Horat. Lib. 3. Od. 29. it. 56. 
 
 (89) -• Fors xqua merentes 
 
 Relpicit.- 
 
 Statius. Theb. 1. y-. 662. 
 Libertas, quas fera tamen refpexit inertem. 
 
 Virgil. EcL 1. it. 28. 
 (9°) A gold medal, of Vitellius; in the Strozzi 
 collection at Rome. 
 
 (91) Livy, Lib. 9. §. 17. 
 
 (92) -- Stat Fortuna improba noftu. 
 
 Arridens nudis infantibus. —— 
 
 k.\ 
 
 u 
 
 ! 
 
 14 
 
 U--I 
 
 vl. .1? 
 
 Sat. 6. f. 60;. 
 
 The 
 
i 5 6 
 
 POLY M E T I S. 
 
 Pl. XXIII. 
 Fig. i2. 
 
 ftreets. This Fortune was reprefented, holding a naked child tenderly in her arms; and 
 looking kindly upon it. There is a figure of her, in a piece written by Senator Buonaroti; 
 which I cannot Ihew you here, becaufe it is taken from a Tufcan antiquity. This that 
 I have is a copy from Agoftini, who calls it Dea Rumilia : a goddefs who, I think, we 
 fhould fee employed in a different ( 93 )adion, if we had any figure of her at all. 
 
 The Fortune worfhipped at Antium was probably of the rnoft exalted character, of 
 any among the Romans. Horace feems to allude to one of the great folemn proceflions 
 that were made to her : for I doubt not but that the antient Romans dealt almoft as much 
 in proceflions, as the modern. They carried the flatues of their gods with a great deal 
 of potnp, to fome fixed place; and then back again to their Ihrines. In this procefllori 
 to the honour of Fortuna Antienfis, the flatue of Neceflitas ( 94 -) feems to have been 
 carried before the goddefs herfelf; and after her, the flatues of Hope and Fidelity. This 
 ihews, that (lie was a Fortuna of a higher chara&er than ordinary. Every thing lhe de¬ 
 crees is as fixed as fate; and lhe has two of the mod confiderable Virtues, as attendants 
 in her train. What a treafure would it be for the virtuofo’s, could one find any pitflure, 
 or relievo, that represented this proceflion ? When I was at Antium, I wanted very 
 much to be digging, in Search of l'uch a treafure ; but, to fay the truth, I had not time 
 enough there to carry on fo noble a defign. 
 
 Prteneste was another place, where Fortune was highly worfhipped. Statius fpeaks 
 of Several Fortunes there; and calls them, the (95) Prteneflinai Sorores. Who thefe were, 
 or what their diftinguifhing characters, I know no more than I do who (96) the three 
 Fortunes are mentioned by Vitruvius. This is certain, that there were Several different 
 ones befides thofe I have had occafion to Speak of already; as the Fortis Fortuna, the 
 Fortuna Romana, the Fortuna Virilis, the Fortuna Muliebris; and many others. 
 
 One of thefe Fortunes, the Fortuna Romana, is mentioned by Lucan (97) in a verfe 
 from which we learn, cither that the Romans had taken off the head of it, and put on 
 that of Pompey in its place; or that the flatue was made to refemble Pompey’s air and 
 features : which, in the flatuary language, was juft the fame as faying, that the happinefs 
 of the Roman flate depended wholly upon that general; or that he was their good For¬ 
 tune. This fort of compliment grew fo common afterwards, under the emperors ; that 
 a great number of the flatues which pafs for deities at prefent, are nothing elfe but em^ 
 perors, or empreffes, in mafqu erade : particularly under the characters of Apollo, Mars, 
 and Hercules, for the former; and thofe of Juno, Venus, and Ceres, for the latter. 
 
 I have now done with this odd deity, at laft; and with all that any way belong to this 
 circle. I leave her with the more pleafure, becaufe you, Philander, promifed to read us 
 
 your 
 
 The diftin&ion of the Bona and Mala Fortuna 
 above, is very neceffary to explain this paflage. It is 
 in Juvenal’s Satire againft the women ; and where 
 he is fpeaking of a lady of quality, who had ne¬ 
 ver any children herfelf; but brought fuppofnitious 
 ones into the family, to heir a confiderable effate. 
 
 “ She Hands like Fortune, fays he, in the flreets; 
 
 (not the Good Fortune, but a very bad one;) and 
 gets up all the children the can, to intrude them into 
 the family ; and boaft of them as her own.” ^.600, 
 to 608. 
 
 The commentators have generally taken Improba 
 to be applied to Fortune herfelf, on this occafion ; 
 which is one of the very few, in which lhe deferved a 
 good name rather than a bad one. 
 
 (93) Her proper character is that of fuckling chil¬ 
 dren. Ruma, in the older Latin, fignified a breaft ; 
 
 whence the famous fig-tree, under which Romulus 
 and Remus were fucklcd, might be called Ficus Ru¬ 
 minalis. 
 
 (94.) Te Temper anteit fa:va Neceflitas- 
 
 Te Spes, & albo rara Fides colit 
 
 Velata panno. -- 
 
 Horat. Lib. 1. Od. 35. 22. 
 
 (95) Statius, Lib. 1. Sylv. 3. jf. 80. 
 
 (96) Tres Fortunas : the three Fortunes, or tem¬ 
 ples to this goddefs under three different characters. 
 They feem to have flood together : fomevvhere near 
 the Porta Collina: according to Vitruvius. Lib. 3. 
 c. 1. 
 
 (97) Hac facie, Fortuna tibi Romana placebas. 
 
 I.ucan, 8. <■. 686. 
 
D i a l o c u E the Tenth. 
 
 your friend’s poem, when I had finifhed my round. I long to hear it: and if you will 
 follow me, I will find you out a place, juft by here, where you may fit down and read it 
 more at your eafe. In faying this he rofe ; and led them to a little grove of laurel-trees, 
 near the fummit of the hill: that grew up irregularly; and formed a fort of arbour’ 
 which feemed to owe more to chance, than to art. As foon as they were all feated there. 
 Philander took out his poem; and read it to them in a voice, which Ihewed he was very 
 much affefted with the good inftrudKons in it himfeff; and which rendered ir, yet the 
 more apt to affedl them. 
 
 THE 
 
 A 
 
 * 
 
 u 
 
 C H 
 
 F 
 
 ; 
 
 O F 
 
 HERCULES. 
 
 
 L 
 
 N OW had the fon of Jove mature, attain’d 
 
 The joyful prime: when youth, elate and gay. 
 Steps into life ; and follows unreftrain’d 
 Where paffion leads, or prudence points the way,; 
 
 In the pure mind, at thofe ambiguous years. 
 
 Or vice, rank weed, firft ftrikes her pois’nous root j 
 Or haply virtue’s op’ning bud appears 
 By juft degrees j fair bloom, of faireft fruit: 
 
 Summer ftiall ripen what the Spring began j 
 Youth’s generous fires will glow more conftant in the man. 
 
 II. 
 
 As on a day, reflecting on his age 
 For higheft deeds now ripe, Alcides fought 
 Retirement; nurfe of contemplation fage ; 
 
 Step following ftep, and thought fucceeding thought, 
 Mufing, with fteady pace the youth purlu’d 
 His walk and loft in meditation ftray’d 
 Far in a lonely vale, with folitude 
 Converfing ; while intent his mind furvey’d 
 The dubious path of life : before him lay 
 Here Virtue’s rough afcent, there Pleafure’s flow’ry way. 
 
 S f 
 
 III. Much 
 
158 
 
 POLY METIS. 
 
 in. 
 
 Much did the view divide his wavering mind : 
 Now glow’d his breafl with generous third; of fame j 
 Now love of eafe to fofter thought inclin’d 
 His yielding foul, and quench’d the rifing flame. 
 
 When, lo ! far off two female forms he fpies j 
 Diredt to him their fteps they feem to bear: 
 
 Both large and tall, exceeding human fize ; 
 
 Both, far exceeding human beauty, fair. 
 
 Graceful, yet each with different grace, they move : 
 This, flriking facred awe ; that, fofter, winning love. 
 
 IV. 
 
 The firfl, in native dignity furpaft; 
 
 Artlefs and unadorn’d fhe pleas’d the more : 
 
 Health, o’er her looks, a genuine luftre caff; 
 
 A veil, more white than new-fall’n fnow fhe wore. 
 
 Augufl fhe trod, yet modefl was her air ■, 
 
 Serene her eye, yet darting heav’nly fire. 
 
 Still flie drew near ; and nearer ftill more fair. 
 More mild appear’d: yet fuch as might infpire 
 Pleafure corrected with an awful fear j 
 Majeftically fweet, and amiably fevere. 
 
 V. 
 
 The other dame feem’d ev’n of fairer hue; 
 
 But bold her mien ; unguarded rov’d her eye : 
 
 And her flufli’d cheeks confefs’d at nearer view 
 The borrow’d blufhes of an artful dye. 
 
 All foft and delicate, with airy fwim 
 Lightly flie danc’d along ; her robe betray’d 
 Thro’ the clear texture every tender limb, 
 Height’ning the charms it only feem’d to fhade : 
 
 And as it flow’d adown, fo loofe and thin. 
 
 Her flature fhew’d more tall; more fnowy-white, her fhin. 
 
 VI. 
 
 Oft with a fmile flie view’d herfelf afkance ; 
 
 Ev’n on her fhade a confcious look fhe threw : 
 
 Then all around her call a carelefs glance. 
 
 To mark what gazing eyes her beauty drew. 
 
 As they came near, before that other maid 
 Approaching decent, eagerly fhe prefl 
 With hafly flep; nor of repulfe afraid 
 The wond’ring youth with freedom bland addrefl: 
 With winning fondnefs on his neck fhe hung; 
 
 Sweet as the honey-dew flow’d her enchanting tongue. 
 
 4 
 
 VII. “ Dear 
 
Dialogue the Tenth. 
 
 xv. 
 
 “ Hear’ft thou, what monfters then thou mull engage 
 (Abrupt fays Sloth,) what toils Ihe bids thee prove? 
 
 What endlefs toils ? Ill lit thy tender age 
 Tumult and war; fie age, for joy and love. 
 
 Turn, gentle youth, to me, to love and joy ! 
 
 To thefe I lead : no monfters here fhall ftay 
 Thine eai'y courfe ; no cares thy peace annoy : 
 
 I lead to blifs a nearer, fmoother way. 
 
 Short is my way; fair, eafy, fmooth, and plain : 
 
 Turn, gentle Youth ! With me, eternal pleafures reign.” 
 
 XVI. 
 
 “ What pleafures, vain miftaken wretch, are thine ! 
 (Virtue with fcorn reply’d :) who fleep’ft in eafe 
 Infenfate ; whofe foft limbs the toil decline 
 That feafons blifs, and makes enjoyment pleafe. 
 
 Draining the copious bowl, ere thirft require; 
 Feafting, ere hunger to the feaft invite : 
 
 Whofe taftelefs joys anticipate defire ; 
 
 Whom luxury fupplies with appetite : 
 
 Yet Nature loaths; and thou employ’ll; in vain 
 Variety and art to conquer her difdain. 
 
 XVII. 
 
 The fparkling nedtar, cool’d with fummer fnows ; 
 The dainty board, with choiceft viands fpread; 
 
 To thee are taftlels all ! Sincere repofe 
 Flies from thy flow’ry couch, and downy bed. 
 
 For thou art only tir’d with indolence : 
 
 Nor deep with felf-rewarding toil haft bought; 
 
 Th' imperfedt fleep, that lulls thy languid fenle 
 In dull oblivious interval of thought: 
 
 That kindly fteals th’ inadtive hours away 
 From the long, ling’ring fpace, that lengthens out the day. 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 From bounteous nature’s unexhaufted ftores 
 Flows the pure fountain of fincere delights : 
 
 Averfe from her, you wafte the joylefs hours : 
 
 Sleep drowns thy days, and riot rules thy nights. 
 
 Immortal tho’ thou art, indignant Jove 
 Hurl’d thee from heaven, th’ immortals blifsful place; 
 
 For ever banifh’d from the realms above. 
 
 To dwell on earth, with man’s degenerate race : 
 
 Fitter abode ! On earth, alike difgrac’d ; 
 
 Rejedted by the wife, and by the fool embrac’d. 
 
i6o 
 
 POLYMETI S. 
 
 XIX. 
 
 Fond wretch, that vainly weenGft all delight 
 To gratify the fenfe referv’d for thee ! 
 
 Yet the moft pleafing objedt to the fight. 
 
 Thine own fair adtion, never didft thou fee. 
 
 Tho’ lull’d with fofteft founds thou lieft along ; 
 
 Soft mufic, warbling voices, melting lays : 
 
 Ne er did’fl thou hear, more fweet than fweeteft fong 
 Charming the foul, thou ne’er did’fl: hear thy praife! 
 
 No—to thy revels let the fool repair : 
 
 To fuch, go fmooth thy fpeech ; and fpread thy tempting fnare. 
 
 XX. 
 
 Vafl happinefs enjoy thy gay allies ! 
 
 A youth, of follies; an old-age, of cares : 
 
 Young, yet enervate; old, yet never wife; 
 
 Vice waftes their vigour, and their mind impairs. 
 
 Vain, idle, delicate, in thoughtlefs eafe 
 Referving woes for age their prime they fpend ; 
 
 All wretched, hopelefs, in the evil days 
 With forrow to the verge of life they tend. 
 
 Griev’d with the prefent; of the pad; afham’d ; 
 
 They live, and are defpis’d : they die, nor more are nam’d. 
 
 XXL 
 
 But with the gods, and godlike men, I dwell: 
 
 Me, his fupreme delight, th’ almighty Sire 
 Regards well-pleas d : whatever works excel. 
 
 All or divine or human, I infpire. 
 
 Counfel with ftrength, and induftry with art. 
 
 In union meet conjoin’d, with me refide: 
 
 My didtates arm, inftrudt, and mend the heart; 
 
 The fureft policy, the wifeft guide. 
 
 With me, true friendfhip dwells : fhe deigns to bind 
 Thofe generous fouls alone, whom I before have join’d. 
 
 XXII. 
 
 Nor need my friends the various coftly feafl; 
 
 Hunger to them th’ effedts of art fupplies : 
 
 Labour prepares their weary limbs to reft; 
 
 Sweet is their deep : light, chearful, ftrong they rife. 
 
 Thro health, thro joy, thro’ pleafure, and renown. 
 They tread my paths ; and by a foft defcent. 
 
 At length to age all gently finking down. 
 
 Look back with tranfport on a life well-fpent : 
 
 In which, no hour flew linimprov’d away; 
 
 In which, fome generous deed diflinguifh’d every day.. 
 
 XXIII. And- 
 
Dialogue the Tertth. 
 
 XXIII. 
 
 And when, the dedin’d term at length compleat. 
 Their allies red; in peace3 eternal fame 
 Sounds wide their praife : triumphant over fate. 
 
 In facred fong, for ever lives their name. 
 
 This, Hercules, is happinefs ! Obey 
 My voice 3 and live. Let thy celedial birth 
 
 Lilt, and enlarge thy thoughts. Behold the way 
 That leads to fame 3 and raifes thee from earth 
 Immortal! Lo, I guide thy deps. Arife, 
 
 Purfue the glorious path 3 and claim thy native Ikies.” 
 
 XXIV. 
 
 Her words breathe fire celedial, and impart 
 New vigour to his foul 3 that fudden caught 
 The generous flame : with great intent his heart 
 Swells full 3 and labours with exalted thought : 
 
 The mid of error from his eyes difpell’d. 
 
 Thro’ all her fraudful arts in cleared light 
 Sloth in her native form he now beheld 3 
 Unveil'd die dood confed before his fight: 
 
 Falfc Siren !—All her vaunted charms, that flione 
 So frefli erewhile, and fair 3 now wither'd, pale, and gone, 
 
 XXV. 
 
 No more, the rofy bloom in fweet difguife 
 Mades her diflembled looks : each borrow’d grace 
 Leaves her wan cheek 3 pale ficknefs clouds her eyes 
 Livid and funk, and paflions dim her face. 
 
 As when fair Iris has a while difplay’d 
 Her watry arch, with gaudy painture gay 3 
 While yet we gaze, the glorious colours fade. 
 
 And from our wonder gently deal away: 
 
 Where flione the beauteous phantom erd fo bright, 
 
 Now lowers the low-hung cloud 3 all gloomy to the fight. 
 
 l6l 
 
 
 
 
 y 
 
 
 
 
 $ 
 
 it 
 
 p-l 1 ■ 
 
 m 
 
 'X 
 
 Hr 
 
 T. 'Ill 
 
 ‘ilii 
 
 J 
 
 XXVI. 
 
 But Virtue more engaging all the while 
 Difclos’d new charms 3 more lovely, more ferene 3 
 Beaming fweet influence. A milder fmile 
 Soften’d the terrors of her lofty mien. 
 
 “ Lead, goddefs, I am thine ! (tranfported cry’d 
 Alcides :) O propitious pow’r, thy way 
 Teach me ! poflefs my foul 3 be thou my guide : 
 From thee, O never, never let me dray !” 
 
 While ardent thus the youth his vows addred 3 
 With all the goddefs fill’d, already glow’d his bread. 
 
 XXVII. The 
 
POLYMETIS. 
 
 xxvir. 
 
 The heav’nly maid, with ftrength divine endu’d 
 His daring foul j there all her pow’rs combin’d : 
 
 Firm conftancy, undaunted fortitude. 
 
 Enduring patience arm’d his mighty mind. 
 
 Unmov’d in toils, in dangers undifmay’d, 
 
 By many a hardy deed and bold emprize. 
 
 From fierceft monfters, thro’ her pow’rful aid. 
 He free’d the earth : thro’ her, he gain’d the fkies. 
 ’Twas Virtue plac’d him in the bleft abode; 
 
 Crown’d, with eternal youth: among the Gods, a God. 
 
 •' ■ « . 
 
Dialogue the Eleventh. 
 
 BOOK the Fifth. 
 
 Of the Conftellations ; Planets : Times, 
 and Seafons. 
 
 DIAL. XI. 
 
 The Conftellations. 
 
 A S they had now confidered all the figures, both in the infide, and on the outfide 
 of the Rotunda: Polymetis, the next day, led his two friends to his temple 
 of the Conftellations, a little below it on the right hand. This was a round 
 temple too, but without any Portico; and of the Corinthian order, as the other was 
 of the Compofite. As they entered it, they faw two ftatues, one on each fide of the 
 door; and a large Atlas, in the midft of it, fupporting a globe of the heavens on his 
 ihoulders : and the walls were adorned with relievo's, in proper places ; relating to the 
 fame. Near the Atlas, was a table fet out, with fome books open upon it; and a few 
 drawings. You fee, fays Polymetis, that I havegot every thing in order for you. This fta- 
 tue with the globe, is a copy of that at the Farnefe palace at Rome. It is perhaps the only 
 Celeftial Globe, with the figures upon it in the true antient manner, now in the world. 
 T " ! l uoks are fome of the good old authors that relate to it. This is Pliny; who 
 fipeaks often of the ftars ; and particularly, in the fecond, and eighteenth books of his 
 Natural Hiftory: and this Vitruvius; who has given us a catalogue of all the Conftellations 
 on the celeftial globes in his times; that is, in the Auguftan age.—If I do not miftake, 
 fays Myfagetes, the occafion Vitruvius has taken to treat of the ftars is a little too Pindaric. 
 He is inftrufling people how to make a fun-dial on their houfes; to do that, a man mult 
 be fomething of an aftronomer ; and fo he obliges us immediately, with a complete cata¬ 
 logue of all the ftars. Indeed, anfwered Polymetis, I do not fee what neceflity he was 
 under of giving us this catalogue; unlefs the fun-dials of old were much more fcientific 
 things, than ours are ufually at prefent: but however he has given it; and let him anfwer 
 
 for the occafion.-This is Avienus’s paraphrafe of Aratus ; which 1 fhall beg leave to 
 
 cite, if there be any neceflity for it: and this Manilius , who gives a catalogue, (that 
 fquares almoft in every article with Vitruvius’s,) in the firft book of his Aftronomics: and 
 in the laft, treats very particularly of the figures of the different Conftellations ; their 
 bearings to one another; and the effefls they have on the temper and fortunes of thole, 
 who are born under fuch or fuch a conftellation. Even this part, as frivolous as it is in 
 itfelf, will be of fome ufe to me ; becaufe Manilius generally fits his predictions to the(a) 
 figure, or air, of the conftellation he is fpeaking of. Thefe other books, are fome of the 
 Roman poets; who, tho' they do not treat of the conftellations exprelly, like Manilius; 
 yet give us deferiptions of feveral of them here and there, as occafion offers. Indeed 
 Virgil in his Georgies, and Ovid in his Fafti, go rather farther : for they make it part of 
 their l 2 ) propofition, in each of thofe poems. 
 
 (1) Thus, for inftance, becaufe Cepheus has a fe- 
 vere countenance; he fays thofe who are born under 
 Cepheus, will be rigid and ccnforious : and becaufe 
 Andromeda is chained, thofe born under her muft 
 be jayl-keepers. 
 
 (2) Tempora cum caufis Latium digefta per annum, 
 
 Lapfaque fub terras ortaque figna canam. 
 
 Ovid. Fait. j. >'•. 2. 
 
 Quo fidere terram 
 
 Vertere - 
 
 Virgil. Georg. 1. i. 
 And the fame poet fays afterwards : 
 
 ' f a ni funt Artfluri fidera nobis 
 
 Hcedorumque dies fervandi, & lucidus Anguis ; 
 Quam quibusin pauiam ventofa pera-quora vetft 
 Pontus & oftriferi lauces tentantur Abydi. 
 
 Georv. 1. 2c 
 
 U U 
 
 163 
 
164 
 
 POLYMETIS, 
 
 The antients in general allude fo often, andfometimes lo particularly, to the figures on 
 their globes, in their poems ; that there is no undemanding the latter, without having 
 Tome acquaintance with the former. This goes fo far, that Quintilian, (where he is 
 giving inftruCtions how to form his young orator,) after Ipeaking of his reading the poets, 
 lavs; that it is neceffary for him to fludy aftronomy (3), in order to underftand them. 
 This is become ftill more neceffary, at prefent: for we have been ufed, not only to be 
 unaftifted by the figures of the conflellations, as they were reprefented on the antient 
 globes; but to be mif-led too by the figures of them, as they are reprefented on the 
 modern. l or tho’ the conflellations, in general, are pretty much the fame in both ; yet 
 either their characters, or drefs, or air, or attributes, have been fomehow or other changed 
 in almoft every one of them; as will eafily appear to any one who would take the trouble 
 of comparing the figures on the Farnefe globe, with thole on any of the moft received 
 globes among the moderns. This has been fo little regarded hitherto, that on afking 
 fome celebrated mathematicians of our own country, what were the principal differences 
 between the figures of the conflellations on the antient and the modern globes, (in order 
 to inform myfelf as to fome points, of which I doubted;) their conflant anfwer has been, 
 that they had always imagined, there was not any difference at all. 
 
 The drawing I have in my hand, was taken from the Farnefe globe. If you pleafe, 
 we will confider each figure in it; together with what the Roman poets may fay, that 
 is any way material, of any of them. You fmile, Myfagetes, to fee me, whom you 
 know to be no aflronomer, preparing to read you a ledture on the celeftial globe. I do 
 not pretend to talk of it fcientifically ; but only to confider the different fhapes, airs, or 
 attitudes, of the creatures and things delineated on it. The globe, in my hand, is as a 
 piCture-book in the hands of a child: he may divert himfelf with the fi<mres, tho’ he be 
 ignorant even what language the book is wrote in. Or, to give the comparifon a little 
 more dignity, I may talk over the figures on the celeftial globe, with as much juftice as 
 Cicero undertook to tranflate Aratus ; when, (as he himfelf I think fomewhere fays,) he 
 did not underftand aftronomy. 
 
 Tho’ the ftars were looked on by the antients to be innumerable; yet the conftella- 
 tions on their globes were not fo numerous, as they are on the modern. Their number 
 then was under fifty: and we have increafed them to upwards of fixtv. 
 
 The Farnefe globe, tho it has been fo much injured, (partly by time, and partly I fear 
 by the folly of thofe who have had the keeping of it;) has however prelerved to us above 
 forty of thefe old conflellations. The principal lines are marked out on it. Thefe two 
 bending ones, you fee, include the middle f'pace; or the torrid zone (4) : the next di- 
 vifion on each fide of this, are the two temperate zones; as the divifions at each end 
 beyond them, are the two frigid ones. Thefe lines, that run obliquely here acrofs the 
 torrid zone, is the Zodiac. To avoid the confufion that fuch a number of figures is 
 apt to give one, we will if you pleafe firfb confider all the Conflellations that lie north 
 of the Zodiac; then, thofe of the Zodiac itfelf; and laflly, thofe that lie to the fouth 
 of it. 
 
 p l. XXIV. The Great Serpent, here by the northern pole, is not contented with one hemifphere. 
 
 He fpreads himfelf indeed chiefly in our hemifphere, where you fee this chafm; but there 
 is part of him which wanders too into the other. Had Statius only faid, that he extended 
 
 into 
 
 (3) Nec fi rationem fiderum ignoret, poetas intelli- 
 gat; qui, ut alia mittam, toties ortu occafuque lig¬ 
 norum in declarandis temporibus utuntur. Quintilian. 
 Inftitut. Lib. i. c. 4. 
 
 (4) Quinque tenent ccelum Zona:; quarum una corufeo 
 Semper fole rubens, Sc torrida temper ab igni: 
 
 5 
 
 Quam circum, extreme dextra Ixvaque, trahuntur 
 Cxrulea glacie concreta: atque imbribus atris : 
 
 Has inter mediamque, dux mortalibus xgris 
 Mune concelTx divum. Via fe&a per ambas 
 Obliquus qua fe lignorum verteret ordo. 
 
 Virgil. Georg, i. f. 239. 
 
Dialogue the Eleventh. 
 
 into (5) the other■hemisphere j I think, he would have fpoken more correftly than he has 
 rh.s part of the Farnefe globe .s fo much damaged, (by their having made a great hollow 
 
 O r “” n0t trace aU his folds and windings- But according to Virgil 
 
 Ovid, and Man,bus, he Ihould roll ( 6 ) between the two Bears, as well as round then?. 
 
 The Arfti are totally loft on the Farnefe globe, by the accident juft mentioned 
 Hehce, or the greater Bear, had its tail (7) toward the head of Cynofura, or the leffer 
 Bear. Before the difcovery of the compafs, thefe two Conftellations were the great di 
 reflors of navigation The Greeks ( 8 ) always obferved the former in their voyages . and 
 the lynans and Carthaginians, as greater bailors, obferved the latter. 
 
 Bootes, was behind the greater Bear, (or Charles’s Wain, as we vulgarly call it, pro¬ 
 bably from the Roman name of (9) Plauftra;) and appears in the adf of (.0) driving it on 
 ou fee here, he is dreffed in the habit of a countryman; (a fhort tunic girt about him ’ 
 and with h,s arms and legs bare, as the labourers are ufually reprefented in the paintings’ 
 in the Vatican Virgil;) and with the Pedum Paftorale, in his right hand. The famous 
 
 back apptTLr 01 (,,) breafti Which be ( at Icaft ) as & naked, as his 
 
 Just by the Pedum in Bobtes’s right hand, you fee a wreath of leaves and flowers 
 faftened with a riband. 1 his is the Corona, or Ariadne’s crown ; which makes much 
 luch a (ra) circular appearance in the heavens, as it does here; tho' we have turned it 
 into a Gothic crown, ,n all our modern globes. Manilius, who generally draws his 
 prognoftications, from the forms or circumftances of the Conftellations on the old 
 globes ; very plainly alludes to the materials of which this is formed: where he favs 
 that the perfons born under Ariadne’s crown (,3), will delight in flower-gardens ■ and 
 be makers of nofegays, and feftoons.’’ ’ 
 
 165 
 
 (j) Quantus at Ardois difcriminat xthcra plauftris 
 Anguis ad ufque notos ; alienumque exit in orbem. 
 
 Statius. Theb. 5. it. 530, 
 (6) Maximus hic flexu finuofo elabitur Anguis 
 Circum perque duas, in morem fluminis, Ardos. 
 
 Virgil. Georg. 1. , . 
 
 * Tantoque eft corpore; quanto. 
 
 Si totum fpeftes, geminas qui feparat Ardos. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 3. it. 
 
 Has interfufus, circumque amplexus, ulramque 
 Dividit Sc cingit ftcllis ardentibus Anguis. 
 
 Manilius. 1. it. 307 
 (7) See Aratus, it. 49—54. Manilius. 1. it. 303. 
 ( 3 ) Efle duas Ardos : quarum Cynofura petatur 
 Sidoniis; Helicen Graia carina notat. 
 
 , . • it 1 - Ovid. Faft. 3 . it. 
 
 Majorem Helice major decercinat arcum ; 
 
 Septem illam ftella: certantes lumine fignant: 
 
 Qua duce per fludus Graia: dant vela carina;. 
 Angufto Cynofura brevis torquetur in orbe, 
 
 Tam fpatio quam luce minor : fed judice vincit 
 Majorem Tyrio ; Pcenis haec certior audor 
 Non apparentem pelago quaerentibus orbem. 
 
 Manilius. 1. it. 302. 
 
 (9) --Aufone eafdem 
 
 Voce Feras, Urfafque, & Plauftra, vocare folemus; 
 Fabula namque Urfas, fpecies dat plauftra videri. 
 
 Avienus’s Tranfl. of Aratus, it. 104. 
 (10) ■ - Licet inftanti limilis flmilifque minanti, 
 
 TergaHelices juxtapremat arduus,haud tamen unquam 
 In pidurata; plauftrum procurrere matris 
 Fas datur--— 
 
 . Id. it. 262. 
 
 - ■ Similis jundis inftat, de more, juvencis. 
 
 Manilius. 1. it. 317, 
 
 Hemochufque memor cursus, plauftrique Bootes. 
 
 Id. 5. it. 20.’ 
 
 (n) Ardurumquerapit medio fub pedore fecum. 
 
 Manilius, j. i. 318, 
 
 -Locus Arduro—aferibitur, illinc 
 
 Aurea qui fummos adilringunt cingula amiftus. 
 
 Avienus, it. 271. 
 
 ( 12 ) *-- Claro volat orbe Corona 
 
 Luce micans varii ; nam ilella vincitur una 
 Circulus in medii radians quai proxima fronte. 
 Candidaque ardenti diltinguit l„ mina 
 GnoSia defertal harc fulgent monimenta pnellte. 
 
 Manilius. 1. it. 323. 
 
 -- °F cm Liber tulit: utque perenni 
 
 Sidere clara foret, fumtam de fronte coronam 
 Immifit calo. Tenues volat illa per auras ; 
 Dumque volat, gemma; fubitos vertuntur in’ignes : 
 Confiftuntque loco, fpecie remanente corona:. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 8. it. 182. 
 
 Gemmat, here, is a very unlucky word. It' natu¬ 
 rally fignifies buds of (lowers, or leaves; and by way 
 
 of allufton, gems, or precious Hones..-Cum vites 
 
 inepiunt gemmare. Cio - Turgent in palmite 
 
 gemmat. Virg - Where this word is ufed by any 
 
 of the antient writers, of this conliellation ; I think it 
 (hould be underftood, in its firft and natural fenfe ■ 
 tho' any modern reader would be more apt to take it 
 in the metaphorical one. 
 
66 
 
 P O L Y METIS. 
 
 Till; next figure had his name ( r 4 ), both among the Greeks and Romans, from his 
 kncclinr; as you fee he does here. The reafon of his being ill that pofture, was (15) 
 unknow n in the times of Manilius; and even of Aratus: fo that it teems to have been a 
 mail; of fome very antient tradition; the ufe of which might be continued, after the 
 intent ofit was loll: as the Chinefe are faid flill to retain their mythic characters, without 
 un.ici 'f e line any thing of the myfleries antiently expretfed by them. Avienus will 
 have it, that this is Hercules: and that it reprefents him as a]mod fatigued with his long 
 combat againft the ferpent, that guarded the golden fruit in the garden of the Hefperides. 
 
 I Tin foot, you fee, hands exafily over the head of Anguis. Perfons who delight in fuch 
 fort of hints from the feveral llories relating to Hercules, as were mentioned when we 
 were confidering the charadler of that hero, would certainly make this one of them : 
 and the rather, becaufe Avienus fays that Jupiter took Hercules himfelf up into the 
 higher heavens, for his labours upon earth; that his figure was placed here amongft the 
 Conftellations, as a memorial oi them; and that he lhould always appear there, with 
 his heel (16) as bruifing the great ferpent’s head. 
 
 Tins figure of Hercules, or whoever it was, is quite naked on the antient globe ; and 
 fois Ophiuchus, you fee, who holds another long ferpent in his hands. Manilius fpeaks 
 of him and this ferpent, as (17) fighting together; and fays, they are fo equal a match, 
 that their combat mud lall for ever. If that was the cafe, our old globe is not fo piftu- 
 refquein this particular, as it lhould be: for the ferpent in his hands, according to the 
 polition of its head here, (if it threatens at all,) feems rather to threaten Bootes, than the 
 perfon who holds it. 
 
 The figure of Lyra here, fhews that the Lyra and Tefludo of old was one and the fame 
 inflrument; for they generally call it Lyra, and its appearance plainly determines it to 
 be the Tefludo; the bottom part of it coniifling of the entire fhell of a tortoife. There 
 are but fix firings to it on theFarnefe globe; but there is a fpace for the feventh: which 
 feems rather to have been defaced by fome accident, than to have been omitted ; or 
 perhaps it was originally omitted, and that fpace left, in memory of the Pleiad that has 
 diiappeared; for it is laid to have had leven firings at firfl (18), in allufion to the feven 
 Pleiades. Manilius in one place alludes to the tortoife in this lyre, with a (> 9 ) flroke of 
 that falfe fort of wit, which one meets with in him but too often ; and in another, fpeaks 
 of its (20) Cornua, (or horns,) which are very evident in this figure; and which I ac¬ 
 counted for to you before (21), in fpeaking of Mercury’s invention of the lyre. 
 
 Just under this Conflellation, you fee Aquila; which I mufl own makes a very dif¬ 
 ferent appearance on this globe, from what I expedted. The poets fpeak of him as (22) 
 
 flying 
 
 (14) The Greeks called this figure, Eryovatr/f the 
 Romans, Nixus, Nixus genibus, and Ingeniculatus. 
 
 (15) Proxima frigentes Arftos Boreamque rigentem. 
 Nixa venit fpccies genibus; fibi confcia caufa;. 
 
 Manilius, i. jr. 315. 
 
 - To [XiV BT/f iTTirctTCU A/XtpetJ'OV llTTZlVy 
 
 OUcT’ UTIV Kfi/Xltrcu KilV0( Toyw. - 
 
 Aratus. jr. 65. 
 
 (16) Et manus ipfa Dei violenta in verbera pendens 
 Erigitur ; dextraque dehinc impreflio planta; 
 Tempora deculcat maculofi prona Draconis. 
 
 Avienus. j>. j93. 
 
 (17) Serpentem magnis, Ophiuchus nomine, figms 
 Dividit; & toto mergentem corpore corpus 
 Explicat, & nodos finuataque terga per orbes ; 
 (Refpicit ille tamen, molli cervice reflexus) 
 
 Et didit fufis per laxa volumina palmis : 
 
 Semper chim paribus bellum quia viribus cequant. 
 
 Manilius. 1. y. 336. 
 
 (18) - Septena putaris 
 
 Pleiadum numero fila dediffe lyra;. 
 
 Ovid. Fall. 5. jk 106. 
 
 (19) Nunc furgente lyra, telludinis enatat undis 
 
 Forma. - Manilius. 5. f. 320. 
 
 (zo) - Lyra didudlis per ccelum cornibus inter 
 
 Sidera confpicitur.- Id. 1. ^.325. 
 
 (21) See p. 107. & Pl. 15. Fig. 2. 
 
 (22) -Propter fe Aquila ardenti cum corpore portat, 
 
 Igniferum mulgens tremebundis xthera pennis. 
 
 Fragment, of Cicero’s tranfl. of Aratus. 
 Tunc oritur magni prapes adunca Jovis. 
 
 Ovid. Fall. 6. jr. 196. 
 
 -- Magni Jovis ales fertur in altum 
 
 AfluetS volitans, geftet ceu fulmina mundi; 
 
 Digna Jove & ccelo, quod facris inllruit armis. 
 
 Manilius. 1. 345. 
 
 Nunc 
 
 6 
 
Dialogue the Eleventh. 
 
 167 
 
 flying; and as grafping the fulmen in his talons: whereas here, he is without the ful¬ 
 men, and /landing in a quiet po/lure. No doubt there was fome difference, in the diffe¬ 
 rent globes ufed by the antients, as well as in the modern : and this is the greatefl inflance 
 of it, I think, that I have met with. The head of Aquila, is in the other hemifphere, 
 you fee; near the Dolphin. 
 
 Both Manilius and Ovid fpeak of the figure of the Dolphin, as (23) very aptly marked 
 out by the difpofition of the /lars included in that Con/lellation. From (24) an exprefiion 
 ufed by the former one may infer that, on the painted globes of the antients, the Dolphin 
 was reprefented of a dark colour; on which ground the flars, (when reprefen ted there 
 too,) mult have appeared to much more advantage, than they could on feveral of the other 
 con/lellations; and particularly on the Cygnus ju/l by him, which was quite white. 
 
 Cygnus is reprefented both here and by the poets (25), in the attitude of flying. You 
 have often feen this Swan, (in other attitudes,) in marble; for according to Manilius, it is 
 the very Swan under whofe form Jupiter carried on his amour with Leda. 
 
 Before the left wing of Cygnus, is a line, almofl worn out on the Farnefe globe; 
 which I take to be, die Sagitta: both Manilius and Avienus mention this Con/lellation, 
 as (26) juft by Cygnus. There is not much room for defeription, in fuch a plain figure 
 as this mufl be; arid all they obferve of it is, that it was very aptly marked out by the 
 /tars contained in it. 
 
 We come now to a fet of Con/lellations, that have all fome relation to one another. 
 This winged horfe is Pegafus, who carried Perfeus to deliver Andromeda : the perfon, 
 juft by it, with her arms extended, is Andromeda herfelf: and next to her is, her de¬ 
 liverer : this lady, feated on the Ardic Circle, is her mother, Cafliopea; and that fevere 
 looking old man, with his feet fo near the Pole, is her father Cepheus. 
 
 Manilius /peaks of Pegafus as (27) flying, and that rapidly, in the heavens; and fo 
 is he reprefented here, tho’ we have but half his figure: all the hinder part (28) being 
 
 omitted. 
 
 Nunc Aquila: fidus referam : qua: parte finiflra 
 Rorantis juvenis, quem terris fuftulit ipfe, 
 
 Fertur; Sc extenfis pr.xdam circumvolat alis; 
 Fulmina inifla refert, & ccelo militat ales. 
 
 Id. 5. f. 484. 
 
 (23) Cxruleus ponto cum fe Delphinus in afira 
 Erigit, & fquammam llellis imitantibus exit. 
 
 Manilius. 5. 412. 
 
 -Ccelatum ftellis Delphina.—— 
 
 Ovid. Faft. 2. jr. 79. 
 
 (24) The exprefiion here meant is that of Caeru¬ 
 leus. Tho’, I believe, there is no one thing in the 
 whole language of the Romans that we are more at a 
 iofs about now, than their names of colours ; it ap¬ 
 pears evidently enough, that Caeruleus was ufed by 
 them, for fome dark colour, or other. One might 
 bring a number of inftances to prove this; but one or 
 two, from Virgil, will be fufficient. 
 
 -Sxpe videmus 
 
 Ipfius in vultu varios errare colores. 
 
 Cteruleus pluviam denuntiat. - 
 
 Georg, i. jr. 453. 
 
 Tum mihi cxruleus fupra caput aftitit imber, 
 Noftemhicmemque ferens; &inhorruitundatenebris. 
 
 ■< 3 sn. 3. jr. 195. 
 
 Gum deus in niveum defeendit verfus olorem ; 
 Tergaque fidenti fubjecit plumea Leda:: 
 
 Nunc quoque didudtas volitat ftellatus in alas. 
 
 Manilius. 1. j/. 341. 
 
 Plumeus in cadum nitidis olor evolat alis. 
 
 Id. 5. 25. 
 
 —— Sidereis Cycnus fecat xthera pennis. 
 
 Avienus, f. 635. 
 
 Cana pruinofas extendit colla fub ardlos. 
 
 Id. 69Z. 
 
 (26) Manilius after giving an account of Cygnus, 
 immediately fays ; 
 
 Hinc imitata nitent curfumque habitumque fagitta: 
 Sidera.- 1, 343. 
 
 And Avienus immediately after fpeaking of Sagit¬ 
 
 tarius, fays ; 
 
 Quin norunt aliam Superum convexa fagittam : 
 
 Sed tamen hxc arcu tereti caret; infeia nervi, 
 
 Infcia nam domini eft. Ccelum fuper advolat ales. 
 Ales olor, fed Threicio conterminus axi. 
 
 f. 691. 
 
 (27) Quique volat ftellatus Equus.- 
 
 Manilius. 5. jr. 24. 
 
 Quem * rapido conatus Equus comprendere curfu 
 Feftinat.- 
 
 * Delphinum. Id. 1. 350. 
 
 (25) Proxima fors Cycni, quem ccelo Jupiter ipfe 
 Impofuit: forma: pretium, qua cepit amantem 
 
 (28) Non quadrupes cado fuftollitur, at tenus alvo 
 
 Erigitur 
 
 X x 
 
168 
 
 POLYMETIS. 
 
 omitted, to make room for Andromeda. Avienus defcribes his mane (29) very much iri 
 the fame manner as it appears here; and juft like thofe of the two fine horfes, which 
 gives its name to the Monte Cavallo at Rome. 
 
 The poets defcribe the figure of Andromeda, as ( 3 °) chained to a rock, even in the 
 heavens. They fay too, that grief and fear were expreffed in her face; and Cicero 
 remarks that the turns (31) from her barbarous mother, as you fee fhe does on the Far- 
 nefe globe. 
 
 Perseus here holds his fword in one hand, and the head of Medufa in the other : 
 which agrees very well with the poetical accounts (32) of the appearance Perfeus made in 
 the heavens : excepting only, that there fhould be a hook on his fword (33) : which is 
 either worn out on the Farnefe globe : or may be fo indiftindt, as not to have been ob- 
 ferved by the artift I employed to copy it. 
 
 Cassiope a is reprefented here with a (34) difturbed air, as Cepheus is with a (35) 
 fevere one. They retain the fame character in the heavens which they had upon earth : 
 tho’ furcly it was a very odd fort of deification, to place people in the heavens with all 
 their paflions, and even their afflictions, ftill about them. 
 
 We are now got through all the northern Conftellations, except two; one of which 
 is the Deltoton, or Triangle. The lines of this Triangle are either worn off of the 
 Farnefe globe; or perhaps it was compofed from an apt concurrence of the circles 
 and lines on that globe. It appears from Manilius and Avienus, that this Conftellation 
 ( 3 6 ) lay in the fpace that is included between the figures of Andromeda, Perfeus, and 
 Aries : and in that fpace, there is fuch a concurrence of the lines on the Farnefe 
 globe, as might ferve to mark out the figure we are fpeaking of. What is certain is, 
 that it was not capable of any poetical defeription ; and that therefore it is much the 
 fame to our purpofe, whether it be loft on the Farnefe globe, or whether it ftill fubfifts 
 there. 
 
 The 
 
 Erigitur media: jam cetera pone negantur; 
 
 Et quatit astherias primis modo cruribus auras. 
 
 Avienus, j/. 487. 
 
 -Abfcilfo ventre - ■ 
 
 Jd. jr. 473. 
 
 -Finitur in Andromeda--. 
 
 Manilius. 1. jr. 3-0. 
 
 (29) --Ipfaque cervix,- 
 
 Quamvis procero furgat juba maxima collo, 
 Languida marcenti vix eH fpedabilis igne. 
 
 Avienus, jr. 481. 
 
 (3°) -Cepheufque & Caflioprea, 
 
 In pcenas fignata luas: juxtaque relidam 
 Andromedam, vallos metuentem pifeis hiatus, 
 Expofitam ponto deflet fcopulifque relidam; 
 
 Ne veterum Perfeus ccelo quoque fervet amorem. 
 
 Manilius. 1. j. 358. 
 
 Sed tamen hic etiam vivax ell pcena dolenti: 
 
 Nam diduda ulnas magnas dillendit in aithra; 
 Vinculaque in ccelo retinent quoque tenuia.— 
 
 Avienus. j. 467. 
 
 {31) Andromeda, aufugiens afpedum mcefta parentis. 
 
 Cicero, de Nat. Deor. 2. j. 48. Ed. Aid. 
 
 (32) -Pennis ligat ille refumtis, 
 
 Parte ab utraque pedes, teloque accingitur unco. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 4. j, 665. 
 
 -Parrhafia: vexerunt Perf a penna:—- 
 
 -Phcebecs converti juflit ad ortus, 
 
 Gorgonis averfo fulcan m regna volatu.— 
 
 Quos habuit vultus hamati vulnere ferri 
 4 
 
 Crcfa caput Gorgon ? Quanto fpirafle veneno 
 Ora rear, quantumque oculis effundere mortis ? 
 
 Lucan. 9. j. 680. 
 
 (33) Vidor & invifa: Perfeus cum falce Medufx. 
 
 Manilius. 5. j, 22. 
 
 (34) In pcenas fignata fuas.- 
 
 Manilius. 1. j. 335. 
 
 He adds, that ftie was ftill concerned ; and afraid, 
 that Perfeus fhould carry off her daughter. Ib. 357, 
 &c. 
 
 {35) - Facit ora fevera : 
 
 Frontes ac vultus componit pondere mentis. 
 
 Manilius. 5. j. 446. 
 
 This is fpoken of the influence on thofe born under 
 this Conftellation : but as the influences in Manilius 
 have a great deal of refcmblance to the figures them- 
 fclvcs, this may ferve as a proof that Cepheus had a 
 fevere thinking look on the globe he made ufe of; 
 as he has alfo on the Farnefe globe. 
 
 (36) -Locus olli 
 
 Poll tergum Andromeda.- 
 
 Avienus. j. 537, 
 
 - Quam Perfeus armis 
 
 Eripit & fociat libi. Cui fuccedit, iniquo 
 Divifum fpatio,— Deltoton nomine fidus ; 
 
 Ex fimili didum.- 
 
 Manilius. 1. j. 334. 
 
 -Qua: fubter in altro 
 
 Lanati marcent pecoris. - 
 
 Avienus, j. 534, (fpeaking of fome of the liars in the 
 Deltoton.) 
 
Dialogue the Eleventh. 
 
 The laft of thefe northern Conftellations, is this of Erifthonius ; commonly called 
 Auriga, or the Charioteer. He appears here without his chariot; tho’ he is placed much 
 in the fame pofture (37), as if he was in one. It is probable, that in fome of the antient 
 globes his chariot was reprefented too; and one ftiould be apt to think, from fome (38) 
 expreffions ufed of him by the poets, that this was moft generally the cafe. When it was 
 lb, his figure, (I imagine,) was bent more forward, than it is in the drawing before us* 
 In his right hand, he holds his whip ; and in his left, were (39) the Hoedi and Capella i 
 which do not appear here, becaufe he held them before his breaftj and his back, you 
 fee, is turned toward us, in the Farnefe globe, 
 
 We may now confider the Conftellations of the Zodiac : and, if you pleafe, we will 
 begin here from Cancer; to follow my method of going from left hand to right with my 
 drawing, rather than any more ufual order of the ligns. 
 
 There is apafiage in Manilius from which one would imagine that Cancer was re¬ 
 prefented (+°) without eyes; and it is confirmed by him in another place : fo that what 
 we fee in the Farnefe globe is only the fockets for them ; and if that globe was ever to be 
 imitated in colours, they ftiould be drawn as empty, or at leaft quite dark. The figures 
 on the antient globes were reprefented more generally as alive and in adtion, than they are in 
 the modern : for which reafon Cancer, on the painted globes of the antients, was of a black 
 (41) colour ; tho’ I think the moderns have boiled him, and turned him red in theirs. 
 
 Leo is defcribed as ( 4 2 ) furious, and with his mouth open as roaring ; which charadler 
 of him is preferved in his figure on the Farnefe globe. Manilius informs us, that this is 
 the famous (43) Nemeasan Lion, that was killed by Hercules. It is probable that he was 
 yet more furious on the globe ufed by Manilius, than he is in the drawing before you. 
 
 Manilius, in fpeaking ofVirgo, gives her that diftinguiftiing attribute of a virgin (44), 
 the Zone; and the ears of corn, in her hand: both which particulars are juftified by this 
 globe. He but juft touches on (45) her leaving our earth after the golden age; of which 
 Aratus has made the moft pleafing digreffion in his whole poem. Manilius fays her 
 look is chafte, and fevere; but as flie turns her back upon us in the Farnefe globe, we 
 
 can 
 
 (37) Hcniochufque memor curfus, plauftrique Bootes. 
 
 Manilius. 5. jr. 20. 
 
 (3S) ■■ Vicina ferens nixo veftigia Tauro 
 
 Heniochus; lludio mundumque, & nomen, adeptus. 
 
 Id. i, jr. 362. 
 
 -Illi impiger autem 
 
 Pulcher Eiichthonius currus & quatuor olim 
 junxit eques : pronus qui non procul in Geminorum 
 Lxva jacet; fufoque fuper fe corpore tendit 
 Plurimus, atque Helices caput inclinatur ab ore. 
 
 Avienus, j/. 411. 
 
 (39) Ille quidem in fpacium membra explicat: at Capra 
 
 lavo 
 
 Fixa humero clare fuftollitur; ipfius autem 
 Fine maniis, parvas Hcedorum fufpice flammas. 
 
 Ibid. 414. 
 
 Avienus here fpcaks of them as if they were re¬ 
 prefented only by fingle ftars ; Mahilius, fpeaks of 
 them as figured. 
 
 Incipient Hcedi tremulum producere mentum, 
 Hirtaque tum demum terris promittere terga. 
 
 Lib. 1. f. 104, 
 
 (40) Quod fi folerti circumfpicis omnia cura 
 Fraudata invenies amiflis fidera membris: 
 
 Scorpius in Libra confumit brachia ; Taurus 
 Succidit incurvo claudus pede; lumina Cancro 
 Defunt ; Centauro fupercft & quteritur unum. 
 
 Manilius. 2. 260, 
 
 At niger obfcura Caicercum nube feretur ; 
 (Qui velut exutus Phcebeis ignibus ignis 
 Deficit; & multa fufeat caligine fidus :) 
 
 
 Lumina deficient ortos; geminamque creatis 
 Mortem fata dabunt. - 
 
 
 
 Id. 4. jr. 
 
 534 * 
 
 <+■> 
 
 -Niger Cancer — - 
 
 
 
 Ibid. f. 
 
 S 3 0, 
 
 ( 4 2 ) 
 
 —— Violentique ora Leonis. 
 
 
 Ovid. Met. 2. jf. 81. 
 
 Si cui per fummas avidus produxerit undas 
 Ora Leo, & fcandat malis hifcentibus orbem ; 
 
 Ille patri matrique reus, &c. 
 
 Manilius. 4. jr . 537, 
 
 (43) Cum vero in vallos furgit Nemeasus hiatus. 
 
 Id. 5. f. 20G. 
 
 (44) At quibus Erigone dixit nafcentibus tevum ; 
 
 Ore, magillerio, nodoque coercita virgo ; 
 
 Ad ftudium ducit mores : &c.- 
 
 Id. 4. f. 191. 
 
 — Cum per decimam confurgens horrida partem 
 Spica feret pras fe fquallentis corpus ariftte. 
 
 Id. 5. ^.271. 
 
 (45) Erigone furgens, quse rexit fa:cula prifea 
 Juftitid, rurfufque eadem labentia fugit. 
 
 Id. 4. f. 542. 
 
1 7 o 
 
 P O L Y M E T I S. 
 
 can fee nothing of that there. I have fome other drawings of the figns of the Zodiac (46), 
 in which fhe turns her face towards us. Virgo is moft ufually reprefented with wings. 
 Avienus fpeaks often of them (47); and we learn from the fame writer, that the corn in 
 her hand, and the painted globes of the antients, was coloured as (48) very ripe. 
 
 It is faid that Libra, or the Balance, was originally reprefented as held up by Scor¬ 
 pius; who extended his claws for that purpofe out of his own proper dominions: and that, 
 under Auguftus, or a little after his death, they made Scorpius contract his claws ; and 
 introduced a new perfonage, (moft probably Auguftus himfelf,) to hold the Balance. 
 On the Farnefe globe, it is held by Scorpius; (which, by the way, may perhaps (hew 
 that work to have been previous to the Auguftan age:) in feveral of the gems and 
 medals on which we have the figns of the Zodiac, it is held (49) by a man. This is faid 
 to be Auguftus. You know, it was (5°) a veiy common thing among the Roman poets 
 to compliment their emperors with a place among the Conflellations ; and perhaps the 
 Roman aftronomers took the hint of placing Auguftus there, and that in this very fitua- 
 tion, from ( 5 1 ) Virgil’s compliment of this kind to that emperor. To fay the truth, 
 there could fcarce have been a place, or an employment, better chofen for Auguftus. 
 The aftronomers originally were at a lofs how to have the Balance fupported : they were 
 obliged, for this purpofe, to make Scorpius take up the fpace of two ligns in the Zodiac; 
 which was quite irregular : and to be fure they would be ready to lay hold of any fair 
 occafion of reducing him to his due bounds again. On the other hand, it was quite as 
 proper for Auguftus, as it was improper for Scorpius, to hold it : for befide its being a 
 compliment to him for his jultice, or for his holding the balance of the affairs of the 
 world, (if they talked of princes then, in the ftyle we have been fo much ufed to of late;) 
 Libra was the very fign that was faid to prefide over ( 5 2 ) Italy : and fo Auguftus in hold¬ 
 ing that, would be fuppoled to be the guardian angel of his countiy after his deceafe; as 
 he had been fo formally declared to be the father and protestor of it, in his life-time. 
 Upon the whole, I do not fee how any thought of this kind could have been carried on 
 with more propriety, than this feems to have been ; by the admirers, or flatterers of that 
 emperor. 
 
 The language of Manilius is very agreeable to thefe two different reprefentations of 
 Libra. He alludes, in two or three places ( 53 ), to its being held by Scorpius; and in one, 
 
 exprefly 
 
 (46) See Pi. 25. N° 2, & 3. 
 
 (47) ■■ ■ — Alite procurfu — - ■ 
 
 Avienus. 335. 
 
 •- Pernicibus alis. 
 
 Id. jr . 286, & 348. 
 
 (4S) -Tibi flagrat arifta. 
 
 Et ceu Siriaco torretur fpica calore. 
 
 Id. 285. 
 
 (49) See PI. 25. N° 3. 
 
 (50) —— Te quum ftatione perafta 
 Aftra petes ferus, pradati regia cccli 
 Excipiet, gaudente polo. Seu feeptra tenere ; 
 
 Seu te flammiferos Phccbi tranfeendere currus, 
 Tellurcmque nihil mutato fole timentem 
 Igne vago lulirare juvat. - 
 
 yEtheris immenfi partem fi prefleris unam 
 Sentiet axis onus: librati pondera cceli 
 
 Orbe tene medio. ._ 
 
 Lucan. Pharf. 1. 58. (of Nero.) 
 
 —— Licet ardlior omnes 
 Limes agat ftcllas; & te plaga lucida cceli, 
 Pleiadum Boreaique & hiulci fulminis expers. 
 Sollicitet; licet ignipedum framator equorum 
 Ipfe tuis alte radiantem crinibus arcum 
 Imprimat, aut magni cedat tibi Jupiter aqua 
 
 Parte poli; maneas hominum contentus habenis. 
 Undarum terraque potens, & fidera dones. 
 
 Statius. Theb. i. jr. 31. (of Domitian.) 
 —— Cum jam genitor lucebis ab omni 
 Parte poli; neque enim in Tyrias Cynofura carinas 
 Certior, aut Graiis Helice fervanda magiftris : 
 
 Seu tu figna dabis, feu te duce Gracia mittet. 
 
 Et Sidon Nilufque rates.- 
 
 Val. Flaccus. Arg. 1. jr. 20. (of Vefpafian.) 
 
 (51) Anne novum tardis fidus te menfibus addas; 
 
 Qua locus Erigonen inter Chelafque fcquentes 
 Panditur : ipfe tibi jam brachia contrahit ardens 
 Scorpius, et cceli jufla plus parte reliquit. 
 
 Virgil. Georg. 1. jr. 35. 
 (S z ) Quod potius regat Italiam fi feligis allrum, 
 
 Quam quod cunftaregit; quodrerumpondera novit; 
 Defignat fummas, & iniquum feparat a:qtt0 ; 
 Tempora quo pendent; coeunt quo noxque diefque. 
 Hefperiam fua Libra tenet. Qua condita Roma, 
 Et propriis frainat pendentem nutibus Orbem. 
 
 Manilius. 4. jr. 774. 
 
 (53) Chelarumque fides, jullteque examina Libra. 
 
 Id - 3 • 332 . 
 
 Librantes nodtem Chelx cum tempore lucis. 
 
 Id. 4. j. 203. 
 
 Scorpius in Libra confumit brachia.- 
 
 5 Id. 2. jr. 258. 
 
Dialogue the Eleventh. 
 
 exprefly fays that it was held by a (54) man. The former, was the idea of the aftrono- 
 mers before his time; and the latter, that which began to prevail, about the time he is faid 
 to have wrote in. The old poets agree in its being held up, (tho* the moderns ufually 
 reprefent it without any thing to fupport it;) and its being held up with both the fcales 
 ( 55 ) exactly even : which, among other views, had a reference to the equality of the day 
 and night, on the fun's entering into this conftellation. 
 
 You fee Scorpius here : but you do not fee him fo ftrongly, as he was reprefented by 
 the painters of old; or as he is defcribed, by the poets. We learn from the latter, 
 that in the antient paintings he was drawn ( 5 6 ) of a dark venomous colour, and a lhade 
 of green under it; with his claws flretched out; as they mull have been, before that 
 alteration was introduced in Libra : and with his tail pointed, and railed; as thofe of 
 icorpions are, when they are enraged and prepared to ftrike. Thefe defcriptions of 
 Scorpius in the poets agree with the figure of it on the Farnefe globe, as far as they can 
 agree with the bare figure of a thing; and I fuppofe they have added the colourings to it 
 with the lame juftnefs : they being probably as well acquainted with the works of the 
 painters, as with thofe of the ftatuaries. 
 
 Arcitenens, according to Eratoflhenes, (an antient Greek writer (57), of very good 
 authority,) was reprefented under the figure of a (58) fatyr; as he is too in this drawing: 
 tho’ my deligner, (I imagine by miflake,) has omitted his horns; which as they are gene¬ 
 rally fmall, might very eafily efcape his obfervation on the Farnefe globe. This was the 
 very fatyr, who afiifled Jupiter fo much, in his battle againft the rebel giants; and put 
 them into an unreafonable fear, (whence, by the way, all fuch fears have ever fince been 
 called Panic fears,) by the flrange noife (59) that he made. He holds his bow as juft 
 ready to Ihoot it off; and the arrow in it feems to aim at the tail of Scorpius. The artifts, 
 in procefs of time, fubftituted the form of a Centaur, inftead of that of a Satyr, for this 
 lign of the Zodiac; as appears from feveral gems and medals (60) of good antiquity: and 
 the Roman poets (61) feem to have followed this latter idea even about the Auguftan age. 
 Lucan calls him exprefly by the name of Chiron: who, as I take it, prefided over the 
 Conftellation, properly called Centaurus ; not in the Zodiac. Manilius feems to have 
 fallen into the fame error; and fpeaks as if there was (62) fome drapery about this figure : 
 tho’ on the Farnefe globe. Arcitenens and Chiron, are both quite naked. The latter of 
 thefe poets however marks, very ftrongly, that (63) feverity of his look ; which is 
 
 diftinguilhable 
 
 I7I 
 
 (54) Humana ell facies Libne; diverfa, Leonis. 
 
 Id. 2. St. 529. 
 
 (55) Pendula ccelefles Libra movebat aquas. 
 
 Ovid. Fall. 4. S'. 384. 
 Libra Phcebeos tenet xqua currus. 
 
 Here. Furens. Aft. 3. Chor. 
 
 See Note 53, anteh. 
 
 (56) Ell locus, in geminos ubi brachia concavat arcus 
 Scorpius; et cauda, flexifque utrinque lacertis. 
 Porrigit in fpatium fignorum membra duorum. 
 Hunc puer ut nigri madidum fudore veneni, 
 Vulnera curvata minitantem culpide vidit; 
 
 Mentis inops, gelida formidine lora remilit. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 2. S'. 200. 
 
 -Elatx metuendus acumine cauda: 
 
 Scorpius in virides prxcipitalur aquas. 
 
 Id. Fall. 4. S'. 162. 
 
 Saevaque circuitu curvantem brachia longo 
 Scorpion. - - 
 
 Id. Met. 2. St. 83. 
 
 -Minax nodis. St refto verbere fsevus. 
 
 Lucan. 9. S'. 132. 
 
 (57) Eratofthenes, in omnium quidem literarum 
 fubtilitate, & in hac utique praeter exteros folers, 
 quem cuntflis probari video; &c. Pliny, Lib. 2. 
 c. icg. 
 
 (58) OlZ/of sr/ TCd ilJ'il t>[J.OIOS TV CUyi'TctVf iyit Si 
 • 3 -np/s ret Kct]u /xspn, x) Kipa.ro. itrt m xspstAn. Era- 
 tofthenes de Sideribus, Art. 27. n ay. 
 
 (59) E v rti I/h trvvnv {ru Ait,) ore itri rm T/tovo{ 
 srpetTjucet'' xTof J'i Soku ivpuv rov Koyhov ev co tm avy.~ 
 (t.ax*< xct-JcuTA tti, Sta ™ ^*vikov KO.teit.iviv, 0 
 01 Tiravif itpivyiv. Id. Ibid. 
 
 (60) See PI. 25. N° 2, Si 3. 
 
 (61) Teque, fenex Chiron, gelido qui fidere fulgens 
 Impetis Hxmonio majorem Scorpion arcu. 
 
 Lucan. 6. S'. 394. 
 
 In cujus caudam contentum dirigit arcum 
 Mixtus equo; volucrem miffurus jamque fagittam. 
 
 Manilius. 1. f. 270. 
 
 (62) Nec non Arcitenens prima cum velle refurgit, 
 
 Peftora clara dabit bello.- 
 
 Manilius. 4. S'. 561,. 
 
 (63) ■— Nimium indulgens rebus fortuna fecundis. 
 Invidet in faciem, fxvitque afperrima fronti: 
 Horrendus bello Trebiam Cannafque Lacumque 
 Ante fugam tali penfabat imagine viftor. 
 
 Id. Ibid. S'. 467. 
 
 i, 
 
 Yy 
 
I 7 2 
 
 POLY M 
 
 E T I S. 
 
 diftinguimable enough in the figure of Arcitenens, on the Farnefe globe ; and not at all 
 on the face of the Chiron there ; and fays, that he looks as fcowling and threatening, as 
 Hannibal did ; in the beginning of the battles of Trebia, Thralimene, and Canna;. 
 
 Only the head of Capricorn appears here ; all the under parts of him are hid by the 
 Farnefe globe’s retting, in that part, on Atlas’s Ihoulders. This is an inconvenience, 
 that was not to be avoided: it mutt rett fomewhere ; and fomething mutt be Jolt by 
 that means : but as it retts chiefly on the Antarctic circle, where the antients had no 
 figures at all, the lofs is much lets than it would have been in a modern globe. How¬ 
 ever, as I was faying, all of Capricorn is loft, by this means, except the head. The rett 
 of his figure might be fupplied either from gems, or medals; and particularly from the 
 reverfe of a very common medal (64) of Auguftus Cadar : by which it appears that Ca¬ 
 pricorn was reprefented of old, as a creature of a (65) mixed nature; with the fore part 
 like a goat, and ending in a fifh. I mutt juft obferve to you, by the way, that 
 this medal is one of the plaineft proofs I know of, of that fort of hieroglyphical lan¬ 
 guage, which 1 have often hinted to have been in ufe, among the better artilts of old. 
 On one fide of it, is the head of Auguftus; on the other is Capricorn, the lign ( 66 ) under 
 which Auguftus was born; and beneath that, is a rudder and a globe. The rudder 
 was the conftant mark of rule or government, among the Romans. So that this medal 
 f-.ys, in the figures on it; (as diftindtly, I think, as could have been laid in fo many 
 words;) that “ Auguftus, was born, to govern, the world.” 
 
 This figure next to Capricorn, is Aquarius ; a beautiful, fine-lliaped ( 6 ;) youth ; as 
 he ought to be ; for this, according to the old mythology, is Ganymedes, the cup¬ 
 bearer of Jupiter. He ( 68 ) holds the cup, or little urn in his hand, inclined downwards; 
 and is always (69) pouring out of it; as indeed he needs mutt, to be able from fo fmall 
 a fource to form that river, which you fee running from his feet, and making fo large a 
 tour over all this part of the globe. Every one of the particulars I have mentioned in 
 relation to his figure, are marked out by fome or other of the Roman poets. 
 
 The river, which has its fource from his urn, goes in fome of its windings to Pifces; 
 and it is therefore that Manilius talks of them as ( 7 °) plunged under w r ater, even in the 
 heavens. The poets mark both their (7 1 ) places very exactly, and their being turned 
 
 different 
 
 (64) Sec PI. 25. N° 4. 
 
 (65) It is hence that Manilius calls Capricorn, 
 Ambiguus ; 2. 232. and Biformis ; 3. 257. 
 
 Cicero feems to allude to the fame, where he fays; 
 
 —— Gelidum valido dc pettorc frigus anhelans 
 
 Corpore femifero Capricornus - 
 
 De Nat- Deor. p. 48. Ed. Aid. 
 
 (66) Tantam fiduciam fati habuit (Auguftus, after 
 confulting Theogenes the mathematician at Apollo¬ 
 nia,) ut thema fuum vulgaverit: nummumque argen¬ 
 teum nota fideris Capricorni, quo natus eft, percuf- 
 ferit. Suetonius, in Aug. §. 94. 
 
 (67) Jam levis obliqua fubfedit Aquarius urna. 
 
 Ovid. Faft. 2. jr. 455. 
 
 -Capricorno, Phcebe, relifto 
 
 Per juvenis curres figna regentis aquas. 
 
 Id. Ib. 1. 65Z. 
 
 -Juvenis nudo formatus mollior artu. 
 
 Manilius. 4. jr. 797. 
 
 Troicus haurit aquas funditque ephebus ab urna. 
 
 Avienus. jr. 549. 
 
 (68) Ille quoque inflexa fontem qui projicit urna, 
 
 Cognatas tribuit juvenilis Aquarius artes : 
 
 Cernere fub terris undas, &c.- 
 
 Manilius. 4. 261. 
 
 (69) -Fundentis femper Aquarii. 
 
 Id. z. if. 233. 
 
 Ad juvenem, eternas fundentem Pifcibus undas. 
 
 Id. Ibid. jr. 492. 
 
 After talking, for fome time, of Aquarius and his 
 influences, (Id. 4. jr. 259, to 272.) he concludes the 
 paflage thus. Sic profluit urna : “ And fo the urn 
 flows on.” Which feems to have been a prnverbi.il 
 expreflion, among the antients, taken from ti: ■ ceafc- 
 lefs flowing of this urn ; and which might be not un- 
 applicable now, when certain ladies are telling a ftorv ; 
 or certain lawyers arc pleading. 
 
 (70) Poll hunc inflexam diffundit Aquarius urnam 
 Pifcibus, afluetas avide fubeuntibus undas. 
 
 Manilius. 1. jL 273. 
 
 (71) - Sedes data quippe duobus 
 
 Pifcibus, ingenti qua celfam circulus tethram 
 Orbe fecat; tendit qua penna extrema finiltra: 
 Ales Equus ; mundo qua pedlora Laniger alto 
 Urget. - 
 
 Avienu 
 
 ts. t. 545. 
 
Dialogue the Eleventh. 
 
 different (7») ways; and fpeak of them rather in a more pifturefque manner, than they 
 are expreffed on the Farnefe globe. Ovid gives a full and very pretty (73) account of the 
 ltory, which occafioned their being received into the heavens. 
 
 Next to Pifces, you fee, is Aries, or the Ram ; turning his head backward : a (74) 
 particular, which Manilius mentions of him, in feveral places; tho’ Monfieur Huet, I 
 know not why, is pleafed to affert the contrary. We may learn, from the fame poet, 
 that the painters reprefented him all of a gold colour. This they did with more pro¬ 
 priety, than you would, perhaps, at firft imagine ; for according to the fabulous hiflory, 
 this was the (75) very Ram fo famous of old for his golden fleece : which was kept firft 
 at Colchis, and then fell into Jafon’s hands; whilft the memorial of it was preferved, in 
 fo diftinguifhed a place, amidft the heavens. 
 
 As this was the ram that carried Helle on the fea, and gave a name to fo celebrated a 
 part of it; its neighbour here, the Bull, was at leaft as famous; for carrying Europa 
 fafe over the fame element, and giving its name to our part of the world. Til", poets de- 
 fcribe the figure of Taurus in much the fame manner that you fee him here : as bavin» 
 his head 176) averted from the courfe of the fun, and as riling backward ; as reprefented 
 (77) only in part; with his neck bending downward (78), and his knee yet more bent. 
 On fome gems you have his whole figure ( 79 ) in the aft of butting with his head, and 
 tearing up the ground with his feet; juft like the bull (So) defcribed by Virgil, or like 
 any common bull you pleafe; from which it is fometimes diftinguifhed, by its having a 
 ftar engraved over it. We find plainly from a paflage in Virgil, (which in fome other 
 refpefts, is (81) difficult enough to be fettled,) that Taurus was reprefented, on the 
 
 coloured 
 
 (72) Diflimile eft illis iter, in contraria verfis. 
 
 Manilius. 2. it. 164. 
 
 (73) Terribilem quondam fugiens Typhona Dione 
 
 (Tunc, cum pro ccelo Jupiter arma tulit) 
 
 Venit ad Euphraten, comitata Cupidine parvo; 
 
 Inque Paleftinre margine fedit aqua?. 
 
 Populus & canna? riparum fumma tenebant; 
 
 Spemque dabant falices hos quoque polle tegi. 
 Dum latet, intonuit vento nemus. Illa timore 
 Pallet; & hoftiles credit adefle manus. 
 
 Utque finu natum tenuit; Succurrite, Nymphs ! 
 
 Et diis auxilium ferte duobus, ait: 
 
 Nec mora, profiluit. Pifces fubiere gemelli : 
 
 Pro quo nunc dignum lidera munus habent. 
 
 Ovid. Fall. 2. it . 472. 
 Manilius mentions the fame ftory, on the fame ac¬ 
 count. Lib. 4. it. 579, &c. 
 
 (74) -Ubi fe fummis Aries attollit ab undis. 
 
 Et cervice prior flexa quam cornibus ibit. 
 
 Manilius. 4. it. 506. 
 Et fua refpiciens aurato vellere terga. 
 
 Id. 2. jt. 212. 
 
 Aurato princeps Aries in vellere fulgens, 
 
 Refpicit admirans averfum furgere Taurum. 
 
 Id. i. it. 265. 
 
 (75) Poftquam vernus calidum Titana recepit. 
 
 Sidera refpiciens, delapfie portitor Helles. 
 
 Lucan. 4. i/. 57. 
 
 Utque fugam rapiant, aries nitidiflimus auro 
 Traditur: ille vehit per freta longa duos.— 
 Litoribus ta&is, aries fit fidus; at hujus 
 Pervenit in Colchas aurea lana domos. 
 
 Ovid. Fall. 3. it. 876. 
 
 (76) -Afpice Taurum ; 
 
 Cernis ut averfus redeundo furgat in arcum 
 Clunibus- 
 
 Manilius. 2. it. 199. 
 
 Aurato princeps Aries in vellere fulgens 
 Refpicit admirans averfum furgere Taurum. 
 
 Id. 1. it. 264. 
 
 Taurus in averfos praiceps ut tollitur ortus 
 Sexta parte fui, certantes lucis ad oras 
 Pleiades ducit — - 
 
 Id. 5. f. 142. 
 
 Averfus venit in ccelum, divefque puellis; 
 Pleiadum parvo referens glomerabile fidus. 
 
 Id. 4. i'. 522. 
 
 (77) Vacca fit an taurus, non eft cognofcere promtum ; 
 
 Pars prior apparet, pofteriora latent. 
 
 Ovid. Fall. 4. jl. 162. 
 
 (78) -Nifi poplite lapfo 
 
 Ultima curvati procederet ungula Tauri. 
 
 Lucan. 
 
 —-Taurus 
 
 Succidit incurvo claudus pede- 
 
 Manilius. 2. jfr. 259.' 
 
 -Vicina ferens nixo veftigia Tauro. 
 
 Id. i. 361. 
 
 (79) See Pl. 25. N° i. 
 
 (80) Qui cornu petat, Sc pedibus qui fpargat arenam. 
 
 Virgil. Ecl. 3. i\ 87. 
 
 (81) There are two ways of reading, and under- 
 ftanding, the paflage in Virgil here referred to. 
 That which generally prevails at prefent, is as fol¬ 
 lows : 
 
 —■ Milio venit annua cura : 
 
 Candidus auratis aperit cum cornibus annum 
 Taurus; Sc averfo cedens Canis occidit aftro. 
 
 Georg. 1. it. 218. 
 
 This is ufually underftood of the fun’s entering 
 into Taurus ; and of the dog-ftar’s fetting heliacally : 
 that is, from about the middle of April, to about the 
 
74 
 
 POLYMETIS. 
 
 coloured globes of old, with gilded horns ; and all the reft of him white: agreeably to 
 the poeth-.il defcriptions of the bull which carried Europa ; and entirely like the bulls in 
 the high eft cfteem among the Romans, thofe which they facrificed to their beft and 
 greateft Jupiter. 
 
 The Gemini (or Twins) are defcribed by Manilius as (82) naked, young and beau¬ 
 tiful : and he is lb particular too, as to mention that (83) interweaving of their arms; 
 which is lb evident in the drawing before you. Ovid makes them to be (84) Caftor and 
 Pollux ; but as we fee thefe always both together, I know not how that can be recon¬ 
 ciled with the old ftory of thofe two brothers unlefs thefe were looked upon only as ap¬ 
 pearances, or memorials ; whilft the real Caftor and Pollux, (like the real Hercules,) 
 took their place alternately, in the higher heavens. 
 
 As we have now gone thorough the whole line of the Zodiacal figures, we will begin 
 once more if you pleafe from the left; with the Ship, which you fee here. It is repre- 
 fented inded only (85) in part, that it might not take up too much room on the globe; 
 but tho’ it is only part of a flup, it is reprefented as (86) fulingon : for the antients en¬ 
 deavoured to put every thing in a&ion on their celeftial globes, as much as they poftibly 
 could. It is the famous Argo ; the firft fhip, according to them, that ever was made. 
 We have here no figures on it, but a Vidtory and a Triton; fo that Flaccus’s fine de¬ 
 fcriptions (87) of the tnarriage-feaft of Peleus and Thetis, as painted on one fide of it; 
 and of the combat between the Centaurs and the Lapithte, on the other; was only a 
 fport of his own imagination : and indeed there would have been a terrible anachronifin 
 
 end of the fame month. In this cafe, Canis is ufed 
 jiominatively ; and aftro i.s underftood of Taurus. 
 
 It is certain, that averfum aftrum is ufed fcveral 
 times by Manilius, in fpeaking of Taurus; and that 
 Macrobius took the whole paflage in this fenfe, ap¬ 
 pears from his treatilc, on Cicero’s Somnium Scipio¬ 
 nis. See his Saturnal. Lib. 1. Cap. 18. p. 86. Ed. 
 Gryph. 1556. 
 
 A gentleman, I haw- long known, (and who feems 
 to me to underftnnd Virgil in the moft mafterly man¬ 
 ner, of any man I ever did know,) reads the paflage 
 thus : 
 
 —— Milio venit annua enra : 
 Candidus auratis aperit cum cornibus annum 
 Taurus, & adverfo cedens Canis occidit aftro. 
 
 peragi debet, circa idus Aprilis. Lib. 2. Cap. 2. The 
 ides of April, was the 13th. 
 
 If thefe arguments are ftrongcr than thofe on the 
 other fide, the old reading ought to be reftored : 
 which, (to fay the truth,) feems to me to have been 
 altered, by feme old critic, to adapt the paflage the 
 more to Macrobius’s meaning; and to have been af¬ 
 terwards turned into an argument for it, by fomc of 
 the more modern critics : who, perhaps, did not 
 know any thing of this alteration. 
 
 (8a) -— Geminos nudatis afpice membris. 
 
 Manilius. 2. jr. \ 6 z. 
 
 -Ec geminos Juvenes - 
 
 Id.Ib. *.661. 
 
 My friend takes Canis here to be the genitive cafe ; 
 and underflands, adverfo aflro, of that Conftellation; 
 and not of Taurus. Elis fenfe therefore of it, is: 
 “ Sow millet ; from the year’s opening under Tau¬ 
 rus, to the fetting of that Conflellation.” This pe¬ 
 riod reaches from the beginning, to about the middle 
 of April. 
 
 The reading of adverfo, was the true original read¬ 
 ing ; according to the oldeft and beft manuferipts : 
 and is ufed in particular by Macrobius himfelf in 
 that very paflage, which is ufually brought as the 
 
 chief fupport of the other opinion.-The year, in 
 
 rcfpcift to agriculture, began with the month of April 
 among the Romans ; which thence, probably, had its 
 
 very name Aprilis ; quafi aperilis, ab aperiendo. - 
 
 The expreflions feem in this fenfe to be more poeti¬ 
 cal than in the other ; and more agreeable to the po¬ 
 lit ons and appearance of thefe Conftellations on the 
 
 globe, at the time fpoken of.-Laftly, Columella 
 
 (who lived in the fame country with Virgil, and in 
 the fame age,) fpcaks of the time for fowing mil¬ 
 let ; and fays, “ it fliould be finifhed by the middle 
 of April.” Milii & Panici hrec prima fatio eft; qua: 
 
 -Formofos Geminos -. 
 
 Ibid. 440. 
 
 (83) His conjun&a manent alterno brachia nexu. 
 
 Ibid. f. 163. 
 
 (84) In Geminos ex quo tempore Phcebus eat. 
 
 Ovid. Fail. 5. jr , 694. 
 
 Tyndaridas fratres.— - 
 
 Id. Ibid. jr. 7 00. 
 
 For the ftory. See ibid. 715, to 720. 
 
 (85) — Argo rutilam tantum inter fidera puppim 
 Ducitur ; occultat rigido tenus altera malo. 
 
 Avienus. jr. 76;. 
 
 (86) This you fee by the oars, in the figure of it on 
 the Farnefe globe ; and fo it is defcribed by the poets. 
 
 Ratis Heroum, qua: nunc quoque navigat aftris. 
 
 Manilius. 5. ,4. 13, 
 Nunc quoque vicinam puppim, ceu naviget, Argo 
 A dextris lateris ducit regione per aftra. 
 
 Id. Ibid. 37. 
 
 (87) Flaccus, Argon. 1. 129, to 148. 
 
Dialogue the Eleventh. 
 
 in it, had it been fo reprefented; for Pelcus was not married, till after this (hip was 
 made. 
 
 Near (88) Argo is Hydrus, or the Water-ferperit j which Manilius fays was very 
 well marked out with ftars. We cannot verify that here ; becaufe the Farnefe globe 
 (which is the only antient celeftial globe I know of,) has only the figures of the con- 
 flellations wrought on it; and not the particular liars which were contained in them. 
 The fituation of this Conllellation in the heavens is defcribed by Avienus (89), exactly as 
 you fee it in the drawing before us. 
 
 Crater is placed on a fort of pedellal which fells on the back of this Serpent, to¬ 
 ward the middle part of it; or, “ in the ( 9 °) midfl of its windings,” as Avienus exprefles 
 it. It is lhaped like the common bowls, or little urns, that the antients ufed to drink 
 out of; and particularly like thofe you have feen in the hand of Bacchus, in fome 11 a- 
 tues and relievo’s. It is oblerved, that this Conllellation too was very properly (91) de¬ 
 lineated by the liars it contained. 
 
 Near (92) the Crater, is CorvuS: pearched on the ( 93 ) tail of Anguis ; and bending 
 down; as pecking at it. The poets have obferved thefe particulars; and fay nothing 
 more of it that is any way remarkable, that I know of. 
 
 Just under the tail of the Serpent, is Centaurus. His look is mild; for this is a phi- 
 lofophical Centaur: Chiron, a great mailer of the rules of (94) equity and jullice; and the 
 inftru&or of Hercules, as well as Achilles. The poets obferve of his figure, (what is 
 chiefly to be obferved in all good figures of Centaurs, and particularly in thofe two fine 
 ones, from the Villa Adriani, at Rome,) that the upward or human part is roughened by 
 degrees; and is united extremely well (95) with the equine part, a little below his brealt. 
 This cannot fo well be justified from the Farnefe globe; becaufe in that his back is turn¬ 
 ed toward us. He is reprefented as coming from the chace; with a young lionefs in his 
 hand: which is held by him, (as ( 9 6 ) a facrifice,) toward the altar juft before him. 
 
 According to Manilius’s account, I think that the Ara lliould be reprefented, in 
 any coloured globe (97), with lighted coals upon it, and the frankincenfe as flaming up: 
 tho’ there is nothing of this kind appears on the Farnefe globe. There is another par¬ 
 ticularity, relating to this conllellation, which is extremely obfervable, tho’ not much 
 
 to 
 
 (88) —- Cui proxiinus Angiiis 
 
 Squammea difpofitis imitatur lumina flammis. 
 
 Manilius, i. ^.406. 
 
 (95) - Duplici Centaurus imagine fulget: 
 
 Pars hominis ; tergo peftus commiffus equino. 
 
 Manilius, i. 409» 
 
 -- Signis fubtexit membra duobus: 
 
 (89) Defuper ingenti fefe agmine porrigit Hydra: 
 Qux prolata falo longe latus explicat a:thra, 
 
 In Cancrurii protenta caput; caudamque feroci 
 Centauro inclinat. — ■ —- 
 
 Nam qua parte hominem quadrupes fuftollit equino 
 Ventre fuperftantem, verfatur Scorpius ingens; 
 
 At qua cornipedem media vir fundit ab alvo. 
 Curva venenati funt tantum brachia figni. 
 
 Avienus. 890. 
 
 Avienus. 883. 
 
 (90) Spirarum media gefiat Cratera corufcum. 
 
 (91) Crater aaratis furgit Ccelatus ab aftris. 
 
 Manilius. 5. if. 235. 
 
 ^ (96) Ille autem dextram protendere vifus ad aram 
 
 Ccelicolum, juftse perfolvit munera vita:; 
 
 ■ . 235. Agrellemque manu pradam gerit.- 
 
 Id. f. 886. 
 
 (92) Et Phcebo facer ales, & una gratus Iaccho 
 
 - Cum tu, juftiflime Chiron, 
 Bis feptem flellis corpore cinftus eras. 
 
 Crater.- 
 
 Ovid. Fall. 5. 414. 
 
 (93) Ultima csernleum fuftentant agmina Corvum, 
 
 Ales ut intento fodiat vaga vifcera rollro. 
 
 Avienus. if. 900. (97) — - Vi&rixque folutis 
 
 Ara nitet facris.-- 
 
 Manilius. 1. ^.411. 
 
 Ara, ferens thuris ftellis imitantibus ignem. 
 
 Id. jf. 889. Id. 5. jr. 335. 
 
 (94) -Arbiter tcqui: 
 
 —— Alcidae legufn poli bella magiller. 
 
POLYMETIS. 
 
 i 7 6 
 
 to mypurpofe. It is in Manilius too; who fays, that this is the altar (98), on which 
 Jupiter offered facriffce, for fuccefs in the war againff the giants. Does not this fhew 
 that, originally in the heathen fcheme, Jupiter himfelf was not fuppofed to be really the 
 great Supreme Being, but only a fubftituted ruler; who in his dangers and difficulties 
 applied for affiffance to the real Supreme, that prelided over him and all things in the 
 univerfe ? 
 
 The next Conftellation I can give no manner of account of. It is a wreath like the 
 Corona Ariadnes; only a little larger, and not with fo much riband as that. There is 
 -not any one of the antient poets, or any one of their profe-writers I have confulted, that 
 fay a word of it; fo that I am wholly at a lofs, and without fo much as a guefs, how it 
 comes to make its appearance on the Farnefe globe. 
 
 As this feems to be a Conffellation too much; fo we have perhaps loft one, which 
 fhould appear near it. What I mean is the Pileis Notius, or the Southern Fifti. Its place 
 fhould be fomewhere here under Aquarius, and near Cetus (99); and fo is loft to us on 
 the Farnefe globe, which refts, in that part on Atlas’s fhoulders. 
 
 Cetus, or the Sea-monfter that was to have deftroyed Andromeda, is well repre- 
 fented in this drawing; in the attitude of fwimming along the water, that comes from 
 Aquarius’s urn; with great feales on his breaft; with his mouth open and threatenino- 
 and his tail wreathed; juft as he is (100) deferibed by Manilius. 
 
 Flumen, (which was originally fuppofed to be the Nile, tho’ the Romans (101) turned 
 it into Eridanus,) wanders levcral different ways. It runs up north, you fee, here, 
 to one of the Pifces; and fhould certainly (102) go to the other, (and I think, by 
 Andromeda’s head;) but the line in that part is defaced by time, or fome accident or 
 other, on the Farnefe globe. Its chief courfe is by the Sea-monfter, from which it goes 
 to Orion’s legs, in oneftream; as it falls from it, in another very ferpentine one, toward 
 the Antarctic Pole. The chief thing to be obferved of it in general is, that it is very (103) 
 winding and irregular; and that is marked by the poets, as well as by the artift. 
 
 This 
 
 (98) In qua devoti quondam cecidere Gigantes : 
 
 Nec prius armavit violento fulmine dextram 
 Jupiter, ante deos quam conlUtit ipfe facerdos. 
 
 Manilius. 5. jr. 338. 
 Manilius, on this occafion, raifes the priefts of 
 old, as much as he depreftes Jupiter. Under this 
 Conftellation, (fays he,) fhall be born priefts, or 
 deputy-gods: 
 
 Quos potius finget partus, quam templa colentes, 
 Atque audloratos in tertia jura minillros; 
 Divorumque facra venerantes numina voce i 
 Pame deos; & qui po/Tunt ventura videre. 
 
 Ibid, 34z. 
 
 (99) Ultra fetofi rurfum fpeciem Capricorni, 
 
 Cardinis immerfi qua funt Auftralia flabra. 
 
 In pillrim horrificam converfus vifcera Pifcis 
 Subvehitur: Notium vocat iftum Gratcia Pifcem. 
 
 Avienus. 825. 
 
 Tunc Notius Pifcis, venti de nomine didtus, 
 Exurgit de parte Noti. _ 
 
 Manilius. 1. 429. 
 
 (ico) Cetus convolvens fquamea terga 
 
 Orbibus infurgit tortis, & fludtuat alvo ; 
 
 Intentans morfum, fimilis jam jamque tenenti : 
 Qualis ad expolita: fatum Cepheidos undis 
 Expulit adveniens ultra fua litora pontum. 
 
 Manilius. 1. jfr. 427. 
 
 6 
 
 -Cetus, fquamis atque ore tremendo. 
 
 Id. 5. j/. 15. 
 
 ( ,or ) -Pars a:quoris effe 
 
 Credidit Aufonii ; namque hunc dixere priores 
 
 Eridanum : --- 
 
 -Pharium pars altera Nilum 
 
 Commemorat; largo fegetes quod nutriat amni, 
 Arentcfque locos unda frecundat alumna. 
 
 Avienus. 797. 
 
 (102) -Tnflexam diffundit Aquarius urnam 
 
 Pifcibus, affuctas avide fubeuntibus undas. 
 
 Manilius. 1. 273. 
 
 Ifle pedem hevum rutili fubit Orionis : 
 
 Fufaque qua: geminos aftringunt vincula Pifces 
 Eridani coeunt anfradlibus, ut procul ille 
 Tenditur effuii vi gurgitis. - 
 
 Avienus. 803. 
 
 Illa * memor longa: formidinis: illa f duorum 
 Inter figna tenax, horret fquallentia monllri 
 Terga procul; pavidumque luper caput inferie 
 undis. Jd. y. 7-g. 
 
 * Andromeda. f Pifces. 
 
 (103) Flexa per ingentes flellarum flumina gyros. 
 
 Manilius. 1. jr. 43c. 
 
 Fluminaque errantes late finuantia curfus. 
 
 Id. 5. 14, 
 
Dialogue the Eleventh . 
 
 This figure of a man kneeling on one knee, a little beyond the Sea-monfter, is the 
 famous Orion. His face is ( I 0 4 ) in profile ; he holds out his (105) arms ; and fliould, 
 perhaps, grai'p a fvvord in his right hand. That part is fo indiftindt on the Farnefe globe, 
 that one cannot be politivewhat is reprefen ted there; and the poets, I think, differ (106) 
 as to this particular. There is fomething like a fword, or dagger, hanging down in a 
 fheath by his left fide, in the drawing before you; which agrees better with Manilius 
 and Avienus’s account of his fword, than it does with fome expreflions relating to it in 
 Ovid. 
 
 Orion, you know, was a famous hunter; and here, juft by him, is his dog; which 
 is called, Procyon. This figure muft have been quite loft, on the Farnefe globe, by the 
 hand of the Atlas which fupports it; had not the artift placed it fo hollow, that we may 
 difcern it, under the concave part of the hand. This Conftellation riles before Sirius; 
 both by his fituation here, and by the (107) accounts given of him; and it is thence that 
 he has the name of Procyon. 
 
 Sirius, or Canicula, (who has fo terrible a character in the (108) old poets; and the 
 whole period of whofe influence is fo particularly dreaded, to this day, at Rome,) was, I 
 doubt not, reprefented by the antient painters with a malign call of his eyes; and a (109) 
 dark look. As this could not be exprelfed on marble, the artift who made the Farnefe 
 globe has given him feveral odd rays about his head ; as a mark of his being fo particu¬ 
 larly hot and fiery. Perhaps, he had better been reprefented, (as I believe (no), he 
 fometimes was,) breathing flames, like the Chimasra. He is deferibed as running on (m) 
 vehemently, after Lepus ; and it is therefore I fuppofe that Virgil gives him an epithet 
 which I formerly ufed to think improper, becaufe I did not underftand it. Lepus ap¬ 
 pears here as running from him : and is therefore called (1*2) fwift too, by the poets; even 
 when they are fpeaking of him as a Conftellation. 
 
 Thus have I gone through all the great Conftellations : of which, we find every one 
 of the two and forty in Eratofthenes’s catalogue on the Farnefe globe; except the two 
 Bears by the northern Pole, and the Pifcis Notius toward the fouthern: and have none 
 but what are in his catalogue; except what I have called the Corona Auftralis, and an 
 odd oblong figure juft above Cancer: which I have not mentioned before, becaufe I did 
 not know what to make of it. It may poftibly Hand for the Plauftrum: but the antient 
 Romans called the Ardti by that name; and the figure of a Plauftrum is unknown to us : 
 fo that I would rather own my ignorance fairly, than pretend to offer this even as a con¬ 
 jecture that has any foundation. 
 
 You 
 
 (104) 
 
 — Caput Orion excelfo immerfus Olympo 
 Per tria fubduclo fignatur lumina vultu. 
 
 Manilius. Id. i. jr. 
 
 26. 
 
 Procyon, (or TIponvuv,) rofe on the 15th of July; 
 and Canicula on the 26th ; according to Columella. 
 II. 3. 
 
 (105) Cernere vicinum Geminis licet Oriona, 
 
 In magnam coeli tendentem brachia partem. 
 
 Ibid. jr. 378. 
 
 (108) See, particularly, Manilius 5. 208, to 217. 
 and Avienus, 733, to 742. 
 
 (106) Enfifer Orion- 
 
 Ovid. Fall. 4. jr. 388. 
 
 -Nitidumque Orionis enfem. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 13. jr. 294. 
 —■ Stri&umque Orionis enfem. 
 
 Id. 8. jr. 207. 
 
 Singula fulgentes humeros cui lumina fignant; 
 
 Et tribus obliquis demiflus ducitur enfis. 
 
 Manilius. 1. jr. 381. 
 
 Auratumque rubens dimittit batheus enfem. 
 
 Avienus, jr. 722. 
 
 (107) Cum vero in vados furgit Nemeteus hiatus; 
 Exoriturque Canis: latratque Canicula flammas. 
 
 Manilius. 5. jr. 207. 
 
 (109) Frigida ca:ruleo contorquet lumina vultu. 
 
 Manilius. 1. j/. 399. 
 
 (no) From that expreflion in Manilius ; Latrat¬ 
 que Canicula flammas ; fee Note 107, anteh. 
 
 (111) Subfequitur rapido contenta Canicula curfu. 
 
 Manilius. 1. jr. 386. 
 
 Cum rapidus, torrens fitientes Sirius Indos, 
 Ardebat ccelo. — 
 
 Virgil. Georg. 4. j. 426. 
 
 (112) Tum Procyon, veloxque Lepus.- 
 
 ManMius. 1. jr, 402. 
 
178 POLYMETIS. 
 
 You may wonder that I have faid nothing all this while of the Hyades, Pleiades, and 
 Arflurus. Thefe, (tho’fo famous in all antiquity; even as far back, as we can trace 
 it;) were not generally looked on as primary Conftellations; but as fecondary ones, con¬ 
 tained in others. Neither of them is reprefented in a perfonal charadler on the Farnefe 
 globe, any more than they are in our modern ones; in which Arflurus is only a Angle 
 liar in Bootes; and the Hyades, and Pleiades, each a ftud of ftars, in different parts 
 of Taurus. It is pofiible indeed, that in fome of the larger globes in antient Rome, 
 thefe might have been reprefented perfonally too; and what vaft globes may they be fup- 
 pofed to have had in a city, where they certainly had an aftronomical inftrument, (the 
 particular ufe of which has not yet been fo well determined, as it might be;) of fuch 
 extent, that one (113) of their largeft Obelifcs ferved only as a Gnomon to it ? 
 
 There is more reafon to think that the Pleiades were reprefented perfonally, on fome 
 of their globes ; than either of the others. Aratus and Eratofthenes (114) feem to make 
 it a diftinQ. conftellation by itfelf; near Taurus, but not in it: and Virgil mentions one 
 of the Pleiads perfonally (115); where he is fpeaking in his aftronomical ftyle. Suppofing 
 they were all reprefented perfonally in Taurus ; it might be done in a very little fpace ; 
 as Pyrrhus wore the nine Mufes in a ring; and as one often meets with very fmall gems 
 that have more figures, even than that; all expreffed very fully and exactly. 
 
 I HAVE not afted fo prudently perhaps in giving you the moft doubtful points thus 
 all together at laft ; however you may fee by it, that I deal fairly with you. And what 
 is it, after all, if in a fubjedt where we have fo many things clear and certain; there 
 fhould be two or three points, about which one may raife fome doubts ? 
 
 What I was thinking of, fays Myfagetes, was a doubt of more importance. As the 
 general aim you propofed to yourfelf in making your colledion, feemed to me to be edn- 
 ftned to the various divinities of the Romans, (by which I fuppofe you mull mean intel¬ 
 ligent beings,) I do not fo well fee, what you can have to do with all thefe ftrange 
 figures before us : for allowing all your birds, and your beads here, to be intelligences; 
 I cannot conceive how you can look upon a fiddle, a fliip, or an altar, as fuch. This 
 would go beyond the follies of the Egyptian priefts : for onions are vegetables, at leaft; 
 and fo are one ftep nearer to intelligent beings, than feveral of the things you have been 
 talking of. As to that, fays Polymetis, let every body anfwer for their own follies. 
 The old Romans, no doubt, were guilty of many: but in the prefent cafe, I do not 
 know whether they were fo entirely ridiculous, as they appear at firft fight to have been. 
 Their idea of their moft confiderable men was, (like that of Plato and Socrates,) that 
 after their deceafe, they were mandated to fome ftar or conftellation. As we fay of 
 
 the 
 
 (113; is obcliicus, quem Divus Augultus in Cir 
 Magno ftatuit, 125 pedum & dodrantis; pneter b 
 fim ejufdem lapidis. Is vero, qui in Campo Marti 
 novem pedibus minor. 
 
 Ei qui eft in Campo, Divus Auguftus addidit mil 
 bilem ufum; ad deprehendendas folis umbras, di 
 rumque ac nodtium magnitudines : ftrato lapide 
 obelifei magnitudinem, cui par fieret umbra Rom; 
 confedlo die, fextd hord; paulatimque per regul? 
 qua? funt ex aere inclufa?, fingulis diebus decrefcerc 
 ac rurfus augefeeret. Pliny, Lib. 36. c. 9, & 10. 
 
 This is moft ufually fuppofed to have been a dia 
 tho’ it feems more likely to have ferved for ameridi: 
 line; by the expreffions ufed of it, in Pliny. S 
 the whole 10th Chapter. Ibid. 
 
 OH) Afoi J't 01 man ndrcu 
 
 UKmdJ'.if pops OtTAt — 
 
 Aratui 
 
 Eti th( atoto/mk ru Tai/pv, Tnt Kettef/.em Pttyjvf, 
 UKetdi in. Eratofthenes’s Conftellations, N° 23! 
 
 O15) Bis gravidos cogunt feetus: dilo tempora mellis. 
 Taygete fimul os terris oftendit honeitum 
 Pleias, & Oceani fpretos pede reppulit amnes : 
 Aut eadem, fidus fugiens ubi Pifcis aquofi, 
 Trillior hybernas ccelo defeendit in undas. 
 
 Virgil. Georg. 4. 334. 
 
 Flaccus fpeaks of all of them perfonally. 
 
 -Denfieque fequuntur 
 
 Pleiades; & madidis rorant e crinibus ignes. 
 
 Argon. 5. jr. 416. 
 And Manilius may refer even to their being repre¬ 
 fented all, in miniature; as fmall, perhaps, as the 
 figures on a ring. 
 
 Averfus venit in ccelum, divefque puellis ; 
 
 Pleiadum parvo referens glomerabile fidus. 
 
 (Speaking of Taurus.) Aftron. 4. f. 522. 
 
 5 
 
Dialogue the Eleventh. 
 
 ftars being very large : a fort of world< f a , antients had fome notion of thefe 
 them, was the intelligence of one of ZiT worlds^ 'JfT ' Ar<aUmS> with 
 
 over feveral of them. Each of the other Conft II '*■ ll, PP ofed t0 P refid = 
 
 end what ftgnified it, whether H it ” S Z ‘ tS P refidi ”S intelligence : 
 
 domain,) w!s of this ^ ^1 2“* ^ Wh “ h " his ***** or 
 
 oblong, of the drape of an iar, as wedTs of the £ e of^h T^* “ ^ “ 
 hounded by lines that make the figure of a lyre or a ihiu h h™ 3 " Z 7 ' ^ beiI ’ S 
 
 its being an intelligence, or rather to its being governed and di,"eft 7b ^7°" ‘° 
 
 and that, by day, they defcend upon our earth, obferve the actions of me ^ &h ' 
 an exaa detail of them to the governor of the univerfe ■ that h f 7? ^ ^ 
 bad aflions they relate to himf in two didSent b k ■' an purr'd 7 ^ ^ *?* an , d 
 man according to the excels of good, or bad, at the botZofZtiount '”7 77 
 liar, as Arfturus was, could be fuppofed to be employed ever A ■ r '• fmg 6 
 
 Tfoi Lyra "vf* ^ ° f the —4 ILLZsTZZ 
 
 Argo or Lyra, which you treated juft now as fo fenfelefs and fo infignihcant ? 
 
 As I have told you that the Roman philofophers looked on their conflell „■ r 
 
 many gods , I think I ought not to conceal, that their poets fometZ tma f Vt” f 
 many beads. This, indeed, arifes too from the figures fevera of th a 
 
 der, and their fiippofing them all, of old, to be ^nfmated.^Onetneet^^tlTdrmedran^^^rSJ 
 oppofitrons of this kind, in Virgil and Ovid in particular ■ r u * g ( ih) 
 
 (116) Infer filer a relatus, was a common expreffion 
 among the Romans. They believed that Perfeus, 
 and Chiron, and feveral other heroes, were aflually 
 placed there : and it was a common compliment of 
 the poets to their emperors, to fay , that they would 
 have a place there, when they departed this life 
 This fort of compliment was grown fo common, even 
 Horace ’ s time, that he ridicules it in his Epode to 
 Canidia. 
 
 - Sive mendaci lyra 
 
 Voles fonari; tu pudica, tu proba. 
 
 Perambulabis aftra fidus aureum. 
 
 Epod. 17. jr. 4 j. 
 
 (”?) Ea S uot l uc (fidera) refliffime, & animantia 
 edc, & fentire atque Intelligere dicantur. Says Bal¬ 
 bus the Stoic, in Cicero, de Nat. Deor. 1. 2 u aa 
 Ed. Aid. F ' ■” 
 
 Probabile eft, prmllantem intelligentiam in fideribus 
 efte. Id. ibid. And a little before; he had faid ; Ex 
 quo efficitur, in deorum numero aftra efte ducenda. 
 
 ( 1 18y Immiflxque ferx fylvis, & fidera ccelo. 
 
 Virgil. Georg, z. f. 342. 
 Neu regio foret ulla furs animantibus orba : 
 
 All 
 
 Aftra tenent ccelefte folum, formsque deorum j_ 
 
 Terra feras cepit. - 
 
 Ovid. Met. 1. f. yr 
 (119) Thus Statius calls the Sea-nymphs, the Con- 
 ftellations of the fea ; (that is, the intelligent and di¬ 
 vine inhabitants of the waters, as the other are of the 
 heavens:) 
 
 -Antenna gemino confidite cornu, 
 
 Oebalii fratres !- 
 
 Vos quoque cairuleum, Diva: Nereides, agmen ! 
 Dicere qua: magni fas fit mihi fidera ponci. 
 
 Lib. 3. Sylv. 2. 
 
 1 he lame poet reprefents Aurora, as driving the 
 ftars out of heaven, with a whip -, like fo many beafts. 
 Tempus erat jundtos cum jam foror ignea Phmbi 
 Sentit equos, penitufque cavam fub luce parati 
 Oceani mugire domum : fefeque vagantem 
 Colligit; & moto leviter fugat aftra flagello. 
 
 Theb. 8. jt. 274. 
 
 Manilius ufes the word. Flock, in fpeakino- of a 
 number of ftars; and reprefents them going on like 
 a flock of flieep, or any other animals. 
 
 Cum fecrctis improvidus Hcedus in aftris. 
 
 Erranti fimilis, fratrum veftigia quaerit ; 
 
 Poftquc gregem, longo producitur intervallo. 
 
 Aftron. 5. -j/. 308. 
 
 A a a 
 
i8o 
 
 POLYMETI S. 
 
 All this, fays Philander, runs on too romantic notions for me; I would much rather 
 hear a little matter of faft : and in particular I (hould be very glad to know, what fort of 
 olobes the antients had; how far they exceeded, or fell ihort of ours : and as they had 
 globes like us, whether they had any thing like our Orreries too. We cannot determine 
 abi'olutcly what fort of globes they might have, fays Polymetis; becaufe we have only 
 this before us, that I know of. You fee this is divided, as ours are, into five parts. 
 Themidft is the torrid Zone, marked out by the Zodiac's running acrofs it: the partitions 
 on each fide of it, are the temperate Zones ; and thofe at each extremity, are the two 
 ■frigid ones. The four circles, which bound thefe partitions, are all on this globe; which 
 with the .Equator, the Meridian, and the Zodiac, are all the lines that appear on it. The 
 antients, poflibly, were not fo exact and fo particular, in parting the Idler divifions; as 
 we are in our globes: but what may furprile you, as I am fure it did me when I had the 
 firil idea of it is, that (allowing for the difference of comparing a lyftem out of fafhion, 
 with one that is in,) they feem to have had Orreries, that went farther, and were much 
 more magnificent, than any we can boad of at prefent. They complimented the earth 
 perhaps too much, in placing it in the center, and making the fun only an attendant pla¬ 
 net to her; but then their works which rep:dinted the courfe of the fun, and of the 
 other planets round the earth, feem to have been carried to a very great perfeffion. The 
 celebrated fphere of Archimedes, (according to Claudian's known (no) epigram upon it,) 
 was a work of this nature. Cicero fpeaks, more than once, of it (m); and of another 
 made by his friend Poffidonius, which by one turn fliewed a day's motion of the fun, 
 moon, and the five other planets, round the earth : but there is an Orrery ( l22 ) deferibed 
 by Valerius Flaccus, that feems to have far exceeded either of them; if that poet borrowed 
 his thought from any work of this kind, that he had leen. He makes it ferve tor a 
 ludre, in a temple of Phcebus. In the midd of the temple, he fays, there dood a vaft 
 datue of Atlas : which ftatue fupported a fphere of the heavens. The planets and con- 
 ftellations were reprefented on it, all in their proper courfes; to enlighten the dome. 
 Surely, there never was a temple more properly, or more nobly, illuminated . f he 
 
 fame planets make pert of the furniture of my temple; but I cannot (hew them to you, 
 either in motion or with the magnificence he (peaks of. However, it you can bear to 
 fee them as they are ; we will come hither again, if you pleafe, in the afternoon. 
 
 (120) I may infert Claudian’s epigram here, as a 
 proof of the faeft in general ; tho’ his be no good au¬ 
 thority, for any particular figure. It is as follows. 
 Jupiter in parvo cum cerneret aithera vitro, 
 
 Rifit ; & ad fuperos talia ditia dedit. 
 
 Huccine mortalis progreffa potentia curte ? 
 
 Jam meus in fragili luditur orbe labor. 
 
 Jura Poli, rerumque fidem, legefquc deorum, 
 
 Ecce Syracufius tranllulit arte fenex. 
 
 Inclufus variis famulatur fpiritus aflris ; 
 
 Et vivum certis motibus urget opus. 
 
 Percurrit proprium mentitus Segnifer annum; 
 
 Et fimulala novo Cynthia menfe redit. 
 
 Jamquc fuum volvens audax induftria mundum 
 Gaudet; & humana fidcia mente regit: 
 
 Quid falfo infontem tonitru Salmonea miror ? 
 iEmula naturx parva reperta manus. 
 
 (l2i) Cicero de Natura Deorum. Lib. 2. p. 44.. 
 Ed. Aid. See his Tufc. Quseft. L. 1. p. 344 - 
 Blaeu. 
 
 (122) --Illi propere monftrata capefliint 
 
 Limina; non aliter quam fi radiantis adirent 
 Ora dei, verafque aiterni luminis arces: 
 
 Tale jubar per tcfla micat. Stat ferreus Atlas 
 Oceano; genibufque tumens infringitur unda : 
 
 At medii per terga fenis, rapit ipfe nitentes 
 Altus equos, curvoque diem fubtexit Olympo. 
 Pone, rota breviore foror: dcnfxquc fequuntur 
 Pliades, & madidis rorant e crinibus ignes. 
 
 Arg. 5. 416. 
 
Dialogue the ’twelfth ^ 
 
 DIAL. XII. 
 
 Of the Planets; Times, and Seafons. 
 
 . N their return to the fame temple in the afternoon. Polymetis took up a draw¬ 
 ing that lay on the table ; and after confidering it a little. This (fays he) will 
 give you the figures of all the planets, under their perfonal characters; as you 
 faw thofe of the conftellations, in the morning. It was copied from a collection of 
 drawings, from gems ; made by a German nobleman, now reliding at Florence : and 
 the fulleft collection, I believe, of the kind, that ever was made. This, in particular, 
 is a very great curiofity; and may very well deferve your obfervation. In the outer 
 round here, you fee, we have the feven planets, according to the antient fyfiem ; (that Pl. XXVI, 
 is, the fun as one of them, inftead of the earth :) in the next round, are the twelve figns FlG * 11 
 of the Zodiac: and in the center, is a perfon fitting, and playing on two pipes. This 
 mufical perfon, I fuppofe, is placed there to fignify the regularity, and due proportions, 
 in which all the heavenly bodies take their courfes; or in other words, the harmony of 
 the univerfe. This is what we vulgarly talk of, by the name of the Mufic of the fpheres; 
 without having any thing of that true and noble idea, that really belongs to it. The 
 antients, (as high, at lead, as Pythagoras’s time,) had a notion of the diftances of the 
 planets being meafured out, in a very regular proportion ; as regular, as the (0 notes of 
 mufic. How far thefe guefles of Pythagoras, or of his predeceflbrs in philofophy, may 
 bear a refemblance to the difeovery of Kepler and the demonftrations of Sir Ifaac Newton, 
 in relation to the entire harmony that there is between the revolutions and diftances of 
 each of the planets, it is not our bufinefs here at all to enquire: all I have to do with 
 the planets being to confider how they were reprefented by the antients, under perfonal 
 characters. As to that, in the drawing before us, they are all, you fee, in a fort of 
 chariots. That of Saturn, is drawn by two ferpents; that of Jupiter, by two eagles ; 
 
 Mars by two horfes, and Sol by four. Venus is drawn by her two doves; Mercury, by 
 two cocks; and Luna, by two ftags. Five of thefe are very rarely reprefented by the 
 artifts, or fpokenof by the poets, in their planetary characters; but Sol and Luna, (which 
 make the nobleft appearance in the heavens, and are the moil confiderabie in regard to 
 our globe,) are common enough in both. I never faw all of them together, but in the 
 Florentine drawing. What a treafure would it be for the fame gentleman, could he add 
 the feven rings of Apollonius Thyaneus to his collection ? which feem to have had the 
 feven planets reprefented on them ; and which, (we are told,) Apollonius ufed to wear 
 (2) each, one day every week ; according to the particular planet, that gave its name to 
 the day. 
 
 The moft remote of the planets, Saturn, was fuppofed to have been the firft mailer of 
 the univerfe; and fome of the old poets call him, the (3) greateft of all the gods. Jupiter 
 drove him(4)out of the higheft heavens; and it is therefore that you did not meet with 
 
 him. 
 
 II 
 
 y 
 
 (1) Pythagoras—cx muficd ratione appellat tonum, 
 quantum abiit a Terra Luna. Ab ea ad Mercurium, 
 fpatii ejus dimidium : ab co ad Venerem, fere tan- 
 tundem : a qua ad Solem, fefquiplum : a Sole ad 
 Martem, tonum; (id eft, quantum ad Lunam a 
 terra :) ab eo ad Jovem, dimidium : & inde fefqui¬ 
 plum, ad Signiferum. Ita feptem tonos effici, quam 
 diapafon harmoniam vocant; hoc eft, univerfitatem 
 concentus. In ea Saturnum, Dorio moveri ; Mer¬ 
 curium pbthongo; Jovem Phrygio; & in reliquis 
 fimilia. Pliny, Lib. 2. Cap. 22. 
 
 (2) $>»ffi Jz 0 Aetpxif x) J'ctKT vKtve iirna. 7 ov Tap^ttis 
 ru AtsM uvta J'vveu, 7 uv Ezra zzawy.vs o?zpuV ve 
 
 (popziy n,v AzqXKavigV x.a. 70 . zvd, zpoe t a ovoijlato, 7 uv 
 tiy.ipu>y. Philoftratus, Lib. 3. Cap. 41. 
 
 (3) O genitor nolter, Saturne, maxime Divum ! 
 
 Ennius. 
 
 (4) Stepe aliquis folio quod tu, Saturne, tenebas 
 
 Aufus de media plebe federe Deus. 
 
 Ovid. Fall. 5. jr. 20. 
 Saturnus regnis ab Jove pulfus erat. 
 
 Id. Ibid. 3. jb 796, 
 
 Qualem tc memorant, Saturno rege fugato, 
 
 Viftori laudes concinuifle Jovi. 
 
 Tibullus. Lib. 2. EI. 5. f. t». 
 
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POLYMETIS. 
 
 182 
 
 him, in my firft temple, among the Great Cckftial Deities. I do not know that the 
 Roman writers ever deleri be him, as driving a chariot: but what they i'ay of his feet 
 being ufually (5! in fetters, may poflibly have fome relation to his planetary charafler 
 ( 6 ); and to the flownefs of his motion in the heavens. For he is longer, you knots', 
 ill making his revolution, than any other of the planets; and above three hundred 
 times as long as one of them. If you have a mind to fee what fort of a figure he 
 f['o* XVI ' makes in you may confider that ftatue of him there by the door. You fee he 
 
 is very (7) old, and decrepid, as well as chained; and appears, in all refpedls, like one 
 that mull go on extremely fiowly. 
 
 Saturn was ufually reprefented, either with a pruning hook (8), or Icythe in his 
 hand. This relates to a piece of the Roman hiflory, in their fabulous age: for tliev had 
 one too as well as the Grecians; and perhaps it may reach much farther down towards 
 us, than has been ufually imagined. They pretended that Saturn, when he was de¬ 
 throned by Jupiter, took refuge in Italy ; and that he introduced feveral parts of agri¬ 
 culture there ; particularly, the art of pruning, and managing their vines. 
 
 Another charader of Saturn among the antients, (for I would willingly confider all 
 his characters together, tho' this comes a little before its proper place,) was that of pre- 
 liding over Time; with which the name given him by the Greeks more particularly 
 agrees. It is -on the account of this charafler of his, that Cicero thinks he was (9) repre¬ 
 fented in fetters. I take this figure, in particular, to relate to Saturn as the god of Time; 
 becaufe he has wings to his Ihoulders in it, as well as Ihackles to his feet; which may 
 fignify both the fwiftnefs, and flownefs of time : for time has the fame fort of contra¬ 
 riety in its charafler; and feems either fwift, or flow to each man, according to the 
 agreeablenefs or difagreeablenefs of the ideas, that his mind is employed about. Our 
 modern painters feem to have borrowed their idea of Time, from the antient figures of 
 Saturn : only perhaps, they have turned his pruning-hook into a feythe; or the par¬ 
 ticular tort of feythe, which he refts on in this figure, into a common one. 
 
 Jupiter, as the intelligence prefiding over a Angle planet, 
 chariot and a pair; on all other occafions, if 
 
 (5) Vctus opinio Graeciam opplevit, vinftum Sa¬ 
 turnum a filio Jove. Cicero, de Nat. Deor. Lib. 2. 
 
 p. 39. Ed. Aid.-So Minutius Felix, (peaking of 
 
 the reprefentations of the Roman deities, fays : Pe¬ 
 dibus Mercurius alatis, Pan ungulatis, Saturnus com¬ 
 peditis. Cap. 21. p. 108. 
 
 They unfettered his ftatues on his great feaft, the 
 Saturnalia; about the time of our Chriftmas : 
 
 Saturnus mihi compede exolutus. 
 
 Et multo madidus mero December, 
 
 Et ridens Jocus, & Sales protervi, 
 
 Adfint. . 
 
 Statius. Lib. 1. Sylv. 6. jr. 7. 
 
 ( 6 ) O vfitvnv vJ'i 7 zr Kpovoy 0 Zsv( tJ'nffiy, xJ'i sj Teip- 
 Tapa «ppi-J-sy—«tAAtt ipepercu yct p 0 Kporoj tux 55« 
 Ropin', toaAoi' arr' n/xiay : x} 01 yud-pn n x.ivn<ri(, xj 
 a pnifin 7 ti< 7 1 ctv-Jpwao/tri cpd.a.£rcu. Aro tfn ///r srctl 'o* 
 ^tyuatv, c ku( iriTrttPnfAiyov to J'i fa- 3 -or 70 toaAo v tv 
 
 mpof, TttpTctpoj K*\iiTcu. Lucian. Tom. 1 . p. 853. 
 Ed Blaeu. 
 
 (7) Satumufque fenex, Janiquc bifrontis imago. 
 
 Virgil. JEa. 7. jr. 180. 
 
 (8) -Priufquam 
 
 Sumeret agreftem pofito diademate falcem 
 Saturnus fugiens.- 
 
 Juvenal. Sat. 13. jfr, 39. 
 
 is reprefented only in a 
 reprelented in a chariot, he is always drawn 
 
 by 
 
 -- Curvo Saturni dente reliiflam 
 
 Profequitur vitem. - 
 
 Virgil. Georg, a. y. 407. 
 
 Hence Ovid calls Saturn, Deus Falcifer. Faft. j. 
 y. 234. And St. Cyprian fays of the fame deity, 
 Rufricitatis hic cultor fuit : inde ferens falcem pingi¬ 
 tur. Tract. 4. de Idol. Vanitate. 
 
 The Roman authors call thefe two attributes of Sa¬ 
 turn, indifferently, by the name of Falx ; which is a 
 very equivocal word ; and feems to have fignified any 
 crooked fort of inftrument whatever. Their writers on 
 agriculture in particular, makcufeof it for apruniirj- 
 hook, bill, or ficlc ; Caefar, in his Commentaries, for a 
 crooked inftrument of war; the poets, for the Harpd, 
 or crooked fword of Mercury; and many of their 
 authors, for a feythe : particularly Propertius, in die 
 following palfage ; where he is fpcaking of Vertum¬ 
 nus, and the different characters that god ufed to 
 take upon him : 
 
 Da talcem, & torto frontem mihi comprime fncr.o • 
 Jurabis noftra gramina feflamanu. 
 
 Lib. 4. EI. 2. 26. 
 
 (9) By Satum, fays Cicero, the Greeks under- 
 
 ftood Time ; anJ therefore called him Xp ovat: _. 
 
 vimftus efl autem a Jove, ne immoderatos curfus 
 haberet; atque ut eum fyderum vinculis alligaret 
 De Nat. Dcor. Lib. 2. p. 39. Ed. Aid. 
 
Dialogue the Twelfth. j 8 - 
 
 by four horfes. It is poffible, that the poets might look on this planetary charafter of his 
 as derogatory to his honour; for there is not any one of them, I believe, who ipeaks of 
 Jupiter, as drawn only by two horfes; and indeed they very feldom fay any thilw of his 
 preliding over a planet, at all. Perhaps they looked upon it as a prophane thing! and as 
 demeaning Jupiter too much, to confider him in a view, in which he muff evidently ap- 
 pear inferior to Sol. ' * 
 
 It is otherwife as to Mars. The poets fpeak diftinflly of him as guiding a planet • 
 and of his being (to) drawn by two horfes. His appearance under this charade! is re! 
 prefented by them, much like his appearance as the god of war. They fpeak of his liar, 
 as red and fiery ; and of the god himfelf, as impetuous in his courfe. Venus is as mild, 
 as the former is outrageous; and is drawn here, by doves: as floe is reprefented too! 
 moft commonly (n), by the poets; in theirdeferiptions of this goddefs. 
 
 As the ftar ofVenus had fuch a variety of (12) names and offices affigned to it, fo there 
 is a great deal of difference in the manners of reprefenting it: fo great, that it is foine- 
 times reprefented even under the figure of a male, as well as that of a female. When 
 Conlidered as a planet, it is direded by Venus, in her chariot drawn bv doves. But 
 when it is conlidered as the morning, or the evening-ftar, it is directed by a bov or 
 young man : who is fometimes called Lucifer, under both thofe charadersj but more 
 generally Lucifer (13) for the former, and Hefperus (14) for the latter. Others do not 
 change the name, but latisfy thcmfelves with (15) changing his horfe; and giving him 
 a white one for the morning, and a dark one for the evening. Tho’ the poets mark the 
 beauty of Lucifer, and call him (16) the brightcfl of all the holt of heaven ; yet they 
 reprefent him as with a (' 7 ) gloomy afped, on melancholy occafions. His office, was 
 to (18) call Aurora; and he had the privilege of leaving the heavens the lall of all the 
 liars. From the poets being fo particular in their deferiptions of Lucifer, I doubt not 
 but that the antient artifts, and particularly the painters, reprefented him under all his 
 charaders as occafion ferved; tho’ I have never yet met with him on either of his 
 horfes, that I remember, in any antique. Where I have feen him, he is always repre¬ 
 fented as a youth; (' 9 ) either before the chariot of the Sun, w'ith a torch, as Lucifer • 
 or before the chariot of the moon, without a torch, as Hefperus. 
 
 Lucan, 
 
 (10) Jamque dux noftes reflant de menfe fecundo, 
 
 Marfque citos jundlis curribus urget equos. 
 
 Ovid. Fall. z. f. 856. 
 
 (11) Per— leves auras, jundlis invefla columbis. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 14. jr. 598. 
 
 -- Tum maximus heros 
 
 Maternas agnofeit aves. -■ 
 
 Virgil. JEn. 6. it, 193. (of two doves.) 
 
 (12) This fingle ftar has four names among us, 
 at prefent ; and had alrnoft twice as many, among 
 the Romans of old. They called it, Venus; Phof- 
 phorus, Lucifer; Hefperus, Vefperus ; Vefper, and 
 Vefperugo. Thefe names are all reducible to its 
 three charadlers; as a planet, or as the morning and 
 evening ftar. 
 
 (13) —-— Cumque albo Lucifer exit 
 
 Clarus equo. - 
 
 Ovid. Met. 15. jt. 190. 
 
 (14) Hefperus & fufeo rofeidus ibat equo. 
 
 Ovid. Fall. z. it. 312. 
 
 (15) Rofcidajam novies ccelo demiferat allra 
 Lucifer; & totidem Lunx prxvenerat ignes. 
 
 Mutato noflurnus equo : nec confcia fallit 
 Sidera ; & alterno deprenditur unus in ortu. 
 
 Statius. Theb. 6. it. 241. 
 
 (16) Lucifero genitore fatus; patriumque nitorem 
 
 Ore ferens Ceyx.- 
 
 Ovid. Met. 11. jr. 272. 
 
 - Ccelo nitidiflimus alto 
 
 Lucifer. —— 
 
 Ovid. Lib. 2. EI. 11. 56. 
 
 (17) Lucifer obfcurus, nec quem cognofccre polles. 
 
 Illa no£te fuit.- 
 
 Ovid. Met. 11. jr. 371. 
 Cxrulus Sc vultum ferrugine Lucifer atra 
 Sparfus erat.-— 
 
 (Before Julius Cxfar’s death) Id. Ibid. 15. f. 790, 
 
 (18) - Dum Lucifer ignes 
 
 Evocet Aurorx:- 
 
 Ovid. Met. 4. f, 629. 
 
 -Dxdalion, illo genitore creatus, 
 
 Qui vocat Auroram, cceloque novillimus exit. 
 
 Id. Ibid. 11. i. 296. 
 
 (19) See Pl. 26. Fig. 3, and 4. 
 
 Bbb 
 
184 
 
 POLY M E T I S. 
 
 Lucan, in fpeaking of Mercury as the guiding intelligence of a planet, marks the 
 (20) fwiftnefs of his motion. I have obferved, on a former occafion, that the make of 
 Mercury in general, fecmcd to be all defigned for lightnefs and difpatch. Perhaps, the 
 ftntients firft borrowed this idea of Mercury from his planetary charadtcr ; as they repre¬ 
 sented Saturn, the flowed of all the planets, chained and creeping on with difficulty. It 
 is common to meet with Mercury in other antiques, as well as this, drawn by two 
 cocks; which birds feem to have been affigned to him, becaufe they were looked upon 
 of old, as the mark of vigilante and alertnefs. 
 
 Diana had different offices, you know, thro’ almoft all parts of the umverfc; in 
 the heavens, upon earth, and in hell, it is (he who is the intelligence you fee repre- 
 p,.. XXVI. fented here in her car, as direfling the planet of the moon. Her figure under this cha- 
 r,G ’ 3 - rafter is frequently enough to be met with on relievo’s, gems, and medals : on which 
 file generally appears with a lunar (21) crown, or crefccnt, on her forehead: and is 
 fometimes reprefented as drawn by (lags ; and fometimes by does : but more commonly 
 than either, by horfes. The poets fpeak (»*) of her chariot, and her horfes ; they agree 
 with the artifts, in giving her but two; and (hew that the painters of old, probably, 
 drew them of a perfedt white colour. There is a gem in the Great Duke’s colledtion, 
 at Florence, in which this goddefs is drawn by two heifers; a particular that I do not 
 remember to hat = been taken notice of by any one of the Roman poets, of the good 
 ages. . 
 
 It was this Diana, (or the intelligence, that was filppofed to prefide over the moon,) 
 who was fabled to fall in love with Endymion ; and if we conlider the occafion of her 
 love for him, according to the accounts the antients give of that fable, it may appear 
 perhaps to have been only a pliilofophical amour, or what we call Platonic love : and fo 
 may not interfere with this goddefs's general charafler of chaftity. However that be, 
 the (lory is very common, in particular on old Sarcophagus’s; and we fee her on them,' 
 defeending to a (hepherd afleep, with a veil over her head : a particular, from which a 
 line in (>3) Valerius Flaccus, (that poflibly has been fometimes thought obfeure,) be¬ 
 comes not only very clear, but very deferiptive too of her appearance. There is fome 
 reafon to think, that this fable might have been meant originally of the (24) eclipfes of 
 the moon : and if it was fo, her veil would be the mod fignificant part of her drefs, on 
 this occafion. 
 
 Apollo, 
 
 - Summo fi frigida ccelo 
 
 Stella nocens nigros Saturni accenderet ignes; 
 Deucalioneos fuditfet Aquarius imbres, 
 
 Totaque diffufo latuiffet in xquore tellus : 
 
 Si frevum radiis Nemcxum, Phcebe, leonem 
 Nunc premeres; toto fluerent incendia mundo, 
 Succenfufque fuis flagraffet curribus xther. 
 
 Ili cedant ignes. Tu qui flagrante minacem 
 Scorpion incendis cauda Chelafque peruris. 
 
 Quid tantum, Gradive, paras f Nam mitis in alto 
 Jupiter occafu premitur; Venerifque falubre 
 Sidus hebet; motuque celer Cyllenius hxretj 
 
 Et coelum Mars folus habet.- 
 
 Lucan. Pharf. i. f. 663, 
 
 / 2 q -Siderea: torta corona dea:. 
 
 Propertius. Lib. 3. EI. 20. jr. iS. 
 
 Hence Horaee calls her : Siderum Regina bicornis. 
 Carm. See. f. 35. 
 
 (22) Jamque per emeriti furgens confinia Phcebi 
 Titanis, late mundo fubvcdli Alenti 
 Rorifera gelidum tenuaverat aera biga. 
 
 Statius. Thcb. 1. jL 338. 
 
 _Qua: cava cceli fignitenentibus 
 
 Conficis bigis.- 
 
 Ennius, in Androm. 
 
 Sol quoque cum ilellis, nulla gravitate retentus : 
 Et vos, Lunares exfiluillis equi. 
 
 Ovid. Fall. 5. jr, 16. 
 Pollera cum ccclo motis Pallantias allris 
 Fulferit; & niveos Luna levarit equos. 
 
 Id. Ibid. 4. jr. 372. 
 
 Ut folet, xquoreas ibit Tiberinus in undas; 
 
 Ut folet, in niveis Luna vehetur equis. 
 
 Id. Rem. Am. 1. jr. 258. 
 
 (23) Qualis adhuc fparfis comitum per lullra catervis, 
 Latmius xftiva relidet venator in umbra, 
 
 Dignus amore dex ; velatis cornibus & jam 
 Luna venit : rofeo talis per nubila dudtor 
 Implet honore nemus; talemque expediat amantem. 
 
 Flaccus. Argon. 8. jL 31. 
 
 (24) Catullus, where he is commending Conon, 
 the famous aftronomer, fays; that he knew the rea- 
 fons of the eclipfes of the fun ; why ftars are fome¬ 
 times loft ; and why the moon fometimes difappears 
 in the midft of her courfe. 
 
 Flammeus ut rapidi Solis nitor obfcurctur ; 
 
 Ut cedant certis fidera temporibus ; 
 
 Ut Triviam furtim fub Latmia faxa relegans 
 Dulcis amor gyro devocet aerio. 
 
 Dc coma Bcr. 64. jr. 6. 
 
D I A 
 
 L o g u e the Twelfth. 
 
 Apollo, or rather Sol, (for that is the perfonal name which is moil proper for him 
 as the intelligence of a planet.) is diftinguifhed above all the reft of the pl-mets i , ft s ' 
 having a chariot and four, aligned to him j and the poets indeed fpe k of him more 
 than of all the reft put together. They are very diftind, and very full, as t „ ’ 
 tinny relating to his perfon; and to the courfe he was fupppfed to make daily, in the 
 heavens. They defenbe his (ajl face as (hining; and mark that particular briehtnefs 
 (2ft) beaming from his eyes, which I have (27) formerly had occafion to mention to von. 
 'ihey often fpeak ot the (28) Corona radiata, (or crow n of twelve rays,) on his head 
 They reprefent him, as (29) (landing in his chariot; fometimes (30) with a whip ,„d 
 fometimes with a flambeau in his hand; as we find him reprefented with each by the 
 antient fculptors. In their works he is for the mod part naked; fo that 1 am apt to 
 iufpeit that the fine drefs which Flaccus affigns to this deity, in one of his deferip 
 lions of him, may be only an effefl of the fporting of his own imagination. 1 ft , ;f. s 
 him a Lorica, or coat of mail (3.), with the figures of the Zodiac wrought upon it • 
 and tied round him, with a rainbow inftead of a fafli. It is true, Flaccus mftht copy 
 this from fome antient painting : for which fuch an idea might be fitter, than ioi the 
 works of the fculptors. 
 
 The poets make frequent mention (32) of his chariot: and one may learn from them 
 how ( 33 ) fmall it was; as you fee it, in effect, always reprefented in the works of the 
 antient artifts. The harnefs feems to have been rofe-coloured; and ftudded with precious 
 ftones : and the chariot itfelf, chiefly of gold. 
 
 They 
 
 (25) Conditions illuftre caput. -- 
 
 (after laying afide his crown of rays.) Ovid. Met. 2. f. 50. 
 In veram rediit faciem, folitumque nitorem. 
 
 Id. Ibid. it. 231. 
 
 (26) i-Quid nunc, Hyperione nate. 
 
 Forma colorque tibi, radiataque lumina profunt? 
 
 Id. Ib. 4. it, 193. 
 
 Lucis adhuc hebetem vicina nocte levabat. 
 
 Et nondum excuflb rorantem lampada por.to. 
 
 Statius. Achil. 2. <■ 
 
 289. 
 
 (27) See p. 85, anteh. 
 
 (28) --Radiis frontem vallatus acutis. 
 
 Ovid. Ep. 4. jr. 159. (Phxdra, Hip.) 
 
 -Cui tempora circum 
 
 Aurati bis fex radii fulgentia cingunt; 
 
 Solis avi fpecimen.- 
 
 Virgil. JEn. 12. it. 164. (of Latinus.) 
 Depofuit radios-- 
 
 Ovid. Met. 2. ^.41. 
 
 Per folis radios, Tarpeiaque fulmina jurat. 
 
 Juvenal. Sat. 13. it. 78. 
 O decus mundi, radiate Titan ! 
 
 Here. Oet. A£t. 4. Clior. 
 Statius calls this crown of rays. Radiantem arcum, 
 Theb. i. it. 28. 
 
 (29) Cum tamen altus equis Titan radiantibus inflat. 
 
 Ovid. Ep. 8. it. io;. (Herm. Or.) 
 So the fame poet, of Phaeton : 
 
 Statque fuper; manihufque datas contingere habenas 
 Gaudet.-- 
 
 Met. 2. ir. 152. 
 
 -Rapit ipfe nitentes 
 
 Altus equos. — ■ 
 
 Val. Flaccus, (of Sol,) 5. ir. 414, 
 
 (30) -- Stimuloque domans Sc verbere fxvit. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 2. it. 399. 
 
 Exuit implicitum tenebris humentibus orbem 
 Oceano prolata dies ; genitorque corufcx 
 
 5 
 
 ( 3 1 ) *- Sol auricomus, cingentibus Horis 
 
 Multifidum jubar & bifleno fidere textam 
 Loricam induitur. Ligat hanc qui nubila contra “ 
 Balteus undantem variat mortalibus arcum. 
 
 Val. Flaccus. 4. 
 
 (32) Alme Sol, curru nitido diem qui 
 
 Promis Sc celas. --. 
 
 Horatj Carm. Ssc. ir. 10. 
 Jamque novum terris pariebat lumine primo 
 Egrediens Aurora diem : ftabulifque fubibant 
 Ad juga Solis equi ; necdum ipfe adfcendarat axem, 
 Sed prorupturis rutilabant xquora flammis. 
 
 Sil. ital. 16. it. 232. 
 
 Tempus agens abeunte curru. 
 
 Horat. Lib. 3. Od. 6. i\ 44. 
 - Ad altos 
 
 Deducit juvenem, Vulcania munera, currus. 
 
 Aureus axis erat, temo aureus; aurea fummte 
 Curvatura rota; : radiorum argenteus ordo ; 
 
 Per juga chryfolithi, pofitxque ex ordine gemmo;. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 2. y . no. 
 
 (33) Solverat Hefperii devexo margine ponti 
 
 Flagrantes Sol pronus equos; rutilamque lavabat 
 Oceani fub fronte comam : cui turba profundi 
 Nereos, & rapidis occurrunt paflibus Hora;. 
 Framaque, & aurata: textum fublime coronx 
 Deripiunt: laxant rofeis humentia loris 
 Peftora : pars meritos vertunt ad molle jugales 
 Gramen ; & erefto currum temone fupinant. 
 
 Statius. Theb. 3. ir. 414. 
 
 1% 
 
 • % 
 
 hi 
 
 1 
 
 II 7 
 
 
 u 
 
 
 
 m 
 
x S6 P O L Y M E T I S. 
 
 They arc as dillindt about his horfes. They tell us the number ( 34 ), and, the names 
 of them. Their us) colour too is mentioned; but in words fo general, or fo little un¬ 
 derflood at prefent, (as indeed mod of the Latin names for colours are very apt to be 
 miftaken by us,) that I would not be pofitive, what colour they were painted of. His 
 horfes are delcribed, as (36) full of life and fire: as (37) breathing quick, in their courfe; 
 and as reeking, after it. His courfe they fpeak of, as lying between two ( 3 8 ) Meta;, or 
 Pi.. XXVI. fixed points ; the firft half of it, all ( 39 ) up-hill, (as you fee him in this drawing in par- 
 *' 10 4 - ticu]ar ;) and the other, all ( 4 °) down-hill. He fets out from the eaftern (4O lea; and 
 drives into (42) the weftern : where they generally fuppofed him to be received, for the 
 nights, in the ( 43 ) palace of Oceanus. We at prefent cannot fo well have an idea of his 
 driving his chariot thus along the air; but it was an imagination commonly received 
 among the antients, that there was a great tranfparent arch in the heavens, (of cryflal, 
 or what you pleafe,) over which he took his Hated journey each day. This arch they 
 fo far fuppofed to be real and folid, that they talk of the tracks worn by his chariot- 
 wheels on it; as if they were as plain and ( 44 ) viftble, as any great road is upon our 
 earth. 
 
 The reprefentations ofSol taking this journey, are almoft as frequent in the works of 
 the antient artifts, as the deferiptions of it are in the poets ; and agree entirely with 
 them. You fee him in them either labouring up a ftcep hill; or dell-ending eafily 
 down it. Sometimes, you have the Zodiac reprefented over him : which falls in ufually 
 with the head of the deity; and I imagine that the point, where it falls in, is often 
 chole with defmn : to mark the time of fome action, or event, figured under it. It was 
 
 for 
 
 (33) ---— Pyroeis, & Eous, & /Ethon, 
 
 Solis equi; quartufque Phlegon. - 
 
 Ovid. Met. 2. ]r. 154. 
 
 (35) - Nitentes equos. 
 
 Flaccus. 5. f. 413. 
 
 Gemmea purpureis cum juga demet equis. 
 
 Ovid. Fall. 2. jr. 72. 
 
 Carmina fanguinex deducunt cornua Lunx, 
 
 Et revocent niveos Solis euntis equos. 
 
 Id. Lib. 2. EI. 1. jfr. 24. 
 What idea the Romans meant by the word purpu¬ 
 reus, is not at all fettled with us. They ufe that 
 epithet of Fire, of Swans, and of Snow ; fo that nivei 
 and purpurei here, may not differ fo .much, as they 
 may feem to do at firft. 
 
 (36) Nec tibi quadrupedes animofos ignibus illis 
 
 Quos in pedtore habent, quos ore & naribus efflant. 
 In promptu regere ell : vix me patiuntur, ut acres 
 Incaluere animi, cervixque repugnat habenis. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 2. f. 87. 
 He fpeak s of them again as breathing fire, ib. jr. 120. 
 in the fame manner as Virgil deferibes his war- 
 horfe : 
 
 Colledlumque premens volvit fuh naribus ignem. 
 
 Georg. 3. jr. 85. 
 
 (37) Converte, Titan clare, anhelantes equos. 
 
 Here. Oet. Adi. 4. Sc. 1. f. 1. 
 
 (3S) - Donec Sol annuus omnes 
 
 Conficeret metas.- 
 
 Statius. Achil. i. jr. 456. 
 
 (30) Sextus ubi e terra clivofum fcandet Olympum 
 Phtebus.- 
 
 Ovid. Fall. 4. 372. 
 
 Neccuminveflus equis altum petit xthera; nec cum 
 Prxcipitem Oceani rubro lavit xquorc currum. 
 
 6 Virgil. Georg. 3. jr. 360. 
 
 Ardua prima via efi, & qua vix mane recentes 
 Enitantur equi- 
 
 Ovid. Met. 2. jr. 64. 
 
 (40) jam labor exiguus Phccfco reflabat: equique 
 Pulfabant pedibus fpatium declivis Olympi. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 6. j.-. 487. 
 
 Frangebat radios humili jam pronus Olympo 
 Phccbus; & Oceani penetrabile littus anhelis 
 Promittebat equis.- 
 
 Statius. Achil. 2. jr. 17. 
 Pronus erat Titan : inclinatoque tenebat 
 
 Hefperium temone fretum.- 
 
 Ovid. Met. 11. f. 258. 
 
 (41) -Cum primum alto fe gurgite tollunt 
 
 Solis equi, lucemque elatis naribus efflant. 
 
 Virgil. ./En. 12. jr. 115. 
 
 (42) Deferet ante dies, & in alto Phccbus anhelos 
 
 ./Equore tinget equos.- 
 
 Ovid. Met. 15. ^.419. 
 Ni rofeus fefios jam gurgite Phccbus Ibcro 
 Tingat equos, nodlcmque die labente reducat. 
 
 Virgil. JEn. 11. jf-. 914- 
 
 (43) Statius calls this. Domus Occani, Theb. 8. 
 2731. and deferibes the reception of Sol in it ; ib. 3. 
 407, Sic. as quoted Note 33, anteh.—One might 
 form fome idea of it, from Virgil’s delcription of the 
 palace of Cyrene, under water j in his 4th Georgic : 
 or the grotto of the water-nymphs, in his firft ./Eneid, 
 ir. 166. 
 
 (44) Nec tibi diredtos placeat via quinque per arcus ; 
 Sedlus in obliquum vallo curvamine limes : 
 Zonarumque trium contentus fine, polumque 
 Effugito Auftralem, jundtamque Aquilonibus 
 
 Ardlon. 
 
 Hac fit iter. Manifeila rotx vefligia cernes. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 2. f. 133. 
 
Dialogue the Twelfth. 
 
 they might mark out the time of the year when fuch an af "* j- 1 ‘ Upp0lC 
 
 part of the Zpdiac with which they Lde ht coLdde Bm'thi ’ \ 
 imaginary; and I mention it only as fuch Where Phcebus' i™! tC 3 S °° G d ° ! 
 figures falls in with fuch a fign of the Zodiac that nfobl. °'™ " “ ° f Arfe 
 
 US) time of year : for that, in the language of the ftatuar/s, (whTcTl W W fofeT 
 t0 y °“’ ) 15 ^ as when we fay thefim i^ 
 
 th , e r pri r ncipal ones —e 
 
 Seafons, which are direfled and meafured by them. ^ P * “ TaBa “ d 
 
 What may feem a little ftrange to you is, that all the parts of duration, (from the 
 very greateft to almoft the very leaft,) were reprefeuted as perfons, by the artiftsTold 
 and fpoken of perfonally by the poets. If it was fo, (fays Myfagetes,) Eternity I fun' 
 pofe muft have appeared as a vaft giant, and a Minute much lefs than a 1 
 
 do not fay how little, or how great they were, anfwered Polymetis; I only fay that they 
 were all considered as perions. We at prefent are got very well acquainted with the 
 Hours as perfons t from a Angle pidture of Guido : and, among the antLts, not only h 
 figures of the Hours but thofe of the Morning and Eveni„g°_of the Day, and of die 
 Night;—of each Month;—of eyery Quarter of the Year ;-of the Year ufelf — 
 of the four Stages of man’s life;-of their Stecula, or Centuries of years-of the 
 great Platonic Year j-of Time, in general; and of boundlefs Time, or Eternity were 
 probably, all much better, and more familiarly known, than the figures of Jkours 
 are with us. The appearance, which feveral of them made, is ftill to be learned from 
 the antiques that remain to us; and they are generally fpoken of by the poets in . «T 
 fonal manner I have got a few antiques, (or copies of antiques,) reprefenthw fome of 
 
 e f e 7 g f 1 A T kn ° Wn T" g US : and have placed thcm in this toniple, as they 
 are a fort of lefler divinities, that attended on Sol; and feem to have been confident/ 
 
 and even placed (46) much in the fame manner, by the antients themfelves. 
 
 On this medal, if you will pleafe to regard it a little, you will fee the figure of Eter- P 
 
 mty carrying the wife Of that good emperor Marcus Aurelius up to heaven; on wMch 
 
 occaiion, flie holds a lighted flambeau in her hand. Eternity ariDears inti- in ,1 r 
 manner, on a fine relievo ( +7 , which belonged to the triumph aX^ td X 
 
 a ° f 4 he C ° r t’u at R ° me; and Which W3S Placed in the Capitol, when that arch 
 was taken down. There is another very remarkable relievo, relating to the fame fubjefl • 
 
 that on the bafe of Marcus Aurelius's column : which as you may remember, when we' 
 were at Rome, ufed to lie under a (lied on Monte Citorio; but has been lately placed be¬ 
 fore tha palace, by the order of the prefent Pope : who did not ceafe to .«i/a kindly 
 eye on the more pleaf.ng arts, even whilft the alarms of war were heard every day aU 
 around the neighbourhood of Rome. In this relievo (48), there is one thing that is par¬ 
 ticular; 
 
 (45) This might mark out not only the month, 
 but the particular part of the month ; according to 
 what part of any particular fign he is made to coincide 
 with : fo that thefe figures might exprefs the time, as 
 minutely as Ovid does, when he fays : 
 
 Cum Sol Herculei terga Leonis adit. 
 
 De Art. Ani. i 
 Or, 
 
 Virginis tetheriis cum caput ardet equis. 
 
 Ib. 3. 
 
 (46) -Purpurea velatus velle fedebat 
 
 In folio Phccbus, claris lucente fmaragdis. 
 
 187 
 
 , *. 68 . 
 
 . *. 38S. 
 
 A dextra Ixvaque, Dies, & Menfis, & Annus, 
 Saiculaque ; & polita; fpatiis a;qualibus Hone ; 
 Verquc novum flabat, cinflum florente corona’ ; 
 Stabat nuda Asllas, & fpicea ferta gerebat ; 
 Stabat & Autumnus, calcatis fordidus uvis; 
 
 Et glacialis Hyems, canos Mrfuta capillos. 
 
 Ovid. Met. z. f. 30. 
 
 ( 47 ) See Coi. Ant. Tav. 1. fub fin. 
 
 (48) See Ibid. Tav. 2. 
 
 C c c 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 T , 
 
 Wl 
 
iS8 
 
 POL 
 
 Y M E T I S. 
 
 ticular J the 1 not without example. Eternity is reprefented as a male on it. It is ve.y 
 noble figurej naked, and with his wings finely expanded. In his leit hand, he holds 
 srlobe of the heavens ; with a ferpent winding itlelf about it: a very old, and very lg- 
 nificant, emblem of eternity ; efpecially when it had its tail brought round to its mouth: 
 (a thing, frequent in antiques; whether Roman, Greek, or Egyptian.) His eyes are 
 lifted up toward the heavens, whither he is carrying Marcus Aurelius and his confer . 
 and on each fide of them appears an eagle, as flying toward the eaft ; the common fymbol 
 of deification, among the Romans. At the bottom on the right hand is the Genius 
 of the city of Rome, looking upwards; and holding up her hand, either as admiring 
 or (49) praying: and on the left, is what I take to be (50) the Genius of Monte Citono; 
 more reclined, and retting his hand againft an obelifk with a round ball on the top of it 
 The whole is finely imagined, and very well executed ; and deferved to be diftinginflie 
 by the regards of a prince, who feems thoroughly inclined to take the arts under h.s 
 protection. 
 
 There ate feveral other ways of reprefenting Eternity, ufed by the old artifts befide 
 thofe I have mentioned. Sometimes (he has the head of Sol in one hand, and of Luna in 
 the other; which feems to anfwer the feriptute expteffion “ As long as the fun and 
 moon endureth:” and fometimes (he is fitting on a globe, which may poffibly all imc .0 110 
 heathen notions of the eternity of the world. Sometimes (he is reprefented by an ele¬ 
 phant, or in a chariot drawn by elephants; as a very long-lived creature Sometimes by a 
 phffinix, or with a phoenix; as continually renewed, and reviving after each comle of 
 ages : and fometimes they give her two faces, like Janus ; to iigmfy that Hie looks as ai 
 backward as forward. I have feen her too with a veil over her face ; to (hew that (he is 
 impenetrable and infcrutable to us: and I queftion whether (lie be not meant in a gem ,S 0 , 
 publifhed by Maffci; where you fee a fine naked, winged figure, endeavouring to lilt 
 up another which has its feet chained to a globe. This may fignify, that eternity (or the 
 thoughts of eternity,) are tire fitted to free the foul; and to elevate it, above all its low 
 attachments to the things of this world. 
 
 Was not the fubjeft fo great, and fe concerning, you might think perhaps that I have 
 dwelt too long on thevarious reprefentations of this imaginary being among the antients; 
 efpecially as I have nothing from the Roman poets of the better ages, to confront with 
 them Whether it may be occafioned by the unfitnefs of her name for the moft com¬ 
 mon Latin'Verfe, or for any other reafon, I know not; but if you were to put me to it, 
 I could not produce any one paffage from them, in which they fpeak perfenally of her 
 Unlefs (which might poffibly be the cafe,) they meant this goddefs under the name of 
 Hebe ■ the idea of whom, among the Romans, feems to have been much tire fame (5a) 
 
 (49) She holds the palm of her hand open, to¬ 
 wards heaven. This was an attitude ufed by the Ro¬ 
 mans of old, when they prayed ; and is ufed among 
 the Africans to this day. There are feveral palTages, in 
 the old Roman writers, relating to this; but it may be 
 fufficient to quote two or three only, from Virgil. 
 
 __ Duplices tendens ad fidera palmas 
 
 ALn. 1. f. 93. (of ./Eneas, praying.) 
 
 - Ccelo palmas cum voce tetendit. 
 
 lb. z. if. 688. (of Anchifes.) 
 
 Ad cadum tendens ardentia lumina fruAra : 
 
 Lumina; nam teneras arcebant vincula palmas. 
 
 Ibid. 406. (of Caliandra.) 
 
 (50) The Genius’s of mountains are generally re¬ 
 prefented either fitting, or leaning, on a little rock 
 or riling ground. What I take to be the Genius of 
 Monte Citorio, is thus reprefented on this relievo : 
 and the obelifk, (landing near its feet, anfwcrs Pliny’s 
 account of the famous obclilk, which flood near the 
 bottom of this hill of old : and which ftill lies there; 
 tho’ moftly under ground. Pliny mentions the 
 
 witn 
 
 round ball on the top of it; Lib. 36. Cap. io. a thing, 
 neceflary for the particular ufe this obelifk was ap¬ 
 plied to ; and I fbould think improper for any obelifk, 
 not put to fuch a ufe : which, perhaps, no other 
 obelifk in the world ever was. So that this feems to 
 be one of the moft diftinguifhing chara&eriftics of a 
 place, or figure, that one can poffibly meet with, in 
 all antiquity. 
 
 (51) Vol. III. PI. 20. 
 
 (;z) Aftra tenes: hauftumque tibi fuccin&a beati 
 
 Neflaris, exclufo melior Phryge, porrigit Hebe. 
 
 Statius. Lib. 3. Sylv. 1. if. 27. 
 
 . Nedtar 
 
 Det mihi formofa nava Juventa manu. 
 
 Ovid, ex Pont. Lib. 2. Ep. 10. f. 12 
 
 Poetm—neclar, ambrofiam, epulas comparant: et, 
 aut Juventutem, aut Ganymedem, pocula mi ni Aran¬ 
 tem. Cicero, de Nat. Dcor. Lib. 1. p. 24. Ed. 
 Aid. 
 
D 
 
 IALOGUE the 
 
 Twelfth. 
 
 1 89 
 
 with that of Eternal Youth ; or, an immortality of blifs: agreeably to which flic A re 
 prelented on a gem ( 53 ), in the Great Duke's collodion at Florence, with a young airy 
 00k ; and drinking out of a little bowl: or, (according to our Milton's expreffion ) 
 
 quamng immortality and joy.” r 3/ 
 
 The Magnus Annus or great Platonic Year, is reprcfented perfonally, on the reverfe 
 of a medal of Adrian. This was a period of feveral thoufand years ; (above four times as 
 much ( 54 ), as the age of the world at prefent;) when all the heavenly bodies would be juft 
 in the fame fituation again, that they were in at the creation of the world • and when the 
 antients believed, that all things on earth would of courfe have the fame face a, the 
 had then. The confequcnce of this would be, a reiteration of the golden aV ■ and 
 therefore when the Roman poets had a mind to compliment any of their emperors' moft 
 highly, they faid, The great period would be compleated under their reten ” T 1 ' 
 
 Evolution of fo many ages is reprefented with fome of the attributes of Eternity itfelf 
 He appears with a fine look, and long loofe robe about him. Kc holds his rtehr h d 
 upwards; and has the globe and phoenix, in his left. His whole figure is indofed byan teT"' 
 oval ring, to (hew the great round of time over which he prefides: had it been a com 
 plcte circle, ,t would have been too equivocal; and indeed rather fitter for Eternity than 
 the Magnus Annus. The mfeription of Temporum Reftauratio, fo frequent on medals - 
 and that of Wum Aureum, on this; had much the fame meaning with the fine com! 
 phments in Virgil s famous Eclogue to Pollio : of which I have now and then enter 
 
 Ofeed to" ” C ° njCaUreS ’ Whkh W0U ’ d bC W0 tedi ° US ’ 3nd t0 ° m to ^ 
 
 The Magnus Annus included feveral Saicula, or Centuries, in it. Thefe too feem to 
 have been reprefented diftinftly as perfons, among the antients; and are mentioned fome 
 times perfonally by their poets; and particularly by Ovid (j6) : tho ' I do not know that 
 I have ever met with any reprefentation of them. 
 
 
 (53) Muf. Flor. Vol. I. PL 39 . Fig. 9. 
 
 ( 54 ) The great Platonic year is that period of time, 
 jn which all the fhrsand conflellations return to their 
 former places, with regard to the equinoxes. This 
 period, according to Caflini, is 24800 years : accord¬ 
 ing to 1 ycho Brahe, 25816: and according to Ric- 
 cioli, 25920 : the /horted of which computations ex¬ 
 ceeds the time mentioned above. 
 
 (55) The notion of a renovation of the world, after 
 
 a certain period of time, was common among the an- 
 tient philofophers. This notion they feem to have 
 had from fome tradition, rather than from rcafonino-; 
 becaufe all of them, (and the Stoics and Platonifts 
 in particular,) alTerted it always roundly, without 
 giving any arguments for it. (Sec Burnet’s Theory, 
 Boole 4. Chap. 3.) 1 
 
 However founded, it was commonly received by 
 the Romans. The poets in their writings, and the 
 lenate itfelf on the medals /truck by their order, often 
 complimented fuch or luch an emperor by faying that 
 this federation of the world, or the return of the 
 golden age, would happen in their time; or under 
 their aufpicious influence. 
 
 This compliment fo frequently ufed to emperors. 
 Teems too high to be ufed to any but an emperor; 
 or one of the imperial family, at lead. I therefore 
 imagine Virgil’s famous Eclogue, (which turns wholly 
 on this fort of compliment,) to have been wrote by 
 him in honour of Augudus ; on his family’s being 
 increafed, and drengthened, by the birth of a young 
 prince in it. 
 
 1 he time when this young prince was born, mud 
 have been toward the beginning, or at lead not con- 
 fidcrably before the year 7x3. V. C. or the year of 
 Poilio’s conftilate. 
 
 I long imagined, that if Marcellus was born about 
 that time, this Eclogue might refer to his birth ; 
 and be meant as a compliment to Augudus, (the heir 
 
 The 
 
 of Julius,) and his heirs after him;—that the blelTed 
 ftate of mankind was to be reftored by him, and Ins 
 familyand that this happmefs was then aSualiv 
 commencing, under the conftilate of P 0 l!i„ * 
 
 1 hut Marcellus was actuali; born about the very 
 time queftion, may be very clearly prov,d; in tho 
 following manner. 
 
 Velleius Paterculus in fpcakingof Marcel lush is death. 
 
 - that ,t was 50 years before the time of his writing 
 
 hisHsftory. See his Hid. Lib. 2. Cap. o-,. 
 
 I hetime in which Paterculus wrote his Hidorv (or 
 which is much the fame, to which he ufually refers in 
 h.s dates,) was the Conful/hipof Vinicius ; (See Ibid. 
 Cap. 7 36, Sc 130 ; ) but exciufive of that year itfelf: 
 (See lb. Cap. 65.) 
 
 ThisConful/hipofViniciuswasin theyear782 V C 
 
 II therefore wc take the 5 oyears at fird mentioned by 
 Paterculus from 7 Sr, it will give the year of Marcel¬ 
 lus s death ; 731, V. C. 
 
 Servius, (in his Note on Ain. 6. 4 . 862,) fays that 
 Marcellus was in hi.: 18th year, when he died : 'which 
 number taken from 731, gives the year of his birth : 
 713, V.C. 
 
 Alter all, this fine dringof gucfwwork may only help 
 to prove ; “ That a conjecture may be very probable, 
 and yet very falfe.” In the prefent cafe, I fet out at fird, 
 (as I find fome others have done,) on this midake; 
 that 1 oil 10 was a great friend to Augudus : but Mr. 
 Lowth, in his incomparable TrcatiYe de facra poefi 
 Hebraeorum, (a work which mud do honour, not only 
 to him df, but to the nation,) has fince very didinctly 
 and fully fhown ; that, at the time when Virgil wrote 
 this Eclogue, and for two or three years after, Pollio 
 was attached to Antony, and oppofed Augudus: which 
 alone, I think with that mod clear andcxcdlent writer, 
 mult overthrow all the above conjeaures ; and all the 
 leaning probability, that I long imagined to attend 
 them. See Lowth’s Pneledt. p. 2x3. Note 2. 
 
 (56) See Note 46, antcli. 
 
 A 
 
 
 i [(I: > 9t 
 
I 9 ° 
 
 Pr.. xxvii. 
 Fig. 3. 
 
 POLYMETIS. 
 
 The four different Ages, or Gradations of the life of man, I take to be reprefcnted 
 in this drawing; from an antient piece of painting found at the Villa Coriini, near Rome. 
 
 It is a thing of much curiofity; and feems to contain fome of the greateft depths ot the 
 Platonic philofophy in it. Here, you fee, is Tellus; in a reclined poflure : and behind 
 her, are four (bilks of corn, growing gradually above one another; as I imagine, to fym- 
 bolize the four ages of man; Infancy; Youth; Manhood ; and Old-Age. Juft by, 
 you have the fame reprefented as fo many perfonages: the firlt, Hooping toward Tcllus; 
 the fecond, with a lhield and (pear; the third, in a fteddy poflure; and the fourth, 
 bending a little downward. Thefe are the figures for which, in particular, I introduced 
 this drawing here; but there are others in it, which may very well deferve your obfer- 
 vation. This perfon in the air, bending downward, and delivering a naked figure into 
 the hands of Tellus, denotes the entrance of a foul into fome elementary body; whether 
 for the firft time, or after many various tranfmigrations, I (hall not pretend to determine : 
 but it is plainly delivered down to the Earth ; and is to be cloathed with fome fort ot 
 body or other. This perfon fitting on the clouds toward the center, with a cup in her 
 hand, and pointing upwards ; may very well be that very Hebe, of whom I was fpeak- 
 ing to you juft now: and feems placed here to exprefs the immortality of the foul. The 
 Romans abounded in memorials of this kind, in their burying-places; and that common 
 way of reprefenting their departed friends on their fepulchres, as eating and drinking, 
 had (I doubt not) a view to the fame great dodlrine: but this piece goes higher; and 
 is more diflindt: and it was for that reafon, that I was very glad of an opportunity ot 
 getting it into my collefiion. As to the four perfonages, on whofe account it is intro¬ 
 duced here, I cannot fay that the Roman poets of the better ages fpeak of them all per- 
 fonally. To fay the truth, they feem commonly to have divided the life of man, rather 
 into two ages, than four : Youth, which I think among the Romans was carried on fo 
 far as to five and forty; and Old-Age, which, (tho' I am forty to fay it,) may fairly 
 enough claim all the reft : of both of thefe their poets (and more particularly, fome of 
 the Auguftan age,) fpeak (57) in a manner, which plainly (hews that they were received 
 as perfonages and deities, in their religion. 
 
 The Anni, (or Years,) are fpoken of perfonally too by the poets : who aferibe a cer¬ 
 tain gliding (s 8 ) and filent motion to them; as they do indeed, to all this fort of beings 
 in general. When their charadters were introduced in their great proceffions, or on any 
 other public occafion, the perfons who adted their parts, probably endeavoured to ex¬ 
 prefs this in their way of walking. There are fome expreflions in the poets, which 
 would make one apt to think, that Annus was fometimes reprefented with more dignity ; 
 and as moving along (filently, tho' fwiftly,) ( 59 ) In a chariot. 
 
 Not only the year itfelf, but the four different feafons it is ufually divided into, were 
 all reprefented as perfons by the antients. I do not know that I have ever once met with 
 
 any 
 
 (57) - Statuit — aras e cefpite binas : 
 
 Dextcriore, Hecates ; at leva parte Juventic. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 7. jr. 241 • 
 Jam veniet tacito curva Scnefla pede. 
 
 Id. Art. Am. Lib. 2. 670. 
 
 - Jam felicior aetas 
 
 Terga dedit ;tremuloquc gradu venit rcgraSencdlus, 
 Id. Mec. 14. f. 143. 
 
 — — Vetus Sene&us.- 
 
 Hor. Epod. S. ^.3. 
 
 I queftion whether Cicero in the age before, docs 
 not fpeak of the fame perfonally, even in prole ; 
 where he fays: Nonne modo pueros, modo adole- 
 fcentes, in curfu a tergo infequens, nec opinanteis, 
 afTecuta eft Senectus ? Tufc. Quaeft. Lib, 1. p. 360. 
 Ed. Blacu. 
 
 (58) —— Eunt Anni more fluentis aqua:. 
 
 Ovid, de Art. Am. 3. . 62. 
 
 5 
 
 . — Tacito—Tempora greflu 
 
 Diffugiunt; nulloque fono convertitur Annus. 
 
 Columella, de Cult. Hort. 160. 
 
 (S 9 ) Qt! 0 minus emeritis exiret curfibus Annus, 
 Reflabant nitido jam duo figna deo. 
 
 Ovid. Fail. 3. "}'■ 44. 
 -Vix Annus anhelat 
 
 Alter. --- 
 
 Statius. Lib. 3. Sylv. 1. jL 136. 
 Rota praecipitis vertitur Anni. 
 
 Here. Fur. A£L 1. Chor. 
 — ■ Celer admiffis labitur Annus equis. 
 
 Ovid. Lib. 1. EI. 8. jr. 50. 
 This was fo, in the old edition of Ovid I tranferibed 
 from : tho’ fome later critics, (on not being able to 
 underftand it, I fuppofe,) have taken the liberty of 
 changing annus, into amnis ; and equis, into aquis. 
 
D i 
 
 L o g u e the ' twelfth. 
 
 any figure of the former j but to make fomc amends, thofc of the latter are very frequent. 
 You generally meet with them all together, on Sarcophagus's, medals, and gems : fome- 
 times without any other perfonage annexed; and at others, with fome perfonage, to 
 whom they bear fome particular relation : as in this drawing, where you fee them,’ as 
 moving at equal diftances, over a celeftiai globe; which lies by the goddefs Tellus. The 
 artifts, as well as the (60) poets, feem fometimes to have an , ye to the four a res of life, 
 in their reprefentations of the four feafons of the year. Ver is induin';, . 
 
 rEftas, young and fprightly: Autumnus, is mature and manly; and Hiems, old and 
 decrepid. 
 
 Vee, befide Ids youth; is marked out generally by the (81 1 coronet of flowet , n ' i 
 head, or the bafltet of flowers in his hand. .Ellas, is (62) crowned with corn, or I Id 
 fide in his hand. Autumnus, is ufually diffinguHhed by Ids crown (63) of different fruits- 
 and Hiems, by his crown of reeds; by the birds, in his hand, or the beaft at Ids feet’; 
 and by his being clothed, when the others are naked. 
 
 Tho the feafons appear fo often oil the remains of the antients, we may learn fever d 
 manners of their reprefenting them from the poets, which I have never met with as yet, 
 either m gems, paintings, or relievo’s. Autumnus, in particular, was perhaps fometimes 
 reprefented as (64) pouring fruit out of his lap; and fometimes holding a vine-branch 
 with (6s) ripe grapes on it in his hand. At other times lie was painted, as all il.dncd (66) 
 and difcoloured from the vintage : and With grey hairs (67), intermixed with thofe of 
 their natural colour. It is probable he was fometimes drawn too, with a (68) wan fickly 
 look ; which is but too juft a charaderiftic of this feafon. Hiems, as old and decrepid, 
 ihould be either quite (69) bald, or only with a fety grey hairs. His look iliould be (70) 
 rough, melancholy, and fevere. He is flow in his motions ; and (71) ftdvers as he goes. 
 Poffibly, they fometimes reprefented him with (n) icicles on his garments, and boar- 
 froft upon his beard. His retreat during the warmer months, according to Statius, was 
 towards the north-pole ; and Virgil, (perhaps from fome piflure or relievo,) deferibes 
 ( 73 ) Sol, as driving him out of the fight of men; into fome deep, gloomy cave there. 
 
 
 (60) Quid, non in fpecies fecederc quatuor annum 
 Afpicis aitatis peragentem imitamina noftra: i 
 Nam tener, & ladlens, puerique fimillimus ®vo, 
 Vere novo eft, tunc herba recens & roboris expers 
 Turget, et infolida cft, & fpe dcleftat agreftem.— 
 Tranftt in aiftatem poft ver robuftior annus, 
 
 Fitque valens juvenis : neque enim robuftior tetas 
 Ulla, nec uberior; nec qua: magis ardeat, ulla eft. 
 Excipit Autumnus, polito fervore juventa: 
 
 Maturus mitifquc; inter juvenemque fenemque 
 Temperie medius ; fparfus quoque tempora canis. 
 Inde fenilis Hiems tremulo venit horrida paflu ; 
 Aut fpoliata fuos aut quos habet alba capillos. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 15 . 213. 
 
 (61) -Cinftum florente cotona. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 2. jL 27. Ex Pont. L. 3. Ep. 1. 1 1. 
 
 (62) Stabat nuda ^Eftas, & fpicea ferta gerebat. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 2. jr. 28. 
 
 (63) ' Decorum mitibus pomis caput 
 Autumnus arvis extulit. 
 
 Morat. Epod. 2. f. iS. 
 
 (64) *-Varios ponit fcetus Autumnus.- 
 
 Virgil. Georg. 2. jr. 521. 
 
 (65) Nec tibi pampineas Autumnus porrigit uvas. 
 
 Ovid. Ex Pont. L. 3. Ep. 1. j/. 13. 
 
 (66) —Satur Autumnus quaflans fua tempora pomis* 
 Sordidus & mufto, fpumantes exprimet uvas. 
 
 Columella, de Cult. Hort. i/, 44. 
 
 Tho’ 
 
 -Calcatis fordidus uvis. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 2. jr. 29. Faft. 4. j/. 8 g-. 
 
 (67) Ovid. Met. 15. jr. 211. See Note 6c; anteh. 
 
 (6S) --Pallens Autumnus- 
 
 Statius. L. 2. Sylv. 1. j. zl ~, 
 
 (69) Aut fpoliata fuo«, ut quos habet alba capillos. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 15. 213. 
 
 (70) Hiems is called. Horrida, by Ovid : Met. 15. 
 i/. 212.—Triflis by the fame : in his. Ibis. jr. 201.— 
 and Trux, by Statius. Lib. 4. Sylv. 5. jr. 5. 
 
 (70 -Senilis Hiems tremulo venit horrida palTu. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 15. ^.212; 
 
 Bfuma iners,- 
 
 (72) Hiems horrida. - 
 
 Horat. Lib. 4. Od. 7. jr . 
 
 Ovid. Met. ij. jr . 212. 
 - Glacialis Ii’sms- 
 
 Id. Ib. 2. jr, 30. 
 
 -Hiems adoperta gelu -— 
 
 Id. Faft. 3. jr. 233. 
 
 (73) Jam trux ad Arflos Parrhafias Hiems 
 Conceflit.- 
 
 Statius. Lib. 4. Sylv. 5. ,4.6. 
 Ubi pulfam Hiemem Sol aureus egit 
 Sub terras- 
 
 Virgil. Georg. 4. >’•. 32, 
 
 D d d 
 
 m r , 
 
 ■tl 
 
 . 
 
192. 
 
 POLYMETIS. 
 
 Tuo’ I have been fo long on the four feafons already, I mud beg leave to read you 
 Lucretius’s defcription of them 3 not only as I have fomething to remark in relation to 
 it, but as it is one of the fined paflages in all his poem. 
 
 It Ver, & Venus, & Veneris pnenuntius ante 
 Pinnatus graditur Zephyrus 3 vedigia propter 
 Flora quibus mater praffpargens ante via’i 
 Cundla coloribus egregiis & odoribus opplet. 
 
 Inde loci fequitur Calor aridus, & comes una 
 Pulverulenta Ceres 3 6c Etefia flabra Aquilonum. 
 
 Inde Autumnus adit3 graditur fimul Evius Evan : 
 
 Inde aliae tempedates ventique fequuntur. 
 
 Altitonans Volturnus & Auder fulmine pollens. 
 
 Tandem Bruma nives adfert, pigrumque rigorem 
 Reddit3 Hiems fequitur, crepitans ac dentibus Algus (74). 
 
 This whole defcription feems to me to have been copied from fome antient proceflion, 
 of the deities of the feveral feafons and their attendants. Such proceffions, of their deities 
 in general, were as common among the Romans of old3 as thofe in honour of the 
 faints are in the fame country to this day. All the expreffions ufed by Lucretius here 
 come in very aptly, if applied to a proceflion. Were the feafons to be reprefen ted in 
 one of our modern entertainments, and was a poet now to deferibe them according to the 
 appearance they there made3 I do not fee how his expreffions could be more adapted to 
 our dage, than Lucretius’s are to a proceflion in this defcription.—The fird perfon that 
 mud enter, is Zephyrus. Soon after him comes Flora3 drewing the way with flowers : 
 who fliould be immediately followed by the Spring, and Venus : who accompanies the 
 Spring I fuppofe in Lucretius, as prefiding over the month of April 3 which, in Italy, 
 anfwers to our May j the time, when the fpring is in its highed beauty, and when every 
 thing invites to love.—The fecond entry, fliould be that of the Summer and Ceres 3 pre¬ 
 ceded by two deities of the Winds.-The third, fliould be that of Autumn, and 
 
 Bacchus 3 preceded in the fame manner.—The fourth, fliould be that of Winter, and 
 (75) Algus 3 preceded by ( 7 6 ) Bruma, who might carry an urn full of ice and fnow. 
 
 It is the general manner of Lucretius, (and of all the earlied Roman poets,) to intro¬ 
 duce allegories very feldom 3 and even where he does introduce them, he is often but 
 half an allegorid. There is not any one indance, I believe, in all his writings, of an al¬ 
 legory carried oil fo far, and conducted fo regularly, as this is. This makes it the more 
 probable, that he did not invent, but take the order of this defcription from one of their 
 religious proceffions: which were difpofed with a great deal of regularity, as well as 
 with a great deal of pomp, among the old Romans. 
 
 The 
 
 (74) Lucretius, 5. jt. 746. 
 
 (75) Algus here feems to fignify the fenfe of ex¬ 
 treme cold, or {hivering with cold, reprefented as a 
 perfon : Crepitans ac dentibus Algus. 
 
 (76) Tho’ we vulgarly look on Bruma and Hiems, 
 as fignifying the fame thing ; the antient Roman wri¬ 
 ters ufed them, to exprefs two very different ideas. 
 Hiems, properly fignified a whole feafon, or quarter of 
 the year : and Bruma only one day, and that the 
 fliortcft day in the year; the winter-folftice. 
 
 Bruma novi prima eft, vctcrifquc noviflima folis: 
 
 Principium capiunt Fhcebus & Annus idem. 
 
 Ovid. Fall. 1. 164. 
 
 Bruma dicta, quod breviffimus dies. Varro, de 
 Ling. Lat. 5. 
 
 Hence the month of December is called the month 
 of Bruma 3 but the months of November, or Janu¬ 
 ary, never fo, that I know of. 
 
 Qux medio brumre mittere menfe folet. 
 
 Mart. I.ib. S. Ep. 41. (of December.) 
 
 Eruma eft; & riget horridus December. 
 
 Id. 7. Ep. 95. 
 
 Port Novembres, imminente jam bruma. 
 
 Id, 3. Ep. 5S. 
 
 4 
 
1 93 
 
 Dialogue the Twelfth. 
 
 Tin- Months are fjiokcn of perfonally ( 77 ) by the pdets; and December, in particular; 
 k defcribed by one of them, in a (78) drunken attitude: which bj th \ yw uld fcarce 
 be lefs proper for the mirth of our Chriftmas, in fome parts; tlwn it was for the Satur- 
 nalia of old, at Rome. 
 
 The Day, (and perhaps every day of the year,) was looked on (79) as a divinity, and 
 reprefented (80) perfonally; and that fometimes (81), like Sol, in a chariot. There was a 
 diftindlion that prevailed very early among the P.omans, of the Civil, and the Natural 
 Day. The Natural Day was mod: commonly reckoned from fun-rife, to fun-fet (82) • 
 the Civil Day, from midnight, to midnight again. Virgil, in fpeaking perfonally of the 
 latter (83), calls it Oriens : a name that was not much ufed in his time; but which he. 
 (as a profelfed lover of antiquity, and of their antient words,) chofe to ufe where it was 
 more proper than Sol, (or even Dies,) would have been. 
 
 The perfonal character of the Night is more diftindt, and more geherally known: 
 from the poets mentioning it fo familiarly in their writings. She is crowned (84) with 
 poppies; and, perhaps (85), fometimes with ftars. Her appearance had fomething very 
 (86) venerable and majeftic in it : perhaps in allulion to the dodtrine of the Egyptians, 
 who ufed to call her, the mold antient of all the gods. She had (87) large, dark wings ; 
 and a long (88) black robe. She is reprefented as riding in a (89) chariot, drawn by two 
 
 black 
 
 (77) - Stupet ipfe labores 
 
 Annus; & anguflo bifleni limite Menfes 
 Longffivum mirantur opus.- 
 
 Statius. Lib. 3. Sylv. i. jfr. ig. 
 
 Statius is fpeaking of a temple of Hercules, at Sur¬ 
 rentum ; which, tho’ a very noble work, was beo-un 
 and finifhed in the compafs of a year. It feems by 
 him as if the artift had taken an hint from thence, to 
 reprefent the Year, in his chariot; and the figures of 
 the twelve months, in a little circle round it; (as the 
 Zodiacal figures are often, round Sol;) on the fold¬ 
 ing-doors of the temple. 
 
 (78) Et multo gravidus mero December, 
 
 Et ridens Jocus, & Sales protervi 
 Adfint.-■ 
 
 Statius. Lib- i. Sylv. 6. jr. 7. 
 
 ( 79 ) Vulcanus, Sol, Luna, & Dies, dei quatuor, 
 Sceleitiorem nullum hoc illuxere alterum. 
 
 Plautus. Bacchides. Act. 2. Sc. 3. 
 
 Patrem (Saturni)—Coelum cfie deum confitendum 
 cft. Quod fi ita eft, Cceli quoque parentes, ./Ether 
 & Dies, dii habendi funt. Cotta; in Cicero, de Nat. 
 Deor. Lib. 3. p. 68. Ed. Aid. 
 
 (80) A dextra levaque, Dies, & Menfis, & Annus. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 2. jr. 25. 
 
 (81) Quid folito citius liquido jubar mthere tollit 
 
 Candida Lucifero pnetereunte Dies ? 
 
 Ovid. Fail. 5. jt, 550. 
 
 Et fugiunt fheno non remorante Dies. 
 
 Id. Ib. 6. -jr. 772. 
 
 (82) Ipfum Diem alii aliter obfervavere. Babylo¬ 
 nii, inter duos folis exortus; Athenienfes, inter duos 
 occafus; Umbri, a meridie in meridiem ; vulgus omne, 
 a luce ad tenebras. Sacerdotes Romani, h qui diem 
 diffiniere civilem, item /Egyptii, & Hipparchus, a 
 media noiRe ad mediam. Pliny, Nat. Hift, Lib. 2. 
 cap. 77. 
 
 (83) — Torquet medios Nox humida curfus ; 
 Et me fievus equis Oriens afflavit anhelis. 
 
 Virgil. /En. 5. 740. 
 
 Macrobius, in fpeaking of this pafiage, fays ; Vir- 
 gilius id ipfum oftendit, ut hominem decuit poeticas 
 res agentem, recondita atque operta veteris ritus fig- 
 
 nilicatione:-his enim verbis diem, quem Romani 
 
 civilem appellavere, a fexta nodlis hord oriri admo¬ 
 net. Saturn. Lib. x. c, 3. 
 
 (84) --Placidam redimita papavere frontem 
 
 Nox venit._. 
 
 Ovid. Fall. 4. , 4 . 660. 
 
 (85) Candidus Oceano nitidum caput abdiderat Sol; 
 
 Et caput extulerat dcnfifflma fidereum Nox. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 15. jr. 31.' 
 
 (86) Noxque, tenebrarum fpccie reverenda tuarum ! 
 
 Ovid. Ibis. jr. 73; 
 
 (87) Maximus Orion, magnum complexus Olympum; 
 Quo fulgente fuper terras ccelumque trahente. 
 Ementita Diem nigras Nox contrahit alas. 
 
 Manilius. 5. jr. 60. 
 
 Nox ruit; & fufeis tellurem amplcdlitur ali-. 
 
 Virgil. Mn. 8. jr. 369. 
 
 (88) -Nox, atro circumdata corpus ami&u. 
 
 Nigrantes invexit equos; fuafitque quietem. 
 
 Silius Ical. 15. jr. 285. 
 Cceperat humenti Phcebum fubtexere palla 
 Nox.- 
 
 Statius. Theb. 2. jr. 52S. 
 
 (89) -Sub occiduas verfie jam Noftis habenas. 
 
 Statius. Theb. 3. f. 33. 
 
 -Nox atra polum, bigis fubvedta, tenebat. 
 
 Virgil, ./En. 5. f. 721. 
 
 Nigrantes equos.-- 
 
 
 Sil. Ital. 
 
 t. 283. 
 
194 
 
 POLYMETIS. 
 
 black horfes; and ( 9 °) every part of the ftage fhe makes in it, is defcribed by feme or 
 other of the Roman poets. They fometimes fhew her in more Rate, and with feveral 
 ( 9 1 ) attendants; but the common way is to fpeak of her as making her round in a chariot 
 and two, as Sol does in his chariot and four. 
 
 The beginning of Day-break, (or the time which the Italians call, Alba,) was probably 
 charadlerifed under the perfon of Phofphorus; of whom I have had occafion to fpeak 
 already : as all the time of the increafe of light, from that to the appearance of the fun 
 above the horizon, belonged to Aurora. The latter is a perfonage which makes a very 
 confiderable figure in the writings of the old Roman poets : who I think, have fhowed a 
 variety, but no confufion, in the characters they give of her. The differences in them 
 feem only to be of the fame kind, with that we meet with in Guido’s and Guercin’s two 
 pictures of Aurora: one of which reprefents a gay, pleating morning; and the other, a 
 darker and more lowring one. If we may judge by the poets, the antient painters ufed 
 to fuit her complexion to the occafion. It was fometimes of a i9 2 ) lovely red; fome- 
 times ( 93 ) pale; and fometimes ( 94 ) more or lefs brown; according to the fort of morning 
 that they would reprefent. Her flcin, in their more beautiful pictures, fhould I think, 
 be coloured like that ( 95 ) of the Venus Anaduomene, by Apelles ; and might have fome- 
 thing not unlike the ( 9 6 ) humid caft, for which that picture was fo remarkable. Her robe 
 fhould be of a (97) pale-bright yellow; and fhe fhould hold either ( 9 8 ) a whip, or a (99) 
 torch, in her hand. Her chariot, fhould be of a fine (>0°) rofe-colour; with (101) pearls 
 
 of 
 
 (90) — Lux tarde difccdcrc vifa; 
 
 Prxcipitatur aquis; Sc aquis Nox furgit ab ifdem. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 4. 3 K 92. 
 
 Jamque fere mediam cceli Nox huniida metam 
 Contigerat. - 
 
 Virgil. JEn. 5. J ' . 837. 
 —Jamque tenebat 
 
 Nox medium cceli fpatium.- 
 
 Horat. Lib. 2. Sat. 6. Jr. iox. 
 
 Node fub ancipiii.-—— 
 
 Statius. Theb. 3. jr. 2. 
 3* 
 
 *-Sub occiduas verfte jam Nodis habenas. 
 
 Id. Ibid. Jr. 33. 
 4- 
 
 -Hefperio politas in litore metas 
 
 Nox tetigit. - 
 
 Ovid. Met. 2. Jr. 143. 
 
 (91) Thus Tibullus deferibes her as having the 
 planet of Mars in her train ; (Note 89, antch.) and 
 other deities, yet more proper to attend this goddefs. 
 
 Poltque venit tacitus fulvis circundatus alis 
 Somnus; Sc incerto Somnia nigra pede. 
 
 Lib. 2. EI. 1. Jr. 90. 
 
 (92) Rofea—Dea.- 
 
 Ovid, de Art. Am. 3. Jr. 84. 
 — Rofeo Ipedabilis ore. 
 
 Jd. Met. 7. Jr. 705. 
 
 (93) -Ubi pallida furget 
 
 Tithoni croceum linquens Aurora cubile. 
 
 > Virgil. Georg. 1. Jr. 447. 
 Clara laboriferos ccelo Tithonia currus 
 Expulerat: vigilefque dex pallentis habenas 
 Et Nox, & cornu fugiebat Somnus inani. 
 
 Statius. Theb. 6. Jr. 27. 
 
 (94) Cum croceis rorare genis Tithonia conjux 
 
 Cceperit.- 
 
 Ovid. Faft. 3. jr. 404. 
 Flava pruinofo qux vehit axe diem. 
 
 Ovid. Lib. i. EI. 13. 2 . 
 
 (95) Rofcida purpurea fupprime lora manu. 
 
 Id. Ibid. Jr. lo . 
 
 The manus purpurea feems to anfwer to the epi¬ 
 thet of Po/oJWTvXof, which the Greek poets ufe fo 
 generally in fpeaking of Aurora. 
 
 (96) Ovid, in fpeaking of Aurora perfonally calls 
 her Rofcida; (Confol. ad Liviam, J. 282.) & Rof¬ 
 cida dea : (De Art. Am. 3. Jr. 180.) 
 
 I do not know whether even her hair might not be 
 painted dropping too ; as that of the Venus Anaduo¬ 
 mene. 
 
 Cum croceis rorare genis Tithonia conjux 
 Cceperit.- 
 
 Ovid. Fall. 3. Jr. 404. 
 
 Rorantes exculTa comas.- 
 
 Statius. Theb. 2. Jr. 136. 
 
 (97) Ille crocum fimulat. Croceo velatur amiftu 
 
 Rolcida luciferos cum dea jungit equos. 
 
 Ovid.de Art. Am. 3. Jr. ig 0 . 
 Memnonis in rofeis lutea mater equis. 
 
 Ovid. Faft. 4. Jr. 714. 
 That lutea fignifies a pale-yellow, or fulphur- 
 colour, is plain from a line in the fame poet : 
 
 Luteave exiguis arefeunt fulphura flammis. 
 
 Ib. Met. 15. J-. 331. 
 
 (98) - Toties noftros Tithonia queftus 
 
 Prceterit; Sc gelido fpargit miferata flagello. 
 
 Statius. Lib. 5. Sylv. 4. Jr. \q. 
 
 (99) Cum Priami conjux Tithonia fratre relido 
 
 Suftulit cmenfo ter jubar orbe fuum. 
 
 Ovid. Faft. 4. Jr. 944. 
 Poftera cum rofeam pulfis Hyperionis aftris 
 In matutinis lampada tollet equis. 
 
 Id. Ib. 5. Jr. 160. 
 
 (too) Aurora in rofeis fulgebat lutea bigis. 
 
 Virgil. /En. 7. Jr. 26. 
 
 -Cum primum craftina ccelo 
 
 Puniceis inveda rotis Aurora rubebit. 
 
 Id. Ib. 12. Jr. 77. 
 
 (ioi) Flava pruinofo qux vehit axe diem. 
 
 Ovid. Lib. 1. EI. 13. J’. 2. 
 
*95 
 
 Dialogue the Twelfth. 
 
 of dew fcattered here and there upon it, if the painter pleafes : and the horfes I think 
 may be either (tea) cream-coloured, or ftrawberry. Ovid makes her ftation for felting out' 
 to be (103) on the mountain of Hymettus ; it, h,s ftory of this goddefs’s love for Cephalus • 
 but that again mull always vary, according to the feene and ftoty reprefented It ap¬ 
 pears from the fame poet, that /he fets out always (.04) before Sol ; and (105) not lone 
 before htm. There teem to have been Lome reprefentations of this goddtfs of old, at 
 (106) driving Nox and Somnus from her prefence: and of the Conftellations (toy) as 
 chafed out of heaven, at her approach : the latter of which, I own, feems to me to be 
 as ridiculous a fubjeft for a pifture; as the other might be a fine one. 
 
 Hesperus, or the Evening, is the (i°8) fame perfon with PhofphorUs: the only dif¬ 
 ference is in his attributes, which arc adapted to the particular chat-after he is reprefented 
 in. The poets give him (.09) a black horfe, as Hefperus ; and as Lucifer or Phofphorus 
 a white one. This wayof diftinguilhing him was fitter for painters, than fculptors - and 
 indeed I do not remember ever to have met with it, in any work of the antient artifts - 
 who generally (.10) diftinguilh him, (as I mentioned to you before,) by giving him I 
 torch, where he is the forerunner of the day : and none, where he is the forerunner of 
 the night. 
 
 I AM not quite certain that I have ever feen the Hone, (or Hours,) in any antique • 
 but am ftrongly inclined to think, that they are meant, in a known relievo at Rome- 
 pubhihed (mi by Santo Bartoli, in his Admiranda. I know very well, that the figures 
 in it have been generally taken only for fo many ladies dancing, on forne wedding, or for 
 their own diveriion ; but what makes me imagine them to be the Hora, is their pofition 
 and attitudes : they being all placed in a ftrait line, with their hands mutually joined ; 
 and fome of them as coming towards you, from which-ever end you regard them; whilft 
 others are going from you : which is imprafficable in a common dance; and would be 
 very figmficant, if underftood of the Hours. They are placed too at pretty equal 
 diftances; as it were, meafured out defignedly by the pilafters behind them ■ which 
 agrees exaftly with the manner in which the Hours Ihould be reprefented. However I 
 have not introdued a copy of that piece here : becaufe my notion of it is uncommon ■ and 
 may, poffibly, not be true. Was this fubjeft more frequent in the works of the antient 
 artifts that remain to us, I doubt not we ihould meet with feveral other particulars to 
 Iquare with the deferiptions which the poets give us of thefe deities. They reprefent 
 them as drelfed in fine-coloured, or ( I12 ) embroidered, robes; and gliding on, with a 
 
 quick 
 
 (,o 2 ) Harm Aurora diem fprfUc. 1 . tan,a foremen, (.07) Temp,, era,, juuflo, com j.m fa,or Ignea Phtnbi 
 
 Quam primum crocor, rofc.da portet equi,. Senti, equo,, penmrfqee cavam fob luce par.ru 
 
 Ovid. Confol. ad Liviam, f. 282. Oceani mugire domum : fefeque vagantem 
 
 Memnoni, In rofci, lutea mater equi,. Colligit; & moto leviter fugat a[tr, flagello. 
 
 Ovid. Fall. 4. }. 712. Id . ib, s. t. 274. 
 
 (103) -Me cornigeris tendentem retia cervis (108) Stella Veneris quas Phofphorus grace, Lu- 
 
 Vertice de fummo Temper florentis Hymetti cifer latine dicitur cum antegreditur folem ; cum 
 
 Lutea mane videt pulfis Aurora tenebris, fubfequitur autem, Hefperus. Cicero, dc Nat. Deor 
 
 Invitumque rapit.-_ lib. 2. p. 37. Ed. Aid. 
 
 (109) Hefperus & fufeo rofeidus ibat equo. 
 
 Ovid. Fall. 2. jt. 312, 
 Nec color ell idem cado, cum Jaffa quiete 
 Cunfta jacent media; cumque albo Lucifer exit 
 Clarus equo. —- 
 
 Ovid. Met. 15. jt. 190. 
 (HO) See Pl. 26. Fig. 3 & 4. 
 
 (111) See Adm. Pl. 63. 
 
 (112) Conveniunt piftis incinflx veflibus Hora:; 
 
 Inquc leves calathos munera noflra legunt. 
 
 (In the garden ofFlora,) Ovid, Fall. 5. it. 218. 
 
 E e e 
 
 Met. 7. y. 704. 
 
 (>04) • —Cum prxvia luci 
 
 Tradendum Phcebo Pallantias inficit orbem. 
 
 Met. 15. j. 191. 
 
 (105) Dum loquor, Ilefperio pofitas in litore metas 
 
 Humida Nox tetigit. Non ed mora libera nobis; 
 Pofcimur ! effulget tenebris Aurora fugatis ; 
 Corripe lora manu !-• 
 
 Ibid. 2. y. 145. 
 
 (106) -Vigiles — Dcx pallentis habenas 
 
 Et Nox Si cornu fugiebat Somnus inani. 
 
 Statius. Theb. 6. y. 27. 
 
 
196 
 
 P O L Y M E 
 
 I S. 
 
 quick (113) and (114) eafy motion; as you fee them in Guido’s Aurora. Ovid fpeaks of 
 them as {landing, at (ns) equal diilances, about the throne of Sol. Valerius Flaccus makes 
 them attend that deity, at his (116) fetting out; and Statius, at his < IX 7 ) coming in. It 
 appears from hence, that the old poets agree in making them the attendants and fervants 
 of Sol: and it was for this purpofe, I luppofc, that there were fome of them always 
 ftationed, with Janus, at the gates of heaven; to be in readinefs there, to accompany the 
 chariot of Sol, on his fetting out to take his daily rounds of the earth. 
 
 Pl. xxvii. The laft figure I have to Ihew you here, is this of Janus : Handing, as you fee, with 
 
 Fig ' 5 - hisftaff in his hand ; juft by the door. He is placed there, becaufe his great office was 
 to prefide over the gates of heaven, as he himfelf informs us (u*) in Ovid; and he was 
 therefore fometimes (> 19) reprefented, with a ftaff in one hand, and a key in the other. 
 If you have placed him here only as a porter, fays Mylagetes, I think you have ufed 
 him as he deferves : for there is fcarce any one of all the gods that I have been ufed to 
 entertain fo mean an opinion of, as Janus. The Romans, replied Polymetis, were very 
 far from being of your opinion. We are told that when they made their fupplications to 
 (120) any of the other gods, they ufed to invoke Janus firft. It was he who was to give 
 an accefs for their prayers; even to Jupiter. They looked on him as the (121) mod an- 
 tient of Beings ; and fay, that his majefty comprehended the whole univerfe. In the 
 Salian verfes he had even the high title, of (>*8) the God of Gods. I have fome notion 
 that, in their moll fecret mythology, they might mean . >,22) Space by this deity: but as I 
 never chufe to enter much info thofe deep enquiries, (that are generally very much per¬ 
 plexed, and of very little ufe to my defign,) I fhall go on in my old way; of coilfidering 
 his figures, together with what the poets may fay ot them. 
 
 Janus 
 
 (, j _— Rapidis occurrunt paflibus Hone. 
 
 Statius. Theb. 3. 410. 
 
 - Dea: celeres - 
 
 Ovid. Met. 2. j/. 119. 
 
 /114) This is the general idea of the Roman poets 
 in relation to all the deities that prefide over any part 
 of Time. One might give an hundred paftages that 
 prove it; but I think one may be fufficient. 
 
 - Eunt Anni more fluentis aqua:: 
 
 Nec qua: pneteriit iterum revocabitur unda ; 
 
 Nec qua: prarteriit Hora redire potelt: 
 
 Utendum eft xtate ; cito pede labitur Aitas. 
 
 Ovid, de Art. Am. 3. if. 65. 
 
 (115) A dextra kevaque, Dies, &Menfis, & Annus, 
 Ssculaque ; &, pofita: fpatiis tequalibus. Horre. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 2. •}'. 26. 
 
 (116) -Sol auricomus, cingentibus Horis, 
 
 Multifidum jubar, Sc bifleno fidere textam 
 Loricam induitur; &c.- 
 
 Flaccus. 4. 94. 
 
 (117) Solverat Hefperia devexo margine ponti 
 Flagrantes Sol pronus equos; rutilamque lavabat 
 Oceani fub fonte comam. Cui turba profundi 
 Nereos, & rapidis occurrunt paflibus Horse ; 
 Frrenaque & aurata: textum fublime corona: 
 Deripiunt. Laxant rofeis humentia loris 
 Peftora: pars meritos vertunt ad molle jugales 
 Gramen ; & erc&o currum temone fupinant. 
 
 Statius. Theb. 3.. 414- 
 
 (11 S) Priefideo foribus eceli, cum mitibus Horis. 
 
 (Says Janus.) Ovid. Faft. 1. f. 125. 
 E<r/orT/, («f Tov tspavov,) rrfujov yav oihko-it <u Qpas 
 iTvWpvet yap. Lucian. Tom. I. p. 366. Ed. Blaeu. 
 
 (i 19) Cum clavi & virga figuratur, quafi omnium 
 Sc portarum-cuftos & redtor viarum. Macrobius, Sa¬ 
 tum. Lib. 1. Cap. 9. 
 
 Ille tenens dextra baculum, clavemque finiflra 
 Bina repens oculis obtulit ora meis. 
 
 Ovid. Fall:. I. 96. 
 
 (120) Geminum [cfle volunt,] quafi utiiufquc ja¬ 
 nua: ccdeftis potentem ;—invocarique primum cum 
 alicui deo res divina celebratur, ut per cum pateat ad 
 illum cui immolatur acceflus. Macrobius, Saturn. 
 Lib. 1. c. 9. 
 
 (121) Dic milii nunc qusfo, dic, antiquifllme divum ; 
 
 Refpondes his, Jane Pater ? —— 
 
 Juvenal. Sat. 6. jr. 393. 
 
 (122) Saliorum—antiquiflimis carminibus. Deorum 
 Deus canitur. Macrobius, x. 3. 
 
 (123) An open arch, or any opening, was called 
 Janus by the Romans; as the opening to a houfc, 
 
 was called Janua, from the fame deity.-Janos, 
 
 arcufque, cum quadrigis & infignibus triumphorum, 
 
 Suetonius, in Domit. §. 13.-Pompeii ftatuam, 
 
 contra theatri ejus regiam, marmoreo jano fuppofuit. 
 
 Id. in Aug. §. 31.-Ex quo tranfitiones pervix jani 
 
 nominantur. Cicero, de Nat. Deor. Lib. 2.— Gra¬ 
 vius BalTus, in co libro quem de diis compofuit, Ja¬ 
 num quadriformem fingi ait,-quafi univerfa cli¬ 
 
 mata majcftate complexum. Macrobius, Saturnalia. 
 Lib. 1. Cap. 9. 
 
 This derivation of the names of any void, or open¬ 
 ing, from Janus, fhews his relation to Space: as Baf- 
 lus’s opinion fhews his relation to infinite fpace, as 
 including the four elements, or all created matter. 
 The majefty of this nothing, called Space, is to me 
 inconceivable : tho’ BaiTus feems to have had almoft 
 as high an idea of it, as fome very great divines of 
 late have fhown, in their metaphyfical reafonings on 
 this fubjedt. 
 
Dialogue the Twelfth. 
 
 J a N u s is diflinguiflied from all the other gods, by his double form. Diana perhaps is 
 the only deity, befide this, to whom the Romans gave more than one body. She, you 
 know, under the character of Trivia has three: as Janus had, (I imagine, from what the 
 poets fay of him,) fometimes two, and fometimes four bodies given him. It might be 
 from this duplicity of his figure, that the Romans called him (124), Janus Geminus. 
 
 The bufts of Janus, (or his two heads,) are very common; efpccially on medals. 
 The medals, I more particularly mean, have the double head of Janus, on one fide; and 
 part of a (hip on the other. They are fo very old, that Ovid, (who gives a particular 
 account of them,) fays; that the figures on them were aimed obliterated (12 v ith e, in 
 his time: fo that at prefent they ought to be very great favourites with all thofi wl > 
 value things merely for their ruft and antiquity. If they are not valued by them fo much 
 as one would expedi, it is only becaufe we have fo many of them. Was there only one 
 of thefe bad ones left in the world, I doubt not it would be looked on as a greater trea— 
 fure than an Otho, or a Pel'cennius. Efpecially, as they are fo much talked of in the 
 Roman writers; from whom, it might be proved indifputably: that the Roman chil¬ 
 dren played with them, of old (126), at Heads or Ships; as our children play now, at 
 Crofs or Pile. 
 
 In all the antient figures I have feen of Janus, the faces are both alike; and both old: 
 which makes it the more unaccountable to me, whence fome perfons of the beft tafte, 
 not only among us, but even in Italy itfelf, are got into the mode of giving Janus two 
 different faces; one old, and the other young. Ovid fays exprefly, in one place, that 
 they were reprefented (127) both alike, in his time; and from what he fays in other 
 places, they fhould be both old. 
 
 Janus was probably reprefented fometimes with a double body, as well as with two 
 heads. It was fome ftatue or picture of this kind, I fuppofe, that might lead Statius 
 into one of the mod ridiculous deferiptions, perhaps even in all his poems. It is where he 
 reprefents this god as welcoming in the fixteenth confulate of the emperor Domitian. 
 That poet makes Janus lift up all his hands, and fpeak (128) with both his mouths at 
 once; to congratulate the world on that happy occafion. 
 
 There is a buffc of the Janus Quadriformis, on one of the bridges at Rome; from 
 whence that place has its name, of the Quatre Capite. In fome of the entire figures of 
 him on medals, he has but one body (129) with four heads. It is under this fort of figure, 
 
 which 
 
 (124) In facris invocamus Janum Geminum, Ja¬ 
 num Patrem, Janum Junonium. Macrobius, Sat. 
 Lib. x. cap. 9. 
 
 The notion of Janus reprefenting Space, may ac¬ 
 count for his being called Junonius ; Juno among the 
 Romans fignifying Air. His name of Patultius, might 
 poffibly relate to the fame idea. 
 
 (125) Multa quidem didici : fed cur navalis in atre 
 
 Altera fignata eft, altera forma biceps ? 
 
 Nofcere me duplici pofles ut imagine, dixit, 
 
 Ni vetus ipfa dies extenuaret opus. 
 
 Caufa ratis fupereft: Thufcum rate venit in amnem 
 Ante pererrato falcifer orbe Deus. 
 
 Hac ego Saturnum memini tellure receptum. 
 
 (Janus, to Ovid,) Fall. i. 235. 
 
 (126) Janus cum Saturnum clafle pcrvedlum excc- 
 piflet hofpitio ; & ab co cdodlus peritiam ruris, ferum 
 illum & rudem ante fruges cognitas vicium in melius 
 redigiflet; regni eum focietate muneravit. Cum pri¬ 
 mus quoque tera iignaret, fervavit & in hoc Saturni 
 
 4 
 
 reverentiam ; ut quoniam ille navi fuerit advedtus 
 ex una quidem parte fui capitis effigies, ex altera vero 
 navis exprimeretur ; quo Saturni memoriam etiam in 
 pofteros propagaret. ./Es ita fu i fle lignatum hodicque 
 intelligitur, in alem lufu; cum pueri denarios in fub- 
 lime jaftantcs, “ Capita, aut Navim,” (lufu tefle ve- 
 tuftatis,) exclamant, Macrobius, Saturnalia. Lib. 1, 
 cap. 7. 
 
 (127) Ante quod eft in me, poftque, videtur idem. 
 
 Ovid. Fall. 1. 1x4. 
 
 Ille manu mulcenspropexam adpedlorabarbam, &c. 
 
 Id. Ibid. i/, 259. 
 
 (12S) Ipfe etiam immenfi reparator maximus avi 
 Attollit vultus ; Sc utroque a limine grates 
 
 Janus agit. - 
 
 -Levat ecce fupinas 
 
 Hinc atque inde manus; geminaque hac voce pro- 
 fatur. Statius. Lib.4. Sylv. 1. >\ 16. 
 
 (129) See Oifelius’s Thef, PI. 41. Fig. 1. 
 
POLY M E T I S. 
 
 198 
 
 which looks every way, that I imagine the antient Romans meant to exprefs this deity's 
 prefiding over Space : as his figures with two faces only, the one looking backward and 
 the other forward, might denote his prefiding over (13°) Time. 
 
 You fee I had more reafons than one, for placing the figure of Janus juft where you 
 find it. I know not well whether Claudian means this deity (13*), or that of Time; by 
 the venerable old perfonage he mentions, in his Cave of Eternity. Which-ever he may 
 mean of them, he has given him fome attributes, which the Roman poets of the allowed 
 ages feem to have had no idea of for either. 
 
 As Polymetis finiflied here, and was going to leave the temple ; Philander begged 
 firft to afk him one queftion. I fee, fays he, very well, from what you have faid of 
 Janus’s relation to Time, why the Romans made him prefide always over the entrance 
 of the year; but I fhould be glad to learn too, why they made him prefide over peace 
 and war. That, fays Poly metis, as I take it, has no relation to his mythological cha¬ 
 racter, either as prefiding over Space or Time. It was, probably, wholly founded on 
 an old Roman legend, which is told 11s by Macrobius ; and which I may tell you, if 
 you pleafe, as well in our walk homeward, as here. 
 
 In the time of the (13 2 ) Sabine war, as the Romans were engaged with the enemy, 
 at no great diftance from the gate at the bottom of the Collis Viminalis ; a party of the 
 foldiers, (who were left to guard the city,) haftened to (hut the gate, for fear of the 
 worft. The gate was no fooner flint, than it opened again of itfelf. This was repeated 
 three feveral times: and as the foldiers found it was refolved not to keep fliut, they 
 got all the hands they could together there; to be ready to defend that entrance againft 
 the enemy. In the mean time, as the Romans that were fighting without, fuffered 
 much in the battle; there came a fudden alarm from fome of the fugitives, of their 
 being entirely defeated; and the guard was feized with fuch a panic upon it, that 
 each man fled to fave himfelf, and left the gate wide open and without any defence. 
 Soon after fome of the Sabine troops, that had been the molt luccefsful and were the 
 molt advanced, obferved this advantage; and haftened to the gate, to make themfelves 
 matters of it. When lo ! a fudden flood of water, (or as others fay, of fire,) iffiied 
 forth, all at once, from the temple of Janus; ruflied on impetuoufly thro’ the gate, that 
 
 flood 
 
 (130) Principium dcs, Jane, licet velocibus annis ; 
 
 Et revoces vultu fiecula longa tuo. 
 
 Martial. Lib. 8. Ep. 8. 
 
 As the beginning of the year, was under thedifpo- 
 fal of Janus ; fo the entrance into the confulfhip was, 
 of courfc, under his protedlion. The poets frequently 
 allude to this ; and there is a figure of Janus, in Bc- 
 ger’s Thcfaurus, (319. 11.) with the confular fafees 
 in his hand : I fuppoie, in alluiion to the fame. 
 
 (131) This paflage in Claudian is fo remarkable, 
 that I {hall give it entire : not as of any authority here; 
 but to fhew, how far allegories ran in his time, 
 
 Eft ignota procul noftrteque impervia menti, 
 
 Vix adeunda deis, annorum fqualida mater ; 
 Immenfi fpelunca «evi ; quteTempora vafto 
 Suppeditat revocatque Anu. Comple&itur antrum 
 Omnia qui placido confumit numine ferpens, 
 Perpetuumque viret fquamis ; caudamque redudto 
 Ore vorat, tacito relegens exordia lapfu. 
 
 Veftibuli cuftos, vultu longseva decoro 
 Ante fores Natura fedet; cunftifque volantes 
 Dependent membris Animse. Manfura verendus 
 Scribit jura fenex, numeros qui dividit aftris, 
 
 Et curfus ftabilefque moras ; quibus omnia vivunt, 
 Ac pereunt fixis cum legibus. Ille recenfet 
 Incertum quid Martis iter, ccrtumque Tonantis 
 Proficiat mundo : quid velox femita Lunar, 
 
 Pigraque Saturni: quantum Cytherea fereno 
 Curriculo, Phccbique comes Cyllenius erret. 
 
 Illius ut Phcebus ad limen conftitit antri ; 
 
 Occurit Natura potens, feniorque fuperbis 
 Canitiem inclinat radiis: tunc fponte reclufos 
 Laxavit polles adamas. Penetrale profundum 
 Panditur ; & fedes ^Evique arcana patefeunt. 
 
 Hic habitant vario faciem diftinfta metallo 
 Sarcula certa locis. Illic glomerantur aena ; 
 
 Hic ferrata rigent: illic argentea candent. 
 
 Eximia regione domus, contingere terris 
 Difficiles, liabant rutuli (grex aureus,) Anni. 
 Quorum prarcipuum pretiofo corpore Titan 
 Signandum Stilicone legit: tunc imperat omnes 
 Pone fequi; dittifque fimul compellat euntes. 
 
 “ En, cui diftulimus melioris fecla metalli, 
 Conful adeft ! Ite optati mortalibus Anni! 
 
 Ducite virtutes; hominum florefeite rurfus 
 Ingeniis, &c.”- 
 
 De Laud. Stil. z. jr, 457. 
 
 (132) Macrobius, Satum. Lib. 1. cap. 9. 
 
 This ridiculous legend, probably was believed by 
 the vulgar among the old Romans ; as feveral legends, 
 as ridiculous, are believed among the Roman catho¬ 
 lics at prefent: but the wifer fort, and Virgil in par¬ 
 ticular, was of another opinion ; as appears from the 
 much earlier account, he gives of this matter. Ain. 
 7. jL 601—622. 
 
the Twelfth. 
 
 ftood open; and overwhelmed all the Sabines that were patting towards it. The Ro¬ 
 mans in memory of this miraculous deliverance by the attiftance of Janus, called that 
 gate, Janualis : and in all their wars ever after, left the gates of Janus’s temple wide 
 open ; that the god might come out the more readily, if he lhould be ever again inclined 
 to aflift them. This cullom of always opening the gates of the temple of Janus bn the 
 beginning of a war, and keeping them fhut always in time of peace, might probably 
 give the Romans the thought of placing the ftatues of Peace and War in his temple; 
 as that gave their poets the idea of war being confined, and peace being fecured, by Ja- 
 who otherwife, I (hould think, would have had nothing to do with them. But 
 I have finifhed my ftory; and we are got home in good time, before the damps of the 
 Evening. 
 
>*< V- 
 
Dialogue the 'thirteenth. 
 
 201 
 
 BOOK the Sixth. 
 
 DIAL. XIII. 
 
 Of the Beings, fuppofed to inhabit the A i r. 
 
 A S Myfagetes and Philander had now finished their view of the Great Celeftial 
 Temple, and of that of the Conftellations ; their next vifit of courfe, was to the 
 temple of the Aerial Beings. While they were approaching it, you fee, (fays 
 Polymetis,) that this temple is of the Ionic order: which I chofe for it, as the moft 
 light and eafy. The antients, as we learn from (0 Vitruvius, had a good deal of pro¬ 
 priety, or nicety, (call it which you will,) in adapting their buildings, to the character 
 of the deites to whom they were dedicated. A temple of Venus was to be beautiful ; 
 and one of Juno, majeftic. Hercules looked beft, placed in a building of the Doric 
 order ; which would have been the moft improper of all for a Zephyr ; or for any of the 
 aerial ladies, to whofe acquaintance I fliall foon introduce you ; if you pleafe only to go 
 into the temple before us. 
 
 On their entering the temple, they found every thing in it difpofed fo, as to have 
 a light, eafy look. It was an Odtagon ; like the beautiful temple of the Winds, which is 
 fo much talked of by all our late travellers that have been at Athens : but more illumi¬ 
 nated, by a large window in Michael Angelo’s ftyle, in each of its diviftons. Over every 
 opening was the figure of a Wind-Deity, in mezzo-relievo ; and on each fide of the win¬ 
 dows were little fquares and ovals here and there, taken from antiques of fome other 
 aerial beings. The roof was wholly dedicated to the goddefles of this element. In the 
 midft of it was a circle, in which appeared Juno under her character of prefiding over 
 the air; in a light, flying car, drawn by two peacocks. All the reft of the dome was 
 divided into eight parts, by feftoons of flowers ; to anfwer the building below: and in each 
 of thefe compartiments, was painted a Sylph, or Nymph of the Air : in fome attitude or 
 other of flying; and generally with loofe veils held in their hands, or fluttering on high 
 over their heads. The whole temple within was all luminous, and open; without any 
 ftatues, or any thing elfe, to embarrafs it. 
 
 These (2) figures of the eight Winds, lays Polymetis, are meant to reprefent thofe 
 on the famous otftagon at Athens. I fhould not have gone fo far for my Winds, had 
 there been a greater choice of them nearer home : but the figures of this fort of deities 
 are very great rarities, even in Italy. One or two of them indeed appear there, on 
 fome relievo’s ; particularly on fome reprefenting the fall of Phaeton : and the four capi¬ 
 
 tal ones were round, (above two centuries 
 
 (1) Lib. I. Cap. 2. 
 
 (2) When this was firft written, I was in hopes of 
 getting the figures of the eight Winds, as they are 
 reprefented on the temple at Athens. There was a 
 drawing of ail of them, taken feveral years ago ; and 
 kept for fome time in the king of France’s library : 
 and it is faid, there was another, of a yet earlier 
 date ; in the Barbarini palace, at Rome. On the ftri£t- 
 eft enquiry, neither of thefe are to be found : and 
 the lofs of them is the greater, beraufe two of the 
 
 ,) on part of the work, belonging to what 
 
 is 
 
 figures on the temple itfclf, are now quite hid by 
 fome later buildings affixed to it. I am therefore 
 obliged to reft whatever I have here hazarded in re¬ 
 lation to thefe figures, on the authority of fuch as 
 have feen the originals at Athens; and who have 
 been fo good as to favour me with the remarks they 
 made on the fpot. Alight I name the Earl of Sand¬ 
 wich, and Dr. Pocock, as my chief authorities in 
 this cafe ; I fhould name the very perfons, on whofe 
 veracity, and judgment, I am the moft inclined to 
 rely. 6 
 
 
 
ao a 
 
 P O L Y M E T I S. 
 
 
 is commonly thought to have been a fun-dial (3), in the Campus Martius. Thefe are 
 likely to have been good ; as having been, probably, a work of the Auguftan age. But 
 whatever they were, they are not now to be found ; and the good monks of Saint Lo¬ 
 renzo in Lucina, (where they were difcovercd, in digging to lay the foundation for one 
 of their chapels,) are fo far from knowing what is become of them ; that they have 
 almoft loti even the memory of their having ever been in their poileflion. The only 
 good one I know of now at Rome, fell into better hands ; and is one of the fine pieces 
 placed by the late Pope Clement XII. in the gallery, at the Capitol. In this fcarcity, 
 we are obliged to borrow our Ideas of thefe Wind-Deities from iUhens; and there is this 
 inconvenience in it, that they mud then be charafterited according to the eftedts each 
 particular Wind has at Athens, and not according to what they have at Rome. This 
 may occaiion fome difference, but it is not very confiderable ; and where we cannot do 
 better, we mull be contented to drift as well as we can. 
 
 These Athenian deities of the Winds are all flying on ; but with different degrees of 
 rapidity, or gentlenefs ; according to the different eiiecis each W ind has in thofe parts. 
 Solanus, or the Eafl, is reprefented as young; and holds icveral forts oi fruit in his lap ; 
 as apples, peaches, oranges, lemons, and pomegranates: mod of which, (ir not all,) 
 were not the natural produce of Greece ; but brought in there from the more eaftern 
 
 parts of the world.-The next, is Eurus, or the South-Eafl. He is reprefented as a 
 
 youth too; and is flying on, rather more impetuoufly, as appears from the agitation of 
 
 his garments.-The third is Aufier, or the South-wind; and the fourth, Africus, or 
 
 the fouth-weft. They are all reprefented, bigger than the life, and bending forward ; 
 fo that their figures generally take up above lix foot in length ; and about three and an 
 
 half in breadth.-The fifth, is Zephyrus, or the deity of the Weftern Wind. He is 
 
 reprefented as a beautiful youth; and as gliding on with the gentled motion imaginable. 
 He is for the mod part naked; and holds a little bafket in his hand, filled with fpring- 
 
 fiowers of different forts.-The fixth is Corus, or the North-wed. He is elderly, and 
 
 with a beard; whereas the former are generally young. Pie is dreffed fo as to defend 
 him from the cold; and carries a vafe, as pouring water from it, in his hand.—The 
 next is Septentrio, or the North-wind. He refemblcs Corus in his age and drefs; but 
 has no vafe of water; and is fo much more aftedled with the cold, that he holds up his 
 mantle clofe before his nofeand mouth, to defend himfelf from the violence of it.—The 
 lad, Aquilo, or the North-ead, is elderly too. He holds a plate of olives in his hands : 
 which was of old, and is dill, the chief produce of the territory about Athens : fo far, 
 that in going from that city to the Pireum, which is near five miles, you pafs all the 
 way through rows of olive-trees, on each fide of you. 
 
 The Romans, in die time of (4) Pliny, chiefly followed this divifion of the Winds; 
 and had a yet farther divifion of them into twelve; as we learn from the fame author. 
 
 But 
 
 (3) In quefta iftefia parte (of the Campus Martins, 
 where the dbelifk lies ftill interred,) fi come teftifi- 
 cano Pomponio Leto & Andrea Fulvio, fu a i lor 
 tempi, (circa ottentaanni fa,) ritrovato nella cappella 
 nuova de i Capellani di quefta Chiefa cavandoli, un 
 horologio bcllimmo &c grande di metallo ; chc haveva 
 i gradi, & lc linee indorate; con il fuolo intorno di 
 pictre quadrate, che pur moftrava le medefime linee ; 
 & ncgl’ angoli, i quattri Venti fatti a mufaico. Pom- 
 pco Ugonio, Hift. dclle Stationi di Roma, p. 183. 
 Ed. 1588. 
 
 In parte Martii Campi, ubi nunc eft templum S. 
 Laurentii, in capella nova Capellanorum, fuit olim 
 balls illa nominatilTima, et horologium fuperioribus 
 annis etfoftum ; quod habebat feptem gradus circum, 
 et lineas diftinftas m.etallo inaurato : et folum campi 
 
 erat ex lapide amplo quadrato, ct habebat lineas caf- 
 dem : et in angulo quatuor Venti erant, ex opere mu- 
 fivo : cum inferiptione, BOREAS SPIRAT, &c. 
 Fulvius; (SecNardini’s Romaantica. Lib. 6. Cap. 6.) 
 
 (4) Veteres quatuor (Ventos) fervavere, per toti¬ 
 dem mundi partes, hebeti ut mox judicatum eft ra¬ 
 tione; fccuta retas o£to addidit, nimis fubtili ct con¬ 
 ci fa : proximis inter utranque media placuit, ad bre¬ 
 vem cx numerofa additis quatuor. Sunt ergo bini in 
 quatuor cceli partibus. Ab Oriente a:quino6tiali Sub- 
 folanus, ab Oriente brumali Vulturnus ; illum Apelio¬ 
 ten, hunc Eurum Grzeci appellant. A meridie Au- 
 fter, et ab occafu brumali Africus; Noton, et Liba, 
 nominant. Ab occafu asquinoiftiali Favonius, ab oc¬ 
 cafu folftitiali Corus; Zephyron et Argcften vocant. 
 
 A Sep- 
 
 4 
 
Dialogue the 'Thirteenth. 
 
 But the moll antient, and that which is moft generally followed by the Roman poets, 
 (especially thole ot the Auguftan age,) was the divifion into four. According to 
 this they made (s) Eurus to be the intelligence that prefidcd over all the eaftern quarter 
 of the heavens : and to Boreas, they gave the whole dominion of the north : Aufter was 
 hill the chief director of the fouth; as Zephyrus was of the weft. The poets indeed 
 now and then, mention fome other deities of the Winds; but thefe are moft generally 
 conlidered by them, as the chief of all the reft. 6 
 
 2.03 
 
 Eurus, or the genius of the Eaft-wind, according to the Roman poets, feems to 
 have his character compofed from the Apeliotes and Euros of the Greeks. By one de- 
 fenption of him, he ihould have a look that (hews him ( 6 ) delighted ; and in another 
 he is fpoken of as (7) playful, or wanton. He is fometimes deferibed as ( 8 ) impetuous • 
 and fometimes, as (9) difordered with the ftorm he has been driving along the fea Ho¬ 
 race gives us a pidture of the former; and Valerius Flaccus of the latter, f Ihould ’bekipt 
 to imagine from fome expreffions in the poets, that he was fometimes reprefented on 
 horfeback; or (10) perhaps, in a chariot, whirling thro' the air: but there are fo few 
 remains of the antient artifts relating to thefe beings, (as I was faying before,) that we 
 have nothing from them to confirm any fuch conjeflure. 
 
 The genius of the South-wind, (called indifferently by the names of Notus and Aufter ) 
 is deferibed (u) by Ovid, as large; and fo old, that his hair is quite grey: of’a 
 gloomy countenance;, and with clouds about his head. Moft of the lines in his charac¬ 
 ter are defigned to point him out as the difpenfer of heavy ihowers, and great rains. He 
 has dulky wings; and fometimes (12) a full dark robe. Virgil feems to allude to the 
 gloominefs of his countenance (13); in apaflage, that has given much offence to the 
 
 critics : 
 
 
 A Septentrionibus Septentrio, interque eum et exor¬ 
 tum folftitialem Aquilo; Apardtias didi et Boreas. 
 Pliny, Nat. Hift. Lib. 2. Cap. 47. 
 
 In five of thefe Greek names, Pliny agrees exadly 
 v tli 1 In inferiptions under the particular Winds on 
 the temple at Athens; which are as follow—AIIH- 
 
 AI.QTHS, for the E. -ETPOS, for the SE. -- 
 
 NOTOS, for the S.-AM-, for the SW. -ZE- 
 
 4 >TPOS, for the W.-SKIPflN, for the NW.-- 
 
 BOPEAS, for the N.-and KAIKIAS, for the 
 
 NE. 
 
 (5) Eurus ad auroram, Nabathiaque regna receflit, 
 Perfidaque, et radiis juga fubdita matutinis : 
 
 Vefper, et occiduo qua: litora foie tepefeunt, 
 Proximafunt Zephyro. Scythiam feptemquetriones, 
 Horrifer invafit Boreas: contraria tellus 
 Nubibus afliduis pluvioque madefeit ab Auflro. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 1. jr. 66. 
 
 (6) Confligunt Zephyrufque, Notufque ; & hetus Eois 
 
 Eurus equis._ 
 
 Virgil. JEn. 2. ^.417. 
 
 (7) Ille Noto, Zephyroque, Sc Sithonio Aquiloni 
 
 Imperat; & pennis, Eure proterve, tuis. 
 
 Ovid. Ep. Her. 11. it, 14. (Canace, Mac.) 
 
 (8) Dirus per urbes * Afer ut Italas, * Hannibal. 
 
 Ceu flamma per taidas, vel Eurus 
 Per Siculas equitavit undas. 
 
 Horat. Lib. 4. Od. 4. f. 44. 
 
 (9) —— Crinemque procellis 
 Hifpidus, et multa flavus caput Eurus arena. 
 
 Flaccus. Argon. 1. i. 613. 
 
 (10) The Roman poets fometimes ufe the expref- 
 fion, in equis, to fignify a perfon’s being in a cha¬ 
 
 riot ; and fo may poflibly ufe, equitare, for the fame. 
 Flaccus ufes an expreflion of another Wind, (the 
 North,) which feems to imply his being in a chariot. 
 
 - Fundunt fe carcere Iaeti 
 
 Thraces equi ; Zephyrufque.- 
 
 Arg. 1. 611. 
 
 And fo may Virgil s ;——L<etus Eois Eurus equis— 
 Note 6, anteh. 
 
 ( 1 *) -■ Madidis Notus evolat alis, 
 
 Terribilem picea tedlus caligine vultum. 
 
 Barba gravis nimbis ; canis fluit unda capillis; 
 Fronte fedent nebula;: rorant pennxque finufque. 
 Utque manu lata pendentia nubila prefiit, &c. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 1. it. 26S. 
 
 (12J Ovid perhaps means his robe in the deferip- 
 tion above by the word, finus, which fignifies a flow¬ 
 ing robe; whence Virgil calls it, finus fluentes, JEn. 1. 
 f- 320. In the fame manner, Statius calls the robe 
 of Aufter, by the name of volumina; which fignifies 
 its largenefs. 
 
 ■-Ccelum fibi quifque rapit: fed plurimus Auflcr 
 
 Inglomerat nodtem, et tenebrofa volumina torquet; 
 Defunditque imbres.- 
 
 Theb. 1. 35 2. 
 
 (13) -Quid cogitet humidus Aufler. 
 
 G. 1. it. 462. 
 
 Several of the commentators (that have been ufed 
 to confider the Winds only in a natural way, and ne¬ 
 ver perhaps in an allegorical one,) are greatly offended 
 at the word, cogitet, here. The thinking of a Wind, 
 is to them the higheft pitch of abfurdity that can be. 
 
 They are therefore for altering the paffage into-• 
 
 “ Quid cogat et humidus Aufter ;” or, “ Quid con¬ 
 citet humidus Aufter contra omnes codices, as they 
 themfelves fay. 
 
 G g p 
 
 o & 
 
 
 If 
 
204 
 
 POLYMETIS. 
 
 critics: and fpeaks of him in another place (14), “ as faddening the very heavens.” Va¬ 
 lerius Flaccus deferibes him, as t's) attended with fhowers ; Ovid, with water dripping 
 from every part of him ; Statius, as pouring the waters of the heavens down on the earth ; 
 and Juvenal, as fitting in the cave of the Winds; and (16) drying his wings afteraftorm. 
 Several of thele deferiptions, probably, alluded to fome paintings of old; at lead, there 
 is fcarce any one of them, that might not furnifh a painter with a good hint for a pic¬ 
 ture now. 
 
 Zephyrus is the milded of all the deities of the Winds: the charafler of his perfo- 
 nage is youth, and gentlenefs. Valerius Flaccus, in fpeaking of thefe four great deities of 
 the Winds, as employed all together in a ftorm, adds fome charafter of violence to every 
 one of them (17) except Zephyrus. I have obferved before, that in fome of his figures 
 his lap is full of fpring-flowers. Ovid deferibes him, and his attendants, (for there 
 were fcveral Zephyri; feveral deities of the Winds of the fame quarter, all under this 
 their great chief;) as tending (18) the flowers, that every where adorned the face of the 
 earth," in the infancy of the world; when (as he fays) it was all one continued fpring. 
 Lucretius, in his proceffion of thefeafons, makes Zephyrus and Flora (>9) joint atten¬ 
 dants of the fpring; and Ovid (20) gives a very full account of his falling in love with 
 Flora, at the fame fealon of the year. We find by that account, that this amour, (tho' 
 it was irregular in its beginning,) concluded at laft very honourably; in a match between 
 thefe two deities. And indeed never were any two deities better paired. They were 
 p.rhaps the happiefi couple of all tlrofe who in the heathen mythology were fuppofed to 
 have engaged in fo bold an undertaking, as that of an endlefs marriage : for fuch it muft 
 be, where divorces were never praftifed; and where, (if a match proved unhappy,) 
 neither of the parties could entertain any the leaft hopes of dying. 
 
 As Zephyrus is the moft gentle of all thefe deities of the Winds, fo the rougheft (21) 
 of them all is Boreas. As he is reprefented on the temple of Athens, he feems himfelf 
 
 to 
 
 If thefe gentlemen would pleafe to confider, that it 
 
 js not they, but Virgil that is fpeaking here;-that 
 
 the Winds were frequently reprefented as perfons, 
 
 in his time ;-that he had been ufed to fee them 
 
 fo reprefented, both in Greece and in his own coun¬ 
 try ;-that they were commonly worfhipped then 
 
 as gods; (and that Virgil had probably worfhipped 
 them as fuch himfelf, in fome of his voyages between 
 Rome and Athens;) they may perhaps be perfuaded 
 not to think this fo ftrange an expreflion for him to 
 ufe. 
 
 Indeed, inftcad of its being fo ftrange and abfurd, 
 I fliould imagine it to be very poetical and very pro¬ 
 per. The general chara&er of the face of Aufter, is 
 gloominefs; and the particular thing Virgil here 
 fpeaks of, is his threatening, or meditating mifehief. 
 Boreas is ufually reprefented like a furious, impetuous 
 bully ; and Aufter is reprefented here, with a fullen, 
 defigning look : not unlike one of our old politicians, 
 in a coffee-houfe ; on a damp, gloomy day; terribilem 
 picea te£lus caligine vultum. (As Ovid fays of Au¬ 
 fter ; Note ix, anteh.) 
 
 (14)- Aut unde nigerrimus Aufter 
 
 Nafcitur ; et pluvio contriftat frigore ccclum. 
 
 G. 3. if. 279. 
 
 (1 -) ■ Et no£U concolor alis, 
 
 Nimborum cum prole, Notus. • 
 
 Val. Flaccus, Argon, i. jfr. 612. 
 
 -- Dum fe continet Aufter; 
 
 Dum fedet, et ficcat madidas in carcerc pennas. 
 
 Juvenal. Sat. 5, jr. 101. 
 
 4 
 
 (17) - Fundunt fe carcere lreti 
 
 Thraces equi, Zcphyrufque; et nodli concolor alis 
 Nimborum cum prole Notus : crinemque procellis 
 Hifpidus, et mulla flavus caput Eurus arena. 
 
 Argon. 1. ^.613. 
 
 (iS) Ver erat sternum : placidique tepentibus auris 
 Mulcebant Zephyri natos line femine flores. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 1. if. 108. 
 
 (19) See Lucretius, Lib. 5. f. 736, to 739- 
 
 (20) Chloris eram, qute Flora vocor (corrupta Latino 
 
 Nominis eft noitri litera Grxca fono) 
 
 Chloris eram, nymphe campi felicis; ubi audis 
 
 Rem fortunatis ante fuifle viris.- 
 
 Ver erat; errabam. Zephyrus confpexit; abibam. 
 
 Infequitur; fugio. Fortior ille fuit. 
 
 Et dederat fratri Boreas jus omne rapinte, 
 
 Aufus Erifthea pnemia ferre domo. 
 
 Vim tamen emendat, dando mihi nomina nupta:; 
 
 Inquc meo non eft ulla querela toro 
 Vere fruor femper : veri nitidiflimus annus; 
 
 Arbor habet frondes, pabula fundit humus. 
 
 Eft mihi fcecundus dotalibus hortus in agris; 
 
 Aura fovet; liquidie fronte rigatur aqux. 
 
 Hunc meus implevit generofo flore maritus; 
 
 Atque ait, arbitrium tu dea floris habe. 
 
 Ovid. Fall. 5. jr. 2iJ. 
 
 (21) MMcPe (/«) 'nv Bopia.y, oJ yi oyrct, x) Tstpa 
 rravTctf tsj Avifxn( apinytt, -Troiet^su &nKvv. Philoftra- 
 tus; Vita Apollonii, Lib. 4. Cap. 21. 
 
Dialogue the ’Thirteenth. 
 
 to fuffcr from the extreme cold of the climate over which he prefides: agreeably to which 
 one of the poets calls him (22), “ The fhivering Tyrant.” However, I am apt to think 
 that the molt common way of reprefenting him of old, was as impetuous, and troublc- 
 fome to others; this being his molt ufual charader in the Roman poets. Ovid in par¬ 
 ticular fays, that he is almoft always rough, and (23) in a paffion. It is in his account 
 of the rape committed by this deity on Orithyia ; in which that poet riles, (or endeavours 
 at leaf to rile,) into an higher ftyle, than is ufual with him; to paint out the terrours that 
 belong to this deity. He reprefents him (24) “ as hardning flow, and difpenfing ho.il- 
 ftorms; as one great caufc of lightning and thunder, and the foie caufe of eat th 
 and all the terrible confequences that attend them : he fays, that he moves on encom- 
 paffed with dark clouds, in the heavens; and in a thick cloud of dull, over the earth.” 
 Confidering his effedts, and how he employs himfelf, whenever he is employed j one 
 would be glad to have this tyrant always, (as he is reprelented in his figure at Athens,) 
 with his robe before his mouth. 
 
 Such arc the characters of the four principal deities of the Winds, according to the 
 Roman poets; from confidering all of which together, one may find that they would 
 ferve extremely well to contrail, and fet off each other, in a picture; if any good hand 
 was to undertake it. For according to their dillinguilhing characters above mentioned. 
 Eurus lliould be of a lively, brilk air ; Auller, gloomy and aged : Zephyrus, young and 
 charming; and Boreas, old and angry. 
 
 The names of the other four Winds, in the divifion of eight, are Solanus, Africus 
 Corus, and Aquilo. I do not remember that any one of the Roman poets has ever 
 fpoken of Solanus : they feem to have given up his place entirely to Eurus. Every 
 one of the other three are mentioned by them; and that under the characters of per- 
 fons, tho’ they Ipeak of them but feldom. Silius Italicus deferibes Africus, or the deity 
 of the South-welt Wind, as having (25) dark wings ; and gives us a picture of Corus, (or 
 the North-well,) as fpreading out his dulky pinions, and (26) driving on a tempeft of 
 fnow before him; againll Hannibal's army, in their palfage over the Alps. This gives 
 us no bad idea of the Wind, which old Lucilius, (I know not on what grounds,) calls, 
 (27) The king of all the reft. Ovid fpeaks of Hiems, as trembling at the prefence of 
 Aquilo (28), (or the North-eaft;) and there is an expreffion (29) in Statius, relating to 
 the fame ; which may poflibly have been borrowed from fome figures of old, not unlike 
 thofe bluftering faces we fee fo often in the corners of our maps. 
 
 (22) Illic et gelidi conjux Affcea tyranni. 
 
 Et genetrix fafta eft.- 
 
 Ovid. Met. 6. 711. (of Orithyia.) 
 
 (23) -- Horridus ira. 
 
 Qua: folita eft illi.- 
 
 Ibid. jr. 686. 
 
 It is thus that he was reprefented by Zeuxis; as wc 
 learn from Lucian. Ou ®&mt uxAHf 0 tpiKotrotpot «to; 
 tftvi ou fj.zv nv ak\of. ExT-Tctcar y-ev 7 ov iruyuva., 
 Kan Tet( oppi/f uyetretrai, km GpzvSvouivos 71 vf>of clutov 
 tpyi 7 cu, 7 iTa.vaS'a Smttwv, cLVcLtfittoSnixivoi Tnv 5 ■ni tu 
 Is.ztuttu ko(jl in/' AvToSopiai 71 f, n Htnuv, oitss 0 Z 
 ty^oiifiv. Tiy.uv. Tom. I. p. 158. Ed. Blaeu. 
 
 (24) “ Apta mihi vis eft: vi triftia nubila pello j 
 Vi freta concutio, nodofaque robora verto : 
 Induroque nives ; et terras grandine pulfo. 
 
 Idem ego, cum fratres ccelo fum naftus aperto, 
 (Nam mihi campus is eft,) tanto molimine ludlor, 
 Ut medius noftris concurfibus intonet aither j 
 Exiliantque cavis elifi nubibus ignes. 
 
 Idem ego, cum fubii convexa foramina terr® 
 Suppofuique ferox imis mea terga cavernis. 
 Sollicito Manes totumque tremoribus orbem.”- 
 
 These 
 
 Hrcc Boreas, aut his non inferiora, locutus 
 Exculfit pennas; quarum jaftatibus omnis 
 Afflata eft tellus, latumque perhorruit tequor: 
 Pulvereamque trahens per fumma cacumina pallam. 
 Verrit humum ; pavidamque metu, caligine tedlus, 
 OrithyVan amans fulvis ampleftitur alis. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 6. St. 707. 
 
 (25) Hinc Notus, hinc Boreas, hinefufeis Africus alis 
 
 Bella movent.- 
 
 Silius. Ital. 12. jr. 618. 
 
 (26) Interdum adverfo glomeratas turbine Corus 
 In media ora nives fufeis agit horridus alis. 
 
 Ibid. 3. 524. 
 
 (27) Rex Corus ille duos hos Ventos, Auftrum 
 atque Aquilonem, noviflime alebat j &c. Lucilius, 
 Sat. Lib. 23. 
 
 (28) —Cum triftis Hiems Aquilonis inhorruit alis. 
 
 Ovid. Ibis. jr. 201. 
 
 (29) —■ ■ — Primique Aquilonis hiatus. 
 
 Statius. Theb. 7. jr. 37. 
 
zc6 
 
 P O L Y METI S. 
 
 These principal deities of the Winds, were all (3°) brothers; and of no mean paren¬ 
 tage : for Aftraus, the elder brother of Saturn, was their father; and Aurora, their mo¬ 
 ther. They are fometimes reprefented with wings, and ( 3 1 ) fometimes without; in the 
 few remains we have of the antient artifts, relating to this fubjedt. Were thefe more 
 frequent, I imagine we ftiould molt commonly fee them reprefented with wings; be- 
 caufe they are generally fpoken of by the poets, where they defcribe any of thefe deities. 
 Their ufual manner of blowing, as appears both from the poets and the remains of the 
 artifts, was not by diftorting their faces in that ftrange manner that our modern painters 
 and fculptors are pleafed to imagine. They gave them wreathed trumpets for that pur- 
 pofe ; not unlike the twilled lliell, ufed as a trumpet by the Tritons: as you fee it on 
 Pl. xxviii. the medallion by that window; copied from the Ara Ventorum, in the Capitoline gal- 
 1-ig. i. 1 ery at Rome. This general attribute of the Winds is hinted at, by fome of the poets 
 (3 2 ) ; and exprefly fpoken of, by others. 
 
 Beside thefe general attributes of wings, and flabra, (or the wreathed trumpets they 
 breathed through,) the particular deities of the Winds had others, according to their 
 particular characters. One of the Winds on their temple at Athens holds a water-pot in 
 his hand ; to denote the rains he generally brought with him, in that climate. Auller 
 was probably reprefented fometimes ( 33 ) with the fame attribute. Jt is only a ftnall vale 
 indeed ; but that does not hinder its flgnifying very heavy Ihowers : for Aquarius, (who 
 was looked on as the caufe (34) of thofe heavy rains, that ufually fall in Italy about 
 the (35) winter-folftice,) has juft fuch another on the Farnefe globe. It is perhaps that 
 little vale in particular, which the Romans called, (36) Urceus. 
 
 I have faid enough, (and as we have fo few remains relating to them, perhaps too 
 much,) on thefe deities of the principal Winds. It is probable there were (37) many 
 others under each of them, who had their name from the chief of their particular quar¬ 
 ter ; and fome which were diftinguilhed from the vulgar, by particular names: fuch, for 
 inftance, as Vulturnus ; whom Lucretius introduces as an (38) attendant of the autumn, 
 in his proceflion of the feafons: and the Etefia;, a (39) gentler lbrt of northern gales: in 
 
 fpeaking 
 
 (30) Ovid calls Boreas Zcphyrus’s brother, in his 
 Fafti, 5. )!•. 203. and in fpeaking of all the four prin¬ 
 cipal Winds, calls them all brothers ; in his Meta- 
 morphofis, 1. S'. 60. Their parentage is mentioned 
 by Heliod, in his Qioyovix ; and by Apollodorus, lib. 1. 
 cap. 2. ap. Hi ft. Poet. Script. Ed. Gale. 
 
 (31) They are winged, on a Sarcophagus rcprc- 
 fenting the Fall of Phaeton, in the Borghefe gardens; 
 and without wings, on the Ara Ventorum, at the 
 Capitol. 
 
 (32) Cum fua quifque regant diverfo flamina traflu. 
 
 Ovid. Met. i. 59. 
 
 .- Neque hic Borea: flabra, nec arma timet. 
 
 Propert. Lib. 2. EI. 27. S'. 12. 
 
 -Freta circum 
 
 F-ervefcunt graviter fpirantibus incita flabris. 
 
 Lucretius. 6. i/. 427. 
 
 -Mihi pontus inertes 
 
 Submittit fluftus; Zephyrique tacentia ponunt 
 
 Ante meos fua flabra pedes.- 
 
 Petronius Arb. p. 259. Ed. Lond. 
 
 (33) Defundit imbres.- 
 
 Statius. Theb. 1. S'. 332. (of Aufler.) 
 
 (34) --Contriftat Aquarius annum. 
 
 Horat. Lib. 1. Sat. 1. jfr. 36. 
 
 (35) - - Bruma: intraftabilis imbrem. 
 
 Virgil. Georg. 1. jr.m. 
 
 6 
 
 (36) Tho’ the Urceus was but a fmall veflel, Petro¬ 
 nius ufes the expreftion of nimbus urceatim detumens, 
 for a violent fudden fhower. (Petr. Arb. p. 24. Ed. 
 Lond.) Indeed the fize of the veflel is out of the 
 queftion ; bccaufe this kind of expreffion is only 
 meant to fignify that the rain poured down, not in 
 diftimTt drops, but as it were in one continued 
 ft ream. 
 
 (37) Nigram Hiemi pecudem; Zephyris felicibus albam. 
 
 Virgil. JEn. 3. S'. 120. 
 
 The fame poet fpeaks of the Euri too in the plural; 
 and of feveral of the other Winds. 
 
 -Hybernis parcebant flatibus Euri. 
 
 Georg. 2. S'. 339. 
 
 Nimborum in patriam, loca fccta furentibus Aultrb, 
 
 Asoliam venit - 
 
 JEn. 1. S'. 32. 
 
 Aut aftum ccelo magnis Aquilonibus imbrem. 
 
 Georg, r. i. 334. 
 
 (38) Inde Autumnus adit; graditur fimul Evius Evan : 
 
 Inde ali.-e tempeflates Ventique fcquuntur; 
 
 Altitonans Vulturnus, & Auller fulmine pollens. 
 
 Lucr. 3. S'. 744. 
 
 (39) They are not of the rougheft kind, by the 
 offices attributed to them. Lucretius makes them 
 companions of the fummer ; 
 
 Lids 
 
Dialogue the ' Thirteenth. 
 
 fpeaking of which one of the Roman writers in profe, (and one of the licft they ever 
 had,) ules torne expreflions C 4 C ), which would be let 1 Ie ; unlels they were 
 grounded on thofe Winds being commonly reprefented, and known as perfons, among 
 the Romans. 
 
 All that I have yet mention 
 the Winds to be a people of one fex only 
 rorum,) we will now, if you ple , ler fome of th< 
 dilpoled here, in each of t;iu o\- i. : 
 
 what the Romans called, ( 4-0 A irze; j ... 
 
 marked out by the veil, which they hold in their hands, and which flutters • chwife over 
 
 their heads. They are oftener to be found in the anti itpainti 
 
 in all the other remains of antiquity, put together. In particular, I have never yet nu t 
 with any ftatue of an Aura, that I know of: but Pliny (V) fpeaks of two; which were 
 a good deal admired, even in his time, at Rome. 
 
 Tho’ thefe deities are fo uncommon now in ftatues, that lofs is fufficiently made up 
 to us by their being commonly enough to be met with in the paintings of the antients ; 
 and efpecially, as I was faying, on ceilings: which is certainly the propereft place of 
 any for them to be reprefented on. I dare fay 1 could point out two or three dozen of 
 them (+3) ; in Dr. Mead’s collection of paintings, and drawings from the paintings of 
 the antients : of which, it would be a very fparing commendation only to lav, that it is 
 the nobleft collection, on this fide of the Alps ; it being probably the nobleft of its kind, 
 in the whole world. The drawings, in particular, were taken by the famous Bartoli; 
 on the fpot, as the paintings were dilcovered. And as the latter lofe their colours on 
 being expofed to the air ; and are almoft wholly extinguhhed, by the courfc of a few 
 years : thefe copies of them, in which the colours appear as vivid and ftrong as when 
 they were firft difeovered, are in that refpeCt a more valuable treafure, even than the 
 originals themfelves would be ; were they all remaining, and all collected together : 
 whereas moft them are Nattered ; and many of them, quite loft. All my Air-nymphs 
 here, are borrow’d from this collection of Dr. Mead’s : who did not only give me a lull 
 liberty of having whatever I pleafed copied from it; but gave it always with fo many 
 obliging circumftances, as doubled the favour. Indeed, by what I have experienced 
 mylelf, and by what I have heard from fcveral others; I am apt to think, that the fureft 
 method to make that gentleman one’s friend, is to put it in his way to oblige you heartily. 
 
 I am 
 
 Inde loci fequitur Calor aridus ; & comes una 
 Pulverulenta Ceres, et Etefla flabra Aquilonum. 
 
 Lucr. 5. jt. 741. 
 
 And Horace, (if I miftake not,) of the fpring. 
 
 Jam veris comites, qua: marc temperant, 
 Impellunt Anima: lintea Thracix : 
 
 Jam nec prata rigent, nec fluvii ftrepunt 
 Hybcrnd nive turgidi. 
 
 Horat. Lib. 4. Od. 12. jr. 4. 
 
 By the laft words it appears that Horace fpeaks 
 here of the latter end of the fpring ; for in the begin¬ 
 ning of it, the rivers in Italy arc generally moft fwoln 
 with the melting of the fnows. I fuppofe, from 
 comparing Horace and Lucretius together, that thefe 
 Etefian (or Thracian) gales might blow commonly, 
 about the dole of the fpring, or the beginning of the 
 l'ummer. 
 
 (40) Iratus temporibus, in Grreciam defperata li¬ 
 bertate rapiebar : quum me Etefiae, quafi boni cives, 
 relinquentem rempublicam profequi noluerunt; Au- 
 fterque adverfus maximo flatu me ad Rhegium retulit. 
 Cicero. Lib. 12. Epift. 25. 
 
 (41) That the Romans ufed the word Aura perfo- 
 nally, for the nymphs of the air, is evident from the 
 quotation in the following note. I fuppofe they 
 might borrow that ufe of it from the Greeks; who 
 feem to have ufed Auga l’ometimes in the fame man¬ 
 ner-.—I remember to have feen an antient gem repre- 
 fenting two greyhounds purfuing a hare with their 
 names engraved under them ; which had, probably, 
 been the feal of fome old fpcrtfman. The name of 
 one is Xpur/r, and of the other Avea., or the air- 
 nymph ; to denote her fwiftnefs. 
 
 (42) Multa in eadem fcholafine auftoribus placent : 
 
 fatyri quatuor;- duxque Aune, velificantes fua 
 
 vefte. Pliny, Nat. Hift. Lib. 36. Cap. 5. p. 472. 
 Ed. Elz. 
 
 (43) In Bartoli’s finiftied drawings from the paint¬ 
 ings of the antients, formerly in the pofleflion of the 
 Maffimi family at Rome, and now in the hands of 
 Dr. Mead ; there are fevcral figures which I take to 
 be air-nymphs. Particularly, Fol. 69, 71, 73, 75 ’ 
 
 87, 89, Hi, 112, 113, 147, and 148. 
 
2o8 
 
 Pi., xxviii 
 FlC. 2, 3. 
 
 Pf . XXVIII 
 
 Fig. 4. 
 
 P O L Y M E T I S. 
 
 I am very much tempted to launch out farther, on fo agreeable a fubjedl; but to cut my 
 gratitude fhort, and to return to my Air-nymphs; this with the blue veil, in the com¬ 
 partimenti juft over Zephyrus, has wings; and that next her, (with a red veil, fluttering 
 all over her head,) has none ; tho’ they are both, you ice, in the attitude of flying. 
 The latter, holds a bundle of flowers, in each hand ; perhaps, to fcatter them down, 
 over the earth : for thefe ladies are of a mild and gentle character ; and would make very 
 proper wives for the Zephyri : part of whole office was that of difpenfing and cherilhing 
 flowers ; even fo far back, as in the times of (44) the golden age. In this drawing, I have 
 a Zephyr and Air-nymph, who may adtually have been married together, for what I know; 
 or who, at leaft, feem not at all averfe to each other. Thefe, and the two Air-nymphs I 
 deiired you to obferve, were found, (on three different ceilings,) in Titus’s palace, at Rome. 
 As there is no great variety in the characters of thefe ladies ; I fhall point out no more 
 of them to you, at prefent. They are all light and airy; generally with long robes, 
 and flying veils ; of fome lively colour, or other; and fluttering about, as diverting them- 
 felves in the light and pleafing element, affign’d to them. In fhort, they are all fo 
 many Sylphs : a fpecies, of fportive, happy beings, in themfelves; and well-wifhers to 
 mankind. 
 
 ’Till I got acquainted with thefe Aura?, (or Sylphs,) I found myfclf always at a lofs 
 in reading the known ffory of Cephalus and Procris, in Ovid. I could never imagine 
 how Cephalus s crying out, Aura venias, (tho’ in ever fo languifhing a manner,) could 
 give any body a fufpicion of his being falfe to Procris. As I had been always ufed to 
 think that Aura fignified only the air in general, or a gentle breeze in particular ; I 
 thought Procris s jealoufy lefs founded, than the mo ft extravagant jealoufies generally are : 
 but when I had once found, that Aura might lignify a very handfomc young lady, as 
 well as the air, the cafe was entirely altered ; and the ftory feemed to go on in a very 
 reafonable manner, lo fay the truth; this exclamation of Cephalus, is not only very 
 apt to be miiunderftood by an Englifli reader: but even when it is underftood, it is im- 
 poflible to be render'd into Englifli. As much impoflible, as it would be to tranilate feveral 
 of the Latin puns, which we meet with in Cicero and others of the Roman writers; 
 Aura, in Latin, being (45) an equivocal word; and we not having any equivocal word, 
 in our language (46), fit to anfwer it. 
 
 One may learn from this new fet of beings, as well as from feveral others I have had 
 occafion to mention to you, (particularly in our vifit to the beings which relate to the 
 times and feafons;) that the Romans made perfonages of feveral ideas, and feveral things, 
 which we have not been ufed ever to coniider in that light. In the prefent cafe, befide 
 the number of winds that are turned into gods, and of breezes to which they gave the 
 gentler charadter of goddefles; they had feveral other fuppofed inhabitants for the air: 
 and that of many more kinds, than I can pretend to fhew you any figures of. It is cer¬ 
 tain that the Winds, in their fcheme, were (47) capable of having Ions and daughters ; 
 and how far their families might run on, would be difficult to determine. The clouds, 
 nay perhaps every diftindt cloud, might be a (4*0 goddefs : and this by the way, might 
 
 enable 
 
 (44J See-Note 18, anteh. 
 
 (45) The whole turns upon this ; as Ovid, indeed, 
 has very diftimftly remarked in that ftory. 
 
 Aura 'recordor enim) venias, cantare folebam, 
 iVleque juves ; mtrefque finus gratiflima noflros ! — 
 Vocibus ambiguis, deceptam pnebuit aurem 
 Nefcio quis ; nomenque aura; tam fxpe vocatum 
 Efle putans Nympha;, Nympham mihi credit amari. 
 
 Met. 7. 823. 
 
 f46) Ourword, Air, fignifies the element, and is 
 never ufed pcrfonally; ourword. Sylph, ftgnihes a 
 perfon, but is never ufed of the element: the word, 
 6 
 
 Zephyr, maybe ufed by us, both of the element, and 
 of a perfon ; but then it is a perl'on of the wrong fex 
 for this ftory. 
 
 (47) Thus Calais and Zethes, for inftance, were 
 the fons of Boreas by Orithyia ; 
 
 Ca:tera qui matris pennas genitoris haberent : 
 
 Says Ovid, Met. 6. 71 
 
 (48) The Nsappear perfonally, in Arifto- 
 phanes’s play of that name : and may be called, The 
 Nymphs of the clouds ; as the Aune, arc the Nymphs 
 of the air. 
 
 Pryxuj 
 
Dialogue the Thirteenth. 
 
 enable one to account as well, for the ftory of Juno’s cheating Ixion; as the perfonal 
 fenfe of Aura does, for the jealoufy of Procris. Bad weather (49), as well as (50) good, 
 had a place among the divinities of the Romans : and there were let forms of prayer (51), 
 even to tempefts; in their old rituals. Dark and damp weather (52) is fpoken of as a 
 perfon, by Valerius Flaccus; as areFroft, and Cold (53), by Lucretius. Heat had as 
 much right to be a perfon, as Cold; and is fpoken of (54) as fuch,'by the fame poet, 
 on the fame occafion. Showers, and ftorms of rain, are fpoken of as perfons by fome 
 of the Roman poets; and thunder, and lightning, were actually reprefented as fuch, 
 by the very belt ( 55 ) of all the Grecian painters. 
 
 So wide a region as the air, with fuch a number of inhabitants, (nnd fome of them 
 fuch wild ones) ought to have good governors, to keep things in order in it: and to fay 
 the truth, the poets feem to have provided it with fuch, in the propereft manner that 
 could be. Over the rougher Winds, they placed iEolus; over the fofter, Juno: and 
 the Rains, Thunders, and Lightnings, they fuppofed to be under the immediate di- 
 redtion of Jupiter himfelf. 
 
 fEoLUS I have never yet met with; either in any gem, medal, pidture, or relievo, of 
 the antients. The poets, you know, deferibe him (56) as of an angry temper, and rough 
 look; fitting in the midft of a vaft cave (57): with his fubjedts fettered or chained down, 
 round about him. Virgil, and Valerius Flaccus after him, give a picture of ./Eolus 
 letting the Winds out of this their prifon ; to diredt the ftorms, that are fo particularly 
 deferibed by both of thefe poets. By their joint account of him, he feems to be the molt 
 of a tyrant, of any of the gods; or, (to ufe a word that with the old Romans was but a 
 little fofter,) the fitteft king, for fuch unruly fubjedts. 
 
 The 
 
 Pryxus and Helle had one of thefe Cloud-nymphs 
 for their mother. Whence Ovid calls Helle, Ncphv- 
 leida ; the daughter of a Nephele, or Cloud-nymph. 
 Met. ii. i. 195. and Lucian fays, in his ufual laugh¬ 
 ing way ; Ovx.*v txpnv tiiv //iirsptt, thv Ne$ 6 \nv, 0su- 
 
 Q&v 'Tnifjtsffti ;-F-XP* 1 *'' » y-oipct. -ttoWco thj vnpi- 
 
 *»k J'wcLTunpa.. Tom. I. p. 252. Ed. Blaeu.—The 
 fame author, in his long lift of fabulous ftorics, does 
 not forget to infert this. Kai /usr a. ravra, ntnv Afla- 
 Hetvro r [AcLvittv, Ktti tuv NspsAur ara/c/W «sri t# y.p/u rny 
 J'uipiov (pvynv. Ibid. p. 803. 
 
 (49) Nigram Hiemi pecudem. - 
 
 Virgil. /En. 3. it. 120. 
 
 (50) When the altar of the Winds was found at 
 Nettuno; another altar, inferibed AraTranquillitatis, 
 was found with it: they are both now in the Capito¬ 
 line gallery. 
 
 (51) Tempeftatcs, qute populi Romani ritibus con- 
 fecrata? funt. Cicero, de Nat. Deor. Lib. 3. p. 70. 
 Ed. Aid. 
 
 (52) - Pontum pater & turbata reponit 
 
 Litora, depellitque Notos; quos casrulus Horror, 
 
 Et madido gravis Unda finu, longeque fecutus 
 Imber, ad JEoMx. tendunt fimul xquora porta;. 
 
 Valerius Flaccus. Arg. 1. it. 654. 
 
 (53) Lucretius, 5. i. 745, & 746. 
 
 (54) Id. Ibid. it. 740. 
 
 (55) Pinxit (Apelles)— Tonitrua, Fulgetra, Fulgu¬ 
 raque : Bronten, Aftrapen, Ceraunubolon appellant. 
 Pliny, Lib. 35. Cap. 10. p. 438. Ed. Elz. 
 
 (56) Ut ferus eft, multoque fuis truculentior Euris, 
 Spettaflet ficcis vulnera noftra genis. 
 
 Scilicet eft aliquid cum duris vivere Ventis ; 
 
 Ingenio populi convenit ille fui: 
 
 Imperat heu ventis; tumid* non imperat ira?. 
 
 Ovid. Her. Ep. 11. i. 15. (Canace, Mac.) 
 
 (37) -Hic magno rex /Eoius antro 
 
 Luftantes Ventos Tempeftatefquc fonoras 
 Imperio premit, ac vinclis & carcere frxnat: 
 
 Illi indignantes magno cum murmure montis 
 Circum clauftra fremunt. Cella fedet Asolus arce. 
 Sceptra tenens; mollitque animos, & temperat iras. 
 
 Virgil. vEn. 1. i. 57. 
 
 -Chalybs iterataque muris 
 
 Saxa domantEuros. Cum jam prohibere frementum 
 Ora nequit rex, tunc aditus & clauftra refringit 
 Ipfe volens; placatque data fera murmura porta. 
 Nuntius hunc folio Boreas proturbat ab alto; &c. 
 
 Valerius Flaccus. Arg. 1 i’. 59-. 
 Juvenal, to ftrengthen the force of his fatire againlt 
 Xerxes, fays, he was a greater tyrant even than /Eoius ; 
 that he was not content to chain Corus and Eurus, 
 but whipped them with rods; and that (whereas 
 /Eoius fettered only the Winds,) Xerxes fettered even 
 the prefiding deity of the feas. 
 
 In Corum atque Eurum folicus ftevire flagellis 
 Barbarus, ./Eolio nunquam hoc in carcere paflos; 
 Ipfum compedibus qui vinxerat Ennofigxum. 
 
 Juvenal. Sat. 10. 182. 
 
 The deities of the feveral Winds were fuppofed to 
 be let out of this cave, for a ftorm ; and to be Ihut in 
 again, after it. 
 
 - Tum valido contortam turbine portam 
 
 Impulit Hippotades. Fundunt fe, &c. 
 
 Flaccus. Arg. 1. i. 610, 
 —Ad JE oliae tendunt fimul .-equora port*. 
 
 Id. Ibid. jr, 654. 
 
 So Virgil : /En. i. i. 81, & T4O. 
 
210 
 
 P O L Y M E T I S. 
 
 Tiie character of Juno, as prefiding over the air, is well known ; and as fuch, the 
 aerial nymphs we have been confidering, may very well be fuppoled to have been her 
 proper fubjedts. When therefore Virgil makes her lpeak (58) of the fourteen nymphs, 
 that were chofen out as her particular attendants; thefe may moft probably be luppofed 
 to have been fo many of the Auras, or nymphs of the air : and what makes it yet more 
 likely i', that file offers one of them, for a wife to /Eoius, the god of the Winds. Juno, 
 Pl. XXIX. in her character of prefiding over the air, is reprefented as you fee her here, in a light 
 1<J ’ car, drawn by peacocks. For want of choice I was forced to admit of the figure 
 
 you fee ; tho’ it is copied from a Grecian medal; and is of a char adder that was as 
 proper among the Greeks, as it would have been improper among the Romans : the 
 latter, (as I have obferved before,) drefling Juno ufually like one of their own ma¬ 
 trons : and coverin’ her from head to foot: whereas the former did not ufe near fo 
 much ftridlnels; and were accuftomcd to figures of her, almoft quite naked. It is 
 remarkable, .hat an ( 59 ) epithet which Homer gives perpetually to Juno, as prefiding 
 over the air; and well agreeing with the Greek manner of reprefenting her; is never 
 imitated by Virgil, or any other of the Latin poets, that I know of. 
 
 Jupiter is almoft as well known for being a chief ruler of the air, as he is for bcino- 
 the huiband of Juno. His particular province there was to direel t!ie Rains, the Thun¬ 
 ders, and the Lightnings. I have already fpoke to you of the figures of Jupiter, as 
 dilpenfing thunder and lightning : and have only referved his char.icier of prefiding over 
 the rain, as the moft proper of all for this place. 
 
 I no not remember ever to have met with any representations of Jupiter the difpenfer 
 of rain, or (as he is commonly called) the Jupiter Pluvius, except on a medal, which 
 I am going to fhew you ; and in thofe remarkable hiftory-pieees, on the Trajan, and 
 Pl. XXIX. Antonine pillars, at Rome. On this medal, you fee him leafed on the clouds : holding 
 
 IG ‘ 2 ‘ up his right hand ; and pouring a ftream of hail and rain from it, on the earth : whilft 
 
 his fulmen is held down, in his left. This figure is remarkable enough, as it is the only 
 one, perhaps, of a Jupiter Pluvius on medals; tho’ that on the Antonine pillar has been 
 much more talked of. The latter, you know, relates to Marcus Aurelius; and the 
 great danger from which the Roman army was delivered under his conduct; in a battle 
 again ft the Marcomani, and fome other of the German nations. The Romans, (who 
 were few in number, and had been long inclofed in fome very dangerous ftraits by a vaft 
 
 multitude of the Barbarians ;) were almoft fpent with heat and thirft, and on the point of 
 being defeated by their enemies : when, on a Hidden, the heavens were overcaft, and 
 a great lhower fell; which extremely refrefhed the Romans : at the fame time that the 
 lightnings, (which were very frequcnt,and feemed pointed at their enemies breafts,)helped 
 greatly to intimidate, and defeat them. This had fo much the air of a miracle, that it has 
 been challenged as fuch by feveral of the chriftiari, as well as heathen writers. That difpute 
 is too large for us to enter into now, as well as befide my prefent purpofe; which is only 
 to conlider the figures of the Jupiter Pluvius ; and how far they may ferve to explain any 
 paflage in the Roman poets. He appears on the Antonine pillar, as well as on my medal, 
 with an elderly and fedate countenance (60); and holds out his arms, almoft in a ftrait line, 
 each way. The wings which are given him on the former, relate to his character of 
 prefiding over the air: which indeed was the original (61), and principal character of 
 
 Jupiter, 
 
 (58) Sunt mihi bis feptem pricltanti corpore nymph.-e 
 Quarum, qua: forma pulcherrima, Deiopeam 
 Connubio jungam Habili propriamque dicabo; 
 Omnes uc tecum meritis pro talibus annos 
 Exigat, & pulchra faciat te prole parentem. 
 
 Virgil. /En. i. >\ ; 
 
 (60) Sec Bartoli’s Columna Antonina, Pl. 15. 
 
 (61) Hoc vide circum fuprnque, quod complexu continet 
 Terram. Id quod nortri ccelum memorant, Graii 
 
 perhibent sthera. 
 
 Quicquid ell hoc, omnia is animat, format, auget, 
 alit, ferat: 
 
 (59) AiVKU\iyos H p». 
 
 4 
 
 Sepelit, 
 
Dialogue 
 
 the Thirteenth. 
 
 Jupiter (62), among the antients. His hair and beard are all fpread down, by the rain; 
 which dcfcends in a fheet from him, and falls for the refreftiment of the Romans : 
 whilft their enemies are reprefented, as ftruck with the lightnings: and lying dead 
 before their feet. 00 1 5 
 
 This Jupiter Pluvius may help one to explain a paffage in Lucan ; where that poet, 
 in fpeaking of the power of the witches in Thdlaly, fays among other things ; 
 
 -Nunc omnia complent 
 
 Imbribus ; & calido producunt nubila Fhccbo : 
 
 Et tonat ignaro ccelum Jove. Vocibus ifdem 
 Humentes late nebulas nimbofque folutis 
 Excuffere comis (63). 
 
 The commentators on this paffage feem to think no more is meant in the latter part 
 of it, than when Horace (64), in fpeaking of Canidia, fays, fbe has all her hair loofe 
 about her head. But I think any one who would look on that figure firft; and then con- 
 fider Lucan’s expreflion, (nimbos folutis excufi'ere comis ;) will eafily fee that the poet 
 meant to defcribe his witches, not only with their hair loofe, but as adually pouring the 
 Ihowers down from it; as Jupiter does from his, in that reprefentation of him. 
 
 That Jupiter often affifted, or directed, their armies by fudden fforms of rain and 
 thunder, was a notion received very early among the Romans. I remember there is an 
 inftance of this fort recorded by Livy (65), toward the beginning of the republic; and 
 there is another, in the fecond Punic war ; which was much more cried up among them, 
 as it was exerted at fo critical a time; againft Hannibal the mod; formidable of all their 
 enemies, when he had drawn up his army juft before the gates of Rome. Some of their 
 hiftorians fpeakof this (66) as fupernatural; and Silius Italicus, (who himfelfis more of 
 an hiftorian than a poet,) attributes it cxprdly to the Jupiter Capitolinus. You muft 
 know, that befide the figure of Jupiter in hislhrine within his chief temple on the Ca¬ 
 pitoline hill, there was another (67) figure of him on the outlide of it; on the top of the 
 
 dome; 
 
 Sepelit, recipitque in fefe omnia ; omniumque idem 
 ell pater. 
 
 Ennius, in Chryfe. 
 Mater eft terra ; ea parit corpus: animam aether 
 adjugat. Id. Ibid. 
 
 - Pereunt imbres, ubi eos Pater ./Ether 
 
 In gremium matris Terra! praecipitavit. 
 
 Lucretius, i. 252. 
 
 Ifthic is eft Jupiter quem dico, Gra:ci vocant 
 Aera.-. 
 
 Ennius, in Epicharmo. 
 
 - Afpice hoc 
 
 Sublime candens, quem vocant omnes Jovem. 
 
 Id. in Thyefte. 
 
 (62) This is wholly founded on the authority of a 
 gem, which I remember to have feen in the Great 
 Duke’s collection at Florence. It relates to Jupiter’s 
 amour wich Semele, That lady had the rafhnefs to 
 wheedle him out of an abfolute promife, that he 
 would appear to her in all his glory. This appear¬ 
 ance is the fubjeCt of the gem I am fpeaking of : and 
 you fee Jupiter in it, with wings on his fhoulders; 
 and lightnings all around him : both of which, relate 
 to his character of prefiding over the air. 
 
 (63) Lucan. Pharf. 6. jfr. 469. 
 
 (64) Canidiam pedibus nudis, paftbque capillo. 
 
 Horat. Lib. 1. Sat. 8. jL 24. 
 
 (65) Eodem anno, (284 V. C.) Valerius Cof. cum 
 exercitu in ./Equos profeCtus, cum hoftem ad pnelium 
 eliccre non pollet, caftra oppugnare eft adortus. Pro¬ 
 hibuit feeda tempeftas, cum grandine ac tonitribus 
 ccelo dejeCta. Admirationem deinde auxit, figno 
 receptui dato, adeo tranquilla ferenitas reddita, ut 
 veluti numine aliquo defenfa caftra oppugnare ite¬ 
 rum religio fuit : omnis ira belli ad populationem 
 agri vertit. Livy, Lib. 2. §. 62. 
 
 (66) Inftruflis utrimque exercitibus, in ejus pugnas 
 cafum, in qua urbs Roma viCtori praemium eflet ; 
 imber ingens grandine mixtus ita utramque aciem tur¬ 
 bavit, ut vix armis retentis in caftra fefe receperint.— 
 Poftero die, eodem loco acies inftrudas eadem tem¬ 
 peftas diremit ; ubi recepifient fefe, mira ferenitas 
 cum tranquillitate oriebatur. Livy, Lib. 26. §. 11. 
 
 Quid ergo miramur moventi caftra a tertio lapide 
 Annibali, iterum ipfos deos, (deos inquam, nec fa¬ 
 teri pudebit,) reftitifle ? Tanta enim ad fingulos illius 
 motus vis imbrium cfiufa, tanta ventorum violentia 
 coorta eft, ut divinitus hoftem fummoveri ; neque 
 ccelo, fed ab urbis ipfius moenibus & Capitolio ferri 
 videretur. Florus, Lib. 2. §. 6. 
 
 (67) This was one of the earlieft ftatues introduced 
 
 at Rome ; and was originally made of earth.-M. 
 
 Varro tradit elaboratam hanc artem, (Plafticen,) Italic, 
 & maxime Hetrurias ; Turianumque a Fragellis ac¬ 
 citum, cui locaret Tarquinius Prifcus effigiem Jovis 
 
 I i i in 
 
 ■f 
 
 
11 2 
 
 POLY M ETIS. 
 
 dome ; Handing in his chariot, and probably holding the fulmen in his hand. Silius 
 makes him difeharge ( 68 ) this full at Hannibal, on this occafion; as Lucius Florus feems 
 to make the ftorm of rain (69) come from the fame quarter. 
 
 There was, I think, fcarce any charadler of Jupiter among the Romans, that was 
 more capable of giving fublime ideas to their artifts, than this of the Jupiter Pluvius. 
 In my medal indeed, as well as on the Antonine pillar, he is all calm and Hill; 
 but on the Trajan pillar ( 7 °), he appears a good deal more agitated : and had we a 
 greater variety of his figures remaining to us, I doubt not but that in fome of them 
 we fhould fee his face, and his whole form, under yet Hill greater emotions, than 
 we do there. For the Roman poets, (whofe works the more one confiders, the more 
 one finds them to be counter-parts to thofe of their painters and flatuaries,) do not only 
 fpeak of Jupiter as defeending in violent (bowers ( 7 1 ) ; but as all ruffled too with thofe 
 winds, which mod ufually attend them. Silius Italicus riles quite into poetry, where 
 he is treating this fubjed : and one of the fined paffages, even in the yRneid, relates to 
 the fame. It is where Evander is pointing out the Capitoline hill to ./Eneas. On which 
 occafion I do not know whether Virgil endeavours to confirm an old opinion, or to 
 infinuate a new one ; “ That Jupiter was the guardian deity of that place, even before 
 Rome was built.” They afterwards indeed fuppofed him to be prefent there (72) as 
 fully, and in as much glory, as in the higheH heavens ; but I do not remember any 
 pallage but this in Virgil which fuppofes him to have chofe that hill for his peculiar 
 refidence, before his temple was built on it. The poet chafes to delcribe his appear¬ 
 ance there, in all the majefty of clouds and darknefs. 
 
 Hinc ad Tarpeiam fedem & Capitolia ducit : 
 
 Aurea nunc, olim fylvedribus horrida dumis. 
 
 Jam tum relligio pavidos terrebat agreftes 
 Dira loci : jam turn fylvain faxumque tremebant. 
 
 Hoc nemus, hunc (inquit) frondofo vertice collem. 
 
 Quis deus incertum eft, habitat deus : Arcades ipfum 
 Credunt fe vidifle Jovem; cum ffepe nigrantem 
 /Egida concuteret dextra, nimbofque cieret (73). 
 
 May 
 
 in Capitolio dicandam : ficlilcm eum fuifle, Sc ideo 
 miniari folitum; fictiles in fafligio templi ejus qua¬ 
 drigas, de quibus fiepe diximus. Pliny, Nat. 'Hift. 
 Lib. 35. Cap. 12. It was afterwards call in fome 
 richer metal ; as we learn from Livy. TEnea in Ca¬ 
 pitolio limina, Sc trium menfarum argentea vafa in 
 cella Jovis, Jovemque in culmine cum quadrigis, 
 ad Ficum Ruminalem fimulacra infantium condito¬ 
 rum urbis fub uberibus lupae, pofuerunt. (TEdiles 
 Curules, anno 457 V. C.) Livy, Lib. 10. §. 23. 
 
 (6S) ■ — • Ipfe a Tarpeio fublimis vertice cuncta. 
 
 Et ventos funul & nubes Sc grandinis iras, 
 pulminaque & tonitrus, & nimbos conciet atros. 
 
 - Cclfus fummo de culmine montis 
 
 Regnator Superum fublata fulmina dextra 
 Libravit; clypeoque ducis non cedere certi 
 
 Silius Ital. 12. j>. 625. 
 
 It is not improbable from what follows in Silius, 
 that this figure of Jupiter held the TEgis in its left 
 hand, as it did the Fulmen in its right. 
 
 -Sed cnim, adfpice, quantum 
 
 vEgida commoveat nimbos flammafque vomentem 
 Jupiter; & quantis pafeat ferus ignibus iras! 
 
 Huc vultus flefte ; atque aude fpeftare Tonantem 
 Quas hiemes, quantos concuflb vertice cernis 
 
 Sub nutu tonitrus! Oculis qui fulguret ignis ! 
 Cede Deis tandem ; & Titania deline bella. 
 
 (Juno to Hannibal,) Ibid. jr. 725. 
 
 (69) See Note 66, anteh. 
 
 (70) See Bartoli’s Col. Traj. PI. 18. 
 
 (71) — Jupiter uvidus Aultris. 
 
 Virgil. G. 1. jr, 418. 
 Nec fievus ignis, nec tremendo 
 Jupiter ipfe ruens tumultu. 
 
 Horat. Lib. 1. Od. 16. jr. 12. 
 
 •- Quam multa grandine nimbi 
 
 In vada precipitant; cum Jupiter, horridus Auftris, 
 Torquet aquofam hiemem Sc ccclo cava nubila rum- 
 P ic - Virgil. iEn. 9. >!’. 671. 
 
 (72) Si adhuc dubium fuiflet, forte cafuque rec¬ 
 tores terris an aliquo numine darentur, principem 
 tamen noftrum liqueret divinitus conftitutum. Non 
 enim occulta poteftate fatorum, fed ab Jove ipfo co¬ 
 ram ac palam repertus, eleiflus eft : quippe inter aras 
 Si altaria; eodemque loci, quem deus ille tam mani- 
 feftus ac praeiens, quam ccelum ac fidera, infedic. 
 Pliny’s Paneg. on Trajan, fub init. 
 
 ( 73 ) Virgil. TE". 8- *■ 354- 
 
Dialogue the 'Thirteenth. 
 
 ^ AY ^ the liberty of adding here, that the fame fort of idea is ufed more 
 Hrongly, by a poet of our own nation ? 
 
 -- How oft amidfi 
 
 Thick clouds and dark, doth heav’n’s all-ruling Sire 
 Chufe to relide ; his glory unobfeur’d ? 
 
 And with the majefty of darknefs round 
 Covers his throne (74).- 
 
 And that it is exprelTed in the greatefl dignity of all, in the Holy Scripture. There 
 are numerous inftances of this kind, but I lhall mention only two of them : Mofes’s ac¬ 
 count of the prefence of God on Mount Horeb ; where he fays “ that the mountain 
 “ burnt with fire, unto the mid'H of heaven; \tith darknefs, clouds, and thick dark- 
 “ nefs (75) And that moll; fublime defcription of the Pfalmifi:; “ The earth trembled 
 te and quaked ; the very foundations of the hills fliook, and were removed.—There went 
 “ a fmoke out of his prefence; and a confuming fire out of his mouth.—He bowed 
 “ the heavens alfo, and came down : and it was dark under his feet. He rode upon 
 “ the Cherubinis and did fly : he came flying upon the wings of the wind. He made 
 “ darknels his fecret place ; his pavilion round about him: with dark water, and thick 
 “ clouds, to cover him (76).” 
 
 The thoughts in the latter part of this paflage are fo exceflively great, that they were 
 capable of infpiring even Sternhold with poetry enough to write the following lines; 
 which are probably the noblefl that were written by any Englilh poet of thofe times. 
 
 The Lord defeended from above ; and bent the heav’ns fo high; 
 
 And underneath his feet he call: the darknefs of the Iky; 
 
 On Cherubs and on Cherubims full royally he rode : 
 
 And on the wings of mighty winds came flying all abroad. 
 
 Any one who confiders the fublimitv of thefe lines, together with the mcannefs 
 of moll of the others which came from the fame hand, will be Hill more convinced of 
 the greatnefs and energy of the thoughts exprelTed in them. Indeed the idea of darknefs 
 in itfelf is exceedingly fit for majefly ; perhaps even more fo, than the glare of light, 
 which^moft people are fo apt to make their heaven of. There is fcarce any thing of a 
 more folemn and venerable turn, than the profound flillncfs of midnight : and this, 
 probably, was yet more Hriking to the heathens of old; for they, (befides what they 
 felt from nature as well as we,) ufed to look upon darknefs as one of the ( 77 ) moll an- 
 tient, and moll refpedtable, of ail their deities. 
 
 As Polymetis Hopped here, and feemed to have finilhed what he had to fay on this 
 fubjedt; Philander thought it a proper occafion to alk after a goddefs whom he had 
 been expedting for fome time. You Teem, Polymetis, (fays he,) to have forgot one of 
 the moll beautiful and flriking of all the beings that were fuppofed to belong to the 
 region of the air; Iris, or the genius of the Rainbow : who furcly, if Ihe be not hand- 
 forner, ought at leall to be finer drefled than any of thofe you have mentioned. I beg 
 her pardon for forgetting her in my account, fays Polymetis; but I have not lorgot her 
 in my colledlion. There Ihe is, by that window jufl behind you. The antients make 
 her the daughter, (tho’ I think they lliould rather have made her the mother,) of Admi¬ 
 ration. 
 
 (74) Milton, Paradife Loft, 2. f. 268. 
 
 (75) Deut. iv. 11. 
 
 (76) Pf. xviii. 7—11. 
 
 (77) Several of the heathen nations held Nox and 
 Chaos to be the eldeft of all their deities. 
 
 Aque Chao denfos Divum numerabat amores. 
 
 Virgil. G. 4. S'- 347. 
 Nofte, Deas No&i criftatus creditur ales. 
 
 Ovid. Faft. r. S'- 455- 
 
 Noxque, tenebrarum fpecie reverenda tuarum ! 
 
 Id. Ibis. St. 73. 
 
POLY M E T I S. 
 
 ration ( 7 8 ). This figure of her was copied from one of the pictures in the Vatican Virgil: 
 in which the is reprefented Hying downwards, in the attitude you fee her here, to de¬ 
 liver a meffage from Juno to Turnus. She lias, you fee, a very noble refplendency, 
 or glory, round her head ; is furrounded with clouds ; and has her feet on a level with 
 fome of that riling ground : all which particulars may fome way or other be fignificant 
 of her character: as the veil, which the holds with each hand, and which circles over 
 her head, may fignify both the arch Hie prefides over; and her being an inhabitant of 
 the region of the air. The Roman poets fpeak of her, both as handfome (79), and as 
 very finely drefi'ed. They make her the meflenger of Juno in as difiinguifiied a manner, 
 as Triton was of Neptune ; or Mercury, of Jupiter. She has (80) wings to (hew her 
 difpatch in that high office. Statius feems to give her a robe of various colours; col¬ 
 lected about her with a Zone which has all thofe beautiful Itreams of different colours 
 upon it, that we admire fo much in the rainbow. She feems to have been lometimes 
 reprefented, by the antient painters, as enlightned by the lucid bow that is arched over 
 her head ; or perhaps as diffufing a brightnefs from her own perfon. I take up with 
 this notion of the old pictures of this goddefs, chiefly at fecond hand : I mean, from 
 what the poets fay of her; and, particularly, from the large defeription of her (81) in 
 Statius. 
 
 The figure which anfwers this, a little farther on her right hand, with its wing 
 fpread out; is the goddei's ol Fame. You fee, all the upper part of her wing is quite 
 ftudded, as it were, with eyes; as Virgil lays, that Hie had an eye almoft under every 
 feather. The only figure 1 have ever Ten of her is the little one in brafs, in the Great 
 Duke’s colledti* n at 1 lorence; from which this was copied. The poets arc much more 
 nt, in their acc her perfonage. They deferibe heras winged (82), and as 
 
 hurrying along with a very bufy motion. Virgil makes her (83) a growing figure : a 
 thing, which was out of the power of the fiatuaries or painters to exprefs ; and which it 
 is difficult enough even to conceive. By the way, I remember but two inftances befide 
 this, of any growing figure; in all the Roman poets. Thofe are in Virgil too : and are 
 perhaps the greatdf inftances of imagination, that we have in all his works. One of 
 them relates to Tifiphone ; and the other, (and ftrongeft of all,) to AleCto : where he 
 fays, that as that Fury regarded Turnus, “ her face (84) grew larger, and larger, upon 
 him not unlike thofe frightful faces that one fometimes fees juft as one is finking into 
 fleep, or in fome troubled dream. But to return to Virgil’s defeription of Fame : he 
 gives her, not only a great number of eyes; but of ears (85), tongues and mouths, too: 
 
 fo 
 
 (78) The poets cal] her Thaumantis, Thaumantia 
 virgo, and Thaumantias : and Cicero gives us the 
 
 re.iion for it.-Quia fpecicm habeat admirabilem, 
 
 Thaumante dicitur efTenata. De Nat. Deor. Lib. 3. 
 p. 70. Ld. Aid. 
 
 (79) Sic rofco Thaumantias ore locuta eft. 
 
 Virgil. JE n. 9. T 5. 
 Nuntia Junonis, varios induta colores. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 1. J. 270. 
 
 (80) -In ccclum paribus fe fuilulit alis ; 
 
 Ingentemque fuga fccuit fub nubibus arcum. 
 
 Virgil. JEn, 9. J. 15. 
 
 (81) Orbibus accingi fnlitis jubet Irin ; S: omne 
 Mandat opus. Paret juflis dea clara ; polumque 
 Linquit, Sc in terras longo fufpenditur arcu. 
 
 Statius. Theb. 10. J. 83. 
 Huc fe cxruleo libravit ab xthere virgo 
 Difcolor: effulgent fylvx, tenebrofaque Tempe 
 Adrifere dex; & Zonis lucentibus ida 
 Evigilat domus: ipfe * autem nec lampade clara 
 Nec fonitu, nec voce dex perculfus, eodem 
 
 More jacet. -.. "Somnus. 
 
 Ibid. J. 123. 
 
 (82) -Pedibus cel.-rcm, Sc pernicibus alis. 
 
 Virgil. aEn: 4. jr. 1S0. 
 
 -Pavidam volitans pennata per urbem 
 
 Nuntia fama ruit- 
 
 Id. Ib. 9. J. 474. 
 
 -Dea turbida Thebas 
 
 Inf.lit, Sc tutis perfundit mccnia pennis. 
 
 Statius. Theb. 2. jr. 20 9. 
 
 (S3) Mobilitate viget; virefque acquirit eundo : 
 
 Parva metu primo, mox fefe attollit in auras; 
 Ingreditur fo!o, Sc caput inter nubila cor.dit. 
 
 Virgil. JEn. 4. Jr. 177, 
 
 (84) Tantaque fe facies aperit!- 
 
 JEn. 7. J. 448. 
 
 Sec Dial. 16. Notes 150, and 159, pofth. 
 
 (85) -Cui quot funt corpore pluma:. 
 
 Tot vigiles oculi fubter; (mirabile didu !) 
 
 Tot lingua.-, totidem ora fonant, tot fubrigit aures. 
 
 JEn. 4. J. 183. 
 
 I am apt to imagine that fome of the lower painters of 
 old ufed to reprefent Fame, (as fome of the moderns 
 have done of late) with eyes, and ears, all over her 
 body ; even to her fingers ends : for which, in par¬ 
 ticular, Lucian feems to ridicule them in the fol¬ 
 lowing 
 

 Dialogue the 'Thirteenth. 
 
 2H 
 
 fo that he may very well call her, a (86) horrid goddefs; and even a monfter, as he doe$ 
 in the fame place. Statius drelies her up in a robe ( 8 7 ), wrought all over with murthers, 
 battles, and fieges. Ovid is yet more particular in his account of this goddefs, than 
 either of them. He defcribes her court, and all (88) her attendants in it. He lays, 
 her palace is in the midft of the world (89), between the earth, feas, and heavens; 
 whence fhe fees and hears whatever is tranfailed in all of them. Virgil makes her ( 9 °) 
 fly about, by night; and fit on the top of this her palace, or on fome other eminence, 
 by day. It is from both their accounts that I thought I had a right to place her figure 
 here, among the imaginary inhabitants of the air. I had fome thoughts of introducing 
 the Sirens here too; and fome other beings, which feem rather to belong to this element 
 than either of the other : but as I am not yet quite refolved, I have ’no more here to 
 trouble you with at prefent. I am very glad to hear it, fays Myfagetes, (getting a little 
 haftily toward the door;) when firft you pointed out your figure of Fame, I expedled 
 we ftiould foon have had Pegafus; and the Lord knows how many Sphinxes; and all 
 the Stymphalides. In a word, every monfter that ever the poets fuppoled to have had 
 a pair of wings. When you were in the temper of introducing Fame here, how came 
 the reft to efcape you ? What a ftrange collection of creatures, have we been in danger 
 of being in company with ? I queftion whether you have not feveral of them in your 
 drawers already.—What are you waiting for there. Philander ? Come along with me ! 
 
 --Let us get out of this dangerous place, as faft as we can, I befeech you. 
 
 lowing pafiage. rioAi/<u7w triawnv a.va.trapnva.f, tv- 
 ffctVTCt CUMKOUf U(, KCU KCLTCL 'TV TtpAruJ'if, KtU J'ltt 
 
 'tcov ovvyjuv Tom. II. p. 765. Ed. Blaeu. 
 
 Lucian here calls Fame, to tspo.tuJ'k, as Virgil calls 
 her monftrum. 
 
 ( 86 ) 
 
 - Dea feeda - 
 
 Monftrum horrendui 
 
 Viigil. Ain. 4. jr. 195. 
 Id. Ibid. it. 181. 
 
 (87) Frama miniftrat equis Pavor armiger : & vigil omni 
 Fama fono, varios rerum fuccinfta tumultus, 
 
 Ante volat currum ; flatuque impulfa gementum 
 Alipedum, trepidas denfo cum murmure plumas 
 Excutit: urget enim ftimulis auriga cruentis 
 Fafto, infedla loqui ; curruque infellus ab alto 
 Terga comafque Dea; Scythica Pater increpat hafta. 
 
 Statius. Theb. 3. jr. 431. 
 
 She is here reprefented as running, and urged on, 
 before the chariot of Mars. The charioteer is Bel¬ 
 lona : Theb. 7. jr. 73. Mars, (as all the great war¬ 
 
 riors of old,) has one to drive, that he himfelf may 
 be at full liberty to fight. 
 
 (88) Atria turba tenent; veniunt leve vulgus euntque ; 
 Mixtaque cum Veris pailim Commenta vagantur: 
 Millia Rumorum, confufaque Verba volutant. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 12. jr. 55,- 
 Illic Credulitas; illic temerarius Error; 
 
 Vanaque Laetitia eft; confternatique Timores; 
 Seditioque repens; dubioque audlore Sufurri. 
 
 Ibid, jr, 61. 
 
 (89) Orbe locus medio eft, inter terrafque fretumque 
 Cceleftefque plagas; triplicis confinia mundi; 
 Unde quod eft ufquam quamvis regionibus abiit 
 Infpicitur, penetratque cavas vox omnis ad aures : 
 Fama tenet; fummaque domum fibi legit in arce. 
 
 Ibid. jr. 43. 
 
 (90) Nodle volat cceli medio terra:que per umbram. 
 Stridens; nec dulci declinat lumina fomno : 
 
 Luce fedet cuftos, aut fummi culmine tefli. 
 Turribus aut altis. 11 
 
 Virgil. Asn. 4. jt. 187. 
 
 y 
 
 1: 
 
 K kk 
 
Dialogue the Fourteenth. 
 
 zi-j 
 
 B OOK the Seventh. 
 
 DIAL. XIV. 
 
 Of the Deities of the Waters. 
 
 !k r h E j C 1 L , Y U ," d ^ thC temple ° f the Winds ' and juft M the foot of the hill, 
 * ft °° d an0ther bu ‘ ldin §i which, at firft fight, looked more like a great grotto 
 than a temple. The pillars about it and the architrave were indeed of the Tuf- 
 
 T °[ de h. bUt “ WaS defig " ed f ° as t0 ap P ear y et more rude and m °te like rock-work, 
 than buddings even of that order generally are. In this Polymetis had placed fome of 
 the detties who prefided over the Sea : and in the infide it was Hack about with rough 
 lhells, and coral, and petrified plants of feveral forts. The plain which Hopes down 
 gently from thence to the river he had planted all with little groves, and clufters of 
 willows and ^alders; which were fo irregular, that they feemed much more to have 
 grown there by chance, than to have been even helped by art: and in the openings, he 
 had left here and there, in feveral parts of this unartificial piece of grove-work, were 
 feveral fountains; all with the natural turf, and the wild flowers of the place, for their 
 margins. If his fountains did not at all refemble thofe of Frefcati, or Verfailles • they 
 were, at leaft, a great deal more like thofe in ufe in the better ages of antiquity/ At 
 0n e ’ y0U had the fi S ure Of a Angle river-god, leaning on his urn : from which the water 
 gullied out, (as from a fpnng juftdugup;) and then wandered down a little bed of 
 mattered flint, into its natural bafon: and at another, a water-nymph afleep • - ith her 
 hand dropt negligently by her fide; her jar as Hiding a little from it; and the ,y ter 
 running out, as if it was juft then fallen. 
 
 This, all together, made a very agreeable retreat, in the few days that we have too 
 hot among us : and therefore Polymetis carried his friends thither, the next day after 
 dinner ; when they had been juft wifliing for fome place, where they might have lliade 
 and coolnefs. He led them firft into his Tufcan grotto; and when they had feated 
 themfelves there, on fome feats that feemed to be cut out of the rock that made the arch 
 over their heads; he began fpeaking to them, in the following manner. 
 
 The different ranks and orders fettled among the antients for the Deities of the Sea, 
 have not yet been put into fo dear a light as I think they might eafily have been. I 
 fliouH imagine, at leaft, that they may all be well enough difpofed into fix claffes. 
 Of the high eft dais, are Oceanus {0 and Tethys, as governors in chief over the whole 
 world of Waters. Neptune and Amphitrite, as governors of the Mediterranean fea; 
 the \ enus Marina ; and poflibly one or two more, of charadters that might deferve to 
 
 be diftinguilhed above all the reft.-In the next clafs, we may reckon Triton and 
 
 Proteus; a nd all fuch as were exalted by their high employs, or great perlbnal qualifica¬ 
 tions. Of the third, ftiould be the immediate progeny of Oceanus and Tethys ; fuch 
 as Nereus ; Dons; and all the Oceanitides.-The fourth, may confift of the Neptu¬ 
 nines ; or defendants of Neptune.-The fifth, of the Nereids; or defendants of 
 
 Nereus 
 
 (i) Virgil calls Oceanus, Pater rerum, “ Lord of 
 all the watery world G. 4. 382. whereas Juve¬ 
 
 nal calls Neptune only, Pater ^Egei, or “ Lord of the 
 inland-feas.” Sat. 13. 81. He mentions the JE- 
 
 gean fea, rather than any other of the Mediterranean 
 
 4 
 
 feas; becaufe the great Rcfidence of Neptune was 
 fuppofed to be in a cave, under the promontory of 
 T amaros, in that fea : according to Statius, Theb. 2. 
 47* 
 
2 1 8 
 
 P O L Y M E T I S. 
 
 Nereus and Doris;-and the fixth, of all the adventitious or made gods of the Sea j 
 
 fudi as Ino, Palasmon, and the like. 
 
 As this temple, or grotto, (call it which you plcafe,) is of fo rude a ftyle ; built as 
 
 you fee chiefly of pumice-ftone, and defigned fo as to bealmofl: incapable of ornaments: 
 I have been very fparing of admitting any ftatues into it. There are none but thofe 
 that belong to that fountain, in the midft of it. To fupply the want of others, I have 
 
 brought two or three medals with me, which relate to the deities of the Waters ; and 
 which I Ihall produce, when I may have occaflon lor them. 
 
 It would not have been difficult for me, to have got a figure of Oceanus ; if I had 
 been delirous of introducing one here. At leaff, I am apt to imagine that he is repre- 
 fented in feveral antiques: as whenever you fee Tellus, and a Water-deity, oppofed to 
 one another, on Sarcophagus's j and on mod relievo’s, where the four elements are ex- 
 prelied by perfons : particularly, in fuch as reprefent the creation or new formation of 
 any perfon j as in that fine one of Neriene (2), which I Ihewed you in my temple ol the 
 Great Celeftial Deities: in which I take the uppermoft and moll eredt of the two Water- 
 deities, to be Oceanus. I cannot fay, that I have ever met with any figure of his wife, 
 Tethys. The poets fpeak of them both (3), under their perfonal charaders; but fay 
 very little that is deferiptive, of either. 
 
 I have already (4) mentioned to you that noble idea of Neptune, in Virgil; where 
 he fpeaks of the countenance of this god, as calm and ferene ; even at the time that he 
 is provoked, and might be expedled to have appeared diffurbed and in a paffion. There 
 
 Pr.. XXX. is ferenity and majefty (5) in the air of his face; on the medal I have in my hand. You fee 
 
 he treads on the beak of a fhip; to fhew, that he prefided over the feas ; or more parti¬ 
 
 cularly, over the Mediterranean fea: which was the great, and almofl: the only feene for 
 
 navigation, among the old Greeks and Romans. He is Handing ( 6 ), as he generally was 
 reprefented; he molt commonly too has his trident in his right hand : this was his pe¬ 
 
 culiar lcepterD ); and feems to have been ufed by him, chiefly to roufe up the waters : 
 
 for we find fometimes that he lays it alide, when he is to ( 8 ) appeafe them ; but he re¬ 
 fumes it, where there is any occaflon for violence. Virgil makes him ffiake Troy from 
 
 (3) Genitor nympharum Oceanus. 
 
 Catullus, ad Gellium, 85. jf. 6. 
 
 (2) See Plate 9. anteh. 
 
 Occanumque fenem ; quorum reverentia movit 
 Stepe Dcos : caufamque via: feitantibus, infic. 
 
 “ Quarritis astheriis quare regina Deorum 
 Sedibus huc adiim ?” &c.- 
 
 Virgil. Georg. 1. /.31. 
 Stepe aliquis folio quod tu, Saturne, tenebas 
 Aufus de media plebe federe Deus : 
 
 Et latus Oceano quilquam Deus advena junxit; 
 Tethys & extremo fa;pc recepta loco e(l. 
 
 Ovid. Fall. 5. jf. 22. 
 
 Intumuit Juno, poftquam inter fidera pellex 
 Fulfit'. & ad canam defeendit in aiquora Tethyn, 
 
 An Deus immenfi venias maris, ac tua nauta: 
 Numina fola colant: tibi ferviat ultima Thule ; 
 Tcque fibi generum Tethys emat omnibus undis. 
 
 (7) -Deus aequoreas qui cufpide temperat undas. 
 
 Ovid. Met. iz. jr. 580. 
 This is called, triplex cufpis, ibid. jr. 594. and 
 Neptune himfelf, Tridentifer, ib. 8. jf. 595. 
 
 Per folis radios, Tarpeiaque fulmina jurat; 
 
 Et Martis frameam, & Cirrhiei fpicula vatis; 
 
 Per calamos venatricis pharetramque puella: j ! 
 Perque tuam. Pater iEgei Neptune, tridentem. 
 
 Juvenal. Sat. 13. jr. 81 - 
 
 (8) - Pofitoque tricufpide telo. 
 
 Mulcet aquas reflor pelagi. -- 
 
 Ovid. Met. 1, jf. 331. 
 
 It was on this account that the artifts gave Neptune 
 the fame fort of dark hair, as Jupiter. Ava-rKur'luffi 
 yivtnflnv (xtv mv Cua.' ircuS'ct. J's a aei mv At oKKuvct.' 
 kcu mv F.p /xn» wjrnvifjw' kcu WamS'uvtt xvavo%curnv' koj 
 yhAVKUTtv Ttiv A Snvctv. Lucian. Tom. I. p. 367. 
 Ed. Blaeu. 
 
 quiverunt. Valerius Max. Memorab. Lib. 8. Cap. 
 
 11. 
 
 (6) Stare Deum pelagi, longoque ferire tridente 
 Afpera faxa facit. - 
 
 Stas pater. 
 
 (Of a defign, wrought in tapcllry; by Minerva.) 
 - Ubicunque rotis horrendus equifque 
 
 Val. Flaccus. Arg. 1. jf. 6S0. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 6. if. 77. 
 
 its 
 
 
 Id. Met. 2. f. 513. 
 
 (4) Sec Dial. 7. p. 65. 
 
 (5) Cum (Euphranor) Athenis duodecim Deos 
 pingeret, Neptuni imaginem quam poterat cxcellen- 
 tiffimis majeftatis coloribus complexus eft; perinde 
 ac Jovis aliquanto auguftiorem rcprxlentaturus : fed 
 omni impetu cogitationis in fuperiori opere abfumpto, 
 polleriores ejus conatus aflurgere quo tendebant ne- 
 
the Fourteenth. 
 
 its foundations (9) with it; and, in Ovid, it is with the ftroke of this (to), that the 
 waters of the earth are let loofe for the general deluge. 
 
 The poets have generally delighted, in defcribing this god as pafling over the calm 
 furface of the waters, in his chariot drawn by fea-horfes. The line original defcription 
 of this is in Homer ; from whom Virgil (n) and Statius have copied it.° The make of 
 the fea-horfe, as de.lribed by the latter, is frequent on gems and relievo's: in which 
 there is fometimes a Triton too reprefented (12) on each fide, as guiding thole that draw 
 the chariot of Neptune. 
 
 It would have been difficult enough to have got any undoubted figure of Amphitrite j 
 tho ’1 think (he is fometimes reprefented (13) with Neptune in his chariot. The poets 
 have fcarce any perfonal delcriptions of this goddefs. All that I can recoiled of that 
 kind, is a paflage in Ovid ; in which it is doubtful enough too, whether that poet fpeaks 
 perfonally, of her; or literally of the element over which (he prefides. If there were 
 antiently any figures of Amphitrite embracing (■+) a globe, it might relate to them : 
 tho’ to fay the truth, if there adtually was any reprelentation of this kind, it would be 
 much properer for a Tethys, than an Amphitrite. 
 
 The Sea-Venus, as (lie was called by the Romans, or the Venus Anaduomene as (Ire 
 was called by the Greeks, ought I think to be placed in the higheft clafs of the deities of 
 the Sea; in refped to her more exalted charafler, when confidered among the Great 
 Celeftial Deities. The mod celebrated pifture in all antiquity, was that of this goddefs 
 by Apelles. Some lily that in drawing it he ufed Campafpe (15) for his model; that 
 favourite miftrefs of his, who was given him fo generoufly by Alexander the Great. 
 This picture came afterwards into the hands of the Romans; and was (16) probably, for 
 fome time, in that noble colleition in the palace of Auguftus : tho' it was afterwards 
 placed by that emperor, in the temple which he dedicated to his predeceffor Julius. It 
 was quite faded, and run to decay, in Pliny’s time. But tho' the original has been fo 
 long loft, we may ftill fee feveral ftrokes that were copied from it in the writings of the 
 Roman Authors who enjoyed the fight of it; and who have marked out fome of its 
 beauties for us, even in their profe, as well as their verfe writings. You fee her in 
 them as juft born from the fea; compleat, at once, in her form; with all her beauties 
 frelh about her; and with her body as ftill wet and humid, from the waves that produced 
 
 (9) — Neptunus muros, magnoque emota tridenti 
 Fundamenta quatit; totamque e fedibuo urbem 
 Eruit.- 
 
 Virgil. aEn. z. f. 6iz. 
 
 (10) Ipfe tridente fuo terram percuflit; at illa 
 Intremuit, motuque finus patefecit aquarum. 
 
 Ovid. Met. i. jr. 284. 
 
 (11) Cymothoe fimul & Triton adnixus acuto 
 Detrudunt naves fcopulo : levat ipfe tridenti; 
 
 Et vadas aperit fyrtes & temperat tequor: 
 
 Atque rotis fummas levibus perlabitur uridas.-- 
 
 Sic eundus pelagi cecidit fragor; tcquora poll- 
 quam 
 
 Profpiciens genitor, cccloque invefius aperto, 
 Fledit equos curruque volans dat lora fecundo. 
 
 Virgil. Ma. 1.*. 15;. 
 
 ■-Hiemes ventique filent: cantuque quieto 
 
 Armigeri Tritones eunt; fcopulofaque Cete 
 Tyrrhenique greges circumque infraque rotantur. 
 Rege falutato. Placidis ipfe arduus undis 
 Eminet, & triplici telo jubet ire jugales: 
 
 Illi fpumiferos glomerant a pedore fludus; 
 
 Pone natant, delentque pedum vefligia cauda. 
 
 Statius. Achil. 1. i'. 60. 
 
 (iz) In portum deducit equos: prior haurit arenas 
 Ungula ; poftremi folvuntur in xquora pifces. 
 
 Statius. Theb. 2. jr. 47. 
 
 -Venit jequoris alti 
 
 Rex fublimis equis; geminufque ad fpumca Triton 
 Frarna natans late pelago dat figna cadenti. 
 
 Id. ib. 5. j/. 708. 
 
 ■-Ubicunque rotis horrendus cquifquc 
 
 Stas pater, atque ingens utrinque fluentia Triton 
 Frasna tenet; tantus noftras condere per urbes. 
 
 Val. Flaccus. Argon. 1. jr, 680. 
 
 (13) See Muf. Flor. Vol. II. Pl. 48. 4. 
 
 (14) --Nec brachia longo 
 
 Margine terrarum porrexerat Amphitrite. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 
 
 (15) See Pliny, Lib. 35. c. 10. p. 436. Ed. Elz. 
 
 (16) It belonged to Auguftus; and one may rea- 
 fonably fuppofe that, (before it was dedicated,) he 
 kept the beft picture in the world, in his favourite 
 collection. Ovid in fpeaking of fome of the fineft 
 pieces in that collection, mentions one exaCtly with 
 the character of this. Trift. Lib. 2. f. 521, See. 
 
 l 11 
 
220 
 
 POLYMETIS. 
 
 
 
 Pl. XXX. 
 Fig. 3. 
 
 her in all this perfe&ion. Some of thefe pafiages are fo ftrong, that I am thoroughly 
 perfuaded they might have gone a great way towards (17) helping forne painter of an ex¬ 
 traordinary genius, (fuch, for inftance, as Raphael or Corregio,) to have reflored this 
 loft beauty of Apelles’s to the world : and perhaps Titian had confidered fome of them 
 pretty thoroughly; before he drew that beautiful Venus of his, with her wet hair and 
 humid body, which is at prefent in the Duke of Orleans’s collection at Paris. 
 
 There is fcarce any character under which we fee Venus more frequently, than this of 
 the Venus Marina : probably moft of the figures which reprefent her as juft coming from 
 bathing herfelf, ought to be ranked under this head: and there are many others which 
 indisputably belong to it. The moft famous Venus of Medici, in particular, is not only 
 formed as juft come out of the water; but has a dolphin too at her feet, to determine 
 what particular Venus the is : and there is another very fine figure of her, on a relievo 
 at the Palazzo Mattei in Rome; where Ihe fits in a (hell, and is held up (18) by two 
 Tritons. This is what is followed pretty exactly, (tho’ the figures are fo much enlarged,) 
 in my fountain here. Statius C* 9 ) feems to allude to fome fuch reprefentation of Venus, 
 as this, in a couple of lines, which are not well to be underftood without it. You fee 
 how beautiful fhe is even here ; how gracefully fhe fits : and how fhe holds up her long 
 hair in each of her hands : from which the water diftils into her fhell, and thence falls 
 
 into that larger bafon of water below.-This idea was in all refpecfts fo proper for a 
 
 fountain-ftatue ; that I make no doubt they had fome fountains of old, not unlike that 
 which you fee before you. It would lead me into too long a digreflion, if I fhould en¬ 
 deavour here to prove to you, at large, how much the antients excelled the moderns, 
 in the juftnefs and fimplicity of their ideas for fountain-ftatues; I ftiall therefore wave 
 that fubjecft; and lhall only obferve to you at prefent, that my Venus holds up her hair 
 much in the lame manner as the famous Venus Anaduomene, is faid to have done : only 
 
 that 
 
 (17) It appears from thefe paffages in the Roman 
 authors relating to the Venus Anaduomene ; 1. That 
 fhe fhould be without any drapery : 
 
 Nuda Cytheriacis edita fertur aquis. 
 
 Ovid. Her. Ep. 7. $. 60. (Dido, JEn.) 
 
 Litore ficcabat rorantes nuda capillos. 
 
 Id. Fall. 4. if. 143. 
 
 2. Her hair, (which fhould be the fineft that can 
 be imagined,) fhould be very wet; and all her body, 
 humid and fhining. 
 
 • -Venus artificis labor ell 8c gloria Coi, 
 iEquoreo madidas qua: premit imbre comas. 
 
 Ovid, ex Ponto. Lib. 4. Ep. 1. if. 30. 
 
 Formofx periere corns, quas vellet Apollo, 
 
 Quas vellet capiti Bacchus inefle fuo ; 
 
 Illis contulerim, quas quondam nuda Dione 
 Pingitur humenti fultinuifle manu. 
 
 Id. Amor. Lib. 1. EI. 14. if. 34. 
 
 .-Madidos ficcat digitis Venus uda capillos, 
 
 Et modo maternis tedfa videtur aquis. 
 
 Id. Trill. Lib. 2. i'. 528. 
 
 3. The colouring might have been borrowed from 
 Tibullus’s defeription of Apollo ; (p. 84. anteh.) had 
 not Cicero given us fo ftrong an idea of it, in this 
 very pifture itfelf. It is in his Treatife de Natura 
 Deorum ; (where his Academic Philofopher, in dif- 
 puting againft the Epicurean, fays,) Illud video pug¬ 
 nare te, fpecies ut quaedam fit deorum, qute nihil 
 concreti habeat, nihil folidi, nihil expreffi, nihil emi¬ 
 nentis ; fitquc pura, levis, perlucida. Dicemus ergo 
 idem, quod in Venere Cod : corpus non eft, fed 
 fimile corpori ; nec ille fufus & candore mixtus ru¬ 
 bor, fanguis eft, fed quaidam fanguinis ftmilitudo ; 
 fic in Epicureo Deo non res, fed fimilitudines rerum 
 elle. Lib. 1. p. 16. Ed. Aid. 
 
 4 
 
 In the collection of the Greek (Epigrams or) In- 
 feriptions, there are fcveral relating to this Venus of 
 Apelles; and particularly two which fpeak very ftrong- 
 ]y, of her holding up her hair; and of the water, 
 falling from it. 
 
 On Apelles’s Venus. 
 
 Avrav s k 'srovroio T/OnyuTHpof AviKKut 
 lav K virpiv yvy.vav etcN Koytvopeevev‘ 
 
 IL&t aoiav erviruat S'laGpoyev vj'aroe atppu, 
 QKiCuaav yepaiv in 'aKoxay.ov, 
 
 On the fame. 
 
 Apn Sa.Kd.acrcunt Tlapni arpouKv^t Koyetnf, 
 
 M cuav AneKKaniv eupapievn 'na.Kapj.nv' 
 
 AKKa. iayye ypatptJ'av avroya^eo, pm ae J'lHVn 
 Atppof airoaa^uv SKtCopjLivuv 'aKox.ap/.uy. 
 
 The author (I think) had better have left off here : 
 but he adds ; 
 
 E/ Tot h «rore Kucrptf eyvpLVuQn J'ta pteKev, 
 
 T nv Tpo/iiv aAiKUf IlaKKae tMiattro. 
 
 (18) Lucian, in a very beautiful defeription of Eu- 
 ropa’s paffage from Phoenicia to the illand of Crete, 
 (which he feems to have taken from fome antient 
 painting,) introduces Venus, much in the fame man¬ 
 ner as Ihe is reprefented at the Palazzo Mattei. Et/ 
 'ua.ai S'i tiw Apftfnnv t/lvo Tpiruvtf aptpov, iari xoy- 
 yjns Ka.Td.nti[jt.i w av fin -zravrout e^tfraarl-caav rn wutpv. 
 Tom. 1 . p. 260. Ed. Blaeu. 
 
 (19) Hrec & cxruleis mecum confurgere digna 
 Fluftibus, & nollra potuit confidere concha. 
 
 (Spoke by Venus, of Violantilla.) 
 
 Statius. Lib. 1. Sylv. 2. if. 118. 
 
22r 
 
 Dialogue the Fourteenth. 
 
 that the latter preffes her hair with her fingers j and, if ever (he adorned a fountain too, 
 ought to have the water flowing more copiouily from it. 
 
 This goddefs feems to retain her dignity as one of the Great Celeftial Deities, even 
 when flic is reprefented as a deity ot the Waters. You fee here fire has two Sea-deities 
 of the higheft clafs but one, to attend her. Their office, firews their inferiority to her; 
 as their looks, flrew refpeft and admiration. There were feveral Tritons; but one chief 
 over all : the diftinguiihed meffenger of Neptune (10). as Mercury was of Jupiter, and 
 Iris of Juno. Triton is reprefented by the artitis, as he is deferibed by the poets; his 
 upper parts are human, and his lower like a fifii. I queilion whether they did not 
 fometimes give him ( 2I ) feales, even on the human part of his body. Where this was 
 done with judgment, there was room ( 22 1 to firew as much art as in the figures of the 
 Centaurs; forne of the moil celebrated of which were chiefly admired, for its having 
 been extremely difficult to ditlinguith where the brutal nature ended, or where the human 
 began : and the dark colour of his (kin, might perhaps affift a painter in making this 
 union of two fuch different natures yet more imperceptible in a Triton, than it could 
 poffibly have been in a Centaur. 
 
 One often fees Triton holding his trumpet in his hand, with which he was fuppofed 
 to convene all the deities of the waters about their monarch, whenever he had occafion 
 of their affiftance, or counfel. It is ( 2 3 ) wreathed; like thofe fhells which the country-men 
 ufe fometimes to this day in Italy, to diredl their herds of cattle by the found of them. 
 It was fometimes a real fiiell; and fometimes an inffrument of filver, (or fome other 
 metal,) formed like one. When part of the Lacus Fucinus was to be let out, in the 
 time of the emperor Claudius, they had a Naumachia reprefented firft on that lake, to 
 add to the magnificence of fo great an undertaking. Juft as the two adverfe fleets were 
 drawn up in order of battle, a filver figure of Triton, (prepared privately for that purpofe,) 
 role on a fudden to the furface of the water, between the two fleets ; and gave a loud (241 
 blaft with his trumpet, as a fignal for their engagement. This god mull have made a 
 very confiderable figure, on that occafion : but what was this, to the employment affign- 
 ed him by Ovid (25) ? who makes him give the fignal to all the rivers to retire into their 
 own channels, and to leave the earth once more to be inhabited by men, after the gene¬ 
 ral dcl'truction of almoft their whole race by the deluge. 
 
 I HAVE never yet met with any figure of Proteus; who, as well as Triton, was 
 advanced to a high charge by the great prefiding deity of the inland feas. Proteus in¬ 
 deed had a charadler more manageable for the poets, than for the fculptors or painters. 
 The former might very well deferibe all the variety of lhapes that he could put on, and 
 point out the tranfition from one to the other; but the artifts mull have been content to 
 ihew him either in his own natural form, or in fome one alone of all his various lhapes. 
 Among all the poets, no one has given fo full a defeription of this changeable deity as Vir¬ 
 gil : in whom we have the charadler of his proper (26) perfonage; and a defeription of 
 
 his 
 
 (20) ■ — - Summi Jovis aliger Arcas 
 Nuntius; imbrifera potitur Thaumantide Juno; 
 Stat celer obfequio jufia ad Neptunia Triton. 
 
 Statius. Lib. 3. Sylv. 3. jr. 82. 
 
 (21) - —Supraque profundum 
 
 Extantem, atque humeros nativo murice tedum, 
 CteruleumTritona vocat.- 
 
 Ovid. Met. 1. i. 334. 
 
 (22) -Cui laterum tenus hifpida nanti 
 
 Frons hominem praefert; in prillin definit alvus ; 
 Spumea femifero fub pedore murmurat unda. 
 
 Virgil. JEn. 10. it. 212. 
 
 (23) --Cava buccina fumitur illi 
 
 Tortilis, in latum qui turbine crefeit ab imo; 
 
 Buccina, qua* medio concepit ut aera ponto 
 Litora voce replet fub utroque jacentia Phcebo : 
 Tum quoque Sc ora Dei, madida rorantia barba. 
 Contigit.- 
 
 Ovid. Met. 1. it. 340. 
 
 (24) Exciente buccina Tritone argenteo; qui e me¬ 
 dio lacu per machinam emerferat. Suetonius, in Claud. 
 Cap. 21. 
 
 (25) Met. Lib. i. it. 331, to 342. 
 
 (26) Senex, Georg. 4. it. 438.-- Caeruleus, ibid. 
 
 386.- Glaucis oculis, ib. 451. 
 
 
POLYMETIS. 
 
 his (27) cave, And his fea-herds (28) about him. He gives us a pi&ure of him, as tend¬ 
 ing (29) them on the fihore ; as ( 3 °) plunging into the fea; and as ( 3 1 ' riding over the 
 furface of it. He marks out the whole feries of his transformations too: in a very few 
 words indeed; but lb ftrong and well chofen (32), that each of them almolt contains a 
 picture. There are two paftages in particular, in this full account which Virgil gives us 
 of Proteus, which I fufpedt very much to have been copied from forne antient paintings: 
 one relates to the ( 33 ) manner of Cyrene’s placing Arifheus and hcriclf; in order to fur- 
 prife this deity ; and the other, is that ftrange (3+) turn and druggie in his eyes, in the 
 moment that he is between anger and compliance: which calf of them, by the way, 
 feems to me not only to agree with the conteft in his mind, between two fuch different 
 paffions; but at the fame time to have a peculiar fitnefs to the charadter of Proteus, 
 confidered as a prophet. 
 
 I have looked much after fome figure of Glaucus too, but am not yet fure that I 
 have found any; tho’ he is deferibed particularly enough, I think, by the antient wri¬ 
 ters, to be knowable if one did meet with him. Tho’ the fea-gods are pretty much alike 
 as to their fliape, and the colour of their lkin, hair, and eyes ; Glaucus perhaps might 
 be diftinguilhed from the reft, by the uncommon length ( 35 ) of his hair, and the crown 
 of (36) reeds on his head. Tho’ fome deferiptions of thi god in the Roman p'-cts, are 
 more particular than they ufually are of fea-deities; there is a paflage in one of h eir 
 hiftorians, that is more explicit than any of them. It is in Paterculus; where he is fpeak- 
 ing of Munatius Plancus : whofe name Horace has made us fo well acquainted with in 
 his Odes; and whofe monument to this day makes fo confiderable a figure on the hill 
 near Gaeta. This Plancus, whom we now perhaps are apt generally to think well of, 
 as a friend of Horace’s, was fcarce fo much efteemed in his own times. At leaft, we 
 find that he lubmitted to fome very great meannefles, to ingratiate himfelf with Au- 
 guftus. Among other things, that hiftorian ( 37 ) fays, in particular, “ that he danced the 
 character of Glaucus, on the public ftage.” For this purpole he was ftripped naked; 
 and had his fkin painted all over, of a fea-green, or dark, colour; and his head covered 
 with a chaplet of reeds : after which, he moved on, (as well as he could,) on his knees; 
 and dragged a long tail like that of a fifh after him. Confidering all thele particulars, 
 and the great difficulty of dancing a fifti-dance, I do not fee how any courtier could well 
 contrive to make a meaner and more defpicable appearance, than he mud have done on 
 this occafion. That of Lazarello de Tormes, (when he was (hewed about in his tub, 
 for a fea-fifh,) muft have been quite creditable, in companion to this. Indeed, Glaucus 
 himfelf, is of the loweft rank of all the fea-gods; and I have mentioned him out of his 
 
 place; 
 
 (27) Virgil. Georg. 4. Jr. 418—422. 
 
 (28) Ibid. f. 430, 431. 
 
 (29) Ibid. jr. 433 — 43 6 - 
 
 (30) Ibid. ■}>. 528, 529. 
 
 (30 Ibid. Jr. 386, 387. 
 
 Turn varhe eludent fpecies atque ora ferarum : 
 
 Fiet enim fubito fus horridus ; atraque tigris ; 
 Squamofufque draco; & fulva cervice leatna. 
 
 Ibid. Jr. 40S. 
 
 ( 33 ) Juvenem in latebris, averfum a lumine, nympha 
 Collocat ; ipfa procul, nebulis obfeura, refiftit. 
 
 Ibid. 4. Jr. 424. 
 
 (34) -Ad htec vates, vi denique multa. 
 
 Ardentes oculos intorfit lumine glauco; 
 
 Et graviter frendens, fic fatis ora refolvit. 
 
 Ibid. Jr. 452. 
 
 If this was not taken from fome painting of old, it 
 might at leaft give very ftrong ideas to a painter now. 
 
 (35) -Tuta * loco, monflrumne deufne 
 
 Ille fit ignorans, admiraturque colorem ; 
 Cifaricmque, humeros fubje&aque terga tegentem : 
 Ultimaque excipiat quod tortilis inguina pifeis. 
 
 • Galatea. Ovid. Met. 13 .j. 915, 
 
 (36) Hanc ego tum primum viridem ferrugine barbam, 
 Crefariemque meam quam longa per a-quora verro, 
 Ingentefque humeros & ca:rula brachia vidi: 
 Cruraque pinnigero curvata noviflima pifce. 
 
 Ibid. Jr. 563. 
 
 ( 37 ) -Cu m caeruleatus, Si nudus, caputque redi¬ 
 mitus arundine. Si caudam trahans, genibus innixus 
 Glaucum faltaflet. Vel. Patere. Lib. 2. §. 85. 
 
 In the little quarrel between two low people, in 
 Horace’s journey to Brundufium, one of them begs the 
 other, (who was of a large aukward make,) <£ To dance 
 the Cyclops.” (Lib. 1. Sat. 5. J. 63.) 
 
Dialogue the Fourteenth. 
 
 place; by talking of him fo early, and before fo many of his betters : for he was, origi¬ 
 nally, no more than a poor filherman; and at laft, only an adventitious god of the fea ; 
 and confequcntly of the Jixth and loweft clafs of all. 
 
 The lea-deities of the third clafs, Nereus, Doris, and her lifters the Oceanitides, are 
 mentioned fometimcs by the poets ; but without any thing particular to diftinguilh them 
 by : except that Virgil, in one place (3 8 ), in fpeaking of two of the Oceanitides, feems 
 to give them a drefs very different from the Neptunines and Nereids. 
 
 I have here a drawing of Thetis; which you would not take to be a fea-deity, at firft Pl. 
 fight: Ihe having a helmet in one hand, and a coat of mail in the other. It is copied from Fl ° 
 a medal; on which Ihe is called, the mother of Achilles: andfo, no doubt, is carrying 
 him the arms ihe had promifed him. It is therefore too, I fuppofe, that Ihe is in a long 
 veil; contrary to the cuftom of the fea-deities, who are ufually naked : but the artiil 
 has taken care, not quite to conceal her feet; the beauty of which are fo perpetually 
 mentioned by Homer (39), and not forgot by Ovid. This was a part that was much 
 more obferved among the antients, than with us. Their feet were not hid, and im- 
 prifoned, as ours are : and I remember one of the Roman hiftorians, in fpeaking of the 
 perfon of Domitian, thinks it worth his while to obferve (4°) a particular, relating to 
 that emperors make; which muft fcem yet more minute and trilling to us, even than 
 Homer s fo conftantly marking out the beauty of Thetis’s foot. 
 
 Thetis 
 
 This fort of dances I had no notion of, till I faw 
 fomcthing of the fame kind in Italy. It is the repre¬ 
 senting fome charafter, and fometimes a whole ftory, 
 in a dance : not unlike our dumb fhews ; only that all 
 the particular actions muft keep time with the mufic. 
 
 But the thing that gives one the moft pcrfe£t idea 
 of thcfe antient dances, is a paflage in Longus’s pafto- 
 r..l Romance : where, (at a feaft, after a facrificc to 
 Pan) Lamon one of the old fhcphcrds tells the reft 
 the ftory of Pan and Syrinx; and Philetas gives the 
 younger fliepherds a lclfon on his pipe, how to con¬ 
 duct their flocks by the different notes and tunes of 
 it. “ All the company, (fays Longus,) fat in filence, 
 and took a great deal of pleafure in hearing him ; till 
 one of them, called Dryas, got up; and begged 
 him to play one of their briiker airs in honour of Bac¬ 
 chus ; and he, in the mean time, danced the cha- 
 radter of a Vindemiator, or Vintager. In this dance, 
 he flung himfelf into different poftures, as if he was 
 gathering the bunches of grapes; carrying them in 
 bafkcts ; flinging them into the wine-vat ; putting 
 the liquor into vcflels; and drinking of the muft. 
 All which he did fo naturally, and fo expreflively, 
 that they almoft thought they faw before their eyes 
 the vineyard, the veii'els, the liquor, and Dryas 
 taking a hearty draught of it. The good old man 
 having fo well performed his part; at the clofe of his 
 dance, went and faluted Daphnis and Chloe : on 
 which they immediately rofe from their feats, and 
 danced the ftory which Lamon had been juft telling 
 them. Daphnis reprefented the god, Pan; and 
 Chloe, was the fair Syrinx. He made his addrefles 
 to her ; and fhe only laughed at it. She runs from 
 him ; and he purfues her: huddling on upon the tips 
 of his toes, the better to imitate Pan’s cloven feet. 
 She then made all the appearance of being quite tired 
 with running : and (inftead of getting between the 
 reeds,) crept into the grove juft by, to hide herfelf. 
 On which, Daphnis taking up Philctas’s pipe, (which 
 
 was one of the largeft and beft fort,) drew a languilh- 
 ing found from it, as of one in love; a pathetic 
 found, as of one eager to enjoy; and a recalling 
 found, as of one that is fondly feeking after what he 
 has loft. All which he did fo well, and in fo know¬ 
 ing a manner; that the good Philetas, quite afto- 
 nilhed at it, run to him and killed him ; and then 
 made him a prefent of his pipe ; praying the gods, 
 that after him it might ftill fall into as good hands. 
 Daphnis on this hung up the little pipe he had always 
 ufed before, as a prefent to Pan ; and then faluting 
 Chloc, as if he had found her again after a real 
 flight, led his flock toward their fold for the night: 
 playing all the v/ay, on the pipe that Philetas had juft 
 given him.” Amours of Daphnis and Chloe, B. 2. 
 fub fin. 
 
 Virgil fpeaks of a feaft juft like this ; and of the 
 Pan, or Satyr-dance ; in his 5th Eclogue : where the 
 Ihepherd Menalcas promifes to keep an annual feili- 
 val, in memory of one of his departed friends. 
 
 Vina novum fundam calathis Ariufia neftar: 
 
 Cantabunt mihi Damaitas, & Lyftius AE> 0 n; 
 
 Saltantes Satyros imitabitur Alphefibaius. 
 
 Eel. 5. j,. 73. 
 
 (38) Clioque & Beroe foror, Oceanitides ambie; 
 
 Ambs auro, piiftis incinfta; pellibus ambie. 
 
 Virgil. G. 5. j>. 342. 
 
 (39) QiTtf. 
 
 Hoc flavi faciunt crines, & eburnea colla ; 
 
 Quxque, precor, veniant in mea colla manus: 
 
 Et decor, & vultus line ruflicitate pudentes; 
 
 Et Thetidi quales vix reor efle pedes. 
 
 Ovid. Ep. Her. 20. jL 60. (Acontius, Cyd.) 
 
 (40) Pulcher & decens maxime in juventa, & qui¬ 
 dem toto corpore; exceptis pedibus: quorum di¬ 
 gitos reftridtiores habebat. Suetonius, in Domitiano. 
 Cap. 18. 
 
POLY M E T 
 
 T 
 
 S. 
 
 i.24 
 
 Thetis is one of the fea-nymphs, of the fourth clafs; one of thofe whom the poets 
 call Neptunines; as defcendants of Neptune: it was therefore the greater ( 4 O honour 
 for Peleus to obtain her in marriage, Peleus, you know, was one of the heroes who 
 accompanied Jafon in the Argo, (fuppofed to be the firft fhip that ever ventured on the 
 fea,) in that famous expedition for the Golden Fleece. So great a novelty, as a vaft 
 hollow of wood with feveral men in it, floating over the furface of the water, called all 
 the fea-nymphs (4 2 ) immediately from their loweft habitations, to gaze upon it. Thetis 
 was among the fpeftators of fo ftrange a fight. All thefe ladies of the water, (as our 
 ladies on land are generally apt to be,) were extremely charmed with the novelty of the 
 fight, and the hardinefs of their enterprize. They looked on thefe heroes with admi¬ 
 ration ; and from admiration they were eafily led to love. Thetis fixed her chief regards 
 on Peleus; and it is therefore with a great deal of propriety that Valerius Flaccus names 
 her, in particular, as one that haftened to the (+ 3 ) affiftartce of the {hip; when firft it was 
 in danger of being lofl. Catullus (4+) tells all the ftory of the marriage of Thetis to 
 Peleus very much at large: and Valerius Flaccus (45) gives us a fliort picture of her, 
 when going to be married; and of the marriage-feaft, which was honoured with the 
 prefence of all the chief deities of the Sea. He fays fhe went on a dolphin ; with a veil 
 over her face, as the brides ( 46 ) ufually had of old ; but not with that melancholy face, 
 which the brides of thofe days ufed to afieft, to the greateft excefs. He feats Peleus at 
 the fea ft, among the gods of the Sea; and near him is his friend Chiron, to celebrate 
 their nuptials with his lyre. I might have had a reprefentation of this marriage, if I 
 could have trufted to the print of it in father Montfaucon’s collection ( 47 ): but that 
 agrees fo little with the poets, and has fo many marks ot being a modern invention, 
 that I was forced to rejeCt it. 
 
 The Nereids, (who are of the fifth clafs, and the loweft of all the native deities of the 
 fea ) are all called (48) filters; as being the family of Doris and Nereus ; and their faces, 
 
 (as 
 
 (41) Tene Thetis tenuit, pulcherrima Neptunine ? 
 
 Tene luam Tethys conceffit ducere Neptem ? 
 
 Catullus, deNupt. Pelei, 62. j. 29. 
 Eft aliquid non cfle fatum Nereide ; fed qui 
 Nereaque Sc natas, & totum temperat aiquor. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 12. jr. 94. 
 
 (•i 2 ) Qua: liroul ac rollro ventofum profeidit iquor 
 Tortaque remigio fpumis incanduit unda ; 
 
 Emerferc feri candenti e gurgite vultus, 
 
 Asquorci monflrum Nereides admirantes: 
 
 Iliaque, (hau que alia,) viderunt luce marinas 
 Mortales oculi, nudato corpore, nymphas; 
 
 Nutricum tenus extantes c gurgite cano. 
 
 Catullus, Nupt. Pel. 62. jr. iS. 
 
 (43 Jam placidis ratis extat aquis, quam gurgite ab imo 
 Et Thetis Sc magnis Neieus focer erigit ulnis. 
 
 Val. Flaccus, Argon. 1. f. 658. 
 
 (44) Pocm. 62, dc Nuptiis Pelei. 
 
 (45) Flic * infperatos Tyrrheni tergore pifeis 
 
 Peleos in thalamos vehitur Thetis. -TEquora delphin 
 Corripit: illa fedet dejefta in lumina palla, 
 
 Nec Jove majorem nafei fufpirat Achillem. 
 
 Hanc Panope, Dotoque foror, litatnque fluftu 
 Profequitur nudis pariter Galatea lacertis, 
 
 Antra petens; Siculo revocat de litore Cyclops. 
 Contra, ignis viiidique torus de fronde ; dapefque, 
 Vinaque ; & tequoreos inter cum conjuge Divos 
 Aiacides: pullalque chelyn poli pocula Chiron. 
 
 • Painted on Argo. Val. Flaccus, Argon. 1. f. 1 39. 
 
 (46) -Timidum nupti leviter teflura pudorem 
 
 Lutea demiffos velarunt flammea vultus. 
 
 Lucan. 2. jr. 361. 
 
 Anna tegens vultus, ut nova nupta, fuos. 
 
 Ovid. Fall. 3. jr. 690. 
 
 -Sedet illa parato 
 
 Flammeolo, Tyriufque palam Genialis in hortis 
 Sternitur. 
 
 Juvenal. Sat. 10. >'•. 335. 
 
 One can hardly read thefe paflages, without being 
 put in mind of the figure of the bride in the Aldo- 
 brandine marriage ; and fome other antiques, relat¬ 
 ing to the fame fubjcdt : in which the brides generally 
 appear extremely concerned ; and to be melancholy 
 and grieved, beyond what Ihould be naturally ex- 
 pedled, for the change they are going to make; and 
 to which they were not really, perhaps, fo averfe 
 as they would feem. Flaccus fays, Thetis had the 
 veil; but not this very melancholy air : flic did not 
 grieve, as other brides then ufed to do ; becaufe (he 
 knew that the effedl of her marriage would be the 
 birth of the greateft hero in the world : of Achilles, 
 that was to be fo highly celebrated to all poftcrity, by 
 Homer. 
 
 (47) Sec Montfaucon, Vol. I. PI. 107. 
 
 (48) Officio careat glaucarum nulla fororum. 
 
 Statius, Lib. 3. Sylv. 2. jr . 34. 
 Ell aliquid non die fatum Nereide ; fed qui 
 Nereaque, & natas, & totum temperat iquor. 
 
 (Spoke by the Son of a Neptunine,) Ovid. Met. 12. j. 94. 
 
Dialogue the Fourteenth. 
 
 (as Ovid (49) obferves,) fhould all bear a refemblance to one another, like that of fillers; 
 tho’ there lliould be fome difference in each, to diftinguifli them from one another. 
 We know the particular names of fome of them; (as Doto (50), and Galatea, for ex¬ 
 ample :) but the attributes and characters given them by the artiftsare fo uniform, that it 
 would be very difficult at prefent to diftinguifli anyone of them from the reft; and we 
 can only fay of any fuch relievo, or picture, that it is a Nereid-piece, in general. 
 
 The deferiptions of thefe ftfter-goddefles, in the poets, are moftly of a general nature 
 too. I fancy from Ovid’s account ( 5 1 ) of them, that they were very r rely fuppofed to 
 be carried on dolphins; and, perhaps, never on Tritons : as fome of the fuperior god- 
 defl'es of the Sea were. The poets moft ufually deferibe them as parting the water v ith 
 their arms; and with their long hair, floating over the furface of it: fometimes, rifin* 
 above the water to admire fome ftrange fight, (as (52) that of the firft fl.ip that ever 
 ventured on the fea, above mentioned ;) fometimes, as bulled in affifting (5O fliips, and 
 'conducing them in fafety toward their port; and, fometimes as fitting together on feme 
 rock (54), and telling thofe ftories which were fo much in vogue in the higheft antiquity; 
 and which ran chiefly on the numberlefs amours of Jupiter, and the other celellial 
 deities. 
 
 I heartily pity them, (interpofed Myfagetcs,) that after all their fatigues, they 
 had nothing but a bare rock to fit upon ; no very eafy reft!ng-place, and perhaps ex- 
 pofed all to the fun: which could not be fo agreeable, one would think, to ladies of 
 their fine make and complexion. Surely, the old poets were a little defective in this 
 particular. I remember to have read a very pretty ftory, (in the Perfian Tales, or fome 
 like excellent book,) which is founded wholly on the notion of the fea’s being as well 
 inhabited as the earth. The author has not only flocked the watery element, with men 
 and women; but has given them houfes too, and cities under water, as regularly as we 
 have on land. It is a pity the antient poets had not had as much imagination, as this 
 modern writer ; they might then have found out fome more tolerable conveniences for 
 your Nereids, andNeptunines: as it is, any tender-hearted perfon muft have a great deal 
 of compaffion for the poor ladies; when lie fees them thus, only fprawlhig on the water, 
 or refting themfelves on a hard rock. 
 
 You may fpare all your compaffion for them, on this account; (replied Polymetis ;) 
 for I can aflure you that the antient poets, when they were about it, could furnifti their 
 inhabitants of the fea, with as many and as fine palaces, as any modern author whatever. 
 Beiide the numerous hollows and caves in the fhore, which were generally fuppofed to ferve 
 for this purpofe, the antients feemto have imagined, that the whole fea refted (55) on a 
 
 fort 
 
 (49) Doridaque & natus : quarum pars nare videntur; 
 Pars in mole fedens virides ficcare capillos : 
 
 Pifcc vehi quasdam : facies non omnibus una, 
 
 Ncc diverfa tamen ; qualem decet efle fororum. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 2. if. 14. 
 
 (;o) - Nereia Doto. 
 
 Virgil. JEn. 9. f. 103. 
 At mihi, cui pater eft Nereus, quam ca;rula Doris 
 Enixa eft ; qua; fum turba quoque tuta fororum; &c. 
 (Says Galatea, in) Ovid’s Met. 13. y. 743. 
 
 (ji) - Placidis — natant Nereides undis. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 13. if. 399. 
 
 Vos quoque cteruleum, Diva: Nereides, agmen — 
 Surgite de vitreis fpumofse Doridos antris ; 
 Baianofque linus Sc feeta tepentibus undis 
 Litora, tranquillo certatim ambite natatu. 
 
 Statius, Lib. 3. Sylv. 2. f. 18. 
 -■ — Pars nare videntur ; 
 
 Pars in mole fedens virides ficcare capillos. 
 
 Ovid. Met. z. i\ 12. 
 
 • ■ - Virides Nereidum comas. 
 
 Horat. Lib. 3. Od. 28. i'. 10. 
 
 (52) Sec Note 42. anteh. 
 
 (5 3 ) --Vos ftuppea tendite mali 
 
 Vincula ; vos fummis annedlite fuppara vclis: 
 
 Vos Zephyris aperite linus. Pars tranftra reponat ; 
 Pars demittat aquis curva; moderamina puppis. 
 Sunt, quibus exploret rupes gravis arte molorchus; 
 Quaeque fccuturam religent port terga phafelon : 
 Uncaque fubmerfae penitus retinacula vellant. 
 Temperet haec a-ftus; pelagufque inclinet ad ortus ; 
 Officio careat glaucarum nulla fororum. 
 
 Statius. Lib. 3. Sylv. 2. i. 34. 
 
 (54) See Dial. 7. Note 66. 
 
 ( 55 ) Unde terra, & quibus librata ponderibus: 
 quibus cavernis maria fuftineantur. Cicero. Tufc. 
 Quxfl:. Lib, 5. p. 513. Ed. Blaeu. 
 
 4 
 
6 
 
 POLYMETIS. 
 
 fort of arched work : under which, what an ample fpace muft there have been for habi¬ 
 tations for all thefe gods and goddefles, were they ever fo numerous ? In this light, 
 what made that folid bottom of the fea, would at the fame time ferve for the roofs of 
 their palaces : and below, it might be all divided into grotto’s, and caves ; like the ha¬ 
 bitation of the nymphs (56) defcribed by Virgil in his fEneid; or the palace (57) of Cy¬ 
 rene, in tire Georgies. Some of the nobleft parts of this fubmarine-rockwork, (if you 
 will give me leave to make ufe of a new name, for fo ftrange a thing,) may be fuppofed 
 to have been fei apart for the (58) palaces of Oceanus : fome, under the Mediterranean 
 fea, for the court of Neptune; and others, for the other ruling deities of that fea. In one 
 province, might be the grotto’s of Proteus; and in another, the caves of Doris and 
 Nereus, and all (59) their numerous family. Thefe lower habitations of the Sea-deities 
 might be fuppofed, if you plcafe, to be full of water; (for water is their proper element, 
 as much as air is ours :) or if that fhocks you too much, they might be always free from 
 it: for one learns from the account of Cyrene’s palace, in Virgil, that the antients fup¬ 
 pofed this fort of deities had a full power over the waters; and could make them hang 
 (60) fufpended in the air, juft when, and however, they pleafed. 
 
 The habitations of the River-deities and their attendants, were in the fame manner 
 fuppofed to be under water; and generally, I believe, fomewhere near the place (61) 
 whence each river took its rife : where, if there was any grotto, they ufually had fome 
 figure of the prefiding deity of the ftream in it; with his urn, and the waters guftiing out 
 of it ; to denote the fource of the river. The temples to River-gods were moft com¬ 
 monly built in the lame part; as the younger Pliny tells us exprefly, in the (62) particu¬ 
 lar account he has given of the temple of Clitumnus : and it is for the fame reafon, that 
 Virgil makes Ariftaaus go to the very fource of the river, when he wants to addrefs him- 
 felf to the Water-goddefs his mother. The poets often l'peak of thefe habitations and 
 grotto’k'of the River-deities ; and deferibe (63) fome of them : particularly, that of Pe¬ 
 neus ; the very river to whofe fource Virgil fends Ariftsus. 
 
 (56) Hinc atque hinc valla; rupes, geminique minantur 
 
 In ccelum fcopuli ; quorum fub vertice late 
 yEquora tuta filent : tum fylvis fcena corufcis 
 Defuper, horrentique atrum nemus imminet umbra. 
 Fronte fub adverfa, fcopulis pendentibus antrum : 
 Intus aquie dulces, vivoque fedilia faxo ; 
 Nympharum domus.- 
 
 ./En. 1. jr. 16S. 
 
 (57) See the latter part of Note 63, pofth. 
 
 (58) The-poets fpeak expre-fly of the palace of 
 Oceanus : and feem to place it, fometimes on the 
 tvellern fhore ; and fometinies under the fea. 
 
 Tempus erflt jundos cum jam foror ignea Phcebi 
 Sentit equos ; penitufque cavam fub luce parata 
 Oceani mugire domum.... 
 
 Statius, Theb. 8. f. 273. 
 Frangebat radios humili jam pronus Olympo 
 Phcebus ; & Oceani penetrabile littus anheiis 
 Promittebat equis. - 
 
 Id. Achil, 2. j . 17. 
 
 Deferet ante dies, Sc in alto Phcebus anhelos 
 
 /Equore tinget equos. - 
 
 Qvid. Met. 15. jr. 419. 
 
 (59) Surgite de vitreis fpumofte Doridos antris. 
 
 (Says Statius; invoking the Nereids,) Lib. 3. 
 Sylv. 2. jr. 16. 
 
 (60) Due, age; duc ad nos : fas illi limina Divum 
 Tangere, ait: fimul alta jubet difeedere late 
 Flumina, qua juvenis greiTus inferret : at ilium 
 
 I HAVE 
 
 Curvata in montis fpeciem circumfletit unda; 
 
 Accepitque finuvafto; mifitque fub amnem. 
 
 Virg. Georg. 4. jr. 362. 
 
 And Ovid fays, of another River-god : 
 
 Cedere juffit aquam ; juITa receflit aqua. 
 
 Lib. 3. El. 6. jr. 44. 
 
 This is reprefented fometimes in antiques : as par¬ 
 ticularly on a gem in Mafl'ci’s colle£lion, (Vol. II. 
 PI. 34.) where you fee Neptune beneath the water ; 
 which hangs fufpended, in a fort of arch, over his 
 head. 
 
 (61) Statius fpeaks of the fource of a river, and 
 the habitation of the River-god, as one and the fame 
 thing. 
 
 -jEterna: largitor corniger unda: ! 
 
 La:tus eas, quacunque domo gelida ora refolvis. 
 (Speaking of a river, whofe fource they were unacquainted 
 with) Theb. 4. jr. 832. 
 
 (62) See Pliny’s Epiftles, Lib. 8. Ep. 8. 
 
 (63) Statius, (where he is deferibing a water-grotto 
 in Vopifcus’s gardens at Tivoli,) hints at fome of the 
 moft noted ones, in his time. 
 
 Illis ipfe antris Anienus, fonte relido. 
 
 Node fub arcana glaucos exutus amidus 
 
 Huc illuc fragili proilernit pedora mufeo; 
 
 Aut ingens in ftagna cadit, vitreafque natatu 
 
 Plaudit aquas: illa recubat Tiberinus in umbra ; 
 
 IUic fulphureos cupit Albula mergere crines. 
 
 Hsec 
 
 6 
 
Dialogue the Fourteenth, 
 
 227 
 
 I HAVE got the figures of fome of thefe River-deities; and have difpofed of them 
 among my fountains without: which we may confider as much, or as little as you pleafe 
 in continuing our walk thro' the groves about this temple. The firft I fliall carry you 
 to is t ie Tiber. After going down a walk that led them irregularly through a grove 
 of poplar-trees, they came into a good fpacious opening, 'in the higher part of which 
 they law the ftatuc of Tiberinus, reclined and leaning on his urn : from which the Pc. XXXI 
 water poured down a bank of grafs, into a little lake, or fountain; if Co irregular a thing Fl0 ' 
 may be called one. The fides of it were, here and there, over-run with high reeds 
 and fometimes overlhaded by willows. Juft by the figure of the god, lay the wolf and 
 twin founders of Rome. The creature feemed to have loft all the fava»enefs of her 
 nature; and in particular was drawing in one of her feet, that it might not hurt one of 
 the infants who was «retching out its little leg toward it. Her head too was turned 
 with an air of regarding them, as they lay finding and playing together about the teat. 
 
 I he god himlelf was crowned with fruits and flowers : of a large (64) fize; and with a 
 
 venerable 
 
 Hsc domus Algeria: nemoralem abjungere Phceben, 
 Et Dryadum viduare choris algentia poflit 
 Taygeta ; & fylvis arceflere Pana Lycads. 
 
 Statius. Lib. i. Sylv. 3. S. 78. 
 
 The grotto of Egeria was more celebrated of old 
 than even that of the Tiber itfelf. Livy mentions it 
 in his hiftory, and Ovid, in his Fafti; and (if I am 
 not miftaken,) in one of his Elegies. 
 
 Lucus erat, quern medium, ex opaco fpecu, fons 
 perenni rigabat aqua: quo quia fe perfeepe Numa 
 fine arbitris, velut ad congreftum Dea: inferebat ; 
 Camam is eum lucutn facravit, quod earum Ibi con¬ 
 cilia cum conjuge fua Egeria elTent: Sec. Livy 
 Lib. 1. §. 21. 
 
 Defluit incerto Iapidofus murmure rivus ; 
 
 Sxpe, fed exiguis haullibus, inde bibi: 
 
 Egeria eft qua: prsbet aquas, Dea grata Camamis ; 
 
 Illa Numre conjux conciliumque fuit. 
 
 Ovid. Faft. 3. S. 276. 
 
 Stat vetus & multos incidua fylva per annos; 
 
 Credibile eft illi numen inefle loco : 
 
 Fons facer in medio, fpeluncaque pumice pendens; 
 
 Et latere ex omni dulce queruntur aves : 
 
 Hic ego dum fpatior, tedtus nemoralibus umbris. 
 
 Quod mea quxrebam mufa moveret opus. 
 
 Venit odoratos Elegei'a nexa capillos, See. 
 
 Ovid. Lib. 3. El. 1. S. 7. 
 
 The grotto of Achelous is deferibed by the fame 
 poet: 
 
 Pumice multicavo nec lavibus atria tophis 
 Strudta fubit: molli tellus erat humida mufeo; 
 Summa lucunabant alterno murice conchs. 
 
 Met. 8. S. 563. 
 
 And fo is that of Peneus : 
 
 Eft nemus Haimonix, prxrupta quod undique claudit 
 Sylva; vocant Tempe : per qux Peneus, ab imo 
 Effufus Pindo, fpumofis volvitur undis : 
 
 Dejectuque gravi tenues agitantia fumos 
 Nubila conducit, fummafque afpergine fylvas 
 Impluit; & fonitu plus quam vicina fatigat. 
 
 Hare domus, h.-ec fedes, ha:c funt penetralia magni 
 Amnis. In hoc refidens fadto de cautibus antro 
 Undis jura dabat, nymphifque colentibus undas. 
 
 Met. 1. >h 581. 
 
 Where Horaee fpeaksof the habitation of Albunea ; 
 (Lib. i. Od. 7. S. 12.) he may mean fomething far¬ 
 ther than a meer grotto. The lake of Albunea is 
 that lake, which is fo much vilited in the way to Ti¬ 
 voli, for the final] iflands (or oval tables) that float on 
 its furface. 1 he fame fort of fulphureous concretions 
 that form thofe little iflands, add from time to time 
 
 to the folid concretions on the fides ; fo that but a 
 fmall part of the furface of the lake appears at prefent; 
 and, probably, in time it will be wholly hid. For a 
 great way round ’it, the earth founds hollow under 
 your feet; which Ihews that you tread only on the 
 cruft that covers the lake. This probably is what Ho¬ 
 race alludes to, in calling it Domus Albunea: refo- 
 nantis : had it been fpoke of a running ftream, refo- 
 nantis might have had another fenfe: but as it is faid 
 of a ftill lake, I think it can be accounted for no other 
 way than this; and this accounts for it very ftron-Wy 
 and fully. 
 
 The compleateft defeription of an habitation under 
 the water, that I know of in the Roman poets, is 
 that of the palace of Cyrene, in Virgil. He exprefly 
 fays, that it was at the bottom of the river. 
 
 At mater fonitum thalamo fub fluminis alti 
 Senfit. ---.. 
 
 Georg. 4. ^.334. 
 
 Due, age; duc ad nos : fas illi limina Divum 
 Tangere, ait. Simul alta jubet difcedere late 
 Flumina, qua juvenis greflus inferret ; at illum 
 Curvata in montis faciem circumftetit unda; 
 Accepitque fmu vafto, mifnque fub amnem.' 
 
 Ibid. S. 362. 
 
 i he lame poet mentions fomething of the manner 
 in which it was made; like the water-grotto’s, above 
 deferibed : and fomething of the furniture in it; like 
 the vivo fedilia faxo, in his grotto of the nymphs. 
 Poftquam eft in thalami pendentia pumice tedta 
 Perventum. -. 
 
 Ibid, S. 375 , 
 
 - Iterum maternas impulit aures 
 
 Luftus Ariftan ; vitreifque fedilibus omnes 
 Obltupuere.-—— 
 
 Ibid. jr. 351. 
 
 They give him an entertainment there; and make 
 a facrifice. Ib. S. 376, & 381. 
 
 One fees from this whole account, that they had 
 three forts of habitations for their River-deities. 
 Grotto’s by the fide of the river, and generally at the 
 fource of it; as that of Egeria : others under the 
 earth, for fubterraneous waters; as that of Albunea : 
 and others under the waters ; as that of Cyrene. 
 
 (64) Ipfe pater flavis Tiberinus abhorruit undis; 
 
 Suftulit e medio nubilus amne caput: 
 
 Tum falice implexum mufeoque & arundine crinem 
 Cairuleum, magna legic ab ore manu. 
 
 Ovid. Confol. ad Liviam, S. 124, 
 
 Nnn 
 
POLYMETIS. 
 
 venerable look; as lord (65) of all the rivers of the province, thorough which he leads 
 his waters to the fea. Any one, 1'ays Polymetis, would ealily know this to be the figure 
 of the Tiber; from the little Romulus and Remus, that were firft difcovered in this man¬ 
 ner, with their fofter-mother, on his banks. It was where they afterwards built Rome; 
 and at the bottom of the Palatine hill, in particular. Ide is reclined; as the figures of 
 River-gods generally are. The antients in this particular acted with more propriety, 
 than has perhaps been commonly obferved. They did not only flock every element 
 with imaginary beings that are proper for it; but feem alfo to have been very exadt in 
 adapting the appearance, and the very pofturc of thofe beings, to the nature of the par¬ 
 ticular elements to which they refpedtively belong. Thus their imaginary inhabitants of 
 the air are reprefen ted always under light, eafy, figures; and generally, as flying. As 
 they looked on the earth to be immoveable, and fpread out on all lides of us; Tellus, 
 Cibele, and the other chief goddclles that were fuppofed to prefide over it, are generally 
 drawn, either as fitting, or as lying down at their calc: and as*water always ltrives to 
 keep its level, we find the figures of the River-deities generally more or lei's reclined. In 
 this pofture is the figure before us, of Old Father Tiber, as the Roman poets fo often call 
 him; and which, in their language, fignified the fame as Tiber the majeftic, or Tiber 
 the governor (of many rivers,) does in ours. His countenance here fhews his dignity 
 and command. He was fometimes reprefented too with horns (66). which of old was 
 a known emblem of power, and might fignify that he prefided over feveral ftreams. 
 
 If the paintings of the antients remained to us in as great numbers as one could wifli 
 for in enquiries of this kind, I doubt not but that we fhould have feveral other lights as 
 to this River-deity; who was fo much celebrated, and fo highly worlhipped among the 
 Romans. Their poets indeed tell us the colour (67) of his fkin, of his hair, and of his 
 robes; which is every thing almoft that is neceflary towards drawing a picture of him : 
 but then the Latin names for colours are very doubtful, and very ill underftood at pre- 
 fent; whereas a painting would be clear, and indifputable. We meet with feveral de- 
 
 feriptions 
 
 (65) Virgil calls the Tiber, “ Lord of all the Rivers 
 of Latium.” 
 
 Corniger Hefperidum fluvius regnator aquarum. 
 
 -£n.8. *.77. 
 
 Tacitus gives us a little piece of hiftory, which 
 fhews the refpedl the old Romans paid to this River- 
 god, very remarkably. On fome frequent inunda¬ 
 tions of the Tiber, it was propofed in the Roman fc- 
 nate ; whether they might not divert the courfc of 
 fome of the Idler rivers, that fall into it. The depu¬ 
 ties of the Florentines, Interamnates, Reatini, and 
 others, were heard againft the queftion : who brought 
 their devotions, and the majefty of the Tiber in par¬ 
 ticular, as an argument on their fide.-Spedtandas 
 
 religiones fociorum, qui facia Sc lucos & aras patriis 
 Amnibus dicaverint : quin ipfum Tiberim nolle pror- 
 fus accolis fluviis orbatum minore gloria fluere. Seu 
 preces coloniarum, feu difficultas operum, feu fuper- 
 flitio valuit, ut in fententiam Pifonis concederetur; 
 qui nil mutandum cenfuerat. Tacitus, Annal.lib. 1. 
 fub finem. 
 
 (66) The horns of the River-gods may be often 
 hid by the large crowns of reeds, leaves, or flowers, 
 that we fee on fo many of them. I imagine, that 
 Tiber was fometimes reprefented with them ; becaufe 
 Virgil calls him, Corniger, (./En. 8. f. 77.) 
 
 Valerius Flaccus gives them to all the greater Ri¬ 
 ver-gods ; 
 
 Sylvarumque Des; atque elatis cornibus Amnes! 
 
 Argon, i. if. 106. 
 
 And I think it appears from an expreffion in the 
 fame poet, that their having horns fignified their pre- 
 fiding over feveral ftreams. 
 
 Haud procul hinc ingens Scythici ruit exitus Iflri: 
 Fundere non uno tantum quem flumina cornu 
 Accipimus: feptem exit aquis, feptem oftia pandit. 
 
 Ibid. 8. if. 187. 
 
 (67) -Ctcruleus Tibris - 
 
 Virgil. Mn. 8. i/. 64. 
 
 Crinem caeruleum- 
 
 Ovid. Confol. ad. Liv. it. 124. 
 
 -Eum tenuis glauco velabat amiftu 
 
 Carbafus.- 
 
 Virgil. IfL n. 8. if. 34. 
 
 I imagine caeruleus fignifies a darkilh, or fea-green 
 colour here : tho’ it may in general fignify any co¬ 
 lour that the fea is of; and that varies according 
 to the objefts that refledt the light upon it. Near 
 the fhore it is always tinged with the predominant 
 colour of the fhore, and is generally more or lefs 
 green: far out at fea, it of whatever colour the 
 clouds happen to be of: fo that cteruleus is a very 
 vague and indeterminate expreffion. 
 
 The meaning of the word Glaucus, is almoft as 
 uncertain. One of the beft vocabularies we have for 
 the Latin tongue, fays it fignifies “ Grey, blue, fky- 
 coloured, azure, fea-green, or a bright and fiery 
 red.” (See Glaucus; in Ainfworth.) 
 
 4 
 
Dialogue the Fourteenth. 229 
 
 icriptions or him in the poets too, on particular occa/ions, as when (68) amazed at fome 
 extraordinary incident, or when under a deep uncommon (69) concern,) which are 
 picture.quo enough to nave been drawn originally perhaps from fome paintings, which 
 are now loft : but this is a misfortune which I have lamented fo often already, that I 
 think 1 will leave oh' even mentioning it to you any more, for the future. 
 
 In the opening next to this, (which was yet larger, and all one exadt level,) they eaiily 
 knew the Nile, by his large cornucopiaj by the Sphynx, couched under him; and the Pi xxxf 
 number of little children playing about him. The cornucopia, fays Polymetis, tho’ it Fic. 2. 
 is given to fo many River-gods, (and particularly to that we have juft left,) is fcarce 
 given to any of them with fo much propriety as to the Nile. Other rivers may add to 
 the fertility of the feveral countries thro’ which they pafs; but the Nile is the abfolute 
 caufe of that great fertility of the Lower Egypt: which would be all a defart, as bad 
 as any of the moll fandy parts of Africa, without this river. It fupplies it, you 
 know, both with foil, and moifture. He was their Jupiter Pluvius ( 7 °), as well as their 
 chief River-god ; and it may be therefore, perhaps, that he is called by an antient 
 writer ( 7 1 ), the Egyptian Jupiter. The Sphynx by him, may allude either to the fa¬ 
 mous ( 7 2 ) ftatue of the Sphynx on his bank, in the plain of Memphis; or to the myftic 
 (73) knowledge, fo much cultivated in Egypt. The children, that are playing about him, 
 are fixteen ( 74 -) in number; to denote the feveral rifings of the river every year, fo far as 
 to the height of fixteen cubits: as Pliny tells us, in fpeaking perhaps of the very ftatue 
 now in the Vatican, of which this is a copy. 
 
 You fee, the water flows down here, from under his robe; which conceals the urn, 
 or fource, of it: and I have feen fome modern ftatues of the Nile, (perhaps copied from 
 fome antient one,) in which this deity has pulled his robe fo far over his head, that he 
 has quite hid it. Both thefe methods allude to the head or fource of this river ( 75 ) not 
 being difeovered by the antients : and both feem ( 7 6 ) to be hinted at, in the antient poets. 
 
 The noble figure of the Nile, from which this is copied ( 77 ), is of Bafalt or black marble; 
 and even the very colour of it may not be (78) without its fignification. 
 
 Virgil, 
 
 liberis circa ludentibus : per quos totidem cubiti fum- 
 mi incrementi augentis fe amnis intelliguntur. Lib. 
 
 36. c. 7. p. 479. Ed. Elz. 
 
 Thefe feem to have been the cubits which meafured 
 the height of the overflow of the Nile, perfonified : 
 and if fo, may fhew that the Egyptians were as bold 
 in their allegories, as any of the Roman poets. 
 
 E/7rs 70V N uKov iiJ'a ypettpn iAzy.i[Xnvov, ctvjov [izv kzi- 
 /Aivov zm xpoxo/s/A» rivos, 11 <TTo-ro 7 a//s'- ■ •fj.iKpa. J't 
 riva. ireuS'ut irstp’ ecvjov ircu^ovla. Thiyzis 01 Ai- 
 yuiflioi ncttocrr. Lucian. Tom. 2. p. 311. Ed. 
 
 Blaeu. 
 
 (75) Te fontium qui celat origines 
 Nilufque, & Ifter, te rapidus Tigris, &c. 
 
 Horat. Lib. 4. Od. 14. jr, 45. 
 
 (76) Ille fluens dives feptena per oflia Nilus, 
 
 Qui patriam tanta: tam bene celat aqux; 
 
 Fertur in Evadne colle&am Afopide flammam 
 Vincere gurgitibus non potuifle fuis. 
 
 Ovid. Lib. 3. EI. 6. jr. 42. 
 
 Nilus in extremum fugit perterritus orbem ; 
 
 Occuluitque caput, quod adhuc latet.-- 
 
 Id. Met. 2. jfr. 255. 
 
 (77) See Note 74, anteh. 
 
 (78) Mr. Addifon fays, (in his Travels, p. 239.) 
 that he has read in fome author, that the ftatues of the 
 Nile were generally made of black marble: in allufion 
 
 (74) Nunquam hic [lapis, quem vocant Bafalten] to its coming from/Ethiopia, 
 major repertus eft, quam in Templo Pacis ab impera- Ufque coloratis amnis devexus ab Indis, 
 
 tore Vefpaftano dicatus, argumento Nili; fexdecim Virgil. Georg. 4. jr. 293. (of the Nile.) 
 
 (68) —■—Virgincte (mirabile monilrum !) 
 
 Quot prius terata: ftdterant ad litora prora, 
 
 Reddunt fe totidem facies; pontoque feruntur. 
 Obftupuere animi Rutulis: conterritus ipfe 
 Turbatis Meflapus equis: cunftatur & Amnis 
 Rauca fonans; revocatque pedcmTiberinus ab alto. 
 
 Virgil. JEn. 9. f. 125. 
 
 (69) Ipfe pater flavis Tiberinus abhorruit undis; 
 
 Sullulit e medio nubilus amne caput: &c. 
 
 Ovid. Confol. ad Liv. jr. 122. 
 
 (70) Te propter nullos tellus tua poftulat imbres; 
 
 Arida nec Pluvio fupplicat herba Jovi. 
 
 Tibullus. Lib. 1. EI. 7. jL 26. 
 
 (71) A lyvirjn 7.zv, Ne/A z. Parmeno Byzantius; 
 as quoted by Athenaeus, 1. 5. 
 
 (72) This figure is faid to have been cut out of 
 the rock there. The head and neck of it, which 
 ftill appear, are 27 foot high : and the part concealed 
 by the yearly riling of the ground, from the over¬ 
 flow of the Nile, mu ft be much more ; in propor¬ 
 tion to its breaft, which is 33 foot broad; and its 
 length, which is 113 : according to Dr. Pocock’s ac¬ 
 count, in his Travels, Vol. I. p. 46. 
 
 (73) -Si Sphyngos iniqure 
 
 Callidus ambages, te prannonflrante, refolvi. 
 
 Statius. Theb. 1. ]r. 66. 
 
2j° 
 
 POL 
 
 M E T I S. 
 
 Virgil, in his account of the fine work on Eneas’s fhicld, gives us a pidlure of this 
 River-god ; with that greatnefs of imagination, which he ihews fo particularly, when he 
 is delcribing divinities. He deferibes him there, as of a vaft fize ; and with a mix¬ 
 ture of fright and concern, on his face ; fpreading out all his robe, and inviting the 
 diftrefled, defeated fleet of Cleopatra, to the inmoft recedes of his ftreams. That whole 
 paftage is as juft, as it is great; and I queftion, whether Virgil may not allude in it to the 
 dark marble his ftatues were ufually made of ( 79 ), as well as to the concealment of his 
 fource. 
 
 Pi.. XXXL 
 Fig. 3, 
 
 The figure that you fee thro’ that ftiort vifto to the left hand, is the Tigris; as that to 
 the right, is the Euphrates. The former of thefe River-gods is very well diftinguilhed 
 from all the others I have met with, by the tiger on which he refts his right arm. The 
 Euphrates, (if it be the Euphrates, for I am not quite certain of it,) is marked out by 
 the palm-branch which he holds in his hand. I chofe to place them fo near one another, 
 becaufe they are faid to lpring from (80) the fame fource. They appear together on a 
 medal of Trajan (81) ; on which the genius of Mcfopotamia is reprelented, kneeling at 
 that emperor’s feet; with the Tigris on one fide of her, and the Euphrates on the other: 
 and Ovid (82) fpeaks of them, as carried together in a triumph. 
 
 A little winding walk led them fiom thefe, to the figures of the Danube and the 
 Pl. XXXI. Rhine. They were both fitting : each with his urn ; and each with dignity : only the 
 Iig. 5,&6. Danube was diftinguilhed by a large veil, floating over his head. The figure of the 
 Danube which you fee here, fays Polymetis, was copied after one, on a medal of Trajan: 
 tho’ the fineft I ever faw of this River-god, is on the column fet up in honour of the fame 
 emperor, at Rome. I could not fo well make ufe of that, becaufe it would fcarce have 
 done for a fountain; and indeed ought not to be detached from the other figures about it, 
 in that hiftorical piece of work. He is one of the firft figures on that column; very near 
 the bafe : and appears there, from the waift upward ; as rifing out of his ftream, to 
 fihew his duty to the Romans ; and to fupport the bridge of boats, they had laid over it. 
 This is not exprefied in Bartoli’s edition of the Columna Trajana; but on the column 
 itfelf, if you obferve it well, you may difeern the hand of the god, (tho’ partly covered 
 with the water,) is ftretched quite to the bridge, and fome way under it; as willing to 
 fupport it: fo that he appears there in an attitude, juft contrary to that (83) in which 
 
 Virgil 
 
 (79) - Omnis eo terrore Asgyptus & Indi, 
 
 Omnis Arabs, omnes verterunt terga Sabaii. 
 
 Ipfa videbatur ventis Regina vocatis 
 Vela dare ; & laxos jam jamque immittere funes : 
 Illam inter exdes pallentem morte futura 
 Fecerat ignipotens undis & Iapyge ferri: 
 
 Contra autem, magno matrentem corpore Nilum, 
 Pandentemque finus, & tota veftc vocantem 
 Cxrulcum in gremium latebrofaque flumina viftos. 
 
 Virgil. /En. 8. jL 713. 
 Hc invites the vanquilhcd fugitives; “ To his dark 
 bofom, and molt hidden ftreams The former of 
 which expreflions alludes to his own colour, as the 
 latter does to the fource of his river being hid and un¬ 
 known. 
 
 (Sc)-Quos non diverfis fontibus edit 
 
 Perfis, & incertum tellus fi mifeeat amnes. 
 
 Lucan. 3. jr, 257. 
 
 Or, as a later writer fays, more exprefly : 
 
 Tigris & Euphrates uno fc fonte refolvunt. 
 
 Boetius. 
 
 (81) Agoftini Med. p. 107. Fig. 1. 
 
 (82) Speclabunt la:ti juvenes, miftaique puellte; 
 
 Diffundetque animos omnibus ilia dies. 
 
 Atque aliqua ex illis cum regum nomina quxret, 
 Qua; Loca, qui Montes, quteve ferantur Aqux; 
 
 6 
 
 Omnia refponde, nec tantum fi qua rogabit ; 
 
 Et qua; nefeieris, ut bene nota refer. 
 
 Hie eft Euphrates, pnecinftus arundine frontem; 
 
 Cui coma dependet ca'rula, Tigris erit. 
 
 Hoc facito Armenios ; &c. 
 
 Ovid, de Art. Am. 1. f. 225. 
 
 (83) Virgil mentions the figure of Araxes; in the 
 work on ./Eneas’s ftiicld. 
 
 Hic Lelegas, Carafque, fagittiferofque Gelonos 
 Finxerat ; Euphrates ibat jam mollior undis ; 
 Extremique hominum Morini, Rhenufque bicornis; 
 lndomitiquc Daha;, & pontem indignatus Araxes. 
 
 Ain.8. jr. 728. 
 
 This laft expreflion might be drawn from fome 
 known figure of the Araxes ; in which, that River-god 
 was reprefented as (hoving down fome bridge, which 
 the Romans had built over his ftream. “ In this 
 work, fays Virgil, Euphrates let his ftreams fall not fo 
 rapidly from him, as they did before he was conquered ; 
 there were the Daha;, formerly looked on as invincible; 
 and that Araxes, who would not luffer our bridge to 
 remain over his waters.” This may be the poetical 
 meaning of this paflage; tho’I doubt not it is more apt, 
 to appear literal, to 1110ft of the readers of Virgil in our 
 times and country. 
 
Dialogue the Fourteenth. 2 jt 
 
 Virgil fee ms to me to defcribe the Araxes. I do not remember any thing in the poetSj 
 that is faid perfonally of the Danube. Ovid, tho’ he mentions the Danube fo often, efpc- 
 cially in his epiRles from Pontus, has nothing defcriptive of his p'erfon : that unfortunate 
 poet’s fpirits were then gone; and he never rifes above meer literal expreffions, wherever 
 he fpeaks of him. The Rhine is fpoken of perfonally, by feveral of the poets. They de¬ 
 fcribe him fometimes as conquered by the Romans (84), all ruffled and wounded ; and 
 fometimes in the low (85) Rate of a captive: fometimes as (86) yielding; and fometimes 
 as (87) received into favour on his fubmiffion, and reRored to all his former honours by 
 them : in all which cafes it is remarkable that they never fpeak of him, without putting 
 us in mind, at the fame time, of their own conquers and their own vanity. 
 
 I should have been glad to have had fome other River-gods here, and particularly 
 feveral of the Italian ones; but have not yet been able to meet with their figures. 
 
 What I have moR regretted miffing, is that of the Eridanus, or Po. When I was firR 
 in Italy, I remember to have feen a fmall figure of him, in fome palace at Rome ; with 
 the head of a bull, and all the other parts human. I did not then note down where it 
 was; and I could never fince recover it. If I could, I would certainly have had a copy 
 from it here ; tho’ enlarged, and made more worthy of the ( 88 ) King of all the Rivers of 
 Italy. I would have raifed amount for him, fomewhere hereabouts ; againR the middle 
 of which, he might have reclined, and held down his urn : from which, the waters ought 
 to have run down the roughnefles of the mount (89) in large quantities, and with a good 
 deal of noife and rapidity. His having a head like that of a bull, would have diRin- 
 guiflied him well enough from all the other rivers of Italy; a thing which their poets do 
 not attribute to any of them that I know of, except this ; and, perhaps, the A hdus (90). 
 
 The reafon why the antient poets and artiRs gave the head of a bull to Eridanus, may 
 be from that river’s having its fource from mount Vefo; the higheR mountain in that 
 rahge of the Alps, which were antiently called the Alpes Taurina; : and which mak. 
 very diRinguifhed figure when you take a view of thofe mountains from Turin, the 
 capital of the antient Taurini ; tho’ it is above forty miles difiant from it. 
 
 The Ratties of Eridanus were no doubt highly worfiiipped, and honoured by the 
 Romans, in the AuguRan age ; as being then the chief of all the Rivers of Italy. One 
 way of theif fiiewing their devotion, or particular relpedt, to their River-gods, was by 
 (91) gilding their horns. Now taking it for granted that they paid a compliment to 
 their greatefi River-god, which Was commonly paid to thofe of lefs regard with them ; 
 
 this 
 
 (84) Cornibus hic fraftis, viridi male teflus ab ulva, 
 
 Decolor ipfe fuo funguine, Rhenus erit. 
 
 (In the triumj' u of Germanicus,) Ovid. Trill. 
 Lib. 4. Ep. 2. 42. 
 
 (85) Thus was he reprefented under the famous 
 equeftrian flutue of Domitian ; deferibed by Statius, 
 Lib. 1. Sylv. 1. 
 
 wEnea captivi crinem terit ungula Rheni. 
 
 f.51. 
 
 (86) Tradiderat famulas jam tibi Rhenus aquas. 
 
 (Giving up his urn to Germanicus,) Ovid. Fall, i , >L 286. 
 
 (87) Nympharum pater Amniumque, Rhene, - 
 
 Sic femper liquidis fruaris undis ;- 
 
 Sic et cornibus aureus receptis. 
 
 Et Romanus eas utraque ripa : &c. 
 
 (On Trajan’s return,) Martial. Lib. 10. Ep. 7. 
 
 (SS) Fluviorum Rex Eridanus. - 
 
 Virgil. Georg. 1. ^.482. 
 
 (89) Alberti, (fpeaking of two fountains on mount 
 Vefo,) gives the following account of the fource of 
 
 the Po. Da quell’ altra fontana, (da Plinio Vifenda 
 nominata,) qual e piu bafla, ha principio il Po ; come 
 etiandio ferive Strabone, nel 4 libro. Sccnde adun- 
 que de quella fontana un rivo di chiara aqua, per 
 ftretti, difficili, & ftrabbocchevoli balci ; & cafea 
 molto precipitofamente, fra quelle picciole valli, fo- 
 pra il faflofo monte : & poi efee fuori preflo terra 40 
 braccia, parendo quindi lcaturife & ufeir ; con tanto 
 empito & forza, & parimente con tant’ abbondanza 
 d’acqua, che e cofa maravigliofa. Nel cader fuo fo- 
 pra i faffi, de quali foil pieni tutti i luoghi vicini alle 
 radici del monte, che continoamente caddono al detto, 
 fa grandiffimo ftrepito & rimbombo. Leon. Alb, 
 Italia, p. 386. 
 
 (90) Horace calls the Aufidus, Tauriformis, (Lib. 
 4. Od. 14. jfr. 25.) by which he may mean, either 
 that in his ftatues he had the head of a bull, or elfe 
 that his whole form refembled that animal. 
 
 (91) See Note 87, anteh. 
 
 O o o 
 
 I! 
 
 
POLY M E T I S. 
 
 this fa< 5 t will fet feme lines of Virgil in a very clear light, which are otherwife perhaps 
 apt to appear ridiculous, to moll: of his readers at prefent. The lines 1 mean are in the 
 Rory of Ariiheus ; where, tho’ the poet is fpeaking of all the rivers of the earth in gene¬ 
 ral, he takes care to diftinguifli their own great River, the Po, in a particular manner. 
 
 Jamque domum mirans genetricis, & humida regna, 
 
 Speluncifque lacus claufos, lucofque fonantes. 
 
 Ibat ; &, ingenti motu ftupefadtus aquarum, 
 
 Oninia fub magna labentia flumina terra 
 Spe&abat diverfa locis. Phalimque, Lycumque ; 
 
 Et caput, unde altus primum fe erumpit Enipeus : 
 
 Unde pater Tiberinus, & unde Aniena fluenta ; 
 
 Saxofumque fonans Hypanis, Myfufque Caicus : 
 
 Et, gemina auratus taurino cornua vultu, 
 
 Eridanus; quo non alius per pinguia culta 
 In mare purpureum violentior effluit amnis ( 9 2 ). 
 
 Wh at you have advanced, lays Myfagetes, ofEridanus’s being reprefen ted with the 
 head of a bull, and of his having his horns gilded ; will account perhaps very well for 
 the expreflions in this paffage which relate to the countenance of that River-god, and his 
 golden horns : but there is another thing in it, with which I am not yet fatisfied; and 
 that is V irgil’s calling the Po here, “ the molt violent of all rivers.” I know, one of the 
 molt celebrated and moil ingenious writers of our age has endeavoured to foften this, by 
 underftanding it only (95) of the rivers in Italy. But, (not to enquire at all whether the 
 Po be really the mod violent of all the rivers in Italy,) how can Virgil be understood of 
 the rivers ot one country only, where he is exprefly fpeakingof all the rivers ( 94 ) of the 
 world ? and of one common point, from whence all their fources were antiently fuppofed 
 to be derived ? 
 
 I am not quite clear as to that expreflion, replied Polymetis : but to anfwer you as 
 fir as I can, I mud give you the opinion of a man whom you both know; and whofe 
 name I need not mention to you, when I have told you it is the perfon, who under- 
 flands Virgil in a more maflerly manner, than perhaps any one in this age. It is his 
 opinion, (with all that modcfly, with which he generally offers his opinions,) that the 
 difficulty you mention may poffibly be got over, by the expreflion joined with it; per 
 pinguia culta. The mod violent rivers in the world are fuch as run, or fall, thorough 
 a chain of mountains; and, (not to fpeak of any of the Apennine rivers, or rather tor¬ 
 rents, in Italy itfelf,) the Ifar, which we crofs fo often in the two or three laid days 
 journey before we enter into Italy, is (in all that part of its courfe,) much more violent, 
 and more difturbed, than the Po. But the Po, you know, very foon after its fource, 
 flows on thro’ the vale of Piemont; and afterwards, traverfes all the rich vale of Lom¬ 
 bardy. Thefe are the Pinguia Culta, which Virgil fpeaks of; almofl: the whole courfe 
 of the Po, is thorough fuch rich low ground : and perhaps there may not be any river in 
 the world, which has almofl: all its courfe thro' fo flat and rich a foil, which is fo 
 violent as the Po is. 
 
 The Roman poets mention feveral other rivers of Italy in a perfonal manner, befide 
 the lafl; mentioned : but I have not met with the figures of any of them, among 
 the remains of the artifts ; or at leafl:, have not been able to diftinguifli them, where I 
 may have met with them. According to Horace, the figure of the Aufidus lhould have 
 the head of a bull, as well as Eridanus ; or perhaps be yet more ( 95 ) taurine. The 
 
 Mincius 
 
 (92) Virgil. Georg. 4. jr. 373. (95) Sic tauriformis volvitur Aufidus, 
 
 Qui regna Dauni perfluit Apuli; 
 
 (93) ^ ee Mr. AdJifon’s Travels, p. 72. Cum fsvit, horrendamque cultis' 
 
 Diluviem meditatur agris. 
 
 (94) Omnia fub magna labentia flumina terra. Horat. Lib. 4. Od. 14. ■}'. 28." 
 
 Georg. 4. jr. 366. 
 
 6 
 
D I A L O G U 
 
 Fourteenth. 
 
 Mincius Ihould be (96) crowned with reeds, according to what Virgil fays in one place • 
 as he ihews us the reafon for it, in another. The Anio, I think, would be well reprc- 
 fented, as plunging downwards (97) ; and Statius may poflibly allude to feme fuch figures 
 of him, of old. The neighbouring goddefs of the Albula might be eafily diftinguiflied, 
 m a painting, by her (98) fulphur-coloured hair. Numicius, ihould be (99) fmall him- 
 felf j and with a little urn, fuitable to his ftream : Vulturnus, on the contrary, Ihould be 
 very large ; and perhaps with his hair mixed with fund, or coloured like it; if we may 
 trull to what Statius (100) fays of him. I ihould have been glad to have found him on 
 any relievo, in the attitude in which that poet defcribes him ; tho' he introduces him on 
 fo vile an occafion, as that of commending one of their word emperors. But of all thefe 
 River-gods, there are two in particular whole figures I have fought after much ; tho' as 
 yet without any fucccfs. One is Curtius; the hero who devoted his own life, to fave 
 his country: and the other Egeria; who infpired Numa, with the laws he madeto 
 regulate fo wild and barbarous a people as the Romans originally were. Curtius, after 
 plunging into the caverns (»■) of the earth, was luppofed to become the prefiding deity 
 of that little lake, on the fpot where he performed fo glorious an action. It is juft befide 
 the Via Sacra; and dill bears his name. Statius has a defeription of him, as the deity 
 of tilts lake : and feems to have b a cowed his ideas from feme old ftatue of him; which, 
 in his time, feems to have been all over-run with mofs (102'; or that fort of green, which 
 you may have obferved on Bernini's Triton-datue, in the Piazza Barbarini at Rome. He 
 lpeaks of his wreath ot oak : that fort of crown, which the Rom in g ive to fuch as faved 
 the liie of a citizen ; and which belonged much more juftly to fuch as had faved (103) the 
 ftate. It is hence, that the flattery of the artifls has given this oaken wreath to mod of 
 the Roman emperors, on the reverfe of their medals ; and it was for the fame reafon, I 
 fuppofe, that there was one ufually hungup, over the (104) entrance to their palace. 
 Curtius wore it, as the preferver of bis country. He was a true patriot River-god ; and 
 Egena deferved fometlnng of the fame character : for fuch as give good laws, are often of 
 more ufe to a nation, even than tbofe who iacrifice their lives for it. I never met with any 
 true ftatue of Egeria. There is indeed, as you may remember, the figure of a perfon 
 reclined at the upper end of the grotto called by her name near Rome: but it is fo defaced 
 by time, and by the water that gullies out all about it, that one cannot diftinguilh whe¬ 
 ther it was ever meant for her; or indeed, whether it may be any Water-goddefs at all. 
 It may as well have been the figure of an old Roman foldier, reprefented on the cover of 
 
 fome 
 
 (101) It was a vaft Hiatus in the earth, into which 
 this hero plunged armed, and on horfeback; accord¬ 
 ing to Livy’s account. Lib. 7. §. 6. He is repre¬ 
 fented in this aiSHon on a fine relievo, at the Villa 
 Borghefe, near Rome; and 1 have feen the ftory on 
 fome gems, in which there are flames ifluing out of 
 the gulph. 
 
 Mincius ; 
 
 (96) -- Velatus arundine glauca 
 
 Mincius- 
 
 Virgil. Asn. 10. it. 206. 
 — Tardis ingens ubi flexibus errat 
 ; & teneri prtetexit arundine ripas. 
 
 Id. Geor. 3. jr. 15. 
 
 (97) Illis ipfe antris Anienus fonte relifto 
 No£te fub arcana glaucos exutus amittus, 
 
 IIuc illuc fragili profternit peftora mufeo: 
 
 Aut ingens in ftagna cadit_ 
 
 Statius. Lib. 1. Sylv. 3. it. 73. 
 (9S) Illic fulphureos cupit Albula mergere crines. 
 
 Id. Ibid. f. 75. 
 
 (99) -Ubi teftus arundine ferpit 
 
 In freta flumineis vicina Numicius undis. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 14.. it. $gg. 
 That poet defcribes him there perfonally, as aflifting 
 in the deification of dEneas ; and, in another place, as 
 ravifliing Anna, the filler of Dido. Fall. 3. i. 648. 
 
 (100) - Flavum caput humidumque latd 
 
 Crinem mollibus impeditus ulmis, 
 
 Vulturnus levat ora ; maximoque 
 Pontis Ctcfarei reclinis arcu ; 
 
 Pandis talia faucibus redundat. 
 
 Statius. Lib. 4. Sylv. 3. jr. 7/. 
 
 (102) Ipfe loci cuflos, cujus facrata vorago 
 Famofafque lacus nomen memorabile fervat * 
 
 Ut fenlit mugire forum, movet horrida fandlo 
 Ora fitu ; meritaque caput venerabile quercu. 
 
 Statius. Lib. 1. Sylv. 1. it. 70. 
 
 (103) -Umbrata gerunt civili tempora quercu. 
 
 Virgil. yEn. 6. it. 77 ,. 
 
 (1Q4) Protegat Si veflras querna corona foras. 
 
 Ovid. Fafl. 1. y. 614. 
 
 Ile is praying f or Augultus. “ May Jupiter, fays 
 he, adJ to your dominion, and to your years ! and may 
 the facred wreath of oak, that hangs over your doors, 
 always protea your houfe ! May others fucceed you’ 
 with as facred a name as your own ; and make us as 
 happy, as you have done ! ?I 
 
 Hu I 
 
 
 ot 
 
 Hill 
 
34 
 
 P O L Y M E T I S. 
 
 fome Sarcophagus, in the manner that one often fees them ; and, to fay the truth, ha 3 
 more the air of fuch a figure than of a Water-deity. The ftatue that is generally called 
 Egeria, in a garden belonging to the Juftiniani family, jult by the Porta del Popolo; and 
 which is publiflied as a ftatue of Egeria in Maffei’s collection ( I0 5 ); has yet, lets preten- 
 fions than the former. It is a woman indeed; but then Ihe has two urns, and ftands 
 quite upright: whereas River-deities, as I mentioned before, are aim oft always more 
 or lefs reclined. In this want of a figure of Egeria, all one can learn of her is what one 
 may conjecture from a defcription of her in Ovid. I fhould imagine from that account 
 (106) of her, that her figure fhoilld be reclined# and in a melancholy pofture; as retting on 
 her harid, and weeping extremely : for he reprefents her as lying at the foot of a hill, 
 and lamenting thelofsof Numaj where Diana, (obferving the gteatnefs of her affliction) 
 out of compaffion, turned her body into a fountain ; and made her foul the prefiding 
 genius over it. This defcription in Ovid agrees very well with the place which is now 
 called her Grotto; where the old ftatue I was fpeaking of, lies: but that ftatue is not at 
 all to be depended upon; becaule the Grott has been new ordered feveral times ( I0 7 ), 
 fince Ovid’s days. 
 
 Several of the more famous rivers of Greece, are defcribed perfonally in the Roman 
 poets; but with the fame inconvenience, that I have been juft complaining of: for either 
 there are not any reprefentations in the remains of the old artifts, to be confronted with 
 thole defcriptions; or, at leaft, I do not know of any fuch. Peneus was looked on as 
 the chief of all rivers, among the Greeks, juft as Eridanus was among the Romans ; or as 
 we in England are apt to call the Thames, the nobleft river in the world. It was hence 
 probably, that they fuppofed the point whence all rivers had their rife (108), to be near 
 the fource of the Peneus. The great calcade he makes on his ilfuing out of mount 
 Pindus, and his cave beneath it, are more diftinCtly (109) fpoken of by Ovid, than the 
 appearance of the god himfelf.— Inachus is defcribed, by Valerius Flaccus (no), as quite 
 reclined; and by Statius (m), as fitting, and leaning againft a bank; holding his urn 
 
 floping. 
 
 (105) The colle&ion of ftatues, printed by Rofli. 
 
 N° 8b. 
 
 (106) Non tamen Egeria: luftus aliena levare 
 Damna valent ; montifque jacens radicibus imis 
 Liquitur in lachrymas. Donec pietate dolentis 
 Mota foror Phcebi, gelidum de corpore fontem 
 Fecit; & sternas artus tenuavit in undas. 
 
 Met. 15. f. 551. 
 
 (107) Juvenal complains of their having fpoiled 
 part of the natural beauties of this place, by their 
 adorning it with marble ; in his time. 
 
 In vallem Egeria: defeendimus, & fpeluncas 
 Diflimiles Veris. Quanto prxllantius eflet 
 Numen aqua:, viridi fi margine clauderet undas 
 Herba, nec ingenuum violarent marmora tophum ? 
 
 Sat. 3. 20. 
 
 There is now a long ftonc table in tile midft of it, 
 which is faid to have been placed there in the time of 
 Charles V ; when that emperor had the curiofity to 
 dine in the place, where Numa ufed to receive his 
 laws. 
 
 For the more antient accounts of it, fee Note 63, 
 anteh. 
 
 What Juvenal calls the Vallis Egeriae, I take to be 
 the fame with what Ovid calls the Arician Vale; (Met. 
 15.^.488.) Vitruvius, the Arician Grove; (Lib. 8. 
 c. 3. p. 157 ) and Statius, the Arician Grotto; (Lib. 5. 
 Sylv. 3 jr. 291.) Not that beautiful vale, under the 
 town of Aricia ; but one much nearer to Rome ; and 
 probably even nearer than that fpot, which Nardini 
 and all the Roman antiquarians at prefent agree in 
 pointing out, as honoured by the Grotto of Egeria. 
 Perhaps, that nymph was originally a native of Aricia ; 
 
 4 
 
 and thence her grotto, grove, and vale, near Rome, 
 might be called Aricina: : or fhe might be particularly 
 worfhipped at Aricia, and her ftatue in the grotto near 
 Rome, might be confecrated to the Egeria Aricina : as 
 there is a church dedicated to the Virgo Lauretana now 
 in Rome ; and as I have feen a chapel, which they call 
 the chapel of Loretto, in Flanders. 
 
 (108) Virgil. Georg. 4. y. 363—369. 
 
 (109) EftnemusH.emonia:,prserupta quod undique claudit 
 Sylva ; vocant Tempe ; per qua: Peneus ab imo 
 F.ft’ufus Pindo fpumofis volvitur undis: 
 
 Dcje&uque gravi tenues agitantia fumos 
 
 Nubila conducit, fummafque afpergine fylvas 
 Impluit, & fonitu plus quam vicina fatigat; 
 
 FIrec domus, ha: fedes, ha:c funt penetralia magni 
 Amnis. In hoc refidens fafto de cautibus antro 
 Undis jura dabat, Nymphifque colentibus undas. 
 Conveniunt illuc popularia Flumina primum : — 
 Moxque Amnes alii. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 1. y. 581* 
 
 (110) -Veneranda fluenti 
 
 Efligies te, Phafi, manet; quam magnus Enipeus, 
 Et pater aurato quantus jacet Inachus antro. 
 
 Flac. Argon. 5. y. 210. 
 
 (111) -Pater ipfe bicornis 
 
 Jn Itcvum prona nixus fedet Inachus urna. 
 
 Statius. Theb. 2. y. 21 S. 
 
 -Pater ordine junfto 
 
 Ltevus arundinea: recubanfque fub aggere ripa: 
 Cernitur, emiflxque indulgens Inachus urna:. 
 
 Id. Ib. 6. y. 275. 
 

 Dialogue the Fourteenth . 
 
 Hoping, and pouring the waters out of it: and, (as the fade began to be corrupted with 
 finery in their time) one of them feems to celebrate his cave, for being all ornamented 
 with gilding on the infide : which was yet worfe than the regular marble-work, which 
 
 was introduced into Egeria’s grotto, about the fame time.-Any figure of Achelous 
 
 would be eafy to be diftinguifhed from all his brother River-gods, by his having loft one 
 
 of his horns (m); if his crown of reeds, or willow, did not hide that defedt.-_Wc 
 
 have a full picture of Ifmenos, in Statius’s Thebaid. According to that poet, he fhould 
 be of a vaft iize, with a pine-tree in one hand, and his urn under the other. He fhould 
 have his horns interwove with crefies, or other herbs that grow in the water; and mofs 
 all over his neck and (boulders. In that poet you fee him rifing (113) above the river he 
 prefides over; his hair mixed with froth, and the water falling from his beard, fo faft 
 and in fuch quantities, that it makes a ftream all down his breaft: his hair is loaded with 
 icicles (114); and he drops his pine and urn on being ftruck with the fudden and violent 
 complaints of one of his water-nymphs. His face is (115) difturbed, and in a paffion; 
 and half covered with the water and fand (116), that run down from his hair. 
 
 One might form a very bold idea for a fountain-ftatue, from this defcription of the 
 Ifmenos in Statius : but were I to introduce any figure in this part of my gardens, which 
 was not copied from fome work of the antient artifts, I fhould rather chufe to borrow it 
 from Ovid’s defcription of Acis than any other. You know the Loves of Acis and the 
 Nereid Galatea. One day, as they were fitting together under a rock by the fea-fide, 
 Polyphemus faw them from far, and run toward them. Galatea, plunged into the fea; 
 and Acis fled, as faft as his fears could carry him, from fo formidable an enemy. Poly¬ 
 phemus purfued him, with the broken fragment of a rock in his hands; and when he 
 came near enough, flung it at the unfortunate lover. The rock cruflied him to death ; 
 and fplit itfelf, in feveral pieces, in its fall. When the Cyclops came up to him, how 
 great mufti his aftoniftiment be, to find new created reeds growing thro’ all the places 
 where the rock was fplit ? to hear waters gurgling from within, as they rofe to the top 
 of the broken rock, and then falling down on every fide of it ? and in fine to fee a youth 
 rife, breaft-high, above thole waters; in every thing like Acis, excepting all that ad¬ 
 ditional dignity of a River-god, juft then conferred upon him by the influence of his 
 dear Galatea ? Acis himfelf (juft as he is defcribed by Ovid (“7)) for the fountain-figure; 
 and the Cyclops, on one fide of it; as flopping fhort, with that mixture of rage and 
 fturprize which ought to appear on his countenance; would to my mind be a better 
 fubjedl for a fountain-ftory, than any one in all that number they have made ufe of to 
 adorn the gardens of Verfailles. I do not mean by this, that I would chufe complex 
 fubjedts for fountains. On the contrary, I fhould think the Angle figure of Acis, and his 
 rock, better for a fountain by itfelf; than when, either with his rival, or hismiftrefs, by 
 his fide: but where complex ftories are to be made ufe of, I fhould imagine this ftory 
 would ferve better, than the Revenge of the Frogs on Latona, or even the Reception of 
 Apollo by the Nereids: which I mention as two of the propereft ftories for fountains, 
 
 that 
 
 ( 1 12) - Herculea turpatus gymnade vultus' 
 
 Amnis. -■ 
 
 Statius. Theb. 4. jr. 106, 
 
 -Vultus Achelous agreftes, 
 
 F,t lacerum cornu mediis caput abdidit undis ;— 
 Cttrtera fofpes erat: capitis quoque fronde faligna. 
 Aut fuperimpoflta celatur arundine damnum. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 9. . too. 
 
 (113) -Tantus tumido de gurgite furgic ; 
 
 Spumofum attollens apicem, lapfuque fonoro 
 Peftora cteruleae rivis manantia barba:. 
 
 Statius. Thcb. 9. ^.415. 
 
 (114) -Levat afpera mufco 
 
 Colla, gravemque gelu crinem: ceciditquc foluta 
 Pinus adulta manu ; demiflaque volvitur urna. 
 
 Id, Ib. i/. 140. 
 
 (115) -Stetit arduus alto 
 
 Amne : manuque genas & nexa virentibus ulvis 
 Cornua concutiens, fic turbidus ore profundo 
 Incipit.- 
 
 Ib. 421. 
 
 (116) Turbidus imbre genas, & nube natantis arenre. T 
 
 Ib. jr. 482, 
 
 (117) -Tum moles jafta dehifeit. 
 
 Vivaque per rimas proceraque furgit arundo ; 
 Ofque cavum faxi fonat exultantibus undis : 
 Miraque res ! Subito media tenus extitit alvo 
 Incinftus juvenis flexis nova cornua cannis. 
 
 Qui nili quod major, quod toto casrulus ore eft, 
 Acis erat.- 
 
 Ovid. Met. 13. jr. 896. 
 
 p p p 
 
 I 
 
 u 
 
 
 I 
 
 Ii 1, 
 
POLYMETIS. 
 
 2,36 
 
 
 that I can remember, in thofe celebrated gardens of a monarch, who is allowed, (even 
 by his enemies,) to have been one of the greateft, and mod: magnificent, of any Europe 
 has produced in our times. 
 
 Every River-god was fuppofed to be attended by feveral goddefies of an inferior* 
 Lature, called Naiads 3 of whom, (as I obferved to you in the cafe of the Nereids,) the 
 poets fay fcarce any thing that is particular. What we learn of them in general is, 
 that they were fuppofed to live in the palaces of the prefiding deities of fountains ( 1 
 lakes, and rivers. We have the names of no lefs than fixteen of thefe deities, given us 
 by Virgil (i 19); in his account of Cirene’s apartment only, in the watry palace of Peneus : 
 and Ovidfpeaks of a hundred, at lead (120), in the river Anio. They had often a name, 
 (121) from the particular river they inhabited. They are deferibed with long (>22), 
 bright hair, flowing down their fboulders 3 their faces, fliould have a diining (123), hu¬ 
 mid look, (not unlike the Venus Anaduomene of Apelles :) their ihape fliould be fine, 
 and their limbs well turned. Their robes, when they wear any, (for they are mod 
 commonly quite naked,) fliould be of a greenifli cad (*24)3 varied at pleafure, fome into 
 lighter, and forne into darker (hades 3 and fo thin, that you might difeover all the turn 
 of their limbs, and the finenefs of their fkin thorough them. They have fometimes little 
 flying veils ( I2 s), (in gems of the antients,) over their heads 3 like thofe goddefies of the 
 air, which the Romans called Aura;, and which we call Sylphs. Ovid drefles his Naiads 
 with a good deal of variety (126) • where he introduces them, as attending at a fead. 
 Indeed this was their ufual employment : and, (to fay the truth,) they feem to have 
 been little better than fo many domedicks to the prefiding Water-deities. Almofl 
 all we hear of them is, that they are lodged in their palaces (127)3 work (128), and tell 
 dories: and then come, and (129) wait at table. 
 
 As 
 
 (118) - Illum fontana petebant 
 
 Numina Naiades; quas Albula, quafque Numici, 
 Quafque Anienis aquee, curfuque brevillimus Almo, 
 Narque tulit prxeeps, & amcena: Farfarus umbra: ; 
 Qu.-equecolunt Scythica: regnum nemorale Diana:; 
 Finitimofquc lacus. — ■■ 
 
 Ovid. Met. 14. jr. 332. 
 
 (119) See Virgil. Georg. 4. jr. 336, 103403 and 
 
 343 > to 345 - 
 
 (t2o) Ilia, pone metus; tibi Regia noltra patebit, 
 
 Teque colent amnes; Ilia, pone metus: 
 
 Tu centum aut plurcs interdominabere Nymphas; 
 Nam centum aut plures flumina noltra tenent. 
 
 Ovid. Lib. 3. EI. 6. jr. 64. 
 
 (121) Thus the Water-nymphs, in the river If- 
 menos, were called Ifmenides ; (Statius, Theb. g. 
 ■}. 319.) and thofe in the Tiber, Tiberinides; (Ovid. 
 Fall. 2. jr. 597.) 
 
 (122) Cxfariem efFufs nitidam percandida colla. 
 
 Virgil. Georg. 4. jr . 347. 
 
 (123) Ite, Dex virides; liquidofque advertite vultus! 
 
 Statius. Lib. 1. Sylv. 5. f. 18. 
 
 - Annuerunt omnes Tiberinides uda:. 
 
 Ovid. Fait. 2. jr. 597. 
 
 (124) Valerius Flaccus, in his account of the rape 
 of Hylas, (where by the way, he gives feveral other 
 particulars of the Naiads,) introduces the nymphs of 
 the water, hunting with thofe of the woods 3 and 
 drefles them all in green robes. 
 
 -- Pulchro venantes agmine nymphas ; 
 
 Undarum, nemorumquedecus. Levis omnibusarcus, 
 Et manica virides, & ltrifta myrtus avena : 
 
 Summo palla genu. Tenui vagus innatat umbra 
 Crinis, ad obfcune decurrens cingula mamma:. 
 
 Argon. 3. jr. 526. 
 
 - -Caput glauco contexit amidtu 
 
 Multa gemens, & fc fluvio Dea condidit alto. 
 
 Virgil. .<En. , 2 . jr. 889. 
 
 4 
 
 Virgil fpeaks this of Juturna, filter of Turnus. 
 She was a Naiad 3 and, in particular, one of the Ti¬ 
 berinides. See her Itory, in Ovid. Fall. 2. jr. 585— 
 606. 
 
 (125) Perhaps thefe are what Ovid calls, Carbafa ; 
 (where he fpeaks of the water and wood-nymphs, as 
 mourning.) 
 
 -Obfcuraque carbafa pullo 
 
 Naiades Sc Dryades, paflbfque habuere capillos. 
 
 Met. 11. jr. 49. 
 
 (126) Naiades effufis, alia: fine pcdlinis ufu, 
 
 Pars aderant comptis arte manuque comis. 
 
 Illa, fuper furas tunicam colledla minillrat; 
 
 Altera, di fluto pedtus aperta finu. 
 
 Excrit ha:c humerum; velles trahit illa per herbas: 
 Impediunt teneras vincula nulla pedes. 
 
 Ovid. Fall. 1. jr. 410. 
 
 (127) -Thalamo fub fluminis alti. 
 
 Virgil. Georg. 4. jr. 334. 
 
 (128) Inter quas curam Clymene narrabat inanem 
 Vulcani, Martifque dolos & dulcia furta; 
 
 Aque Chao denfos Divum numerabat amores: 
 Carmine quo capta;, dum fufis mollia penfa 
 Devolvunt, Scc. -- 
 
 Id. Ibid. jr. 349. 
 
 0 z 9) ' Manibus liquidos dant ordine fontes 
 
 Germanx, tonfifque ferunt mantilia villis : 
 
 Pars epulis onerant menfas ; & plena reponunt 
 Pocula.-- 
 
 Ibid. jr. 379. 
 
 So, in Achelous’s grotto : 
 
 Protinus appofitas nudx velligia Nympha: 
 Inltruxere epulis menfas : dapibufque remotis. 
 
 In gemma pofuerc merum.- 
 
 Ovid. Met. 8. jr. 5-2/ 
 
/I 
 
 D i 
 
 a l o g u e the Fourteenth. 
 
 As Polymetis laid tins, they came into the lift opening; which was much wider 
 than any of the reft, and was bounded all along by the bank of the Thames. The 
 grove-work run quite down to the river, at each end of it; and three or four fountains, 
 with the ftatue of a water-nymph to each of them, appeared along the margin of the 
 intervening woods; at proper, tho’ not quite equal diftances, from one another. Their 
 particular fountains were fupphed by the water from above ; and run off, in little winding 
 reams, thro the grafs; till they were received in the river. Thefe nymphs, fays 
 o ymetis, are fo many Naiads that I have feen in fome work or other of the old artifts ; 
 and, as they are unknown and without names, you may, (if you pleafe,) call them’ 
 The Naiads of the Thames: a river, whofe Genius deferved a place among the molt 
 celebrated River-gods of antiquity; and would probably have been as much celebrated 
 as any of them, had we happened to have been fituated nearer to the center of the Roman 
 empire But we lay too far from them, to have been even heard of by the Romans, in 
 the earlieft ages of their empire ; and fo divided from all parts of it, that when they had 
 difcovered our ifland at laft, they feem for a great while to have talked of it much in the 
 ame ftyle that we ufed to talk of America. We were then the new world, and the other 
 world; according to their notions of us. Had Britain lain as near Rome, as Sicily does ; 
 and ill fuch a fituation, could have been as confiderable for trade, as it has been fince ; I 
 doubt not, but that the Thame and Ifis would have been as much celebrated by the Ro¬ 
 man poets, I will not fay as their Alpheus and Arethufa, but as any of the rivers the 
 mo t conlidered and the molt talked of in antiquity. We fhould not then have been at 
 a lots for figures of the venerable Thamus, on old medals and relievo’s : and we might 
 poffibly have feen him there, crowned with oak : and holding the rudder of a fhjp in 
 his right hand, and a cornucopia in his left; the former, to denote our dominion over 
 the fea ; and the latter, to fignify that plenty which he fpreads on each fide his banks ; 
 perhaps as much as any river, except the Nile. 
 
 I could fay much more in praife of the river before us: but as the evening is 
 coming on, and the dews begin to fall, we had better leave this damp part of my garden; 
 and get within doors as fall as we can. When we are there, in defedt of paffagts from 
 tie oman poets, we may, (if you pleafe,) read over what our own poets havefaid of the 
 Thames; and perhaps we flrall find fome commendations of him in them, as well wrote, 
 an -t.er ounded, than many of the allegorical compliments, that were fo much in 
 ralnion among the former. 
 
 2 37 
 
 
 I 
 
 *1 
 
t unii iirirrmi m^rmrm.TTr.i.iir.iiii •. ■! .'m t rrmi > m.vi i. i.. 
 
 XXXI 
 
Dialogue the Fifteenth . 
 
 BOOK the Eighth. 
 
 dial. XV. 
 
 Of the Deities of the Earth. 
 
 T he next morning Polymetis carried his two friends to his temple of the Ter- 
 reltnal Demes, oppofite to that of the Water Deities ; at the foot of the hill • 
 — and as they were going to it, “ I need not now inform you, fays he that the 
 Srmenrs abounded in this allegorical kind of beings, much more than is ufually im • uned. 
 T us is what 1 have obferved to you on feveral occafions already : but it will be yefmorO 
 evident from the clafs we are going to confider. For they had formerly for- a uesre- 
 lating to our world, which, probably, you have never yet thought of, am! pe, It m s may 
 not be fo eafy to admit, when I tell you of them. Nature was certainly reprefen 
 perfon by them. There was a ftatue, fuppofed to be of this goddefs, in the Qu 
 Sweden s colleftion ( 0 , and another juft like it, in the Marquis Cavalieri's, at Rome • 
 and if you ihould difpute both of thefe, you may find her, with her name (a) engraved 
 imier her; on that famous relievo at the Colonna palace, which reprefents the deifica-, 
 t.on of Homer. The Great Diana of the Ephefians probably reprefented the fame god- 
 defs ; . as appears, (I think, very plainly,) from the various (3) fymbols on lier fi urcs - 
 and, m particular, there is one in the Great Dukes colleffion at Florence, with different 
 figures on it in four different compartimenta, iignifying (+) the four Elements. The four 
 Elements themfelves are reprefented perfonaily, in feveral (5) remains of the antient artifts. 
 They made a perfonage too, to reprefent our whole globe (6); and another, of the (7) ha¬ 
 bitable part of it: belide Cybele, who was the goddefs moll ufually fuppofed to prefide 
 over the earth ; and who is therefore, generally, reprefented with a crown of turrets on 
 her head. 1 he Earth itfelf, you know, was a goddefs ; and had temples confecrated to 
 at Rome. Each part of tile then known world, (Europe, Afia, and Africa,) made 
 their appearance among the imaginary beings of thofe days; and perhaps, every king¬ 
 dom, and country, in each of them. Each celebrated city had its genius ; and there were 
 deities to prefide over every llreet, every houfe, and each particular perfon in every 
 houte. Even the woods, the fields, and the gardens, had each their peculiar deities ; 
 and the very rocks, and mountains, were turned intoperfonages. You will not expedi: that 
 1 mould (how you all the figures I could procure under every one of thefe heads. They 
 would be too numerous for this, or any other temple : and I have only endeavoured to 
 
 (1) See Maffei’s colle&ion of ftatucs ; publifiicd 
 by Rofli, N 1 2 3 * * * * 8 i21, and 134. 
 
 (2) See, Admir. PI. St. 
 
 (3) The fun, moon, and ftars ; all forts of animals, 
 
 and fruits; and a number of breafts : to fliow, that 
 
 fhe produces, and nourilhes, all things. 
 
 There is a Diana Ephefia, in Mmufaucon, (Vol.I. 
 
 PI. 96.) with this infeription, i’TSIS rtAXAIOAOS. 
 
 riANT. MHT. 
 
 nymphs with cornucopia’s ; and in the fourth, a 
 Water-nymph. Sec Muf. Flor. Vol. HI. PI. 20. 
 
 (5) In the entrance of the Florentine gallery, there 
 is a fine relievo, with three of them ; and all the 
 four, are reprefented PI. 9, anteh. and in the Adm, 
 N u 22, 66, &c. 
 
 (6) See P]. 32. Fig. 3. pofih. 
 
 (4.) In one of the compartiments, is Sol and Lynns; ( 7 ) There is a female figure, on the Colonna- 
 in anocher, three winged youth, : in a third, three marble ; inferibed, OIKOUMEKH, 
 
 <Lq q 
 
■*et either fuch of them, as were the mod confiderable ; or fuch, as were the moil 
 likely to be of fervice to my prefent purpofe. 
 
 l. xxxil. This figure in the center, (added he, as he entered the temple,) is the goddefs of 
 ' ' *' Nature. She is reprefented, you fee, with great fimplicity ; her robes fall down to her 
 
 feet, (partly perhaps for dignity, and partly to fhew how much her ways are concealed 
 from us:) and Ihe has a baiket with fruits, on her head; as the caufc of plenty, and 
 the producer of all things. The poets fpeak but very leldom of this goddefs perfonally: 
 and I remember only one picture of her, in any of their works; and that indeed is finely 
 imagined. It is in Statius’s Achilleid; where he is fpeaking of the rebellion of the giants: 
 on which occafion, he reprefents Nature, as almoft breathlefs with fear; and with her 
 (8) eyes fleadily fixed on Jupiter, as confiding folely in Jhis afilftance. 
 
 The fitting figure juft oppofite to the door, you fee, is Cybele ; and that, in a reclined 
 pofture, on her right hand, is Tellus. Cybele is diftinguifhed fufficiently, from all the 
 .. XXXII. by the pine-branch, in her hand ; and the lion, on each fide of her chair. The 
 
 poets, and artifts, fometimes gave her a chariot too drawn (9) by lions ; and Ovid, in 
 particular, deferibes her as deicending from the heavens to the earth (10), in the fame 
 equipage. 
 
 Even fome of the Roman profe-writers, fpeak of Tellus perfonally (“) j and at¬ 
 tribute pafiions to her. Her figures arc frequently C 2 ) to be met with, in the remains of 
 the antient artifts. I never law any figure of Tellus, which was not in a reclining pofture : 
 for much the fame reafon, I fuppofe, that Iliver-gods are generally reclined; and the 
 deities of the air, flying and alert. The only confiderable defeription I can recoiled 
 
 from 
 
 (S) Sic cum bellantes Phlegrxa in caftra coirent 
 
 Cculicolx ; jamque Odryfiam Gradivus in haftam 
 Sur^eret, & Lybicos Tritonia tolleret angues; 
 Ingcntemquc manu curvaret Delius arcum : 
 
 Stabat, anhela metu, folum Natura Tonantem 
 Refpiciens.- 
 
 Statius. Achil. 2. 489. 
 
 (9) Et junfti currum dominx fubicre Icones. 
 
 Virgil. JEn. 3. jr. 113. 
 
 Alma parens Idxa Deum ; cui Dindyma cordi, 
 
 Turrigerxque urbes, bijugique ad frxna leones. 
 
 Id. Ibid. 10. jr, 253. 
 
 Hanc veteres Graium doifli cecinere poetx 
 
 Sedibus in curru bijugos agitare leones;-- 
 
 Muralique caput fummum cinxere corona:— 
 
 Quo nunc infigni per magnas prxdita terras 
 Horriiice fertur Divinx Matris imago. 
 
 Lucretius. 2. jr. 609. 
 
 (10) Cum memor has pinus Idxo vertice exfas 
 San&a Deum genetrix, tinnitibus aera pulli 
 ./Eris & inflati complevit murmure buxi; 
 
 Perquc leves domitis invcfta leonibus auras, 
 
 “ Irrita facrilcga ja&as incendia dextra, 
 
 Turne, ait: eripiam,” &c. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 14. jr. 540. 
 
 The goddefs Cybele, was one of the higheft dig¬ 
 nity, and worlhip, in the religion of the old Romans. 
 I have often thought, that feveral of the honours paid 
 by them to her, and feveral other of their deities, 
 have been at different times, united and transferred to 
 the worfliip of the Virgin Mary, by the artifices of 
 the church of Rome. To mention a few inftances, 
 out of many: they now generally apply to the Virgin 
 Mary all over Italy, for rain ; juft as the old Romans 
 
 did, to their Jupiter Pluvius. —The ladies at Rome 
 who are defirous of having children, pay their devo¬ 
 tions now, at the church of Santa Maria Maggiore; as 
 they did formerly, when it was the temple of Juno 
 
 Regina.-They look, on the Virgin now, as the 
 
 moft prefent aid to women in labour ; as they did 
 formerly, on their virgin-goddefs Diana.—And they 
 have now in Italy perhaps as many and as magnifi¬ 
 cent proceffions, in her honour; as they had formerly 
 to Cybele. — There is fome refemtlance too in the 
 titles given to Cybele of old, and to the B. Virgin 
 now. The old Romans called Cybele, Domina ; 
 Mater ; Mater Cultrix ; Divina Mater ; Alma Pa¬ 
 rens Deum ; Sanfta Deum Genetrix ; &, Mater 
 Dcum. As to the titles given to the Virgin Mary 
 in Italy at prefent, fome that refcmble thefe will oc¬ 
 cur to every one ; and to reckon them up all, might 
 make this note, (which is but too long perhaps alrea¬ 
 dy,) longer than my whole book. 
 
 (11) Perfequimur omnes ejus (Telluris) fibras; 
 vivimufque fuper excavatam : mirantes dehifcere ali¬ 
 quando, aut intremifeere illam. Ceu vero non hoc 
 etiam indignatione Sacrze Parenti exprimi poffit. 
 Pliny, 1 . 33. Procem, p. 329. Ed. Elz. 
 
 (12) In the gems, where Sol is reprefented as fet- 
 
 ting out in his chariot.-On Sarcophagus’s ; where 
 
 you often have Tellus and Oceanus in the front; I 
 fuppofe, to fignify that the perfon inclofed in it was 
 
 returned to his firlt clement^.-In pieces, relating to 
 
 the creation of man : and in many other fubjeifts, 
 where the four elements are introduced perfonally, 
 
 by the artift.-See PI. 9.—FI. 25. Fig. 3.—PI. 26 
 
 Fig. 4.—PI. 27. Fig. 3, and 4, anteh. 
 
Dialogue the Fifteenth. 241 
 
 from the Roman poets relating to this goddefs, is in Ovid’s (13) account of the Fall of 
 Phaeton. Ovid there hints, (I think, more than once,) at the low pofture of her 
 figures : blithe has fo often dallied the allegory and reality together, in that defcription; 
 that it is difficult enough to dillinguilh, where he is fpeaking of the earth as an element, 
 and where of Tellus as a goddefs. 
 
 Tellus is fometimes reprefcnted (h) with a globe, (or the Orbis terrarum,) in her 
 hand ; and fometimes the Orbis terrarum itfelf is perfonifed, and appears under the figure 
 of a man : as on this medal, in particular, where you fee him quite naked ; kneelino- on Pi,. XXXH. 
 one knee : and the emperor giving him his hand, to raife him up. F,c - 3 - 
 
 The three great divifions of the world, Europe, Afia, and Africa, were reprefented 
 as perfons by the antient artifts; and are fometimes fpoken of as fuch, by their poets: tho' 
 to lay the truth this is much more common with the lower poets, than thofe of the more 
 allowed ages. 
 
 I take Europe to have been often meant, under the figure of Europa on her bull; 
 as you fee her on this gem. This is a very common fubjedt with the old artifts : and pL - xxxrI - 
 they feern to have been as fond of repeating it, as Ovid is j in whom we have three or FlG * 
 four (15) feveral accounts of this ftory. There is however one thing obfcrvable enough 
 on this gem which 1 think he has not mentioned in any of them : and that is, the 
 
 bull’s walking over the furface of the water, as if it was firm land.-If you are not 
 
 fatisfied with this miftrefs of Jupiter, for a reprefentativc of our part of the world ; you 
 may fee her as Ihc was luppofed to appear in perfon in the heavens, in a Greek relievo (16) 
 relating to the deification of Hercules: where die feems to attend that great hero; and, 
 
 (to prevent all dilputes,) has her name engraved over her. 
 
 Asia appears on this medal ; Handing on the roftrum of a Ihip ; with a rudder in one Pl. XXXil. 
 hand, and a ferpent in the other. The two former of thefe attributes may refer to the Fl0, s ' 
 greateft improvements of navigation among the antients coming from that part of the 
 world: for the Greeks and Romans owned themfelves to be much inferior in that art 
 to the people of Tyre and Sidon ; and what the Africans had of it, was brought origi¬ 
 nally from Tyre. As to her other attribute, (or the ferpent,) I am at a lofs to know 
 what it means ; unlefs it may poflibly fignify, that the art of phyfic came from the fame 
 quarter : for was it meant as a natural produce of that part of the world; it would, 
 methinks, have been a more proper emblem for Africa, than for Afia. The figures of 
 Afia are very uncommon. I never remember to have feen but three of them : that on 
 this medal; another from a gem (17) reprefenting Hedtor’s being dragged behind Achil¬ 
 les’s 
 
 He fpeaks of the pofture of her body ; of her face, 
 her forehead, her eyes, and her hands: and, in the 
 fame breath, talks of her being encompafled with the 
 fea ; of her being ploughed up ; of her fruit-bearing 
 face ; and of her hiding her head, in herfelf. This is 
 juft that fort of confufion which Mr. Prior complains 
 of fo much, (and with fo much reafon,) in the Hind 
 and Panther. It runs indeed throughout that whole 
 poem. Very few of the antients are apt to be guilly of 
 it: and there are more inftances of it perhaps in the 
 works of Ovid, than in thofe of all the Roman poets 
 of the three good ages put together. 
 
 (14) See Oifelius’s medals, Pl. 15. 1. 
 
 (15) Faft. 5. ■}/. 605, to 614.—Met. 2, it. 870, to 
 875.—lb. 6. f. 103, to 107. 
 
 (16) Montfaucon, Vol. I. Pl. 141. 
 
 (17) In Baron Stofche’s collection of drawings, at 
 Florence, 
 
 (13) Alma tamen Tellus ut erat circumdata ponto. 
 
 Inter aquas pelagi, contradlos undique fontes, 
 
 (Qui fe condiderant in opac:e vifcera matris,) 
 Sultulit omniferos collo tenus arida vultus: 
 Oppofuitque manum fronti. Magnoque tremore 
 Omnia concutiens paulum fubfedit; & infra, 
 Quam foletefle, fuit: ficcdque ita voce locuta eft.— 
 Ovid. Met. 2. jr. 278: 
 
 Vix equidem fauces hxc ipfa in verba refolvo; 
 (Pre Herat ora vapor :) tollos en afpice crines! 
 Inque oculis tantum, tantum fuper ora favilla: 1 
 Hofne mihi fruiftus, hunc fertilitatis honorem 
 Officiique refers, quod adunci vulnera aratri 
 Raflrorumque fero, toteque exerceor anno ? 
 
 Ibid. if. 287. 
 
 Dixerat ha:cTellus; neque enim tolerare vaporem 
 Ulterius potuit, nec difeere plura ; fuumque 
 Retulit os in fe, propioraque Manibus antra. 
 
 Ibid. if. 303. 
 
 Ovid here plainly endeavours to bring in the Earth 
 ns a perfonage ; fo that, during this appearance of her, 
 he Ihould have confidered her conftantly as perfonifed. 
 
' 4 a 
 
 Pi.. XXXII. 
 Fic. 6. 
 
 P O L Y M E T I S. 
 
 less chariot, round the walls of Troy; and the third on a fine relievo which I Hull fiievV 
 you by and by, relating to the dcffrudlion of that city, and the feat of Empire’s being 
 transferred from Afia into Europe. In both the latter, this goddefs appears as in deep 
 diilrefs, for the fufferings and defolation of her people. 
 
 The figures of Africa are common, both on gems and medals. On this medal, you 
 fee, file has her elephant-helmet, which is fo often mentioned by Claudian; and a lion, 
 by her ; for the fame reafon that fhe is fometimes reprefcnted with a fcorpion in her 
 hand, or with an elephant at her feet. Oxen are alfo ufed as attributes of Africa, in the 
 works of the antient artills ; and lb is corn often : and, fometimes, a baiket of feveral 
 forts of fruit; as you fee it is, on the medal before you. As the antients were chiefly 
 acquainted only with the lower Egypt, and the fea-coaft of Afric toward the Mediter¬ 
 ranean, this part of the world feems to have been diftinguilhed among them, by its fer¬ 
 tility and plenty. Were our modern artifts to invent a perfonage for Africa, I queffion 
 whether they would be fo complailant to her. They would, perhaps, make her hold a 
 branch in her hand, without any leaves on it; and if they placed a baiket by her, they 
 would probabl) perhaps fill it with fai : fruit. Which, (by the wav,) would bo 
 
 but too juft an emblem for our African company too, at prefent; in the poor, diftrefledj 
 and negledted fituation, it has been forced to be left, by the difficulties of the times : tho’ 
 it is much to be hoped, that a more proper feafon may loon offer, for reviving it; and 
 making it, once more, one of the chief channels for wealth and plenty, to this nation. 
 
 Pl. XXXII. 
 Fig. 7. 
 
 Several kingdoms and provinces in each of thefe parts of the world, (as Cappadocia, 
 Dacia, Arabia, Judea ; Egypt; Italy, France, Spain ; Germany, and our own Britain; and 
 many others ;) appear frequently in their perfonal characters on medals : all as ladies; tho’ 
 with fome particular mark, or attribute, to diftinguilh each of them from the reft. The 
 poets, of the better ages, mention moll of thefe as perfons : but it is very llightly; and 
 fcarce ever in that full and diffiifed manner, with which they are deferibed by fome of the 
 lower poets; and particularly, by Claudian (18), I Jo not know of any one line, iri 
 which even Italy is lpoken of perfonally, in all Virgil’s works ; nor in any one of his 
 cotemporaries. Lucan indeed, in the next age, has a pretty full defeription of Italia. Lie 
 makes her appear (19), in a diftrelfied, melancholy attitude, to difluade Ctefar from paf- 
 fing the Rubicon : and fpeaks of her being crowned with turrets ; as her figure is, on the 
 reverie of this medal: in which there is one thing fo remarkable that I muft juft point it 
 out to you. Italia, you fee here, is feated on a celeftial globe, inftead of a globe of the 
 earth : fo that the Romans feem to have arrogated to themfelves not only the dominion 
 of our world ; but that of the univerfe, or of all worlds; which is going in fad very 
 much beyond, what was looked upon as a very prepofterous with even in Alexander 
 the Great. Ovid fpeaks of Germania, perfonally, in two or three different places. He 
 deferibes her fometimes as ( 20 ) kneeling or fitting in a dejeded manner, at the feet of 
 her conqueror; and fometimes as ( 2I ) recovering herfelf under the mildnefs of the 
 
 Roman 
 
 (18) Whoever has a mind to fee Claudian’s man¬ 
 ner of deferibing provinces perfonally, may meet with 
 three or four inftances of it, in his panegyric on Stili¬ 
 cho ; lib. 1. (Italy, 262, &c. Spain, 228, &c. 
 Frafice, 240, &c. Britain, 247, &c.) 
 
 (19) Ingens vifa duci Patria: trepidantis imago, 
 
 (Clara per obfeuram vultu mceltiflima nodtem, & 
 Turrigero canos effundens vertice crines) 
 
 Cxfarie lacera, nudifque altare lacertis. 
 
 Lucan, i. 189. 
 
 This was the manner in which the Roman matrons 
 appeared, when they were lamenting the deccafc of 
 their hufbands, or belt friends. 
 
 Effufxque comas dc apertx pedtora matres 
 Significant luctum. - 
 
 Circum omnis famul&mque manus Trojanaqueturba, 
 Et mffiftum Iliades ciinem de more folutx. 
 
 Ingentem gemitum tunfis ad fidera tollunt 
 Pedtoribus.-. 
 
 Virgil. Asn. j 1. j/. 3 8. 
 Their arms were bare on this occafion, as well as 
 their breafts ; as you may fee in the relievo’s relating 
 to this fubjedt, in the Adm. PI. 71, &c. 
 
 (20) Jam fera Ciefaribus Germania, (totus ut orbis,) 
 
 Vidta potes flexo fuccubuifie genu. 
 
 Ovid. Trill, lib. 4. El. 2. if. 2. 
 Crinibus en etiam fertur Germania pallis ; 
 
 Et ducis invidti fub pede muflla fedet. 
 
 Id. fbid. i/. 44.. 
 
 (21) •-Sparfos Germania crines 
 
 Corrigit aufpiciis, dux venerande, tuis. 
 
 Ovid. Faft. 1. jr. 646. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 13. >'-.689, 
 
Dialogue the Fifteenth. 
 
 Roman government: and this indeed is the general method of reprefen ting the conquered 
 provinces on medals. They appear there almoft always, either as depreffed under one 
 emperor; or raifed up by the hand of another. It was a very old and conflant opinion 
 among the Romans, that they were a people defigned by heaven (22) to fubdue and go¬ 
 vern the whole earth. It was they who were to give laws to all the different nations of 
 it (23): “ To fpare the fuppliant, and to quell the proud.” This is the ufual ftyle of their 
 poets ; their artifts; and even of their hiftorians : and that fo equally, that it would be 
 difficult perhaps to determine, by which of them the Roman arrogance is expreffed the 
 moll ftrongly and in the groffelt manner. 
 
 I was juft now faying, that the poets of the Auguftan age have but very few perfonal 
 deferiptions of the different provinces of the world, in their poems: and their figures are 
 as difficult to be met with in the medals of that time. As the fucceeding emperors added 
 any new province to the Roman empire, the artifts began to compliment them with a 
 figure of it on thereverfeof their medals. This, I imagine, was done more fparingly at 
 firft; but when a few emperors had been complimented thus, others began to expert it 
 as their due: and fo by degrees it grew to be a thing fcarce to be omitted. This, if true 
 may account for the filence on this head, in the better poets; and for their lower poets 
 abounding fo much more, in deferiptions of this kind. 
 
 What has been faid of the deferiptions of provinces, will hold equally of thofe of 
 cities. Any perfonal ftrokes in relation to them are very uncommon in the good ages : 
 but common enough in the lower ages ; and particularly, in Claudian and Aufonius. 
 
 Rome indeed was always a fubjedt for the medallifts, and other artifts : and we have 
 more deferiptive lines on her, even in the poets to whofe works I have confined my en¬ 
 quiry, than of all the other cities put together. You fee her there; fitting, on a heap of 
 arms : with a fword in one hand, and a little figure of the goddefs Vidtory in the other. 
 She is frequently reprefented in this manner; only fometimes the Vidtory has a globe 
 added in its hands. Her look and pofture denote dignity: as thofe attributes of the 
 Sword, Vidtory, and Globe, fay very plainly (in the language of the ftatuaries) that the 
 made herfelf miftrefs of the whole world by her atchievements in war. Accordingly, 
 the Roman poets call her (24), the Martial City ; the Eternal City; the Miftrefs of all 
 Cities ; and the Goddefs, that prefides over all countries and nations. By the way, this 
 fettled notion which prevailed fo much among the Romans, that they were to become 
 matters of the whole world, thews with how much more propriety the globe was given as 
 an attribute to the city of Rome, when reprefented perfonally; than it is now to the fta- 
 tues of each little prince, or the rulers of any particular kingdom. It was a very fignifi- 
 cant emblem of univerfal monarchy; but has no fignificance at all, when applied to the 
 rulers of any portion only of the earth: and is no more proper in the hands of the Grand- 
 Signor, than in thofe of a king of Corfica. 
 
 Ovid 
 
 (22) —— Afperajuno 
 
 ConfiJia in melius referet; mecumque fovebit 
 Romanos rerum dominos, gentemque togatam. 
 
 Sic placitum. Veniet lullri3 labentibus xtas. 
 
 Cum domus Aflaraci Phthiam clarafque Mycenas 
 
 Servitio premet.- 
 
 Virgil, .<En. i. jt. 285. Spoke by Jupiter. 
 Externi veniunt generi, qui fanguine noltrum 
 Nomen in allra ferent; quorumque ab liirpe nepotes 
 Omnia fub pedibus, qua fol utrumque recurrens 
 Afpicit Oceanum, vertique regique videbunt. 
 
 Oracle of Faunus, Ib. 7. 101. 
 
 Livy fpeaks of this notion as early as in Romulus’s 
 time; and often afterwards in his hiftory. 
 
 Hx tibi erunt artes ; pacique imponere morem : 
 
 “ Parcere fubjeflis; & debellare fuperbos.” 
 
 Virgil. JEn. 6. jr. 854. 
 
 (24) Romulus excipiet gentem ; Sc Mavortia condet 
 Moenia.-■ 
 
 Id. jEn. 1. jt. 277. 
 
 Romulus asternte nondum formaverat urbis 
 Mcenia.- 
 
 Tibullus, Lib. 2. EI. 5. jr. 24. 
 
 -O Tutela prxfens 
 
 Italia;, dominxque Roma; ! 
 
 Horat. Lib. 4. Od. 14. jr. 44. 
 
 {23) Excudent alii fpirantia mollius xra : &c. 
 
 Tu regere imperio populos, Romane, memento ; 
 
 Terrarum Dea, Gentiumque Roma. 
 
 Martial. Lib. 2, Epig. g; 
 
 a +3 
 
 Pl.XXXII. 
 Fig. 8, & 9, 
 
 ’l.XXXII. 
 Fig. io. 
 
 R rr 
 
POLY M E T I S. 
 
 244 
 
 Ovid defcribes Roma, (or the Genius of the city of Rome,) lying at the feet of Bren¬ 
 nus (as), when the Capitol was taken by the Gauls; in the fame manner as we lee the 
 conquered provinces at die feet of the Roman emperors, when they had extended their 
 conquefts fu far. In another place, the lame poet lays her face was like that of Auguftus 
 Carlar (z 6 ): and you will find that piece of flattery to have had fome ground, if you 
 compare their heads together; as you may, whenever you are looking over any tolerable 
 cohesion of medals. Silius Italicus defcribes her with a crown of turrets (27) on her 
 head. In all the figures 1 have feen of her, ike appears always with a helmet: but the 
 Other is fo proper for all the deities of cities in general, that it rs highly probable that the 
 artitis reprefented Rome fometimes with it too : efpecially on fome pacific occafion j or 
 in any (lory, that had more relation to the gown, than to the fword. 
 
 However that be, the appearance of this goddefs is generally fo martial, that it has 
 made fome of the moll knowing antiquarians nullake tire goddefs \ irtus foi nei . <,s 
 Bellori in particular has done, feveral times (28), in fpeakiog of the moll celebrated relievo’s 
 in the Admiranda, and on the triumphal arches, fire figure he calls Roma in thele, 
 is dreffed partly like an Amazon. One of her breaks is bare; her garments fall 01k to 
 the knee ; fhc has bulkins half way up the leg : a helmet on her head ; a fword (or 
 fpear,) in one hand, and a globe in the other. This £ oddefs, in the relievo’s i am fpeak- 
 jng of, is generally cither going out with their emperors, on fome expedition cr other: 
 or bringing them home, in triumph. I fhoald therefore rather think that it is the god- 
 dets Virtus, than the goddefs Roma: and indeed 1 id, fs s much better to the 
 former, than to the latter. Rome is generally reprefenti 1 fitting; this appears always 
 Handing : Rome, is dreffed to the feet; this, fliort, and in the Amazonian way : Rome, 
 is Hill and imperial; this, like Virtus, always in aftion : and dreffed fit for it. 
 
 Pl.XXXII. 
 Fig, 11. 
 
 \y £ n( j (29) A1 ' 'ndria, on gems, and n Jals; i n ( is, in particular: where e 
 is marked out, like Africa, by attributes of plenty. She has corn, and vines about her. 
 Egypt, you know, was the granary of Rome; fo that the corn, at leaft, k very proper. 
 
 ,. , Litue at Rome, of a woman with e piget n on her han 1 , \ 
 nify ( 3 °) the genius of Naples, It was but a bad one; and fo I did not get any copy of 
 it. The figures of thefe deities of cities muff have been ( 3 1 ) very common of old; but 
 are either uncommon enough, or ( 3 2 ) not commonly known now. I have feen fome 
 
 others; 
 
 (25) -- Alpino Roma fub hofte jacet. 
 
 Hxc eft, cui fuerat promifla potentia rerum, 
 
 Jupiter ! hanc terris impofiturus eras ! 
 
 Ovid. Fall. 6. jr. 360. 
 
 (26) Hunc egocumfpeclem, videormihi cernere Romam; 
 
 Mam patria faciem fullinet ille fuax 
 
 Id. ex Pont. Lib. 2. El. 3 . S'. 20. 
 
 (27) Ipfam turrigero portantem vertice muros 
 Credite fubmiHas Romam jam tendere palmas. 
 
 Silius Ital. 4. y. 411. 
 
 (28) See Adm. N° 6, 12, Sc 24. Arc. Triumph. 
 N° 4, 28, Si 42. 
 
 (29} Portus Alexandrea fupplex, 
 
 Et vacuam patefecit aulam. 
 
 Horat. Lib. 4. Od. 14. S. 36. 
 
 (30) Tu duflor populi longe emigrantis Apollo; 
 
 Cujus adhuc volucrem lreva cervice fedentem 
 Refpicicos blande felix Eumelis adorat. 
 
 Statius. Lib. 4. Sylv. 8. S. 49. 
 I know not, why Statius calls her Eumelis here ; he 
 ufes the more known name of Parthenope, in another 
 of his poems. 
 
 Parthenope, cui mite folum trans xquora veftse 
 Ipfe Dionxa monrtravit Apollo columba. 
 
 Id. Lib. 3. Sylv. 5. S'. So. 
 
 (31) They were carried in their triumphs: 
 
 Hoc facito Armenios ; hanc eft Danxia Perils : 
 
 Urbs in Achxmeniis vallibus illa fuic, 
 
 Ovid. Art. Am. 1. S'. 226. 
 
 Chryfippus, cum in triumpho Csfaris eburnea op¬ 
 pida eflent tranflata, & poft paucos dies Fabii Maximi 
 lignea; “ thecas effe oppidorum Csfari dixit. 
 (Quintilian. Lib. 6. Cap. 3. p. 478. Ed. Hack.) — 
 L. Sylla, qui plurima belia civilia confecit; cujus 
 crudeliflimi & infolentiflimi fucceflus fuerunt; cum 
 confurr.mata potentia fua triumphum duceret, ut 
 Grrecitc & Afne multas Urbes, ita civium Roman.. - 
 rum nullum Oppidum vexit. Valerius Maximus, 
 Memorab. Lib. 2. Cap. 8. 
 
 The Romans of old had fratues of their little cities, 
 as well as of their more confiderable ones. Seiam a 
 ferendo, Scgeflam a (Mitibus appellabant ; quarum 
 fimulacra in Circo videmus. Pliny, Lib. 18. c. 2. 
 
 (32) Scia probably was reprefented with feed-corn 
 in her hand, and Segefla with ears of corn : and who 
 knows whether fome of the Ilatues, we now call by 
 the name of Ceres, may not really be Segefta’s ? A 
 Parthenope, with a pigeon, would be apt generally 
 to be miilaken for a Venus : and fo, in many other 
 cafes. 
 
 6 
 
Dialogue the Fourteenth. 245 
 
 others (33) ; efpccially on medals: but as the Roman poets fcarce mention even their 
 names, or at leaR not perfonally, they are nothing to my purpofe. 
 
 Not only the cities of old were reprefented perfonally, and fo helped to fwell up the 
 multitude of their gods: but every houfe and family had its prefiding deities; and that 
 of two forts, their Penates and their Lares. Thefe leRer Penates, or guardians of private 
 families, (as the great Penates were of the Rate,) I take to have been nothing elfe but 
 the fouls of their departed anceftors : and in a pi&ure in the Vatican Virgil, (which is 
 the only certain reprefentation I have ever met with of thefe deities,) their appearance 
 agrees very well with this notion. The Roman poets fay (34) but little of thefe deities, 
 in a defcriptive way: the other family-deities, the Lares, they defcribe much in the 
 fame manner as they (35) appear in this drawing. The Lares probably were fuppofed Pl.XXXII, 
 to prefidc over houfe-keeping, the fervants in families, and domeftic affairs; as the Pe- ^ IG * IZ ’ 
 nates were the protestors of the matters of families, their wives and children : and it may 
 be on this account that the Lares are dreffed in fhort, fuccinSt habits, to fhew their 
 readinefs to ferve ; and that they hold a fort of cornucopia in their hands, as a fignal of 
 hofpitality and good houfe-keeping. I fhall fay nothing here of the Genius’s, or Con¬ 
 genial Deities, fuppofed to attend each perfon born into the world from his cradle to his 
 grave; and whofe ftatues were fometimes placed with thofe of the Lares: having had 
 an occafion of talking to you fufficiently, on that head, already ( 3 ' J ). 
 
 If you chufe to flep from their cities and houfes into the country, you will find that 
 too all Rocked with imaginary beings. There was no part of it fo barren, as not to af¬ 
 ford its deity. The very mountains and rocks were turned into perfonages. The gardens; 
 the fields; the lawn; the arable; the vineyards ; the groves and foreRs, were all aRigned 
 to their particular deities; and all abounded with this fidtitious kind of inhabitants. 
 
 This drawing that I have in my hand is a copy of the Farnefe-Atlas : fupporting the p u XXXIII 4 
 celeRial globe; which took up fo much of your time, in my temple of the ConRellations. 
 
 The genius’s of mountains, as well as thofe of cities, were carried (37) in the triumphs 
 of the Roman generals ; and the figures of them are Rill to be met with, in the remains 
 
 of 
 
 (33) Thefe are generally of Greek, or Afiatic 
 cities. I remember to have met with either the 
 whole figures, or heads, of Silvium a city in Apulia ; 
 Tyana and Sparta, in Greece : Edefla, Pergamus, 
 Damafcus, Smyrna, Tarfus, Tyre, and Sidon, in 
 Alia : and any one, who is more verfed in the ftudy 
 of medals, has no doubt feen a multitude of others, 
 that have efcaped me. 
 
 (34) Virgil, in that part of his /Eneid which an- 
 fwers the picture above mentioned, is more exprefs 
 about thefe deities ; than any pafTage I know of in the 
 other Roman poets. He fpeaks of them, as fome of 
 /Eneas's anceftors. 
 
 Effigies faerte Divum, Phrygiique Penates, 
 
 Quos mecum a Troja niediifque ex ignibus urbis 
 Extuleram, vifi ante oculos adare jacentis 
 
 I11 fomnis; multo manifefti lumine- 
 
 Ha; nobis propriae fedes, hinc Dardanus ortus 
 Iiifiufque pater; genus a quo principe noltrum.— 
 Talibus attonitus vifis, ac voce Deorum, 
 
 (Nec fopor illud erat, fed coram agnofeere vultus, 
 Velatafque comas, prxfentiaque ora videbar ; 
 
 Tum gelidus toto manabat corpore fudor:) 
 
 Corripio e liratis corpus.-- 
 
 JEa. 3. f. 147—176. 
 
 (35) Nutriat incinflos milia patella Lares. 
 
 Ovid. Fall. 2. 634. 
 
 Bullaque fuccinftis Laribus donata pependit. 
 
 Perfius, 5. jr. 31* 
 
 The old Scholiaft on this place, feems to confound 
 them with the Penates. Gabino habitu, cimftuque. 
 Dii Penates formabantur ; obvoluti toga, fuper hu¬ 
 merum finiftrum ; dextro nudo. 
 
 According to Ovid, there was generally two of 
 them, who were (ometimes reprefented with a dog at 
 their feet. 
 
 At canis ante pedes faxo fabricatus eodem 
 Stabat. Quae dandi cum Lare caufa fuit ? 
 
 Servat uterque domum; domino quoque fidus uterque: 
 
 Compita grata Deo ; compita grata cani; 
 Exagitant k Lar & turba Diania fures ; 
 
 Pervigilantque Lares, pcrvigilantque canes. 
 
 Bina gemeliorum quxrebam ligna Deorum, 
 
 Viribus annofx fafta caduca morx. 
 
 Mille Lares, Geniunique ducis qui tradidit illos. 
 Urbs habet; & vici numina trina colunt. 
 
 Fall. 5. F 146. 
 
 (36) See Dial. X. p. 153. anteh. 
 
 (37) Q“ x Loca, qui Montes, quxve ferantur Aqux. 
 
 Ovid. Art. Am. 1. jfr, 220, 
 
 Is qui Sidonio fulget fublimis in odro. 
 
 Dux fuerat belli; proximus ille duci: 
 
 Hic, qui nunc in humo lumen miferabile figit. 
 
 Non ido vultu cum tulit arma fuit. 
 
 Hic, Lacus; hi, Montes: hxc, tot Cadclla, tot Am¬ 
 nes, &c. 
 
 Id. Trid. Lib. 4. EI. 2. f. 37. 
 
POLYMETIS. 
 
 246 
 
 cf the artifis, more frequently perhaps than has been generally imagined. The (38) Ge¬ 
 nius of Mons Palatinus makes its appearance on a famous altar belonging to the Mellini 
 family at Rome. Mons Cadius is in another relievo, together with Jupiter Caslius ; and 
 both their names engraved under their figures. The Monte Citorio is wrought on 
 the bafe of that great column, which was laying on a hill of the fame name, when we 
 were at Rome ; and which has lately been fet up there by the prefent Pope; whe feems 
 to emulate his predeceflor in his care for the finer remains of antiquity. Mount Taurus 
 appears much in the fame manner on a fine relievo in the Capitol, taken from the trium¬ 
 phal arch which Rood formerly in the Corfo at Rome. The Genius of mount Ida, (or of 
 one of the hills at leaft, belonging to that chain of mountains,) is reprefented on a fine 
 relievo, in the Medici-gardens. The head of Timolus, a mountain-deity of Afia ; and 
 the whole figure of Rhodope, in Thrace; appear on medals. I mention only what I 
 have feen ; and, no doubt, there are a great many others. 
 
 Ovid ( 39 ) has a defeription of mount Atlas, in a perfonal Ryle; and there is another in 
 Virgil ( 4 °), from which one might form a very good idea for a fountain-Ratue; as per¬ 
 haps it was, originally, taken from one. However that be, the moR ufual way of repre- 
 fenting Atlas among the antient artiRs, (as well as the modern,) was probably as fup- 
 porting a globe : for the old poets (4O moR commonly refer to this attitude, in lpeaking 
 of him. Valerius Flaccus in particular, has a very remarkable defeription of a figure of 
 Atlas; as Randing in the midR of the waters; and fupporting an armillary globe of the 
 heavens, with all the planets making their proper motions round it: as I mentioned to 
 you ( 4 2 ), on a former occafion. 
 
 Under that window, is a copy of the fine Medici-relievo : which, (tho’ it has fuf- 
 fered fo much in many parts of it,) I look upon as one of the moR noble remains of an¬ 
 tiquity ; and which will therefore take us up more time than ordinary, to confider it as 
 we ought. It is Rocked with a great variety of imaginary beings; among which, there 
 is one mountain-deity at leaR. This relievo contains two difiindt Rories ; told too, very 
 diRin&ly : but connected together, as caufe and effedt. The firR, is the famous Judg¬ 
 ment of Paris; in which that young Trojan prince, (tho' then looked upon only as a 
 fhepherd,) prefers the goddefs of Pleafure, to the goddefies of Honour andWifdom: 
 and the fecond, feems to be Jupiter’s giving his decree for the deRrudtion of Troy, and 
 the removal of the feat of the empire from Afia into Greece: which great revolution 
 was antiently looked upon, as the fatal confequence of fo imprudent a choice. 
 
 Pl. xxxiv. Here on your left hand, you fee Paris, with his long drefs and Phrygian bonnet; 
 
 fitting on a rock: and his Rieep, and cattle, round about him. Behind him, are two 
 Dryades ; (or rather Oreades ; for that, I think, is the more proper name for the 
 nymphs of the mountains :) and before him, Rand Juno, Minerva, and Venus : intro¬ 
 duced by Mercury. It is but the beginning of the Rory; for they are yet cloathed. 
 
 However 
 
 (38) This figure of Mons Palatinus, is in the Adm. 
 
 N" 5.-Mons Caelius, in Topham’s collection of 
 
 drawings, 13 . m. io. N g 15,-Monte Citorio, is 
 
 publifncd by Bartoli, at the end of his Col. Anton.-■ 
 
 aud Mount Taurus, in his Arc. Triumph. N° 49. 
 
 (39) Quantus erat, mons faftus Atlas: jam barba co- 
 
 msque 
 
 In fylvas abeunt ; juga funt, humerique manufque; 
 Quod caputante fuit, fummo ell in monte cacumcn; 
 Ofla lapis fiunt : turn partes auftus in omnes 
 Crevit in immenfum, (fic Dii ilatuillis,) & omne 
 Cum tot fidcribus cudum requievit in illo. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 4. 661. 
 
 (40) Atlantis, cindlum affidue cui nubibus atris 
 Piniferum caput & vento pulfatur & imbri ; 
 
 4 
 
 Nix humeros infufa tegit: tum flumina mento 
 Praecipitant fenis, & glacie riget horrida barba. 
 
 Virg. JEn. 4. jr. 251. 
 
 (41) -Apicem & latera ardua cernit 
 
 Atlantis duri, ccetum qui vertice fulcit. 
 
 Ibid. 247. 
 
 -Aitherium qui fert cervicibus axem. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 6. 175. 
 
 Atlas, anherios humero qui fuftinet orbes. 
 
 Virg. Ain. 8. jr. 137. 
 
 ■ - Atlas humeros oneratus Olympo. 
 
 Ovid. Fall. 5. jr. 169. 
 1 he feeming contrarieties, in thefe paflages, are all 
 reconciled by the Farnefe Atlas : in which figure, he 
 is reprefented as fupporting the globe of the heavens, 
 at the fame time, with his head, neck, and Ihoulders. 
 
 (42) Sec Dial. XI. p. 180, anteh. 
 
Dialogue the Fifteenth. 
 
 However there is a figure of Viftory, hovering over Venus; (and which, I imagine, 
 originally held a crown of laurel in her hand;) to drew which way his determination 
 inclined at lad. This is what I call the firft dory, in this relievo; and what is con- 
 tained diftindtly, in the former part of it. 
 
 In the other part, to your right hand; you fee Jupiter feated on high, and in great 
 date. His feet are fupported by a genius : rifing, a little above bread-high, out of part 
 of a rock; and holding a veil, almod dreight, over his head. This I take to be the 
 Genius of mount Ida; or rather of one of the rifings in the range of hills, called in general 
 by that name : as the veil, which he holds over his head, may fignify the clouds that 
 red fo often on the tops of fuch high mountains. Under this mountain-deity, are two 
 River-gods, which may probably be meant for Simois and Scamander ; both which 
 rivers have their fource from mount Ida : with a water-nymph, on one fide of them; 
 and a lady, (with her hair falling loofe, and with a great deal of didrefs in the air of her 
 face,) reding on a piece of the rock, on the other. This may poffibly be the Genius 
 of Alia; from whom the empire was to depart, in confequence of Paris's judgment. 
 Venus is the principal figure below; and is introduced to the throne of Jupiter by Viftory, 
 in the very fame attitude in which die is deferibed by Ovid *, on this occafion. There 
 are feveral other figures in this part of the relievo; who generally bear fome relation to 
 the fubjeft, tho they are not fo nearly concerned in it as the former. Among thefe. 
 Mars is didinguilhed by the eagernefs of his look; and the cruel fort of joy expreffed in 
 it, lor the daughter that mud enfue before fo great a change can be brought about. 
 The heads of Juno, and Minerva, appear here, in a line above that of Venus. The 
 former, looks on Mars; and feems to be giving him fome orders : as the latter, keeps 
 her eye fixed upon Jupiter, and feems to be demanding the appointed vengeance of 
 him. The goddefs behind Jupiter, (with one of her breads quite bare,) looks°alarmed, 
 and concerned; as the deities of the Trojan, (or Aliatic,) party generally are in this piece. 
 Apollo may appear there, in the midd, with the Zodiac over his head; becaufe it is time, 
 that brings about all the revolutions decreed by Jupiter: as Diana may have a place here, 
 for the fame reafon. Mercury ftands by Jupiter, as the meffenger already employed in 
 this affair, or to be fent with farther orders : and Cador and Pollux may be introduced, 
 as the brothers of Helena; the immediate caule of the war, which was to bring about 
 tills great revolution. They are extremely alike here, as they are in all their figures ; 
 and are to be didinguilhed only by their different attitudes. He of the two who is next 
 to Jupiter, and regards him with fo much attention, I fhould think is Pollux ; the twin- 
 brother ol Helena, and fon of Jupiter : and he, (who turns from Jupiter, and looks 
 downwards,) may be Cador : who was only the fon of a meer mortal father, as well 
 as mother. This I take to be the intention of the artid, in the fecond part of this re¬ 
 lievo ; which, (tho' it is fo fine, and on lb great a fubjeft,) has never been published or 
 explained by any one that I know of. 
 
 The face of the Mountain-genius, who fupports Jupiter, has fomething of concern ex- 
 prefied in it; as I was faying all the deities of the Trojan party have : and indeed Jupiter 
 himfelf looks with fome concern; at granting a decree, which was to be followed with fo 
 much daughter; and to end in the ruin of a whole nation, that had been formerly fo 
 dear to him. Was this mountain-deity a female, I thould call it Ida, without any man¬ 
 ner of relerve : becaufe the feene of Paris's judgment was at the foot of that mountain; 
 and becaufe Homer fo often deferibes Jupiter as fitting on the top of it, to obferve the 
 druggie for empire between the Trojans and Greeks. The Roman poets fcarce fay any 
 thing in a perlonal manner, of mount Ida: unlefs, poffibly, Virgil may be underftood in 
 
 that 
 
 * Viftorem ccelo rettulit illa pedem. 
 
 Her. Epift, 16. 83 » 
 
 s f f 
 
a 4 S POLY M ETIS. 
 
 that manner; where he is (peaking of the figures ( 43 ), wrought on the fore-part of 
 /Eneas’s ftiip. 
 
 Virgil fpeaks of Timolus ( 4 +) in a manner, that cannot be underftood literally of 
 a mountain ; but is very proper, if taken perfonally : and Ovid delcribes the fame 
 deity fitting as judge, in the difpute between Pan and Apollo, whether the pipe or lyre 
 was the finer instrument. Ovid lays that, on this occafion, he was crowned with oak only; 
 having taken away (45) the other branches that were about his head. I have never feen 
 any whole figure of Timolus : but his head is on the reverie ot a Greek medal, in my 
 Pl.XXXV. collection. You fee he is there crowned with vine-branches ; which agree very well 
 FlG * x * with the character (46) which Virgil and others give of the mountain he prelides over. 
 
 You may have obferved that there are fome among thefe mountain-deities, who 
 Pt. XXXV. fhould be females; as Rhodope in particular : of whom alfo I have another medal 
 flG> 2 ‘ here, at your fervice. Thefe muft have been reprefented in ftatues, as of a large fize ; 
 
 and fometimes no doubt there were vail colofteal figures of this Rhodope, and of the 
 other goddeifes of mountains. As the antients were iamiliarly acquainted with this fort 
 of figures, I have fometimes thought; that the known fable, of (47) the Mountain in la¬ 
 bour, carried a very different idea with it originally, from what is generally annexed to 
 it at prefent. I always ufed to think it a very prepofterous defign for a fable : and 
 could lee nothing, either in nature; or in the imaginary world of the poets, (which is a 
 kind of fecond nature,) whereon they could ground fuch an imagination. But when 
 one confiders that they had a fettled notion of old, of fuch gigantic ladies as prefiding 
 over mountains ; to fuppofe one of thefe in labour, and after all her vaft pangs and 
 o-roans to produce only fo very fmall an animal, is no inconfiflent thought like the other; 
 and is extremely better fitted for true ridicule. 
 
 The large fize of the ftatues for the mountain-deities in general, will help to account 
 too for feveral fimilies of the antient poets, in which they compare their heroes to moun¬ 
 tains. When /Eneas is going to engage Turnus, Virgil lays that he moved on 
 
 Quantus Athos, aut quantus Eryx ; aut ipfe corufcis 
 Cum fremit ilicibus quantus gaudetque nivali 
 Vertice fe attollens pater Apenninus ad auras (48). 
 
 This fimilie cannot well be underftood literally of thofe mountains; or will at leaft 
 become much more poetical and juft, if you underftand it of the deities fuppofed to pre- 
 
 fide 
 
 (43) -' Ene ‘ a p u pp> s 
 
 Prima tenet; roilro Phrygios fubjun&a leones: 
 Imminet Ida fuper, profugis gratiflima Teucris. 
 
 Virgil. JEn. 10. . 5S. 
 
 (.14) Sunt etiam Amminex vites ; firmiflima vina ; 
 Tmolus & aflurgit quibus, & Rex ipfc Phanreus. 
 
 Virgil. Georg. 2. j/. 9S. 
 
 (45) Judice fub Tmolo certamen venit * ad impar. 
 Monte fuo fenior judex confcdit; & aures 
 Liberat arboribus : quercu coma cairula tantum 
 Cingitur; & pendent circum cava tempora glandes. 
 
 * Pan. Ovid. Met. 11. jr. 159. 
 
 This idea of Mountain-deities, explains an expref- 
 fion juft after in Ovid ; which would be difficult 
 -enough to be underftood without it. 
 
 Judicium far.ftique placet fententia Montis 
 
 Ibid. 173. 
 
 (46) Virg. Georg. 2. f. 98. 
 
 Cumque choro meliore, fui vineta Timoli 
 
 Paftolonque petit.-- 
 
 Ovid. Met. 11. jr. 87. (of Bacchus.) 
 
 Tt was called originally Timolus, and afterwards 
 Tmolus; according to Pliny. Lib. 5. c. 29. 
 
 (47) Mons parturibat, gemitus immanes ciens ; 
 Eratque in terris maxima expeftatio : 
 
 At ille mutem peperit. Hoc feriptum eft tibi, 
 Qui magna cum minaris extricas nihil. t 
 
 Phtedrus, Lib. 4. Fab. 21. 
 
 I am apt to fufpeeft that Ille, (in the third verfe,) 
 might originally have been written, Ilia; and been 
 changed by fome wife tranferiber, who thought k 
 could not otherwife agree with mons : tho’ it is not 
 without authority from the bed Roman writers, to 
 turn a mafeuline fubftantive into a feminine one, 
 when it is applied to any thing that is feminine. Thus 
 Terence, for example, makes Eunuchus of the femi¬ 
 nine gender; where it fignifies not an Eunuch, but 
 his comedy of the fame name. 
 
 -Eas fe non negat 
 
 Perfonas tranftulifle in Eunuchum fuam. 
 
 Terence’s Eun. in Prol. 
 
 (48) JEn. 12. jfr. 703. 
 
 4 
 
Dialogue the Fifteenth. 
 
 fide over them : whofe ftatues were often of a vaft fize, among the antients; as they are 
 fometimes, even among the moderns. I never met with any antient figure of father 
 Apenninus : but that famous modern one of him by John de Bologna, at a feat of the 
 Great Duke's near Florence, if it Hood up, would be above fixty foot high. As the 
 antients were much more magnificent in their works of art than the moderns, they 
 had probably figures of mountain-deities, even much larger than this : and you 
 know there was aflually a propofal made by one of their artifts, to Alexander the Great ; 
 for forming the whole mountain of Athos into a ftatue : which would have been lb lame, 
 that it would have held a city, in one of its hands ; and a river, in the other. 
 
 I REMEMBER, fays Philander, to have read the ltory in Vitruvius (49); and have 
 fometimes puzzled myfelf in endeavouring to imagine, how it could ever have been put 
 in execution. I do not think that fo very difficult to be conceived, fays Mylhgetes : and 
 if any body would give me a good rough mountain, in Wales; and pay mv workmen ; 
 
 I would engage to direft them how to perform it. In the firft place my figure fhould 
 be reprefented in a reclined pollute: as, I luppiofe, thole of the mountain-deities generally 
 were. This would take off a great part of the difficulty ; for the (hape of a mountain 
 would not ferve for a Handing figure, without paring away the greatell part of it, and 
 immenfely increafing the trouble and expence. In the fecond place, I lliould not think 
 of forming the fide of the mountain, which I found the moll proper for my purpofe, 
 into the diredt figure of a man; but of altering and managing it 111 fuch a manner, that it 
 Ihould appear in the lhape I defigned, when you were at a certain dillance from it. 
 
 You may remember that as we were travelling thro' part of the Alps, between Lyons 
 and Geneva, we thought we faw the ruins of a city, at a dillance before us; againft the 
 fide of one of the mountains. The cathedral was very diftindt; and there were llreets 
 appeared on each fide of it. As we drew near to it, this refemblance leflened by little 
 and little; till, at laft, we were quite convinced, that it was nothing but the :l 
 irregularities of the Hones all along that part of the rock, which had reprefented l 
 proper dillance, a church and llreets in ruins. It is partly in this way, that I would n. 
 nage my mountain. When I had fixed the defign for my figure, I would clear away 
 all the trees from that part which was to be the face of it: only leaving a wood on the 
 top ; fome little hanging grove-work, for the eye-brows ; and a few thickets, perhaps, 
 for a beard. As to the unequal filings of the hill, they fhould be pared off, vhc. ufe- 
 lefs ; and where of ufe, they Ihould be left: only affifted a little by art, where neceffary. 
 
 The face, when you were on the fpot, would be a field ; and the arms, the fwellings of 
 a hill: but it might, I think, be managed fo, that at a proper dillance the whole lliould 
 have the appearance of a man : and, if there was a village, on one fide of the hill; and a 
 cafcade of water, on the other; one might poffibly contrive it fo, as to make out the whole 
 defign which Dinocrates propofed to Alexander. 
 
 I do not think your idea altogether impraflicable, replied Polymetis ; but if you 
 pleafe, we will go on to confider a figure, pretty nearly related to thefe mountain-deities; 
 tho’ of a more extraordinary make, than any of them. It is on this medal, llruck in 
 honour of Pompey; on his being declared prefeft of the fea-coafts of Italy, and of all the 
 Roman fleets. You fee here the upper part of the figure, is like a woman ; but it goes 
 off in two filh-tails ; between which are three dogs. This is the famous Scylla : who Flc - 3- 
 is, (moil generally.) laid to have been turned into a rock; for her perfidioufnefs, to her 
 father Nifus. Several of the Roman poets ( 5 °) mention thefe dogs, as part of her form; 
 
 but 
 
 (49) Vitruvius, Lib. 2. in Proosm. 
 
 (50) Quid mirum in patrios Scyllam fxvifle capillos; 
 
 Candidaque in ftevos inguina veiTa canes ? 
 
 Propert. Lib. 4. El. 40. 
 Quid loquar aut Scyllam Nifi ? quam fama fecuta ell. 
 Candida fuccinilam latrantibus inguina monllris, 
 Dulichias vexaffe rates; & gurgite in alto 
 Ah timidos nautas canibus lacerafle marinis ? 
 
 Aut ut mutatos Terei narraverit artus ? &c. 
 
 Virg. Ecl. 6. yS. 
 
 -Scylla, patri cano furata capillos. 
 
 Pube premit rabidos inguinibulque canes. 
 
 Ovid. Am. Lib. 3. El. 1 
 
in 
 
 P O L Y M E T I S. 
 
 but we might have been much puzzled in guefling at the exacft manner of it, had it not 
 been for this medal. I know not whether it may not be Charybdis, who appears on 
 (51) another medal, of the Valerian family; much in the fame manner, as Scylla does 
 on this: only Ihe has the two fifh-tails, without any dogs between them. It is certain at 
 leaf!:, that even Silius, (who deals very rarely in allegories), fpeaks ( 5 2 ) of Charybdis, as 
 well as Scylla, in a perfonal manner. 
 
 You may perhaps think, that Scylla and Charybdis fhould have been taken notice of 
 among the deites of the fea, rather than thofe of the land. Charybdis certainly belongs 
 to the former; but as for Scylla, file is of a nature fo mixed, that ihe may be claffed in¬ 
 differently under either. A rock in the fea, tho’ it be all furrounded with water, is cer¬ 
 tainly as much a part of the earth, as an iiland is. However, if you pleafe, we will get 
 upon good firm ground again; where we have yet a large fet of imaginary beings to con- 
 fider. What I mean, are all fuch deities as were fuppofed by the antients to prefide over 
 the country; and they had different ones, for each part of it. To Flora, they afiigned 
 the care of their gardens; and to Pomona and Vertumnus, their plantations and fruit- 
 trees. Their vineyards and corn-fields, were under the tuition of Ceres and Bacchus; as 
 all their pafture-ground, and the proteftion of their flieep belonged to Pan. Diana pre- 
 fided over the forefts and the chace: Sylvanus, over the woods ar.d groves. There was 
 l'carce a grotto perhaps without its family of nymph' in it : and all the woods, and moun¬ 
 tains, were peopled with Dryades and Oreades. The Fauns and Satyrs, as a wanton fort 
 of deities, ranged both over the plains and hills; and were difperfed all over the country : 
 but lwarmed chiefly about the vineyards, in autumn ; and in the molt ufual haunts of 
 the wood or mountain-nymphs, all the reft of the year. 
 
 Pu XXXV. That lady, juft by you on the left hand, is Flora ; copied from a ftatue in the Great 
 
 fic.4. Puke’s gallery. You fee fhe is almoft naked; and is marked out by the loole nofegay of 
 flowers; which (lie feems to have juft gathered, and to hold up, as pleafed with the 
 beauties of them. She fometimes is crowned with flowers too ; and at others, holds a 
 crown, or chaplet of them, in her hands. Here file has only a little flying robe : but 
 in her famous figure, at the Farnefe-palace, fhe is fuller drefled. Pier robe was of a (53) 
 changeable filk; and of as many colours, as the flowers with which flie was ufually 
 adorned; as we may learn from the poets, tho’ we could not from the marble. 
 
 Ovid gives us a delightful defeription of ( 5 +) the garden of Flora; with the Horie 
 gathering flowers in it, and the Graces compofing garlands of them. I wifh I had any 
 antient picture, to anfwer this defeription ; and think it might afford a very pretty lubjeft 
 
 for 
 
 (51) See Oifelius’s Thcf. PI. 28. 3. 
 
 (52) This is in a pafiage, where I imagine that Si¬ 
 lius mi^ht have an eye toward his favourite, Virgil ; 
 tho’ he is fpeaking of a man, long before that great 
 poet’s time. It is a poet; whom he calls, Daphnis : 
 and in fpeaking of whom, he feems to have endea¬ 
 voured to give his ftyle a paftoral turn. 
 
 -Daphnin amarunt 
 
 Sicelides Mafe : dextram donavit avena 
 Phcebus Caftalia ; & juflit, projettus in herba 
 Si quando caneret, la?tos per prata, per arva 
 Ad Daphnin properare greges, rivofque filere. 
 
 Ille ubi feptena modulatus arundine carmen 
 Mulcebat fylvas; non unquam tempore eodem 
 Siren adfuetos effudit in xquore cantus : 
 
 Scyllan tacuere canes ; ftetit atra Charybdis ; 
 
 Et ltetus fcopulis fedavit jubila Cyclops. 
 
 Lib. 14. yE 476. 
 
 (53) Cur tamen, ut dantur veftes Cerealibus alba?. 
 
 Sic hate eft cultu verficolore deccns; 
 
 An quia maturis albefcit meflis ariftis ? 
 
 Et color S: fpccics floribus omnis inert ? 
 
 Annuit : & motis flores cecidere capillis. 
 
 Accidere in menfas ut rofa miffa folet. 
 
 Ovid. Eaft. 5. jr. 360. (fpeaking of Flora.) 
 
 (34) Eft mihi fiecundus dotalibus hortus in agris: 
 
 Aura fovet; liquida; fonte rigatur aqua:. 
 
 Hunc meus implevit gener >fo flore maritus; 
 
 Atque ait, arbitrium tu Dea floris habe. 
 
 Sa?pe ego digeftos volui numerare colores, 
 
 Ncc potui ; numero copia major erat. 
 
 Rofcid.i cum primum loliis excufla pruina eft. 
 
 Et varis radiis intepuere coma? ; 
 
 Conveniunt pi&is incindlx vcftibus Hora?, 
 
 Inque leves calathos munera noltra legunt; 
 Protinus arripiunt Charites; ne&untque coronas. 
 Sertaque cceleftes implicitura comas. 
 
 Id. Ibid, j/, 220. 
 
 6 
 
D I A L O 
 
 for a painter now. 1 his garden of Flora, I take to have been the paradife (55) in the 
 Roman Mythology. Flora, according to the Roman poets was (56) a field-nymph ; and 
 was called Chloris, before file was made the goddefs of gardens. Poffibly, fhe did not 
 much change her occupation : for the gardens of the old Romans, in the Auguftan age, 
 
 (if one could be allowed to judge of them in general, from that fingle one which (57) 
 
 Virgil deferibes in h:s Georgies,) might have been nothing more than the natural face of 
 the country, affifted a little by art where neceflary, and fprinkled here and there with 
 flowers. 
 
 1 he figure which an! , ers Flora on the oppolite fide, with a pruning-hook in her Pi. XXXV* 
 right hand, and a branch in her left, is Pomona. We learn from Ovid (58), that this FlG - 5< 
 goddefs was of tnatclals, v. mch they antiently called, Hamadryades: a name which, (if 
 it were only on her account,) I fhould think, did not abfolutely fignify (59) what it has 
 
 generally 
 
 ( 55 ) 1 idife among 
 
 the antients, muft be expe&ed to have grown fainter 
 and fainter, in every transiufion from one people to 
 another. The Romans probably derived their no- 
 
 1 
 
 feems to have been ihadowed out under the ftories of 
 the gardens of Alcinous. In Africa, they had the 
 gardens of the Hefperides ; and in the call, thofc of 
 Adonis: or, the Horti Adonis, as Pliny calls them. 
 The term of Horti Adonidcs, was ufed by the an¬ 
 tients, to fignify gardens of plcafurc ; which anfwers 
 Lrangely to the very name of paradife, or the garden 
 of Eden ; as Horti Adonis, does to the garden of the 
 
 Lord.- Antiquitas nihil prius miratae.', quam Hcf- 
 
 peridum hortos, ac regum Adonis & Alcinoi. Pliny, 
 Lib. 19. cap. 4. p. 349. Ed. Elz.—The fame author 
 tells us, very exadlly, in what part of Africa the gar¬ 
 dens of the Hefperides were fuppofed to have been. 
 In Mauritania, Lixi oppidi teftuario; ubi Hefperidum 
 horti fui fie produntur : 200 pafiuum ab oceano ; juxta 
 delubrum Herculis, antiquius Gaditano ut ferunt. 
 
 Ibid. p. 3j2. 
 
 (j6) Chloris eram, nymphe campi felicis; ubi audi: 
 
 Reni fortunatis ante faiffe viris. - 
 
 Vere fruor femper; vere eft nitidiflimus annus 
 Arbor habet frondes, pabula femper humus. 
 
 Id. Ibid. 2< 
 
 (57) Namque fub Ocbalix memini mc turribus altis. 
 
 Qua niger humedlat flaventia culta Galefus, 
 Corycium vidifTe fenem : cui pauca relidi 
 Jugera ruris erant; nec fertilis illa juvencis. 
 
 Nec pecori opportuna feges; ncc commodaBaccho. 
 Hic rarum tamen in dumis olus, albaque circum 
 Lilia verbenafquc premens vefcumque papaver, 
 Regum xquabat opes animis ; feraque revertens 
 Node domum, dapibus menfas onerabat inemtis. 
 Primus vercrofam, atque autumno carpere poma : 
 
 a trillis hiems ctiamnum frigore faxa 
 Rumperet, & glacie curfus frxnaret aquarum ; 
 
 Ille comam moilis jam tum tondebat acanthi, 
 iEilatem increpitans feram Zephyrofqi 
 
 Virgil. Georg. 4. j/. 138. 
 
 The plfture of this garden, (in the Vatican Virgil, 
 N° 6.) is juft l’uch as is deferibed above, in the text. 
 
 Jn the younger Pliny’s time, they were got into for¬ 
 malities, and cut box ; according to the account he 
 gives of his gardens, in one or two of his epilfles. 
 it was about the fame time too, that the fountain of 
 Egcria was almoft fpoiled, by adorning it with marble; 
 according to Juvenal, Sat. 3. 20. 
 
 (58) Rege fub hoc Pomona fuit: qua nulla Latinas 
 Inter- Hamadryadas coluit folejjtius hortos. 
 
 Nec fuit arborei fludiofior altera fcetus; 
 
 Unde tenet nomen. Non fylvas illa, nec amnes ; 
 Rus amat, & ramos felicia poma ferentes : 
 
 Ncc jaculo gravis ell, fed adunca dextera falce. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 14. 628. 
 
 (59) The vulgar notion of Hamadryads now, as I 
 take it, is that of certain Genius’s, or Nymphs, vitally 
 annexed to trees.—The notion of the old fcholiafb, 
 is that of a fet of Nymphs coeval with certain oaks > 
 or, at lead, fated to perifh with them.— Neither of 
 thefe feem to me to agree with the notion of Hama¬ 
 dryads in the Mythology of the old Romans ; which 
 is the only Mythology that I have any thing to do with-, 
 at p refen t. 
 
 The Roman poets ufe the word Hamadryades, ra¬ 
 ther as a charadter of the nymphs, in general j than 
 as the name of any particular clafs of nymphs. They 
 ufe it fometimes in fpcakingof the Dryads themfelves; 
 and fometimes of the other nymphs, the compani¬ 
 ons of the Dryads : as the word naturally feems to 
 lignify. 
 
 Virgil, I think, never ufes the word Hamadryades 
 but once : and that is where he feems to be fpeakin» of 
 the rural Nymphs, in general. 
 
 Jam mihi per rupes videor lucofque fonantes 
 Ire ; libet Partho torquere Cydonia cornu 
 Spicula, tanquam hxc fint noftri medicina furoris* 
 Aut deus ille malis hominum mi te fee re difeat : 
 
 Jam neque Hamadryades ruifum, nec carmina nobis 
 Ipfa placent; ipfx rurfum concedite fylvx : 
 
 Non illum nollri poifunt mutare labores. 
 
 Eel. io. f. 64. 
 
 In the two or three places where Ovid mentions 
 them, he is fpeaking either of wood-nymphs, (fee 
 the quotation from him in the preceding note;) or of 
 the followers of Diana : 
 
 Inter Hamadryadas jaculatricemque Dianam 
 Callifto facri pars fuit una chori. 
 
 Fall. 2. 
 
 Inter Hamadryadas celeberrima Nonacrinas 
 Nai'as una fuit: nymphas Syringa vocabant. 
 
 Non femel & Satyros elufcrat illa fequentes; 
 
 Et quofeunque Deos umbrofaque fylva, feraxque 
 Rus habet; Ortygiam ftudiis, ipfaque colebat 
 Virginitate Deam : ritu quoque cindla Dianx. 
 
 Met. x. jr. 695. 
 
 It may be obferved here, that this Hamadryad was 
 a Naiad or'water-nymph. Now the water-nymphs 
 were fuch frequent companions of the wood-nymphs, 
 or Dryads, that Virgil calls them fillers : Georg. 4. 
 
 382, & 383: and when the other Roman poets 
 fpeak of nymphs, either as prefiding over fingle trees, 
 or as more intimately united with them ; they men- 
 
 rioa 
 
 T tt 
 
POL 
 
 METI S. 
 
 generally been imagined to do. Pliny introduces this god dels perfunally, even in his 
 profe(6o)- to make her fpeak in praife of the fcveral fruits die prefided over. Her 
 p, XXXV. lover, Vertumnus, {hared with her in that charge; and was therefore reprefcnted, with 
 l it,. 6. the fame attribute of a pruning-hook. I mean the principal Vertumnus 3 for there 
 feems, according to Horace, to have been (61) fcveral inferior deities of the fame name 
 and charadier with him : in the fame manner as there was a number of interior Pans, 
 and Faunus’s; belides the principal Faunus of the Romans, or the great god Pan of the 
 Greeks. 
 
 Pomona and Vertumnus, as well as Flora, had a {hare in prefiding over gardens 3 and 
 fo had another deity, almoft too mean to mention to you. You will ealily guels that 1 
 mean Priapus. Fie held a pruning-hook (62) too in his hands 3 when he had hands; 
 for he was fometimes nothing more than a meer log of wood 3 as Martial, fomewhc rc 
 humouroufly calls him (63). Indeed the Roman poets in general fecm to have looked 
 on Priapus as a ridiculous god 3 and are all ready enough, cither to depile, or abufe him. 
 What Horace lays of him, contains as fevere a ftroke (64) on the worfhip of idols in gene¬ 
 ral, as almoft any I know of; even in thofe who have wrote profelledly againft idolatry. 
 There is a paffage in a very immodeft book, (which has been attributed by fome of the 
 critics, to one of the modefteft poets that ever wrote,) which mentions a very (65) proper 
 offering to this god; and indeed, there were fome other pieces of devotion paid to him, 
 which were full as obfeene as the deity himlelf. His buiinefs was (66) to drive away the 
 birds, and guard the fruit from thieves 3 whence in fome of his figures, he had a lap full 
 of fruit before him. Trimalchio, in his ridiculous feaft deferibed by Petronius, had a 
 figure of this god to hold up all his deffert. It was made of pafte ; and as Horace ob- 
 lerves, on another occafion, that he owed all his divinity to the carpenter; Petronius 
 feems to hint that he was wholly obliged for it to the (67) paftry-cook, on this. 
 
 Ceres 
 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 tion Naiads under thefe characters, juft as freely as (61) 
 Dryads. 
 
 NaVada vulneribus fuccidit in arbore faftis : 
 
 Illa perit ; fatum Naiados arbor erat. 
 
 Ovid. Fall. 4. >’•. 232. 
 
 Quid te, qux mediis fervata penatibus arbor 
 Tefta per & poltes liquidas emergis in auras. 
 
 Quo non fub domino fxvas pafl'ura fecures ? 
 
 Et nunc ignaro forfan, vel lubrica Nais, 
 
 Vel non abruptos tibi demet Hamadryas annos. 
 
 Statius. Lib. 1. Sylv. 3. 63. 
 
 This common idea among the antients, (of Nymphs, 
 or intellectual Beings, annexed to trees,) muft have 
 made the ftory of Erifichthon in Ovid, and that of 
 Polydorus in Virgil, appear much more natural and 
 obvious to their readers then, than they do to us 
 now. It will account too for their worfhipping of 
 trees ; as we find they fometimes did, not only from 
 their poets but their hiftorians. Livy fpeaks of an 
 embaflador’s addrefling himfelf to an old oak, as to 
 an intelligent perfon, and a divinity. Tum ex lega¬ 
 tis unus abiens ; “ Et haec, inquit, facrata quercus, 
 
 & quicquid deorum eft, audiant fccdus a vobis rup¬ 
 tum.” Lib. 3. §. 25.— Among the feveral modes 
 of heathen worfhip, kept up fo carefully by the Ro¬ 
 man Catholics, they have not wholly negleCted this : 
 a very particular inftance of which, in our own times 
 and near our own country, is related by Monfieurde 
 la Colonic, in his Memoirs; Vol. II. p. 56, to 62. 
 
 Ed. Bruflels, 1737. 
 
 :umnis, quotquot funt, natus iniquis. 
 Horat. Lib. 2. Sat. 7. jt. 14. 
 
 (62) Invitent croceis halantes floribus horti; 
 
 Et cullos furum atque avium, cum falce faligna, 
 Hellefpontiaci fervet tutela Priapi. 
 
 Virgil. Georg. 4. f. ill. 
 
 (63) Non horti neque palmitis beati. 
 
 Sed rari nemoris, Priape, cullos 1 
 Ex quo natus es, & potes renafei: 
 
 Furaces, moneo, manus repellas; 
 
 Et fylvam domini focis referves : 
 
 Si defecerit hoc, & ipfe lignum es. 
 
 Martial. Lib. 8. Ep. 41. 
 
 (64) Olim truncus eram ficulnus; inutile lignum : 
 
 Cum faber incertus fcamnum faceretnc Priapum, 
 Maluit efle Deum ; Deus inde ego.- 
 
 Horat. Lib. 1. Sat. 8. jr. 3. 
 
 (65) Infamous books of pictures, mentioned in the 
 collection of inferiptions under the figures of this god. 
 Pria : Carm. 3. Seme of the editors aferibe this piece 
 to Virgil, without any manner of foundation. 
 
 Thefe antient pictures, were of the fame kind with 
 thofe modern ones, mentioned by Vafari; in his 
 Lives of the Painters. Part 3. p. 307. 4to. 
 
 (60) Non ccfllt his Pomona.— Plurimum inquit, 
 homini voluptatis ex me eft. Ego fuccum vini, li¬ 
 quorem olei gigno. Ego palmas ; & poma -. totque 
 varietates ; &c. Pliny, Nat. Hift. Lib. 23. in 
 Procem. 
 
 (66) — - ■ - Deus inde ego ; furum aviumque 
 
 Maxima formido. Nam fures dextra coercet;— 
 Alt importunas volucres in vertice arundo 
 Terret lixa, vetatque novis confidere in hortis. 
 
 Horat. Lib. 1. Sat. 8. jr. 
 
 (67) Medium Priapus, a piftore faCtus, tenebat: 
 gremioque, fatis amplo, omnis generis poma & uvas 
 fuftinebat, more vulgato. Petronius Arb. p, 99. Ed. 
 Lond. 
 
Dialogue the Fifteenth. 
 
 Ceres was the goddefs that prefided in chief over corn-fields, as Flora did over gar¬ 
 dens. I have no figure of Ceres heres becaufe (he has a place among tire tv.eh. 
 
 Deities ( 68 ), in my celeftial temple. There was another deity received among the Ro¬ 
 mans, for this diftria, of a very different charafter : and who mult h ive made a very 
 mean appearance, as I imagine ; for I have never met with any figure of her, among the 
 remains of the artifts. The Romans, you know, in general had their bad gods, as well 
 as their good ones: and fo they had a deity to caufe the rufi; in corn, as well as to pre- 
 ferve it and make it flourifh. The former was the goddefs Robigo : a deity, mentioned, 
 very gravely, by Ovid (69) ; and very much ridiculed, by fome of the fathers of the 
 church. 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 
 The figures of Bacchus who prefided over vineyards (7°), and of Diana who ranged 
 the forefts, are omitted here ; for the fame reafon as that of Ceres. You have feen them 
 already in making the rounds of my firil temple. Sylvanus, as his name imports, pre¬ 
 sided over woods; and the fruits, that grew in them. Agreeably to which, you fee here, Pl.XXXV. 
 he has a lap full ot fruit: his pruning-hook, in one hand ; and a young cyp refs-tree, ^ IGi 7 * 
 in the other. Virgil mentions the latter (7O, as a diftinguifliing attribute of this god. 
 
 The fame poet, on another occafion, deferibes him as crowned (72) with wild flowers ; 
 and mentions his prefiding over (73) the corn-fields, as well as the woods. That might 
 be occafioned by the manner of cultivation uled in Italy in his time (74): and indeed at 
 this day they plant rows of olive-trees, mulberries, elms and vines, fo generally and fo 
 near together, in their corn-fields ; that the whole vale of Lombardy, (one of the moil 
 cultivated parts of Italy,) when viewed from the firfl riiings of the Apennine, near Bo¬ 
 logna, looks all like one continued wood. 
 
 The Fauns were a fort of woodland deities. They ranged all over the country: but 
 feem more particularly to have delighted in the vineyards; and in theie fields, inter- 
 fperfed with vines. You fee them in fome of the works of the antient artifts even eating 
 the grapes in the hands of Bacchus; and they appear generally as attendants of that god, 
 in the representations of Bacchanal fcails and procefiions. I have here, you fee, a Faun p L .xxXV 
 and a Fauneis. The Faun is a copy of that famous one in the Great Duke's collection Fig. 8, &g» 
 at Florence; and is dancing with fome of the mufical inftruments in his hands that were 
 ufed in the feafts of Bacchus: as the Faunefs fhews the playfulnefs, which makes one of 
 
 the 
 
 (68) PI. 14. Fig. 3. anteh. 
 
 (69) Hac mihi Nomento Romam cum * luce redirem, 
 
 Obftitit in media candida pompa via : 
 
 Flamen in antiqua: lucum Robiginis ibat; 
 
 Exta canis flammis, exta daturus ovis. 
 
 Protinus accefli ; ritus ne nefeius e flem : 
 
 Edidit hxc flamen verba, Quirine, tuus. 
 
 “ Afpera Robigo, parcas Cerealibus herbis, 
 
 Et tremat in fumma lteve cacumen humo ! 
 
 Parce, precor; fcabrafque manus a meflibus aufer; 
 
 • Nevc noce cultis: pofle nocere fat eft 1 &c.” 
 
 * (Apr. 24.) Ovid. Fall. 4. jr. 901, to 942. 
 
 The whole prayer of the prieft is there : he calls her 
 cxprdly, Diva timenda, it. 920. 
 
 The Romans had a god Rubigus, as well as this 
 goddefs Robigo. Among the antiquities of Aquileia, 
 there is a marble inferibed, DEO RVBIGO. Can. 
 Bartoli. Antich. d’Aquilcia. This god is fpoken of 
 by Varro; de Ling. Lat. 5. 3. 
 
 The Rubigalia, were inftituted by Numa : Pliny, 
 Nat. Hift. lib. 18. cap. 29. p. 319. Ed. EIz. and are 
 ridiculed by St. Aug. dc Civit. Dei, Lib. 4. cap. 21. 
 —Tertul. de Spedtac. cap. 5.—& Ladlantius, Lib. 1. 
 cap. 20. 
 
 (70) This Bacchus is in PI. 20. Fig. r, and the 
 Diana, PI. 13. Fig. 4. anteh. 
 
 (71) Et teneram ab radice ferens, Sylvane, cupreflum. 
 
 Georg. 1. it. 20. 
 
 (72) Venit 5 c agrefti capitis Sylvanus honore 
 Florentes ferulas & grandia lilia quaflans. 
 
 Virg. Ed. 10. it. 2;. 
 
 (73) He calls him Arvorum Dcus. JEn. 8. v. 
 601. 
 
 (74) Virgil often fpeaks of their vines, and corn 
 together ; in the fame mixed manner, as they were 
 planted. 
 
 Impius ha:c tam culta novalia miles habebit. 
 Barbarus has fegetes ? En quo difeordia cives 
 Perduxit miferos! En queis confevimus agros ! 
 Infere nunc, Meliboee, pyros; pone ordine vites ! 
 
 Eel. 1. it. 75. 
 
 Quin age & ipfa manu felices erue fylvas; 
 
 Fer flabulis inimicum ignem atque interfice meflos : 
 Ure fata, & validam in vites molire bipennem : 
 Tanta mete fi te cceperunt tsdia laudis. 
 
 Georg. 4. it. 332. 
 
! I 
 
 
 the cnief pa; 
 fiityr-kind. 
 horns, and 
 ■ hut they wei 
 
 T.r 
 
 POLYMETI S. 
 
 in the character of this clafs of deities. The Fauns were partly of the 
 , had fomething of the ferine nature; as you fee by their tails, little 
 anted ears. They have all the agility and playfulnels of the Satyrs; 
 n ,t fo lavage and horrid, in their form; nor fo abandoned, in their 
 
 pafiion (75), both of the Fauns and Satyrs, feems to have been for the 
 Iv.v.'pi: ; ; there were female Satyrs, as well as Faunefles. I have often wondered 
 ho v it comes about that thefe Nymphs and Fauns fhould be fo common a fubjedt with 
 the an Lieni: .e and fo very uncommon in the poets. However it happened, the latter 
 have very ft ••. jvi! ■■ es that are defer!ptive either of the perfonage or attributes of thefe 
 cl cities ^ and indeed not any tiling, that I know of, worth mentioning. 
 
 0 :.t. ci the chief chara&ers of the Satyrs, or Pans, (for the Romans called them all 
 (/') by that name, as well as their chief,) is their lafeivioufnefs : which is but too ftrongly 
 ex prefled in the famous Satyr (77), inftru&ing a youth to play on the fhepherd’s reed; 
 in the Lodovilian gardens : vvhofe face only is reprefented, in this drawing; for a very 
 obvious reafon. The poets have an epithet for the (78) Satyrs, which includes both their 
 characters in one word. 
 
 The great god Pan himfelf is not wholly exempt from the worft of thefe charadters : 
 and indeed it is he who is fuppofed by fome, to be meant in this very figure in the Lo- 
 dovifian gardens. His figures are ufually naked, to exp refs his agility; and Silius Italicus 
 fpeaks of him, as flying, (or bounding,) from the top of one rock to another. That poet 
 gives us (79) the mod particular defeription of Pan, that I know of in all the Roman 
 poets. He fpeaks of his head being crowned with pine-branches, and his forehead 
 ihaded with them. He gives him a doe’s fkin, over his left fhoulder; and a pedum, in 
 his right hand. One might form feveral diftindt pictures out of this defeription: which 
 is the more particular, becaufe Silius is not ufually very pidhirefque. In one part of it, 
 you fee this god poifed on one foot, as juft ready to take one of his leaps : in another, 
 h- is regarding his flocks, that feed at a diftance; and fhading his face, from the fun 
 with his hand. Here, he is in a wanton attitude, looking over his fhoulder, and laugh¬ 
 ing at his own tail; and there you fee him fitting on an eminence, playing on his pipe, 
 with his flocks liftening all about him. 
 
 Silk a introduces this account of Pan into his poem, on an occafion where I fhould 
 not have expected to have heard of this god. Juft after Hannibal had quitted Italy, as 
 tiie Roman army was drawing toward Capua with a full defign of deftroying that city, 
 
 the 
 
 (75) Faune, nympharum fugiencum amator. 
 
 Horat. Lib. 3. Od. 18. jL 1. 
 
 The Satyrs were fo fond of them, that they ex¬ 
 tended their paflion even to the nymphs of another 
 element from their own; according to what Statius 
 fays, of Come water-nymphs : 
 
 Ite Dex v.rides, liquidofque advertite vultus ! 
 
 Velle nihil tedlx ; quales emergitis altis 
 Fluftibus, & vifu Satyras torquetis amantes. 
 
 Lib. i. Sylv. 5. jfr. iS. 
 
 (76) ■-Panefque biformes. 
 
 Columella, j'. 427. 
 
 - Pinu prxcinfli cornua Panes. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 14. jr. 638. 
 
 (77) Maffei’s ftatues, N° 64. 
 
 (78) Lafcivi Satyri. Lafcivus, & Lafcivia, in Latin, 
 
 iignify either playfulnefs, or lewdnefs ; as the words, 
 wanton, and wantonnefs, do alfo in our language. 
 Lafcivus is often ufed in the poets, of Cupid 5 only to 
 ftgnify his nimblenefs : and fo is it fometimes ufed too, 
 of the Satyrs. £ 
 
 (79) P an Jove miflus erat, fervari leda volente 
 Troia. Pendenti fimilis Pan Temper; & imo 
 Vix ulla inferibens terrx vefligia cornu : 
 
 Dextera lafeivit exfa Tegeatide capra ; 
 
 Verbera lxta movens fella per compita cauda. 
 
 C ngit acuta comas & opacat tempora pinus ; 
 
 Ac parva erumpunt rubicunda cornua fronte. 
 
 Stant aures ; imoque cadit barba hifpida mento, 
 Pallorale Deo baculum : pellifque finiltrum 
 Velat grata latus tenerx de corpore damx. 
 
 Nulla in prxruptum tam prona & inhofpita cautes: 
 In qua non librans corpus, fimilifque volanti. 
 Cornipedem tulerit prxeifa per avia plantam. 
 Interdum inflexus medio nafcentia tergo 
 Refpicit adridens hirtx ludibria candse : 
 Obtendenfque manum, folem effervefeere fronti 
 Arcet; & umbrato perluflrat pafcua vifu. 
 
 Hic poflquam mandata Dei perfefta, malamque 
 Sedavit rabiem & permulfit corda furentum ; 
 Arcadix volucris faltus & amata revifit 
 Mxnala : ubi argutis longe de vertice facrq 
 Dulce fonat calamis; ducit llabula omnia cantu. 
 
 Silius Ital. 13. jfr. 347. 
 
I 
 
 D i 
 
 a l o g u e the Fifteenth. 
 
 the inhabitants came out in a body, and in the moil: fupphant manner, to deprecate their 
 wrath. Jupiter, (fays the poet,) was moved with the diftrefs of the Capuans; and fent 
 Pan to foften their incenfed enemies. This god breathed a hidden fpirit of relenting 
 into all the Roman army. They felt a ftrange compaffion (80) r if :ng ; n t h e ; r breafls; 
 and were furprifed to find all their wrath turned into pity. Silius on this occafion calls 
 Pan, the mild god, or the infpirer of mildnefs. There is a terminal figure, in the Great 
 Duke’s gallery at Florence; which they call, a Pan : and whofe face agrees very well with 
 this charafter. He looks like a good honeft fhepherd : and has a goat on his ihoulder; 
 and a little milking veffel (8i), in his right hand. 
 
 As mild as this god looks here, he is better known atprefent I think under a more for¬ 
 midable charafter; as the infpirer of fudden frights, and terrors. Theantients ufed to at¬ 
 tribute to Pan a thoufand little idle tricks (82), (as frightning their cattle, and the like;) in 
 the fame manner as our common people did formerly, to Robin Goodfellow. Pan too, I 
 fuppofe, was a giver of frightful dreams, as well as (83) the Fauns. All great frights, which 
 happened in an army without any real foundation; and all fuch as we hill call. Panic 
 Fears; were attributed to the operations of this deity. Thefe horrors caufed by Pan are, 
 very particularly (84), deferibed in the little romance wrote by Longus ; who, I Ihouid 
 think, lived in an higher and better age, than is generally (8s) allowed him. However 
 that be, the Roman poets of the good ages, fometimes deferibe Pan as hriking greater 
 terrors into an army (86), with caufelefs alarms ; than any enemy could do, with real 
 ones : and the artihs, agreeably to what they fay, fometimes give him a face that is much 
 more terrible than that of Mars himfelf. It was on this account, that the Athenians had 
 ftatues of this god (87), carrying a trophy on his fhoulders; like the figures of Mars. 
 
 He had often afiiftcd them, in their wars ; and particularly, in gaining their moil cele¬ 
 brated viftory over the Perlians (88), at Marathon. His face, you fee, in this drawing 
 carries a great deal of horror with it. So much, that I have fometimes been apt to H 
 fulpdt that it was from fome of thefe more terrible reprefentations of this god, that our 
 later artifts might firft borrow their idea of a Devil. If you conftder, that the antients 
 
 always 
 
 “55 
 
 Pi.. XXXV. 
 Fig. i i. 
 
 (80) Atque ea dum miles miratur inertia fafla, 
 Exfpedlatque ferox fternendi mcenia lignum : 
 
 Ecce repens tacito percurrit pedtora fenfu 
 Relligio, & fevas componit numine mentes; 
 
 Ne flammam taidafque velint, ne templa fub uno 
 In cinerem tranfifle rogo. Subit intima corda 
 
 Perlabens fenfim mitis Deus.-- 
 
 Silius Ital. 13. jr. 320. 
 
 (81) See Muf. Flor. Vol. III. Pl. 61.- This may 
 
 be the Pan, which Virgil invokes in the beginning of 
 his Georgies. 
 
 Ipfe nemus linquens patrium faltufque Lycad, 
 
 Pan ovium cuftos! Tua fi tibi Mienala curte 
 
 Adiis, O Tegea:e, favens. - 
 
 Georg. \.f. 18. 
 
 (S2) Ludus & ille Deo, pavidum pnefepibus aufert 
 Cum pecus; & profugi flernunt dumeta juvenci. 
 
 Val. Flaccus, 3. jr. 56. 
 
 (83) Hasc medetur & Faunorum in quiete ludibriis. 
 
 Plin. Lib. 25. Cap. 4.-Qui a noCturnis Diis, Fau- 
 
 nifque agitantur. Id. Lib. 30. Cap. 10. 
 
 (84) In the long account of Pan’s terrifying the 
 captain of the pirates, that had carried away Cloe. 
 Lib. 2. 
 
 (85) Longus has been generally fuppofed to have 
 wrote about the end of the fourth century. The 
 only reafon given for this is, that he has fome paf- 
 fages which feem to have been copied from Helio¬ 
 
 dorus : but why might not Heliodorus as well have 
 copied from Longus, as Longus from Heliodorus ? 
 The reafon why I think Longus of the higher ages, is 
 the natural cafe and fimplicity of his ftyle ; in which 
 he feems to me noL to be inferior to any one, 
 Theocritus. 
 
 1 except 
 
 (86) Pan nemorum, bellique potens; quem lucis ab horis 
 Antra tenent : patet ad medias per devia nodtes 
 Sctigerum latus, & torva: coma fibila fronds. 
 
 Vox omnes fuper una tubas: qua conus & enfis. 
 Qua trepidis auriga rotis, nodlurnaque muris 
 Plauflra cadunt. Talefque metus non Martia caflis, 
 Eumenidumquc coma:, non triftis ab xthere Gordon 
 Sparferit; aut tantis aciem raptaverit umbris. 
 
 Valerius Flaccus, 3. jt. 54.. 
 
 (87) This appears from an infeription; in the col¬ 
 lection of Greek epigrams. 
 
 nsTfHf sk n«p/nf y.c rrohtv x«7* ThtWahof ay.p sv 
 Srinrsti' A^nvatoi Ylava. TpoTrcuofopsv. 
 
 (88) As this does, from another; in the fame. 
 TAcGcmh, rpt^oJ'zvJ'pof, optaffctvKx wtHtif Ayvf, 
 nai’c-xoirsf, iunz&r.a [AttKotpua.yz\a.s, 
 rict!' 0 d'ctcruKVet/jav, 0 'noKvoiropn' Of /AiTclVttr&f 
 EJ'gr.ij.ov cuy^a.Ta.v if tTaiiv Aaavptur 
 
 M/Arntcf» swrej-Tor o/xaaz-iJ'a.nipiToJ'iiiulny, 
 If-ttpiax' akKuth Ztivia, cvpipictyinf. 
 
 AA Kotf Axpo?roAi)£{- 0 Mwcfo ipovof j'i J'iJ'afcu 
 Svyof i [xiv M<2£j'8a>i>, xai MA£?$uvopi<tya[f, 
 
 U U U 
 
 vl 
 
always gave Pan a tail, horns, and cloven-feet, it would make fuch a conjeSure yet the 
 more probable. One might add, that in the old ftories of the Sabat, the devil is moft 
 ufoally faid to have appeared in the fhape of a goat: now Ovid calls Pan, the Goatiffi 
 god ( s 9 >; as one of the fathers of the church ( 9 °) chufes to diftinguilh him, by his cloven 
 feet. This deep conjeflure of mine might, perhaps.be carried much farther; but ! 
 fhall quit that, and Pan together: which we may do with the more pleafure, becaufe 
 his is the laft ftatue I had to {hew you. You have proved that you have a great deal of 
 patience, in attending me fo long; thro' my temple of the Celeftial Beings; that of the_ 
 Conftellations; the Beings of the Air; thofe of the Waters, and thefe of the Earth. 
 We have now compleated our whole round; and I heartily wifh you joy of it: for to 
 fay the truth, I begin to be a little tired of my office, as you may very well be, with 
 hearing me. 
 
 Met. 14. S15- 
 
 (90) Minutius Felix; See Dial. VII, Note 8i> 
 anteh. 
 
Dialogue the Sixteenth, 
 
 BOOK the Ninth. 
 
 DIAL. XVI 
 
 Of the Deities, and Inhabitants, of the Lower \Vorld. 
 
 P O LY METIS had now carried his two friends through all his colledion, as far as 
 it was difpofed of in his gardens ; fo the next day was to be a day of reft to them : 
 but as they had got into a train of diverting their time in this one kind of manner, 
 they found this day hang more upon their hands than any of the former. Philander, in 
 particular, wanted very much fome of the fame diveriion they had now been ufed to for 
 fome time j and could not help mentioning it to Polymetis, as they were fitting in the 
 library, after fupper. I wifh, fays he, you had followed the tafte of the emperor 
 Adrian ( 0 , who is faid to have furnifhed one part of his gardens with nothing but infernal 
 deities, and fuch beings as were fuppofed to inhabit the lower world. We might then 
 have had fome of our old employment for to-morrow. Befides, it would finifh the 
 whole feries of imaginary beings, that we have been converfing with thele feven or eight 
 days; and yet I do not know how it is, I am fo far from being tired of their company, 
 that I am at a lofs how to do without it. If you are fo very delirous of going on with 
 them and compleating our enquiry, fays Polymetis, you need only turn round, and hand 
 me that drawer,-the lowed; of the lix, j aft behind you ;—in which are all the draw¬ 
 
 ings I could get in relation to this laft clafs of imaginary beings. As this was what Phi¬ 
 lander wanted, he did not lofe any time ; but took out the drawer immediately, (which 
 looked better ftockt than they expected,) and fet it before Polymetis: who, as all thele 
 drawings were ranged there to his hand in their proper order, began his ledure on them 
 in the following manner. 
 
 In talking of the poetical hell of the old Romans, I know not how one can do better, 
 than to follow exadly the account which is given us by the belt poet that the Ro¬ 
 mans ever had. I have therefore ranged thefe drawings of mine into diflind parcels, 
 according to the different divifions which Virgil has given us of the infernal regions. 
 Virgil’s general character is exadnefs; and he feems to have fhown it particularly on this 
 occafion. His account of the fubterraneous world is much the moll regular and the molt 
 compleat we meet with in any of the Greek, as well as Latin poets, that remain to us. 
 Hence it is, that Silius Italicus, (who ought perhaps to have more the authority of an 
 hiftorian, than that of a poet,) fets Virgil’s account of he'll on a level with the principal 
 l'ubjed of his ./Eneid: and feems to iniinuate, that he laid out all the parts of it in as ( (i) 2 ) 
 exad order, before he faw it; as he could have done, after he was an inhabitant of thole 
 lower regions. 
 
 The 
 
 (i) At his Villa, near Tivoli. See Spartian, T. II. 
 P- 193- 
 
 (2) Atque hic Elyfio tendentem limite cernens 
 Effigiem * juvenis certam, cui vitta ligabat 
 Purpurea effufos per colla nitentia crines; 
 
 Dic ait, hic quinam, Virgo? nam luce refulget 
 Pracipua frons facra viro; mult.-equc fequuntur 
 Mirantes anima;, & lseto clamore frequentant. 
 
 Qui vultus! Quem, fi Stif ia non effiet in umbra, 
 Dixiflem incilo e( 11 - Deum. Non falleris, inquit 
 Dofta comes Trivi t; meruit Deus effie videri; 
 
 Et fuit in tanto non parvum pedore numen : 
 Carmine complexus terram, mare, iidera, inanes, 
 Et cantu Mulas & Phaibum aquavit honore. 
 
 Atque hsec cuDda prius quam cerneret ordine terris 
 Prodicit; & vcltram tulit ufque ad fidera Trojam. 
 
 Silius, lui. 13. >’ . 791. 
 
 * Scipio. 
 
 4 
 
POLYMETIS. 
 
 The whole imaginary world (3) beneath the furface of the earth, which we call Hell, 
 (tho’ according to the antients it was the receptacle of all departed perfons, of the good as 
 well as the bad,) is divided, by Virgil, into five parts. The firfi may be called the Pre¬ 
 vious Region. The fecond is the Region of Waters3 or the River, which they were all 
 to pafs. The third is what we may call, the Gloomy Region 3 and what the antients 
 called, Erebus (4). The fourth is Tartarus, or the Region of Torments : and the fifth, 
 the Region of Joy and Blils 3 or what we Hill call Elylium. 
 
 It may be worth while to enquire a little more particularly into the difpofition which 
 Virgil has made of the nether world, into thefe five parts 3 and what fort of perlonages, 
 or inhabitants, he affigns to each of them. 
 
 The firH part in it, (which I call the Previous Region, as being only the fuburbs of 
 the Realms of Death,) Virgil has Hocked with two forts of beings. FirH, with thofe 
 which make (5) the real mifery of mankind upon earth 3 fucli as War, Difcord 3 Labour, 
 Grief, Cares, DiHempers, and Old-age: and fecondly, with (6) fancied terrors, and all 
 the moH frightful creatures of our own imagination3 fuch as Gorgons, Harpies, Chi¬ 
 mera’s, and the like. 
 
 The next is the Water, which all the departed were fuppofed to pafs, to enter into 
 the other world. This was called Styx3 or, the Hateful palTage. The imaginary per- 
 fonages of this divifion are (7) the fouls of the departed, who are either pafling over, or 
 fifing for a paflage 3 and the mailer of the velTel, who carries them over, one freight 
 after another, according to his will and pleafure. 
 
 The third divifion begins immediately with the bank on the other fide the river 3 and 
 was fuppofed to extend a great way in. It is lubdivided again into feveral particular 
 difiridts. The HrH ( 8 ) feems to be the receptacle for infants, or the Limbus Infantum.— 
 Then is the Limbo for all fuch as have been (9) put to death without a caufe.—Next, is 
 the place for thofe who have (10) put a period to their own lives: a melancholy region ; 
 and iituated amidH the marHies, made by the overflowings of the Hateful River, or paf¬ 
 lage into the other world.-After this, are the (u) fields of Mourning 3 full of dark 
 
 woods and groves, and inhabited by thofe who died for love.——Lad (12) of all, fpreads 
 an open champion country, allotted for the fouls of departed warriors. The name of 
 this whole divifion is (13) Erebus. 
 
 The 
 
 (3) The antients feem, mod commonly, to have 
 coniidcred the earth, as a vaft plain, fpread out every 
 way ; and hell, as fpread out, at an equal depth, all 
 under the furface of it. Hence they had vents, or 
 paflages, that were fuppofed to lead diredtly to hell, 
 in every country ; and feveral in fomc : as the lakes of 
 Avernus and Amfandtus, in particular, for Italy. “ It 
 is indifferent to me, where you bury me, (fays Anax¬ 
 agoras) for my journey to the other world will be 
 juft the fame Undique enim ad Inferos tantundem 
 vi;e eft. Cicero’s Tufc. Quteft. Lib. x. p. 365. 
 
 Ed. Blacu. 
 
 (4) Erebus is moft commonly ufed for this particu¬ 
 lar part of the fubterraneous world, by Virgil and 
 the reft of the Roman poets ; tho’ they may poflibly 
 fometimes ufe it for the fubterraneous world, in ge¬ 
 neral. The perfons placed by Virgil in this part, 
 feem to me not to have been fuppofed to be in tor¬ 
 ments ; but only to abide in a dark, and melancholy 
 way. The derivation of the words Tartarus and Ere¬ 
 bus, according to the critics in that fort of knowledge, 
 
 6 
 
 agrees very well with this diftinclion : for Erebus, 
 fav they, is derived from which fignities Night, 
 or Obfcurity ; and Tartarus, from rctgv. t\v, to dif- 
 turb, or torment. 
 
 (5) /En. 6. f. 274, to 281. 
 
 (6) Ibid. 286, to 289. 
 
 (7) Ibid. 295, to 316, 
 
 (8) Ibid. 427. 
 
 ( 9 ) IbId - 43 °- 
 
 (10) Ibid. 434, 10439. 
 
 (xi) Ibid. 441. 
 
 (12) Ibid. 477. 
 
 (13) Virgil fhews plainly that this divifion was 
 called Erebus, in his account of the defeent of Or¬ 
 pheus into hell. Compare G. 4. jr. 471, and 478; 
 fee too /•. 481, ibid. 
 
 It 
 
Dialogue the Sixteenth. 2,59 
 
 The feveral difiricls of this divifion feem to be difpofed all in a line, one after the 
 other (14). But after this, the great line or road divides into two : of which, the right- 
 hand road leads to Elyfium, or the place of the blell; and the left-hand road to Tarta¬ 
 rus, or tlte place of the tormented. 
 
 The fourth general divifion of the fubterraneous world is this Tartarus; or the place 
 of torments. There was a city in it (15), and a prince to prefide over it. Within this 
 city was a vail deep pit, in which the tortures were fuppoled to be performed. In this 
 horrid part, Virgil places two forts of fouls: firfl. of fuch, as have iliewn their impiety and 
 rebellion (id) toward the gods; and fecondly, of fuch, as have been vile or mifehievoua 
 among men. Thofe, (as he himfelf fays of the latter, more particularly,) who hated 
 their brethren ; till'd their parents ill; or cheated their dependants: who made no ufe 
 of their riches; who committed inceft, or dilturbed the marriage-union of others : 
 thofe who were rebellious fubjefls, or knavifh fetvants; who were delpifers of judice, 
 and betrayers of their country; and who made and unmade laws, not for the good of 
 the public, but only to get money to themfclves. All thefe, and the delpifers of the 
 gods, Virgil places in this moll horrid divifion of his fubterraneous world; and in the 
 vail abyfs, which was the mod terrible part even of that divifion. 
 
 The fifth divifion is that of Elyfium, or the place of the bled. Here Virgil places (" 7 ) 
 thofe who died for their country; thofe of pure lives; truly infpired poets; the inven¬ 
 tors of arts; and all who have done good to mankind. He does not fpeak of any par¬ 
 ticular diltridts for thefe; but fuppofes that they have the liberty of (18) going where they 
 pleafe in that delightful region, and converfing with whom they pleafe. He only men¬ 
 tions one vale, toward the end of it, as appropriated to any particular ufe. This is (19) 
 the vale of Lethe, or Forgetfulnefs; where many of the antient philofophers, and the 
 Platonills in particular, fuppofed the fouls which had palled thro’ fome periods of their 
 trial, were immerfed in the river which gave its name to it; in order to be put into new 
 bodies, and to fill up the whole courfe of their probation in our upper world. 
 
 In each of thefe three divifions on the other fide of the river Styx, (which perhaps 
 were comprehended under the name of Ades, as all the five might be under the name of 
 Orcus,) was a prince, or judge (10) : Minos for the regions of Erebus ; Rhadamanthus, 
 for Tartarus; and vTacus, for Elyfium. Pluto and Proferpine (21) had their palace at 
 the entrance of the road to the Elyfian fields; and preflded, as fovercigns, over the 
 whole fubterraneous world. 
 
 My 
 
 -/I 
 
 It is laid before, that the name of this divifion is 
 derived from a Hebrew word fignifying Night, or 
 Darknefs; which agrees particularly with a line of 
 Virgil, in another part of his works. 
 
 Pallentes umbras Erebi ; nottemque profundam. 
 
 TEn, 4. if. 26. 
 
 (14) Virgil. JEn . 6. if. 540, to 543. 
 
 (15) Ibid. if. 549, and 566. 
 
 (16) The impious ; fee Virgil, 6. f. 580, to 
 607 : and the unjuft; ibid. i>. 608, to624. 
 
 Virgil plainly had this diftinftion in his thoughts, 
 from his not mixing them at all with one another ; 
 and feems even to exprefs it, in that exclamation 
 which he puts into the mouth of one of the tor¬ 
 mented : 
 
 Difcite juftitiam moniti ; & non temnere Divos ! 
 
 Ibid. ir. 620. 
 
 (17) Virgil, JEn. 6. if. 660, to 664. 
 
 (18) Nulli certa domus : lucis habitamus opacis; 
 Riparumque toros, & prata recentia rivis 
 Incolimus. — 
 
 Ibid, if- 675. 
 
 (19) Ibid. v. 679, 703, and 749. 
 
 (20) Nec vero h$ fine forte data:, fine judice fedes : 
 
 Quzefitor Minos urnam movet. - 
 
 Ibid. i'. 432. 
 
 Gnoflius hsc Rhadamanthus habet durillima regna ; 
 Calligatque auditque dolos. - 
 
 Ibid. f. 567. 
 
 Quam pene furva: regna Profcrpina:, 
 
 Et judicantem vidimus jEacum, 
 
 Sedcfque diferetas piorum !- 
 
 Horat. Lib. 2. Od, 13. f. 23. 
 
 (21) Ilie locus eft partes ubi fe via findit in ambas; 
 Dextera qua: Ditis magni fub mcenia tendit: 
 
 Hac iter Elyfium nobis.- 
 
 Virgil. uEn. 6. if. 54*- 
 
 u 
 
 
 
a6o 
 
 POLYMETIS. 
 
 My drawings here are ranged exadtly according to the map which Virgil has divert 
 •is of this imaginary country. The firft of them reprefents his Previous region. Vou 
 know there are two manuferipts of Virgil’s poems, in the Vatican library ; each with an¬ 
 cient pictures in them, relating to the moil remarkable paflages. This is taken from the 
 better of thol'e two manuferipts: which is faidtohave been wrote about the time of Co n- 
 (lantine the Great; as the pieftures in it are fuppofed (21) to have been copied from fome 
 of a higher date : at lead: as high, as the reign of Septimius Severus. 
 
 . XXXVI. You fee here the two forts of inhabitants, affigned by Virgil to this firft divitior, of the 
 '• nether world. That line of naked ladies above are the real Evils and diftrefil-s ofhuman 
 iile; as (23) Want, Difeafes, Grief, Old-age, and the like: and the reft of the picture is 
 almoft wholly furniihed with meer terrors of the imagination; fuch as Harpies, Cen¬ 
 taurs, monftrous Giants, Hydra’s, and Chimsera’s, 
 
 The former are the more remarkable, becaufe '1:1' ir fij ures are fcarce any where to 
 be met with but here. As for the Virtues, and beings which make the happinefs of life, 
 one had a large refource in the medals of the Roman emperors; who were all compli¬ 
 mented in their turns, with being the hope, the joy, the fafety, and fecurity, of the 
 kingdoms under their command. This was obvioufly expreffed by having the empe¬ 
 ror’s head, on one fide of a medal; and the figure of the goddefs Spes, Lietitia, Salus, or 
 Securitas, on the other. But tho’ they had fo many bad, and even fo many monftrous 
 emperors, I believe no artift ever ventured fo far as to place a vitious or hurtful beinn on 
 the reverfe of any of their coins: and this is one great reafon why the figures of thefe^bad 
 beings are fo much more difficult to be met with, than their oppofite virtues. Indeed I 
 have never feen any groupe of the Vices and hurtful Beings, but in this Vatican pidure : 
 and in this, they are not fufiiciently diftinguifhed from one another j being drawn with¬ 
 out any attributes, and almoft all alike. There are eight of them ; of whom I can fay 
 nothing in particular, except that the two who are fitting and looking downwards, pretty 
 much in the fame attitude, may poifibly be the Cura Virgil fpealcs of; for he cfi vcs 
 them feats: which, you fee here, are no better than the bare rocks; and even on them 
 they feem to be placed in an uneafy pofture. Some of the other poets, as well as Virgil” 
 fpeak of the Curae perfonally (24) ; but there is very little that is any way deferiptive of 
 their perfons, in any of them. 
 
 Virgil places Death (25), and his relation Sleep, among the evil beings of this region. 
 They make not their appearanee in the Vatican pidure; but may be fupphed from 
 other remains of the antient artifts. 
 
 1 he ngures or iviors, 
 
 
 “iv. v^iy Ui icUIIlIIiOU y 
 
 and hurtful beings are in general. They were baniflied from all medals, for'the' reafon 
 I have juft mentioned to you : on feals and rings they were probably coniidered as bad 
 
 (22) See Dial. VIII. Note 121. 
 
 (23) -- Primis in faucibus Orci 
 
 Luflus, & ultrices pofuere cubilia Curte : 
 Palk-ntcfque habitant Morbi, triftifque Seneflus; 
 Et Metus, & malefuada Fames, ac turpis Eo-ellas : 
 
 Terribiles vifu forma;. -- 
 
 Virgil. kEn. 6. jr. 277. 
 
 It muft be owned, that Virgil here is more diftimft 
 and picturefque, than the painting in the Vatican ma- 
 nufeript. The epithets of Pallentes Morbi, triftis 
 Sencdtus, & turpis Egeftas, might have furni/hed the 
 artift with hints how to diftinguifh thefe beings from 
 one another, much more than he has done. 
 
 (24) 
 
 - Curas, laqueata circum 
 Tefla volantes. 
 Horat. Lib. 2. Od. 16. 
 
 omens; 
 
 -- Curxquc fequaces. 
 
 Lucretius. 2. 
 
 Poll equitem fedet atra Cura. 
 
 Horat. Lib. 3. Od. 1. y. 40 . 
 Scandit teratas vitiofa naves 
 Cura, ncc turmas equitum relinquit ; 
 
 Ocyor cervis, & agente nimbos 
 Ocyor Euro. 
 
 Id Lib. 2. Od. 16. j2 + . 
 
 -- Lethumque, Labofquc • 
 
 Et confanguineus Lethi Sopor._. 
 
 Virgil. JEn. 6. jr. 27S. 
 
 (26) I hefe are almoft as uncommon in the deferip- 
 lions of the poets, as they are in the works of the an¬ 
 tientartifts. The molt remarkable that I remember 
 of this kind, are the defeription of Party-Rage 
 “ V,r S J i t- *■ 292. and thofe of Difcord; 
 
 JEn. 
 
Dialogue the Sixteenth. 
 
 omens; and were perhaps never ufed : as For pictures; they might be introduced there 
 on many occafions ; but we have fo few remaining to us of the antient paintings, that 
 we can expetfi but little afiiftance from that quarter. Among the very few figures of 
 Mors I have ever met with, that in the Florentine gallery, is I think the mod; remarkable, 
 it is a little figure in brafs, (in the apartment which they call the Madama,) of a ikeleton; 
 as fitting on the ground (27), and refting one of his hands on a long urn. 
 
 T fancy Mors was common enough in the paintings of old; becaufe Die is fo fre¬ 
 quently mentioned in a defcriptive manner, by the Roman poets : who, by the wav, 
 fometimes make a diftindtion (28) between Lethum and Mors, which the poverty of our 
 language will not allow us to exprefs ; and which it is even difficult enough to conceive. 
 Perhaps, they meant by Lethum, that general principle or fource of mortality, which 
 they iuppofed to have its proper refidence in hell; and by Mors, or Mortes, (for they 
 had (29) feveral of them,) the immediate caufe of each particular infiance of mortality, 
 on our earth. 
 
 The face of Mors, when they gave her any face, (and the painters probably repre¬ 
 fen ted her fometimes with a very meagre body, as well as like an abfolute ikeleton,) 
 feems to have been ( 3 °) of a pale, wan, dead colour. The poets deferibe her as rave¬ 
 nous, treacherous, and furious. They fpeak of her (3O roving about open-mouthed (32), 
 
 and 
 
 Ain. 6. i. 278, and 8- it. 702.—The Envy, and Han¬ 
 ger, in Ovid ; Met. Lib. 2. it. 775 ; and 8. jL 799.— 
 and the groupes of Evil Beings mentioned by the lame, 
 in his Met. Lib. 1. it. 130: by Statius, Theb. 4. 
 it. 661 : Valerius Flaccus, Argon. 2. it. 205 : Petro¬ 
 nius Arbiter, y. 254, to 263 ; and the author of 
 CEdipus, Aft 3. i. 590, to 594. 
 
 There is a profe-writcr among the Romans, that 
 I think fpeaks more defcriptively of thefe evil beings 
 than moft of their poets have done. The perfon I 
 mean is Valerius Maximus. According to him, (if 
 he fpeaks regularly enough to be depended upon,) 
 Sloth was fometimes painted of old, in a retired 
 cave; from his Memorab. Lib. 2. Cap. 6. §. 3. 
 and Perfidy, in a dark corner: Lib. 9. Cap. 6. Procem. 
 Luxury, andLuft, each with a loofe, flowing robe; 
 with a wanton look ; and eyes fixed on fome new 
 objeft, that hits their appetites. Lib. 9. Cap. 2. 
 Procem. To the two latter, he oppofes the appear¬ 
 ance of Cruelty ; in the following words. Crudeli¬ 
 tatis vero horridus habitus ; truculenta facies ; vio¬ 
 lenti fpiritus, vox terribilis ; ora, minis & cruentis 
 imperiis referta. (Ibid.) 
 
 It is very remarkable, that where Lucian deferibes 
 the cleareft picture I remember ever to have read of, 
 as to thefe bad beings ; he fpeaks, as if their charac¬ 
 ters were not well afeertained nor readily known, 
 
 even in his time.-The imaginary beings repre- 
 
 fented in this picture, were Calumny ; Ignorance, 
 Sufpicion; Envy, Treachery, Falfhood ; Repen¬ 
 tance, and Truth.-It was a work, of Apelles, the 
 
 Ephefian ; in the time of Ptolemy Philopater: in 
 whofe court that painter had been, for fome time, 
 very well received : but was afterwards like to lofe 
 his head; on a falfe accufation for treafon, from a 
 brother-artift who envied his reputation. The king 
 at laft was convinced of his innocence ; and fent him 
 home with a great reward. When he was got fafe 
 there, he drew the pi&ure I am fpeaking of; which 
 Lucian deferibes in the following words. Ei> Jii^ia. ns 
 anf Kctdnrax ra. cJja. ira/ty. s; sSn iyav, p«tp# <Anv rots 
 <7"K M/J'k tr&ffiO/KojtC Till/ *o\«»"V 'VoppoSiV ill 
 
 rrgjfftnffn rn A1a.G0A.11. rise* Ji ctvjov Iran Juo yvv.cuy.is 
 
 4 
 
 Ayvoia. [Mi J'ox.et, k, ToroAn^/f. Frspadev J'i, rrcya- 
 if/J]cu H AlctGoAn, yuveuov is utr;pGo\»V rrafKaAov, viro- 
 Sip/lOV Ji KCU Vr*(W.KiKIVn[/.iVOV’ 010V Jn TI1V WTTetV KCU 
 
 rnv opynv Jlevivvvtra.' m y.-.v cttin^., JaJa. Kaxopnvim 
 iynace -rn iney. Ji, veaviav nva. ruv retyav ruptura, 
 rets X&es>S op-.yovra e.s rov v&cvov kcu y.apru£?[iivov ns{ 
 Hyeircu Ji a nip aygys kcu a[Mpj>&, o%u JiJop- 
 y.us, xcu Minos rots s* root KaraffKAnKOfft’ rt- 
 
 rov ytv eiveu rov H'Sovov civ ns UKaaea. Kcu [t.nv Js 
 aAAai r/vis J'no VTctfy[tdprvtii, rr^jrpimffcu, kcu mtt~ 
 •rs KAvffcu, kcu Ku.ra.Koff[Mrcu rnv AiaGoAnv as Ji [tot 
 Kut rauras i[tnvuuiv 0 orietnyntfits rns hkov&, >1 [nv 
 E rriGiKn ns nv, n Ji Arrant. Karorrtv Ji itKoAvd-ei, 
 rravu mvdiKas, ns tffKivaff[xsvn, [ti\a.vei[tav, kcu ku.- 
 7i<nrct£u.y[iiin' lAijctvoict Ji kcu au]n iAsysro. Emrpi- 
 tpiro yuv iir rtsrrtffa, JaKputsffa' kcu /hT ctiJas rravu, 
 rnv AKnStHdV 'ff&ffitsffctr umGKimv. 1 'om, 2. p. 404. 
 Ed. Blacu. 
 
 (27) See PI. 41. Fig. 1. 
 
 (28) Et Bellona minax, facibufque armata Mega:ra : 
 Lethumque ; Inlidiasque; & lurida Mortis imago. 
 
 Petronius Arb. it. 263. 
 
 (29) Securas procul hinc abite Mortes! 
 
 Statius. Lib. 2. Sylv. 7. i\ 131. 
 Stant Furia: circum, varisque ex ordine Mortes. 
 
 Id. Theb. 8. it. 24. 
 
 (30) The epithets of Pallida, and Lurida, (pale 
 and wan,) are frequently applied to Mors, by the La¬ 
 tin poets; and occur in quotations on this article. 
 This dead colour of her cheeks, &c. I take to be meant 
 by Lucretius ; where he fays, 
 
 Omnia denique fanfta Deum delubra replerat 
 
 Corporibus, Mors exanimis. - 
 
 Lib. 6. f. 1271. 
 
 {31) -Cur anni tempora morbos 
 
 Adportant ? Quare Mors immatura vagatur ? 
 
 Lucretius. 5. y. 222. 
 
 (32) Et cum Mors avidis pallida dentibus. 
 
 Here- Fur. Aft. 2. Chor. 
 Mors alta avidos oris hiatus 
 Pandit, & omnes explicat alas. 
 
 Oedipus, Aft. 1» Chor. 
 
 Mors 
 
POLY M ETIS, 
 
 ond as ready to fwallow up all that comes in her way. They feem to give her (33) black 
 robes; and ( 34 ) dark wings : and reprefent her often, as of an ( 35 ) enormous lize. Statius 
 gives her arms too ; and in particular ( 3 6 ), a fword ; like a ddlroying angel: for it is 
 where he is deferibing a peftilence, I do not know how far this is to be depended 
 upon; for we have only the fingle authority of Statius for it; and his authority is not 
 great with me. 
 
 As the antients had more horrid and gloomy notions of death, than we have at prefent; 
 moft of their deferiptions of Mors, are of a more frightful and difmal turn. They 
 fometimes deferibe her as coming to the (37) doors of mortals, and thundering at them 
 to demand the debt which they owe her : fometimes as approaching (38) to their bed- 
 fides, and leaning over them: and fometimes, as ( 39 ) purfuing her prey ; or as hovering 
 in the air U c ), and ready to make a Hoop upon it. There is another idea, not uncomihon 
 in the Roman poets, and which they feem to have borrowed from that fort of their 
 gladiators who were called Retiaries, from the nets in which they ufed to entangle 
 their adverfuries : for Mors is reprefented by them ( 4 >) as purfuing men with a net; as 
 catching them; and as dragging them to their tombs. This, poffibly, may be what 
 Catuilvs meins by hi - cxprelTion of ( 4 2 ), “ the Whirl of Death or at lead, I know not 
 how to account for that expreflion fo well, any other way. 
 
 There is yet another idea of Death in the Roman poets, which they feem to have 
 borrowed from the antient manner of hunting. They ufed of old to furround (43) a con- 
 fiderable tradl of ground, with a circle of nets; and afterwards contracted the circle by 
 degrees, till they had forced all the beads of that quarter together into a narrow com- 
 
 pals : 
 
 Mors fruitur ccclo, bellatorcmque volando 
 Campum operit ; nigroque viros invitat hiatu. 
 
 Statius. Theb. 8. 378. 
 
 This particular idea of Death’s gaping and (wal¬ 
 lowing every thing, comes naturally enough from the 
 old notion of the place of the dead. 
 
 - Domus omnibus una ; 
 
 In medio vallum late fe tendit inane : 
 
 Hue, quicquid terra;, quicquid freta, & igneus tether 
 Nutrivit, primo mundi genitalis ab tevo. 
 
 Mors communis agit: defeendunt cuncta; capitque 
 Campus iners, quantum interiit reftatque futurum. 
 
 Silius Italicus. 13. y. 530. 
 -Illatrat jejunis faucibus Orcus. 
 
 Id. Ib. jt, 845. 
 
 (33) Omnia fub leges Mors vocat atra fuas. 
 
 Ovid. Confol. ad Liv. jr. 360. 
 In fpcculis Mors atra fedet; dominifque filcntes 
 
 Adnumerat populos.- 
 
 Statius. Theb. 4. jr. 529. 
 
 (34) Mors atris circumvolat alis. 
 
 Horat. Lib. 2.Sat. 1. jr. 58. 
 
 (35) See Notes 36, and 40, pofth. 
 
 (36) --Mors fila Sororum 
 
 Enfc metit; captamque tenens fert Manibus urbem. 
 
 Statius. Theb. 1. jr. 633. 
 
 (37) Cum Mors vicina flagitabit debitum. 
 
 Phsdrus, Lib. 4. Epii. 
 Pallida Mors aquo pulfat pede pauperum tabernas. 
 
 Regumque turres.- 
 
 Horat. Lib. 1. Od. 4. jr. 14. 
 Ovid ufes the fame expreflion, of Proferpine : 
 
 Et mihi conjugii tempus crudelis ad ipfum, 
 Perfephone noftras pulfat acerba fores. 
 
 Her. Ep. zi. jr. 46. Cydippe, Acont. 
 And Statius, of another fatal Deity : 
 
 Jam trepidas Bellona fore;, armataque pulfat 
 Limina, 
 
 Theb. 8. jr. 349. 
 
 (3S) --Mors ad caput aftitit- 
 
 Lucretius. 3. jr, 492. 
 
 (39) Mors & fugacem perfequitur virum; 
 
 Nec parcit imbellis juventte 
 Poplitibus, timidoque tergo. 
 
 Horat. Lib. 3. Od. 2. jr. 16. 
 
 (40) Ecce Necem intentam ccelo, terrxque, fretoque ! 
 
 Ovid. Confol. ad Liv. jr.$ 6 i. 
 Mors fruitur ca-lo, bellatoremque volando 
 Campum operit. — 
 
 Statius. Theb. 8. jr. 378. 
 
 (41) Hic, illic, ubi Mors deprenderat, exhalantes. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 7. jr. 581. 
 Non Mortis laqueis expedies caput. 
 
 Horat. Lib. 3. Od. 24. jr. 9. 
 Mors tamen a templis ad cava bulla trahet. 
 
 Ovid. Am. Lib. 3. EI. 9. j-. 3 s. 
 
 (42) Corte ego te in medio verfantem turbine lethi 
 
 Eripui.- 
 
 Catullus, Nupt. Pel. >\ ,j 0 . 
 
 (43) This way of hunting is very diftincfly de- 
 feribed by one of the Roman poets. 
 
 -Sic curva feras indago latentes 
 
 Claudit; & admotis paulatim callibus arflat: 
 
 IU* ignem fonitumque pavent; diffufaque linquunt 
 Avia; miranturque fuum decrefcere montem ; 
 Donec in anguflam ceciderunt undique vallem. 
 
 Inque vicem ftupuere greges, focioque timore 
 Manfuefcunt: fimul hirtus aper, fimul urfa lupufque 
 Cogitur ; & captos contemnit cerva leones. 
 
 Statius. Achil. 1. jr. 466. 
 
 The compafs of ground at firft taken in, was fome¬ 
 times very confidcrable. Plutarch fpeaks of toils, for 
 this kind of hunting, that were above 12 miles Ion"-, 
 In Vita Alex, p, 22. 
 
I 
 
 
 D I ALO g u E the Sixteenth. 
 
 p-afs : and then it was that the (laughter, or the heighth of the fport, (as they called it 
 then, and as we dill to our fliame call the murthering poor innocent creatures for our 
 diveriion,) began. This manner of hunting was ufed in Italy of old ; as well as all 
 over the more eaftern parts of the world : and it was from this cuftom, I fuppofe, that 
 the poets fometimes reprefent Death as (44) furrounding perfons, with her nets ; and as 
 encompaffing them, on every fide. 
 
 I have obfcrved to vou already, that the poets do not confine themfelves to one ima¬ 
 ginary being, to reprefent Death; but that they fpeak of ( 45 ) feveral of them. Statius, 
 (who gives 11 s a greater variety of defcriptions relating to this fubjett, than perhaps all 
 the other Roman poets taken together, (peaks of a Mors ( 46 ), like Quies. In another 
 place, he defcribes a Mors, (perhaps the chief over all the reft,) as fitting on an emi¬ 
 nence (47); and giving in her tale of ghofts, to the rulers of the lower world. In another, 
 he fpeaks of her as like to be (hut up ( 48 ), and confined from doing mifehief, in a dark 
 prifon there. But of all his pictures of this deity, the 1110 ft particular I think is where 
 (49) he reprefents her as (landing by the bedlide of a youth, juft in the flower of his age ; 
 accompanied by Envy, and (5°) Vengeance. Thefe horrid deities (how a great deal of 
 friendthip to one another, in the execution of their cruel office; and Vengeance, in par¬ 
 ticular, after having embraced the goddefs of Death, feems according to his account to 
 take the fatal net out of her hand, and to perform her office for her. 
 
 Letiium is deferibed by the poets, in general, much in the fame manner as they 
 deferibe Mors. They give him a robe; but mention his arms (5 1 ) being exerted out of 
 it, as reaching at his prey. They hint at his (5 2 ) catching people in a net; and his 
 hunting men, (as they did beads,) within his toils. As they fpeak of a Mors like Reft, 
 fo they fay that Lethum is nearly (53) related to Sleep; and Valerius Flaccus, in parti¬ 
 cular, acquaints us that they were (54) brothers. 
 
 Sleep, as fo nearly related to Death, may very well have a place in the fame region 
 of the nether world : Virgil places him there (55), and feems to hint at this very reafon 
 for doing fo. His general character, it muft be owned, is of a fofter nature; and deferves 
 a better lituation for him. According to which, Statius and Ovid place the chief refi- 
 dence or great palace of Somnus, on our earth. Flowever, as it is fufficient to confider him 
 in either of the places affigned for him; and as there were no terreftrial deities he was 
 
 fo 
 
 (44.) -Furvx miferam circum undique Lethi 
 
 Vallavere plaga?.- 
 
 Statius. Lib. 5. Sylv. i.J. 156. 
 
 Torfit; & Invidiam Mortemque amplexa, jacenti 
 Injecit nexus: carpfitque immitis adunca 
 Ora verenda manu.- 
 
 This cuftom came from the Eaft ; and is ftill con¬ 
 tinued there : and the idea of it is applied to Death 
 by the facred writers, juft in the fame manner as it is 
 by the Roman poets. “ The fnares of death com- 
 pafled me round about.” Pf. cxvi. jfr. 3. 
 
 Statius. Lib. 2. Sylv. 6. if. 79. 
 
 (50) The goddefs that I call Vengeance here, is 
 called by Statius, Rhamnufia : who, in the heathen 
 fcheme, feems to have been much the fame with Ne«. 
 mefis ; or the Divine Vengeance. 
 
 (45) Sec Note 29, anteh. 
 
 (4.6) .-Te torpor iners, & Mors imitata quietem 
 
 Explicuit; falfoque tulit fub Tartara fomno. 
 
 Statius. Lib. 5. Sylv. 3. f. 261. 
 That poem is on the lofs of his father, who died of 
 a lethargic diforder. 
 
 (51) Et Dolus, & Rabies; & Lethi major imago 
 Vifa, truces exferta manus.——— 
 
 Val. Flaccus. 2. if. 207. 
 
 (53) -Confanguinci mixtus caligine Lethi, 
 
 (52) See Note 42, 43, 44, anteh. 
 
 (47) See Note 33, anteh. 
 
 Rore madens Stygio, morituram ampledtitur urbem 
 
 Somnus. 
 
 — Ca?co gemeret Mors claufa barathro. 
 
 Statius. Lib. 5. Sylv. 1. if. 168. 
 
 Statius. Theb. 5. }. 199« 
 
 (34) Nunc age major ades, fratrique fimillime Lctho ! 
 
 (49) Attendit torvo trillis Rhamnufia vultu : 
 
 Ac primum implevitque toros, oculifque nitorem 
 Addidit ; & folito fublimius ora levavit ; 
 
 Heu mifero letale favens ! fefeque videndo 
 
 Val. Flac. 8. }. 74. 
 
 (55) Terribiles vifu formx! Lethumque, Labofque; 
 
 Et, confanguineus Lethi, Sopor.- 
 
 Virgil. /En. 6. if. 278. 
 
 Yyy 
 
 O 
 
264 
 
 Pi.. XXXVI. 
 Fig. 2. 
 
 P O L Y M E T I S. 
 
 lb nearly allied to; I have chafe to rank his figure with thefe fubterraneous ones: and 
 only mention this, that you may not confidet him abfolutely as an infernal deity; or 
 forget his milder and better character; from finding him in fo bad company. 
 
 Somnus is moil: commonly reprefented by the artifts, as you fee him in this drawing : 
 a foft youth, ftretched at his eafe on a couch : retting his head on a lion's ttcin; and 
 fometimes on a lion, as in the figure before you ; with one arm either a little over, or 
 under his head, and the other dropping negligently by the fide of the couch ; and either 
 holding poppies, or a horn with the juice of poppies, in it. lie is often winged; and 
 extremely like a little Cupid. So like, that lie has been frequently miftaken fi>r 6ne : in 
 ipight of that lizard, by his feet; which has no relation to Cupid, tho’ (as it is one of 
 thofe creatures which fleeps half the year,) it is a very proper attribute of Somnus. I do 
 not know that the poets ever mention the lizard as an attribute of Somnus ; and there¬ 
 fore imagine it might be ufed by the artifts merely to diftinguifh the figures of this <r 0 d 
 from thofe of Cupid; tho' the poppy, one would think, IhouJd he fufiicient for that 
 purpofe; except in fome few pieces, where we meet with tile diflinguiihiug attributes 
 of Somnus, and thofe of Cupid, blended together : and of fuch perhaps we may fay', 
 that as Venus is fometimes reprefented under the character of the goddeis Delidia thefe 
 may be Cupids under the character of Somnus. 
 
 There is fcarce any one of the Deities that is more fully and particularly deferibed by 
 the poets, than this deity of Sleep. They fometimes fpeak of him, as large ; and pro¬ 
 bably he was reprefented fo in fome of his figures, to denote his (56} great power : which 
 is fignified too, by his retting on a lion ; which (hews that the ftrongeft and molt furious 
 of all animals is fubdued by him. But tile moll common way of reprefenting Somnus, 
 is juft as you fee him here; young ( 57 ), foft, placid, and (58) refting on his couch! 
 The poets fpeak often of his ( 59 ) wings; and mention their being black : that colour (6o> 
 is the mo# proper for this god, as his empire is chiefly by night: and it is for the fame 
 reafon I fuppofe, that the ftatuaries fo often chofc to make his figures of ebony, bafalt, or 
 any dark-coloured marble. Such is the fine ftatue of this god in the Great Duke's nai¬ 
 lery ; which, as you may remember, bolds a horn in one of his hands, in fuch a languid 
 and remifs manner, that the poppy-juice is running out of it. The poets hint even at 
 (61) this little circumftance too. They fpeak frequently (62) 0 f his horn in general; 
 
 and 
 
 (56) SomnePater! Somne omnipotens ! Te Colchis abomni 
 Orbe voco, inque unum jubeo nunc ire draconem ! 
 Que freta fsepe tuo, domui qua; nubila cornu ; 
 
 Fulminaque, & totoquicquid micat lethere.-- 
 
 Medea’s invocation of Somnus, in Valerius 
 Flaccus’s Arg. Lib. 8. fi. 73. 
 
 (57) -Juvenis placidiffimus- 
 
 Statius. Lib. 5. Sylv, 4. fi. 1. 
 Cum tener ad partes tu quoque, Somne, venis. 
 
 Ovid. Art. Am. 2. fi. 546. 
 
 •-Placidiffime Somne Deorum! 
 
 Id. Met. 11. fi. 623. 
 
 (58) --Soporifero ftipatus flore, tapetis 
 
 Incubat.- 
 
 Statius. Theb. 10. fi. 108. 
 
 -Rurfus molli languore folutum 
 
 Dcpofuitque caput; flratoque recondidit alto. 
 
 Ovid. Met. u. fi. 649. 
 
 ( 59 ) Virgil calls Somnus winged, or Volucris; 
 >£n. 6. fi. 701 : and Ales; ^En. 5. fi. 861 : and Ti¬ 
 bullus, (peaking of the attendants of the chariot of 
 the Night, fays : 
 
 Poflque venit tacitus, fulvis circundatus alis. 
 Somnus; & incerto Somnia nigra pede. 
 
 Tibul. Lib. 2. El. 1. fi. ult. 
 
 (60) At medio torus efl ebeno fublimis in atra. 
 Plumeus, atricolor, pullo velamine teflus ; 
 
 Quo cubat ipfeDcus, membris languore folutis. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 12. fi. 612. 
 
 (61) -Manus ha:c, fufos a tempore l«vo 
 
 Suftentat crines; hrec, cornu oblita remifir. 
 
 Statius. Theb. 10. fi. m. 
 
 (62) Et Nox, & cornu fugiebat Somnus inani. 
 
 Statius. Theb. 6 . fi. 27. 
 
 -Illos, poll vulnera feflos 
 
 Exceptamque hiemem, cornu perfuderat omni 
 Somnus.-- 
 
 Id. Ib. 2. fi. 145. 
 
 Implacido fundit gravia otia cornu. 
 
 Id. lb. 5. fi. 199. 
 
 As this is fo ufual an idea in Statius’s Thcbaid, I 
 think it may help us to alter a line in the fame poem; 
 which is fcarce Latin, as it (lands at prefent. It is in 
 the 12th Book, fi. 307. 
 
 Hunc quoque, qui curru madidas tibi pronus habenas 
 Ducit, in Aonios Vigiles demitte Soporem. 
 
 If one was to read cornu, ioftead of curru, here ; 
 one might perhaps relieve the pafl'age from one of 
 thofe amendments, that tranferibers and editors are 
 too often fond of making. 
 
 4 
 
and io . * 3 of his Virga: but as I have never yet obferved a wand, in any of 
 
 en ; I am apt to imagine, that the poets by that word may mean no 
 mors than the poppy ( 6 4 ) on the Italic; which he frequently holds in his hand. The 
 
 poetv h . jo!d that this deity communicated Deep to mortals (65) by pouring out of his 
 
 hern on them by touching them with his Virga; or by only palling gently by their 
 b a I hie Wheu intended to give troubled lleep, and tumultuous dreams, they feem 
 to y chat iie ma ie nfe of water from ( 66 ) fome of the infernal rivers, mixed with his 
 juice of poppies. 
 
 Tito' iris deity is generally reprefented by the artifts in a profound fleep, yet the poets 
 now ad then give us deferiptions of him as engaged in fome fort of action; but his very 
 : ihould be performed with a great deal of indolence; and lliould Ihew his difin- 
 
 clination to adtion. 
 
 Statius is more frequent in his deferiptions of Somnus, as well as Mors, than any 
 other of the Roman poets. In one place, he reprefents him, as taking his Hand on the 
 very higheff point in all the courfe of the moon ; and (67) hovering down from thence, 
 with his wings fpread over the earth, jud; at midnight. In another, he fpeaks of feveral 
 relievo’s relating to this god; in each of which he was joined with fome companion or 
 other (68), with much propriety. In the firft he was with Voluptas, conddered as the 
 goddefs of feafts and entertainments; in the fecond, with Hard Labour, reprefented as 
 tired and inclining to reft; in the third, with Bacchus ; and in the fourth, with the God 
 of Love. This would be a pretty fubjedt for a painter now; and puts one in mind of the 
 antient paintings on ceilings, in which there often are four little fubjedts of this kind, in 
 fo many different compartiments; to anfwer the four angles of the room. They have 
 nothing to do with a fifth fubjedt mentioned by the lame poet, of Somnus, with a milder 
 kind of death; for that, as he exprelly fays, was (69) in a different apartment. 
 
 All 
 
 (63) ■ ■ — ■Extremo me tange cacumine virga, 
 
 (Sufficit) aut leviter fufpenfo poplite tranfi. 
 
 Statius. Lib. 5. Sylv. 4. f. ult. 
 
 -- Oculis—quietem 
 
 Irrorat, tangens Lethaffi tempora virga. 
 
 Silius Ital. 10. f. 357. 
 
 (64) What Silius here callsVirga, Virgil calls Ramus: 
 
 -Ramum, Lethteo rore madentem. 
 
 yEn. 5. f. 855. 
 
 And he calls Poppy, Lethaea papavera; (Georg. 4. 
 
 S'. 545.) And, Lethaeo perfufa papavera fomno. 
 
 (Ib. 1.*. 78.) 
 
 (65) Sec Note 62, anteh. 
 
 (66) Rore madens Stygio morituram ampleflitur urbem 
 Somnus, & implacido fundit gravia otia cornu. 
 
 Statius. Theb. 5. jr. 199. 
 Imperium celer exequitur : curvoque volucris 
 Per tenebras portat medicata papavera cornu. 
 
 Aft ubi per tacitum allapfus tentoria prima 
 Barcasi petiit juvenis, quatit inde foporas 
 Devexo capiti pennas; oculifque quietem 
 Irrorat tangens Lethaja tempora virga : 
 
 Exercent rapidam truculenta infomnia mentem. 
 
 Silius Ital. 10. S'. 358. 
 
 It feems to have been an overfight in Silius (in the 
 paHage laft quoted) to call Somnus, celer. The 
 other poets generally reprefent him as inaftivc, even 
 when he is forced to do any thing: and tho’ they 
 often call him Volucris, that may fignify winged ra¬ 
 ther than fwift. Ovid exprelTes the inactivity of this 
 god, very ftrongly, in his defeription of him. 
 
 - Vellis fulgore reluxit 
 
 Sacra domus ; tardaque Deus gravitate jacentes 
 
 Vix oculos tollens, iterumque iterumque relabens. 
 Summaque percutiens nutanti peftora mento, 
 
 Excuffit tandem libi fe.- 
 
 Morphea, qui pcragacThaumantidos edita, Somnus 
 Eligit; & rurfus molli languore folutum 
 Depofuitque caput, ftratoque recondidit alto. 
 
 Met. n. jr. 649. 
 
 This, excepting the nutanti mento, which may be 
 rather too low; and the excuffit fibi fe, which is as bad 
 as well can be ; (and one moft not expeCt to quote any 
 long paflage from the Metamorphofis without fome 
 fuch blots in it;) is a very beautiful defeription : and 
 exremely agreeable to the general character of this 
 god. 
 
 (67) Scandebat rofeo medii faltigia cceli 
 Luna jugo : totis ubi Somnus inertior alis 
 Defluit in terras ; mutumque ample&itur orbem. 
 
 Statius. Achil. 1. >’•. 621. 
 
 (68) . Hic haeret lateri redimita Voluptas; 
 
 Hic comes,in requiem vergensLabor: eft ubiBaccho, 
 Eli ubi Martigena: focium pulvinar Amori 
 Obtinet.-- 
 
 Id. Theb. io. S'. 104. 
 
 (69) -Interius teftum, in penetralibus altis, 
 
 Et cum Morte, jacet: nullique ea triftis imago. 
 
 Id. Ib. f. loj. 
 
 This Mors, fhould be of as gentle an appearance, 
 as Somnus himfelf; like that Statius fpeaks of, in an¬ 
 other part of his poems : 
 
 -Torpor iners, & Mors imitata Quietem. 
 
 Lib. s- Sylv. 3. S'. 260. 
 
 This 
 
66 
 
 P O L Y M E T I S. 
 
 Alj. thefe fine images are in Statius's defeription (7°) of the palace of Sleep ; which is 
 a very full one: and feems to be borrowed from one, which is yet fuller, in Ovid. Statius 
 places it in the (7O unknown parts of Ethiopia: and Ovid in Italy, near the lake Avernus: 
 poffibly in the very place which is now Ihewn there, for the Defcent into Hell. We learn, 
 from Statius, that the attendants and guards before the gates of this palace, were (72) 
 Reft, Eale, Indolence, Silence, and Oblivion; as the minifters or attendants within, are 
 a vaft multitude of dreams ; in different ftiapes, and attitudes. Ovid teaches us who were 
 the fuppofed governors over thefe; and what their particular diftrifts or offices were. 
 The three ( 73 ) chiefs of all, are Morpheus, Phobaitor, and Phantafos: thefe infpire dreams 
 into princes and great perfons only: Morpheus, fuch as relate to men : Phobanor, fuch 
 as relate to other animals ; and Phantafos, fuch as relate to inanimate things. They have 
 each their particular legions under them to infpire the fort of dreams, which belong to 
 their province, into the common people and the vulgar of mankind. You fee here a well- 
 regulated allegory, on a very odd and diffufed fubjeft. The artifts do not feem to go fo 
 deep into it, as the poets ; and I do not know that I have ever met with a tingle figure in 
 their works relating to thefe beings. The poets certainly ipeak, not only of the three 
 Great Chiefs, but even of all the inferior populace of Dreams, in a perfonal manner. Ti¬ 
 bullus reckons them among the (74) attendants of the chariot of Nox ; and fays they are 
 black: and Statius deferibes them as flicking (75) againft the columns, and walls, in the 
 palace of Somnus; not unlike the bats, to which Homer(/ 6 )compares thefpirits in Ades. 
 
 I have not yet laid any thing of the fecond fort of inhabitants in this Previous region ; 
 and indeed have very little to fay of them. They confift of the Terrors of the Fancy; 
 and uhnt the poets thcmfelves always confidered as mere creatures of the imagination. 
 Even Death, and Sleep, and Dreams, they fuppofed to be realized ; and worfhipped 
 them in the vulgar religion : but thefe they fpeak of as mere (77) fancies; exifting no 
 
 where 
 
 This fort of death is far from being difmal in reality, 
 as well as in the reprefentation of it; it being more 
 like the continuation of fleep, than the finifhinc- of 
 life. Such was the death of Statius’s father:—and 
 fuch the death of the great father of poetry, in our 
 days ! Which, tho’ eafy and imperceptible to him, 
 mull Hill lay heavy on the hearts of all, who had the 
 happinefs of knowing him. 
 
 (70) See Statius’s Theb. 10. 84, to 117; and 
 
 Ovid’s Met. ii. f. 592, to 645. 
 
 (71) Stat fuper occidua: nebulofa cubilia Noftis, 
 ./Echiopafque alios, nulli penetrabilis aftro 
 Lucus iners; fubterque cavis grave rupibus antrum 
 It vacuum in montem : qua defidis atria fomni 
 Securumque larem fegnis natura locavit. 
 
 Statius. Theb. 10. j/, S 3 . 
 Eft prope Cimmerios longo fpelunca receflu. 
 
 Mons cavus ; ignari domus & penetralia Somni: 
 Quo nunquam radiis oriens mcdiufve cadenfve 
 Phcebus adire poteft; nebula: caligine miftse 
 Exhalantur humo : dubiaique crepufcula lucis. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 11. jfr. 596. 
 Virgil’s defeription of the Defcent to hell near 
 Avernus; (and in the very part, inhabited by the 
 Cimmerians;) agrees in feveral particulars with this 
 from Ovid. 
 
 Spelunca aka fuit, vaftoque immanis hiatu. 
 
 Scrupea: tuta lacu nigro; nemorumque tenebris.— 
 
 Ibant obfeuri, fola fub nodte, per umbram_ 
 
 Quale per incertam lunam fub luce maligna 
 Eft iter in fylvis.-- 
 
 JEn. 6. 271. 
 
 (72) Limen opaca Quies, & pigra Oblivia fervant; 
 
 Et nunquam vigili torpens Ignavia vultu : 
 
 Otia vcftibulo, preflifque Silentia pennis 
 Muta fedent.-■ 
 
 Statius. Theb. 10. jr. 92, 
 
 ( 73 ) Ovid’s Met. 11. 633, to 645. 
 
 ( 74 ) -Nox jungit equos; currumque fequuntuf 
 
 Matris lafcivo lidera fulva choro : 
 
 Poftque venit tacitus, fulvis circundatus alis. 
 Somnus; & incerto Somnia nigra pede. 
 
 Tibullus. Lib. 2. EI. 1. jr. ult. 
 
 (75) AfTunt innumero circum vaga Somnia vultu ; 
 Nodtis opaca cohors : trabibufque, aut poftibus 
 
 ha:rent. 
 
 Aut tellure jacent_. 
 
 Statius. Theb. 10. f. 815. 
 
 The epithet of Vaga here, may help to explain that 
 of Incerto, in Tibullus : they are deferibed as waver¬ 
 ing and uncertain in their motion ; as all the beings 
 relating to I ime are, with the fame propriety, faid 
 by the poets, to glide on in an even and filent motion. 
 
 (76) See Homer’s Odyfley ; B. 24. f. g, Sec. 
 
 (77) Ovid reckons them in the catalogue of things 
 that he could never believe, 
 
 Sphyngaque, & Harpyi’as, ferpentipcdefque Gigantas, 
 Centimanumque Gygen, femibovemque virum ; 
 
 H.tc ego cuntta prius quam te, cariifime, credam 
 Mutatum curam depofuifle mei. 
 
 Trift. Lib. 4. EI. 7. f. 20. 
 
 It is to this fort of fancies too, that what Balbus 
 the Stoic fays in Cicero’s Treatife de Natura Deo¬ 
 rum, feems to relate. Quis Hippocentaurum fuiile, 
 aut Chimaeram putat P Quaeve anus tam excors inve¬ 
 niri poteft, quae ilia qure quondam credebantur apud 
 Inferos portenta cxtiruefcat ? Lib» 2. fub Init. 
 
Dialogue the Sixteenth. 
 
 267 
 
 where out of the minds of men. I fliall juft point out to you fome of thefe Portenta, 
 
 (as Cicero calls them,) in the drawing before us; that we may have done with them, . 
 as faft as we can. You fee here the Chimaera, with her mixt form (78), and breathing 
 fire ; as the poets defcribe her : two Centaurs, a male and a (79) female: the monfter 
 of Lerna, with its (80) fnaky heads ; and Geryon, with his (81) three human ones : Bri¬ 
 areus, to whom the poets give a hundred arms : tho’ the artift was obliged to retrench 
 a great many from that number: Scylla, half fifh, and half human: and one of the 
 Harpies, half human, and half bird. Thefe anfwer all that Virgil mentions (82) in his 
 catalogue of monfters inhabiting this part of the infernal world; except the Gorgon : 
 which may be very well fupplied from (83) this little drawing. 
 
 We may now go on to the fecond divifion of the fubterraneous world ; the Hateful 
 Paflage into the kingdom of Ades ; or, as they called it, the river Styx. One of the pic¬ 
 tures in the old Vatican Virgil reprefentsit as a torrent, pouring down a precipice: and pj. X x;<vn. 
 then as rolling on, to take its courfe along the boundaries of Ades. Here you fee the Fig. x. 
 Ghofts waiting, on the hither lide, in a croud (84); juft as Virgil defcribes them : and 
 there, a part of that region beyond the farther bank : the figures in which are the lefs to 
 be minded, becaufe this painting relates to the ftory of Orpheus’s defcent into hell; 
 when his mu lie caufed fuch ftrange effedts there, and put things (85) out of their com¬ 
 mon order. 
 
 The foie governor of this part, and director of the paflage, Charon, does not make 
 his appearance in this pidture. His dominion lays down lower; where the river has 
 recovered itfelf from the turbulence occalioned by its fall, and begins to grow navigable. 
 
 In other remains of antiquity we fee him, and his boat; both receiving paflengers in, pj XXXVII 
 and landing them on the farther fliore. Virgil defcribes him (86) as ftrong, and in all Fic. 2,&3, 
 the vigour and firmnefs of old age ; meanly clad: and with a large, rude beard, and 
 matted grey hair; and his eyes, fixed and fiery. That poet’s defeription of the rough- 
 nefs and furlinefs of this deity, agrees very well with the figures that we fee of him. 
 
 Charon’s character was probably fuppofed to be rough, for the fame reafon that the 
 paflage he prefided over was called the Hateful Paflage. 
 
 With 
 
 (78) Triformis Chimera.- 
 
 Horat. Lib. i. Od. 27. jr. ult. 
 
 Prima, Leo; poilrema, Draco; media, ipfa Chimxra. 
 
 Lucretius. 5. jt. 903. 
 
 Cui triplici crinita juba galea alta Chimxram 
 
 Suitinet, ./Etneos efflantem faucibus ignes. 
 
 Virgil. iEn. 7. Sr. 786. 
 
 (79) Female Centaurs are not uncommon in the 
 works of the antient artifts. Lucian defcribes a very 
 fine pi&ure of a whole family of Centaurs, done by 
 the famous Zeuxis : in which the male was repre- 
 fented as returning home from the chace, with a lion’s 
 whelp ; and the female, preffing one of her little ones 
 to her bread, as frightened at it. Tom. I. p. 579. 
 Ed. Blacu. 
 
 (80) There are but fix in the Vatican picture. 
 Perhaps one of them is twifted behind fo as not to ap¬ 
 pear : or the trunk they rife out of, might have been 
 originally a female head; tho’ fo much defaced atpre- 
 fent, that one cannot well determine how it was ori¬ 
 ginally. See Dial. IX. Note 24. 
 
 (81) —— Forma tricorporis umbra:. 
 
 Virgil. ^En. 6. jr. 289. 
 
 Geryon, in the relievo’s relating to Hercules’s la¬ 
 bours, has generally three bodies, as well as three 
 heads. Hence Virgil calls him. Tergeminus, /En. 8. 
 
 y. 202; and Horace, Ter amplus. Lib. 2. Od. 14. 
 jr. 8. In the Vatican picture he is not well reprefented ; 
 tho’ it appears even there, that he has more bodies 
 than one. 
 
 (82) Multaque pneterea variarum monltra ferarum ; 
 Centauri in foribus ftabulant. Scylla:que biformes. 
 Et centumgeminus Briareus, ac Bellua Lernte 
 Horrendum ftridens, flammifque armata Chimasra, 
 Gorgones, Harpy'ncque, & forma tricorporis umbra:. 
 
 Virgil. iEn. 6. jr. 2S9. 
 
 (83) See PI. 41. Fig. 2. 
 
 (84) Huc omnis turba ad ripas effufa ruebat : 
 
 Matres atque viri, &c.- 
 
 ./En, 6. S'. 306. 
 
 (85) The figure of Ixion in particular, in that pic¬ 
 ture, is not at all in the place that belongs to him : 
 and mull be brought thither, either by the magick of 
 Orpheus’s lyre, or the miftake of the artift. 
 
 (86) Portitor has horrendus aquas Sc flumina fervat 
 Terribili fqualore Charon : cui plurima mento 
 Canities inculta jacet; ilanc lumina flamma ; 
 Sordidus ex humeris nodo dependet ami&us. 
 
 Ipfe ratem conto fubigit, velifque miniftrat; 
 
 Et ferruginea fubve&at corpora cymba : 
 
 Jam fenior; fed cruda Deo viridifquc fene&us. 
 
 /En. 6. jr. 304. 
 
 Z z z 
 
 B». ■" ■, 
 
263 
 
 POLYMETIS. 
 
 PI. XXXVIII. 
 
 Fic. i. 
 
 With the farther bank of this river begins the third divifion, or Erebus ; which is 
 fubdivided into feveral diftridls: the Limbo for infants; that for innocent fufferers; and 
 the reft in the fame order, that I mentioned to you before. In this drawing, from ano¬ 
 ther pi^ ire in the Vatican Virgil, we have only the beginning of this third divifion. 
 Here is Cerberus, as guarding the entrance to it; to prevent any one’s coming in, that 
 ought not to be admitted. Immediately behind him, are fome of the infants; and juft 
 over him, is Minos : who dire&s each perfon that arrives, to the particular part of Ades 
 in which he is to refide. 
 
 Minos, you fee, is fitting: which was one of the methods ufed by the ftatuaries and 
 painters of old (87) to charadterife a judge. By him. Hands the ( 3 S) urn; ufed antiently^g) 
 in gi\ mg judgment. There is a line of fpirits you fee before him, who wait his fcntence; 
 to have their proper place allotted to them: and beyond him, is one who feems to 
 have had his calc determined ; and to be going on to the place aftigned him. He is 
 met on his way, by another fpirit; perhaps formerly acquainted with him: for he 
 takes him by the hand, and feems to be giving him a friendly welcome, on his arrival 
 to that unknown world. 
 
 Statius fpeaks of Mi nos and Abacus fitting in judgment, as afiefibrs to Pluto, in his 
 palace ; fituated (as I have obferved already,) near that point, where all the three regions 
 of Ades meet together. I do not take that palace to be the proper rebdcnce of Minos; 
 but that he is meant to have been there only occafioaally, and to afiift in council. 
 We find by what Statius lays there ( 9 °), that the character of Minos was a good-natured 
 character : much the fame with that which Plato gives him in his Gorgias (91) ; where 
 he makes him prefide over what one may call, The Court of Equity of the other 
 world. 
 
 Just under Minos here, you fee Cerberus : not only with three heads, but with 
 three diftindt necks too; as he is alfo deferibed ( 9 2 ) by the Roman poets. Horace, as 
 
 well 
 
 (87) Thus Paris is always reprefented fitting, when 
 he is to determine the difpute between the three con¬ 
 tending goddefTes. 
 
 - Fatalis fedet 
 
 Inter potentes arbiter pallor Deas. 
 
 Agamemnon, Adi. 3. Chor. y. 731. 
 
 Nec fi Dardania pallor temerarius Ida 
 
 Sedifi'es.-. 
 
 Statius. Lib. 1. Sylv. 2. ^.44. 
 
 Where (by the way) fitting, is ufed for fitting in 
 judgment: as we may know in fome fingle ftatues of 
 Paris, what the artift meant it for; only by his being 
 in this pofture. 
 
 (88) It is Handing, or rather hung upright, which 
 may be what Statius means, by 
 
 - Stat Gnoflia judicis urna. 
 
 Theb. 11. jr. 571. 
 
 (89) Nec vero hse fine forte datx, fine judice fedes ; 
 
 Quxlitor Minos urnam movet. - 
 
 Virgil. ,< 3 sn. 6. jr. 432. 
 
 - Stat, duflis fortibus, urna. 
 
 Id.Ib. 22. 
 
 •- Senatorum (eum) urna copiose abfolvit. Cic. 
 
 pro (T Fratr. 2. 6. 
 
 Minos’s urn had the knack of always turning out 
 the right mark ; or always telling the truth. 
 
 - Scit judicis urna 
 
 Difttei; verumque poteft deprendcre Minos. 
 
 Statius. Theb. 8. jfr. 103. 
 
 (90) F' r te fedens media regni infelicis in arce 
 
 * Dux F.rebi, populos pofeebat crimina vitx; 
 
 * Pluto. 
 
 Nil hominum miferans, iratufque omnibus Umbris. 
 Stant Furia; circum, varixque ex ordine Mortes; 
 Sxvaque multifonas exercet Pxna catenas: 
 
 Fata ferunt animas, & eodem pollice damnant; 
 Vincit opus. Juxta Minos, cum f fratre veicndo, 
 Jura bonus meliora monet; regemque cruentum 
 Temperat. - — 
 
 t JEacus. Id. Ibid. ]>. 28. 
 
 (91) «v TcL\f]tt tyvuKut Tfo'tipov » vans, 
 (fays Jupiter, to Pluto and the other governors of 
 Elyfium,) S’jrointrety.nv A ;KctrcLi qjjf iptctv']*- J'uo (ttv c K 
 
 Afficti M ivu ts koj Pa.Jla.{J.a.vd-uv, iva. J'i ix. t>k Eu- 
 puirtn Aulkov. Ownt xy, tiruJ'cLv 7iK‘v7»ffuffi J'lKO.ffxffiy 
 iV T<U KiiptUVl, iV 7» Tfioj'u, £? tl( QipiTW TU oj'W it [J.ly 
 in iJ.cLKa.fcov vnffxf, 11 J'i m Tctf]ctpov. Kcu 7xt [to, £# 
 71 K Afficti, Pit tfa/Jctl'Ot/f KpIVil' 7 Bf tfs £K 7>1{ EupU7r»{, 
 Aio.Koi- Mil'» d£ irpiffCucL JW»* iiriJ'icmpiveiv, ictv n 
 ciwoppnlov 71 7a e\ip »• ivcl ut J'lKcuoTara h xpiffn », 
 
 mpi Tiif vopucti, TUi a.y&pa'Troii. Plato. Vol. I. p.523. 
 Ld. Serr. 
 
 (92) Cerberus hxc ingens latratu regna trifauci 
 Perfonat; adverfo recubans immanis in antro. 
 
 Cui vatis, horrere videns jam colla colubris. 
 
 Meile foporatam & medicatis frugibus offam 
 Objicit: ille fame rabida tria guttura p ndens 
 Corripit objettam, atque immania terga refolvit 
 Fufus humi; totoque ingens extenditur antro. 
 
 Virgil, j£n.6. j/. 422. 
 
 -Nec uti villofa colubris 
 
 Terna Mcdufsi vin cirem guttura monflri. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 10. it. 22. (of Orpheus.) 
 
 4 
 
Dialogue the Sixteenth. 
 
 well as Virgil and Ovid, fpeaks ( 93 ) of his being encompafled with ferpents, as he ap¬ 
 pears both in this drawing, and in the laft that I (hewed you; and it may be from thefe 
 ferpents that Ovid calls Cerberus, the Medulean, or fnaky ( 94 ) bead. Horace gives him 
 yet more terrors than we fee here; and fpeaks of him once in particular, as having ( 95 ) a 
 hundred heads : which is perhaps ( 9 6 ) double the number, that ever was alfigned to him 
 before his time. 
 
 The antient poets feem to have delighted particularly in fetting off the power of their 
 own art, (which originally confided in poetry and mufic united together,) by diewing 
 that it was capable of taming even this hideous monder. In this drawing of Orpheus 
 playing and linging to obtain his entrance into the kingdoms of Ades, Cerberus diews a 
 lharling fort of iatisfadlion; and feems very angry, at finding himfelf fo much pleafed-. 
 Mercury won his ( 97 ) great palfage, by the fame means : as Hercules, (and perhaps 
 Bacchus,) did by meer force. I have long wanted to meet with fome good piece of an¬ 
 tient painting of Hercules dragging Cerberus to the light. The Roman poets, as I 
 have obferved to you ( 9 8 ) on a former occadon,) deferibe this in a ( 99 ) very pidturefque 
 manner; and I doubt not there were fome very fine paintings of it at Rome, in the Au- 
 gudan age. This drawing of it is from a gem ; where, (tho’ his eyes are finely ex- 
 prefied,) they mud lofe a great deal of that dread and horror, which might have been 
 added to them by colours. 
 
 I wish too that there were more pidlures, relating to this region of Ades in general, 
 in the Vatican Manulcript. Numbers are lod out of it; and probably, feveral that, be¬ 
 longed to this part. There are five didintd didrifts in Virgil’s account of this region ; 
 and we have a picture to anfwer only one of them. Had they been better preferved, I 
 doubt not but that we fliould have feen Dido, in the didridt of lovers, with that angry, 
 averfe air with which Virgil deferibes her; and feveral of the Grecian and Trojan war- 
 riours, in the lad. But as thefe are wanting, we mud leave this region : only I would 
 willingly take notice of one thing fil'd; which is this: That, I think, we ought not to 
 regard the perfons in this region, as criminals. The whole receptacle for departed fouls 
 is laid out by Virgil into three great or general divifions. Of thefe, Elyfium is for the 
 very good; and Tartarus, for the very bad. What then can Erebus be for, but the in¬ 
 diderent ? Such as were not bad enough, to be flung into Tartarus; nor good enough to 
 be admitted into Elyfium. Accordingly the perfons whom Virgil places in Erebus, are 
 infants; innocent fufferers; luch O 00 ) filicides, as the Romans thought were cxcufable 
 for what they did; unfortunate lovers; and common warriours; a profedion which was 
 one of the mod virtuous, according to the chief idea of virtue among the Romans. 
 
 That 
 
 (93) Cefiit immanis tibi blandienti 
 
 Janitor aula: 
 
 Cerberus: quamvis furiale centum 
 Muniant angues caput ejus ; atque 
 Spiritus teter, faniefque manet. 
 
 Ore trilingui. 
 
 Horat. Lib. 3. Od. 11. f. 20. (of Mercury’s 
 great defeent into Hell.) 
 
 (94) See Note 92, anteh. 
 
 ( 9 j) - Illis carminibus ftupens 
 
 Demittit atras bellua centiceps 
 Aures ; &, intorti capillis 
 
 Eumenidum, recreantur angues. 
 
 Horat. Lib. 2. Od. 13. jt. 36. (of Sappho’s poetry.) 
 
 (96) Hefiod had given hira fifty, ©soy. 312. 
 
 (97) Horat. Lib. 3. Od. 11. jr. 1, to 24. 
 
 (98) Dial. IX. p. 120. 
 
 (99) Tartareum ille manu cuftodem in vincla petivit 
 Ipfius a folio regis; traxitque trementem. 
 
 Virgil. A 2 n. 6. 395. 
 
 Ed via declivis, per quam Tirynthius heros, 
 Reflantem contraque diem radiofque micantes 
 Obliquantem oculos, nexis adamante catenis 
 Cerberon abftraxit.——— 
 
 Ovid. Met. 7. jr. 413. 
 
 (100) Tho’ the crime of fuicide is always hor¬ 
 rid, and what nature ought to ftart at: it is far from 
 being equally horrid ; and admits of a great many 
 degrees of aggravation, or alleviation. There is a 
 vaft difference between a Cato’s killing himfelf, when 
 he thinks he can ferve his country no longer ; and a 
 Nero’s killing himfelf, only to avoid being made a 
 public example for enflaving his country : in a Lucre- 
 tia’s putting an end to her life, becaufefhe las loft her 
 honour; or in fuch a one as Meflulina’s haftening her 
 end, by taking drugs only to inflame her the more, for 
 a favourite vice. 
 
270 
 
 POLY M E T 1 S. 
 
 That clafs of all thefe which to us would feem the mod; guilty, Virgil abfolutely declares 
 to be ( I0J ) innocent. 
 
 Supposing them to be fo according to his ideas, fays Myfagetes, pray how comes he 
 to place them in hell ? That, anfwered Polymetis, is very eafily accounted for. On 
 the heathen fcheme, he muff place them there; and I think feems to have placed them 
 in a very proper part of it. Ades, which we interpret, (not quite fo exadtly as we 
 fhould do,) by our word hell, antiently fignified the grave; or place of the dead in ge-» 
 neral. All therefore that die, muff go to Ades. The very good, are in one part of it; 
 as well as the very bad, in another : and the indifferent muff be in fome part or other, 
 as well as the good and the bad. It is the common receptacle for all that are born in our 
 world; and even the great heroes, who were fuppofed to go to heaven or to prefide 
 over ffar?, had their airy reprefentation in Ades. As all mankind may be divided 
 into three general clafles, the good, the bad, and the indifferent ; Ades is laid out by 
 Virgil into three general divifions; Erebus, Tartarus, and Elyfium. The indifferent 
 he places neither in the clear light of Elyfium, nor in the folid darknefs of Tartarus; 
 but in a twilight fort of world : of a melancholy air indeed, (for the general notion of 
 death among the antients was fad and gloomy;) but not incapable of (102) fome pleafure 
 and confolation. In Erebus, (or this divifion for the indifferent,) Virgil places the in¬ 
 fants, as not deferving death, firff and neareft to the land of the living. Next to the 
 infants, he places fuch as had been condemned to death without a caufe. Then fuch 
 filicides as he looked upon as leaft guilty ; fuch as had the moff reafon for quitting the 
 ftation, which the great leader had affigned them in the upper world. Then are thofe, 
 whole lives were fhortened either by love, or in war. Thefe might very well not be 
 criminals ; they have not in general the appearance of being fo : and as there are many 
 warriours, as well as lovers, that fling away their lives without any great merit too, 
 there will be enough of each to (lock their particular diftridts in this region of the in- 
 differents ; where Virgil plunges them deeper and nearer the borders of Tartarus, than 
 the little innocents and unjuftly condemned perfons we have been fpeaking of. 
 
 I shall only juff add here, that Menippus’s account of hell in Lucian, agrees very 
 much with Virgil’s; as to thefe three regions on the other fide of Styx. He fays, that 
 as foon as he and his guide had pafl'ed that river; they went on, thro’ a gloomy mead of 
 Al'phodil, to the tribunal of Minos:-that they went thence to the region of the tor¬ 
 mented :-and thence, to the Elyiian fields ; from whence they mounted up to our 
 
 world again. All his remarks indeed of what they faw in each of thefe regions are 
 adjpted by the author to his favourite turn for ridicule: but he agrees in the general 
 difpofition of the place, exadlly with Virgil’s account; and points out the fame three 
 regions, and in the fame order (103); the firfi, for judgment; the fecond, for punifh- 
 ment; and the third, for rewards. The fame author, in another part of his works (104^ 
 makes the fame diffindlion of good, bad, and indifferent; for the inhabitants of thefe 
 
 three 
 
 (101) -Qui fibi lethum 
 
 Infontes peperere manu,- 
 
 JEn. 6. jfr. 43;. 
 
 (102) Illa folo fixos oculos averfa tenebat: - 
 
 Tandem corripuit fefe, atque inimica refugit 
 In nemus umbriferum ; conjux ubi priilinus illi 
 Refpondet curis, xquatque Sichaeus Amorem. 
 
 Virgil. iEn. 6. 474. (of Dido; in Erebus.) 
 
 (103) 0 /au( - «v 0 Cz\tito( Xapuv cot eiA thv >.iov\w, 
 
 OJil&iH (j-i TOl' Hp£tX*S£t Ztvcu, [Ai KCU J'liirOpS 
 
 [AiVTZ Ti tt&IJ-iVOf KCU AToCdOI J'litjil [ACUVZ TI 1 V ATpATOV- 
 E -TTtl A - v <TKo]v, WpOiiet />. 51 ' 0 M/d'pofi' Ap^AVIK , 
 
 etiro/Aiiv A 57« Kcrmriv iyo[/.zvsf twjn' zut vp of a&/auva 
 
 (AiyiTOV AtpiKVa[AZ&A, t u «ttrpoAAfu KctjcLipujoii. - KaT 
 
 t\tyov A TpoiovTis, irApiyzvo[/.i$A %pos to tb M lyu A- 
 
 Kzrnpny. -A-xsrtfrry tb J'lKArnpm, rr&t 70 TACI¬ 
 S’ netor ap/km/asSa. - A/sa-D-octs? A kcu tbtbj, (Tan¬ 
 
 talus, Sifyphus, & Ixion,' 1 s? to TfJ'ior ctCa\\o[a‘v to 
 Kyzptoiw' iupury.o/Aiv T£ aif]o-5i T»f »///•&* <sa]i, kcu ta( 
 
 «pi virtu. Lucian’s NiKvoy.AvIiA- Toni. I. p. 332, &c. 
 Ed. Blaeu. 
 
 (104) Tn( [AiiI ctya.v>ts TUV tt.vj'puv, KOI J'lKCUKf, Kcu 
 net] cip{]nv fiiGiUKOTcts, 7 ri[ATTii<riv if to H\vtriov vaJ'iov’ 
 —clv A th’ etc Tuv ironipuv A aCum, 7 au i Fctvvucn va£c/.- 
 
 J'oVTZf Zf TOV TUV AdiCuV y_U£?V HvrilAVTKTt. -O/ A 7 B 
 
 PAii B Cm, TOXKot OVTif BTO/, iV TU A iiy.uvi TKAVUVTCU' 
 AVZV TUV TU/Accjuv TKICU yZV 0 [A.ZV 0 l, KCU UTO 7 » AOii KA&A- 
 VTzp KCLTVOS aipa.Vli^OlAZVOr 7 petpOVTCU A age/. TsUf vrcr.p' 
 ii/A IV XOMf, KCU 70 l{ KX-5-cty l^oy.ZVClf ZTT1 TUV TMPUV, 
 
 Id. Tom. II. p. 301, h 302. 
 
 6 
 
Dialogue the Sixteenth. 
 
 71 
 
 three regions : and he places the good, in Elyfium; the bad, in Tartarus ; and the in¬ 
 different, (which he fays are very numerous,) in the wide plains of Erebus. 
 
 But it is time now to go on to the fourth general divifion; or Tartarus. I have faid 
 before, that the diderent diftridls of Erebus feem to lay one after another, in a ftrait line : 
 at the end of it, the road, which leads thro’ all thefe diftricts, branches into two: one. 
 
 to the right hand; and the other, to the left. The former goes to Elyfium ; and the 
 latter to Tartarus, or the region of torments. I do not know whether it may be worth 
 while to obferve to you, that this manner of difpofing the way thro’ the three feveral 
 divifions of Adcs, may poflibly have fome reference to that famous Pythagorie emblem, 
 which marked out the whole courfe of a man’s life by the figure of a fingle letter (105) in 
 the Greek alphabet. If this was not originally the defign of it, it will at leaft anfwer 
 pretty exactly : but I mention this only by the way. Virgil does not make his hero enter 
 into this horrid region, on the left hand : it was too terrible, and too bad, for a good man 
 (106) even to fet his foot in it. He only fees the entrance to it, at fome diftance (107). 
 
 According to Virgil, it begins with a city, encompaffed with a river of fire ; and guarded 
 
 by one of the chiefs of the Furies. This is all that /Eneas fees of it; and all that appears Pl. XXXIX. 
 
 in the drawing I have in my hand. The Sibyl gives him an account of the reft: that Fic ‘ '* 
 
 Rhadamanthus had his refidence in this city; and that there were much more terrible 
 
 ( J o8) monfters in it, than thofe he had feen in the Previous Region; that it ended in a 
 
 vaft gulph or abyfs (109), twice as far below the earth, as the heavens are above it; and 
 
 that there, the wicked were tormented. 
 
 The miferable inhabitants of this horrid region, are chiefly of two forts. The fouls 
 of fuch as are tormented : and thofe infernal deities, the Furies : who attend there either 
 to inflieft, or aggravate, their torments. 
 
 The deferiptions of Furies are much more commonly to be met with in the works of 
 the Roman poets, than their figures are in the remains of the antient artifts : and any 
 painter now, that fhould be inclined to employ himfelf on fo terrible a fubjeft, might 
 get more helps from the former than the latter. The poets fpeak of (no) great numbers 
 of Furies; and indeed in their fcheme a great number of them was neceffary : not only 
 for this region, where there were fo many criminals to be tormented by them ; but for 
 other parts (m) of Orcus, as well as this : befide which they fuppofed many of them 
 wandering over the earth to tempt, or punilh the wicked here; and fpeak of them 
 
 fometimes (>«2) even as attending on Jupiter in heaven itfelf. Thefe goddeffes_. 
 
 Goddeffes, do you call them ? lays Myfagetes.- Yes, anfwered Polymetis: the 
 
 Romans 
 
 (105) The antient Upfion. 
 
 (109) -Turn Tartarus ipfe 
 
 (106) Nulli fas callo fceleratum infidere limen. 
 
 Virgil. JEa. 6. jr. 563. 
 
 Bis patet in prxeeps tantum tenditque fub umbras. 
 Quantus ad xtherium cadi fufpettus Olympum. 
 Hic genus antiquum Terrs, &c. 
 
 (107) Refpicit ./Eneas fubitb, & fub rupe finidra 
 Maenia lata videt triplici circumdata muro ; 
 
 Qua: rapidus flammis ambit torrentibus, amnis 
 Tartareus, Phlegethon ; torquetque fonantia faxa. 
 
 Porta adverfa ingens, folidoque adamante colum- (ili) 
 
 Id. Ibid. jr. 5S0. 
 
 Id. Ibid. jt. 571. 
 
 (111) Virgil fpeaks of apartments for Furies, in the 
 Previous Region : 
 
 Tifiphoneque fedens, palla fuccinfla cruenta, 
 Veflibulum exfomnis fervat no&efque diefque. 
 Hinc exaudiri gemitus, & Aeva fonare 
 Verbera ; &c. -- 
 
 And Statius fpeaks of them as Handing round Pluto’s 
 throne; in Elyfium. Sec Note 116, pofth. 
 
 Ferreiquc Eumcnidum thalami. - 
 
 Ibid. jr. 280. 
 
 Id. Ibid. >.558. 
 
 (108) In the Previous Region they had feen, among 
 the other monfters, the Hydra of Lerna with its feven 
 heads : but here ; 
 
 (112) -Trifiefque ex xthere Dirx. 
 
 Virgil. ^En. 8. /. 701. 
 
 Hx Jovis ad folium, fxvique in limine Regis, 
 
 Quinquaginta atris immanis hiatibus Hydra 
 Sxvior intus habet fedem, ■ 
 
 Apparent: acuuntque metum mortalibus xgris; 
 Si quando lethum horrificum morbofque DeumRex 
 Molitur, meritas aut bello territat urbes. 
 
 Id. Ibid. it. 577- 
 
 Id. Ib. ia. it. 852. 
 
 A a a a 
 
7% 
 
 POLYMETIS. 
 
 Romans (1*3) looked upon them as fuch : and I do not pretend to enquire into the pro¬ 
 priety of their theology, but only to give it you juft as I find it. Thele goddefles there¬ 
 fore, (if you will yet allow me to call them by the titles which were given them of old,) 
 were looked upon by the Romans, as the difpenfers of («14) the divine vengeance; the 
 puniftiers of wicked a&ions, both here (115), and hereafter (n 6 ) : and the infliders (117) 
 of terrors, wars, and peftilence. 
 
 Tho’ Furies are very uncommon in the works of the antient artifts, yet there is one 
 fubjed in which they are generally introduced by them. What I mean is the death of 
 Meleager; in the relievo’s of which they are often reprefented, as encouraging, or urg¬ 
 ing Althtea, to burn the fatal brand; on which the life of her only fon depended. Even 
 a woman’s relentment you fee could not go fo far, without a little help of the devil. In 
 a copy of one of thefe relievo’s, published in the Admiranda, there are two women 
 {landing by the altar with Altha?a ; who are probably meant for Furies in the original; 
 (for who but Furies would aftift at fuch a facrifice ?) tho’ the copy fcarce reprefents them 
 horrid enough for that character : but what is molt to be oblerved in that piece is a 
 round, or medallion, about the midft of it, with the evident head (” 8 ) of a Fury upon 
 it. This might be what Althsea addrefted her prayers to, whenever fhe wifhed ill to her 
 neighbours j or whenever {he was going to dtf any very evil adion. Ovid introduces her 
 as invoking the Furies on this occafion, in particular (>19); and makes her give more 
 than one reafon, for her doing fo. 
 
 As the poets, in their difpofing and peopling the fubterraneous world, feem to have 
 been particularly fond of flinging things, in general, into (120) Triads ; fo they have not 
 failed to make three chiefs, over all the other Furies. Thefe are Tifiphone, Aledo, and 
 Megtera. They were fuppofed to exceed all the reft in cruelty, and malice, and the 
 power of doing mifehief: and are called, by way of eminence. The Furies ; and fome- 
 times, the ( 12 0 Dira;; a name peculiar to thefe three. They were all three filters; and 
 born at one birth, of the goddefs of Night. 
 
 (113) Protinus hinc fufeis triilisDea tollitur alis. 
 
 Virgil. /En. 7. jr. 409. (of Alefto.) 
 
 Cotta, in Cicero’s Dialogues of the Nature of the 
 Gods, fpeaks of a temple dedicated to the Furies at 
 Athens ; and looks on the Lucus Furina; among the 
 Romans as facred to the fame. Lib. 3. p. 69. Ed. 
 Aid. 
 
 Furia; Dcas funt ; fpeculatrices credo, & vindices, 
 facinorum & fceleris. Id. Ibid. 
 
 There is the beginning of a prayer to one of thefe 
 goddefles, preferved among the fragments of Lu¬ 
 cilius : 
 
 Tifiphone, te pulmonibus adirem ! Unguentum 
 exco£tum attuli Eumenidibus ! San&iflima Erihnys !— 
 Lucilius, Sat. Lib. 4. 
 
 They were worfhipped at Athens under the name 
 of the 2 s//;£u Qau. Lucian. Tom. II. p. 215. Ed. 
 Blaeu. 
 
 (114) See Note 112, anteh. 
 
 ( 1 15) As in the known ftories of Pentheus, CEdi- 
 pus, and Oreftes, &c. Hence it may be too, that 
 Prometheus, (when chained down againft mount 
 Caucafus and tortured there,) calls that place of his 
 punifliment, “ the Encampment of the Furies.” 
 
 _Cailrum hoc Furiarum incolo. 
 
 Aftius, in Prom. 
 
 4 
 
 The 
 
 (116) Statius calls them, <e The Mjnifters of Plu¬ 
 to’s cruelty.” 
 
 Ipfum * pallentem folio, circumque miniflras 
 Funeftorum operum Eumenides; Stygiasque feveros 
 Junonis thalamos & mcella cubilia cerno. 
 
 * Pluto. Theb. 4. jfr. 527. 
 
 (117) See note 112, anteh. 
 
 (118) See PI. 41. Fig. 3. 
 
 (119) Utque manu dira lignum fatale tenebat ; 
 
 Ante Sepulchrales infelix adllitit aras : 
 Pcenarumque Deze triplices, furialibus (inquit) 
 Eumenides facris vultus advertite veltros ! 
 Ulcifcor, facioque nefas. - 
 
 Ovid. Met. Lib. 8. ^.483. 
 
 (120) The kingdom of Ades itfelf is divided into 
 three regions, Erebus, Tartarus, and Elyfium ; and 
 governed under three judges, Minos, Rhadamanthus, 
 and .TEacus: not to fpeak of the three rivers, Ache¬ 
 ron, Cocytus, and Phlegethon; and other lefs par¬ 
 ticulars of the fame kind. 
 
 (121) Dicuntur gemina: pelles cognomine, Dirze ; 
 
 Quas & Tartaream Nox intempella Megzeram 
 Uno eodemque tulit partu : paribufque revinxit 
 Serpentum Epiris, ventofafque addidit alas. 
 
 Virgil. /En. 12. jr. 848. 
 
 
 « f 
 
Dialogue the Sixteenth. 
 
 The Furies arc defcribed by the poets, as of a vaft ('22) fize; and very (123; terrible to 
 behold. Their look was very much like that, which might make any unfortunate 
 woman pafs for a witch, in any of our country-villages at prefent. They are old (J24), 
 fqualid (125), and meagre (126); their cheeks pale (127); and fometimes with a fort of 
 feverilh (128) fluth on them. The poets give them a dark robe (119), fuch as was worn 
 ufually at funerals,) bound round them (13°) with a ferpent; and vipers (131) about their 
 heads. They fometimes too hold vipers in their hands (13U; and fometimes common 
 whips, or torches: all, as inftruments of puniihment. The poets generally fpeak of 
 them as tormenting the wicked for their crimes, or precipitating them into mifehief: 
 and, (on fome particular occafions,) as attending (133) on the throne of Jupiter; as Hand¬ 
 ing round the throne of Pluto (134), in his great council-hall: and as waiting (135) at the 
 gates of Tartarus; as you fee Tiiiphone is reprefented, in the drawing before us. 
 
 The vipers about the head of Tiiiphone are reprefented two different ways, by the 
 poets: fometimes as loofe U 3 &) lerpents, intermixed with her hair; and fometimes as 
 ferpents growing (137) from her head inftead of hair, in the fame manner that you fee 
 them in this drawing. As the is one of the chief of all the infernal executioners, the 
 poets deferibe her robe either dropping (138) with freflt blood, or (139) ftiff with human 
 gore. This is fattened round her with a ferpent (140) inftead of a girdle; as the has fome¬ 
 times vipers (141) twifted round her arms, inftead of bracelets. They give her fometimes 
 
 a torch 
 
 (122) - ■ ■ Ingens urbem cingebat Erinnys, 
 
 Excutiens pronam flagranti vertice pinum 
 Stridentefque comas.-. 
 
 Lucan, i. it. 574.. 
 
 (123) -Talefque metus non Martia caflis, 
 
 Eumenidumque coma;, non triflis ab tethere Gorgon, 
 Sparferit.- 
 
 Valerius Flaccus, 3. it. 54. 
 
 - Qualem juflu Junonis iniqua; 
 
 Horruit Alcides, vifo jam Dite, Megaram. 
 
 Lucan. 1. i>. 577. 
 
 (124.) Tiiiphone canos ut erat turbata capillos 
 Movit, & obftantes rejecit ab ore colubras. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 4. it. 474. 
 
 (123) Crinem folutis fqualida; ferpentibus. 
 
 Medea, Adi. 1. Sc. 1. it. 14. 
 Inflant forores fqualida;. - ■ ■■ 
 
 Agamemnon, Adi, 3. Chor. it 759. 
 
 (126) --.Vellis atri funeris exefa cingit ilia 
 
 lbid. ir. 764. 
 
 (127) Stevit Sc in lucem, Stygiis emifla tenebris. 
 
 Pallida Tifiphone,- 
 
 Virgil. Georg. 3.^553. 
 
 (128) -Ardentque pallentes gena;. 
 
 Agamemnon, Adi. 3. Chor. jr. 762. 
 
 (129) See Note 126, anteh. 
 
 (130) See Note 121, anteh. and 140, pofth. 
 
 (1 5 1) -Cxruleos implexa crinibus angues 
 
 Eumenides.- 
 
 Virgil. G. 4. it. 483. 
 — Intorti capillis 
 Eumenidum recreantur angues. 
 
 Horat. Lib. 2. Od. 13. jr. 36. 
 
 (132) Stipite te Stygio, tumidifque afflavit echidnis, 
 
 E tribus una foro iv- 
 
 Ovid. Met. 10. i. 314. 
 
 -Sanguinea jadlant verbera : 
 
 Fert lava femiuftas faces.- 
 
 Agamemnon, Adi. 3. Chor. ii. 761. 
 
 When Oreftes fees his mother as an avenging Fury, 
 he fees her holding torches and ferpents ; 
 
 Armatam facibus matrem, & ferpentibus atris. 
 
 Virgil. Ain. 4. f. 482. 
 
 ( 1 33) See Note 112, anteh. 
 
 (134) See Note 116, anteh. 
 
 (135) Quafque ferunt torto vittatis angue capillis 
 
 Carceris obfcuras ante federc fores. 
 
 Ovid. Ibis, it. -j g. 
 
 -Cernis, cuftodia qualis 
 
 Vertibulo fedeat; facies qua limina fervet. 
 
 Virgil. Ain. 6. it. 575. (ofTifiphone, fitting 
 before the gates of Tartarus.) 
 
 (136) » ■ ■ Inamanum forte fedebat 
 Cocyton juxta : refolutaque vertice crines 
 Lambere lulphureas permiferat anguibus undas. 
 
 Statius. Theb. 1. it. 91. (of Tifiphone.) 
 
 (137) Cafariem excuflic. Mota fonuere colubra : 
 Parfque jacens humeris, pars circum tempora Iapfa, 
 Sibila dant ; faniemque vomunt, linguafque co- 
 
 rufeant ! 
 
 Inde duos mediis abrumpit crinibus angues, 
 
 Peftiferaque manu raptos immifit.- 
 
 Ovid. Met. 4. it. 495. ( 0 f the fame.) 
 
 (138) —— Tifiphone madefadtam fanguine fumit 
 
 Importuna facem ; fluidoque cruore rubentem 
 Induitur pallam, tortoque incingitur angue ; 
 Egrediturque domo.- 
 
 Id. Ibid. it. 483. 
 
 (139) -Riget horrida tergo 
 
 Pala.- 
 
 Statius. Thcb. 1. $. m, 
 
 (140) -Carulei redeunt in pedtora nodi. 
 
 Id. Ibid. 
 
 -Ad inania magni 
 
 Rsgna redit Ditis; fumiumque recingitur ?nguem. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 4. it. 510. 
 
 (141) Obftitit infelix, aditumque obfedit Erinnys; 
 Nexaque vipereis diflendens brachia nodis, &c. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 4. it. 490. 
 
 
 I 
 
POLYMETI S. 
 
 a torch in her hand (i+*) frefii from the torture, and dill wet with blood ; fometimes, a 
 torch in one hand (H 3 ) and a ferpent in the other; and fometimes, ferpents (* 44 ) in both. 
 Here you fee her fhaking her horrid head of hair (' 45 ), to route up all the vipers about 
 it; and there, running on impetuoufly (146), with the air of a Bacchanal, to incite men 
 to deeds of blood and fury. Here (147), urging on the torments of the condemned ; and 
 there, whirling her torch (14 8 ), and exulting in the mifchiefs fhe has done. Here, file 
 is reprefented as a growing figure; and there, as fetting out, in (late (149), with all her 
 horrid attendants in her train. 
 
 I do not yet rightly conceive what it is you mean by a growing figure, fays Philander. 
 They are very uncommon, and not very ealy to be conceived, replied Polymetis. There 
 are but three of them, that I can recolledt at prefent: thofe are all defcribed by Virgil; 
 and are, perhaps, fume of the ftrongeft infhinces of that poet’s imagination, of any thing 
 in all his works. One of them is in his defcription of Fame; and the other two, relate 
 both to Furies. In his defcription of Fame, he fpeaks of that goddefs as appearing fmall 
 to you at firft; but as growing upon you continually, till her head reaches the clouds. 
 He reprefents Tiliphone (15°) much in the fame manner : terrible indeed, when fhe firft 
 appears on the earth; but growing every day larger, and more and more terrible. This 
 is where he introduces this Fury as bringing a pefiilence upon the earth : which gives it 
 a great deal of propriety, from the allegory and the reality’s anfwering fo well to each 
 other. The third infiance is in his account of Aledlo’s appearance to Turnus ; where 
 he fays, that her face grew fiill larger and larger, as he looked upon it; as I have had 
 occufion to obferve to you, once or twice before. 
 
 I shall mention but one defcription more in relation to Tifiphone: and that is al- 
 moft the only one that I was ever glad to read of her; becaufe fhe is the fufferer in it. 
 It is in a ftory, perhaps half Greek and half Egyptian, which is preferved to us by Va¬ 
 lerius Flaccus. Id, (as that poet fays,) after the death of Argus, was refiored to her 
 human fhape by Jupiter. In the height of her joy for the recovery of all her formef 
 beauties, as fhe went along exulting and triumphing in her mind, flic was met on a 
 fudden by Tifiphone; who was fent by Juno to renew her fufferings. Id was fo aflo- 
 niHied at the fight of this Fury, that fhe turned into a Cow again; but a much lefs 
 handfome one, it teems, than fhe had been before. In this her fecond fiate of brutality, 
 file wandered for fome time : unhappy, and unknown to her friends; even on the banks 
 of Inachus. She therefore left thofe parts, which only increated her afflidion ; and betook 
 herfelf toward the fea-coafi. Where, as fhe was moving along one day, full of melan¬ 
 choly thoughts and not minding where file trod, fhe made a falfe flep and fell into the 
 lea. The tea received her fafe; and carried her for Egypt. Tifiphone, (who was con- 
 ftantly watching all her motions,) on feeing her make toward Egypt, flew over the tea; 
 and got before her to Memphis: where file flood on the fhore to prevent her landing. 
 On Id's arrival toward the fhore, the deity of the Nile faw and pitied her diftrefs; and 
 
 haflened 
 
 (142) See Note 138, anteh. 
 
 (143) Tum geminas quatit illa manus: hasc igne rogali 
 Fulgurat; hic vivo manus aera verberat hydro. 
 
 Statius. Thcb. 1. 113. 
 
 (144) It geminum excutiens anguem.- 
 
 Id. Ib. 7. 466. 
 
 (145) See Note 137, anteh. 
 
 (146) -Bacchatur utrifque 
 
 Tifiphone callris_. 
 
 Statius. Theb. 7. 467. 
 
 (147) -Sontes ultrix armata flagello 
 
 Tifiphone quatit infultans; torvpfque finiftra 
 
 6 
 
 Intentans angues, vocat agmina feva fororum. 
 
 Virgil. JEn. 6. jr. 571, 
 
 (i4S)Tum face jadlata per eundem fspius orbem, 
 Confequitur motos velociter ignibus ignes : 
 
 Sic viftrix, juflique potens, ad inania magni 
 Regna redit Ditis. — - 
 
 Ovid. Met. 4. 510. 
 
 (149) -Ludius comitantur euntem 
 
 Et Pavor, & Terror, trepidoque Infania vultu. 
 
 Id. Ibid. 484. 
 
 (ijo) Saevit & in lucem, Stygiis emiffa tenebris, 
 
 Pallida Tifiphone: morbos agit ante, metumque; 
 Znque dies avidum furgens caput altius effert. 
 
 Virgil. Georg. 3. f. 554. 
 The other two inftanccs are in his ^En. Lib, 4, 
 jr. 175 ; and Lib. 7. )!■. 448. 
 
Dialogue the Sixteenth. 275 
 
 haftened to her affiftance. He engaged the Fury; and drove her back to hell. Id, thus 
 delivered from her tormentor, landed at laft on the Egyptian coaft; where, by the will 
 of Jove, die was made one of the principal divinities of that country. This engagement 
 between Nilus and Tidphone I fliould be mighty glad to meet with in any old paintino-, 
 or relievo : the fubjeft being as great a one for either, as the dory is uncommon. Flaccus 
 fays, that (15') the Fury's torches lay fcattered in one place, and her avenging fcourge in 
 another; that feveral of her vipers were torn from her head; and that Ihe herfelf was 
 pretied down into the land-bank, on the fea-diore : whence die funk to hell, defeated 
 and wounded; and calling in vain on the infernal deities for affiftance. This you will 
 lay is a very ridiculous legend ! Heaven knows, what myfterious traditions may be 
 wrapped up under it: but it was certainly a very remarkable ftory, in the earlier ages of 
 the world ; for (as Flaccus allures us,) it was from this very affair, that thofe feas acquir’d 
 one of their mod: celebrated names of old; and w hich it is dill known by (152), to this 
 very day. 
 
 Titus much for Tidphone. Her filler Alefto, (who feems to have been (153) yet 
 more terrible than herfelf,) is delcribed, in much the fame manner in general. She has 
 vipers about her (154) head; and about (15 5) her very wings; and is armed (156) with 
 vipers, fcourges, and torches: as we learn from that fine defeription of this Fury in 
 Virgil, where he makes her begin the war between the followers of lEneas, and the 
 old inhabitants of Latium. 
 
 As this is one of the nobleft parts in all Virgil's works, and perhaps the fined deferip¬ 
 tion of a Fury that ever was wrote, I fhall beg leave to confider every part of it in 
 order. Juno, (willing to dedroy the good underftanding that was like to be eftablifhed 
 between the Trojans and Latians,) raifes Aleflo from (157) Tartarus: who, as foon as the 
 had received her orders, flies immediately to the queen of Latium, and darts one of her 
 ferpents into her bofom, the terrible effedts of which are admirably delcribed by Virgil. 
 It fil'd (158) occafions melancholy, and complaints, in her; then rage; and at laft open 
 adts of violence. From the queen, Aleflo flies to Turnus ; at Ardea. It was then about 
 midnight; and the Fury appears to him in his fleep, under the form of the prieftefs that 
 prelided over the temple of Juno, in that city. She makes a fpeech to him, as fuch, 
 to dir him up to raife troops againft iTneas and his allies; and fays file was commanded 
 by the goddefs whom die ferved, to admonifh him of his duty.' Turnus at fird treats 
 her as an impertinent woman, and a falfe prophetefs. On which (lie is indantly enraged; 
 quits the thape the had put 011; and reaffumes her own, with all its terrors about it (159) 
 
 Her 
 
 (151) Contra Nilus adeft ; & toto gurgite torrens 
 Tifiphonen agit, atque imis illidit arenis, 
 
 Ditis opem ac fevi clamantem numina regni : 
 Apparent fparfxque faces; disjedaque longe 
 Verbera : & abruptis excufli crinibus hydri. 
 
 Valerius Flaccus, 4. 413. 
 
 (152) The Thracian Bofpherus, or Bofporus. 
 
 (153) Odit & ipfe pater Pluton ; odere forores 
 Tartareae monftrum : tot fefe vertit in ora, 
 
 1 am fxvx facies, tot pullulat atra colubris ! 
 
 Virgil. iEn. 7. it. 329. 
 
 (154) -- Geminos erexit crinibus hydros. 
 
 Virgil. JEn. 7. it. 450. 
 
 (155) Illa autem attollit flridentes anguibus alas. 
 
 Id. Ibid. i\ 561. 
 
 (136) Huic Dea cairuleis unum de crinibus anguem 
 Conjicit.- 
 
 lb. Ibid. it. 347. 
 
 Verberaque infonuit.- 
 
 Id. Ib. i'. 451. 
 
 Facem juveni conjecit. - 
 
 Ib. i-. 4j6, 
 
 (157) Ludificam AledoDirarum ab fede fororum 
 
 Infernifque ciet tenebris.-- 
 
 Virgil. JEn. 7. f. 32S . 
 
 (158) Ac dum prima lues udo fublapfa veneno 
 Pertentat fenfus atque oflibus implicat ignem, 
 Necd um animus toto percepit pedore flammam ; 
 Mollius & folito matrum de more locuta eft. 
 
 Multa fuper nata lacrymans.- 
 
 Id. Ibid. $. 358. 
 
 Tum vero infelix, ingentibus excita mor.ftris, 
 Immenfam fine more furit lymphata per urbem. 
 
 Ibid. i>. 377. 
 
 Quin etiam in fylvas fimulato numine Bacchi, 
 Majus adorta nefas majoremque orfa furorem. 
 Evolat; & natam frondofis montibus abdit; 
 
 Quo thalamum eripiat Teucris, tadafque moretur. 
 
 Ibid. f. 388. 
 
 (159) Talibus Aledo didis exarfit in iras : 
 
 At juveni oranti fubitus tremor occupat artus, 
 
 Diriguere. 
 
 || 
 
 B b b b 
 
POLYMETIS. 
 
 76 
 
 Her face grew larger, and larger, every inflant ; her eye-balls, from the languid look 
 they had before, became like flames of fire; and her fnakes rofe about her head, in all 
 their fury. She then fpeaks to him, in her own character, and in very few words, “ to 
 bid him obferve who fhe is; the difpenfer of wars and dcflrudion and concludes with 
 darting her burning torch againfl his breafl. He flarts, with the fright, out of his fleep; 
 calls aloud for his arms; excites his people; and breathes nothing but daughter and re¬ 
 venge. Aledto flies from him towards a party of /Eneas’s fbldiers; occafions a quarrel 
 between them, andfome of the natives of Latium ; and when fhe lees them fufliciently 
 provoked on each fide, flic herfelf founds the onfet, for their fighting. On this occafion 
 fhe feems to have fnatched up one of the horns, which the countrymen ufe to direct 
 their cattle; fori do not know any other paflage in all the Roman poets that ever 
 fpeaks of a horn as one of her attributes. But whoever the inflrument belonged to, the 
 voice and found was her own : it was a true infernal blalt (160 } ; that made the woods 
 tremble, and was heard with horror, for a vafl compafs round about. As fhe fees the 
 war is begun, fhe flies from thence to heaven ; tells Juno, that her commands are obeyed; 
 and wants (161) to do more mifehief. Juno fays, it is enough; and bids her return to 
 Tartarus. On which die immediately flies down toward the earth again : and plunges 
 herfelf into a horrid fulphureous lake (162), i n the eaflern parts of Italy; which was for¬ 
 merly 
 
 Diriguere oculi ; tot Erinnys fibilat hydris ! 
 Tantaque fe facies aperit ! Tum flammea torquens 
 Lumina, cunflantem & quicrentem dicere plura 
 Reppulit ; & geminos erexit crinibus angues, 
 
 Vei bcraque infonuit: rabidoque htec addidit ore. 
 
 Ibid. jr. 451. 
 
 (160) At fleva c fpeculu tempus Dea na&a nocendi, 
 Ardua tetta petit ftabuli et de culmine fummo 
 Paftorale canit fignum ; cornuque recurvo 
 Tartaream intendit vocem : qua protinus omne 
 Contremuit nemus ; & fylva: intonuere profunda;. 
 Audiit & Trivire longe lacus; audiit amnis 
 Sulfurea Nar albus aqua, fontefque Velini; 
 
 Et trepida: matres preflerc ad peilora natos. 
 
 Ibid. jr. 518. 
 
 (161) Hoc etiam his addam, tua fi mihi certa voluntas; 
 Finitimas in bella feram rumoribus urbes, 
 Accendamque animos infani Martis amore : 
 Undique ut auxilio veniant, fpargam arma per 
 
 agros. Ibid. if. 551. 
 
 (162) Eft locus Italia: medio, fub montibus altis. 
 
 Nobilis & fama multis memoratus in oris ; 
 Amfamfli valles. Denfis hunc frondibus atrum 
 Urget utrimque latus nemoris; medioque fragofus 
 Dat fonitum faxis & torto * vertice torrens. 
 
 Hic fpecus horrendum, & ftevi fpiracula Ditis, 
 Monftratur : ruptoque ingens Acheronte vorago 
 Peltiferas aperit fauces. Queis condita Erinnys, 
 lnvifum numen, terras ccelumque levabat. 
 
 * So the famous Flor. MSS. Ibid. if. 571. 
 
 Virgil fays exprefly that this defeent of Alecto to 
 Hell, was in the vale of Amfandtus. Amfan&us is 
 placed, both by the antients and moderns, in the king¬ 
 dom of Naples; between Trevicum and Acherontia. 
 There was antiently a temple built to Mephites here ; 
 as the deity who prefided over noifomc and peftilential 
 fmells. Hence the place is to this day called, Nefanto, 
 and Muffito. 
 
 Virgil fays, it was under the mountains in the 
 
 midfl: of Italy :-that it was inclofcd with woods, 
 
 on each fide :-that there were hollows and feveral 
 
 fpiracula about it:-and that the waters burft up 
 
 into the air ; and then fall down again, in a broken 
 manner; for fo I think one ought to underftand his 
 
 torto vertice torrens, and- .rupto Acheronte vo- 
 
 rago. 
 
 Doth the fpiracula, and this broken fpoutof water 
 falling in upon itfelf, arc deferibed by another poet, 
 of the greateft credit for the times he lived in ; which 
 was about 400 years after Virgil. 
 
 Tunc & peftiferi pacatum flumen Averni 
 Innocua-, tranfiftis, aves! Flatumque repreflit 
 Amfan&us; tacuit, fixo torrente, vorago. 
 
 Claudian, de Rapt. Prof. 2. if. 350. 
 
 Virgil alludes to the peftilential flench there, in the 
 word peftiferas. The words Amfanctus, and Me¬ 
 phites, were ufed for a flench by the Roman writers ; 
 and the fmells in this place were looked upon an¬ 
 tiently, as mortal.- Taceo, quod alarum fpecu- 
 
 bus hircofis atque acefcentibus latera captiva vallatus, 
 nares circumfedentium ventilata duplicis Amfanfti 
 pefte funeflat. Sidonius Apollinaris, Lib. 3. Ep. 13. 
 
 -Saevamque exhalat opaca Mephitim. Virgil, 
 
 Ain. 7. i. 84.-Spiiacula vocant; item in Hirpinis, 
 
 Amfancti ad Mephitis a:dem locum; quem qui in¬ 
 trant, moriuntur. Pliny, Nat. Hift. lib. 2. cap. 93. 
 
 The place which is now called Nefanto, (as fup- 
 pofed by corruption from Amfandtus ; fee Leon. Al- 
 berti f. 101.) is in a dark vale, near Trevico; in¬ 
 clofcd on each fide by hills, and gloomy woods. 
 In the midfl are two or three filthy holes ; in one of 
 which the water burfts up to the height of three or 
 four feet, (fometiincs more, and fometimes lefs,) 
 and then falls in again upon itfelf. It fmells horribly : 
 the earth being all impregnated with fulphur. There 
 are feveral vents of wind in the fides of the hills near 
 this odious bafon : which you find to come out with 
 a good deal of force, if you hold your hand to the 
 vent; and they make more noife than a fmith’s bel¬ 
 lows. A particular friend of mine, who has been 
 there, fays he found out the place by the noife. 
 The water, in the holes above mentioned, is gene¬ 
 rally of a black look ; and is ftill fo much regarded as 
 infe&ious, that the country-people do not much care 
 to go with you to it. I know not whether it may be 
 worth mentioning, that they have ftill flories and 
 pictures in thofe parts, of a faint driving the devil, (who 
 had been very troublefome, it feems, in the country,) 
 back again to hell; thorough one of thefe holes. 
 
 No 
 
Dialogue the Sixteenth. 
 
 merly always looked on, (by the common people at leaft.) as a vent of the river Acheron t 
 the very river, which was fuppofed to furround the city of Rhadamanthus, in the region 
 of Tartarus; and fo mult lead Aledto, diredtly, to her ufual place of abode. 
 
 The lalt of thefe three horrid filters, called by the particular name of Dine as execu¬ 
 tioners of the divine vengeance, is Megtcra. She has ferpents on her head (163), an d 
 two diltinguilhed ones over her forehead, as her filters have; and is repretented, like 
 them (164), with torches. The Roman poets fpeak much lefs of her than of the others: 
 and I know of but one defcription of her that would make a good pidture, in all their 
 works. That is in Virgil too, where he is fpeaking of the punilhment of the Lapitha?: 
 who were faid to be always placed round a table very richly and plentifully fet out. with 
 aloofe piece of rock hanging over their heads, as jult ready to fall; and (165) this Fury 
 attending clofe by, to watch and menace them, the moment they endeavour to tafle any 
 one of the tempting things fet before them. 
 
 Such are the chiefs of the many executioners fuppofed to be employed in the great 
 abyfs of Tartarus. As to the perfons tormented there, Virgil feems to have diftin<milhed 
 them into two general dalles: the find, of fuch as have been ungrateful or impious (166) 
 toward the gods; and the fecond, of fuch as have been mifehievous and hurtful (167) 
 among men. 
 
 The moll impious of the former clafs of criminals, were the rebel giants. The poets 
 frequently fpeak of their attempt to fcale heaven, and of their battle with the great 
 
 Celellial 
 
 No one piece of ground now can I think anfwer 
 to an antient defcription more punctually and cxa&ly 
 than this docs to Virgil’s account of Amfanctus. I 
 know but of one objection that can be made to it, 
 which is from Virgil’s faying that it is iituated—Ita¬ 
 lia: medio. Nefanto, you may fay, is very far from 
 being in the midft of Italy: and tho’ the other cir- 
 cumftances of the place all tally fo well; yet its 
 failing in one point, and that fo material and un¬ 
 changeable an one, mull deftroy the whole. This ob¬ 
 jection would be very ftrong, if no place could be faid 
 to be in the midft of Italy, except what was fo, 
 taking it in length : but may not a place be faid to be 
 in the middle of Italy, taking the country in breadth, 
 as well as in length ? I do not know whether that 
 expreflion would be fo proper now ; but antiently they 
 faid the Apennines lay in the middle of Italy, which 
 muftbe underftood of the breadth : 
 
 Umbrofis mediam qua collibus Apcnninus 
 Erigit Italiam- - 
 
 Lucan. Lib. 2. jr. 397, 
 
 And Dionyfius in his geography, fays that this 
 mountain lays as exaCtly in the midft of Italy, as if it 
 had been directed by a line : 
 
 Msjrmj d' aytpojcpuv irzpaTmrjcLlcu Avffovtt aia. 
 
 ThtKvnviif' Tnv yty J'e ytany opo( avS'tya Ttyvi t 
 Op&ov, a]' tv. ra$y»f tSvyytvor vv. ctv tKttvo 
 JSp/f yvyturcwro co$ »{ uirotpyof A£ui -»{• 
 
 Or pa. te KiKto<rx.vatv Anttviov. --—■ 
 
 Tltpmy. f. 338. 
 
 Now Nefanto, (or the vale of AmfanCtus,) does 
 not only lay among the Apennines; but is fituated too, 
 at near an equal diftance from the Mare Superum, 
 and the Mare Inferum ; and fo may the more ftriClly 
 be faid, to be in the midft of Italy : Italiae medio, fub 
 montibus altis. 
 
 If there is any thing in this Jong note, which may 
 give any new or ftronger lights to this noted paflage 
 in the iEneid ; I am obliged for it to a very particular 
 
 4 
 
 friend of mine; a gentleman * of our own country: 
 who has travelled often into Italy, and who, 
 lieve,) is much better acquainted with it as claflic 
 ground, than any man now living. He had tlr 
 fity, in one of his voyages, to go to Nefanto audit 
 is from him that I have given the above account of the 
 appearance, which that place makes at prefent. 
 
 * The late Mr. Holdfworthj author of the Mufci- 
 pula, the diflertation on the two Philippi’s, &c. 
 
 (163) Quxnam ifla, torquens angue vipereo comam, 
 Temporibus atras fqualidis pinnas quatit ! 
 
 Quid me flagranti dira perfequeris face, 
 
 Megara !- Herc.Oet. Aft. 3. Sc. 2. 
 
 (164) Et geminas faces M eg ter a quatiens. 
 
 Thyeftes, Aft. 2. Sc. 1. 
 
 (165) Quid memorem Lapithas, Ixiona Pirithoumque ? 
 Quos fu per atra filex, jam jam lapfura, cadentique 
 Imminet aflimilis. Lucent genialibus altis 
 Aurea fulcra toris ; cpulaique ante ora, parata: 
 
 riarum maxima y 
 
 Regifico luxu. Fu: 
 
 Accubat, & manibus prohibet contingere menfes: 
 Exurgitque, facem attollens; atque intonat ore. 
 
 Virgil. AJn. 6. jr. 607. 
 
 It appears from Statius, that this Fury, (whom Vir¬ 
 gil does not name,) was Megiera. 
 
 *- Ultrix tibi torva Megxra 
 
 Jejunum Phlegyam, fubter cava faxa jacentem, 
 Aiterno premit accubitu ; dapibufque profanis 
 Inflimulat: fed mifla famem faftidia vincunt. 
 
 Theb. i. f. 715. 
 
 V irgil on this occafion calls her, Furiarum maxima ; 
 which may fignify either a chief, or the chief, of the 
 Furies: but confidcring her fitters characters, (who 
 are, at leaft, her equals,) I think it IhouIJ be taken in 
 the former fenfe here. 
 
 (166) See JE n. 6. f. 580, to 607. 
 
 (167) See Ibid. ■}■. 608, to 6x4. 
 
P O L Y M E T I S. 
 
 Celeftial Deities. The gods did not conquer them fo eafily as might be expeded; or fome 
 poets, at lead, (as is ( J 6 &) insinuated by Ovid,) have deferibed that affair as attended with 
 more difficulty than they ought to have done: however, at lad, they got a total vidory; 
 and cad the rebels down to Tartarus: where they were to receive the lull puniihment of 
 their enormous crime. The poets, in fpeaking of theie monders, fay that they had ($9) 
 fuakes indead of legs. How that could be is not fo eafily conceived without the affidance 
 of the works of the antient artids ; in which they are often reprefented going off at the 
 thighs into two vad ferpents; as you fee one of them does (» 7 °), in this drawing. 
 
 Typhoeus feems to be didinguidied by the poets, as one of the chief leaders in this 
 attempt for the fovereignty of heaven. Horace mentions him fird (1 7 1 ) in his account of 
 the battle : and gives us the names of four more of them; Mimas, Porphyrion, Rhsecus, 
 and Enceladus. Virgil adds (* 7 2 ) Casus and Iapetus, to this clafs of daring monders; 
 and ( 73 ) iEgeon ; and the (» 74 )two fons of Aloeus. We learn from Ovid, that Gyges 
 was a principal (» 75 ) in this affair: and that Typhon (» 7 6 ) was concerned in it. I have 
 never met with any one of the above-named Giants, reprefented in their date of punifh- 
 ment: but there is a fine relievo of Tityos, at the Villa Borghefe; in which you fee him 
 laying on a rock; and the vultur, plungingC 1 77 ) his beak into his fide: in the me man¬ 
 ner as he is deferibed by Virgil, in his account of this region of torments. 
 
 Virgil 
 
 (168) Juft before the terrrible account, given by 
 one of the Pierides in Ovid, of the gods being drove 
 by Typhceus into Egypt; and forced to change them- 
 felves there into the fhapes of fuch and fuch animals, 
 to efcape h:.s fury ; that poet obferves, “ That fhe 
 raifes the achievements of the giants, and extenuates 
 the actions of the gods.” 
 
 -Falfo in honore Gigantas 
 
 Ponit ; & extenuat magnorum farta Deorum. 
 
 Met. 5. j/. 320. 
 
 (169) -Centum quifque parabant 
 
 Injicere anguipedum captivo brachia corto. 
 
 Ovid. Met. i. jr. 184. 
 Terra ferax, partus (immania monltra!) Gigantas 
 Edidit; aufuros in Jovis ire domum : 
 
 Mille manus illis dedit; & pro cruribus angues. 
 
 Id. Fall. 5. jr. 37. 
 
 — Phlegrao liantes ferpente gigantes. 
 
 Lucan. 9. jr. 656. 
 
 Thefe ftrange monfters in the antient mythology, 
 feem to have been pretty exact emblems of the dilbe- 
 licvcrs fo much in falhion in ourtimes.—Gigantes quid 
 aliud fuifte credendum eft, quam hominum quandam 
 impiam gentem, Deos negantem ; & ideo exiftimatam 
 Deos pellere de ccelcfti fede voluific ? Horum pedes 
 in draconum volumina definebant: quod fignificat, 
 nihil eos reiftum, nihil fuperum cogitaflc; totius vitte 
 eorum greffii, atque progreflu, in inferna mergente. 
 Macrob. Saturn. Lib. 1. cap. 20. 
 
 (170) See PI. 41. Fig. 4. 
 
 (171) Magnum illa terrorem intulerat Jovi 
 Fidens juventus horrida brachiis; 
 
 Fratiefque tendentes opaco 
 Pelion impofuifle Olympo. 
 
 Sed quid Typhceus, & validus Mimas, 
 
 «* Aut quid minaci Porphyrion llatu ; 
 
 Quid Rhacus, evulfifque truncis 
 Enceladus jaculator audax, 
 
 Contra fonantem Palladis a-gida 
 Poflent ruentes? Hinc avidus ftetit 
 Vulcanus; hinc Matrona Juno: & 
 
 (Nunquam humeris pofiturus arcum) 
 
 Qui rore puro Callalia: lavit 
 
 Crines folutos.- 
 
 Horat. Lib. 3. Od. 4. 62. 
 
 Ovid mentions Typhceus, as the chief terror of the 
 gods. 
 
 Huc quoque terrigenam vcnifTe Typhceea narrat • 
 Et fe mentitis Superos celalfe figuris. 
 
 Met. 5. y. 326. 
 
 (172) -Partu Terra nefando 
 
 C.x-umque Iiipetumque creat, fawumque Typhcca; 
 Et conjuratos ccelum refeindere fratres. 
 
 Ter funt conati imponere Pelio Offam 
 Scilicet, atque Offefrondofum involvereOIympum; 
 Ter pater exllrurtos disjecit fulmine montes. 
 
 Virgil. Georg. 1. f, 283. 
 
 (173) yEgeon qualis, centum cui brachia dicunt 
 Centenafque manus ; qui rupi — i, one --m 
 Pertoribufque arfiffe : Jovis cum fulmina contra 
 Tot paribus, llreperet clypeis, tot llringeret enfes. 
 
 Id. aEn. 10. jr. 568. 
 
 Homer makes TEgeon the fame with Briareus ; or 
 the Centum-geminus Briareus, as Virgil culls him, 
 TEn. 6. jf. 287. 
 
 (174) Hie & Alo'idas geminos, immania vidi 
 Corpora ! Qui manibus magnum refeindere ccelum 
 Aggrdfi, fuperifque Jovem detrudere regnis 
 
 Id. Ib. 6. jr. 584. 
 
 (175) Q.uid gravius virtore Gyge captiva tuliffet. 
 
 Quam nunc, (te cceli fceptra tenente ') tulit ? 
 Ovid. Falt. 4. >'\ 592. (An exclamation of Cert-, againfl 
 Jupiter ; on the rape of her daughter.) 
 
 (176) Terribilem quondam fugiens Typhona Dione, 
 
 Tunc cum pro ccelo Jupiter arma tulit ; &c. 
 
 Id. Ib. 2. j/. 462. 
 
 (177) Ncc non & Tityon, terne omniparentis alumnum 
 Cernere erat: per tota novem cui jugera corpus 
 Porrigitur; roilroque immanis vultur adunco. 
 Immortale jecur tondens ftecundaque pcenis 
 Vifcera, rimaturque epulis habitatque fub alto 
 Pertore; nec fibris requies datur ulla renatis. 
 
 Virgil. a£n, 6. i/. 6oq. 
 
Dialogue the Sixteenth. 
 
 v '- of t ie variety of tortures in this horrid place (178) as vaftly numerous; 
 i t he givt : us ■' ‘i account of but very few of them. I believe if one was to make a Jill; of 
 :! pun; iiments in Tartarus mentioned by him and all the other Latin poets, 
 
 cu.cu would jcarce be half a fcore of them. Whatever was the reafon of this; one may 
 '' 1 ' • L'unte in his hell, has much more variety of punilhments, than all the 
 1 • ■ 1 ’ p l ‘* together. They are fo uncommon in the remains of the antient artifls pt,. XXXIX. 
 
 >g r 79) of rityos, and this other reprefenting the tortures of Silyphus, Fl °* 2 * 
 
 Ixion, and Tantalus, are all that I have got to iliew you, on this fubjedt. 
 
 Tantalus is reprefented here as hanging over tlie waters, which are always flowing 
 tnro his hand, and gliding from him. You may fee defire, and difappointment, on his 
 face ; and a fort of ftupidity, con traded by being baulked fo perpetually. I fcarce 
 doubt that Horace had fome reprefentation of this kind, in his thoughts ; where he com¬ 
 pares (-80) the tortures of a mifer in this world, to thofe of Tantalus in the other. I faid, 
 fome reprefentation of this kind ; becaufe Tantalus was probably reprefented fometimes 
 in a different manner: as handing under a tree, and fome of the branches, loaded with 
 the finch ripe fruits, hanging down juh before his mouth (181 ). which, the moment he 
 endeavoured to take, always waved away out of his reach. This I have never feen in 
 any of the works of the artihs; any more than a third fort of punifhment for Tanta¬ 
 lus (182), of quite a different nature : which is only mentioned by fome of the elder 
 Roman writers, before the Auguhan age; and which I therefore fuppofe might poflibly 
 be rejected in the better ages. 
 
 Ovid in one paffage feems to deferibe Sifyphus, in the fame manner that you fee 
 him reprefented here, as bending under (183) the weight of a vafl ftone. The more 
 common way of fpeaking of his punifhment agrees with the fine defeription of him 
 in Homer; where we fee him labouring to heave the ftone, that lies on his flioulders 
 here, up againft the fide of a fteep mountain ; and which always (184) rolls precipitately 
 down again, before he can get it to fix on the top. Lucretius makes him only anK^o 
 emblem of the Ambitious : as Horace too feems to make Tantalus, only an (186) emblem 
 of the Covetous. 
 
 Ixion, 
 
 (178) Non mihi ft lingua; centum fint, oraque centum, 
 Fcrrea vox, omnes fcelerum comprendcre formas, 
 Omnia poenarum percurrere nomina poflim. 
 
 Virgil. JEn. 6. jt. 627. 
 
 (179) See PI. 41. Fig. 5. 
 
 (i 3 o) Tantalus alabris fitiens fugientia captat 
 
 1 - lumina -Quid rides ? Mutato nomine, de te 
 
 Fabula narratur. Congeftis undique faecis 
 
 Indormis inhians.- 
 
 Horat. Lib. 1. Sat. 1. jfr. 71. 
 
 So Lucretius too 
 
 lit litis «equa tenet, vi 
 
 femper hiantes. 
 
 Lib. 3. jr. 1097. 
 
 (181) -Qui fallentibus undis 
 
 Imminet, aut refuga; llerilem rapit aera fvlvx. 
 
 Statius. Theb. 6. jK 281. 
 Nec bibit inter aquas, nec poma natantia carpit 
 Tantalus.- 
 
 Petronius. Arb. p. 23. 
 
 Quis me furor nunc fede ab infaufta extrahit 
 Avido fugaces ore captantem cibos ? 
 
 - Pejus inventum eft fiti 
 
 Arente in undis aliquid, & pejus fame 
 Hiante femper *— 
 
 In quod malum tranferibor f 
 
 Thyeftes, A£t. r. Sc. 1. it. 13. 
 
 -Tibi, Tantale, nullx 
 
 Deprendunturaqux; quxque imminet, effugitarbos. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 4. it. 458. 
 
 (182) Nec mifer impendens magnum timet aere faxum 
 Tantalus, (ut fama eft,} calla formidine torpens. 
 
 Lucretius, 3. it. 994. 
 
 c 
 
 Cicero fpeaking of ol e, who is in ftrong appre- 
 hcnfions of a great evil, juft coming upon him ; fays 
 his cafe is like that of Tantalus. Quam vim mali 
 ilgnificantes poetae, impendere apud Inferos faxum 
 Tantalo faciunt. Tufc. Quxft. Lib. 4. p. 460. Ed. 
 Blacu. • 
 
 (183)-./Eoliden faxum grave Sifyphon urget. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 13. jt. 26. 
 
 (184) Aut petis, aut urges ruiturum, Sifyphe, faxum. 
 
 Id. Ib. lib. 4. it. 459, 
 
 (185) Sifyphus in vita quoque nobis ante oculos eft, 
 Qui petere a populo fafeeis fxvafque fecureis 
 Imbibit; & femper vidlus triftifque recedit : 
 
 Nam petere imperium quod inane eft nec datur 
 
 unquam, 
 
 Atque in eo femper durum fufferre laborem ; 
 Hoc eft adverfo nixantem trudere monte 
 Saxum, quod tamen afummo jam vertice rurfum 
 Volvitur ; & plani raptim petit xquora campi. 
 
 Lucretius, 3. it. 1015. 
 
 (186) This, I think, appears from the words. 
 Quid rides, in the paflage quoted from Horace. 
 (Note 180, anteh.) He begins formally, to tell the 
 
 ftory of Tantalus’s punifhment.'-He then breaks 
 
 off fhort, and fays ; “ Why are you laughing at me ? 
 As much a fiftion as this is, it is really verified in the 
 lives of the covetous. They are always hanging over 
 their treafure, and never enjoying any of it.” 
 
 c c c 
 
 
POLYMETIS. 
 
 Ibo 
 
 Ixion, (who was condemned to his'torture for impiety and ingratitude,) appears 
 here as fixed in his wheel; which was faid to hurry him round (187), in one perpetual 
 whirl. This would be no bad emblem of thofe in our days who are fo fond of being di- 
 ftinguilhed by the name of Men of Pleafure; and feem to value themfelves for loling 
 every moment of their lives, in a round of mfignificant dieerfions . but as this was a 
 vice perhaps not known among the antients, we mud not expedi any fuch application 
 in their writings. 
 
 I do not know any of the antients that fpeak of any other punifliment for Ixion, but 
 his wheel ; and the rapid eddies he is always whirled in, by it. Virgil, in particular, 
 mentions this, as his punifliment, in his fourth ( 1 88) Gcorgic ; and I luppofe had done 
 fo 1*189) in his third, till fome over-wife tranfcriber was plcal'ed to correct what he had 
 originally written. 
 
 I am apt to imagine that the antient painters fometimes inferted fome deity of the 
 winds in their reprefentations of Ixion’s punifliment ; as directing a ftrong blaft againfl: 
 his wheel, to drive it round the more rapidly. This would account to the eye, for an 
 effed which would otherwife feem unaccounted for : and Virgil may hint at fome fuch 
 representation, in the word (19°) Vento,) where he is fpeaking of the ftrange effeds of 
 Orpheus’s mufic, even on Ixion, and other of the inhab.' ■ its of the dcepefl abyfs of 
 Tartarus : but I only mention this as a mere conjedure ; and as unfupported by any au¬ 
 thority from the remains of the artifts I have feen. 
 
 It is high time for us now to quit this horrid region, and all the Shocking ideas 
 belonging to it; and to change them for the milder air of Elyfium. Elyfium, or the 
 Subterraneous heaven of the antients, is reprefented in the drawing I am going to Shew 
 you. You mult not exped any thing very fine in it; for if you do, you will be greatly 
 'difappointed. The antients never failed more in any thing than in making a heaven; 
 and if one was to confider all the modern descriptions of the fame, we Should find mod 
 
 of 
 
 (1S7) Volvitur Ixion, & fe fcquiturque fugitque. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 4. if. 461. 
 
 -Cur avidis Txiona frango 
 
 Vorticibus ?- 
 
 Statius. Theb. 8. if. 51. (Spoke, by Pluto.) 
 
 (188) - Ixionii vento rota conftitit orbis. 
 
 Georg. 4. jr. 484. 
 
 (1S9) Invidia infelix Furias amnemque feverum 
 Cocyti metuet; tortofque Ixionis orbes, 
 Immancmque rotam ; & non exfuperabile faxum. 
 
 Georg. 3. if . 39. 
 
 All the editions of Virgil at prefent, (and indeed 
 fcvcral of the manuferipts, and even fome of theoldeft,) 
 lead angues here inftead of orbes. 
 
 The reafon why I luppofe that fome critics of late 
 who have thought it was originally orbes, are in the 
 r; -ht ; is becaufe the latter agrees with Ixion’s punilh- 
 ment, and the former does not. 
 
 'The punifliment of Ixion confided in being at¬ 
 tached to a wheel, and whirled round impetuoufly by 
 it; both which are exprefled in the Tortos orbes, 
 
 Immancmque rotam, of Virgil.- Orbis is the 
 
 very word which Virgil ufes, in the only place befide 
 this where he fpcaks of Ixion’s punifliment in his al¬ 
 lowed works : and, if the ./Etna be his, it is alfo ufed 
 there, of the fame. 
 
 I do not remember that Virgil, or any other of the 
 Roman poets, ever fpeak of Ixion’s being tormented 
 with fnakes ; or indeed of fnakes being made ufe of 
 in the torments of Tartarus, at all. The fnakes of 
 
 the Furies, or infernal tormentors of the old poets, 
 reprefented the flings of confcience ; the tortures and 
 fufFerings of the mind, not thofe of the body : but 
 as the modern painters have made fo much ufe of 
 ferpents, in their reprefentations of perfons tormenteJ 
 in the other world ; that has made a connexion be¬ 
 tween the tormented and fnakes now, which was 
 not of old : and may have been a chief reafon, that 
 the reading of Angues has prevailed fo generally 
 among us. 
 
 I muft juft obferve one thing more ; which is the 
 propriety of Virgil in the above paflage, in another 
 refpeft. The perfons he is fpeaking of are the ene¬ 
 mies of the Julian family ; or the fadlion, (as he calls 
 it,) againfl the Caefars. Thefe, he fays, fhould be 
 reprefented on the temple he would build to Au- 
 guftus, as in the tortures of Tartarus; and, more 
 particularly, as punilhcd in the fame manner as Ixion 
 and Sifyphus. Ixion was punifhed there, for his 
 ingratitude and impiety; Sifyphus, as a villain and a 
 robber. So that this is calling all the party againfl: 
 Auguftus rafeals, and ingrates; and infers the higheft 
 compliment to that prince, at the fame time that it is 
 the moft cruel of invedtives againfl his enemies. 
 
 (190) There is another paflage, in the fame book 
 of Virgil ; which may perhaps require the fame way 
 of thinking, to explain it ftrongly. 
 
 -Alia: panduntur inanes. 
 
 Sufpenfa: ad Ventos. -— 
 
 -<En. 6 . f. 741. 
 
r m ^ 
 
 N 
 
 Dialogue the Sixteenth. 
 
 of them perhaps little better than the antient ones. They had fcarce any thing in the 
 old philofophy, that held firmly againft the fears of death ; and therefore the notions 
 which the Romans had even of a place of blifs, had fomething gloomy intermixed with 
 it. Tho the ideas of Virgil, on this fubjedl, are («9 1 ) much preferable to thofe of Ho¬ 
 mer ; they are flill low, and mean enough o’ confcience. The perfons in Virgil’s 
 Elyfium, (as you may fee, by the drawing of it before us,) are fome dancing; others, 
 engaged in the exercifes they moil delighted in, whilft in the upper world : and Orpheus, 
 in particular, is playing on his lyre. That is the only thing I can fee, to make any 
 thing very pleafing in it. Virgil fpeaks alfo of delightful groves j and of a cafcade of 
 water, which docs not appear in this pidure. But taking in all that he fays of Elyfium, 
 his defeription of it and of the pleafures the departed enjoy there, is fo very low; that it 
 feems almofi: to have been borrowed from the manner in which the common people at 
 Rome, in his time, ufed to pafs their holydays, on the banks of the Tiber. Ovid has 
 deferibed the latter; as Virgil has the former; and I do not fee any great difference (192) 
 in their deferiptions, only that Virgil chufes to infill more on the exercifes ufed fo much 
 by the Romans in the fame place; (for the Campus Martius, was on the banks of the 
 Tiber;) and that Ovid, like a boon companion as he was, infills chiefly on their (193) 
 eating and drinking there. 
 
 The inhabitants of this region of blifs, (fuch as it was,) were the fouls of the good; 
 their proper judge, Abacus : and the two chief rulers of all the fubterraneous world, 
 Pluto and Proferpine. 
 
 There is not any of the happy fpirits, reprefented in this picture, that we know by 
 name; except Orpheus. Pie appears in a long drefs, falling down to his feet (194); 
 that robe of dignity, which was given to muficians in the firft ages of the world, in ho¬ 
 nour of their high charader: which in thofe times comprehendedmot only the feience of 
 mulic, but that of poetry, moral philofophy, and legillature. The giving rules of life 
 to particulars, or laws to any nation, is too apt to carry a fevere air with it; and to deter 
 people, from what you would have them follow : the wife men therefore of thofe days 
 united the two arts of mufic and poetry, to that of inftruding mankind : and, by that 
 means, foftened the feverity of their inftrudions; and infinuated them into the hearts, 
 as well as the minds, of their rough hearers. You have feen Orpheus before, in fome 
 
 other 
 
 z8i 
 
 <<\ 
 
 . XL. 
 
 (191) Homer makes Achilles fay; “ That he 
 would chul'e rather to ferve on earth ; than even to 
 reign over all the regions of the dead.” Od. A. 490. 
 Virgil does not advance any thing that might caft 
 io great a reflection on his Elyfium ; but only fays, 
 <e That it is better to bear any degree of poverty or 
 hardlhips on our earth, than to be in Erebus;” /En. 6. 
 
 >-■ 43 6 > co 439- 
 
 (192) The holyday feaft deferibed by Ovid was kept 
 in honour of Anna Perenna : then a faint ; but for¬ 
 merly, (as fome authors fay,) an old woman that fold 
 cakes at Rome : Faft. 3. j/. 667, to 674. His account 
 of it is as follows. 
 
 Idibus ell Anns felium geniale Perenns ; 
 
 Haud procul a ripis, advena Tybri, tuis. 
 
 Plebs venit; ac virides paliim disjecta per herbas 
 Potat: & accumbit cum pare quifque fua. 
 
 Sub Jove pars durat; pauci tentoria ponunt; 
 
 Sunt quibus e ramo frondea facta cafa ell: 
 
 Pars ibi pro rigidis calamos pofuere columnis; 
 Defuner extentas impufuere togas. 
 
 Sole tamen, vinoque calent: annofque precantur 
 Quot fumant cyathos, ad nuinerumque bibunt. 
 
 Invenies illic, qui Neiloris ebibat annos; 
 
 Quec fit per calices fadla Sibylla fuos. 
 
 Illic & cantant quicquid didicere theatris ; 
 lit jadlant faciles ad fua verba manus: 
 
 Et ducunt pofito duras cratere choreas; 
 
 Cultaque diffufis faltat amica comis. 
 
 Cum redeunt, titubant ; & funt fpeftacula vulgo : 
 Et Fortunatos obvia turba vocant. 
 
 Fall. 3. 540. 
 
 Virgil’s account of the joys of Elyfium. 
 
 Devenere locos lajtos, & amcena vireta 
 
 Fortunatorum nemorum. -- 
 
 Largior hic campos sther & lumine vellit 
 Purpureo ; folemque fuum, fua fidera norunt. 
 
 Pars in gramineis exercent membra palxllris; 
 Contendunt ludo, & fulva ludantur arena: 
 
 Pars pedibus plaudunt choreas; & carmina dicunt.— 
 Stant terra defixx halts, pallimque foluti 
 Per campum pafcuntur equi: qua: gratia curruum, 
 Armorumque fuit vivis; qus cura nitentes 
 Pafcere equos; eadem fequitur tellure repollos. 
 Confpicit ecce alios, dextr;. Ixvaque, per herbam 
 Vefcentes; Ixtumquc choro Psana canentes. 
 
 ALn. 6. jt. 657. 
 
 (193) Protinus erratis Isti vefcuntur in agris; 
 
 Et celebrant largo fcque diemque mero. 
 
 Ovid. Fail. 3. jr. 656. 
 
 (194) Nec non Threicius longa cum velle facerdos 
 Obloquitur numeris feptem diferimina vocum ; 
 Jamquc eadem digitis, jam pettinc pulfat eburno. 
 
 Virgil. Ain. 6. jr. 6\y. 
 
 u 
 
.Si POLY M E T I S. 
 
 other of my drawings (195), taming the monfters of the infernal world, with his voice 
 and lyre; as he did the rough Thracians, in our world, by the united arts of pleafing 
 and inftrufting, that he was fo great a mailer of. 
 
 1 NEVER met with any figure of fEacus among the remains of the antient artills; or 
 any thing defcriptive of him in the poets : but Pluto and Proferpine are common fubjefts 
 in both. Their palace, or chief place of refidence, feems to have been near the point (' 9 &),_ 
 where the three great roads of Ades meet; and, confequently, to be about the center oi 
 their proper dominions. 
 
 The figures of Pluto and Proferpine, as I was juft faying, are common enough. 
 Pl. XL. What I have chofen to place here among my drawings, was copied from one of the 
 
 J ig. 2. pieces of painting which were difeo^ered, toward the e id of the ! ift century, in the old 
 
 burial-place for the Nafonian family. Pluto and Proferpine, you fee, are reprefented in 
 it, as fitting on their thrones in Elyfium. Mercury, the chief cohdudlor of departed 
 fpirits to this region, is introducing one lately arrived, to their prefence. It is a veiy 
 young woman j not full grown : and feems intimidated at appearing before fo awful and 
 ftern a prince, as Pluto is generally reprefented to be. Juft behind her, is the fpirit 01 a 
 more elderly woman ; perhaps, her mother : and pofilbly waiting to attend her back to 
 fome of the groves or grottos of Elyfium, where flic herfelf had been ufed to pats moft of 
 her time. Pluto does not look fo feverely on her, as < ne n i ht expedi From his general 
 character 3 which is that of being gloomy and paffionate, even tho’ his refidence is in 
 the region of the bleft. 
 
 There is a great refemblance in the faces of the three brotheVs, Jupiter, Neptune, 
 and Pluto : as one may find at any time by comparing them together m the different 
 works of the antient artifts; and which is extremely well preferved by Raphael, where 
 he has placed them all together in his feaft of the gods, on the marriage of Cupid and 
 Pfyche. They arc in the works of the antients, as well as there, all alike : only the 
 look of Jupiter is the moft ferene and majeftic, of the three 3 and that of Pluto, the 
 moft fullen and fevere. The poets (» 97 ) make the fame diftindtion, in fpeaking of the 
 three brothers. The face of Pluto here too, is like that of Jupiter 3 only more rigid and 
 tyrannical. It is hence, perhaps, that Statius calls him (» 9 ^), The Black Jupiter : for 
 he is moft like the figures of the Jupiter Terribilis 3 which were moft commonly made 
 of black marble. You fee, he holds his (199) feepter in his hand 3 and has a veil all over 
 his head : which a poet (200) of the lower ages calls, Nubes 3 as the lighter veil of the air 
 and water-nymphs was called. Nimbus. His complexion, (as well as his veil,) fhould be 
 dark (201) and terrible. He is fometimes called by the name of Dis (202), as Proferpine 
 is by that of Perfephone. 
 
 Ido 
 
 (195) PI. 38. Fig. 2. 
 
 (196) Hie locus ell partes ubi fe via findit in ambas : 
 Dextera, qua; Ditis regni fub mcenia tendit: 
 
 Hac iter Elyfium nobis.- 
 
 Virgil. JE n. 6. 542. 
 
 (197) Frons torva, fratrum qua: tamen fpecimcn gerat. 
 
 Here. Fur. Aft. 3. Sc. 2. $. 723. 
 
 -Tuque O favillime fratrum, 
 
 Cui fervire dati Manes!- 
 
 Statius. Theb. 4. f. 475. 
 
 (198) Hoc, ut fama, loco pallentes devius umbras 
 
 Trames agit ; nigrique Jovis vacua atria ditat 
 Mortibus.- 
 
 Statius. Theb. 2. 50. 
 
 (199) Terribiles hortatus equos, in gurgitis ima 
 
 Contortum valido fccptrum regale lacerto 
 Condidit.- 
 
 Ovid. Met. 5. f. 420. 
 
 1 he general rule laid down in the beginning 
 : will not fuffer me to quote Claudian as 
 
 1 \\ in relation to the perfonage or appear- 
 . he deletes : otherwife one might have 
 
 had more perhaps from him relating to Pluto, than 
 from all the reft of the Roman poets. He, in particu¬ 
 lar, deferibes him as fitting on his throne in the fol¬ 
 lowing lines ; where the word nubes is, I think, ufed 
 for his veil. 
 
 Ipfe rudi folio fultus, nigraque verendus 
 Majeflate fedet. Squallent immania feedo 
 Sceptra fnu ; lublime caput moeftiffima nubes 
 Afperat.- 
 
 Claudian.de Rapt. Prof. 
 
 (201) Qualis, ab iEtncis acccnfa lampade faxis, 
 
 Orba Ceres niagnte variabat imagine flamma: 
 Aufonium Siculumque latus ; velligia nigri 
 Raptoris, vaflofque legens in pulvere fulcos. 
 
 Statius. Theb. 12. if. 273. 
 
 - Qualem jufl'u Junonis iniqua: 
 
 Horruit Alcides, vifo jam Dite, Megatram. 
 
 Lucan. 1. J K 377. 
 
 (202) Panditur interea Diti via. 
 
 Ovid.Faft. 4. >’••449. (of his carryingProferpine to Ades.) 
 
 Perfephones zonam fumniis oftendit in undis. 
 
 Id. Met. 5. if. 470. (on the fame fubjeft.) 
 

 Dialogue the Sixteenth. 
 
 I do not remember that the poets fay much of Proferpine’s perfonage. We can only 
 infer from them, perhaps, that fhe was naturally (203) 0 f a brown complexion: which 
 might grow Hill (204) darker, by her living in the fubterraneous world. Tho' the monarch 
 of all thofe wide domains made her the partner of his empire, it was a great while before 
 fhe could forgive him the violence he had offered to her; or forget the delightful vales 
 of Enna, where Hie ufed to be fo happy (205) with all her nymphs about her. There 
 was a gloom (206) that hung over her face, for a long time; and which perhaps was 
 never quite worn away: at lead, flic has Hill a melancholy air on her lace, in the 
 pidture before us. Statius has found out a melancholy employment for her too ; which 
 is to keep a fort of regiHer of the dead, and to mark down (207) all that fliould be added 
 to that number. The fame poet mentions another of her ollices, of a more agreeable 
 nature. He lays, that when any woman dies who has been a remarkable good wife in 
 this world, Proferpine prepares the lpirits of the bed women in the other, to make a 
 proceflion (208) to welcome her into Elylium with joy; and to Hrew all the way with 
 flowers, where fhe is to pafs. You fee Mercury too in this drawing; as indeed he 
 appears often in the works of the artids relating to the other world. He has the Ca¬ 
 duceus in his hand, which was more particularly (209) the enlign of his power over all 
 the regions of it. He mud have made (210) very frequent viiits to them; but Horace 
 
 mentions 
 
 (203) Her mother, I think, was fo. See Dial. VIII. 
 p. 103. 
 
 (204) Horace calls her, Furva. Lib. 2. OJ. 13. 
 £.21. 
 
 (205) There is a very pretty, and very pifturefque 
 defeription of this, in Ovid’s Fafti, 4. ^.425, &c. 
 
 (ac6) Illa quidem triflis; nec adhuc interrita vultu : 
 
 Sed Regina tamen ; fed opaci maxima mundi ; 
 
 Sed tamen Inferni pollens Matrona tyranni. 
 
 Ovid. Met. 5. jr. 508. 
 Some of the Greek poets feem to have made a finer 
 Elyfium for her ; and to have had Ionic Itory, of 
 her being totally reconciled to the place; as appears 
 from this paflage in Virgil. 
 
 Quamvis Elyfios miretur Graecia campos; 
 
 Nec repetita fequi curet Proferpina matrem. 
 
 Georg. 1. jr. 39. 
 
 The Greek poets that remain to us, are either re¬ 
 markably fhort, or referved, in their accounts of Ely¬ 
 fium. Homer docs not fay a word of it, in Ulyfles’s 
 defeent to Ades ; and in the only place of all his works 
 where he does mention it, he deferibes it chiefly by 
 negatives: 
 
 Ou yifijof, «T ap X-‘l J - uv iroKuf, \s]i ira\' 0[J.Cf0( 
 
 Od. A. jr. 567. 
 
 The fulled paflage that I know of, is in Pindar ; 
 and even in that, be exprefly fays, that he has con¬ 
 cealed a great deal. “The good, (fays that great 
 poet in fpeaking of the flate of departed fouls,) lead a 
 life exempt from all care and labours ; and enjoy the 
 light of the fun, without any niahe. They neither 
 till the earth ; nor are obliged to pafs the Teas. Such 
 as have kept drift to their obligations, enjoy an age 
 without tears ; among thofe that arc honoured by 
 the gods : and fuch as have not done fo, labour in 
 inconceivable torments. All who have been able to 
 abdain from unjud aftions, thorough three trials, in 
 three diderent dations, have palled the way dedined 
 by Jupiter to the city of Saturn: where the fredi 
 breezes from the fea breathe over the ifland of the 
 
 bled ; and the golden flowers fhinc ; fome from the 
 fplcndid trees on the land, and others from thofe in 
 the margin of the waters. Of thefe, the happy fpi- 
 rits weave bracelets for their arms ; and garlands for 
 
 their heads.-1 could add many other things to 
 
 what I have faid on this fubjeft : as piercing as arrows 
 to the wife, and thofe who hear them as they ought ; 
 but dark, and unintelligible, to the vulgar of man¬ 
 kind.” Olymp. Od. 2. 
 
 (207) Necdum illum aut trunca luftraverat obvia tsxo 
 
 Eumenis, aut furvis Proferpina pofte notarat 
 Ccetibus abfumtum funflis.- 
 
 Statius. Theb. 8. jl. 1 j. 
 
 (208) --Si quando pio laudata marito 
 
 Umbra venit; jubet ire faces Proferpina 1 artas, 
 Egreflafque facris veteres Heroidas antris 
 Lumine purpureo trifles laxare tenebras j 
 Sertaque & Elyfios anima; prolternere flores. 
 
 Id. Lib. 5. Sylv. 1. j. 237. 
 They 3re perfons of the fame fort of life, who ars 
 to attend the departed on their triumphal entries into 
 Elyfium. Statius, on the death of his father, (who 
 was a poet as well as himfelf,) calls on the poets to 
 meet him. 
 
 Ite pii manes, Graiumque examina vatum, 
 Illultremque animam Lethxis fpargite fertis! 
 
 Et monftrate nemus, qua nulla irrupit Erinnys, 
 In quo falfa dies cceloque fimillimus aer. 
 
 Id. Ibid. Sylv. 3. jr. 287. 
 
 (209) Tum virgam capit. Hac animas ille evocat Orco 
 Pallentes; alias, fub trillia Tartara mittit. 
 
 Virgil. JEn. 4. jr. 248. 
 
 (210) Tu pias laetis animas reponis 
 
 Sedibus, virgaque levem co'rces 
 Aurea turbam.- 
 
 Horat. Lib. i. Od. 10. j. 19. 
 Non vans redeat fanguis imagini, 
 
 Quam virga feme] horrida 
 Non lenis precibus fata recludere 
 Nigro compulerit Mercurius gregi. 
 
 Jd. Ibid. Od. 24. jr. 18. 
 
 D ddd 
 
 
 U 
 
POLYMETIS. 
 
 mentions a particular defcent of his to Ades, with his lyre; which feems to be of a 
 more extraordinary nature ( 2 n): and which may pofTibly have been derived from fome 
 old prophetical tradition ; tho’ it is fo much difguifed by the fictions of the poets, that 
 one can only guefs at the traces of it, under the veil they have flung over it. 
 
 As Polymetis feemed to have quite finifhcd here; Philander did not fail to thank him 
 for all the trouble he had given himfelf, in fhewing them his colledfion : and more par¬ 
 ticularly, for this latter part of it; which he had entered on entirely at his requed. 
 Myfagetes, in his turn, thought this a proper occafion for defiring what he had had in 
 his thoughts for fome time. “ As you have added this differtation on the inhabitants of 
 the lower world, on Philander’s requed; I mud beg you (fays he) to add one more on 
 mine. I have been guefling, two or three times, at the ufes to which this fort of en¬ 
 quiries might be applied. I feem to difeover fome, befide what you have mentioned-j 
 but as you have ufed yourfelf fo much to this way of thinking, you mud certainly fee 
 them in a fuller light than I can ; and I fhould be much obliged to you, if you would 
 give us your thoughts on that head.” With all my heart, fays Polymetis : but as our 
 chat, on the prefent fubjetd, has run out to fuch an unreafonable length; I am fure you 
 will be willing to excuse me till to-morrow evening : when I fhall be ready to give you all 
 the fatisfa&ion on that head, that I can. 
 
 (z x i) Ceffit immanis tibi Mandienti 
 Janitor aulte 
 
 Cerberus; quamvis furiale centum 
 Muniant angues caput ejus, atque 
 Spiritus teter fani.lque manet 
 Ore trilingui; 
 
 Quin & Ixion, Tityofque vultu 
 Rifit invito ; ftetit urna paulum 
 Sicca, dum grato Danai puellas 
 Carmine mulces. 
 
 Hor. Lib. 3. OJ. 11. 24. 
 
Dialogue the Seevnteenth. 
 
 BOOK the Tenth. 
 
 The Conclusion. 
 
 DIAL. XVII. 
 
 Of the Ufe of this fort of Enquiries, in general. 
 
 A 
 
 S they were fitting in the library, the next evening; Polymetis remembered his 
 promife, and began in the following manner. 
 
 Before I enter on the feveral ufes that may be made of this fort of enquiries; I 
 ought juft to premife to you, that you ought not to judge of the full extent of them by 
 any thing I have faid, or can fay, on this fubjed. It is like a country that is but newly 
 difeovered : where much more is left to be found out, by thofe who may come after¬ 
 wards to it; than was known to the perfon, who firft difeovered it. I look upon my- 
 felf as a firft difeoverer in this cafe; becaufe there has fcarce been any thing laid down 
 in form, in relation to this fubjed; by any perfon, whofe writings I am acquainted 
 with. Mr. Addifon’s Treatife on medals is the only piece in which I have feen it at¬ 
 tempted: and, to carry on the metaphor I ufed juft before, he feems rather to have 
 only failed along the coafts, than to have entered at all into the country. 
 
 The ufefulnefs of antiques towards explaining the antient authors ; and particularly 
 the belt Roman poets; may have appeared to you, in fome meafure, from feveral of the 
 paflages I have mentioned to you lince you have been with me here: fome of which 
 polfibly you did not perceive, in the fame view ; or at leaft, not in fo ftrong a light, 
 before. But it would be very unfair, to judge of this, by what I have done: it ought 
 rather to be confidered what probably might have been done, had more and better hands 
 been employed in fuch an enquiry. The true way of judging is not from my perfor¬ 
 mance, but from the reafon of the thing; and as to that, I muft repeat to you what I 
 faid at firft (0, that the works of the old artifts and poets muft naturally be the bell; ex¬ 
 plainers of one another: becaufe they were both converfant in the fame fort of know¬ 
 ledge; fell much into the fame train of thinking; and were employed often, on the very 
 fame fubjeds. I think therefore there can be no room to doubt, that fome of the bell; 
 comments we could have on the antient poets, might be drawn from the works of the 
 artifts, who were their cotemporaries; and whofe remains often prefent to our eyes the 
 very things, which the others have delivered down to us only in words. 
 
 Instead of this, our only refource now is to our commentators; than whom, I 
 believe one may fafely fay, there has never been a more wrong-headed let of men upon 
 earth. At leaft, I am fure, we ufually want quite other helps than they give us: and 
 this makes any new help towards explaining the dallies very defireable, at leaft ; if not 
 quite neceflary. As to the comments we have, they are generally fpeaking not only apt 
 to conceal, but to miflead : and when I was moft converfant with them, I often ufed to 
 think myfelf not unlike^a traveller, who has loft his way on fome wide heath, with the 
 darknefs of the night coming on all around him; and only here and there, two or three 
 
 little 
 
 9 (1) Dial. I. p. 3. 
 
3,86 
 
 POLY M E T I S. 
 
 little wavering lights; which indead of guiding him to his home, only ferve to entice 
 him, and plunge him the deeper, into the bogs and fens from which they ariie. 
 
 When under thefe dilliculties and didrefles, how often have I wiihed, that the com¬ 
 mentators in general had followed the rules laid down for fome of them, by the Dukede 
 Montaufier ? This nobleman was the fird promoter of what we call the ( ’) Dauphin 
 Edition of the Claffics. He loved reading himfelf; and had a good fade for the antients : 
 but in a variety of employments, could not fpare fuflicient time, for confulting and com¬ 
 paring different books, in order to clear up the palfagcs, in which he found himfelf raoft 
 at a iofs. It was therefore his defire that fhort and clear explications fhould be annexed 
 to fuch pafiages in the daffies, as mod wanted them. He ufed often to fay, that he 
 could eaiily lee that the difficulties which occur to us in reading the works of the an¬ 
 tients, might all be comprehended in two claffes ; and thdt they ariie, either from our 
 not knowing in what fenfe they ufed fuch a word formerly : or elfe from our being igno¬ 
 rant now, of fome opinion, cufiom, or thing, that was familiarly known among them. 
 In the former cafe, the commentator fhould endeavour to determine the meaning of the 
 word in quedion, by confulting how it is ufed by the fame author in other places, where 
 the meaning of it may be more evident; or by any other of the fame country, and (as 
 near as may be) of the fame times. In the fecond cafe, the thing, cudom, or opinion, 
 hinted at fhould be firbjoined: in as few words as is confident with clearneis. This 
 was all that he found he wanted; and it was agreeably to this that he calculated the two 
 great rules, which he gave for the perfons employed in the Dauphin edition of the 
 claffics: but which, tho’ they are fo fenfible and jud, were not diffidently obferved by 
 them ; nor by any other commentator, I ever met with. 
 
 Instead of following two fuch obvious and eafy rules, what is the mod ufual aim of 
 our commentators at prefent ? Why really their ufual aim feems to be, to fhew their 
 own erudition; at lead, I am fure, they generally go but a very little way toward clear¬ 
 ing U p the meaning of their authors. A very learned comment, is like a very learned 
 man • it is rather troublefome, than ufeful to you. When you conlult them, their an- 
 fwers are for the mod part as dark, and as equivocal, as thofe of oracles. There 
 never can be but one meaning wanting; and they are fo over-good as to furnifh you with 
 half a dozen. Or elfe they play at crofs-purpofes with you. As for example; I diould 
 be glad, to learn, what colour the Romans meant by the word Glaucus ? Glaucus, 
 anfwers the commentator, fignifies blue j brown; green; red; and iron-grey.—How 
 far was Alba from Rome ? O, fays the commentator. Alba is the place where /Eneas 
 met with the white low and her thirty pigs; and there was a very fine flitch of bacon, 
 of this very low, kept in the chief temple there; even to Augudus’s time : as I find it 
 
 recorded in that excellent hidorian, Dionyfius Halicarnaffieus.-If you a lie what Niobe 
 
 is doin<L in fuch a part of Ovid’s defeription of her, they will tell you who was her fa¬ 
 ther; or if you enquire for the fituation of one of the Grecian cities, they will bellow 
 half an hour in proving, that it was fird inhabited by a colony from Aflyria ; and per¬ 
 haps add all the adventures and didrefles that the poor people met with, both by lea and 
 land, in coming to it. 
 
 These abfurdities of the commentators ; 
 are,) w-ill go a great way toward fupportin; 
 to you from me, becaufe you have heard 
 “ That the greated difficulty I meet wdth 
 my having read and dudied them too i 
 
 (2) This edition was planned by the Duke of Mon- 
 tauficr ; encouraged, by Monfieur Colbert: and car¬ 
 ried on, by the Bifliop of Avranches. It v/as the lat¬ 
 ter, who chofe the commentators that were to be em¬ 
 ployed ; and who himfelf complains of his not being 
 
 4 
 
 , (if they are generally fo abfurd, as I fear they 
 r a paradox ; which will found the lefs drange 
 me mention it, I believe, more than once : 
 1 underdanding the claffics now', arifes from 
 uch at fchobl.” Our cudom there, was 
 generally 
 
 able to find out a fufficient number of perfons, equal 
 to fuch a talk. See that Bifhop’s Comment, de rebus 
 fuis. p. 286. Ed. Amft. 1718: and his, Huetiana, §. 37. 
 p. 93. Ed, Paris, 1722. 
 
Dialogue the Seventeenth- 
 
 87 
 
 generally to enquire more what others fay for an author; than what the author fays for 
 himfelf. I ufed to be perpetually confulting my notes ; and before I left lehool, could 
 have given you three or four different meanings for mofl of the difficult palfages in Virgil, 
 Horace, or Juvenal; and perhaps twenty, for feme in Perfius. This way of fludying, 
 by drawing your eye off (at every line almofl) to the fide lights, inflead of keeping it 
 fteddy upon the proper objedt you ought to view, makes one often forget the real inten¬ 
 tion of the author; and almofl always lofes the thread of his thoughts, and the connexion 
 of the whole piece. The limbs of the poet, (to ufe an expreffion of Horace on a 
 different occafion,) are l'o fcattered by thefe inhuman manglers, as to be almofl in¬ 
 capable of being ever brought into a body again. At bcfl, you know, perhaps, what 
 De la Rue fays for Virgil; but you do not fo well know what Virgil fays himfelf: and 
 if this is prejudical even from De la Rue, (who is certainly one of the bell of the commen¬ 
 tators, commonly ufed in this way of lludying;) what mufl it be in thofe, who generally 
 give you falfc lights, who deal chiefly in things foreign to the purpofe, and fometimes 
 in the flrangefl mifreprefentations of the fenfe of their authors that can be conceived? I 
 mull beg leave to mention to you one fadt, which will fhew at leafl how far this early 
 •way of fludying the dallies had ferved to blind me. When Mr. Pope a few years ago 
 publiffied his Imitations of feveral of the fatires and epiflles of Horace, I immediately 
 law a connexion and chain of thinking in them; which tho’ I had read over the origi¬ 
 nals, (fome of them perhaps a hundred times,) I had never regarded or fufpedled before. 
 I was furprized, in almofl each of thofe pieces, with the new lights and beauties tha* 
 flruck me all at once. I compared the copies with the originals ; and found that Pope 
 and Horace were much the fame : I mean as to the true fpirit, the connexions, and 
 their way of thinking. I then began to refledl, how I came not to fee that in Horace 
 before, which I now faw fo plainly in Mr. Pope’s copies from him: and the only way 
 I could find to account for it was, that I had at firft been ufed to fludy each of thofe 
 poems in the original by piece-meal; that I had been drawn off every other inflant from 
 what Horace faid to what he did not fay, and very often to what was not at all to his 
 purpofe.; that this falfe and broken impreffion of Horace’s thoughts, (taken in at a time 
 when the mind receives impreffions mofl eafily, and retains them mofl firmly,) had 
 given me a falfe idea of his manner of thinking, in general; and had prevented me 
 from feeing thofe pieces of his in particular, in a right light; till thofe entire pictures of 
 his thoughts were fet before my eyes by a third perfon : who, by the way, was himfelf 
 perhaps the better enabled to conceive Horace fo clearly and fully as he has done, by his 
 not having taken his firfl impreffions of that poet, in the manner we ufually do at 
 fchools, 
 
 May I be allowed to add here, what I have long fufpedled ; that the method of edu¬ 
 cation, which is followed now, and has been followed for fo many ages, in our fchools, is 
 chiefly founded on a miflake ? What I have to fay on this head, may leem perhaps 
 very conjedtural to you; however I will give it you, fuch as it is. The fchool-educa- 
 ti 0 n (3) among the Romans of old, aimed no farther than at two languages ; and each of 
 
 thofe, 
 
 ( . ' By what I have remarked by chance here and ing of Rome,) Romanos pueros, ficut nunc Graecis, 
 there, in reading the Roman writers ; in relation to ita Etrufcis literis erudiri l'olitos. Livy, Lib. 9. cap. 
 the method of education, ufed in their fchools : it 36. 
 
 „„„„ Cicero commends a Confular man, and Suetonius 
 
 appv-ais, 
 
 I. That they applied themfclves to the learning commends an Emperor, for undemanding their own 
 two languages only ; and both thofe, languages in ufe language, and that of their neighbours the Greeks.— 
 at the time that they learnt them. Thefe, in the L). Brutus, Marci filius, ut ex familiari ejus L. Aftio 
 infancy of their ftate, were their mother-tongue, and fum audire folitus ; eratcum literis Latinis, tum etiam 
 theTufcan; and, in the mod flourifliing ages of it, Gnecis, (ut temporibus illis,) fatis eruditus. Cicero. 
 
 their mother-tongue, and the Greek.- Habeo au- »n Brut. -Peritiffimus Latina; Gra:ca:que lingua. 
 
 tores vulgo turn (in the 444th year, after the found- Suetonius in Tit. cap. 3, 
 
 E e e e 
 
 Thefe 
 
POLY M E T I S, 
 
 thofe, a living language. Their own ; for converfation, for reading, and for fpeaking 
 in public : and Greek, that of their neared neighbours; and of neighbour? too, who 
 had been for fome time in the chief pofleffion of the arts and fcicnces. In teaching their 
 own language, the Romans made ufe chiefly of their poets ; and with very good reafon : 
 for the thing to be taught at fird was the right pronunciation; and how could they fix 
 the proper tones of the words, and the true quantities of their fyllables, but from the 
 works of their poets ? When the Romans had advanced their conqueds pretty far in our 
 ifland; our ancedors, (wifer, perhaps, in this than we may be,) fell with a furprizino- 
 readinefs into the cudoms of the conquerors ; dudied their language ; and, pro¬ 
 bably, adopted their method of fchool-education ; for they had fcarce before any com¬ 
 mon fchools of their own. It might be right enough then to comply with the (4) politics 
 
 of 
 
 Thefe were called, “ The two languages,” in the 
 Auguftan age; as we find by Ovid’s advice, to his 
 fine gentleman : 
 
 Nec levis ingenuas peftus coluifie per artes 
 Cura fit; & linguas edidicifie duas. 
 
 De Art. Am. Lib. z. 122. 
 
 2. They were often taught to fpeak Greek, before 
 their own mother-tongue ; and when they came to 
 read, they were taught them both conjointly. Thus 
 Quintilian fays, in his firft chapter; A fermcne Grae¬ 
 co puerum incipere malo : quia Latinus, qui pluri¬ 
 bus in ufu eft, vel nobis nolentibus fe perhibet; iimul 
 quia difcipliuis quoque Grxcis prius inflituendus 
 efl:, unde noftric fluxerunt. Non tamen hoc adeo 
 fupcrftitiofe velim fieri, ut diu tantum loquatur 
 
 Grrece aut difeat; licut plcrifque mos efl.-Non 
 
 longe itaque Latina fubfequi debent : & cito, pariter 
 ire. And afterwards, in that De. ledlione pueri. 
 Optime inflitutum efl, ut ab Homero atque Virgilio 
 Icdio inceperit. Inft.Orat. Lib. 1. Cap. 8. 
 
 3. They read the works of the poets only, to fuch 
 an age : for the fame author fpeaks only of poets, in 
 his chapter De lcdtione pueri ; and the profe-writers 
 are not mentioned by him till afterwards, in his chap¬ 
 ter De lctflione oratorum & hifloricorum, apud 
 rhetorem : that is, in a higher period ; under their 
 rhctoric-mafler. Inft. Orat. Lib. 2. Cap. 5. 
 
 4. Their beginning with the poets was chiefly in¬ 
 tended to teach them the right tones and meafures of 
 the words. Thus Horace, in reckoning up the ufc- 
 fulncfs of the poets, inftances firft in this; 
 
 Os tenerum pucii balbumque poeta figurat. 
 
 Lib. 2. Epiil. 1. jr . 126. 
 
 And Plautus, in his humorous way: 
 
 Tum librum legeres: fi unam peccavifles fyllabam, 
 
 I-ieretcorium tam maculofum quam efl nutricis pallium. 
 
 Eacchid. Aifl. 3. Sc. 3. jr. 30. 
 
 The tones, or tuning of the words, had fo much 
 to do in what they learned under their firft mafter; 
 that Macrobius calls this firft reading under him, 
 Singing; Nunc quia cum Marone nobis negotium eft, 
 rcfpondcas volo, utrum poetae hujus opera inftituen- 
 dis tantum pueris idonea judices ; an alia illis altiora 
 indic fatearis. Videris enim mihi ita adhuc Virgi- 
 lianos habere verfus, qualiter eos pueri magiftris prae¬ 
 legent,'; is canebamus. Saturnal. Lib. 1. Cap. 24. 
 
 5. The ufual method, in this fort of teaching, was 
 for the mafter to read a period in fome chofen poet 
 firft; and the boy to repeat the fame, immediately 
 after him. This Horace calls, Didtare; Lib. 2. 
 Epift. r. f. 71.) and Macrobius, prtelegcre : (ubi 
 fupra.) 
 
 I am apt to think that Martial originally ufed the 
 lame word, in fpcaking of the fame thing; (what¬ 
 
 ever liberties fome editor, or other, may have taken 
 with his works iincc ;) 
 
 Verfus icribere me parum feveroS, 
 
 Ncc quos pnelegat • in fchola magifler ; 
 
 Corneli, quereris. - 
 
 Lib. 1. Ep. 36. 
 
 * The common reading is perlegat. 
 
 And poflibly this is the very thing, that is meant 
 by Juvenal'!; Crambe : for the mafter reading, and 
 the boy repeating, till the latter coulJ tune the period 
 quite right; muft fometimes have been one of the molt 
 tirefome things, that can be imagined. 
 
 —Quaicunque fedens modo legerat, hare eadem fians 
 
 Proferet ; atque eadem cantabit verfibus iii'dcm : 
 
 Occidit mile; os crambe repytita magiftros. 
 
 Sat. 7. .4. i S+ . 
 
 (4) Julius Agr;.e.!a, (who was made governor of 
 Britain toward the end o! Vefpafian’s reign,) was the 
 lirft who found out the true way of conquering our 
 forefathers. He law that they were a rough, baiba- 
 rous, valiant, and rcftlcfs people. He lound that 
 they were a] way . ready to rebel ; and endeavouring, 
 on every opportunity, to recover what they had loft. 
 He relolved therefore to ufe them kindly ; and to try 
 whether he could not foften the roughnefs and fero¬ 
 city of their tempers, by introducing the Roman 
 language, cuftoms, and arts, among us. All this we 
 learn from his own fon-in-law, Tacitus- Animo¬ 
 
 rum provinciae prudens, fimulque doiftus per aliena 
 experimenta, parum profici armis fi injuriae lequc- 
 rentur; caufas bellorum ftatuit exfeindere. A fe f u if- 
 
 que orfus, primum domum luam coercuit:-nihil 
 
 per libertos fcrvofque publicae rei ; non ftudiis priva¬ 
 tis, nec ex commendatione aut precibus centurionum 
 milites afeire, (Id optimum quemque fidelifiimum 
 putare; omnia lcirc, non omnia cxfequi ; parvis 
 peccatis veniam, magnis feveritatem commodare ; ncc 
 poena femper; fed faepius pirnitcntia contentus efie. 
 (Tacitus, in vita Agrie, p. 308. Ed.Plantin. 1589.) 
 
 - 'I his was in the very firft year of his government ; 
 
 and in fpcaking of the lecond, he fays :-i'cquens 
 
 hiems faluberrimis confiliis abfumta. Namque ut 
 homines difperli ac rudes, coque bello faciles, quieti 
 
 otio per voluptates afluefeerent; hortari privatim, 
 adjuvare publice, ut templa, fora, domus exftrucrent; 
 laudando promtos, & caftigando fegnes : ita honoris 
 aemulatio pro ncceflitatc erat. Jam vero principum 
 filios liberalibus artibus erudire ; & ingenia Britanno¬ 
 rum ftudiis Gallorum anteferre: ut qui modo lin¬ 
 guam Romanam abnuebant, eloquentiam concupif- 
 cerent. Ibid. p. 309. 
 
 It Ihould fecm from a paflage in Juvenal, that in 
 forty years after this, (about the beginning of Adrian’s 
 re ‘S n >) kvc for the Roman cuftoms, and lan¬ 
 guage 
 
V- - \ 
 
 Dialogue 
 
 Seventeenth. 
 
 2S9 
 
 of Agricola; and to be as ready to learn the cuftoms of the Romans, as they were to 
 teach them: and indeed whilft the Roman dominion laded here, the moft prudent of 
 the old Britons were probably the moft earneft ftudents of their times. Ic was then 
 politic to ftudy Latin, and Greek: Latin, as neceffary to enable them to converfe with 
 their matters; and Greek, as a language fo much in vogue with the lame. Without 
 the former, at leaft, they could not well make their court to the conquerors ; nor get 
 themfelves advanced to any poll of credit in their own country. It was this, I imagine, 
 which made the Roman method of education take fo much among us : and the intro¬ 
 ducing, and following it for l'ome time, was as prudent as it was neceffary. But after 
 the Romans found it not worth their while to maintain their conquetts in thin iiland, and 
 at laft quite deferted it; the Britons of that age might be as wrong in continuing this 
 method of education, as thofe of the former were right in receiving it. However as it 
 was then in poffeflion, and had been for three or tour centuries, it feeins to have been 
 continued without confidering that there were not the fame realbns for it; and fo to 
 have been handed on without any very confiderable interruptions, quite down to our 
 days. All this while, tho 1 the cuftom has fo much antiquity to plead for it, and has 
 been preferved with fo much uniformity for fo many ages, I know not whether we are 
 obliged to our anceftors for handing it down to us fo regularly or not. Might not one 
 very fairly alk fome difficult queftions in relation to it ? Would it not have been better 
 for us in our earlieft years, to have been thoroughly inftru&ed in our own language, than 
 in any dead languages whatever ? Is aminifter now to preach, or a lawyer to plead, or a 
 gentleman in parliament to fpeak, in Latin ? Yet in our fchools we are to this day in- 
 ftrudted to write themes, and to make orations, in the language of the Romans ; with 
 almoft a total ncgled of that, which I flrould think is the moft neceffary for us, not 
 only in converfation, but in almoft all the bufineffes of life. This it is that has made 
 me often think, that the fchool-education in ufe at prefent among us is founded on a 
 blunder: luch a fort of bunder, for inftance, as that of the Roman catholics, in con¬ 
 tinuing the ufe of the Latin tongue, in all their public devotions ; for fo many ages, 
 fince that language has ceafed to be generally underftood among them. But granting 
 that there was no fuch miftake in the prefent cafe ; and fuppofing that the very wifeft 
 aim for our fchool-education now, is that which is fo generally in faffiion : I ttiould ftill 
 he apt to imagine, that we are very wrong in the methods moft ufually taken to purfue 
 the end which is propofed. If the general deflgn of our fchools fhould be that of teach¬ 
 ing us to underftand, what the Latin and Greek authors have faid in their writings; why 
 then are we led fo much into the (hades, that the modern commentators have caft around 
 
 t p em j_Why are we fo often obliged to fix hundreds of their lines in order, one after 
 
 another, in our heads; and taught to repeat whole books of Homer and Virgil, by rote ? 
 
 _Why are we plunged fo much oftner in the works of the antientpoets, than in thofe 
 
 of their hiftorians ?-And why is every boy, let to write things, that arc called Latin 
 
 verfes; and obliged to endeavour at becoming a poet, in a foreign tongue ?-Why 
 
 muft we in fome fchools be taught to fpeak, and in all be obliged to write, in languages 
 
 that have been dead for fo many centuries > -And why muft all the youth at our bell 
 
 fchools, (however different their genius's are, or whatever they are defigned for in life,) 
 be all inftru&ed in the very fame things; and, pretty near, in the very fame track? 
 
 I do not mean by this that the claflics fhould be wholly given up ; but rather that 
 our own language lliould not be given up for them : and, indeed, that the ftudy of them 
 
 need 
 
 g" 
 
 , had pre 
 
 vailed fo much among us that our 
 
 lawyers be* an even to plead in Latin : as they did i 
 after the Norman conqueft. The pafl'age 
 mean in Juvenal, is of an humorous and hy- 
 1 turn (as his often are :) but if it means 
 t all, I think it muft mean what 
 tinned. “ The perfection of the Greek 
 tongues, (fays that poet,) arc now ftudied 
 
 F rench 
 which 
 perbolii 
 any thing ferioufly 
 I ha 
 and 
 
 all over the world. The Britifh lawyers have learnt 
 it, from thofe in Gaul : and, no doubt, in a little 
 time we fhall have Rhetoric-fchools fet up in the 
 Terra Incognita.” 
 
 Nunc totus Graias noftrafque habet orbis Athenas ; 
 
 Gallia caufidicos docuit facunda Britannos: 
 
 De conducendo loquitur jam rhetore Thule. 
 
 Juv. Sat. 15. f. in. 
 
9 ° 
 
 POLYMETI S. 
 
 need not be to univcrf.il. They are, I fliould think, one of the finch amufements for a 
 gentleman, that can be; and may become very ul'eful to divines, philofophers, hifto- 
 rians, antiquarians, poets, fculptors, and painters : but why fliould all thofe too be 
 led into thefe ftudies, who are meant for the more bufy offices of life; and who will 
 probably have very little time, either for ftudy or amufement ? I believe any body 
 would own it to be very abfurd, if every child that went to fchool, was to be obliged 
 to ftudy navigation : and yet I will venture to fay, that this would not be near fo abfurd, 
 (infeveral countries, and in our own in particular;) as the endeavouring to make every 
 boy that comes to fchool, a claflic fcholar and a Latin poet. 
 
 But to leave this long digreffion : Whether our youth ought to be educated in the 
 manner they generally are, or not; and whether we fliould apply fo much to the dallies 
 when young, or defer it till our judgments are better fettled ; whenever, or by whom- 
 foevei they are to be read, I moil heartily wilh (both for their credit, and our greater 
 pleafure,) that all perfons who write comments upon them, would flrifily obferve the two 
 rules mentioned to you juft before this digrelfion : and that they would endeavour only 
 to explain the doubtful or difficult words, from parallel paflages in which their meaning 
 is more determined; and to give a fhort and clear account of any opinion, cuftom, or 
 thing, not commonly known at prefent. Under the latter it is, that antiques, if well 
 applied, might be of very great fervice : for the figures of the things themfelves fpeak 
 to the eyes; and arc lels equivocal, and more expreflive, than the cleared language can 
 poffibly be. We have very great treafures of all forts, for this purpofe, ftored up by 
 Agoftini, Santo Bartoli, Maffei, Gravius, and Montfaucon; not to mention a multitude 
 of others : but they have hitherto been too much like great treafures hid under-ground ; 
 or gold, yet in the mine. It is the applying them to tiirir proper ules, that is the thing 
 neceffary, (if I may be allowed fuch anexpreflion,) to damp them; and to make them 
 more current among us. 
 
 As to the explaining of antiques in their turn from the claflics; tho’ we fliould not find 
 fo great afliftance in this cafe as in the former, (for our eyes, as Horace fays, are much more 
 faithful and true to us than our ears,) yet, it is the bed, and almoft only afliftance we can 
 have in this cafe: for how fhould we at all underftand the greater part of the remains of the 
 antient artifts, if it were not for what we are told by the antient authors ? This would 
 hold, very often, as to Angle figures; but is much ftronger as to groupes, and ail hiftorical 
 or fabulous pieces ; whether in paintings, in marble, or on geins. In that fine groupe 
 tor inftance, now in the Belvedere, (which has been called, “ the nobleft work of art in 
 the whole world ;") we fliould be ftruck with the beauty of the defign, and the expref- 
 fion of pain in the father; of dread in one of the fons, and of languilhment in the other; 
 but we fliould not know that it was Laocoon, without the help of what Virgil (.) and 
 one or two more of the Latin writers, have faid on that fubjeft. This moft noblVwork 
 would then have been lefs interefting, to every one almoft that viewed it : and people 
 would perhaps have been apt to have puzzled themfelves as much, in gueffing at the 
 fiory of It; as to have delighted themfelves, with the excellence of the work. One- 
 might give a thoufand inftances of the fame nature; but the cafe is too clear, I think 
 to require any more. I cannot pretend to have made any great difeoveries of this kind 
 myfelf, in that part which makes the fubjeft of my colledlion : but if you were to in¬ 
 fill on my giving you forne inftances, I fliould cllufe to refer you to what I faid when we 
 were confidermg the two nobleft hiftory-pieces in it; the relievo of Mars and Ne- 
 neue ,(6), and that other of the Judgment of Paris and Jupiter's decree againft Troy: 
 ill citner of which it I have guefled at all aright, it mult be wholly owing°to what ac¬ 
 quaintance I may have had witli the claflic writers. I have obferved fome other 
 
 (s) Virgil. JEn. 2. jt. igg, to 227.- Petronius (6) See Dia!. VII 
 
 Arb. p. 151. Ed. Loud.-and Pliny, Lib. 36. Cap. PL 34 - 
 
 5- p. 474 - Ed. Elz. 
 
 4 
 
 PI- 9. and Dial. XV. 
 
 excellent 
 
D I A L O 
 
 excellent relievo’s at Rome, which are hill wholly in the dark; and which want fome 
 proper paffage in the claflics to be hit upon and applied to them, to determine what they 
 mean. Such, in particular, is a noted fubjedt which I have feen repeated at leaft half a 
 dozen times, on as many different (7) relievo’s there; and which feem to me to relate to 
 fome Bacchanals, who had probably done a great deal of mifehief, (as they often did in 
 their mad fits3) and who are furprized in their fleep, by the perfons they had injured; 
 or perhaps, the relations of fome unfortunate wretches, whom they had torn to pieces. 
 Whatever it be, it certainly relates to fome known ftory of old ; from its being repeated 
 lo often, and fometimes by fo very good hands: but either from the total filence of the 
 antient authors, in relation to this ffory; or from nobody’s having yet obferved, what 
 they may have faid in relation to it; it is now only one fine confufion to the eye, or a 
 puzzle for the poor antiquarians. 
 
 What I have been faying to you hitherto, of the mutual ufe of the remains of the 
 antient artifts and the claflic writers towards explaining one another, is meant in general; 
 and on any fubjedt you could name: whether relating to their religion; their hiftory; 
 their arts, or manners of living; in Ihort, to every thing known or pradtifed among them; 
 and fo would include all their authors too, indifferently, whether in profe or verfe. My 
 collcdtion, you know, is not near fo extenfive as this ; for you fee that I have confined 
 it only to fuch things as relate to the allegorical or imaginary beings, received among 
 the Romans: a large fubjedt indeed in itfelf; and, perhaps, a half of the whole. What 
 I have faid in general will hold of that, as well as of the reft; and I will now go on to 
 enquire, what particular ufes might be made of this part; conlidered feparately, and by 
 itfelf. Here Polymetis paufed, for fome time; and then proceeded in the following 
 
 (7) One of them is publifhed in the Admiranda; 
 PI. 52. from a relievo in the Juftiniani palace; Be!- 
 lori, in his note on it, fpeaks of another, in the Bar- 
 
 barini palace, at Rome: and I have feen feveral others 
 on the fame fubjedt, in the other palaces or villas 
 about that city. 
 
 F f f f 
 
2C)2 
 
 POLYMETIS. 
 
 DIAL. XVIII. 
 
 The Ufe of this Enquiry, in particular : and of the Defects 
 of the Modern Artists, in Allegorical Subjects. 
 
 T HE allegories of the antients, where they are well fettled and known, might 
 I think be of very great fervice to our artifls, and poets, now; and are indeed 
 abfolutcly neceffary to be ftudied by all fuch of our poets, as undertake to tranf- 
 late the Roman poets into our language. 
 
 The reafon why I think the allegories of the antients might be ferviceable to our mo¬ 
 dern artifls and poets in general, is founded on the clearnefs and fimplicity ufually to be 
 met with in the former; and the confufion and darknefs that is but too common in the 
 latter, in their allegorical or imaginary beings. 
 
 The allegorical reprefentations of the antients generally exprefs what they mean di- 
 reftly, and eafily; and often by a fingle circumflance. This character of them in gene¬ 
 ral you mufl have obferved, I believe, of yourfelvcs, in going thorough my collection of 
 Ratues here : but, if you pleale, you may try it in one (0 whole fet of them; that of the 
 moral beings: in which : you would find, that each of them is generally diflinguifhed 
 from all the reft by fome fingle circumflance, or other. Thus Prudence, (as you may 
 remember,) is marked out by her rule, pointing to a globe at her feet; Juflice, by her 
 equal ballance; Fortitude, by a fword; and Temperance, by a bridle.—Devotion, is 
 flinging incenfe on an altar; Iionefly, is in a tranfparent veil: Modefly, is veiled; and 
 Clemency, is known by her olive branch.—Health, is diflinguifhed by her ferpent; and 
 Liberty, by her cap.—Tranquillity, Hands firm againft a column : Gayety, has the 
 myrtle of Venus in her hand : and Joviality, the wreath of flowers, which they wore of 
 
 old at feafls.-Neceffity, is diflinguifhed by her clavus trabalis ; the Deflinies, by their 
 
 diflafs; and Fortune by her rudder. All thefe marks are fettled, and obvious; and 
 mofl of them point out the character of the perfon they belong to, in a more eafy and 
 flrong manner, than a multiplicity of marks for each could ever have done. 
 
 As propriety and fimplicity are the diflinguifhing character of the antient artifls, in 
 their allegorical figures; fo multiplicity and impropriety may almofl be looked upon as 
 the diflinguifhing c ha rafter of the modern. I fhall give you fome inflances of this, that 
 may perhaps furprize you: but the more abfurd, and the more ridiculous they are; the 
 flronger will it appear of how much ufe it might be to our artifls now, to ftudy and fol¬ 
 low the antients in this particular, more than they may have hitherto done. 
 
 Any one that has been much ufed to fee the works of the modern fculptors, will I 
 believe be very ready to acknowledge, that in the allegorical figures of their own inven¬ 
 tion, we are frequently at a lofs to know what they mean. I could give you various 
 inflances of this, even from the gardens of Verfailles, and the colleftions in Rome itfelf; 
 but I rather chufe to refer you to a number of inflances, that lay all together : in a book 
 published by Cavalier Ripa, to direft our modern artifls in fubjefts of this kind ; and 
 which, it feems, has been fo generally regarded as a good model, that it has been tranf- 
 
 lated into no lefs than feven different languages.-You need not refer me to that, 
 
 as a new thing to me, fays Myfagetes ; Ripa is my old acquaintance. I ufed to divert 
 myfelf with the oddnels of his figures, when I was a boy; and remember feveral of them 
 
9 
 
 Dialogue the Eighteenth. 
 
 Hiu. u hr.ve got his book here, in your Hudy ; and tho’ you did not care per¬ 
 
 haps to own it, I ffiall (with your leave) take it down from that Hielf: it it were only 
 out of pure malice, to puzzle Philander; in fetting him toguels, what fome of his ligures 
 mean. Here I have it: and (to go on regularly) will give Philander ten minutes, to 
 name who this lady is toward the beginning of the book (2), with a flute in her hand, 
 and a flag at her feet. By her flute, fays Philander, I fhould be apt to take it for a mufe; 
 but by the flag, it fhould be a Diana. It is neither the one, nor the other, anfwered 
 Myfagetes ; and you are yet very wide of the perfon intended. This lady is a very 
 gentle lady, called Flattery; and fhe is reprefented with a flute and flag, becaufe, (as 
 fome authors fay,) flags are naturally very great lovers of mufic; and will fuffer them- 
 felves to be (3) taken, if you will but play upon a flute to them.—I hope you will have 
 better luck with the next. Who is this naked lady (4), whole body is encompafTed all 
 round with light, and whofe head is hid in the clouds ? Ay this, fays Philander, is not 
 fo difficult as the former: for by the circumflances you have juft mentioned, and by 
 the globe and compaffes there in her right, hand, the known emblems of Urania, you 
 will at leafl allow this to be that Mufe. I find, replied Myfagetes, that you would be 
 for making a mufe of every figure you fee. No, Sir; this is Beauty: and her head is 
 all involved in clouds, becaufe (5) there is nothing fo difficult to be conceived by the 
 human mind, as the true idea of beauty.—Once more: Who is this man ( 6 ), with a pair 
 of bellows in one hand, and a fpur in the other ? I mull give out, anfwered Philander, 
 for I never had any happinefs in folving riddles; and thefe I think are rather more intri¬ 
 cate, than any I ever yet tried at. Well, fays Myfagetes, fince you find them fo knotty, 
 I will trouble you with no more trials ; but will tell you what each figure means, as I 
 turn over the book. This man then, is Caprice; and he is marked out by his bellows 
 and fpur, as my author fays, becaufe (7) the capricious are fometimes very ready to blow 
 up people’s virtues; and at others, as ready to flrike at their vices.—This lady ( 8 ), with 
 a heart in her hand, and a lighted candle Handing upon the heart, is the Ploly Catholic 
 Faith ; becaufe faith enlightens the mind of man: and this woman with two different 
 heads and faces (9), with two hearts in one hand, and a mafk in the other (10), (not to 
 mention her fcorpion’s-tail, and eagle-legs,) is Fraud.—This old man fitting on a rainbow, 
 is Judgment (n); becaufe Judgment is the refult of much experience.—This fat figure, 
 with a crab in his hand, is Corpulency (12); becaufe crabs grow fat at the increafe of the 
 moon : and this old woman with a crow on each fide of her, is Irrefolution, or Pro- 
 craflination (13); becaufe that bird, (as our author very gravely obferves,) always cries ; 
 
 Cras Cras !_We are got now to a figure, that looks more like a landfcape than a 
 
 finale figure. In the midfl, you fee, Hands a lady (14), with a church in her hand, and a 
 
 a helmet 
 
 (2) See Ripa’s Iconologia, p. 6. Ed. Roms, 1603. 
 
 (3) Scrivono alcuni ; che il cervo di fua natura al¬ 
 ienato dal fuono del flauto quafi fi dimentica di fe 
 fteffo. Sc fi lafeia pigliare. In conformatione di cio e 
 la prel’ente imagine. Ibid. p. 7. 
 
 (4) Ibid. p.41. 
 
 (5) Si dipinge la Bellezza con la tefta afeofa fra le 
 nuvole; perche non e cofa, della quale piu difficil- 
 mente fi pofTa pariare con mortal lingua, & che meno 
 fi polla conofcere con 1’ intellette humano, quanto la 
 bellezza ; la quale nclle cofe create non e altro che 
 un fplcndore che deriva dalla luce della faccia di Dio. 
 Ibid. 
 
 (6) Ibid. p. 49. 
 
 (7) Lo fperone& il mantice moftrano il capricciofo 
 pronto all’ adulare 1’ altrui virtu, b al pungere i vitii. 
 Ib. p. 48. 
 
 ( 9 ) Ib - P- 174- 
 
 (10) The fault for which this is mentioned, is the 
 multiplying of attributes, thrice over, to tell the 
 fame thing. As to the tail and feet, one would think 
 that they had been meant to fignify, that fhc was 
 fwift to do mifehief; but the author it feems intended 
 fomething elfe by them. La coda di fcorpione & i 
 piedi d’aquila, (fays he) fignificano il veleno afeofo, 
 che fomenta continouamente come ucello di preda, 
 per rapire altrui, 61 a robba, 6 1 ’honore. Ib. 175. 
 
 (11) Ib. p. 185.-Ciafcuno che fale a gradi dell 
 
 attioni humane, bifogna che da molte efperienze ap- 
 prenda il Giudiiio ; il quale quindi rifulti, come 1 ’ i- 
 ride rifulta, &c. p. 1 86« 
 
 (12) Ib. p. 198. 
 
 (13) Ib. p. 234. 
 
 ( 14 ) Ib' P- * 55 - 
 
 (8) Ib. p. 15I' 
 
94 
 
 POLYME 
 
 T 1 S. 
 
 a helmet on her head. Behind her is a country all full of rocks and mountains. On the 
 mountain, to her right hand, are two boys holding a cornucopia; and on the mountain 
 to her left, is a bull under a rainbow. This is, indeed, a very complicated riddle ■ how’ 
 ever I will tell you the whole meaning of it. The lady, in the midft, is the province of 
 i mbria, in Italy : the is reprefented with fo many mountains about her, becaufe moun- 
 tams arc a P' , to caft a fl!ade l and her name is Umbria. She has a helmet on her head, 
 becaufe the inhabitants of that province were formerly great warriours; and holds a 
 church ,n her hand, becaufe St Bennet of Noreia, and St. Francis of Afliii, were both 
 born in this province. T he two boys with the cornucopias, arc the Gemini; (I fuppofe, 
 to point out the two faints again, and the fertility of the country :) the bull is in memory 
 of the famous bulls formerly, on the banks of the Clitumnus : and the rainbow is a fignal 
 
 ’ ° f tI«'«>terW at Velini ; in which, I have myfelf happened to fee a rainbow._ 1 A 
 
 little farther, you have (15) Liberty, with a cat, at her feet; becaufe a cat loves liberty ■ 
 and Free-will (.6), dretfed like a Gothic king, with a feepter his hand, and the letter Y 
 m the atr over over it—Obligation, with two heads, and two arms on each fide (n) • be- 
 cauie a perfon that ,s much obliged, is forced to fuftain two perfonages: one to take care 
 of himfelf, and the other to take care of his benefadtor—Perfuafion (iS), with a tongue 
 on the top of her head : and Piety, with flames (.9) burning on hers : v hich I nter “by 
 tlic way, feems to be a favourite thought with this author—Then you have Poverty 
 1 ;l S rat ftonc ch;!,ncd t0 onc hand, and wings to the other (--o) ; becaufe poverty 
 keeps people down, that long to rife. Sincerity, with her heart (21) in her hand • 1 er 
 ror (22), with the head of a lion : and Vigilance, with a crane, holding a ftone (23’) ■ be 
 cauie the crane, that Hands guard whilft the reft are feeding, holds a ftone to ffive notice 
 of the approach of any enemies.-All thefe furely are inftances of improper and un¬ 
 
 ilateral allegories in this work of the Cavalier Ripa: and I might be able perhaps to 
 s ■’ tlmcs as man .v of the fame kind, was I to confult all the «range figures’ lie 
 
 has given us ,1, thus work 1 and all the rules he has laid down for other figures, forne of 
 which would be full as ftrange: but I have only touched on a part of the former ■ and 
 thcle I have mentioned are certainly enough for Polymetis's purpofe; and, probably too 
 much for any body's patience. Such is the model which has been given, from Rome 
 iticli, for our modern artifts! and fuch the work, which has been tranflated into the lan¬ 
 guages of at leaft, feven different nations! among which, that of our own dear native 
 country, has the honour of being one. 
 
 Since you would produce that book, (refumed Polymetis;) in return, I fhall beg leave 
 to flicw you another. It is a work of Otho Venius ; and conf.fts of feveral allegorical 
 picturess taken from the works of Horace; and therefore called Horace's Emblems 
 Over againft each plate, the author has affixed feme account of the emblem contained in 
 it, m five feveral languages; that it may be of the more general ufe. This Otho Venius 
 was (24) a celebrated painter ; of the beft fcl.ool, perhaps, that ever wc had on this fide 
 
 (15) Ibid, p.293. 
 
 (16) Ibid. p. 296. 
 
 (17) Ibid. p. 365. 
 
 (iS) Ibid. p. 394, &401. 
 
 (19) When virtues or vices are reprefented perfo- 
 nally, and under human figures ; it is very odd, one 
 would think, to reprefent them under circumftances 
 
 diflonant to the nature of human bodies.-Such is 
 
 this of having fire burning on any part of the body; 
 without its being confumed, or at all affe£ted by it.— 
 1 hus too Religion, in Ripa, (p. 430.) carries a flam¬ 
 ing fire on the palm of her hand; the Longing after 
 God, has the fame on her bread; (ib. p. 102.) and 
 Herefy, has flames coming out of her mouth, (ib. 
 217. 
 
 the 
 
 (20) Ib. p. 410. 
 
 (21) Ib. p. 456. 
 
 (22) ib. P . 485. 
 
 (23) Ib. p. 502. 
 
 (24) Otto Venius vivoit du terns de Tcmpefte. 
 11 etoit de Leyde; & fort eftime dans les Pais-Bas : 
 non feuiement pour fes ouvrages, mais pour le grand 
 f^avoir & pour les belles qualitez qui etoient en lui. 
 II pcignoit pour le Due de Parme; & depuis demeura 
 enticrement attache au fervice de J’Archiduc Albert. 
 C’eft de lui les Emblemes d’Horace que vous avez 
 vues gravees. II y a dans l’Eglife Cathcdrale de 
 Leyde un tableau, ou il a reprefente la Cene de notre 
 Seigneur ; qui ell: un ouvrage qu’on eftime beaucoup. 
 
 II cut pour difciple Paul Rubens. Felibien, Tom. III. 
 p. 332. Sec p. 406. Ibid. 
 
 6 
 
Dialogue the Eighteenth. 
 
 o 
 
 the Alps : and in the moil flourifhing times of that fchooh He ftudied at Antwerp : 
 and was the famous Rubens’s mafter. In fpite of all this, you will find his patterns al- 
 nioft as full of faults as Ripa’s; tho’ his faults are of a very different kind : Ripa’s alle¬ 
 gorical fancies being defective, molt commonly, as far-fetched and oblcurc ; whereas 
 Venius’s faults are generally owing to his following his author in too literal and frivolous 
 a manner. Thus if Horace fays, Mifce ftultitiam confiliis brevem, Venius takes brevis 
 perfonally; and fo reprefents Folly (25) as a little, fhort child, of not above three or four 
 years old.—In the emblem which anfwers Horace’s, Raro antecedentem fceleftum De- 
 feruit pede pcena claudo ; you have Punifhment (26) with a wooden leg : and for, Pulvis 
 6c umbra fumus, you have a dark burying-vault (27), with duft fprinkled about the 
 floor j and a fhadow, walking upright, between two ranges of urns.—For Virtus eft 
 vitium fugere, & fapientia prima Stultitia caruiffe ; you fee feven or eight Vices (28) pur- 
 fuing Virtue; and Folly, juft at the heels of Wifdom. I queftion too, whether he had 
 not fome meaning in placing Wifdom firft, in the whole piece; (fapientia prima.) — 
 Quantum fepulta: diftat inertite Celata virtus, has furnifhed Venius with a very quaint 
 thought. To anfwer it exactly, he gives you (29) Virtue fitting in a fhade, under a 
 little dark hovel ; Sloth, lying on a bed, with a fepulchral infeription over it: and there 
 is but a thin partition-wall between them both; becaufe, Paulum fepulta; diftat inertis 
 Celata Virtus. —There is as much punctuality obferved in the emblem for the following 
 paflage : 
 
 Inter fpem curamque timores inter & iras. 
 Omnem crede diem tibi diluxifle fupremum; 
 Grata fuper veniet qua; non fperabitur hora. 
 
 For here (3°) he gives you a man fitting between Hope and Care, on one fide of him; and 
 
 Anger and Fear, on the other; for the firft line ; then there is a thread, reaching from 
 heaven to the head of the man who is thus feated ; and a hand coming out of the clouds 
 with a pair of fheers, as juft ready to cut the thread in two; for the fecond : and one of 
 the Hors, or Hours, flying down from heaven towards him ; with a horn of plenty in 
 her arms; for the third. I fhall not infift here on the great impropriety of flinging fo 
 many oppofite things together into one piece; and fo reprefenting a man as pleafed, and 
 vexed, and killed, and comforted, all at the fame time: but fhall go on to fome more 
 inftances of the moft general fault of this artift; his trivial and literal way of imitation. 
 Thus, for, Dominum vehet (3 1 ), you have a poor man, crawling on all four ; and a 
 man, richly dreffed, riding on his back.—For, Comperit invidiam lupremo fine domari ; 
 a figure of Death (32), ftamping on the breaft of Envy-and for. 
 
 Linquenda tellus, 6c domus, 6c placens 
 Uxor; neque harum quas colis arborum 
 
 Te, prster invifas cupreflus. 
 
 Ulla brevem dominum fequetur: 
 
 You fee (33) Death, leading away a man from his wife and family; and carrying two 
 cyprefs-trees along with them, upon his fhoulders. 
 
 I could give you many more inftances of Venius’s general fault, which is that of 
 being too minute, and literal; but thefe I believe will be enough to fatisfy you. If you 
 
 alk 
 
 (25) See Venius’s Emblemata Horat. p. 96. Ed. (29) Ibid. p. 22. 
 Antverp. 1612. 
 
 (30) Ibid. p. 164. 
 
 (31) Ibid. p. 8+. 
 
 (32) Ibid. p. 172. 
 
 (33) Ibid. p. 196. 
 
 (26) Ibid. p. 180. 
 
 (27) Ibid. p. 208. 
 
 (28) Ibid. p. 16. 
 
Z(j6 
 
 P O L Y M E T I S. 
 
 afk me how lie has fiicceeded in his manner of allegorizing, as to the fingle figures which 
 are ufed by him to exprefs fuch or fuch a paffion ; my anfwermuft be, that tho’ he may 
 not be fo ridiculous as Ripa, yet he falls very fiiort of the jufinefs and propriety of the 
 antients. To give you Ibme infiances of this : Pride is difiinguifiied in him, by having 
 a peacock over her head. —Envy, holds her own heart up to her mouth; and is ( 3 +) eat¬ 
 ing part of it.—Poverty is difiinguifiied, by a (35) cabbage ; becaufe /he lives upon herbs. 
 —Labour carries an ox’s head (36), on his back ; and Fear has a hare (37) handing upon 
 his lhoulders.— I could multiply inftances of this kind too, upon you : but thefe few I 
 think, may be fufficient to fiiew the puerility of this artift in fome cafes; and his inex- 
 prefiivenels, in others. In feveral of his imaginary beings, as Virtue, Wifdom, Inge¬ 
 nuity, Piety, Love, Hope, (and perhaps fome others,) he is much more fenfiblc and 
 exadt: but that is generally owing to his borrowing thofe figures, from the remains of 
 the antient aritifis : and particularly, (as he ( 3*0 himfelf tells us,) from their fiatues and 
 medals. 
 
 Rubens is one of the mofi famous of our modern painters, for allegorical figures • 
 and perhaps dealt in them the more, from his having been bred up under Venius. The 
 character of Rubens, as a Colourifi, is indisputable: and as to the parts in which he 
 really excels, I admire him as much as any one. But all I have to confider here is his 
 manner of treating allegories : and in thofe, I think, I may very fafely lay ; that he 
 might have fucceeded better, had he been more confiant, and more regular in his 
 imitations of the antients. 
 
 There is a large (39) Work, (all defigned by Rubens, and publiflied by Gevartius,) 
 which may ferve to Ihew this celebrated painter's talle in allegories, more fully than 
 any thing I know of; as it confifts of a great variety of prints, molt of which abound 
 chiefly in imaginary figures. Among thefe there arc feveral that are plain and eafv; 
 both from antiques, and of his own invention : but there are too many inftances too, of 
 his mifreprefenting the allegorical perfonages of the antients ; and of his inventing others, 
 either in an improper or confufed manner.—Such l fliould take the mean ftarin| Apollo’ 
 to be, in a chariot drawn by two horfes, in the frontifpiece ; the Diana drelfed like 
 Vefta (40), and the Vefta with the fulmen in her hand. Virtus (41), with the fame at¬ 
 tribute ; and Providence (4a), with one face before, and another behind.—Time, with ail 
 hour-glafs on his head; and Hope, with her anchor upon her (boulder—Two Fames (43,', 
 each with two trumpets; one of them with a tiger in her lap ; and the other, with an 
 eagle at her feet. Dilcord (44), tearing her own veil: and reprefented arm in arm with 
 Rixa ; and yet quarrelling with her all the while.—Antwerp (45), with a mural crown, 
 mixed with fruits, on her head; and two hands, juft above it, but detached from it — 
 Here a lady {46), with a (hip failing along the palm of her hand; and there another Uy) 
 with the fame phenomenon on her head—His Winds (48), with their cheeks almoft 
 
 burfi: 
 
 (34) Ibl< k P- l6 - Peintre parfait. Rubens, qui dc tous lesPeintres s’eft 
 
 (35) Ibid. p. 134. lc pIuS in g e nieufemcnt, & le plus doftement, fervi dc 
 
 ces fymboles ; comme on le peut voir par le livre de 
 
 (36) Ibid. p. 166. l’entreedu Cardinal Infant dans la ville d’Anvers, & par 
 
 / — whjd n t rf) l es tableaux de la Galerie du Luxembourg. Entre- 
 
 (371 P’ 5 tiens. vol. 6. p. 56. 
 
 (38) Virtutes ac Vitia more veterum, ex numifma- 
 nbus ac ftatuis, non raro exprefli. Venius’s Pref. 
 
 (39) It was occafioned by the entry of Ferdinand, 
 into Antwerp, in 1635; and is entitled. Pompa In¬ 
 troitus ; Honori Screniflimi Principis Ferdinandi Au- 
 (biaci, Ilifpaniarum Infantis, — Belgarum & Burgun¬ 
 dionum gubernatoris, a S. P. Q_. Antverp. decreta k 
 adornata. Felibicn had a very high notion of this 
 work, and of Rubens’s fkill in allegorical paintings, in 
 general; as appears from what he fays in his Idee du 
 
 (40) PI. 14, & 21. 
 
 (41) PI. 43- 
 
 (42) PI. 43, k 32. 
 
 (43) PI- 6. 
 
 (44) PI. 30. 
 
 (45) Pk 34> & 43- 
 
 (46) PI. 35. 
 
 (47) Pk between 31, k 32. 
 
 (48) PI. 7. 
 
2 9 
 
 D I a logo e the Eighteenth. 
 
 o 
 
 burft: and that very odd one in particular; whofe arms end in a fort of finny wings* 
 from the elbow: and whofe legs are of fo ftrange a figure, that it would puzzle one to 
 find out any name for it. Some of thefe thoughts are improper enough; and others 
 quite fanciful and ridiculous; but this you may fay was a talk, undertaken on a fudden, 
 by Rubens; and executed, probably, in hafte. Let us then, if you pleafe, confider one 
 or two of his more ftudied performances; and fuch as may be fuppofed to have been the 
 mofi: corredtly imagined. I believe you would not be unwilling to allow me, that two 
 of themoft capital works Rubens ever did, are the ceiling, in the banquetting-houfe at 
 Whitehall; and the fine fet of pictures, in the Luxemburg gallery at Paris. In thefe 
 we fee the right fide of Rubens’s character, in its higheft perfection ; but we may dif- 
 cover the wrong fide of it too : for if we were to judge only by them, one might fafely 
 fay, that his character is colouring, and not allegorizing. As to the latter, there are, I 
 think, feveral faults even in thefe moft excellent works of that great mailer; and I fhall 
 take the liberty of pointing out fome of them to you. 
 
 In the farther fquare of the fine ceiling painted by Rubens at Whitehall, there are 
 two ladies embracing each other; which from the compliments moil ufually paid to 
 James I. I fhould take to be Peace and Righteoufnefs; tho’ Righteoufnefs has no attri¬ 
 bute to diftinguilh her, and Peace only a very general one.—In the hither fquare, two of 
 the three imaginary ladies that are holding two crowns tied together, over the’young 
 prince’s head, are in the fame manner without any attribute to ihew who they are: tho’ 
 they are faid to have been meant for the Genius’s of England, and Scotland; and if fo, 
 
 might have been marked out eafily enough.-In the middle great oval, (or the Apo- 
 
 theofis,) there are two Virtues with attributes, but improper ones : for, I fancy, you 
 will hardly approve of Piety’s holding up fuch a large altar, (with fuch a fire lighted on 
 it too,) fo near her breafi:; or of Juftice’s grafping a bundle of flames and her feales to¬ 
 gether, in the fame hand.—The fide-ornaments confill of two long panneis ; and four 
 ovals, one at each corner. I cannot well guefs why the Cupids, in one of thefe panneis, 
 are to conduCt a triumphal fort of car, drawn by wild lions; and much lefs, why the 
 triumphal car in the other, is drawn by a ram and a bear.—As to the figures in the 
 corner ovals, they are meant, I fuppofe, for the four Cardinal Virtues : tho’ I never faw 
 them reprefented in fuch a manner elfewhere. Indeed this feems to me to be much the 
 moll faulty part of the whole work. For, in the firfl place, I imagine that thefe moral 
 beings ought rather to appear for themfelves, than be reprefented by any deputies what¬ 
 ever. In the next place, I think, the manner of exprefling them ought, at leall to be 
 uniform; that they fliould appear either all in perfon, or be reprefented all by proxy : 
 whereas here Temperance only appears in her proper perfon, and the other three are 
 figured out under different deities. In the third place, the deities fubflituted in the place 
 of thefe three Virtues, do not feem to me to be quite well chofen. You have Apollo, 
 for Prudence; Hercules, for Fortitude; and Minerva, for Juflice. The introducing 
 Hercules inftead of Fortitude is perfectly eafy and obvious: but the cafe is not altogether 
 fo clear as to the Apollo; and not at all as to the Minerva. In the fourth place, I 
 fhould be apt to quarrel greatly with their attitudes ; and their being reprefented each as 
 opprefling fomebody, or another. Thus Apollo is fitting on Avarice; Temperance, 
 has Rapacioufnefs, (as I fliould guefs by the wolf’s head appearing jufl by,) for herfoot- 
 llool; Hercules is kneeling, on a fnaky-headed lady, perhaps Envy; and Minerva is nei¬ 
 ther Handing, fitting, nor kneeling, on a naked perfon whofe name I cannot fo much 
 as guefs at.—I fhall only add, that this is the firfl time that ever I faw Apollo with a 
 horn of plenty in his hand : and that I do not know any particular reafon why it fliould 
 be given him here. If this work be fo faulty in the allegorical part of it, as I imagine 
 it to be, I am the more forry for it; becaufe it is certainly one of the finefl paintings, as 
 to the beauties of the colouring, the happinefs of the pencil, and the judicious manage¬ 
 ment of the lights and fhades, in the whole world: and deferves to be much better 
 known, and much more regarded among us, than it has generally been. Were it in 
 Italy, inftead of England, I doubt not but feveral of our travellers would willingly have 
 4 gone 
 
POLY M E T I S. 
 
 9 b 
 
 gone ;i hundred miles out of their way, on purpofe to fee it: who, perhaps, have now 
 never feen it all ; becaufe it is juft at their own doors. 
 
 In the fine fet of pictures, by Rubens, in the Luxemburg gallery, you will meet with 
 various faults too, in relation to the allegories. I fhall juft point out fome of them to 
 you ; bccaufe you may have been taken up fo much with the beauty of thofe paintings, 
 that you may not have had any attention to fparefor their defedts. Tliefe, I think, are 
 of three forts. Firft, where the painter borrows any allegorical figures long iince in¬ 
 vented by the antients, and fome way or another mifreprefents them : the fecond, where 
 they are wholly of his own invention, but are either too fanciful, or elfe ill exprdfed : 
 and the third, where either the one or the other are introduced in an improper manner, 
 or an improper place. 
 
 For inftances of the firft fort I fhall only name to you, the three (49) Deftinies in the 
 firft hiftory piece, who are all young, plump ladies; the Juno Lucina ( 5 °), almoft 
 wholly naked : and the Mercury (5 1 ), with a great beard. 
 
 Of the fecond fort, is that idea of Juno and Cupid, placing each a couple of doves on 
 a globe ( 5 2 ); to fhew the mildnefs of the government of the Queen-mother : and Time 
 bringing up Truth in his arms ( 53 ), to reconcile the queen and her fon. Ihefe, I think, 
 are too fanciful : and as to fuch as are ill exprefi’ed, I fhould inftance in his Envy, Igno¬ 
 rance, and Defamation (54) j in one piece : and his Fidelity, Juftice, Piety, and Forti¬ 
 tude (55); in another. The former of thefe have fcarce any attributes to diftinguifh them 
 from one another; and the latter are diftinguifhed in a manner almoft as coarfe, as if 
 their names had been written under them. They are, as you may remember, thofe 
 four plump ladies, who are rowing the Queen-mother, and the young King, in a 
 ftate-barge : with a fort of badges, affixed by the fide of each of them; to tell us who 
 they are. 
 
 Under the third head, (or that of improprieties,) we may reckon the Vidtory la¬ 
 menting the death of Henry the Fourth (56), with a trophy exalted; Fame wringing her 
 hands ( 57 ), and holding a palm-branch ; (who, by the way too, is much more like fome 
 diftrefi'ed popifh faint, than thegoddefs fhe is meant to reprelent:) the two Fames each 
 (58) with two trumpets; Bacchus careffing (59) Ceres, a little too familiarly for a council 
 of the gods; the Queen-mother, in council, with two cardinals (60) and Mercury; and 
 the Hymen on one fide of Mary of Medici (61), and Cardinal Aldobrandini on the 
 other, officiating in (what they call) a facramental rite, before the high altar in the great 
 church at Florence : on which he has reprefented, at the fame time, the two moft facred 
 figures that can be imagined. Flad the publifhers of this celebrated work of Rubens, 
 given a due attention to thefe, and 1 'ome other particulars; I imagine, they would fcarce 
 have chofen out his talent for allegory, as thehigheft (62) point of merit in that excellent 
 painter. 
 
 If 
 
 (49) See Monf. Natticr’s Gallerie du Palais da 
 Luxembourg; laDeftinie de la Reine, N° 1. 
 
 (50) La Naiflance de la Reine. Ib. N° 2. 
 
 (51) L’Education de la Reine. Ib. N° 3. 
 
 (52) Le Gouvernement de la Reine. Ib. N° 12. 
 
 (53) F e tcms decouvre la Verite. Ib. N° 21. 
 
 (54) La Felicite de la Regence de la Reine. Ib. 
 N u 15. 
 
 (55) La Majorite du Roy Louis XIII. Ib. N° 16. 
 
 (56) L’Apotheofe de Henry IV. Ib. N® 11. 
 
 (57) Ibid. 
 
 (58) La Felicite de la Regence de la Reine. Ib. 
 N°ij. 
 
 (59) Lc Gouvernement de la Reine. Ib. N° 12. 
 
 (60) La Reine prend la partie de la Paix. Ib. 
 N° 18. 
 
 (61) Le Mariage de la Reine. Ib. N° 5. 
 
 (62) II n’y a nulle des ecoles de peinturc ou Rubens 
 ne foit en admiration, pour la verite de la couleur; 
 la belle Sc riche compofition ; pour cette partie qu’on 
 nomme Clair-obfcur ; la fecondite du genie; le beau 
 feu ; les graces naives : Sc, fur tout, pour l’efprit Sc 
 la juftefle des allegories. AvertifT. Ibid. 
 
 6 
 
299 
 
 Dialogue the Eighteenth . 
 
 If you fhould % that it is not fair in me, thus to produce a Flemiih painter (tho’ ever 
 fo famous an one) as an indance to fhew how faulty tlie modern painters are in their al¬ 
 legories ; I beg leave to put you in mind of what I happened to fay to you the other day 
 (63) of the inferiority of Dominiquin, (one of the mod exaft mailers,’ in the belt of all 
 the fchools in Italy,) when compared with the antients ; in expreffing that : 
 the four Cardinal Virtues : and I believe I may venture to allure you, that what I then 
 faid of Dominiquin, may be laid of all the Italian painters, as well as of the Flemifh. 
 
 Of all the Italian painters, Dominiquin may perhaps be reckoned the next to Raphael, 
 for juftnefs and corredtnefs; and even Raphael himfelf, the divine Raphael, is not with¬ 
 out his faults in the allegorical part of his paintings. Indeed he ufes allegories very 
 fparingly: partly, perhaps, from his being fenlible of thedefedivenefs of modern painting, 
 in that branch. In fome of Rubens’s pieces lad mentioned, you have more of fill ion than 
 reality. Raphael is far from being fo profufe. He introduces his allegorical or luper- 
 natural perfonages, with the greateit moderation ; and generally, not without fome foun¬ 
 dation in hidory; I mean, at lead that romance fort of hidory, which is received and 
 read fo much in all popifh countries. This might be proved from his works in general; 
 and particularly from thofe fine ones in the apartments of the Vatican, which from them 
 commonly go by the name of Raphael’s chambers : where you have fcaree any thing of 
 this kind, in the hidorical pieces; except the little angels holding up a crofs in the air, 
 while Condantine harangues his foldiers; the larger angels, flying over his army and 
 protecting them, in the battle ; the two miniders of vengeance, driving the wicked He¬ 
 liodorus out of the temple; and St. Peter and St. Paul, appearing in the air againd At- 
 tila. Thefe are all plain and jud, and mod of them hidorical: and Raphael can no 
 more be blamed for introducing them, than an antient painter would be for having intro¬ 
 duced Cador and Pollux as affiding the Roman army againd their enemies. Yet even 
 Raphael fometimes falls diort of the antient fimplicity and propriety, in treating allego¬ 
 rical fubje&s; and in thefe very apartments you have the four Cardinal Virtues exprefled 
 not quite fo neatly and clearly by him, as they were commonly of old. Among my 
 figures (64), as you may remember, each of thefe Virtues is marked out by fome Angle 
 attribute; Prudence, by her rule pointing to the globe at her feet. Judice by her fcales. 
 Fortitude by her fword, and Temperance by her bit or bridle. Raphael’s way of expref- 
 fing fome of thefe is more complex. He paints Temperance, with a bit; Judice, with 
 a fword and fcales : Fortitude fitting, (which I fhould imagine to be wrong,) and reding 
 her hand on the head of a lion : and Prudence, with a woman’s face before, and a man’s 
 face behind ; a little Cupid holding up a looking-glafs to her, and her fore-face reflected 
 in it; the Gorgon’s head on her bread, and another Cupid danding by her with a flaming- 
 lamp. As this lad errs againd fimplicity, there is another piece in the fame apartments, 
 that errs againd propriety; and that is the famous Parnafius : in which you fee Apollo, 
 playing on a modern fiddle : but one Mufe only with a lyre ; and that not like any of 
 the antient lyres : the Mufes, in general, not well didinguifhed; and the two theatrical 
 ones, in particular, not to be didinguifhed at all : they having both the fame fort of 
 malic; and that of a modern make, and unlike the antient mafks or perfona’s. 
 
 If you were to take the trouble of comparing prints of all the works of any modern 
 painter you pleal'e, with the figures and drawings in my collection hereI doubt not 
 but that upon the whole you would find the manner of the modern to be neither fo 
 dimple, nor fo well fitted to exprefs the beings they would reprefent, as the antient manner 
 was: for ifRaphael himfelf fhould be found deficient, whom elfe can we think of comparing 
 with them ? When therefore I commend the antient artids fo highly and fo often, it 
 
 is 
 
 (63) See Dial. X. p. 144. (64) See PI. XXI. 
 
 Hhhh 
 
3 00 
 
 POLY M E T I S. 
 
 is not becaufe they are antients; but becaufe they are better than the moderns. Nay, I 
 do not even think that this abfolutely proves a fuperiority of genius in the antients, (for 
 men may peihaps be of near the fame capacity in all ages,) but only a fuperiority of 
 pradice. They of old purfued the arts with more condancy, and more encouragements, 
 than we have happened to do, in thefe latter ages of the world. The great age of datuary 
 and painting began a confiderable time before the reign of Alexander the Great3 and 
 was continued on fucceflively in Greece, and Italy, without any great interruptions,) 
 down to the times of the Antonines (65)3 or rather fomewhat lower. Many of the greated 
 princes, during this period, gave the higheft encouragements to the artids3 and the 
 pradice of idolatry, which reigned for all that time all over Europe, made their employ 
 a very condant and a very gainful one. This was a long period for gradual improve¬ 
 ment, (and all great improvements mull be gradual3) with a much greater call, for 
 their works: and vad rewards fometimes, for the bed: of them. The cafe has been 
 very different in the modern ftate of Europe. The fall of the Roman Empire lhattered 
 every kingdom in it into pieces, if I may be allowed fuch an expreffion 3 or, in other 
 words, it occalioned a number of petty principalities to arifej which have been ftruggling 
 with one another almoft ever fince : and in many kingdoms are not yet re-united into 
 one great body. Such was the Heptarchy in England 3 and lomething like it, in mod 
 of the kingdoms of Europe. In Italy, itfelf, the effedt of this great Ihock continues 
 vifible to this day : and it may be many ages, before they become one kingdom again. 
 Under this inconvenience of power fplit into fo many hands, we have fcarce as yet 
 had any fettled age for the arts. They have only role up a little by darts, in com- 
 parifon of the great period above mentioned 5 and then funk down again: witnefs that 
 o-reat age for them in Italy, under Leo the Tenth 3 and that other in France, under 
 Lewis the Fourteenth : which were very promifing indeed, but not very lading. And 
 in both thefe great ages of the arts, it is very obfervable by the way, that the greateft 
 improvements that were made, were made by perlons who imitated the remains of the 
 antient artids the moll dridtly. Thus Raphael and Michael Angelo, for example, ad¬ 
 vanced ftatuary and painting more by this means, in twenty years 3 than all the artiffs in 
 Italy together, had done in the compafs of two hundred years before them : and Pouffin 
 and Gerardon, who ftudied antiques the moft of any of the French artids, have more 
 
 merit than almod all the red put together.-The great confequence of all this, fays 
 
 Myfagetes, is too clear to be miffed by us 5 it is plainly this 3 that if we would have an 
 artid excel the red of his brethren, in thefe our days, we ought to fend him dire&ly to 
 your colledion. You are very right, fays Polymetis : and it would not be at all amils, 
 if you would fend our poets thither too : I mean only, to form their ideas as to the imagi¬ 
 nary or allegorical perfonages, which they may have occafion to introduce in their poems. 
 Indeed allegory is on a worfe footing with our poets, than it is with our artids. For, to 
 fay the truth, our poets feem as yet to have formed no fettled fcheme at all, for their 
 allegories: and therefore either take up with the broken ideas that occur to their minds 
 from what they have read in the antients : or elfe form fome irregular phantoms of their 
 own 3 jud as chance, or fancy, leads them. Hence is that jumble of chridianity and 
 heathenifm 3 which makes us fometimes meet with a pagan deity in one line, and an 
 angel in the next. The poet generally fits down wholly undetermined, whether Furies, 
 or Devils, are to be the executioners he will make ufe of: and brings in either the one or 
 the other, jud as the humour takes 3 or, as the verle demands. If two fyllables are 
 wanting, it is Satan: but if four, you are fure of meeting with Tifiphone. 
 
 It is not my bufinefs to determine, whether it would be wifer in our poets to follow 
 the allegories of the antients intirely 3 or to invent an intire new fydem of their own : all 
 
 I would 
 
 (65) Commodus, the laft of the Antonines, died may be better fixed, as it is by many, to the time of 
 in the year 193. The arts were greatly declined, the thirty tyrants, (or pretenders to the crown,) under 
 but not wholly gone then. The abfolute fall of them the reign of Gallienus : which began in the year 260, 
 
 6 
 
Dialogue the Eighteenth. 
 
 1 would alTert is, that where they do chufe to follow them, they fliould follow them re¬ 
 gularly j which they are very far from having done. 
 
 To fhew how irregular and defective our modern poets have been in their allegories, 
 give me leave to make a fort of examen into the moft celebrated work of a very great 
 man : whofe genius I refpedt; and who gives every body pleafure that reads him. I mean, 
 our own Spenfer: the beft allegorift, as I take it, among all our modern poets; and it 
 is therefore that I chufe particularly to inftance from him, rather than any other: for if 
 the beft is faulty, you know what we are to conclude of the worft. I have read his 
 Fairy Queen over lately, with this very view; and you will pardon me, if the obfer- 
 vations which I Ihall make on that work with pain, Ihould take up more of your time 
 than you may care for. 
 
P O L Y M E T I S. 
 
 502 
 
 DIAL. XiX. 
 
 The Defefts of our Modern Poets, in their Alleo-ories : in- 
 
 ' tD 
 
 ftanced from Spenser’s Fairy Queen. 
 
 T HE faults of Spenfer in relation to his machinery or allegories, (continued 
 Polymetis,) feem to me, to be all reducible to three general heads. They 
 arife either from that poet’s mixing the fables of heathenifm, with the truths 
 
 of chriitianity;-or from his mifreprefenting the allegories of the antients :-or 
 
 from fomething that is wrong in the allegories of his own invention. As to the two 
 former, I fliall not have much to fay; but fhall beg leave to be a little more dilfufe, as 
 to the third. 
 
 The ftrongcfl inflance I can recoiled of the firft kind, his mixing chriftianity and 
 heathenifm together, is in that fhort view, which he gives of the infernal regions; in the 
 feventh Canto, of the fecond book. You may read the pafiage here in his Fairy 
 Queen ( 0 . The particular part I mean, is where he fpeaks ol Jupiter and Tantalus, 
 and of Pontius Pilate and our Saviour, almoft in the fame breath. 
 
 The inftances of Spenfer’s mifreprefenting the flories, and allegorical perfonages, of 
 the antients, are not uncommon in this poem. Thus, in a former view of hell, he 
 fpeaks of Efculapius (2), as in eternal torments. In another place, he introduces a com¬ 
 pany of fatyrs, to fave a lady (3) from a rape ; tho’ their diflinguifhing charader was luft : 
 and makes Sylvanus (4), the god or governor of the fatyrs, a dignity which the antients 
 never bellow upon him; no more than the ivy-girdle (5), which he gives him, round 
 his waift. It is with the fame fort of liberty as I take it that he defcribes the day, or 
 morning ( 6 ), as having purple hair; the Sirens (7), as half-fifh; and Bacchus, as 
 
 fit: 
 
 ( '(i) The knight him feeing labour fo in vain, 
 
 Afic’d who he was and what he meant thereby; 
 Who groaning deep, thus anfwer’d him again, 
 Moll curfed of all creatures under (ky 
 Lo, Tantalus 1 here tormented lie ! 
 
 Of whom high Jove wont whilom feafted be, 
 
 Lo here I now for want of food do die : 
 
 But if that thou be fuch as I thee fee, 
 
 Of grace I pray thee, give to eat and drink to me. 
 
 Nay, nay, thou greedy Tantalus, (quoth he,) 
 Abide the fortune of thy prefent fate; 
 
 And unto all that live in high degree 
 Enfample be of mind intemperate ; 
 
 To teach them how to ufe their prefent (late. 
 Then ’gan the curfed wretch aloud to cry, 
 Accufing highelt Jove and Gods ingrate; 
 
 And eke blafpheming heaven bitterly, 
 
 As author of injultice there to let him die. 
 
 tie look’d a little further, and efpy’d 
 
 Another wretch ; whofe carcafs deep was drent 
 Within the river which the fame did hide : 
 
 But both his hands, mod filthy feculent 
 Above the water were on high extent, 
 
 And fain’d to wadi themfelves inceflantly : 
 
 Yet nothing cleaner were for fuch intent; 
 
 But rather fouler feemed to the eye : 
 
 So loft his labour vain, and idle induftry. 
 
 The knight him calling, alked who he was ;* 
 Who lifting up his head, him anfwer’d thus. 
 
 I Pilate am, the falfcft judge alas 
 And moll unjuft ! that by unrighteous' 
 
 And wicked doom to Jews defpiteous 
 Deliver’d up the Lord of life to die ; 
 
 And did acquit a murdrer felonous: 
 
 The whiles my hands 1 walh’d in purity. 
 
 The whiles my foul was foil’d with foul iniquity. 
 Spenfer’s Fairy Queen, Book 2. Cant. 7. St. 62. 
 
 (2) Ibid. Book 1. Cant. 5. St. 40, to 43. 
 
 (3) Ibid. Cant. 6. St. 6, to 19. 
 
 (4) Ibid. St. 15. jL 4. 
 
 (5) Ibid. St. 14. i. 9. 
 
 (6) He all his armours ready dight that day, 
 
 That nought the morrow next mote (lay his fare: 
 The morrow next appear’d with purple hair, 
 
 Yet dropping fre(h out of the Indian fount; 
 
 And bringing light into the heavens fair. 
 
 Ibid. Book 5. Cant. jo. St. 16. 
 
 (7) They were fair ladies till they fondly flriv’d 
 
 With the Heliconian maids for maiftery : 
 
 Of whom they overcomen, were depriv’d 
 Of their proud beauty ; and th’ one moiety 
 Transform’d to fifh, for their bold furquedry. 
 
 Ibid. Book. 2. Cant. iz. St. 31. 
 
 The figures of Sirens are not uncommon in an¬ 
 tiques ; and are never reprefented there with a filh- 
 4 tail. 
 
Dialogue the Nineteenth• 
 
 fat ( 8 ): that he fpeaks of Clio, as Apollo’s (9) wife; and of Cupid, as brother (10) of the 
 Graces : and that he reprefents Orion, in one place, as flying from a fnake (u), in the 
 heavens ; and, in another, as a water-god, and one of the attendants of Neptune. The 
 latter is in Spenfer’s account of the marriage of the Thames and Medway; in which he 
 has greatly increafed Neptune’s court; and added ( »2) feveral deities as attendants to that 
 god ; which were never regarded as fuch by any of the antients. 
 
 This may be fufficient to fhew, that where Spenfer does introduce the allegories of 
 the antient poets, he does not always follow them fo exactly as he might; and in the 
 allegories which are purely of his own invention, (tho’ his invention is one of the richefl: 
 and molt beautiful that perhaps ever was,) I am forry to fay, that he does not only fall very 
 fhort of that limplicity and propriety which is fo remarkable in the works of the antients; 
 but runs now and then into thoughts, that are quite unworthy fo great a genius. I fhall 
 mark out fome of thefe faults to you, that appear even through all his beauties ; and 
 which may, perhaps, look quite grofs to you, when they are thus taken from them, 
 and laid together by themfelves : but if they fhould prejudice you at all againfl: fo fine a 
 writer; read almoft any one of his entire Canto’s, and it will reconcile you to him again. 
 The reafon of my producing thefe inftances to you, is only to fhew what faults the 
 greatefl: allegorifl; may commit; whilft the manner of allegorizing is left upon fo unfixed 
 and irregular a footing as it was in his time, and is Hill among us. 
 
 The firfl: fort of fault I fhall mention to you, from fuch allegories of Spenfer as are 
 purely of his own invention, is their being fometimes too complicated, or over-done. 
 Such for example are his representations of Scandal, Difcord, and Pride. 
 
 Scandal, is what Spenfer calls, the Blatant Bead : and indeed he has made 
 a very ftrange bead of him. He fays, that his mouth was as wide (13) as a peck: 
 
 and 
 
 tail, that I know of: but with the upper part, hu¬ 
 man, and the lower, like birds. (See Gorlaeus’s 
 gems, 2. 482.—Agoftini’s medals, 156. 3.—Smid’s 
 Martial, p 106, &c.) The poets defcribe them in 
 the fame manner ; and particularly Ovid, in his ac¬ 
 count of their transformation. 
 
 - Vobis, Achelo'ides, unde 
 
 Pluma pedefque avium, cum virginis ora geratis ? 
 
 Met. i. 553. 
 
 The moderns, by fome miftake or other, have 
 turned their lower parts into filh ; and fo made of 
 them the very fame fort of monfter, which Horace 
 fpeaks of, in the beginning of his Art of Poetry. 
 
 (g) - - - Fruitful Ceres, and Lyarus fat. 
 
 Spenfer’s Fairy Queen, Book 3. Cant. 1. St. 51. 
 
 This is another mifreprefentation, very common 
 among the modern artifls ; and from them, I fuppofe 
 has flole into the works of our poets. It is not only 
 to be proved from our fign-pofts : for fome tolerable 
 ftatuaries, and fome very good painters, even in Italy, 
 have given into it. 
 
 (9) Now, O thou facred Mule, mod learned dame ; 
 
 Fair imp of Phcebus, and his aged bride. 
 
 Ibid. Book 1. Cant. 11. St. 5. 
 
 (10) With his fair mother he him dights to play; 
 
 And with his goodly fillers, Graces three. 
 
 Ib. Book 2. Cant. 8. St. 6. 
 
 (11) Night was far fpent; and now in Ocean deep, 
 
 Orion flying fall from hilling fnake, 
 
 His flaming head did halten for to deep. 
 
 Ibid. Cant. 2. St. 46. 
 
 (12) Phorcys, the father of that fatal brood 
 
 By whom thofe old heroes won fuch fame; 
 
 And Glaucus, that wife foothfays underdood ; 
 And tragic Ino’s fon, the which became 
 A god of feas thro’ his mad mother’s blame; 
 Now hight Palremon, and his Tailor’s friend : 
 
 Great Brontes; and Adrasus, that did fliame 
 Himfelf with inced of his kin unkind ; 
 
 And huge Orion, that doth tempefls dill portend. 
 
 The rich Cteatus, and Eurytus long; 
 
 Neleus and Pelias, lovely brethren both ; 
 Mighty Chryfaor, and Cai'cus drong ; 
 
 Eurypulus, that calms the waters wrath ; 
 
 And fair Euphremus, that upon them go’th 
 As on the ground, without difmay or dread ; 
 
 Fierce Eryx ; and Alebius, that know’th 
 The waters’ depth, and doth their bottom tread; 
 And fad Afopus, comely with his hoary head. 
 
 There alfo fome mod famous founders were 
 Of puiflanc nations, which the world polfesd; 
 Yet fons of Neptune, now aflembled here. 
 Auncient Ogyges, even th’ auncientell; 
 
 And Inachus, renownd above the red: 
 
 Phcenix, and Aon, and Pelafgus old ; 
 
 Great Belus, Phteax, and Agenor bed : 
 
 And mighty Albion ; father of the bold 
 And warlike people, which the Britain Illands hold. 
 
 Ibid. Book 4. Cant. 11. St. 15. 
 
 (13) A full good peck, within the utmofl brim. 
 
 Ibid. Book 6. Cant. 12. St. 36. 
 
 3° 3 
 
 I i i i 
 
5 °4 
 
 POLYMETIS. 
 
 and that he had a thoufand tongues in it; of dogs, cats, bears, tygers, men, and fcr- 
 pents (H). 
 
 There is a duplicity in his figure of Difcord, which is carried on fo far as to be quite 
 prepofterous. He makes her hear double, and look two different ways; he fplits her 
 tongue, and even her heart, in two : and makes her adl contrarily with her two hands; 
 and walk forward with one foot, and backward with the other, at the fame time (15). 
 
 There is a great deal of Apparatus in Spenfer’s manner of introducing Pride, in a 
 perfonal character : and fhe has fo many different things and attributes about her; that 
 was this fhew to be reprcfented, (in the manner of our old pageants,) they would rather 
 fet one a gueffmg what they meant themfelves, than ferve to point out who the principal 
 figure fhould be. She makes her appearance (16), exalted in a high chariot, drawn by 
 fix different creatures : every one of them carrying a Vice, as a poftilion on his back ; 
 and all drove on by Satan as charioteer. The fix Vices are Idlenefs, on an afs; Gluttony, 
 on a hog; Lechery, on a goat; Avarice, on a camel laden with gold; Envy, eating a 
 toad, and riding on a wolf; and Wrath, with a firebrand in his hand, on a lion. The 
 account of each of thefe particular Vices in Spenfer, is admirable : the chief fault I find 
 with it is, that it is too complex a way of characterizing Pride in general; and may 
 poffibly be as improper in fome few refpedts, as it is redundant in others. 
 
 There is another particular in fome of Spenfer’s allegories which I cannot but look 
 upon as faulty, tho’ it is not near fo great a fault as the former. What I mean is his affixing 
 fuch filthy ideas to fome of his perfonages, or characters, that it half turns one’s fiomach 
 to read his account of them. Such, for example, is the defcription of Error (17), in the 
 very firfi Canto of the poem; of which we may very well fay, in the poet’s own words, 
 on a like occafion : 
 
 Such'loathly matter, were fmall luff to fpeak, or think (18) ! 
 
 The third fault in the allegories of Spenfer’s own invention is, that they are fometimes 
 ftretched to fuch a degree, that they appear rather extravagant than great : and that he 
 is fometimes fo minute, in pointing out every particular of its vaftnefs to you; that the 
 object is in danger of becoming ridiculous, inftead of being admirable. This is not com¬ 
 mon in Spenfer : the firongeft inftance of the few I can remember, is in his defcription 
 of the dragon, killed by the knight of the red-crofs, in the laffc Canto of his firfi: book. 
 The tail of this dragon, he tells you, wanted but very little of being (19) three furlongs 
 
 in 
 
 (14) Therein were a thoufand tongues empight; 
 
 Of fundry kinds, and fundry quality. 
 
 Some were of dogs, that barked day and night; 
 And fome of cats, that wrawling Itill did cry ; 
 And fome of bears, that groyn’d continually ; 
 And fome of tygars, that did feem to gren. 
 
 And fnar at all that ever paffed by : 
 
 But moll of them were tongues of mortal men ; 
 Which fpake reproachfully, not caring where nor when. 
 
 And them amongft, were mingled here and there' 
 The tongues of ferpentswith three-forked flings; 
 That fpat out poifon, and gore-bloody gere. 
 
 At all that came within his ravenings. 
 
 Fairy Queen, B. 6. Cant. 12. St. 28. 
 
 (15) Her face moll foul and filthy was to fee; 
 
 With fquinted eyes, contrary ways intended: 
 And loathly mouth, Hnmeet a mouth to be, 
 
 1 hat nought but gall and venom comprehended ; 
 And wicked words, that God and man offended. 
 Her lying tongue was in two parts divided ; 
 
 And both the partsdid fpeak, and both contended: 
 And as her tongue, fo was her heart difeided ; 
 
 That never thought one thing, but doubly Hill was guided. 
 
 4 
 
 Als as (lie double fpake, fo heard fhe double ; 
 
 With inatchlefs ears, deformed and diflou : 
 
 Fild with falfe rumors, and feditious trouble, 
 
 Bred in affemblies of the vulgar fort; 
 
 That Hill are led with every light report. 
 
 And as her ears, fo eke her feet were odd ; 
 
 And much unlike : th’ one long, the other lhort; 
 And both, inifplac’d, that when th’ one forward yodc. 
 The oilier back retired and contrary trod. 
 
 Likewife unequal were her handes twain - 
 That one did reach, the other pulh’d away; 
 That one did make, the other marrd again. 
 
 Ibid. Book 4. Cant. 1. St. 29. 
 
 (16) Ibid. Book 1. Cant. 4. St. 18, to 36. 
 
 (17) Ibid. Cant. i. St. 20. 
 
 (18) Ibid. Book 5. Cant. 1 r. St. 31. 
 
 (19) His huge long tail, wound up in hundred folds, 
 
 Does overfpread his long brafs-fcaly back. 
 Whofe wreathed boughts whenever he unfolds 
 And thick entangled knots adown does flack, 
 
 Belpotted 
 
Dialog u e the Nineteenth. 
 
 in length ;—the blood, that gulhes from his wound, is (20) enough to drive a water¬ 
 mill ;—and his roar, is like that of a hundred (21) hungry lions. 
 
 The fourth clafs of faults in Spenfer’s allegories, confifts of fuch as arife from their 
 not being well invented. You will eafily, I believe, allow me here, the three following 
 poftulata. That in introducing allegories, one lliould confider whether the thing is fit 
 to be reprefented as a perfon, or not.—Secondly ; that if you chufe to reprefent it as 
 a human perfonagc, it fhould not be reprefented with any thing inconliftent with the 
 human form or nature.—And thirdly, that when it is reprefented as a man, you fhould 
 not make it perform any adion, which no man in his fenfes would do. 
 
 Spenser feems to have erred again ft the firft of thefe maxims, in thofe lines in his 
 defcription of the cave of Care. 
 
 -They for nought would from their work refrain. 
 
 Nor let his fpeeches come unto their ear; 
 
 And eke the breathful bellows blew amain 
 Like to the northern wind, that none could hear: 
 
 Thofe, Penfivenefs did move; and Sighs, the bellows were (22). 
 
 Was a poet to fay that fighs are “ the bellows that blow up the fire of love,’' that 
 would be only a metaphor : a poor one indeed; but not at all improper : but here they 
 are realized, or rather metamorphized into bellows; which 1 could never perfuade myfelf 
 to think any way proper. Spenfer is perhaps guilty of the fame fort of fault, in making 
 Gifts, or Munera, a woman ; in the lecond Canto of the fifth book (23); tho’ that may 
 be only a mifnomer; for if he had called her Bribery, one fhould not have the fame ob¬ 
 jection. But the groffeft inftance in him of this kind, is in the ninth Canto of the fecond 
 book (24) : where he turns the human body into a caftle; the tonguejnto the porter, 
 
 that keeps the gate; and the teeth, into two and thirty warders, dreffed in white.- 
 
 Spenfer feems to have erred againft the fecond of thefe maxims, in reprefenting the rigid 
 
 execution of the laws under the charader o: 
 (or the lady Munera, before mentioned,) as 
 
 Befpotted all with fhields of red and black; 
 
 It fweepeth all the land behind him far : 
 
 And of three furlongs does but little lack. 
 
 Fairy Queen, Book i. Cant 1 1. St. x i. 
 
 (20) -Forth flowed frefh 
 
 A gufhing river of black goary blood, 
 
 That drowned all the land whereon he flood ; 
 
 The dream whereof would drive a water-mill. 
 
 Ibid. St. 22. 
 
 (21) The cruel wound enraged him fo fore. 
 
 That loud he yelled for exceeding pain ; 
 
 As hundred ramping lions feem’d to roar. 
 
 Whom ravenous hunger did thereto conflrain. 
 Then gan he tofs aloft his dretched train ; 
 
 And therewith fcourge the buxom air fo fore. 
 
 That to its force to yielden it was fain : 
 
 Nc ought his durdy drokes might fland afore, 
 
 That high trees overthrew and rocks in pieces tore. 
 
 Ibid. St. 47. 
 
 (22) Ibid. Book 4. Cant. 5. St. 38. 
 
 (23) St. 9, 10, &c. 
 
 (24) St. 21, 25, & 26. See on, to the end of the 
 Canto; where there arc leveral other inftances of faults 
 of the fame kind : as Appetite’s being the marflial of 
 the hall; Digeftion, clerk of the kitchen; Concodtion, 
 
 f a man (25) all made up of iron; and Bribery, 
 a woman (26), with golden hands, and filver 
 
 feet : 
 
 the mafter-cook; the Stomach, the caldron ; the 
 Lungs, the bellows : and the fink, Port Efquiline. 
 
 (25) — When * fhe parted hence, lhe left her groom, 
 
 An iron man; which did on her attend 
 Always, to execute her dedfad doom : 
 
 And willed him with Arthegal to wend, 
 
 And do whatever thing he did intend. 
 
 His name was Talus, made of iron mould; 
 
 Immoveable, refidles, without end : 
 
 Who in his hand an iron flail did hold; 
 
 With which he threlh’d out falfhood, and did truth 
 unfold. Ibid. Book 5. Cant. 1, St. 12, 
 
 » AArata. 
 
 It is doubtful whether this idea be wholly of Spen¬ 
 fer’s invention, or borrowed partly from the antients; 
 for they fpeak of one Talus, (or rather Talo,) a fevere 
 
 lawgiver in Crete.-T ov T cl\u, rov yjtKwv rut Kpii- 
 
 7iif trep/troAw. Lucian. Tom. I. p. 804. Ed Blaeu. 
 
 -They might call him, “ The brazen guardian of 
 
 Cretebeenufe he fccured them by his laws, affixed 
 in the moft public places on plates of brafs: but whe¬ 
 ther they had any idea of this Talus, as a brazen man, 
 I know not. 
 
 (26) Thereto lhe is full fair, and rich attird, 
 
 With golden hands and filver feet befide ; 
 
 That many lords have her to wife defird. 
 
 Ibid. Book 5. Cant. 2. St, to. 
 
feet:-and again ft the third, where he defcribes Defire (27', as holding coals of fire in 
 
 his hands and blowing them up into a flame: which laft particular is fomc degrees worfe 
 than Ariofto’s bringing in Difcord in his Orlando Furiofo (28) • with a flint and fteel, to 
 ftrike fire in the face of Pride. 
 
 The fifth fort of faults is when the allegorical perfonages, tho’ well invented, arc not 
 well marked out. There are many inftances of this in Spenier, which are but too apt to 
 put one in mind of the fancifulnefs and whims of Ripa and V aenius, that 1 mentioned to 
 you this evening. Thus in one Canto, Doubt is reprefented as walking with a ftaff, 
 that fhrinks (29) under him; Hope, with an afpergoire (3c), or the inftrument the Roman 
 catholics ufe for fprinkling finners with holy water; Difflmulation (31), as twifting two 
 clews of filk together: Grief (32), with a pair of pincers; and Pleafure (33), with an 
 humble-bee in a phial: and in another, (in the proceflion of the months and feafons,) 
 February is introduced (34) in a waggon, drawn by two fillies ; May, as riding (35), on 
 Caftor and Pollux : June, is mounted ( 3 6 ) on a crab; Odtober ( 37 ), on a fcorpion : and 
 November comes in, on a Centaur (38), all in a fweat; becaufe, (as the poet obfervcs,) 
 he had juft been fatting his hogs. 
 
 This might, full as well, have been ranged under my fixth and laft clafs of faults in 
 Spenfer’s allegories; conlifting of fuch inftances as, I fear, can fcarce be called by any 
 loiter name, than that of Ridiculous Imaginations. Such, I think, is that idea of Igno¬ 
 rance, in the fiift book, where he is made to move (39) with the back part of his head 
 
 foreinoft; 
 
 (27) Anil him * befide match’d amorous DcJirc, 
 
 Who fuem’d of riper years than th’ other Twain ; 
 Yet was that other Twain this elder’s Tire, 
 
 And gave him being, common to them twain : 
 Hi garment was difguifed very vain ; 
 
 And his embroider’d bonnet fat awry. 
 
 ’Twixt both his hands few fparks he clofe did 
 lira in : 
 
 Which ftill he blew, and kindled bufily; 
 
 That Toon they life conceiv’d, and forth in flames did fly. 
 •Fancy. Fairy Queen, Book 3. Cant. 12. St. 9. 
 
 (28) Lib. 18. St. 34. 
 
 (29) “ He look’d afkew with his miftruftful eyes; 
 
 And nicely trode, as thorns lay in his way ; 
 
 Or that the floor to Ihrink he did avife.” 
 
 And on a broken reed he ftill did ftay 
 His feeble Heps; which fhrunk, when hard thereon 
 he lay. Ibid. Book 3. Cant. 12. St. 10. 
 
 (30) She always fmil’d ; and in her hand did hold 
 An holy-water fprinkle, dipt in dew. 
 
 Ibid. St. 13. 
 
 (31) Her deeds, were forged; and her words, falfe coind: 
 And always in her hand two clews of filk fhe twin’d. 
 
 Ibid. St. 14. 
 
 (32) A pair of pincers in his hand he had ; 
 
 With which he pinced people to the heart. 
 
 Ibid. Book;. Cant. 12. St. 16. 
 
 (33) After them, went Difpleafure and Pleafance : 
 
 He looking lumpilh and full fullen fad. 
 
 And hanging down his heavy countenance; 
 
 She chearful frelh and full of joyance glad. 
 
 As if no forrow flie ne felt ne drad : 
 
 That evil-matched pair, they feem’d to be. 
 
 An angry wafp, th’ one in a vial had ; 
 
 Th’ other, in her’s, an bony lady bee. 
 
 Ibid. St. 18. 
 
 ( 34 ) -Laftly came cold February, fitting 
 
 In an old waggon, (for he could not ride.) 
 
 Drawn by two fifties.- 
 
 Second Canto of Mutability, St. 43. 
 
 ( 3 5) Upon tw0 brethrens Ihoulders fhe did ride. 
 
 The twins of Lcda ; which on either fide 
 
 Supported her like to their fovereign queen : 
 
 Lord ! how all creatures laughd, when her they 
 f Py J! Ibid. St. 34. 
 
 (36) Upon a crab he rode, that him did bear. 
 
 With crooked crawling Heps, an uncouth pace. 
 
 Ibid. St. 35. 
 
 (37) Then came Oflober, full of merry glee ; 
 
 For yet his noul was totty of the muft 
 Which he was treading in the wine-fats fee 
 And of the joyous oil ; whofe gentle guft 
 Made him fo frolic, and fo full of lull : 
 
 Upon a dreadful fcorpion, he did ride. 
 
 Ibid. St. 39. 
 
 (38) Next was November. He full grofs and fat, 
 
 As fed with lard; and that right well might fecin: 
 For he had been a fatting hogs of late, 
 
 That yet his brows with fweat did reek and fteem. 
 
 Ibid. St. 40. 
 
 There is fo much of the ridiculous in this proeef- 
 fion of the Months in Spender, that 1 cannot help 
 thinking ; that this excellent poet might poflibly have 
 formed dome of his ideas in it, even from folow a thing 
 as our old pagean ts: which were in great vogue, about 
 the times he lived in. 
 
 (39) But very uncouth fight was to behold 
 
 How he did fafhion his untoward pace ; 
 
 For as he forward mov’d his footing old. 
 
 So backward ftill was turnd his wrinkled face: 
 Unlike to men, who ever as they trace, 
 
 Both feet and face one way are wont to lead. 
 
 Ibid. Book i. Cant. 8. St. 31. 
 
 6 
 
fbrerhoft ; and that of Danger in the fourth (40), with Hatred, Murder, Treafon, &c: 
 
 in his back.-Such is the forrowful lady, with a bottle for her tears, and a bag to put 
 
 her reperitance into ( 4 1 ); and both running out, almoft as faft as fhe puts them in.- 
 Such the thought of a vaft giant’s ( 4 2 ) fhrinking into an empty form, like a bladder; 
 
 the horfes of Night (43), foaming tar;-Sir Guyon, putting a padlock (44) on the 
 
 tongue of Occalion ; and Remorfe, nipping (45) St. George's heart. 
 
 Had Spenfer formed his allegories on the plan of the antient poets and artifts, as 
 much as he did from Ariofto and the Italian allegorifls, he might have followed nature 
 much more clofely; and would not have wandered fo often, into fuch Arrange and incon- 
 fiftent imaginations. I am apt to believe, that he confidercd the Orlando Furiofo, in par¬ 
 ticular, as a poem wholly ferious ; tho’ the author of it certainly wrote it partly in jeft. 
 There are feveral lines and palTages in it, that muft have been intended for burlefque; 
 and they furely coniider that poem in the trueft light, who confider it as a work of a 
 mixed nature ; as Something between the profefled gravity of Taffo, and the broad laugh 
 of Berni and his followers. Perhaps Spenfer’s taking fotne tilings to be faid lerioufly, 
 which Ariofto meant for ridicule; may have led him now and then to fav tilings that 
 are ridiculous, where he meant to be very ferious. 
 
 However that be, we may reafonably conclude from fuch blemiilies as I have been 
 mentioning to you, in fo great a man ; (whether they arife from his too much indulging 
 the luxuriance of his own fancy, or from his copying after fo irregular a pattern ;) that 
 it would be extremely ufeful for our poets in general, to follow the plan of allegory, as 
 far as it is fettled to their hands by the antients : at leaf, till feme modern may have 
 invented and efablilhed feme better plan for them to go upon ; a thing, which (to deal 
 fairly with you,) I do not expedl to fee done in our days. But whether this be fo pru¬ 
 dent for our poets in general, or not; there is one fet of them at leaf, to whom it is 
 abfolutely necefary to be thoroughly acquainted with the allegories oft 1 .. ..utients : all 
 fuch I mean, as undertake to tranilaie the works of the antient poc.o ; and to , ■, us 
 their thoughts, in our own language. And yet, I fear, our tranllators have been almof 
 as incurious and unknowing in this point, as our original writers have ufually been. 
 
 As I have chofeii out, perhaps the greatef allegorif among all the moderns, to fliew 
 you how irregular we are in our allegories; fo I fhall now proceed to chufe out one of 
 
 (| 0 ) . In the porch did evermore abide 
 
 Ah hideous giant, dreadful to behold, 
 
 That Hop’d the entrance with liis fpacious flride> 
 And with the terror of his cuunt'nance bold 
 Full many did affray, that eltc fain enter would. 
 
 His liame was, Danger.- 
 
 And lo ! his hind parts, whereof heed I took 
 Much more deformed fearful ugly were, 
 
 Than all his former parts did card appear: 
 
 For hatred, murder, treafon, and defpight. 
 
 With many more, lay in ambulhment there; 
 
 Awaiting to cncrap the warelefs wight 
 Who did not them prevent, with vigilant forefight. 
 
 Fairy Queen, Book 4. St. 16, 17, & 2 
 
 (41) Here, in this bottle (faid the forry 
 I put the tears of my contrition, 
 
 Till to the brim I have it full defray’d ; 
 
 And, in this bag which I behind me don, 
 
 I put repentance for things pad and gon. 
 
 Yet is the bottle leak, and bag fo torn, 
 
 That all which I put in falls out anon : 
 
 And is behind me trodden down of Scorn ; 
 
 Who mocketh all my pain, and laughs the more I mourn. 
 
 Ibid. Book 6. Cant. 3 . St. 24. 
 
 (.jz) The knight, then lightly leaping to the prey 
 With mortal deel him fmote again fo fore. 
 
 That headlefs his unweildy body lay 
 
 All wallow’d in its own foul bloody gore; 
 Which flowed from his wounds in w undrous flore : 
 But foon as breath out of his bread did pafs. 
 
 That huge great body which the giant bore 
 Was vanilh’d quite ; and of that mondrous mafs 
 Was nothing left: but like an empty biaddei 
 
 Ibid. Book 1. Cant. S. St. 24. 
 
the bed tranllators we ever had, to lhew how deficient or incurious our tranllators are, in 
 reprefenting the allegories of the antients. It is but lately that I read over Mr. Dryden’s 
 Tranllation of all the works of Virgil, in this light only; and in reading it, took down 
 fome notes of the mifreprefcntations and tniftakes which he feems to me to have fallen 
 into, in that celebrated and excellent tranllation, for want of this kind of knowledge. 
 I know not u hcther this review of Dryden may not take up yet more of our time, than 
 that of Spenfer has done: but I have had proofs enough of your patience; and Ihal! 
 therefore proceed, without making any more apologies. 
 
D i a l o g u e the Nineteenth. 
 
 3°9 
 
 DIAL. XX. 
 
 1 he Defects of our Tranflators of the Antient Poets ; 
 in relation to thefe Allegorical Subjects : inltanced from 
 Mr. Dryden’s Tranflation of Virgil. 
 
 I T really grieves me, (continued Polymetis, as he was producing the notes he had taken 
 from Mr. Dryden,) to make fo free, as I fliall be obliged to do, with the works of a 
 man whofe memory I fo much love and efleem. There is not any one writer, to 
 whom I think our Englifh poetry fo much obliged for its improvements, as to Mr. Dry- 
 cen; excepting only Mr. Pope: and even the additional improvements by Mr. Pope, 
 are in a good meafure owing to Dryden;.as that gentleman always ufed to own, with 
 expreffions of the greateft efteem and gratitude. Before thefe two great mailers, our 
 Verification in general may be looked upon as unformed. Dryden took it into his 
 hands, when it was like a rough block of marble; till his time above half rude, and 
 Unchifleted. lie went a great way toward fhaping it; and Pope took it up where he 
 had left it: and added all the foftnings, and graces, which it yet wanted. I am a good 
 deal tempted to fay more on this head: but it would not be fair to run into adigrelfion 
 in the very entering upon my fubjedl; and I mull therefore confine myfclf to Mr. Dry¬ 
 den only. You know, what a fpirit there is in moil of his poems ; and there is fo much 
 of it in his work before us, that it reads rather like an original than a tranflation. It is 
 this which makes us ufually go on in it with fo much plealur'e, that we have fcarce any 
 t; me for minding its faults: for faults there certainly are in it; and mull be, in every 
 human compofition. The particular defeats I am to point out to vou at prefent, are 
 indeed of fuch a kind as have been hitherto quite unknown to criticifm : what all our 
 poets, in general, have been guilty of: and relating to things that they have never been 
 ufed to confider, fo regularly as they ought. We may therefore very well look upon 
 them rather as a defetfl of the times, than as the defeds of Dryden; for there has fcarce 
 been any demand for exadtnefs in things of this kind, as yet, among us : tho’ perhaps, 
 when I have laid all my catalogue before you, you may think it not improper, that they 
 fliould be a little more confidered than they have been hitherto; even by the befl of our 
 writers. But it is time I fhould go on, without any farther prefacing. 
 
 In the firft place then, the perfonages, drefs, and attributes of the allegorical perfons 
 deferibed by Virgil, are fometimes mifreprefented in this tranflation. Thus Bacchus, 
 (as I mentioned to you occafionally once before,) is deferibed as having (0 a plumo, 
 jovial face, inflead of that fine beauty which was his charaderiftic among the antients ; 
 Proteus, with gray heir (2), inflead of dark-coloured; the goddefs of Peace (3), with 
 
 (1) On whate'er fide he turns his honeft face. 
 
 Dryden, G. 2. 540. 
 
 Et quocumque Deus circum caput egit honeftum. 
 
 Virgil. G. 2. f. 392. 
 
 This miftake was partly, from Mr. Dryden’s being 
 prejudiced by our modern figures of Bacchus; and 
 partly, from his not attending to the true meaning of 
 the word Honeftus : which antiently fignified, beau¬ 
 tiful, when applied to any perfonage or figure ; and 
 Which indeed is applied to good actions, for the fame 
 rcafon that Kctxo? was by the Greeks; from the fit- 
 hefs and beauty of all fuch a&ions. 
 
 6 
 
 wings; 
 
 (2) This anfwer Proteus gave ; nor more he faid : 
 
 But in the billows plung’d his hoary head. 
 
 Dryden, G.4. 766, 
 
 Virgil fays only, fub vertice, ib. 529. The an¬ 
 tients give all the fea-deities, in general, Cserulean or 
 dark-coloured hair; ancLOvid mentions the fame of 
 Proteus, in particular. Fall. Lib. x. 3. 
 
 (3) And Peace, with downy wings, was brooding on the 
 8 round . Dryden, Asn. 4. > v . 762, 
 
 Virgil is fo far from giving the goddefs of Peace 
 wings on this occalion, that he does not lpcak of her 
 at all, He only fays; 
 
 Cum 
 
POLYMETIS; 
 
 wings; and the Minotaure (4), with his lower parts brutal, and his upper part human; 
 all without any authority from Virgil; and contrary to the manner in which we fee theie 
 allegorical and fabulous beings reprefented, in the works of the antient artifts that remain 
 to us. Thus too, Tiber appears in a fky-coloured robe (5), inftead of a dark one : Au¬ 
 rora, is introduced with the new attribute of a ( 6 ) fir earner, in her hand; as the attend¬ 
 ants of Bacchus carry (7) flags, in theirs : Cybele is drawn by Bacchus’s ( 8 ) tigres, inftead 
 of her own lions: Neptune is equipped (like the figure of Julius Cadar, in the great 
 church at Breda.) with a (9) Gothic mace; Janus, with a (ic) bunch ot keys; and 
 Priapus, with a (»0 lath-fword. 
 
 As Mr. Dryden, in fome places, gives the deities attributes that do not belong to 
 them ; fo he mifreprefents the actions and attitudes of them, in others. Thus where 
 the original fpeaks of Tifiphone i 1 ?-), as fitting alone, before the gates ol Tartarus : (i.*l 
 the fame manner as I /hewed her to you (13) in the pidture relating to this paflage, from 
 
 the 
 
 Cum tacet omnis ager. 
 
 JEn. 4. y. 520. 
 
 I never remember to have met with any one antient 
 reprefentation of Peace with wings. Indeed it is not 
 likely there ever was any fuch : for this was a goddefs 
 that all people defired fhould flay with them ; and 
 wings fignify uncertainty and flight. T hat the an- 
 ticnts looked on them in this light is evident from a 
 very pretty epigram, occafioncd by an odd accident at 
 Rome. There was a ftatue of Vidtory there which 
 had its wings melted off, by a ftroke of lightning. 
 Among a people fo obfervant of omens, this mult 
 have been looked upon as a very bad one ; had not 
 one of the poets there given it the following happy 
 turn, by writing this diitich upon its pcdeftal : 
 
 TTCtulicunK&a, TiOV XASOf wo] OA^TCM’ 
 
 Nikii yap a* puy&i' atniys k tAuvarai. 
 
 Stephens’s Collection of Gr. Ep. or Inscriptions ; 
 under this title. Eh ayaf./za Nikhj atiTt&v, tv 
 nr t a V V KartipKi ^ »• 
 
 (4.) The lower part a beall, a man above. 
 
 Dryden, JE n. 6. S'. 37. 
 
 This is juft contrary to the figures 1 have feen of 
 the Minotaure ; which have the head of a bull, and 
 are human all below. Virgil only fays, in general, 
 Proles biformis. JE n. 6. S'. 25. 
 
 (c) An azure robe was o’er his body Spread. 
 
 Dryden, JEn. 8. S'- 47. 
 
 ._ Eum tenuis glauco velabat amittu 
 
 Carbafus, --„ , 
 
 Virgil. iEn. 8. jr. 33. 
 
 (6) Now when the rofy morn began to rife ; 
 
 And wav’d her faffron flreamer thro’ the Ikies. 
 
 Dryden, JEn. 7. S'- 35 - 
 Mr. Dryden here feems to have admitted fome 
 mixture of the allegory and the reality together ; and 
 fo, I think, he has in the two lines which imme¬ 
 diately follow the former. 
 
 When Thetis blulh’d in purple not her own, 
 
 And from her face the breathing winds were blown. 
 
 Virgil is free both from the ftreamer, and this faulty 
 mixture : all be fays, is ; 
 
 Jamque rubefeebat radiis mare : k sethere ab alto 
 Aurora in rofeis fulgebat lutea bigis. 
 
 JEn. 7. S'- 26. 
 
 ( 7 ) Then they, (whofe mothers, frantic with their fear a 
 I n woods and wilds the flags of Bacchus bear, £ 
 And lead his dances with diihevel’d hair,) ) 
 
 Increafe the clamour, and the war demand. 
 
 Dryden, JEn. 7. S’. 803. 
 
 Turn quorum attonita; Baccho nemora avia matres 
 lr.fultant thiafis, (neque enim leve nomen Amata;,) 
 Undique collcfti coeunt, Martemque fatigant. 
 
 Virgil. JEn. 7. S'- 582. 
 
 (8) Hear thou, great mother of the deities, 
 
 With turrets crown’d ; (on Ida’s holy hill 
 Fierce tigres, rein’d and curb’d, obey thy will.) 
 
 Dryden, JEn. iu, S'- 356. 
 Alma parens Indxa Deum, cui Dindyma cordi, 
 Turrigcrxque urbes, bijugique ad frxna leones. 
 
 Virgil. JEn. 10. S'. 253- 
 
 (9) Amid that Another, Neptune holds his place; 
 
 Below the wall’s foundation drives his mace : 
 
 And heaves the building from the folid bafe. 
 
 Dryden, JEn. 2. S’. Szg. 
 
 This is the tranflation of that noble paflage in 
 Virgil. 
 
 Hie, ubi disjeftas moles avulfaque faxis 
 Saxa vides, mixtoque undantem pulvere fumum; 
 Neptunus muros, magnoque emota tridenti 
 Fundamenta quatit: totamque ab fedibus urbem 
 Eruit.-—— 
 
 JEn. 2. S'. 6 12. 
 
 (10) And antient Janus ; with his double face, 
 
 And bunch of keys, the porter of the place. 
 
 Dryden; JEn. 7. S'. 246. 
 Saturnufque fenex, Janique bifrontis imago, 
 
 Veitibulo aditabant. - 
 
 Virgil. iEn. 7. S'. 181. 
 
 Janus is reprefented by the antients with a key, in 
 one hand ; and a long ftalF in the other : agreeably to 
 the defeription of him in Ovid. 
 
 Ille tenens dextra baculum, clavemque finiltra. 
 
 Fait. 1. S’. 99. 
 
 j) —*— The god obfeerte who frights away 
 
 With his lath-fword, the thieves and birds of prey. 
 
 Dryden, G. 4. S'. 168. 
 — Cultos furum atque avium, cum falce faligna, 
 Hcllefpontiaci fervet tutela Priapi. 
 
 Virgil. G. 4. S’, in» 
 
 (11) - Cernis, cuftodia qualis 
 
 Veitibulo fedeat; facies qua: limina fervet. 
 
 Virgil. JEn. 6. S'. 575. 
 You fee, before the gate, what Italking gholt 
 Commands the guard; what centries keep the poll. 
 
 Dryden, ^En. 6. S'. 777. 
 
 (13) See Pi. 39. Fig. I. 
 
 4 
 
 O 
 
Dialogue the Twentieth. 
 
 the famous Vatican manufcriptj) the tranflation reprefents her as a ghoft, walking, 
 
 at * fae n “ J ol k ' vcral others: -"'here the original mentions Juno’s 8 
 
 earth (I+ ), the tranflation makes her defend to hell:-and where Virgil fpealcs of 
 
 Eridanus’s directing tome of his waters down toward the vales of Elyfium (15I Mr Dry 
 den reprefents this river-god as making his dream firft mount upward, and then as 
 hiding his head under-ground. There is fomething of this kind too, where the tranf- 
 lation makes Somnus draw a (16) trail of light after him, in his defcent to Palinurus; 
 
 whereas the original only mentions his cleaving the dark air; (or pa Cngafere- 
 
 mty in it, the eafier to deceive that pilot:) and where it defcribes Salina» (17),°as red¬ 
 ing his head on a little pruning-hookj contrary to the original, and to thejrealon of the 
 thing: for a painter or datuary, I believe, would be reckoned to want judgment, who 
 Ihould reprefent any figure, as reding its head on a pruning-hook : and, by the way, 
 fcarce any thing can be good in a poetical defeription; which would appear abfurd, if 
 reprefented in a ftatue, or pidture. 
 
 I DO 
 
 (14) Htec ubi di£la dedit, terras horrenda petivit. 
 
 Virgil. JE n. 7. y. 323. 
 
 Thus having faid, flie finks beneath the ground, 
 With furious halle ; and flioots the Stygian found. 
 
 Dryden, oEn. 7. jr. 430. 
 
 (15) Inter odoratum lauri nemus ; unde fuperne 
 Plurimus Eridani per fylvam volvitur amnis. 
 
 Virgil. .fEn. 6. it, 659. 
 Beneath a laurel fhade ; where mighty Po 
 Mounts up to woods above, and hides his head below. 
 
 Dryden, oEn. 6. 894. 
 
 To fay the truth, Virgil here does not fpeak of 
 Eridanus perfonally, at all. He only fays, that there 
 is a conliderable branch from that river, which makes 
 its way under ground, (as the Po indeed plunges 
 wholly under ground, not many miles from its rile,) 
 and finks quite down to Elyfium; where it falls, in a 
 cafcade, down a hill covered on each fide with trees, 
 that always keep their verdure. This is, I think, the 
 mod: pleafing idea in all Virgil’s Elyfium : and, pof- 
 fibly, he had an eye in it to the famous valley of 
 Tempe in The/Taly : reckoned the mod: delightful 
 fpot in the whole world ; and beautified, in particular, 
 by the fall of the river Peneus, from mount Pindus; 
 with woods on each fide of it. See Ovid’s Met. 
 Lib. r. it. 568, to 572- 
 
 May I mention another conjettu re here, which would 
 yet add farther to the beauty of this part, in Virgil’s 
 Elyfium ? It is, that he may poflibly mean, that the 
 groves on each fide of his cafcade are groves of orange- 
 trees ; and confequently as pleafing in their fmcll, as 
 in their look. Orange-trees were fird: brought into 
 Italy, in Virgil’s time. As they were fo lately intro¬ 
 duced among them, the Romans had as yet no name 
 for them ; and it is therefore that Virgil, where he 
 is fuppofed by fome very good judges to fpeak of this 
 tree in his Georgies, is forced to point it out, hr a 
 good deal of circumlocution; and by deferibing it 
 very particularly. It is a tree which, according to his 
 account, was brought into Italy from Media ; whofe 
 fruit had a fharp, four tafte; he fays, that it was 
 very good for the ftomach and breath; and an ex¬ 
 cellent remedy againft infections, and poifons ; that 
 it was a large tree, (as the orange-trees are much 
 larger in Italy than with us ; and much larger in Me¬ 
 dia than in Italy ;) that the leaf qfit, was very much 
 like the leaf of the laurel: but that it was diftinguilhed 
 from , the laurel, by its lafting flowers, and by the 
 fine perfume that they caft all around it. (Georg. 
 Lib. 2. f. 126, to 135.) As they had then no di- 
 ftiniSt name for orange-trees, Virgil may here call 
 
 them laurels, from their likenefs to that tree; but, at 
 the fime time, he takes care to diftinguifii them from 
 the con mon laurel 
 
 character of them, their fine fmcll : odoratum lauri 
 nemus. I Ihould not have endeavoured to turn thefe 
 Elyfian groves of Virgil into orange-groves, had it 
 not been for the fine f.ncll he attributes to them. 
 Groves of laurel me more common in the gardens of 
 Rome at prfent, than thofe of any other trees what¬ 
 ever; but I could never yet perceive, in walking 
 thro’ any of them, the lcafi f.iarc of the fine fmell 
 here mentioned. Tho’ there was no Latin names 
 for the orange-trees in Virgil’s time, there were two 
 not long after; at leaft by the time of Pliny; for 
 he calls it Malus Medica, or Aflyria ; in a paflage, 
 which agrees fo extremely well with Virgil’s account 
 of this tree, in his Georgies; that I muft add it to 
 this note, tho’ it is fo unreafonably long already. 
 Malus Aflyria, quam alii vocant Medicam, (fays he,) 
 venenis medetur : folium ejus eft unedonis, intercur¬ 
 rentibus fpinis ; pomum ipfum alias non manditur. 
 Odorc prmccllit, foliorum quoque ; qui tranfit in 
 vefteg una conditus, arcetque animalium noxia. Ar¬ 
 bos ipfa, omnibus horis pomifera eft : aliis, canden¬ 
 tibus; aliis, maturefcenribus; aliis vero, fubnafcen- 
 tibus. Teniawrc gentes transferre ad fefc, propter 
 remedii proflantium, fictilibus in vafis ; dato per ca¬ 
 vernas radicibus fpiramento :— fed nifi apud Medos, 
 Sc in Perfide, nafei noluit. Haec cft autem, cujus 
 grana Parthorum proceres incoquere diximus efculen- 
 tis, commendandi halitus gratia ; nec alia arbor lau¬ 
 datur in Medis. Pliny’s Nat. Hift. Lib. 12. Cap. 3. 
 
 (16) — The foft Got! of Sleep, with csfy flight. 
 Defects; and draws behind a trail of light. 
 
 Dryden, £n, 5. . 1092. 
 
 -Levis arthcreis dclapfus fomnus ab alliis 
 
 Aiira dimovit tenebrofuin & difpuli: umbras j 
 
 Te, Palinure, petens. - 
 
 Virgil. jEn. 5. f. S40. 
 
 (17) There fifwd Sabinus, planter of the vines; 1 
 
 On a ill ore pruning-hook, his heaJ recl : ne; ; J* 
 And ftudioufly furveys his generous wines, 1 
 
 Dryden, oEn. 7. jr. 249. 
 
 - Paterque Sabinus 
 
 '\ 1 tifator, curvam fervans fub imagine fal m. 
 
 Virgil. -Ea. 7. v. 179. 
 
 of the . 
 
 and Sabinus, Sec. lo that, fub ima; r.e here ij either 
 fignity that Sabinus’s pruning hook was parly held 
 under the drapery of his figure; or, that it lay at his 
 feet: but there is no manner-of hint in the original, 
 of his refting his head upon it. 
 
 L 1 1 1 
 
 
P o L Y M E T 1 S. 
 
 312 
 
 I do not know any one, even of our greateft poets, that has not been apt fomc- 
 times to mix the natural and allegorical ways of fpeaking together ; in a manner, very 
 uncommon among the antients. I think this is very blameable, wherever we meet with 
 it: but whatever indulgences may be allowed to original writers; a tranflator can cer¬ 
 tainly have no right to reprefent his author as confufed, where he is uniform and clear. 
 Yet there are intlances in this tranllation of mixed allegories, where the original is 
 quite free from any fuch mixture ; and of other liberties, which I think fcarce allow¬ 
 able to a tranflator : fuch as the introducing the allegorical ftyle, where Virgil has not 
 made ufe of it ; and the omitting it, where has. I fhall juft point out an inftance or 
 two of each, from the many which might be produced from Mr. Dryden's tranllation. 
 Such, as to the firfl: (18), is his idea of the morning-liar lhaking dew from his hair; and 
 that of Xanthus, as (landing on a heap of his own waters:—as to the fecond ; Deucalion’s 
 (19) hurling his mother's entrails over the world; and Vulcan's riding with loofened 
 reins:—and as to the third: the (2°) calmnefs of the Tiber, in the eighth book of the 
 fEncid; and the fliorm of hail in the ninth. 
 
 Another fet of faults in Mr. Dryden, in relation to the imaginary beings of the an¬ 
 tients, is owing to his not being fufficiently acquainted with their particular characters, 
 rank, and dignity : and this makes him fometimes vary from his original. I have ob- 
 ferved to you before, how much Virgil was to be admired for deferibing the face of 
 
 Neptune 
 
 (18) Inftances of mixt metaphor in Dryden, where 
 there is no fuch mixture in Virgil. 
 
 So from the feas exerts his radiant head 
 
 The (tar, by whom the lights of heaven are led: 
 
 Shakes from his rofy locks the pearly dews; 
 
 Difpels the darknefs, and the day renews. 
 
 Dryden, Ain. 8. Jr. 781. 
 
 Qualis ubi Oceani perfufus Lucifer unda, 
 
 (Quern Venus ante alios aftrorum diligit ignes) 
 Extulit os facrum ccelo, tenebrafque rcfolvit. 
 
 Virgil. Ain. 8. J. 591, 
 
 When crimfon Xanthus, doubtful of his way. 
 Stood up on ridges, to beholJ the fea. 
 
 Dryden, Ain. 5. Jr. 1056. 
 
 - Nec reperire viam, atque evolvere pollet 
 
 In mare fe Xanthus. - 
 
 Virgil. JE n. 5. ^.808. 
 
 (19) Dryden allegorical, where Virgil is literal. 
 
 1. 
 
 .-Thefe the laws 
 
 Impos’d by nature, and by nature’s cauie, 
 
 On fundry places; when Deucalion hurl’d 
 His mother’s entrails o’er the defart world. 
 
 Dryden, Georg. 1. ^.94. 
 
 -Has leges reternaque feedera certis 
 
 Impofuit natura locis ; quo tempore primum 
 Deucalion vacuum lapides jaflavit in orbem. 
 
 Virgil. Georg. 1. J.62. 
 
 The flame, unftopt at firfl, more fury gains; 
 
 And Vulcan rides at large with loofen’d reins : 
 Triumphant, to the painted fterns he foars ; 
 
 And feizes, in his way, the banks and crackling oars. 
 
 Dryden, Ain. 5. Jr. 865. 
 
 - Furit immiflis Vulcanus habenis 
 
 Tranflra per & remos, Sc piftas abiete puppes. 
 
 Virgil. Ain. 5. Jr. 663. 
 
 As I take it, Immiflis habenis here is only meant to 
 fignify, without reftraint, (or unftopt, as Mr. Dry¬ 
 den tranflates it:) and Vulcanus, is only ufed for fire; 
 as Bacchus for wine, and Ceres for corn, in the fame 
 poem: Implentur veteris Bacchi. JE n. 1. ^.215. 
 Et Cererem corruptam undis. Ib. 177. 
 
 (20) Dryden literal, where Virgil is allegorical. 
 
 The following night, and the fucceeding day. 
 Propitious Tiber fmooth’d his watry way ; 
 
 He rowl’d his river back: and pois’d he flood, 
 
 A gentle fwelling, and a peaceful flood. 
 
 Dryden, JEn. S. Jr. 120. 
 
 Tybris ea fluvium, quam longa efl, no&e tumentem 
 Leniit ; & tacita refluens ita fubiiitit unda. 
 
 Mitis ut in morem ftagni pl.vcid.Tque paludis 
 Sterneret aquor aquis, remo ut luftamen abefiet. 
 
 Virgil. Ain. 8. Jr. 89. 
 
 To fay the truth, there feems to be fomething of 
 the mixed metaphor, (or rather, mixed allegory,) 
 here in Virgil himfelf; and I know no occafion in 
 which the antients are fo apt to fall into it, or at leaft 
 to border upon it, as when they are fpeaking of rivers 
 and river-gods. 
 
 Or pattring hail comes pouring o’er the main. 
 
 When Jupiter defeendsin harden’d rain ; 
 
 Or bellowing clouds burft with a ftormy found. 
 
 And with an armed winter ftrew the ground. 
 
 Dryden, Ain. 9. Jr. 913. 
 
 This is meant to anfwer that noble agitated image 
 of the Jupiter Pluvius, difpenfing ftorms and tempefts; 
 
 — Quam multa grandine nimbi 
 In vada prscipitant; cum Jupiter, horridus Auftris, 
 Torquet aquofam hiemem & ccclo cava nubila rumpit. 
 
 Virgil. Ain. 9. ^.671. 
 
Dialogue the Twentieth. 
 
 Neptune as ferene (21) and undifturbed, at the very time that he ftrongly refents the im¬ 
 proper liberties taken by /Eoius in his diftridt : but this ferenity is turned into anger, 
 in Mr. Dryden’s tranflation (22) • and into rage and difturbance, in his note on the place. 
 The fame lort of fault is committed, as to the character of Hercules 5 tho’ with more 
 to fupport it from the original, than in the former cafe. It is where that great hero is 
 fo long difappointed in his purfuit of Cacus ; and afterwards in the account of his combat 
 with that monfter. The rage of Hercules on this occafion is aggravated ( 2 3), and his 
 appearance demeaned; in a cafe, where of the two what is faid fhould rather have been 
 touched more flightly, than more ftrongly.—It is from this want of being better ac¬ 
 quainted with the rank and charadlers of the perfonages introduced, that Mr. Dryden 
 thinks it (24) prefuming in Minerva to throw the thunderbolts of Jupiter; and that he 
 makes Venus (25) thunder: I think, without any authority from Virgil.—And this carries 
 
 him 
 
 3*3 
 
 (21) Graviter commotus, & alto 
 Profpiciens, fumma placidum caput extulit unda. 
 
 Virgil. JEn. i. jr. 127. 
 Eurum ad fe Zephyrumque vocat; dein talia fatur. 
 
 Id. Ibid. jr. 131. 
 
 -Tenet ille immania faxa, 
 
 Vellras, Eure, domos : ilia fc ja£let in aula 
 JEolus; &e, claufo ventorum carcerc, regnet. 
 
 Ibid. f. 141. 
 
 (22) And firft an angry glance at both he call. 
 
 Then thus rebuk’d ; “AudaciousWinds! from whence 
 This bold attempt? This rebel infolence, &cc. 
 
 Dryden, jEn. 1. j 1 . iSg. 
 His power to hollow caverns is confin’d ; 
 
 There let him reign, the jailor of ;j e wind 1 
 With hoarfe commands his breathing fubjedls call; 
 And boaft, and blufter, in his empty hall. 
 
 Id. Ibid. jr. 202. 
 
 Mr. Dryden, in his note on this paflage, fays- 
 
 “To raife a tempeft on the fca, was ufurpation on 
 the prerogative of Neptune : who had given him no 
 leave; and therefore was enraged at his attempt. I 
 may alfo add ; that they who are in a paffion, (as 
 Neptune then was,) are apt to alfume to themfelves, 
 more than is their due.” Note on JEn. 1. jr. 196. 
 
 The truth is, that Neptune here aflumes lefs to 
 himfelf, than was his due. He might have punifhed 
 them ; whereas he only threatens them. 
 
 Tantane vos generis tenuit fiducia veftri? 
 
 Jam ccclum terramque meo fine numine. Venti, 
 Mifcere, & tantas audetis tollere moles ? 
 
 Quos ego— fed motos prxflat componere fluftus : 
 
 Poll mihi non fimili pcena commifla luetis. 
 
 Maturate fugam!- 
 
 Virgil. JE n. 1. jr. I37 . 
 
 (23) Alcides found the fraud : with rage he (hook; 
 
 And tofs’d, about his head, his knotted oak. 
 
 Dryden, A£n. 8. jr. 286. 
 The wretch had hardly made his dungeon fall; 
 The fierce avenger came with bounding hallc : 
 Survey’d the mouth of the forbidden hold ; 
 
 And here and there his raging eyes he roll’d. 
 
 He gnalh’d his teeth; and thrice he compafs’d round 
 With winged fpeed the circuit of the ground : 
 Thrice at the cavern’s mouth he pull’d in vain ; 
 And, panting, thrice deiifted from his pain. 
 
 Id. Ib. jr. 306. 
 
 The wrathful god then plunges from above ; 
 
 And, where in thickell waves the fparkles drove. 
 There lights : and wades thro’ fumes, and gropes 
 his way ; 
 
 Half lindg’d, half Hilled.-■ 
 
 Ib. j. 342. 
 
 There is too much perhaps of this in Virgil him¬ 
 felf; but not fo much, as in DryJen. 
 
 Hie verb Alcida: furi 
 Felle, dolor; rapit a 
 Robur. - 
 
 > exarferat, atro 
 ma manu, nodifqui 
 
 gravatum 
 
 Virgil. ^En. 8. jr. 221. 
 
 Ecce furens animis aderat Tirynthius ; omnemque 
 Acceflum lullrans, huc ora ferebat, & illuc 
 Dentibus infrendens. Ter totum fervidus ira 
 Lullrat Aventini montem : ter faxea tentat 
 Limina nequicquam; ter, felfus, valle refedit. 
 
 Id. Ibid. jr. 232. 
 
 Non tulit Alcides animis, feque ipfe per ignem 
 Praxipiti injecit faltu ; qua plurimus undam 
 Fumus agit, nebulaque ingens fpecus adluat atra. 
 
 Ib. jr. 238. 
 
 I his laft particular is great in Virgil, and little in 
 Dryden; and fitter for the herdfman-heroe, (as he 
 calls him in the beginning of the ftory, jr. 279.) than 
 for the chief of all the heroes, who were deified for hav¬ 
 ing afled for the good of mankind in this world. 
 
 (24) She (for the fault of one offending foe,) 
 
 The bolts of Jove himfelf prefum’d to throw. 
 
 Dryden, JEn. 1. jr. 63. 
 Ipfa, Jovis rapidum jaculata e nubibus ignem. 
 Disjecitque rates, &c.- 
 
 Virgil. JEn. 1. j. 43. 
 
 I have Ihown before, (Dial. Vf. p. 58, & 63.) 
 that Minerva, and Juno, were looked upon of olJ, 
 as fharing with Jupiter, in all his higheft powers; 
 and particularly, in that of difpenfing his thunder¬ 
 bolts. 
 
 (25) But his bright mother from a breaking cloud. 
 
 To chear his ifiue, thundred thrice aloud : 
 
 Thrice, forky lightning flafli'd along the fky; 
 
 And Tyrrhene trumpets thrice were heard on high. 
 Then, gazing up, repeated peals they hear ; 
 
 And, in a heav’n ferene, refulgent arms appear : 
 Redning the Ikies, and glittering all around, 
 
 The temper’d metals clafh, and yield a filver found. 
 
 Dryden, JEn. 8. jr. 699. 
 
 -Ni lignum ccelo Cytherxa dedifTet aperto. 
 
 Namque improvifo vibratus ab xthere fulgor 
 Cum fonitu venit; & ruere omnia vifa repente : 
 Tyrrhenufque tubs mugire per arthera clangor. 
 Sufpiciunr. Iterum atque iterum fragor increpat 
 ingens : 
 
 Arma inter nubem, cceli in regione ferena, 
 Perfudum rutilare vident; & pulfa tonare. 
 
 Virgil. Ain. 8. jr. 529. 
 
 Tho’ it is true that the augurs of old did fometimes 
 attribute the power of calling forth lightnings to all 
 the twelve great gods, (in an inferior fenfe to what 
 was attributed by them to Jupiter, Juno, and Mi¬ 
 nerva ;) yet I do not imagine that Virgil here fpeaks 
 of Venus’s calling forth the lightning; and, much 
 lefs, of her thundering. The paflage indeed is dif¬ 
 ficult 
 
 <(\ 
 
 f 
 
 u 
 
P O L Y M E 
 
 3H 
 
 I S. 
 
 him in feme inftances fo far, that he quite overturns the charnel.'!- of the deity lie is 
 ipeaking of: as for example, when one reads of a mifehi ith raor- 
 
 dinary terrors on her brow; who would gueis that it was meant of I: i: ? And when a 
 god is called a traitor-god, and a devil (27); who would ever imagine, ila.it this (houId 
 be fpoken of one of the mod gentle, and mold pleating of all the deities ? 
 
 I must juld obferve here, that Mr. Dryden is apt to fall into faults of this kind on 
 many other occalions, as well as the laid mentioned, from his not guarding fufficiently 
 againld vulgarifms. Mr. Dryden certainly wrote, in gem ral, with as much ioirit as any 
 man; and in the work before us, was prefi'ed on by other caufes, to write with yet more 
 rapidity than ufual. This muft have occafioned fevcral negligences: and among the 
 reft, fome low expreftions, and mean lines j fometimes very unworthy cf the fubjefd he 
 is treating. It is hence, I fuppofe, that he fpcaks of Bacchus’s honeft (aS) face, and of 
 the jolly (29) Autumn. It is hence, that he calls Juno, the buxom ( 3 °) bride of Jupiter; 
 and Cybele, the ( 3 1 ) grandam-goddefs. It is thus that he talks of Juno’s (32) failing on 
 the winds, and Apollo’s ( 33 / beftriding the clouds. This made him fall into that ( 34 ) 
 
 ficult enough ; fo difficult, that moll of the com¬ 
 mentators quite pals it by. But if they had of old, 
 in Italy, that phaenomenon which wc call the Aurora 
 Borealis ; and you were to view this paiTage, in that 
 light; it might perhaps be eafy enough. That dart¬ 
 ing brightnefs ; that rulhing of the heavens ; even 
 the hearing of ftrange noifes, and the fancied figures 
 of arms ; I remember, were all things talked of, on 
 the moll extraordinary phenomenon of this kind, 
 which appeared in all our northern parts of Europe in 
 the year 1716. 
 
 (26) The goddefs, great in mifehief. —- 
 
 Dryden, JEn. 5. S- 803. 
 
 ■- Haud ignara nocendi. 
 
 Virgil. Ain. 5. S. 618. 
 
 What terrors from her frowning front arife ? 
 
 Id. Ibid. S. 8^4. 
 
 -■ ■ — Divini figna decoris, 
 
 Ardentefque notate oculos; qui fpiritus illi, See. 
 
 Id. Ibid. S. 648. 
 
 (27) Then thus the traitor god began his tale. 
 
 Dryden, JE n. 5. >’•. 1097. 
 
 Virgil. JEn. 5. S. S41. 
 
 The viftor D.cmon mounts obfeure in air. 
 
 Id. Ibid. f. 1120. 
 
 Ipfe volans tenues fe fullulit ales ad auras. 
 
 Id. Ibid. y. 861. 
 
 flovenly 
 
 to fay that Jupiter was the fame with the /Ether, or 
 middle air; in confequence of which, they ufed to 
 call the ./Ether, fometimes limply, by the name of 
 Pater ; and fometimes, Pater ./Ether. 
 
 - - Afpice hoc 
 
 Sublime candens, quem vocant omnes Jovem. 
 
 Ennius, in Thyefle. 
 
 Illeic i-. c(t Jupiter quem dico, Gr.rci vocant 
 Aera; quique vtntuu ell, & nubes : imber pollea. 
 Atque cx imbre frigus; ventus poll fit, aer denuo: 
 IlUixc propter Juppiter fimt ilia, qu,r dico tibi. 
 
 Id. in Epicharmo. 
 Hoc vide circum fupraque, quod complexu continet 
 Terram: id quod noftri ctelum memorant, Graii 
 perhibent /Ethera. 
 
 QtpcqiiiJ eil hoc, omnia is animat; format; auget; 
 alit; ferat: 
 
 ia; omnia |ueidem 
 
 cft P™*- 
 
 Id. in Chryfe. 
 
 -Fercunt imbres, ubi eos pater /Ether 
 
 In gremium matris Tear;".' pr.ecipitavit. 
 
 Lucretius, Lib. 1. S • 252. 
 
 (31) The grandnm goddefs then approach’d her fon ; 
 And with a mother's mnjefty begun. 
 
 Dryden, /En. 9. ^.95. 
 
 Ip fa Deiim fertur genetrix Berccynthia magnum 
 Vocibus his effata Jovem. - 
 
 Virgil. Ib. S. 83. 
 
 (28) See Note 1, anteh. 
 
 (29) Where Mr. Dryden calls Autumnus jolly, 
 (Georg. 1. S- 9 ) Virgil calls him, Pampineus; or, 
 crowned with vine-leaves. (Ib. S- 5-) 
 
 (30) The fpring adorns the woods; renews the leaves: 
 The womb of earth the genial feed receives. 
 
 For then almighty Jove defeends; and pours 
 Into his buxom bride, his fruitful (how'rs : 
 
 And mixing his large limbs with hers, he feeds 
 Her births withkindlyjuice; andfollers teeming feeds. 
 
 Dryden, Georg. 2. f. 443. 
 Vere tument terrre ; & genitalia femina pofeunt. 
 Turn Pater omnipotens facundis imbribus a:ther 
 Conjugis in gremium herre defeendit; & omnes 
 Magnus alit, magno commixtus corpore fcctus. 
 
 Virgil. Ibid. S. 327. 
 
 This is fpoken, by Virgil, (more in the proper 
 fenfc, than the metaphorical,) of the middle, and 
 lower air : and is one itrong inllance, out of many, 
 of his following the Ilyle of the old Roman poets of 
 the firll age, very clofely. It is common with them 
 
 (32) She laid ; and failing on the winged wind, Sec. 
 
 Dryden, Ain. 12. >'•. 243. 
 
 -Sic exhortata, reliquit 
 
 Incertam. - 
 
 Virgil, lb. 160. 
 
 (33) Apollo then beflrode a goT’en cloud -s 
 
 To view the feats of arms and fighting croud ; C 
 And thus the beardlcfs viftor he befpokc cloud- J 
 
 Dryden, Ib. 9. >'. S75. 
 Aithcr.u turn forte plaga crinitus Apollo 
 Dcfupcr Aufcnias acies urbemque videbat, 
 
 Nube fed en; ; atque his viftorein affatur liilum. 
 
 Virgil. Ib. S. 640. 
 
 (34) Or if helhootsl ims. 
 
 Frugal of light, in loofe ar.d ftragling Arcaras;— 
 Or il Aurora, with half-open’d eyes, 
 
 And a pale fitkly cheek, falute the Ikies. 
 
 Divden, Georg. 1. 596. 
 
 A ut ubi fub lucem denfa inter nubila fefe 
 Diverli rumpent radii ; .aut ubi pallida furget 
 Tithoni croceum linquens Aurora cubile. 
 
 Virgil, lb. > . 447. 
 
Dialogue the Twentieth. 
 
 315 
 
 ilovenly delcription of Aurora, and that ( 3S ) ftrange one of Taurus. This led him to 
 ufe Bacchus with lb much familiarity, as he does in the following couplet: 
 
 Come (trip with me, my God ! Come, drench all o’er 
 Thy limbs in mull: of wine, and drink at every pore (3 C ). 
 
 And to infert thofe little particularities, in his defcription of Typhceus’s furprize } 
 
 Then trembles Prochyta ; then Ifchia roars. 
 
 Typhceus, thrown beneath by Jove’s command, 
 
 Altonilli’d at the flaw that Ihakes the land, 
 
 “ Soon Ihifts his weary fide : and, fcarce awake, 
 
 With wonder feels the weight prefs lighter on his back ( 37 ).” 
 
 And this; in Juturna’s flight: 
 
 She drew a length of fighs; nor more Ihe faid ; 
 
 But in her azure mantle wrapt her head : 
 
 Then plung’d into her ftream, with deep defpair ; 
 
 “ And her laft fobs came bubling up in air (38) /’ 
 
 It is to this hurry and impetuofity of Mr. Dryden in performing the work before Us, 
 that I Ihould be apt too to attribute his taking fometimes one perfon for another ; and 
 fometimes, one thing for another. Thus Tellus is mentioned in the tranflation (39), 
 inftead of Vefta in the original 3 Ate ( 4 °), in Head of Tiliphone; Scorpius (41), inflead 
 
 of 
 
 (35) When with his golden horns, in full career, j 
 
 The Bull beats down the barriers of the year ; > 
 
 And Argos, and the Dog, forfake the northern fphere. ' 
 Dryden, Georg, i. i r . 308. 
 Candidus auratis aperit cum cornibus annum 
 Taurus, & averfo fedens Canis occidit allro. 
 
 Virgil. Ib. if. 218. 
 
 (36) Dryden, Georg. 2. i. 12. 
 
 Hue, pater O Lense ! (tuis hie omnia plena 
 Muneribus ;)- 
 
 Huc, pater O Lenate, veni! Nudataque muilo 
 Tinge novo mecum dereptis crura cothurnis. 
 
 Virgil. Ib. i. S. 
 
 (37) Dryden, JEn. 9. i. 972. 
 
 Tum fonitu Prochyta alta tremit; durumque cubile 
 Inarime, Jovis imperiis impolla Typhceo. 
 
 Virgil. Ib. if. 716. 
 
 (38) Dryden, TEn. 12. ir. 1283, 
 
 Tantum effata, caput glauco contexit amidlu. 
 Multa gemens; & fe fluvio Dea condidit alto. 
 
 Virgil. Ib. i. 886. 
 
 (39) Dii Patrii Indigites! & Romule ! Veftaque mater. 
 Qua; Tufcum Tiberim & Romana palatia fervas! 
 
 Virgil. Georg. 1. i'. 499. 
 Ye home-born deities, of mortal birth ! 
 
 Thou father Romulus ! and mother Earth, 
 
 Goddefs unmov’d !- 
 
 Dryden, Ib. if. 670. 
 It is very true, that Vella was fometimes taken for 
 Tellus in the old Mythology ; but that was not un¬ 
 der the charafter, in which Ihe is here reprefented. 
 She is here reprefented as one of the deities who pre- 
 fided over the welfare and fafety of the Roman ftate : 
 as the goddefs, to whom they kept up the perpetual 
 lire; and in whofe temple they depofited the Palla¬ 
 
 dium, or the pledge of their Empire over all the 
 world. In this cafe, if the name of Vella muft be 
 taken away, and any new one fubftituted in its room • 
 Mr. Dryden had much better have called her Fire, than 
 Earth. 
 
 I mull: juft add, that there is another miftakc of 
 perfon's, in this very paflage ; and, indeed, a very 
 grofs one. Virgil, by the Dii patrii here means the 
 great Triad of deities, firft received all over the eaft ; 
 and afterwards, fucccflively, in Greece and Italy. 
 Thefe the antient writers in general, (from Herodotus 
 quite down to Macrobius,) ufually call by the title of 
 053 / UcLTfuot, or Dii Patrii. There is an endlefs va¬ 
 riety of opinions, who thefe three deities were, who 
 were fo much revered in the eaft; and particularly in 
 the illand of Samothrace ; but among the Romans, it 
 is evident enough that the three deities received as 
 the three fupreme, were Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva ; 
 and therefore Virgil adds the word, Indigites, to fix 
 it to the Ozoi netTfaa, or the three great fupreme 
 Gods, received as fuch in his own country. ImJ: i- 
 tes here, is much the fame as Noftri, in Juvenal ; 
 where he is fpeaking of thefe very deities. (Sat. 3. 
 y. 145.) 'I hey are therefore no id's perfonages than 
 Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, (the three fupreme, 
 among all the gods of the Romans,) whom Dryden 
 here reprefents Virgil as calling, “Home-born dei¬ 
 ties; of mortal birth.” 
 
 (40) Pallida Tiflphone media inter millia farvit. 
 
 Virgil. Mn. 10. >'■. 761. 
 Amidft the croud infernal Ate Ihakes 
 Her fcourge aloft, and crefl of hilling fnakes. 
 
 Dryden, Ib. >'•. 1080. 
 
 (41) Taygete limul 03 terris oflendit hone(lum 
 Pleias, & oceani fpretos pede rcppulic amnes; 
 
 Auc 
 
 M m m m 
 
poly meti s. 
 
 ; i 6 
 
 of Pi fcis; Nereids (42), inftead of Naiads; and Nymphs of the water (43), inftead of 
 Nymphs of the air. Thus, where the original fpeaks of a mountain (44), the tranflation 
 turns it into a river-god : where the former mentions the three bodies of Geryon (45), 
 the latter makes it three lives : and where Virgil fpeaks, at mod:, but of eighteen water- 
 nymphs ; Dryden has increafed them ( 4 6 ), in his account, to the number of fifty. 
 
 But the great fundamental fault of Mr. Dryden, in this view, is yet behind. What 
 I mean is his being unacquainted with the real intent and dcfign of the allegories, ufed 
 by the antients; and indeed with their fcheme of machinery, in general. The greatefl 
 of the antient poets feem to have held, that every thing in the moral, as well as the natural 
 world, was carried on by the influence and direction of the fupreme being (47). It was 
 Jupiter that actuated every thing; and in fome fenfe might be faid to do every thing, 
 that was done. This univerfal principle of adtion they conlidcred, for their own eafe, 
 as divided into fo many feveral perfonages, as they had occafion for caufes. Hence, (as 
 I have faid (48) before,) every part of the creation was fdled by them with deities : and 
 no adtion was performed, without the afliftance of fome god, or another; for every 
 power fuperior to man, they called by that name. This way of thinking, (or, at leafl, 
 this way of talking,) was received by many of their philofophers, as well as poets: tho’ 
 it was particularly ferviceable to the latter; and therefore appears fo frequently in their 
 works. Petronius Arbiter tells us (49), that a good epic poet fhould always lay hold of 
 this advantage; and fhould carry on his whole adtion, by the help of what we call 
 machinery: and where Horace fpeaks againfl: gods being introduced too freely, (in a 
 paflage that is fo often quoted, and fometimes not quite to the purpofe;) he fpeaks only 
 
 againfl 
 
 l 
 
 Aut eadem, fidus fugiens ubi Pifcis aquofi, 
 
 Triflior hybernas ccclo defeendit in undas. 
 
 Virgil. Georg. 4. S'. 2 
 Firft, when the pleafing Pleiades appear ; 
 
 And fpringing upwards fpurn the briny Teas: 
 Again, when their affrighted Quire furveys 
 The watry Scorpion mend his pace behind. 
 
 With a black train of llorms and winter wind, > 
 They plunge into the deep; andfafeprotedtionfind. 3 
 (4 ?.) Betwixt two rows of rocks, a fylvan feene 
 Appears above; and groves for ever green : 
 
 A grott is form’d beneath with molly feats, 
 
 To rell the Nereids, and exclude the heats. 
 
 Dryden, JEn. 1. S'. 236. 
 Fronte fub adverfa fcopulis pendentibus antrum : 
 intus aqua: dulces, vivoque fedilia faxo ; 
 Nympharum domus. ■ 
 
 Yirgil. Ib. S'. 172. 
 {4 0 Twice fev’n, the charming daughters of the main, 
 Around my perfon wait, and bear my train: 
 Succeed my wilh, and fecond my defign; 
 
 The faired, De'iopeia, fhall be thine : C 
 
 And make thee father of a happy line. J 
 
 Dryden, JEn. 1. S'. 111. 
 Sunt mihi bis feptem pneflanti corpore nympha: ; 
 Quarum, qua: forma pulcherrima, Deiopeiam 
 Connubio jungam flabili propriamque dicabo. 
 
 Virgil. Ib. ^.77. (Spoke, by Juno; to .«Eoius.) 
 
 (44) Addam urbes Afia: domitas ; pulfumque Niphaten. 
 
 Virg. Georg. 3. ^.30. 
 
 - Niphates with inverted urn, 
 
 And dropping (edge, fhall his Armenia mourn ; C 
 And Afian cities in our triumph born. 3 
 
 Dryden, Ib. S'- 47. 
 
 (43) Tergemini rece Geryonis fpoliifque fuperbus, 
 Alcides aderat. - 
 
 Virgil. yEn. 8. yr. 203. 
 
 Th’ avenging force of Hercules from Spain -% 
 Arriv’d in triumph ; from Geryon flain : C 
 
 Thrice liv’d the Giant; and thrice liv’d in vain. 3 
 Dryden,lb. S'. 268. 
 
 (46) There arc but 18 nymphs mentioned by Vir¬ 
 gil, in his account of Cyrene’s grotto; including Cly¬ 
 mene and Cyrene herfelf: (fee Georg. 4. >!•. 333, to 
 350.) Of which paflage Mr. Dryden fays ; “The 
 poet here records the names of fifty river-nymphs : 
 and, for once, I have tranllated them all.” Note, 
 to his Tranflation ; Georg. 4. S'- 477. 
 
 (47) Virgil, in his propofition to the .TEneid, fays 
 that every thing that happened to his hero was, Vi 
 fuperum ; and Homer, in his propofition to the Iliad, 
 fays that the quarrel between Achilles and Agamem¬ 
 non, (and all the mifehievous conlequences of it,) 
 was only a fulfilling of the will of Jove : A101 J'' t]i- 
 Kei(]o CtsAtl. 
 
 When Cicero fays, “ that reafon obliges us to 
 own that every thing is done by Fate ; (Fieri om¬ 
 nia a Fato, ratio cogit fateri, De Div. r. 55.) he 
 means juft the fame by that word, that Homer does 
 by his Aio< (TbAii, and Virgil by his Vis fuperum ; 
 Fatum, being nothing elfe but the word of Jupiter, 
 or, (as they otherwife term it,) of the gods. Fatum 
 dicunt efl'e, quod Dii fantur, vel quod Jupiter fatur. 
 
 I fid. Orig. Lib. 8. Cap. 2.-See Dial. X. p. 151. 
 
 anteh. 
 
 This it feems was obje&cd to Mr. Dryden as a 
 fault in his own time; and he endeavours to anlwer 
 the objection, in his note on the place : where he 
 pleads, for his making Niphates a river; from a con¬ 
 nexion, which is not in Virgil. 
 
 4 
 
 (48) Dial. I. p. 2. 
 
 (49) Per ambages, deorumque minifteria, & fabu- 
 lofum fententiarum tormentum, praecipitandus eft 
 liber fpiritus. Petr. Arb. §. 78. 
 
Dialogue the ’Twentieth. 
 
 Si? 
 
 again# the introducing them too freely, on the flage ($'-): for in epic poems, the very beft 
 of the antient poets, and the greateft patterns for writing that ever were, introduce them 
 perpetually, and withemt referve. Homer, who was fo highly admired fcv Horace, 
 fcarce does any thing without them : and Virgil, who was both admired and loved fo 
 much by him; and whofe Aineid was even publifhed, ten years before Horace died;) 
 follows Homer more clofely in this, than in any other point I know of. But the ex¬ 
 ample of Virgil is, I think, fufficient for me at prefent; who has employed machinery 
 fo much and fo freely in his fEneid, that almoft the whole couric of the flory is carried 
 on by the intervention of gods. I fliould be too tedious to you, fhould I endeavour to 
 trace this from the beginning to the end of that poem : but, if you pleafe, we will juft 
 run over the firft book of it, in this light. There you will fee, that if ./Eneas meets 
 with a ftorm, juft after his firft fetting out (5 1 ); it is fEolus that raifes it, at the requeft 
 
 of Juno, and by the operation of the leveral Genius’s that prelide over the winds :- 
 
 if the fea grows calm again, it is by the appearance of the deity (52), who prefides over 
 
 that element; who countermands thole winds, and fends them back to their caves._ 
 
 If AEneas lands on the coaft of Afric, and is to be received kindly, at Carthage (53); it is 
 Mercury that is fent by Jupiter, to foften the minds of the Carthaginians and their 
 
 queen, toward him :-and if he efcapes all the attacks and dangers in palling thro’ an 
 
 unknown country, and an inhofpitable people, till he comes to their capital; it is 
 Venus ( 54 )> who fhrouds him in a cloud, and protects him from all danger. In fine, if 
 the queen falls in love with him when he is arrived there ; tho’ fhe be reprefented as not 
 old, and he as very handfome : yet muft Cupid (55) do no lefs, than undergo a transfor¬ 
 mation ; to lie on her breaft, and infinuate that foft paflion there. This fort of manage¬ 
 ment, which is ufed fo much by Virgil in the entrance of his poem, runs thorough it 
 quite to the end : and appears as fully in ./Eneas’s combat with Turnus, in the laft book ; 
 as it did, in his arrival at Carthage, in the firft. Every ftep, and progreflion in theftory, 
 is full of machinery : or, (according to Petronius’s general rule,) is carried on by the 
 interpolation and adminiftration of the gods. 
 
 Our modern poets, in general, feem not to have had any right ideas of the antient 
 fcheme of machinery, till long after the reltoration of poetry ; not till about the middle 
 of the laft century; and even now, very imperfedt ones. As they had not the fame 
 general plan, nor the fame dodh'ines to go upon, they ran into feveral errors, in relation 
 to it; both in their own pradtice, and in their notions of the antients : and feveral of 
 thefe continue, in a great degree, to this day. The chief of thefe miftakes were : firft, 
 that machinery was generally ufed of old only to make a poem look more ftrange and 
 furprizing; and fecondly, that the poets were too apt to introduce machines, (or fuper- 
 natural caufes,) where they could not account for events, fo naturally as they fliould: 
 whereas in reality, in the works of the antients, nature and machinery generally go hand 
 in hand; and ferve, chiefly, to manifeft one another. Thus, for inftance, in the ftorm, 
 in the very beginning of the /Eneid : thefe imaginary beings are introduced in every part 
 of it; but it is only fuch beings, as are proper for the part in which they are introduced ; 
 and they appear there only to carry on the true order of the natural effedts. The god- 
 defs of the upper air defires the god of the winds, to let loofe thofe turbulent fubjedls of 
 his : they are let loofe : the 1 'ea is immediately all in a tumult; and the god of the fea 
 appears, to make it all calm again. There leems to me, not to be any more difference 
 in this, and the natural account of the thing; than if you fliould fay, that all the parts 
 
 of 
 
 (50) Ncc pueros coram populo Medea trucidet : 
 
 Aut humana palam coquat exta nefarius Atreus: 
 Aucinavcm Progne vertatur; Cadmus in anguem.— 
 Nec deus interfit, nifi dignus vindice nodus 
 
 Inciderit.-- 
 
 Horat. de Art. Poet. jt. 1S5, to 192. 
 
 (51) See JEn. 1. f. 38, to 90. 
 
 (52) See lb. 128, to 160. 
 
 ( 53 ) See Ib. i. it. 227, to 308. 
 
 (54) See lb. 318, to 422. (and the effofl of it, 
 to 590.) 
 
 ( 55 ) See lb. 661, to 727. 
 
POLY M E T I S. 
 
 c: m.-.utr tend tov. '.nL each other5 and I fhould fay, that fome fpi ritual power always 
 iinpeis them toward; e.uh other. The effects are juil the fame : only in one cafe we 
 looh upon diem, ;n; acting; and in the other, as adted upon. 
 
 I could run out much farther on this fubjeft; but what I have faid, I think, may 
 be hidieicnt. To ret;; u therefore to Mr. Dryden. That great man feems to have 
 fallen too much into the vulgar notions of machinery. It is this which makes him 
 ipeak of it, in lb flighting and contemptuous a manner, in general: as where he fays (56); 
 <{ The matter of Arifhvus’s recovering his bees, might have been difpatched in lefs 
 “ compafs; without fetching the caufes fo far, or interefting fo many gods and goddeifes 
 “ in that affair:” and in another place (57) : “ Of Venus and Juno, Jupiter and Mer- 
 “ cury, I fiy nothing: for they were all machining work.” Thus, where he is fpeak- 
 ingof the three greateft epic poets that have ever been, he excludes Milton, and admits 
 Taflo in his place; chiefly, bccaufe the former deals fo much in machinery ; for cut of 
 the three reafons ( 5 8 ) which he gives for the exclufion of Milton, two of them feem to 
 be founded on that bottom. Indeed by thefe, and many other of his expreflions, Mr. 
 Dryden feems to have given into both the particular miiiakes I have mentioned to you, 
 in the mold vulgar notions of machinery: and to have imagined that Virgil generally 
 introduces thefe imaginary beings ufelefly, or only for ornament; and fometimes bung¬ 
 lin'Jy, or only to excufe what is not otherwife well accounted for. Thus, in lpeaking 
 of the Dine in the laft /Eneid, he lays ; “ This machine is one of thofe, which the poet 
 “ ufes ( 59 ) only for ornament: and of the fame, and Jupiter’s weighing the fates of /Eneas 
 and Turnus; “ Thefe two machines,—were (6c) only ornamental; and the fuccefs of 
 “ the duel had been the fame without them :” and in another place, in general; “ Our 
 “ author feldom employs machines (61), but to adorn his poem.” Thus, on Neptune’s 
 calming the fea in the firft /Eneid ; and his conducting Eneas’s fleet fafe to the coaft of 
 Italv, in the fifth; he fays : “ I name thefe two examples, among a hundred which I omit, 
 “ to prove that Virgil, generally fpeaking, employed his machines in performing thofe 
 “ tilings; which might poflibly have been done without them. What more frequent, 
 “ than a ftorm at fea upon the riling of Orion ? What wonder, if among fo many Ihips, 
 “ there lliould one be overfet which was commanded by Orontes ; tho’ half the 
 “ Winds had not been there, which /Eoius employed ? Might not Palinurus, without 
 “ a miracle, fall alleep and drop into the fea, having been over-wearied with watching ? 
 
 i( -But machines fometimes are (62) fpecious things, to amufie the reader; and to 
 
 “ give a colour of probability to things, otherwife incredible.” And thus, on Mercury's 
 being fent to haften /Eneas from Carthage, he makes the following exclamation. “ Oh 
 * c how convenient is a machine fometimes in an heroic poem ! This of Mercury is 
 “ plainly one : and Virgil was conftrained to ufe it here, or the honefty of his hero would 
 •“ be ill-defended (63). 
 
 I must own to you, that this very machine laft mentioned, (the introducing Mercury, 
 to oblige /Eneas to purfue his voyage to Italy) which Mr. Dryden fpeaks of as fucli a 
 forced one; feems to me to be particularly eafy, and obvious; and very well adapted. 
 
 What 
 
 (56) Life of Virgil, p. 46. I2 m °. 
 
 (57) Dedication to the/Eneid, p. 381. 12™. 
 
 (58) Milton, he fays, might have had a fairer plea 
 to be reckoned among the iirft epic poet: ; “ If the 
 
 devil had not been his hero, inftead of Adam ;- 
 
 if the giant had not foiled the knight;-and if 
 
 there had not been more machining perfons, than hu¬ 
 man, in his poem.” Dcd. to the /Eneid, p. 352. 
 
 ( 59 ) Ibid - P- 4 ° 7 * 
 
 (60) Ibid. p. 408. 
 
 (61) Note on Georg. 4. j>, 660. 
 
 (62) Ded. to the /Eneid, p. 404. I2 m °. 
 
 The word, fpecious, is generally ufed in a bad 
 fenfe, in Englilh. Horace ufes the word fpeciofus, in 
 a very different fenfe ; in fpeaking of this very fub- 
 je£l: 
 
 Non fumum ex fulgore, fed ex fumo dare lucem 
 
 Cogitat ; ut fpeciofa dehinc miracula promat : 
 
 Antiphaten, Scyllamque,&: cum Cyclope Chary bdim. 
 
 De Art. Poet. f. 145. (of Homer.) 
 
 (63) Ded. to the /Eneid, p. 380. 
 
 6 
 
Dialogue the Twentieth. 
 
 What the vulgar behoved to be brought about, by the will of their gods; the poets de- 
 fci.bed, as earned on by a vifible mterpofition of thole god*: and this to me feems to be 
 the whole myftery of the machinery of the antients—When the gods are thus introduced 
 m a poem, to help on any faft with which they are particularly fuppofed to be con¬ 
 cerned I call that machinery, eafy and obvious : and when the god thus introduced is 
 '? at couldbe e '’'ployud on that particular occafion, I call it well adapted. 
 This I take to be the cafe, m Virgil’s introducing Mercury; on the occafion above men- 
 tioned. It was a fuppofed faft among the Romans, that fEneas came to Italy in confe 
 quence of the will of heaven, and the exprefs order of the gods ; declared in oracles, and 
 prophecies. What they thus fuppofed, Virgil realizes. The Fates, or will of heaven 
 in Virgil, is Jupiter giving his orders: and the declaration of it to fEneas, is expreffed by 
 Mercury, (the ufual meffengerof the will of heaven,) coming down to him; and giving 
 him the orders he had from Jupiter. This machinery then is both obvious, and well 
 adapted: and, we may add, that it could fcarce be better timed, than when .Eneas was 
 at the greateft Hop he met with in his whole voyage for Italy ; and when be was moll in 
 danger of quitting his defign. This feems to me to be as obvious, and well adapted • as 
 that known piece of machinery in the Roman poets, relating to the deification of Romu¬ 
 lus. The vulgar among the Romans believed, that Romulus was the fon of Mars • and 
 that, when his time was come, he was received among the gods; on account of his birth, 
 and for his great atchievements in war. The poets therefore, in mentioning this, fay 
 that Mars defeended from heaven in his war-chariot; and carried up Romulus’with’hiin 
 in it ( +), to the abode of Jupiter. Thus they both fay the very fame thing ; only the 
 poetical way of expreffing it, is more perfonal and deferiptive than the profe one. This 
 I Ihould imagine to be generally the cafe, in die machinery of the antients : and as I was 
 faying juft now, that they commonly fuppofed that man could do nothing of himfelf- 
 but was adluated in every thing by the direbtion of heaven, or the will of Jupiter - 
 their poets had as full fcope for this, as they could wifli: for on that fingle principle 
 they might, I think, very fairly introduce fome proper deity, as affifting in any adtion - 
 wherever they thought it would ferve either to ftrengthen, or beautify the narration. I 
 (hall juft add one thing, which I have flightly hinted at before: that if any modern poet 
 was to form a new fcheme for machinery, confifting of good and bad angels ; or of any 
 imaginary beings, by whatever names he might plcafe to call them: our poets would 
 have as full fcope for introducing them, whenever they pleafed, on the doftrine of par¬ 
 ticular providence, in the moral world ; or on that thought in the Newtonian philofo- 
 phy, which fuppofes all motion may polfibly be occafioncd by the immediate impulfe 
 of fome fpiritual being, in the natural; as the antient poets had from the dodtrine of Fate, 
 or the will of Jupiter, interfering in all thino-s. 
 
 319 
 
 If fome great genius, in any future age, fliould introduce and eftablilh fuch a fcheme 
 as I am fpeaking of; I fliould imagine that his readieft and bell way, would be to adapt 
 the character, and reprefentations already received from the antients, in all cafes where 
 they might be eafily and naturally transferred into bis fcheme. Thus the goddefs of 
 Peace, for inftance, might as well be called the melfenger of peace ; and the Apollo 
 inflifting plagues, might be turned into a deftroying angel. In the dodtrine of angels, 
 as it already Hands, he would find a full l'upplyfor the adminiftration of any happinefs,’ 
 or mifery, that can befal mankind : and if the imaginations of the fchoolmen are not too 
 whimfical to be made ule of, even by the poets, in this cafe ; he might there find all 
 their hierarchies, degrees, and offices, already fettled. The very name of angel in our 
 lenfe of the word, is much the lame with that of a god in the language of the heathens; 
 and our idea of devils, falls in very much with their notion of a fury. So that much 
 might be done by only Ihifting the names, and retaining the old characters and repre- 
 fentations. 
 
 (64) Horat. Lib. 3, Oil. 3. 
 
3 20 
 
 POLYMETIS. 
 
 The reafon why I (hould think it would be the bed way, for any one who was to form 
 a new plan of machinery, to transfer the characters and appearances of their imaginary 
 perfons from the antients; muff, I believe be very obvious to yoil. He would by thefe 
 means be fupplied with a great number of them, ready made to his hands: generally, 
 well known 5 and, for the mod part, formed at fird with much fimplicity, and great ex- 
 prelTivenefs. He would have nothing to do, .but to invent new ones of a like damp, 
 wherever there was a neceflity of invention j and to difcard the old ones, wherever they 
 might be incompatible with his fcheme, or at lead, improper for it. A man of genius 
 might by thefe means, I think, compofe a new fcheme with much more eafe, than may¬ 
 be generally imagined. But in his application of it, he lliould be particularly careful to 
 be uniform ; nor ever mix any one name of the gods of the heathens, with the names 
 of the minifters of bleflings and vengeance ufed in our facred writings: a fault, which 
 our great Milton himfelf is not always free from. 
 
 Thus, if any one was to form a new fcheme for allegories in poetry, my collection 
 here might dill be very ufeful to him : and if any fuch inventor (hould arife in our days, 
 it (hould be very much at his fervice. However till fuch a thing does happen, I think 
 our poets diould follow the old fcheme, as uniformly ; as they (hould a new one, when 
 once received. 
 
 I have for fome time been talking to you on allegories only; as my fubjedt led me 
 particularly to confiderations of that kind : but the idea of illudrating the works of the 
 claffics, from the figures of the antient artids, might be extended to feveral other things. 
 Some of thefe I diall jud point out to you: and you may hear me with the more patience, 
 becaufe this will clofe all I have to fay on this head. Indeed, you have made me launch 
 out into a great deal of talk, for thefe ten days: but heaven be praifed, we at length be¬ 
 gin to come in fight of the fhore ! 
 
 
Dialogue the 'Twenty-Firji. 
 
 DIAL. XXL 
 
 Some Hints, to fhew how this fort of Enquiry, might be 
 carried on and compleated. 
 
 W HLN I lirll began to make my collefifion, (continued Polymetis,) I did not 
 think of confining it to the figures of the imaginary beings of the antients ; 
 but to take in feveral other things, which I thought might poffibly be of ufe 
 toward making the dallies more intelligible: but after going fome way in it, I found 
 the dclign fo extenfive, and fo copious : that it feemed to me too much for any one man, 
 (a: lcaft, for fuch an one as I am,) to compleat it in its full extent. I therefore cllofe to 
 confine myfelf to one part only ; that of the figures of the heathen deities : but a part 
 which, to fay the truth, goes perhaps as far ; as all the reft would, if put together. I 
 ftiall mention to you fome of the principal points, which I at firft thought of; but 
 afterwards left untouched, and ready for any one who may ever think of making a fie- 
 cond collection. 
 
 IIad I gone on with my firft defign, and made a Mufaium for antiques relating to 
 other fubjedts, as well as the heathen deities; what I fiiould have placed in the yery firft 
 partition of it, would have been fuch as are very much connefted with them : fuch, I 
 mean, as relate to the amours of thofe deities with mortals. Thefe are very common 
 Subjects, both with the artifts and poets; and we generally find a very great agreement 
 in their works, relating to them. Thus Jupiter’s defeent to Semele, in all his glory, is 
 deferibed (r) by Ovid with the fame circumftances, that you fee it in gems (a); on which 
 Jupiter appears furrounded with lightnings and fire, on that occafion. Danaf is expreffed 
 in ( 3 ) gems, juft as (he is deferibed (4) by the fame poet. You have the whole ftory of 
 Europa, told at large in a piece of Mofaic (5), at the Barbarini palace in Rome ; and the 
 figures of Jupiter carrying her acrofs the fea, under the fhape of a bull, are very com¬ 
 mon on gems: you fee her, I believe, in one or other of them, in each of the attitudes 
 which Ovid ( 6 ) gives her on that occafion, in fo many different parts of his works. Leda, 
 and her fwan, is yet more common on antiques; and appears on them often, as file is 
 deferibed (7) by the fame. The ftory of Ganymede’s being carried from mount Ida by 
 the eagle, is a common fubjeft in gems, ftatues, and relievo’s. The poets fometimes 
 fuppofe this eagle to be Jupiter ( 8 ) himfelf; and fometimes to be only that bird (9), fent 
 to perform the orders of Jupiter. The artifts too feem to have followed fometimes one, 
 and fometimes the other of thefe opinions: for the relievo in the antichamber to the Flo- 
 rentine-gallery, and the figure relating to this fubjeft at St. Mark’s library in Venice, ex- 
 prefs the pafiion of love in the eagle himfelf; whereas many other representations of the 
 fame ftory, fhew nothing but his care and fidelity. The artifts too have not forgot Gany¬ 
 
 mede’s 
 
 ( 1 ) Ovid. Met. Lib. 3. f. 293, to 309. 
 
 (2) Baron Stofche’s collection of drawings; at 
 
 109. 
 
 (8) Rex luperum Phrygii quondam Ganymedis amore 
 Arfit; & inventum ell aliquid quod Jupiter efle. 
 Quam quod erat mallet; nulla tamen alite verti 
 Dignatur, nifi qua: poflet fua fulmina ferre : 
 
 Nec mora, percuflo mendacibus aera pennis. 
 Abripit Iliaden.- 
 
 (7) See Ovid. Her. Ep. 17. f. 56.-Met. lib. 6. 
 
 (3) Muf. Flor. Vol. I. Pl. 66, 4. 
 
 (4) Ovid. Am. Lib. 3. El. 8. jE 34. 
 
 (5) See Turnbull's Paintings of the Antients, l’i. 8. 
 
 (6) See Met. Lib. 2. jE 873, to 875.-Id. lib. 6. 
 
 105, to 107.-Fad. lib, 5. jE 605, to 614. 
 
 Permiiit, expertus fidelem 
 Jupiter in Ganymede flavo. 
 
 Herat. Lib. 4. Od. 4. >E 4. 
 
POLYMETIS. 
 
 mede’s preferment afterwardsj nor the refentment with which Juno ufed to regard him, 
 in his high poft: a fubjedt fo familiarly known from the relievos of old • that it mav 
 pofiibly on that account be only juft hinted at by (i°) Ovid, where he has an occaficn of 
 fpeaking of it. Thefe are fome of the moll remarkable, among the numerous amours of 
 Jupiter j the chief of the gods in debauchery, as well as in power. Several other of the 
 heathen deities, tho’ not fo guilty as Jupiter, yet are not free from the fame reproach. 
 Neptune’s rape of Casnis, (or fome other lady,) is repreiented on a relievo (”), in 
 the Admiranda ; and Apollo’s purfuit of Daphne, and her transformation into a laurel- 
 tree, appears ( Iz ) on an old gem : tho’, to fay the truth, I have never met with this ftory 
 fo well exprefled in any work of the antient artifts ; as it is in Bernini’s ftatue of them, 
 in the Villa Borghefe. The amour of Bacchus and Ariadne is not uncommon, on gems: 
 and the famous amour of Venus and Adonis is as common on them, as that of Diana 
 and Endymion is on Sarcophagus’s. But I mud juft obferveto you, that the artifts and 
 poets have kept up a great deal of decorum, in their different manner of telling thefe two 
 ftories: for Venus, whofe character is abandoned, is reprefented by them on this occafion, 
 as giving a loofe to her paffion ; whereas the chafte Diana has ( 1 3 ) a veil over her head, 
 and feems wholly engaged in contemplating the beauty of Endymion, while he is afleep: 
 befide that, in this latter cafe, there are fome other figures ufually inferted by the artifts j 
 which feem to infer plainly enough that it was rather meant to fhadow out fome phi- 
 lofophical myftery, than to exprefs any real amour. 
 
 These which I have mentioned, and feveral others which I might have mentioned, 
 would have fupplied me with fufficient furniture for the firft partition in my long room, 
 or gallery; had I carried on my defign fo far, as I was once inclined to do. In the 
 fecond partition, I would have ranged the copies of fuch antiques, as relate to the he¬ 
 roes (14) 5 or the offspring of the gods, from their amours with mortals. There you 
 might have feen, Zethus and Amphion, (the twin-fons of Jupiter, by Antiope,) revenging 
 the caufe of their mother on the unhappy Dirce : in the fame manner as that ftory is 
 expreffed in the famous group of figures, at the Farnefe palace in Rome ; and as it is 
 
 told (15) by Propertius. From whom, by the way, one learns an additional propriety 
 obferved by the artift, in laying Amphion’s lyre by him : which the author of one of 
 
 the old Latin tragedies had in his eye too; tho’ he has adted lefs properly, in placing it (16) 
 in his hand. Had he held it there, whilft he ought to have been wholly engaged in 
 other matters, Zethus would have had fufficient reafon to be angry with him for being 
 too fond of his fiddle, and to have got him to quit it; as, it is faid (17), he did afterwards 
 on a lefs important occafion. There you might have feen Perfeus, the fon of Jupiter by 
 Danae, with the true air of a hero, (that is, fomething between a deity and a man,) 
 giving his hand to the modeft Andromeda; to lead her from the rock, where fhe juft 
 before expedited a moft cruel death. You muft remember the incomparable re¬ 
 lievo that reprefents this ftory, formerly in Cardinal Albani’s noble collection at 
 Rome ■, fince purchafed by the Pope, and now placed in the Capitoline gal¬ 
 
 lery : 
 
 ( IO ) --Nuncquoque poculamifcet; 
 
 Jnvitaque Jovi nedtor Junone miniflrat. 
 
 Ovid. Met. Lib. jc. j>. 161 • 
 
 {15) Tu reddis pueris matrem ; puerique trakendam 
 
 Vinxerunt Dircen fub trucis ora bovis : 
 
 Antiope, cognofce Jovem ! Tibi gloria Dirce 
 Ducitur, in multis mortem habitura locis. 
 
 (n) pi. 29. 
 
 Prata cruentantur Zeti; vidtorque canebat 
 Parana Amphion rupe, Aracynthe, tua. 
 
 Propertius, Lib. 3. EI. 15. $. 42 . 
 
 (12) Maffei’s Gems, Vol. II. Pl. 44. 
 
 (16) Dextra ferocem cornibus taurum premens 
 Zetus; manuque fullinet larva chclym. 
 Qui faxa dulci traxit Amphion fono. 
 
 (13) See Dial. XII. p. 199. anteh. 
 
 CEdipus, Adi. 3-Sc. 1. >\ 612. 
 
 (14) Varia hujus vocabuli adferuntur etyma; mihi, 
 quod Platoni placuit, maxime placet: ut fit ab Ep 
 amor ; propterea quod, ex amore deorum erga farmi. 
 nas mortales, vel dearum erga mares mortales, geniti 
 fint. Ainfworth. inVocab. Heroes. Thef. Pars ult. 
 
 (17) Nec, cum venari volet ille, poemata panges. 
 Gratia fic fratrum geminorum Amphionis atque 
 Zethi difliluit: donec fufpedta fevero 
 
 Conticuit lyra. 
 
 Hor. Lib. t. Ep. 18. y- 43. 
 
Dialogue the Twenty-FirJl. 
 
 Pal fT T attcntion ’ arnidft the many beauties that adorn 
 
 Which is very co^mofwth fhfattr.WI ^ T*™’ rT ^ * ““P 1 ™"' 
 he lays, lire was as beautiful (.8 a feme or a “‘T f *“ fUfCCft "° W ; 
 
 t ; ■—t,r^n;; 
 
 antiques, relating to the fame hero ; J'LTZT. Z ^JlZ 
 
 have any reference to the conqueft of the Indies by Bacchus, and Hercules confidered 
 asfuchgreatconquerorsr and as engaged in thofe actions, which they are faid to have 
 
 performed before the time of their fuppofed deification. 
 
 Mr third partition would have been fet apart for fuch things as do not belong to the 
 heroes, properly fo called ; but which are as evidently fabulous, as any thine- refating to 
 them One might have iupplied this part, with Arion on his Dolphin Thefeus king 
 the Minotaure; and Bellerophon engaging with the Chimaira, from gems: and indeed 
 ahnoft the whole ftory of the laft of thefe is to be met with in the fame ; except his faU 
 on the Aleian fields, which I have never yet feen in any antique. Helle's paffage over 
 the fea on a ram and Dtedalus’s flight thro' the air, are reprefented on gems foo I 
 could have had the (lory of Narciflus, from that pretty ftatue of him in the Florentine 
 gallery i and that of Adtason more at large, in five feveral compartiments, from a Sarco¬ 
 phagus m the Villa Borghefe The Judgment of Paris, between the three contending 
 goddeffes is.a very common fubjedl in gems, ftatues, piflures, and relievos; and the 
 defeentof Orpheus into hell might have been fully fupplied, from feme or other of 
 
 Tin 2u S T u eS f mamn s, are COmm0n t00 ' in all forts of antiques; 
 
 and I fhould have known where to have met with a Cyclops, or a Pvmv upon occafion 
 Every one of thefe fubjefts are deferibed by the poets, as well as exprelM by the arfifts ' 
 and generally, thofe which are molt common with the latter, are moll fpoken of bv the 
 former. r : 
 
 3 2 3 
 
 (i8) Quam fimul ad duras religatam brachia cautes 
 Vidit Abantiades; nifi quod levis aura capillos 
 Moverat, Sc trepido manabant lumina fletu. 
 
 Marmoreum ratus eflet opus.- 
 
 Ovid. Met. Lib.4. >674. 
 
 It is common with the antients, to Commend living 
 beauties, by comparing them to works of art. 
 
 - Contempla, Epidice; 
 
 Ufque ab unguiculo ad capillumfummum eil ftfliviflimn : 
 
 Ellnc, confidera. Vide, lignum piftum pulchre videris. 
 
 Plaut. in Epid. Aft. 5. Sc. 1. 
 Ut facete, atque ex piftura, aflitit. 
 
 Id. in Stichus, Aft. 1. Sc. 3. 
 
 -Cervix, humerique, manufque ; 
 
 Peftoraque, artificum laudatis proxima fignis. 
 
 Ovid. Met. Lib. 12. y. 398. 
 
 Lateri applicat meo mulierem, omnibus fimulacris 
 
 emendatiorem. Petron. Arb. p. 239. -Ofculum, 
 
 quale Praxiteles habere Venerem credidit: jam men¬ 
 tum ; jam cervix; jam manus; jam pedum candor 
 intra auri gracile vinculum politus, Parium marmor 
 extinxerat. Ibid. 
 
 Itfeems to have been from hence too, that the Ro¬ 
 man poets ufe fo many terms drawn from ftatues, to 
 exprefs the beauty of the human body itfelf j as thofe 
 of Cereus, Eburneus, and Marmoreus : 
 
 Cum tu, Lydia, Telephi 
 
 Cervicem rofeam ; Sc cerea Telephi 
 
 Laudas brachia. - 
 
 Horat. Lib. i.Od. 13. 3. 
 
 Uooi 
 
 1 ERHAPS 
 
 Illa quidem noflro fubjecit eburnea collo 
 Brachia, Sithonia candidiora nive. 
 
 Ovid. Amor. Lib. 3. EI. 7. y. 8. 
 
 Littora marmoreis pedibus lignate, puella;. 
 
 Id. Ib. Lib. 2. EI. 11. y. 1 
 
 And, polfibly thofe of; Candidus, Nitidus, and 
 Splendens: 
 
 Argonautas prater omnes candidum. 
 
 Hor. Epod. 3. y. 9. 
 
 -Liparsei nitor Hebri. 
 
 Id. Lib 3. Od. 12. y. 6. 
 
 Urit me Glycene nitor. 
 
 Splendentis Pario marmore purius. 
 
 Id. Lib. 1. Od. 19. y. 6 
 
 Which laft paflage, is thus imitated by the author 
 of one of the old Latin tragedies : 
 
 Htec folem facies rarius appetat, 
 
 Lucebit Pario marmore clarius. 
 
 Hippolitus, Aft. 2. Chor. 
 
 In both thefe paflages, we feem to be di reded im¬ 
 mediately to the idea taken from ftatues : fome of 
 which among the antients are faid to have been fo 
 bright, that they could fcarce bear to look upon them 
 long and fteadily. There was a Hecate, in particu¬ 
 lar, in the famous temple of Diana at Ephefus ; in 
 cujus contemplatione (fays Pliny) admonent aditui, 
 parcere oculis : tanta marmoris radiatio eft. Nat. 
 Hift. Lib. 36. Cap. 5. 
 
 (19) —-Manibufque modeflos 
 
 Cei’flet vultus, fi non religata fuiflet. 
 
 Ovid. Met. Lib. 4. y. 63 z. 
 
3*4 
 
 POLYMETIS. 
 
 Perhaps you will fay, that I Ihould rather have kept my Amazons for the next 
 partition; becaufe Juftin (2°), and fome other hiftorians, fpeakof them and their wars, 
 not as fables but as realities. I Ihall not pretend to enter nicely into that queftion : and 
 indeed the earlieft hiftory, in general, is fo intermixed with table, that it is often not eafy 
 to diftinguifh between downright fidlions, and pretended truths. Lucian, in his (21) ca¬ 
 talogue of old flories, mixes them both indifferently together; perhaps becaufe even he, 
 (who lived fo much nearer thofe times,) did not well know how to feparate them with 
 any degree of exactnefs. But to return to the partitions for my gallery. In the fourth, 
 I fhould have placed the antiques that relate to fuch things as feem to me to have been 
 delivered for fafts, in the antient hiftory ; and among thefe you might perhaps have 
 met with fome things as imaginary, as the Amazons and Pygmies. Here for inftance, 
 I fhould have introduced the ftory of Meleager and Atalanta, from the Sarcophagus in 
 the Borghefe palace ; and that of Hero and Leander, from gems : and all the antiques 
 that relate to the Theban and Trojan wars. If very little came in for the former, it 
 would have been largely made up in the choice that there is for the latter. Among 
 thefe you would have feen, the Rape of flelen (22), from an antient painting ; the fa- 
 crifice of Iphigenia, from the fine urn in the Juftinian gardens; the barbarity of Achilles, 
 in dragging the body of Heftor round the walls of Troy; the taking away of the pal¬ 
 ladium, by Diomed and Ulyfles ; the ftratagem of the wooden horfe ; the death of 
 Laocoon and his two fons ; the tearing of Caflandra from the fhrine of Minerva ; the 
 burning of Troy; and the efcape of /Eneas from the flames, with old Anchifes on his 
 lhoulders; and the little Afcanius following him with difficulty ; juft as he is deferibed 
 (23) by Virgil. 
 
 This would have led diredtly to my fifth clafs ; which would have confifted of fuch 
 things, as fall in with the Roman hiftory. Here you might have feen many things, 
 relating to /Eneas’s arrival and eftablilhment in Italy; and, many, relating to the birth 
 and ftory of Romulus : the rape of the Sabines ; Cochles alone defending the bridge, 
 againft the forces of Porfenna; Scasvola, punifhing his hand for mifplacing the blow he 
 meant for that prince ; Curtius, plunging into the gulph to fave his country ; Lucretia, 
 dying by her own hand, not to outlive her chaftity any longer than was neceflary for 
 its being revenged ; the great Cincinnatus dreffing himfelf, to leave his plough for the 
 dictatorial chair; and feveral other of the moft remarkable events, in the Roman ftory. 
 1 mention only fuch as I have chanced to meet with in antiques : and no doubt I ihould 
 have found out a great many more, had I carried on my defign; as I firft intended. In 
 this partition, I fhould haveadded the portraits of all the more eminent perfons among the 
 Romans; from their medals and ftatues : and have got together as entire a feries of them, 
 as I could, quite from the foundation of Rome, to the times of Gallienus. Would not that 
 be going too high ? interpofed Philander: for as you fay, that the arts were not introduced 
 into Rome, till the fecond Punic war ; I Ihould think, that the figures of the kings and 
 confuls before that time, muft have been of too bad a tafte for the reft of your collection. 
 Had we no figures of them, fays Polymetis, but what were made in their own times, 
 and by their own countrymen, I Ihould indeed have been very little defirous of having 
 
 any 
 
 (20) Majore parte Europae fubadta, Afiae quoque (21) See Lucian, riep / op%nirsv(. .Torn. I. p. 8or, 
 nonnullas civitates occupavere. Juftin. Lib. 2. to 806. Ed. Blaeu. Tho’ his catalogue takes up fo 
 
 When Julius Csefar was threatning his enemies many pages, it is little more than a bare lift of names; 
 once very highly, and one of them faid in ridicule, and yet, as he fays, it is almoft nothing in proportion 
 “ that it was not eafy for any woman, to do all that he to what he might have made it. Tavja -raw o\:ya 
 had threatned;” (alluding to the ftories of him, when ix.'roKxm, {xahAiv J'e a'/rnfav tj -rhn&os i^iKuv, ra x.t 
 he lived in the court of Nicomedes ;) Julius’s anfwer peA.euaJ'ece&i Ka]e\i^a- Ibid. p. 806. 
 was: “ In Aflyria quoque regnafle Semiramin; mag- (22) Turnbull’s antient paintings, N° 25. 
 
 namque Aft* partem Amazonas tenuifle.” Sueton. (23) - Sequitur patrem, non paflibns sequis. 
 
 in Jul. Cap. 22. j£n. 2. .4. 724. 
 
3 2 5 
 
 Dialogue the 1 Twenty-Firft . 
 
 any of them in my collection ; but the artifts that came into Italy after the period you 
 mention, worked often on fubjeCts much earlier than their own times j and often chofe 
 to reprefent the mod finning parts of the Roman ftory, and the moft celebrated perfons 
 that had been concerned in them. In this latter cafe, one may fuppole that they took 
 the diftinguifhing characters of their faces from the bungling artifts, that had done any 
 thing before them ; but that they expreffed them with more of art and beauty, in the 
 execution of the work: as a good painter now might form a handfome portrait of our 
 old Chaucer, from the milerable one done by Oclive in his own time. That might 
 very well have been the cafe, fays Mylagetes, fuppofing they had any Oclives then ; 
 but allowing you to fuppofe as much as you pleafe, I do not fee how thefe old Roman 
 portraits could be of any manner of uie toward explaining any thing in the claflics: which 
 I take for granted would have been the intent of your fecond collection, as it was of 
 your firlt. The chief thing, (replied Polymetis,) in this part of it, the portraits and 
 perfonages of their moft eminent men, would certainly have been more for pleafure, 
 than ufe ; for that pleafure, I mean, which we are apt to feel, even in feeing the fea¬ 
 tures and air of any perfon, that we have heard much of and long admired : but there 
 might have been fome little ufe in it too; towards explaining an expreflion, or paflao-e 
 now and then, in the Roman poets. I fhall juft give you an inftance of this, in a very 
 remarkable perfonage, that of Virgil. It feems to have been a vulgar opinion among 
 the moderns, (at leaf!:, among the modern commentators,) that Virgil was a rough-looking, 
 flovenly man. To overturn this opinion, I fhould not alledge Urfini’s gem ; which has 
 fo often been called a head of Virgil: both becaufe there is a great deal of reafon to 
 think, that it is falfly (24) attributed to him ; and becaufe we have pictures of Virgil, 
 drawn at full length, and much lefs to be dilputed. What I mean are two pictures, 
 placed before (25) two of his Eclogues; in one of thofe old manulcripts of his works, in 
 the Vatican library. You fee him there, reprefented with a fweet, modeft countenance ; 
 and dreffed particularly neat. Thefe pictures, if you will allow of their authority, (and I 
 know of no other that can pretend to near fo good an one,) may ferve perhaps to give us 
 the true fenfe of an expreflion, in Statius; and to refcue a palfage in Horace, from the 
 mifreprefentations of his commentators. Statius, in fpeaking of Virgil, applies the epi¬ 
 thet of torvus ( 26 ), to him : whence fome have been apt to imagine that Virgil had a 
 Hern or four look. But if one ought to trull more to this picture, than to the commen¬ 
 tators, we fhould perhaps underhand that expreflion of his writings, rather than of his 
 perfonage ; with which it will by no means agree: whereas if it be applied to his works, 
 it may fignify the dignity and majefly of them; which will agree with the context and 
 the occafion on which Statius ufes that expreflion as much, as in the other fenfe it would 
 be foreign to both. The palfage I had in my eye from Horace, is where that poet is 
 fpeaking of a man who had fome little faults, mixed with more material excellencies ; 
 which might well enough conceal them, at leaf: to every good-natured obferver. The 
 faults or defects he mentions are (27), that he was a little too paflionate ; lomewhat 
 undented in his converfation ; and ill-drelfed. Here, fay the commentators, one lees 
 an inftance of the lly way that Horace had of touching on the faults of his heft friends, 
 even whilft he is commending them : and the friend here touched upon, they will have 
 to be Virgil. Virgil’s appearance in the Vatican manufcript is as oppofite to this cha¬ 
 racter, as can pofiibly be: and if that be of any authority, it will quite deftroy this 
 conjecture of the commentators; and fhew that the palfage is not to be underftood of 
 
 Virgil. 
 
 U 
 
 (24) That head feems to me to be evidently a head 
 of the Apollo Muficus ; and agrees in all refpe&s with 
 that of the Apollo Muficus, PI. 13. Fig. 1. The 
 reafon why it has palled fo currently for a Virgil, in 
 all the politer countries of Europe, may be, Urfini’s 
 chriftening it fo firft ; the defire people in general 
 had, of having fome head of Virgil or other : and 
 their not knowing any thing of the figures 0!' him, 
 in the Vatican Virgil. 
 
 (25) The fecond, and fixth. 
 
 (26; Fors & magniloquo non pofthabuiflet Homero ; 
 Tenderet & torvo pietas aiquare Maroni. 
 
 Statius, Lib. 5. Sylv. 3 63. 
 
 (27! Iracundior eft paulo ; minus aptus acutis, 
 
 Naribus horum hominum : rideri poflit, eo quod 
 Ruflicius tonfo toga defluit, & male laxus 
 
 In pede calceus hmret- 
 
 Ilo:. L;b 1. Sat. 3. j' 32- 
 
P O L Y M E T I S. 
 
 Virgil- Were I to run over the whole lift (28) that I had colledted from the poets, re¬ 
 lating to the perfonages of the more celebrated men in the Roman hiftory ; I doubt 
 not but that we fhould find feveral other inftances, of the fame nature : but ft is fuffi- 
 cient, I think, to have given you this plain proof of what I advanced ; and therefore I 
 Ihall go on, without hunting after any more, to my fixth partition. 
 
 Tins would have confifted of all forts of things, that any way relate to the worfhip, 
 or religious ceremonies, of the old Romans. Here I would have placed all the medals 
 I could have got, that had either temples or altars, on their reverfes 1 and a number of 
 them, relating to the Secular Games: the various forts of facrifices; from gems, paintings, 
 and relievos : the different dreffes of their augurs, priefts, camilli, and veftal virgins" 
 from ftatues : the Lcdlifternia, to the great gods : the proceflions, in honour of them or 
 any other of their deities j and particularly the Bacchanalian proceffions, which are fo 
 frequent in antiques, as well as in the defcriptions of the poets. To all thefe, one might 
 have added two other articles, equally common in both ; the ceremonies ufed in their 
 marriages, and in their funerals : both of which, (and efpecially the latter,) made a part 
 of thofe religious rites, which they moll fuperftitioufly obferved. 
 
 In my feventh partition I would have ranged all the things, that belong to the arts 
 and fciences; and whatever was ufed by the Romans in civil life. Here°you might 
 have feen their drefs ; the furniture of their houfes ; (among which the vale's on gems, 
 and other remains would have had the largeft (hare;) their feafts; their games, and 
 fports; all the different forts of mufical inftruments in ufe among them ; their carriages, 
 chariots, boats, and fliips: and a number of other things, which would come under the 
 fame head: and which I omit, becaule in this, (as in all cafes before,) I have chofen 
 to mention only fuch particulars, as I know there would be a large fupply for, both in 
 the defcriptions of the poets, and in the remains of the artifts. 
 
 In my eighth and laft partition, fhould have been every thing that related to military 
 affairs, or the art of war, among the Romans. Here you would have feen their diffe¬ 
 rent forts of arms, enfigns, and machines ; which might have been, in a great meafure, 
 fupplied from the Trajan and Antonine pillars : their military dreffes, from the fame : 
 their mural, naval, laurel, and oaken crowns, from medals : their trophies and triumphs, 
 from the triumphal arches. All thefe particulars taken together, would make fufficient 
 furnitute fora gallery : fuch as I at firft defigned : and would furnifh any one with ma¬ 
 terials, for going thorough an intire courfe of comparing the defcriptions in the Ro¬ 
 man poets with the remains of the antient artifts. 1 ftiall make no excufes for the many 
 detects I may have been guilty of: efpecially in this laft fcheme, for a fecond colledlion. 
 I mean it only as a hint for Philander, or any body that may ever happen to be inclined 
 to carry on my defign ; and I dare fay they would find it very eafy, to improve much 
 
 upon 
 
 Paulus fEmilius. Virgil, /tin. 6. f . 836.—Pdus & 
 Arria. Martial. Lib. i. Epig. 14. 
 
 Julius Gefar. Lucan. Lib. 7. f. 458.—Auguftus. 
 Virgil. /En. 8. f. 679. Ovid, ex Pont. Lib. 2. Ep. 8. 
 *■ ‘ 3 - Lucan. Lib. 7. y-. 458.— Livia. Ovid. Con- 
 
 fol. >\ 48.'-Drufus. Id. Ibid. f. 260.- Agrippa. 
 
 Virgil. JEn. 8. y. 681. Ovid, de Art. Am. Lib. 3. 
 y-. 392.—Horace ; in his own works j Lib. 2. Sat. 3. 
 
 y. jc8. Lib. 1. Ep. 7. y. 26. Lib. 1. Ep. 2 ~i. 24._ 
 
 MeJIalina. Juvenal. Sat. 6. y. 129.— Britannicus. 
 Odhvia. A (SI. 1. Sc. 3. y. 172.—O&avia. Ibid. y.22C.& 
 Chor. y. 283.- And Domitian. Juvenal. Sat. 4 .y. 38. 
 
 Thefe are what I marked, by chance; in running 
 over the Roman poets, principally with another view : 
 fo that I fuppofc, this lift bears no proportion to what 
 I might have colletted, had I been confuking them in 
 this view only. 
 
 (28) There is fomething faid, (either perfonallv, 
 or with a view to fome figures of them,) of Picus, 
 by Virgil, JE n. 7. y. 187. and Ovid. Met. 14. y-. 313. 
 - Aventinus; by Virgil, JEn. 7. y. 655._ La¬ 
 vinia; by Statius, Lib. 1. Sylv. 2. y. 244. - Ro¬ 
 
 mulus; by feveral of the Roman poets : See Dial. IX. 
 
 Note 107, to in, anteh.-Numa; by Virgil, 
 
 ■®n. 6. y. 808. - Ancus Martius ; by the fame, 
 
 ibid. >’. 815.-and Servius Tullius; by Ovid, 
 
 Fall. Lib. 6. y. 571. 
 
 Of Lucretia, in Ovid. Fall. Lib. 2. 831, <Sc S43.— 
 
 Claudia. Statius, Lib. 1. Svlv. 2. y. 245,— Curtius. 
 Id. Lib. 1. Sylv. 1. y. 66.- C incinnatus. Perfius, 
 Sat. 1. y. 73.— Camillus. Virg. /En. 6. y. 826.— 
 Manlius Torquatus. Id. Ibid.— Marcellus. Ibid. 
 
 8 55 -- Regulus. Hor. Lib. 3. Od. 5. y. 41.— 
 
 % 
 
K* 'fi V? 
 
 D 
 
 i a l o g u e the Twenty-Firjl. 
 
 Upon what I have only fketched out for them. With this, as it is, I have already de¬ 
 tained you too far into the night: for we are to rife, you know, a little earlier than ufual 
 to-morrow morning ; that we may be in town time enough to fee a triumph of our own : 
 the entry of our honeft Tailors, and their brave leader, with the treafures that they have 
 won from the Spaniard. In which, tho’ we muft not expeft the pomp and regularity 
 of a Roman triumph; and may perhaps meet with fome very odd figures, among thofe 
 who officiate in the cavalcade ; yet we ought at leaft to confider it, in one fenfe, as a 
 nobler triumph than the Romans could ever boatl: of: the warriors we are to fee to-mor¬ 
 row being fuch, as have carried the glory of the Britifh arms into feas unknown to 
 thofe conquerors of the world, (as they always affefled to call themfelves;) and 
 among various nations, to which their eagles never flew. 
 
 327 
 
 u 
 
 Syc 3*7 
 
 
 P P P 
 
 A 
 

 
 ■ 
 
r//* 
 
 *. M i 
 
 
 
 A N 
 
 ACCOUNT 
 
 OF THE 
 
 Antiques., infer ted in this Work : 
 
 What they are; where kept: or whence 
 copied. 
 
 U 
 
 Plate I. 
 
 J U P I T E R : a Statue ; in the Verofpi Palace, at Rome. 
 
 Pl. II. 
 
 N° i. Jupiter Capitolinus : from a Medal of Vitellius; in Smids’s Martial, p. 397. 
 
 2. Wing’d Fulmen, on a fhield : from the Columna Antonia, at Rome. 
 
 3. Jupiter Fulminans: a Cornelian; in Senator Buonaruti’s collection, at 
 
 Florence. 
 
 4. Head of the Mild Jupiter : an Agate ; in the Great Duke’s collection, at 
 
 Florence. 
 
 5. Head of the Terrible Jupiter : a little Bull, in Agate ; ibid. 
 
 Pl. III. 
 
 1. Drefs of the Juno Matrona : from a Statue ; in the Villa Mattei, at Rome. 
 
 2. Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva : ajafper; in the Great Duke’s collection, at 
 
 Florence. 
 
 3. Head of Minerva : an Onyx; ibid. 
 
 4. Diomed, with the Palladium : a Jafper; ibid. 
 
 Pl. IV. 
 
 1. Flead of Medusa : from the famous Gem; in the Strozzi collection, at Rome. 
 
 2. Ditto; with the Eyes convuls’d : a Jafper; in the EleCtrefs Palatine’s cabinet, 
 
 at Florence. 
 
 3. Minerva, with enraged ferpents about her breaft : an Agate; in the Great 
 
 Duke’s collection, at Florence. 
 
 4. Ditto, with lefs enraged : a little Bull, in Agate ; from MafFei’s Gems, Vol. II. 
 
 Pl. 68. 
 
 5. Ditto, with Jove’s Fulmen in her hand : from a common Medal of Domitian. 
 
 Pl. V. 
 
 The Venus of Medici. 
 
 Pl. VI. 
 
 1. A number of little Cupids, playing in a fort of Circus: an antient Pafte, that 
 
 formerly belonged to P. Bellori; from Agoftini’s Gemme Ant. Part 2. Pl. 61. 
 
 2. Several Cupids, playing by a river’s fide : a Medal ; in the Pifani collection, 
 
 at Venice. 
 
 3. Cupid, playing with a Butterfly : an Amethyft; in the Great Duke’s collection, 
 
 at Florence. 
 
 4. Ditto, going to torment a Butterfly : a Cornelian ; in the Gherardini collection, 
 
 at Florence. 
 
 Cupid, 
 
 , 
 
 ■■.. 1 
 
 
33 ° 
 
 An Account of the Antiques, 
 
 N° 5. Cupid, carefling Pfyche : a Statue; in the Great Duke’s collection, at Florence 
 6 . Ditto, tormenting her: a Chalcedon ; Ibid. 
 
 Pl. VII. 
 
 1. Cupid, riding on a Lion and playing on a Lyre: a Sardonyx; in the Great 
 Duke’s collection, at Florence. 
 
 2. Ditto, riding on a Dolphin : from a Gem, in Agoftini. Part 2. PI. 58. 
 
 3. Ditto, breaking Jupiter’s Fulmen : an Agate; in the Great Duke's collection, 
 at Florence. 
 
 4. The Three Graces, naked : a Sepulchral Lamp, that formerly belonged to 
 P. S. Bartoli; from his Antichc Lucerne. Part 2. PI. 42. 
 
 5. Three Nymphs, or Graces, cloathed ; and dancing hand in hand : a Painting ; 
 in Dr. Mead’s collection, at London. 
 
 Pl. VIII. 
 
 1. Venus, wheedling Mars: a Statue; in the Great Duke’s collection, at Flo¬ 
 rence. 
 
 2. Venus, under the character of Indolence: a Sepulchral Lamp, that formerly 
 
 belonged to P. S. Bartoli; from his Antiche Lucerne. Part 1. PI. 8. 
 
 3. Mars Gradivus : a Cornelian ; in the Cerretani collection, at Florence. 
 
 4. Mars, defcending to Rhea Sylvia : a known Medal, of Antoninus Pius. 
 
 Pl. IX. 
 
 Mars and Neriene : a Relievo ; in the Court of the Palazzo Mattei, at Rome. 
 Pi. X. 
 
 1. Vulcan : a Cornelian; from Agoftini’ s Gemme Antiche. Part 2. Pl. 36. 
 
 2. Vesta: a Medal, of Julia; from Choul. p. 235. 
 
 3. Vestalis : a Medal, of Claudius; from the fame. Ibid. 
 
 4. Vesta Mater: from a Medal, in Montfaucon. Vol. I. Pl. 26, 11. 
 
 5. A Lamp, facred to Vefta: from the fame. Ib. 28, 4. 
 
 Pl. XI. 
 
 The Apollo Belvedere. 
 
 Pl. XII. 
 
 1 &2. The Nine Muses : a Sarcophagus ; in the Capitoline Gallery, at Rome. 
 
 3. Muse ; going to receive a child, juft born : a Relievo; in the Palazzo Sac- 
 chetti, at Rome. 
 
 Pl. XIII. 
 
 1. Head of Apollo : an Agate ; in the Great Duke’s collection, at Florence. 
 
 2. Apollo Lyristes : a known Medal, of Adrian. 
 
 1 3. Apollo, and Marsyas: a Jafper ; in the Maflimi collection, at Rome. 
 
 4. Diana Venatrix : an Onyx; in Senator Buonaroti’s collection, at Florence. 
 
 5. Diana, and Actaeon : a Gem ; from Maffei. Part 3. Pl. 98. 
 
 Pl. XIV. 
 
 1. Diana Triformis : a Statue; from Montfaucon. Vol. I. Pl. 90, 5. 
 
 2. Diana Caelestis : a Statue ; at the Earl of Leiceflefs Houfe, in London. 
 
 3. Ceres : a Rubv , formerly in the Odefcalchi collection, at Rome. 
 
 4. Mercury : a Statue ; in the Great Duke’s collection, at Florence. 
 
 5. Ditto, flying : a Picture ; from the famous Manufcript Virgil in the Vatican, 
 at Rome. 
 
 Pl, 
 
inferted in this Work. 
 
 331 
 
 Pl. XV. 
 
 1. Mercury’s Sword : a Cornelian ; in the Great Duke’s colleftion, at Florence. 
 
 2. Mercury’s Lyre : at the foot of a ftatue of Mercury ; in the Montalti Gardens 
 
 at Rome. 
 
 3. Mercury, giving up his Purfe to Fortune : a Gem ; from Montfaucon. Vol I 
 
 PI. 76, 2. 
 
 4. Ditto offered to Minerva; who takes moderately out of it: an antient Painting • 
 
 from a drawing by P. S. Bartoli, in Dr. Mead’s cohesion, N" 55. at London.' 
 
 5. Ditto, offered to Pudicitia, who refufes it: a Gem; in the cohesion formerly 
 
 Lord Arundel's, and now Lady Betty Germaine's, at London. 
 
 6. Terminal Mercury : from a Gem ; in Agoflini's Gemme Antiche. Part 2. 
 
 PI. 13. 
 
 y 
 
 Pl. XVI. 
 
 The Farnese Hercules. 
 
 Pl. XVII. 
 
 1. Infant Hercules, killing the Serpents : from an antient Pafte ; in Senator 
 
 Buonaroti’s colledtion, at Florence. 
 
 2. Ditto, with Nurfe, and little Euriftheus : a Medal ; from Agoftini’s Dialoghi, 
 
 p. i 47 > ri - 
 
 3. Young Hercules, killing a Lion : a Cornelian ; in the Great Duke’s collection, 
 
 at Florence. 
 
 4. Young Herculee), with a Lion’s Skin over his head , a Statue ; in the Capitol, 
 
 at Rome. 
 
 £. Another Head, ditto: aChryfolite ; in the Great Duke’s colledtion, at Florence. 
 Pl. XVIII. 
 
 1. Hercules, killing the Cleonsean Lion: a Chalcedon; in the Great Duke’s 
 
 colledtion, at Florence. 
 
 2. Ditto, killing the Hydra: a Cornelian; in the fame. 
 
 3 *- with the Erymanthian Boar: a Cornelian ; in the King of France’s Cabi¬ 
 
 net, at Verfailles. 
 
 4. -taming the wild Stag: from an Altar; till very lately at the gate of 
 
 Albano, now in the Capitoline gallery. 
 
 5. -killing the Stymphalides : 
 
 6. -refting, after he had cleaned Augeas’s Itables : | 
 
 7. -with a Bull on his Shoulders : 
 
 >from the fame. 
 
 8. -killing the tyrant Diomedes : 
 
 9. -with Geryon : 
 
 10. -with the vanquifhed Amazon : 
 
 11. -dragging Cerberus after him : 
 
 12. -gathering the Hefperian Fruit: 
 
 Pl. XIX. 
 
 1. Hercules, and Antalus : a Statue ; in the Palazzo Pitti, at Florence. 
 
 2. Hercules, and Cacus : a Medal, of Antoninus Pius ; in the Vatican Library. 
 
 3. Head of the Suffering Hercules: from a noble Greek Statue ; in the 
 
 Barbarini Palace, at Rome. 
 
 4- Hercules Bibax , a Cornelian ; in the Verofpi colledtion, at Rome. 
 
 5. Hercules, and Omphale : a Statue ; in the Great Farnefe Palace, at Rome. 
 
 Q^q q q 
 
 Pl. 
 
 A 
 
An Account of the Antiques, 
 
 33* 
 
 Pl. XX. 
 
 N° i. Bacchus: a Statue ; at the Marquis Cavalieri’s, in Rome. 
 
 2. Little Heads of Bacchus, hanging on a Tree: a Cornelian; from Maffei’s 
 
 Gemme Antiche, Part 3. PI. 64. 
 
 3. Esculapius : a Statue ; in the Palazzo Maffimi, at Rome. 
 
 4. Romulus : from a Medal of Antoninus Pius; in Choul, p. 175, 4, 
 
 5. Wolf, fuckling Romulus and Remus: an Onyx; in the Riccardi collection, at 
 
 Florence. 
 
 6. Casto.r and Pollux, on horfeback : from a Medal of the Scribonian family; in 
 
 Oifelius’s Thef. PI. 41, 12. 
 
 7. Ditto, handing: from a medal of the Sulpitian family ; from the fame; ibid. 
 
 Fig. 11. 
 
 8. Heads of ditto : from a Medal; in Canini’s Iconografia, PI. 97. 
 
 Pl. XXI. 
 
 1. Philosophy, and Socrates : from a Sarcophagus; in the Capitoline gallery, 
 
 at Rome. 
 
 2. Homer, and his Muse : from the fame. 
 
 3. Prudence : from a Medal of Gordianus Africanus ; in Vaillant’s Numifm. 
 
 Rom. T. 1. p. 154. 
 
 4. Justice : from a Medal of Galba ; in Oifelius’s Thef. Pl. 62, 9. 
 
 5. Fortitude : from a common Medal of Adrian. 
 
 6. Temperance : from a Medal; in the Pifani collection, at Venice. 
 
 7. Piety; (in the common fenfe of that word:) from a common Medal of 
 
 Fauftina. 
 
 8. Ditto ; (in the lefs common fenfe of it:) from a Medal of Marcus Aurelius • iii 
 
 Oifelius’s Thef. Pl. 77, 2. 
 
 9. Honesty : from a Medal of Vefpafian ; ib. Pl. 85, 7. 
 
 10. Modesty: a Medal, of Herennia Etrufcilla; in the Great Duke’s colleftion,' 
 
 at Florence. 
 
 11. Clemency : from a Medal of Vefpafian; in Oifelius’s Thef. Pl. 63, 4. 
 
 Pl. XXII. 
 
 1. Happiness : from a Medal of the younger Fauftina; in Oifelius’s Thef. Pl. 66, 8. 
 
 2. Health: from a Medal of Domitian ; ibid. 80, 3. 
 
 3. Liberty : from a common Medal, of Galba. 
 
 4. Tranquillity : from a Medal, of Adrian ; in Oifelius’s Thef. Pl. 60, 3. 
 
 5. Chearfulness : from a Medal, of L. fElius; in Vaillant’s Numifm, Rom. 
 
 T. 1. p. 70. 
 
 6. Joviality: from a Medal, of Fauftina; in Oifelius’s Thef. Pl. 53, 9 . 
 
 7. Hope : from a Medal, of Pefcennius Niger ; ibid. 54, 6. 
 
 8. Security : from a Medal, of M. Aurelius; in Agoftini’s Dial. p. 48, 4. 
 
 9. Concord : from a Medal, of Gordian; in Oifelius’s Thef. Pl. 81, 7. 
 
 10. Feace : from a common Medal, of Titus. 
 
 11. Plenty, (in general:) from a Medal, of Trajan ; in Oifelius’s Thef. Pl. 73, 3. 
 
 12. Ditto, (from the liberality of an Emperor :) from a Medal, of Antoninus Pius; in 
 
 Agoftini’s Dial. p. 70, 3. 
 
 Pl. XXIII. 
 
 1. Victory: fromaMedal, of Galba; in Oifelius’s Thef. Pl. 68, 2. 
 
 2. Honour : from a common Medal, of Titus. 
 
 3. Providence ; (with a Globe of the earth, at her feet:) from a common Medal, 
 
 of M. Aurelius. 
 
 4- Ditto ; (with a Globe flung up into the air :) from a common Medal, of Pertinax. 
 5. Necessity: a Statue; in Montfaucon. Part i. Pl. 197, 2. 
 
 6 . The 
 
inferted in this Work 
 
 N"6. The Three Destinies: from a Medal, of Diocletian; in Smids's Martial, 
 p. 106, 6. 
 
 7. The Genius, of a Veftal Virgin : from an antient Statue ; in Mr. Hooke’s Ro- 
 
 man Hiftory. Vol. I. p. 53. 
 
 8. Ditto, of Julia Mamma : from a common Medal, of that Emprefs. 
 
 9. Ditto, of Nero : from a Medal of that Emperor, in Oifelius’s Thef. PI. 42, j. 
 
 10. Fortune, as conflant : from a common Medal, of Adrian. 
 
 11 • - * as inconflant: a Jafper ; in the Great Duke’s collection, at Florence. 
 
 1 2l is taking care of Foundlings: a Cornelian; in Agoftini’s Gemme 
 
 Ant. PI. 71. 
 
 Pl. XXIV. 
 
 Antient Globe of the Heavens : from the Statue of Atlas; in the Farnefe 
 Palace, at Rome. 
 
 Pl. XXV. 
 
 1. Taurus, entire: from an Onyx; in Agoftini’s Gemme Ant. Pl, 135. 
 
 2. The Twelve Signs of the Zodiac ; Virgo, with full face : an Onyx ; in the 
 
 Great Duke’s collection, at Florence. 
 
 3. Ditto; with Libra, or Balance, held by a Man: a Medal, of Alexander; in 
 
 the fame. 
 
 4. Capricorn, entire : from a common Medal, of Auguftus. 
 
 Pl. XXVI. 
 
 1. The Seven Planetary Deities, in their Chariots; &c. a Drawing, from a 
 Gem ; in Baron Stofche’s collection, at Florence. 
 
 2. Saturn, with Wings, and Fetters : from a Chalcedon ; in Agoftini’s Gemme 
 Ant. Pl. 88. 
 
 3. Luna, in her Chariot; proceeded by Hefperus: a Relievo ; formerly on Tra¬ 
 
 jan’s Arch, and now on Conftantine’s, at Rome. 
 
 4. Sol, in his Chariot; preceeded by Phofphorus: a Medal, of Antoninus Pius ; 
 
 in the Great Duke’s collection, at Florence. 
 
 Pl. XXVII. 
 
 1. Eternity : a common Medal, of Fauftina. 
 
 2. The Great Platonic Year: a Medal, of Adrian; in the Great Duke’s 
 
 collection, at Florence. 
 
 3. The Four Ages, of Man : a Painting; in Bartoli’s Ant. Sepolcri. Pl. 5. 
 
 4. The Four Seasons, of the Year: a Medal, of Commodus ; in the Great 
 
 Duke’s collection, at Florence. 
 
 5. Janus : a Medal, of Antoninus Pius; in Oifelius’s Thef. Pl. 41, 2. 
 
 Pl. XXVIII. 
 
 1. A God of the Winds : a Relievo ; in the Capitoline Gallery, at Rome. 
 
 2. An Air -Nymph : a Painting; from Bartoli’s Drawings, f. 69, in Dr. Mead's 
 
 collection, at London. 
 
 3. Ditto, from the fame, f. 73. 
 
 4. Air-Nymph, and Zephir : from the fame, f. 71. 
 
 Pl. XXIX. 
 
 1. Juno, drawn by Peacocks: from a Medal, in Montfaucon. Vol. I. Pl. 22, 6. 
 
 2. Jupiter Pluvius : from a Medal, Id. Sup. Tom. I. Pl, 19, 3. 
 
 3. Iris : a Picture ; in the Vatican Virgil. 
 
 4. Fame : a little Brafs Statue; in the Great Duke’s collection, at Florence. 
 
 K I 
 
 % 
 
 Pl. 
 
An Account of the Antiques, 
 
 Pi., xxx. 
 
 0 i. Neptune : a common Medal, of Adrian. 
 
 2. Thetis : a Medal; in the Great Duke’s collection, at Florence. 
 
 3. Venus Anaduomene, in her Shell: a Relievo j at the Palazzo Mattei, in 
 
 Rome. 
 
 Pl. XXXI. 
 
 1. Tiber: a Statue; in the Belvidere, at Rome. 
 
 2. Nile : ditto ; in the fame. 
 
 3. Tigris : from Agoftini Dial. p. 107. 
 
 4. Euphrates : a Relievo; formerly on Trajan’s, and now on Conftantine’s Arch 
 
 at Rome. 
 
 5. Danube : a Medal, of Trajan ; in Bartoli’s Col. Traj. Pl. 113, 7. 
 
 6. Rhine: a Medal ofDrufus; in Oifelius’s Thef. PI. 24, 6. 
 
 Pl. XXXII. 
 
 1. Nature : a Statue; formerly in the Odefcalchi collection, at Rome: from 
 
 Maftei’s .Rac. Pl. 121. 
 
 2. Cibele ; from a Medal, in Smids’s Martial; p. 517. 
 
 3. The World : a Medal, of Gallienus. 
 
 4. Europe: from a Cornelian; in Agoftini’s Gemme Ant. Pl. 134. 
 
 5. Asia: a Medal, of Adrian. 
 
 6. Africa : ditto. 
 
 7. Italy : a Medal, of Antoninus Pius. 
 
 8. Judf.a, as diftreifed : a Medal, of Vefpalian. 
 
 9. Judea, as received into favour: a Medal, of Adrian.' 
 
 10. Rome: a Medal, of Nero. 
 
 11. Alexandria : a Medal, of Adrian. 
 
 12. Two Lares, or Houfhold-Gods: from a Sepulchral Lamp, in Bartoli’s Antiche 
 
 Lucerne, Part 1. Pl. 13. 
 
 Pl. XXXIII. 
 
 Atlas, fupporting the Globe of the Heavens : a Statue ; in the Farnefe 
 Palace, at Rome. 
 
 Pl. XXXIV. 
 
 The Injudicious Choice of Paris, the Deduction of the Afiatic Empire : 
 a Relievo ; at the Villa Medici, in Rome. 
 
 Pl. XXXV. 
 
 1. Head of Timolus : a Greek Medal; in the MafTimi collection, at Rome. 
 
 2. Rhodope : a Medal, of Antoninus Pius; in Smids’s Martial, p. 1. 
 
 3. Scylla : a Medal, of Sextus Pompeius ; in Oifelius’s Thef. Pl. 28, 4. 
 
 4. Flora: a Statue ; in the Great Duke’s collection, at Florence. 
 
 5. Pomona : a Cornelian ; from Gorlams’s Dact. Part 2. N° 56. 
 
 6. Vertumnus: an Onyx; from ditto. Part 1. N° 49. 
 
 7. Sylvanus : from a Sepulchral Lamp ; in Bartoli’s Luc. Ant. Part 2. Pl. 26. 
 
 8 . The Famous Faun, in the Great Duke’s collection, at Florence. 
 
 9. A Fauness : a Jafper; from Agoftini’s Gemme Ant. Part 2. Pl. 23. 
 
 10. Head of the Lascivious Pan: from the famous Statue, in the Lodovifian 
 
 Gardens, at Rome. 
 
 11. Head of the Mild Pan : from a Statue.; in the Great Duke’s collection, at 
 
 Florence! 
 
 12. Head of the Terrible Pan : an Amethyft ; in the Strozzi collection, at Rome. 
 
Pl. XXXVI. 
 
 N° i. The Previous Region, of the Subterraneous World : a Picture ; in the Vati¬ 
 can Virgil. 
 
 2. The God of Sleep: from a Statue ; in Maffei’s Rac. PI. r 51. 
 
 Pl. XXXVII. 
 
 1. The River, or Hateful Palfage into the Kingdom of Ades: a Picture ; in the 
 
 Vatican Virgil. 
 
 2. Charon, receiving a Ghoft into his Boat: a Sepulchral Lamp; from Bartoli’s 
 
 Luc. Ant. Part 1. Pl. 12. 
 
 3. Ghosts, landing on the Shore of Ades: from a Relievo; in the Barbarini 
 
 Palace, at Rome. 
 
 Pl. XXXVIII. 
 
 1. Erebus ; or, the fir'd Region of Ades: a Picture ; in the Vatican Virgil. 
 
 2. Cerberus; mollified by Orpheus: from a Gem; in Agoftini’s Gemme Ant. 
 
 Pl. 9. 
 
 3. Ditto ; led captive by Hercules : from ditto ; ibid. Pl. 40. 
 
 Pl. XXXIX. 
 
 j. The Entrance to Tartarus; the fecond Region of Ades: a Picture, in 
 the Vatican Virgil. 
 
 2. The Punishments of Sisyphus, Ixion, and Tantalus: a Relievo; in the 
 Barbarini Palace, at Rome. 
 
 Pl. XL. 
 
 1. Elysium ; or the laft Region of Ades: a Picture ; in the Vatican Virgil. 
 
 2. Pluto, and Proserpine, &c. a Painting ; from Bartoli’s Sep. deNafon. Pl. 8. 
 
 Pl. XLI. 
 
 1. Death : a little Brafs Statue ; in the Great Duke’s collection, at Florence. 
 
 2. Gorgon’s Head : from a Shield, at the foot of a Statue of Mars; at the Villa 
 
 Borghefe, near Rome. 
 
 3. Head of a Fury: from a Relievo ; in the Admiranda. Pl. 69. 
 
 4. One of the Rebel-Giants, with fnaky Legs: a Cornelian; in the Great 
 
 Duke’s collection, at Florence. 
 
 5. Tityos, tormented by a Vultur : a Relievo ; in the Villa Borghefe, near Rome. 
 
 The Ornamental Pieces ; in the Clofe of the Dialogues. 
 
 Page 6. Little Cupid, Healing away his Club from Hercules : a Cornelian; in Signor 
 Ficoroni’s collection, at Rome. 
 
 27. Several Cupids, playing with Hercules’s Club : a Jafper ; in the Great Duke’s 
 collection, at Florence. 
 
 35. Little Cupid on a Role-twig : a Painting ; in the Rofpigliofi Palace, at Rome. 
 64. iEneas, carrying his Father with the Cilia Myltica, from Troy : a Cornelian; 
 in the Vittori collection, at Florence. 
 
 hi. Niobe, endeavouring to fave her youngelt daughter: a Statue; at the Villa 
 Medici, in Rome. 
 
 135. Plead of the Drunken Hercules : a Cornelian ; in the Great Duke’s collection, 
 at Florence 
 
 162. Hercules determining to follow Virtue, rather than Pleafure: a Gem; in Mont- 
 faucon. Vol. I. Pl. 126, 1. 
 
 R r r r Page 
 
356 An Account of the Antiques. 
 
 Page 199. Diana, and Endymion : a Gem ; in Gorlseus’s Daft. Part 2. N° 49R. 
 
 215. Butterfly, and Branch : a Beril; formerly in Signor Ficdroni’s collection, 
 at Rome. 
 
 237. Nymph s , and two Sea-Horfes: a Cornelian; in Agoftini’s Gemme Ant. 
 Part 2. PI. 49. 
 
 256. The Genius of Britain, fitting on a Globe : a Medal, of Antoninus Pius; in 
 Oifelius’s Thef. PI. 27, 6. 
 
 284. The Three Deftinies: from a Sarcophagus; in the Capitoline Gallery, at 
 Rome. 
 
 291. A Reprefentative of Hermes, or the Egyptian Mercury: from a Relievo; 
 in the Mattei Palace, at Rome. 
 
 301. Marfyas: a Statue ; in the Great Duke’s collection, at Florence. 
 
 308. Bellerophon, taming Pegafus: a Cornelian ; formerly in Signor Ficoroni’s 
 collection ; now Lord Middlefex’s, at London. 
 
 320. Cupid, curing a Lion : a Cornelian ; in the Strozzi collection, at Rome. 
 
 327. Ark, Dove, and Rainbow : an Onyx ; in Gorlams’s DaCt. Part 1. N° 118, 
 
 The Three Figures, (difpofed in the manner of an antient Relievo,) in the Frontis¬ 
 piece ; are the Goddefs of Painting, the God of Poetry, and the Genius of Sculpture. 
 The firft, from a BafTo Relievo ; publifhed by P. S. Bartoli, in his Pitture Antiche ; 
 PI. 1. the fecond, from an Amethyft; of Senator Buonaroti’s: and, the third, from 
 n Cornelian; in the Great Duke’s collection, at Florence. 
 
 t 
 
 ALPH A- 
 
ALPHABETICAL LIST; 
 
 Each Particular Figure 
 
 p. Hands for, Page ■, PI. for, Plate ; and, Front, for, Frontifpiece. 
 
 A. 
 
 A CTEON- PI. 13» 5 - 
 
 ZEneas, carrying his Father, &c. p. 64. 
 
 -Hisdefcent into Ades. PI. 36, j.—38,1. 
 
 —.39, 1.—& 40, 1. 
 
 Africa...PI. 32, 6. 
 
 Ages: the four Ages of Man - - - - PI. 27, 3. 
 Alexandria - -- -- -- -- -- -PI. 32, ir. 
 Amazon; conquered by Hercules-- PI. 18, io- 
 
 Anchifes--- -.p- 64. 
 
 Andromeda - -- -- -- -- -- -- PI. 24. 
 Anguis ; the Conftellation ------- ibid. 
 
 Anguitenens . .. ------ ibid. 
 
 Annona : fee, Plenty. 
 
 Antteus - -- -- -- -- -- -- - PI. 19, 
 Afiteros : fee, Eros. 
 
 Apollo ; with lyre, Front.—Apollo Vates, PI. 
 13, i & 2.7—The Apollo Belvedere, PI. 
 n.—Apollo; at the creation of Neriene, 
 PI. 9.—Ordering the punifhment of Marfyas, 
 PI. X3, 3.—Apollo, under the charadler of 
 Sol, PI. 26, 1 & 4. & PI. 34. 
 
 Aquarius; the Conftellation, PI. 24.—25, 2 & 
 3.-26, 1. 
 
 Aquila ; ditto. ------- PI. 24. 
 
 Ara ; ditto . -...ibid. 
 
 Arcitenens ; ditto - -- -- -- -- -- - ibid. 
 Argo ; ditto - -- -- -- -- -- -- - ibid. 
 
 Ariadne’s Crown.... ibid. 
 
 Aries, PI. 24.—25, 2 & 3.—26, x. 
 
 Ark, Dove, and Rainbow - -- -- -- p. 327. 
 Afcanius - -- -- -- -- -- -- -- p. 64. 
 
 Afia-PI. 32, 5. & PI. 34. 
 
 Atlas; fupporting the globe of the heavens, PI. 33. 
 Aurae ; or Air-Nymphs: fee, Nymphs. 
 
 Auriga; the Conftellation.- PI. 24. 
 
 B. 
 
 Bacchus, Pi. 20, 1.-At the creation of Ne- 
 
 ricne, PI. 9.—The Ofcilla, or heads, of Bac¬ 
 chus, PI. 20, 2. 
 
 Bellerophon - -- -- -- -- -- - p. 308. 
 
 Bootes-PI. 24. 
 
 Briareus - -- -- -- --.PI. 36, 1. 
 
 Britain : the genius of Britain ; or, (as the Ro¬ 
 mans called it) the New World-p. 256. 
 
 C. 
 
 Cacus - -- -- -- --.-PI. 19, 2. 
 
 Calliope -------------- PI. 12, 6. 
 
 Cancer ---PI. 24.-25, 2 & 3.-26, 1. 
 
 Canicula : fee, Sirius. 
 
 Capricorn - - PI. 24.—25; 2, 2, & 4.—26, r- 
 
 Cares---PI. 36, 1. 
 
 Caftiopeia - -.- - --- - PI. 24. 
 
 Caftor and Pollux; their heads, PI. 20, 8.— 
 Standing together, ib. 7.—24.—25, 2 & 3. 
 —26, 1.—On horfeback, PI. 6. & PI. 34. 
 
 Celeftial Globe ------------ PI. 24. 
 
 Centaurs; (a male and female) - - - PI. 36, 1. 
 
 Centaurus ; the Conftellation -.PI. 24. 
 
 Cepheus ; ditto - -- -- -- -- -- -- ibid. 
 
 Cerberus ; with ferpents about him, PI. 37, r. 
 and, 38, i.—Liftning to Orpheus, PI. 38, 2. 
 —Dragged to the lighr, by Hercules, PI. 18. 
 
 11. and, 38, 3. 
 
 Ceres--PI. 14, 3. 
 
 Cetus ; the Conftellation..PI. 24. 
 
 Charon - -- -- -- -- -- -- --pj 37, 2. 
 
 Chearfulnefs. ----- - p] 
 
 Chimsera." ' T ! - 36» 
 
 Cibele—PI. 32, 2.—Head of Cibele, —P|. 2 , 3. 
 
 Clemency . ..PI. 21, ir. 
 
 Clio.PI. 12, 1.—Ditto; 21, 2. 
 
 Concord--- ----PI 
 
 Conftellations; their bearings to one another 
 fee, Celeftial Globe. 
 
 Corvus ; the Conftellation - - --PI. 24. 
 
 Crater; ditto . ..ibid. 
 
 Cupids, playing, PI. 6, 1 & 2.—Sleeping, PI. 8, 
 2.—Playing with Hercules’s club, p. 27.— 
 Cupid, on a Rofe-twig, p. 35.—Flying, to¬ 
 ward Attaeon, PI. 13, 5.—Several Cupids, at 
 the creation of Neriene, PI. 9.—Cupid, catch¬ 
 ing a butterfly, PI. 6, 3.—Going to burn one, 
 ib. 4.—Carefling Pfyche, ib. 5.—Tormenting 
 her, ib. 6.—Riding on a lion, PI. 7, 1.— 
 Healing, one that is wounded, p. 320.—Rid¬ 
 ing, on a dolphin, PI. 7, 2.—Taking Her¬ 
 cules’s club from him, p. 6.—Breaking the 
 thunderbolt of Jove, PI. 7, 3. 
 
 Cygnus; the Conftellation - - --- PI. 24. 
 
LIST 
 
 ALPHABETICAL 
 
 mion, p. 199.—At the creation of Neriene, 
 PI. 9.—In the council of the gods, PI. 34. 
 Diana, under the character of Luna, PI. 26, 3. 
 Diomedes; the Son of Tydeus - - - - PI. 3, 4. 
 Diomedes ; the tyrant of Thrace - - - PI. 18, 8. 
 
 E. 
 
 Elyfium - -- -- --.PI. 40. 
 
 Endymion - - -- -- --.p. 199. 
 
 Erato, PI. 12, 5.—Ditto; holding a robe open, 
 to receive a new-born infant, PI. 12. 
 
 Erebus; parts of it, PI. 37, 1.—38, 1 . — &c 
 39 » r - 
 
 Ericthonius : fee, Auriga. 
 
 Eros and Anteros ------- PI. 5.—6, 3 
 
 Efculapius - -- -- -- -- -- -- PI. 20, 3 
 
 Eternity - -- ---------PI. 27, 1 
 
 Euphrates - -- -- -- -------PI. 31, 4 
 
 Eurydice - -- -- -- -- -- - - PI. 37, 1 
 Euriftheus ; and hisNurfe ------ PI. 17, 2 
 
 Europe - -- - - -- -- -- -- - PJ. 32, 4 
 Euterpe - -- -- -- -- -- -- -PI. 12, 4 
 
 29, 4- 
 
 Fame - -- -- -- -- -- -- -- PI. 
 
 Fatality: fee, Neceffitas. 
 
 Faunus ; (male, and female) - - PI. 35, 8 & 9. 
 
 Fides : fee, Honefly. 
 
 Flora - -- -- -- -- -- -- -- PI. 35, 4. 
 
 Flumen ; the Conftellation ------- PI. 24. 
 
 Fortitude - -- -- -- -- -- -- PI. 21, 5. 
 
 Fortune ; as conflant, PI. 23, 10.—As incon- 
 flanr, ibid. n.—As the patronefs of poor 
 •foundlings, ib. 12.—Fortune, with Mercury, 
 PI. 15, 3. 
 
 Furies, PI. 36, 1. and 39, 1.—Head of a Fury, 
 PI. 4L 3. 
 
 G. 
 
 Ganymed : fee, Aquarius. 
 
 Gemini: fee, Caflor and Pollux. 
 
 Genius, of Nero, PI. 23, 9. —Of Julia Mam- 
 maea, ibid. 8.—Of an old Veftal Virgin, ib. 7. 
 Genius; giving down a foul from heaven, to 
 ■be embodied, PI. 27, 3. 
 
 Geryon - ---PI 18, 9. & 36; 1. 
 
 Ghofls: fee, Souls of the departed. 
 
 Giant: one of the Rebel-Giants - - - PI. 41, 4. 
 
 Graces; naked, PI. 7, 4.—Ditto, dreffed, ib. 5. 
 
 H. 
 
 Happinefs-PI. 22, 1. 
 
 Harmonia Mundi : (the Harmony of the Uni- 
 verfe ; or, as it is vulgarly called, the Mufic of 
 the Spheres,) P). 26, 1. 
 
 Har py---PI. 36, 1. 
 
 Health -...- - - PI. 22 2. 
 
 Hebe - -- -.. . pi 0 
 
 ii. 27» 3 - 
 
 Hercules : killing the ferpents j juft after 1 ie was 
 born, PI. 17, i & 2.—Killing the Nemean 
 
 lion; in his youth, PI. 17, 3.—Ycurg Her¬ 
 cules, dreffed in a lion’s fkin, ibid. 4.—Her¬ 
 cules ; refolving to fix on a life o! labour, ra¬ 
 ther than a life of pleafure, p. 162.—Hercules 
 killing the Cleonem lion, PI. 18, 1.—Fighting 
 with the Hydra, ibid. 2.—Carrying the Eri- 
 manthian- boar, ib. 3.—Kneeling on the wild 
 flag, ib. 4.—Shooting the Srymphalides, ib. 5. 
 
 •—After having cleanfed Augcas’s ftablcs, ib. 6. 
 —With wild bull, toffed over his fhou'der, 
 ib. 7.—Killing Diomed, and his horfes, ib. 8. 
 Fighting with Geryon, ib. 9.—Taking off the 
 Amazon’s zone, ib. 10. —Leading Cerberus 
 captive, ib. 11.—Gathering the golden apple s 
 of the Plefperidts, ib. 12.—Hercules, refling 
 after his Twelve Labours ; or, tie fan ous Far- 
 nefe Hercules, PI. 16. —Hercules, killing An- 
 tseus, PI. 19, 1.—After his vidtory over Ca¬ 
 cus, ib. 2.—Head of the buffering Hercules, 
 ib. 3.—Flerculcs, in his miflrefs’s drefs, ib. 5. 
 —The drinking Hercules, ib. 4.—Head of 
 ditto, p. 135. 
 
 Hefpeius---PI. 26, 3. 
 
 Homer - - - -- - - -- -- - _ - - PI. 21,2. 
 
 Honefty-Pi. 21 , (J . 
 
 Honour - -- - -- - - --PI. 23, 2 
 
 Hope-PI. 22, 7. 
 
 Hydra-PI. 18, 2. & 36, 1. 
 
 Hydrus ; the Conftellation-PI. 24. 
 
 I. 
 
 Janus--- . PI. 27, 5. 
 
 Ida-- PJ. 34> 
 
 Immortality ; fee, either Eternity, or Hebe. 
 
 Ingeniculatus; the Conftellation - - - PI. 24. 
 
 Joviality--- - PI. 22, 6. 
 
 I™...- PI. 29, 3. 
 
 Italy- PI. 32, 7. 
 
 Judaia-Pi. 32, £ 6 c 9. 
 
 Juno: drefs of the Reman Juno, PI. 3, i.-- 
 
 Sitting with Jupiter, and Minerva, IT. 3, 2.— 
 Juno; as prefiding over the air, PI. 29, 1.— 
 Rejedled by Paris, IT. 34.—At the creation of 
 Neriene, PI. 9.—In the council of thegods, PI.34. 
 
 Jupiter. The Verofpi Jupiter, PI. 1.—The Ca¬ 
 pitoline Jupiter, PI. 2, 1.—Jupiter, with 
 
 Minerva fitting at his right hand, and Juno 
 at his left; or, the Three Great Capitoline 
 Gods, PI. 3, 2.—Head of the Mild Jupiter, 
 PI. 2, 4.—Head of the Terrible Jupiter, ib. 5. 
 —Jupiter Pluvius, PI. 29, 2.—Jupiter ; as pre¬ 
 fiding over a planet, IT. 26, 2.—Jupiter, hold¬ 
 ing up his thunderbolt, PI. 2, 3.—Aiming it 
 at one of the rebel-giants, PI. 41, 4.—Jupiter ; 
 fupported by the Genius of mount Ida, 
 PI. 34.—Enthroned : with Sol and Luna, 
 over his head ; and Tellus and Oceanus, under 
 his feer, PI. 25, 3. 
 
 Juftice-- - - -.PI. 21, 4. 
 
 Ixion - ..PI. 37, 1. & 39, 2. 
 
 I -ares 
 
of the Particular Figures. 
 
 339 
 
 L. 
 
 Lares-*..PI. 32, 12. 
 
 Leo ; the Conflellation, PL 24. — 25, 2 & 3. 
 26, 1. 
 
 Lepus ; ditto - -- -- -- -- -- -- pp 24. 
 Libra •, ditto - -- -- -- -- PI. 24.— 25, 2 
 & 3.—26, 1. 
 
 Liberty-PJ. 22, 3. 
 
 Lucifer: fee, Phofphoros. 
 
 Luna : fee, Diana. 
 
 Lyre-, that, invented by Mercury, PI. i- } 2._ 
 
 That, in the heavens, PI. 24. 
 
 M. 
 
 Mars Gradivus, PI. 8, 3.—Mars, as prefiding 
 over a planet, PI. 26, 1.—Mars, and Venus, PI. 
 8, 1.—Mars, and Rhea Sylvia, PJ. 8, 4.— 
 Mars, and Neriene, PI. 9.—Mars; at the 
 council of the gods, PI. 34. 
 
 Marfyas •, ftretched at his full length, p. 301.— 
 Flea’d alive, PI. 13,3. 
 
 Medufa : heads of Medufa, PJ. 4; 1, 2, & 4.— 
 3, 3.—15, 1.—24.—37, 3.—41, 2. 
 
 Mercury, Handing, PI. 14, 4.—Flying, ib. 5. 
 —His harpe, or lword, PI. 15, 1.—Mercury, 
 as the god of gains with Fortune, PI. 15, 3 — 
 With Minerva, ib. 4. and with Pudicitia, ib. 
 5.—Mercury •, as prefiding over a planet, 
 PI. 26, a.—Terminal Mercury, PI. 15, 6.— 
 Mercury ; conducing fouls of the departed 
 into the other world, PI. 37, 2.—to the throne 
 of Pluto, PI. 40, 2. —Mercury, introducing 
 Juno, Minerva, and Venus, to Paris, PI. 34.— 
 At the creation of Neriene, PI. 9.—In the 
 council of the gods, PI. 34. 
 
 Alinerva, PI. 3, 3.—Sitting at the right hand 
 of Jupiter, PI. 3, 2.—and holding his thunder¬ 
 bolt, PI. 4, 5.—With living ferpents about her 
 bofom, ibid. 3, & 4.—Taking moderately, 
 out of Mercury’spurfe, PI. 15, 4. —At the cre¬ 
 ation of Neriene, PL 9.—In the council of the 
 gods, PI 34.—Rejected, by Paris, ibid.—Pre¬ 
 ferred, by Flercules, p. 162.—Small figure of 
 her: See, Palladium. 
 
 Minos - -- -- -- -- -- -- -- PI. 38, 1. 
 
 Modefty : fee. Pudicitia. 
 
 Mufes : fee, Calliope, &c. 
 
 Mulic of the Spheres: fee, Harmonia Mundi. 
 
 N. 
 
 Nature - -- -- -- -- -- PL 20, 1. & 32, 1. 
 
 Necefiitas ----PL 13,5. 
 
 Neptune - - - - - --PL 30,1. 
 
 Neriene, creating ; to be the confort, (and l'of- 
 tener,) of Mars, PL 9. 
 
 Nile---PL 31, 2. 
 
 Niobe, and her youngeft daughter-p. 11 r. 
 
 Nymphs, attending Diana, PL 13, 5.—Attend¬ 
 ants of Venus, PL 7, 5.—Nymphs of the moun¬ 
 tains, PL 34.—Sea-Nymph, p. 237.—Water- 
 Nymph, PL 34.—Air-Nymphs, PL 28 ; 2, 3, 
 
 & 4. S f 
 
 O. 
 
 Oceanus ---- PL 9, & 25, 3 . 
 
 Omphale, and Hercules-pj t 
 
 Orbis Terrarum - ------- pj 
 
 Orion ; as a Conflellation.pj 
 
 Orpheus-pj. 37, j._ 3 
 
 Ofcilla: fee, Bacchus. 
 
 19,5. 
 3 2 > 3 - 
 
 24. 
 - 40 , I. 
 
 P. 
 
 Palladium - - - --p|_ ^ 
 
 Pan: head of the Mild Pan, PJ. 35, n ._ 0 f 
 the Terrible Pan, ibid. 12. 
 
 Paris ..PI. 34. 
 
 Peace-.-PL 22,10. 
 
 Pegalus, p. 308.—As a Cor,(foliation, PL 24. 
 Pejfcus, PI. 13, 1.—-As a Conltcil ttion, PL 24. 
 
 Philofophy- PL .21, I. 
 
 Phofphoros...pj^ ^ 
 
 Pi&ura; or, the Goddefs of Painting, Front. 
 Piety ; as exercifed, in acts of devotio ;, Pi. 21,7. 
 
 —As fhown forth, in adls of virtue, ib. 8. 
 
 Pifccs; the Conflellation, PI. 24.—25, 2 & 3. 
 —26, 1. 
 
 Planets ; the feven.-PI. 26 1. 
 
 Plenty; in general, PJ. 22, 11.—In particular, 
 ibid. 12. 
 
 Pluto - 
 
 . - a L . . p j l L . i PI. 2 
 
 Pomona ‘ PI, ^ 
 
 Pollux: fee, Caftor. 
 
 Polyhymnia - - PL 12. 7 
 
 Procyon ; the Conflellation ------ PI, 24 
 
 Prometheus, at the creation of Neriene, PI. 9 
 
 • Proferpine.PL 40, 
 
 ■ Providence.PJ. 23, 3 & 4 
 
 •Prudence.- Pl. 21, 3 
 
 • Pfyche.PL 6, 5 & 6 
 
 •Pudicitia - - PL 21, 10 
 
 
 Quirinus ■ 
 
 PI. 20, 
 
 R. 
 
 Rhea Sylvia. --------PI. 8, 4. 
 
 Rhine - -- -- -- -- -- -- -- PL 31, 6. 
 Rhodope - -- -- -- -- -- -- PL 33, 2. 
 River-Gods, PL 26, 3. — 29, 2. —31. —34. 
 
 Rome - -- -- -- - - -- -- - PI. 32, 10. 
 Romulus, and Remus; fuckled by the wolf, 
 PL 20, 5. and 31, 1.—Romulus, as deified : 
 fee, Quirinus. 
 
 S. 
 
 Saturn ; as prefiding over Time, PL 26, 2.—As 
 prefiding over a planet, ibid. 1. 
 
 Satyr; head of one..PL 35, 10. 
 
 Scamander . . ..PL 34. 
 
 Scorpius; the Conflellation, PL 24.—25, 2 & 
 3.-26, 1. 
 
 Sculpture: che Genius of it.Front. 
 
 Scylla ------- PL 35, 3. Ditto ; 36, 1. 
 
 Sea-Deities.Pl.9. 
 
 f f Sea- 
 
34o 
 
 ALPHABETICAL LIST 
 
 Sea-Horfes - - - --p. 237. 
 
 Seafons : fee. Year. 
 
 Security --- - - PI. 22, 8- 
 
 Sibyll, PI.-36, 1.—38, 1.—39, i—40, r. 
 
 Simois--- PI. 34. 
 
 Sirius •, the Confteliation -------- PI. 24. 
 
 Sifyphus - -- -- -- -- -- - -- PI. 39, 2. 
 
 Sleep-PI. 36, 2. 
 
 Socrates - -- -- -- -- -- -- - PI. 21,1. 
 Sol: fee, Apollo. 
 
 Soul ; handed from heaven, to be embodied, 
 
 pi. 27 , 3 . 
 
 Souls, of the departed ; waiting for a pafiage 
 
 PI. 37, 1.—Paying their fare, before they 
 enter into Charon’s boat, ibid. 2.—Landing 
 in the other world, ib. 3.—Souls, in Erebus, 
 PI. 38, 1.—In torments, PI. 39, 2.—In Ely- 
 
 fium, PI. 40, 1 & 2. 
 
 Sphynx -PI. 31, 2. 
 
 Sylvanus-PI. 35, 7. 
 
 T. 
 
 Tantalus - -- -- -- -- -- - - PI, ^g, 2 . 
 
 Tartarus; the entrance to it - - - - - PI. 39, 1. 
 
 Taurus; the Confteliation, PI. 24.— 25; 1, 2, 
 & 3.—26, r. 
 
 Tellus ; receiving a foul, that is to be embodied, 
 PI. 27, 3.—With the celeftial globe, and the 
 four feafons of the year dancing round it, ibid. 
 4.—Under the throne of Jupiter, PI. 25, 3. 
 —Under the chariot of Sol, PI. 26, 4.—At 
 the creation of Neriene, PI. 9. 
 
 Temperance --- - PI. 2 i, 6. 
 
 Terpfichore--- - ----- PI. 12, 3. 
 
 Thalia - - - - - -- -- -- -- -- PI. 12, 2. 
 
 Thetis - -- -- - -- ---- - pi, 2o, 2. 
 
 Thunderbolt; with wings to it - - - - PI. 2, 2. 
 
 Tiber-PI. 31, 1. 
 
 Tigris-PI. 31, 3. 
 
 Timolus -PI. 35. 1. 
 
 Tifiphone - pj # x 
 
 Tityos -PI. 41, 5. 
 
 Tranquillity---PI. 22, 4. 
 
 Tritons ; holding up Venus, in her ftiell PJ 
 3 °> 3 - 
 
 U. 
 
 Venus of Medici, PI. 5.—Venus, in her ftiell, 
 
 PI- 3 °> 3 -—Venus, and Cupid, PI. 6, 4._ 
 
 Venus, and Mars, PI. 8, 1.—-Venus, as De- 
 fidia, ib. 2.—As prefiding over a planer, PI. 
 26, 1.—Venus; in the council of the o- 0 d3 
 PI. 34 —Preferred, by Paris, ibid, and re¬ 
 jected, by Hercules, p. 162. 
 
 Vertumnus - 35, 6. 
 
 Vdtals, PI. io ; 2, 3 , & 4.—Lamp, facrt-d to 
 Vefta, PI. 10, 5. 
 
 Victory, PI. 23, 1.—Hovering over Venus, 
 PI. 34.—As an attendant of Mars, PJ. g_ 
 —Introducing Venus to the throne of Jupiter 
 
 n 34. 
 
 Virgo ; the Confteliation, PI. 24.'—25, 2 &3._ 
 
 2 6, 1. 
 
 Virtus ; fee, Fortitude. 
 
 Urania, PI. 12. 8.—With her globe, on a co- 
 lumn, ib. 
 
 Urn ; that of Minos -------- pj x 
 
 Vulcan -, making a helmet, Pi. io, i._At the 
 
 creation of Neriene, PI. g. 
 
 W. 
 
 Wind-Deity, with Flabrum -- p|. 2 8 i." 
 
 Wolf, fuckling Romulus and Remus, PI. 20, 5. 
 and 31, 1. 
 
 World; or, Old World: fee. Orbis. _New 
 
 World : fee, Britain. 
 
 Y. 
 
 Year; the Four feafons of it, PI. 27, 4. _The 
 
 Great Platonic Year, ibid. 2. 
 
 Z. 
 
 Zephir, and Air-Nymph ------ -PI. 28,4.’ 
 
 Zodiac, PI. 9 ; and 34.—All the Signs of the 
 Zodiac, PI, 24.-25, 2 & 3.-26, 1. 
 
 CLASSICAL 
 
CLASSICAL INDEX: 
 
 O R, 
 
 A L i s T of fuch Paffages in the Roman 
 Poets; as may receive any manner of 
 light, from the foregoing Work. 
 
 Roman Poets of the First Age. 
 
 Ennius: 
 
 N N A L. Lib. 1. -j,. 21- 
 
 Dial. Note 
 
 - 10 1 
 
 A 
 
 129 - - 
 
 - 7 
 
 70 
 
 Epicharmus. - - - - 
 
 - - 12 - - 
 
 - - 6 
 
 80 
 
 Alcmaeon. -- 
 
 -7, &c. 
 
 - - 8 
 
 86 
 
 Chryfes. ------ 
 
 
 - *3 
 
 16 
 
 Andromeda. 
 
 
 - 12 
 
 22 
 
 Thyeftes.- 
 
 - - 1. - 
 
 - 13 
 
 61 
 
 Erigone. -362 
 
 Actius. 
 
 - 8 
 
 86 
 
 Prometheus, 628 
 
 
 - 16 
 
 "5 
 
 Trachynue. ^-715 
 
 
 - 9 
 
 7 
 
 Incert.-*.785 
 
 
 - 6 
 
 80 
 
 Sat. Lib. 16. 1- 
 
 Dial. Note 
 
 - 5 *5 
 
 23 - *• 33 -. 
 
 -13 
 
 27 
 
 28. 57- 
 
 -7 
 
 8 
 
 Varro. 
 
 Oftogefis.-^.336- 
 
 - 7 
 
 14 
 
 Sacyra Menipprea. ^.461- 
 
 ' ' - 7 
 
 70 
 
 ClCF.RO: 
 
 Tranflation of Aratus. ^.21 
 
 - 9 
 
 107 
 
 ^.61 
 
 - - - - 11 
 
 3 i 
 
 125 - 
 
 _ . - j j 
 
 6 5 
 
 4.154 - 
 
 - - - ii 
 
 22 
 
 Catullus. 
 
 Pacuvius. 
 
 Antiope. #*17--- 
 
 
 
 12 
 
 Plautus. 
 
 Amphitruo. Prol. ----- y. 
 
 *43 
 
 - - - 8 
 
 IX 5 
 
 Aft. 5. Sc. 1. jfr. 
 
 64 
 
 - ' - 9 
 
 15 
 
 Bacchides. Aft. 2. Sc. 3. 
 
 22 
 
 - - 12 
 
 79 
 
 Aft. 3. Sc. 3. j/. 
 
 30 
 
 - - 17 
 
 3 
 
 Rudens. Aft. 2. Sc. 4. y. 
 
 9 
 
 ■ -- 7 
 
 7 
 
 Truculentus. Aft. 2. Sc. 6. *. 
 
 34 
 
 --'7 
 
 72 
 
 
 49, &c. 7 
 
 72 
 
 C/ECILIUS. 
 
 Incert. . .. ----- 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 Terence. 
 
 Eunuchus. Aft. 2. Sc. 3. 26 
 
 
 - - 7 
 
 10 
 
 Heaucont. Prol.-25 
 
 
 - - 2 
 
 36 
 
 Aft. 4. Sc. 3. i). 1, 
 
 &c. 
 
 — 2 
 
 36 
 
 Phormio. Aft. i. Sc. i.i- io 
 
 
 - - 10 
 
 77 
 
 Afranius. 
 
 Sella. 4 . 189- 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 Licinius Imbrex. 
 Neara. 1 - -- -.. 
 
 - - 7 
 
 70 
 
 Lucilius. 
 
 Sat. Lib. 4.3^. 6 .- 
 
 
 
 113 
 
 De Aty. Carm. 61.-40-8 10 
 
 DeNupt. Pel. Carm. 62. 28-14 41 
 
 ^.150-16 42 
 
 *.311-10 75 
 
 DeComa Ber. Carm. 64. jr. 5-12 24 
 
 Ad Gellium, Carm. 85. 6 - - - - 14 3 
 
 Lucretius. 
 
 Lib. 1. y. 66 --------- 8 112 
 
 119...- 2 25 
 
 2 51-- . -13 61 
 
 2. 47 -------- 16 24 
 
 3- 993 ---------- 16 182 
 
 1097 ------- ---16 180 
 
 4- ”65-6 63 
 
 1158 ----------8 109 
 
 5. 10 ---------- 10 i 
 
 28-9 32 
 
 73 s ..- 12 74 
 
 740 -13 54 
 
 741 - 13 39 
 
 745 - 12 76 
 
 746 -12 75 
 
 746-13 53 
 
 ”97- 10 33 
 
 6. 297 — - - ------- 6 10 
 
 427.*3 32 
 
 1271.- - 16 30 
 
 Poets 
 
342. 
 
 Classical Index. 
 
 Poets of the Augustan Age. 
 
 Virgil. 
 
 Eel. i. 
 
 5 - 
 
 6. 
 
 7 * 
 
 8 . 
 
 io. 
 
 Georg, i. 
 
 i, &c. 
 
 „ 6 
 28 
 
 7 2 ' 
 59 
 
 i, 
 
 io 
 
 46 
 
 73 
 2 
 
 75 • 
 ' 25 
 
 32 
 
 l 3 
 
 62 
 1 - 
 17 - 
 
 3 1 - 
 
 32, &c. 
 
 38 - - - 
 
 96- 
 
 204- 
 
 211 - - - 
 
 217- 
 
 233 ‘ - 
 
 245- 
 
 328- 
 
 404 - - - 
 418 - - - 
 
 447 - 
 
 453 - 
 
 462- 
 
 482 - - - 
 
 490- 
 
 498 - - - 
 98 
 
 Dial. Note 
 --6 75 
 
 ■ 15 
 
 - 9 
 
 1 5 
 
 - 1 1 
 
 -15 
 
 - *5 
 
 - H 
 
 -ii 
 
 16 
 
 J 3 
 
 6 
 
 -15 
 
 13 
 
 -13 
 
 -14 
 
 126, &c. - - --20 
 
 3 2 5 , & c-.20 
 
 334 
 339 
 342 • 
 
 -13 
 
 *3 
 
 89 
 
 74 
 *3 
 55 
 14 
 
 75 
 37 
 33 
 
 50 
 
 99 
 
 94 
 
 99 
 
 59 
 
 3 
 5 1 
 206 
 110 
 
 35 
 
 81 
 
 4 
 
 6 
 
 3 6 
 5 ° 
 7 1 
 93 
 
 24 
 
 13 
 
 88 
 
 48 
 
 39 
 
 44 
 
 *5 
 
 30 
 
 37 
 37 
 
 11S 
 
 Georg. 4. *.342- 
 
 345 " “ 
 
 361- 
 
 363 — 
 
 371, &c. 
 
 382- 
 
 407- 
 
 423- 
 
 425- 
 
 451- 
 
 482 - - - 
 
 484- 
 
 iEn. 1. 4- 
 
 7 - 
 
 16 - 
 
 38, &c. 
 
 42- 
 
 52- 
 
 52, &c. 
 
 54 - 
 
 71 - - - 
 
 93 - 
 
 126- 
 
 Dial. Note 
 
 --14 38 
 
 7 66 
 
 - - 14 60 
 
 - 14 108 
 
 - 14 92 
 
 - -14 i 
 
 ‘ -14 32 
 
 - -14 
 
 -14 
 
 -16 
 
 -16 
 
 -20 
 
 - 3 
 
 - 6 
 20 
 - 6 
 " J 3 
 
 13 
 
 -»3 
 
 -*3 
 
 12.6,_&c.-- 
 
 25:5. 
 
 292.. 
 
 499 .. 
 
 591- 
 
 74-0 .. 
 
 167. 
 
 172, &c.- 
 
 406. 
 
 41?.. 13 
 
 612, &c.-6 
 
 684 
 688 ■ 
 96 
 120 
 2 75 • 
 438 • 
 26 
 
 122 • 
 
 - 8 
 -12 
 
 - 3 
 -*3 
 
 - 8 
 - 6 
 
 16 
 - 6 
 
 33 
 111 
 
 34 
 
 13 i 
 190 
 47 
 10 
 39 
 5 1 
 80 
 37 
 57 
 
 57 
 
 58 
 49 
 
 5 
 
 42 
 
 97 
 
 62 
 
 67 
 
 65 
 
 49 
 
 64 
 
 76 
 
 80 
 
 389 -- - 
 
 
 87 
 
 141 - 
 
 
 1 
 
 392 - - - — ■ 
 
 
 83 
 
 143 - 
 
 
 25 
 
 392 -- 
 
 
 I 
 
 * 5 ° .- 
 
 
 
 473 . 
 
 
 12 
 
 175 - 
 
 
 1 50 
 
 490, &c. -- 
 
 
 48 
 
 176 - 
 
 
 83 
 
 521 -- - - 
 
 
 64 
 
 1 S 1 - 
 
 
 86 
 
 37, &c. - - - - 
 
 
 I 89 
 
 1S2 - 
 
 
 85 
 
 85 - 
 
 
 36 
 
 1S6 - 
 
 
 90 
 
 359 .- • 
 
 
 39 
 
 247 - 
 
 
 41' 
 
 554 - - 
 
 
 150 
 
 248, &c. -- 
 
 - - - -15 
 
 40 
 
 52 * * - - 
 
 
 73 
 
 511- 
 
 - 8 
 
 102 
 
 125, &c.- 
 
 
 57 
 
 569 - 
 
 - 8 
 
 114 
 
 231, &c. - - - - 
 
 
 JI 5 
 
 5. 662 -. 
 
 
 l 9 
 
 329, &c. - - - 
 
 - - - - 15 
 
 74 
 
 721- 
 
 
 89 
 
 333 . &C. - - - - 
 
 
 63 
 
 740 . 
 
 
 83 
 
 TEn. 
 
344 
 
 Classical Index, 
 
 Lib. 
 
 I.Ode35. *• 
 
 II. 8. 
 
 I 3 - 
 
 14. 
 16. 
 
 * 7 - 
 
 19. 
 
 III. 1. 
 
 3 * 
 
 4 - 
 
 19. 
 
 21. 
 
 22. 
 24. 
 
 29. 
 3 °- 
 IV. 3. 
 
 4 * 
 
 7 - 
 
 14. 
 
 Epod. 2. 
 8 . 
 
 1 7 - 
 
 Carm. Sasc. 
 
 Lib. 
 
 I. Sat. r. 
 
 iS, &c. 
 21 - - 
 21 - - 
 23 - - 
 
 >5 * - 
 
 21 - - 
 
 22 - - 
 
 35 ' * 
 
 8 - - 
 11 - - 
 22 - - 
 5, &c. 
 29 - - 
 40 - - • 
 
 9 - - 
 
 10, &c. 
 
 13 — 
 
 16 - - - 
 
 2 - 
 
 59 - 
 
 61 - - - 
 4 - - ' 
 15, &c. 
 
 18 - - 
 
 17 - 
 
 22 - - 
 
 4 - - 
 5 * &c - 
 9 - - 
 
 43 - -- 
 
 44 " - 
 53 - - ■ 
 16 - - - 
 
 7 - - 
 
 19 - - 
 
 Dial. 
 
 Note 
 
 Lib. 
 
 
 Dial. N 
 
 ole 
 
 • 10 
 
 7 1 
 
 I. Sat. 3. 
 
 1 33 .. 
 
 
 l 9 
 
 10 
 
 59 
 
 5 - 
 
 40.- 
 
 -3 
 
 20 
 
 10 
 
 94 
 
 
 63- 
 
 -14 
 
 37 
 
 • 10 
 
 87 
 
 6. 
 
 54 - 
 
 - 3 
 
 20 
 
 - 7 
 
 32 
 
 
 121 - - - - - - 
 
 -- 8 
 
 79 
 
 16 
 
 204 
 
 8. 
 
 1, &c.-- 
 
 -15 
 
 64 
 
 16 
 
 20 
 
 9 - 
 
 59 - 
 
 
 20 
 
 16 
 
 l 3 1 
 
 10. 
 
 44 . 
 
 - 3 
 
 2 
 
 - 9 
 
 3 2 
 
 II. 3. 
 
 1 7 - 
 
 -6 
 
 *9 
 
 - 16 
 
 24 
 
 
 35 -- - - 
 
 ----- 6 
 
 »9 
 
 
 2 4 
 
 
 6 y - 
 
 -8 
 
 
 - 3 
 
 22 
 
 6. 
 
 101- 
 
 - - - - - 12 
 
 9 ° 
 
 “ 9 
 
 s 5 
 
 7 - 
 
 14- 
 
 -15 
 
 61 
 
 - 16 
 
 24 
 
 
 
 
 
 ' - 9 
 
 7 
 
 I. Ep. 1. 
 
 3 °- 
 
 -- 9 
 
 10 
 
 ■ - 9 
 
 2 
 
 2. 
 
 4- 
 
 . -- 10 
 
 3 
 
 - 9 
 
 77 
 
 
 23- 
 
 --10 
 
 26 
 
 - 9 
 
 I08 
 
 
 63 - 
 
 - - - - 10 
 
 3 i 
 
 - 8 
 
 46 
 
 3 - 
 
 17-- - - 
 
 .8 
 
 74 
 
 ■ - 6 
 
 38 
 
 
 25-- 
 
 
 99 
 
 ■ - 6 
 
 79 
 
 7 - 
 
 87- 
 
 
 5 i 
 
 - - 8 
 
 1 3 I 
 
 12. 
 
 29. 
 
 
 58 
 
 - 16 
 
 211 
 
 18. 
 
 4 2 . 
 
 
 17 
 
 - 16 
 
 93 
 
 ' 9 - 
 
 4- 
 
 
 98 
 
 - 7 
 
 44 
 
 II. I. 
 
 7, &C. - - - 
 
 -9 
 
 1 
 
 - - 7 
 
 44 
 
 
 26 - - - - - - 
 
 
 11 
 
 - 8 
 
 IOI 
 
 
 59 -- 
 
 
 32 
 
 - 10 
 
 7 r 
 
 
 62 - - -- 
 
 
 *9 
 
 - -16 
 
 41 
 
 
 7 1 - -- - 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 16 
 
 
 86-- 
 
 
 8 
 
 
 20 
 
 
 126. 
 
 --17 
 
 3 
 
 - 10 
 
 88 
 
 
 146 ----- 
 
 
 12 
 
 • - 8 
 
 5 2 
 
 
 156- 
 
 
 20 
 
 - 10 
 
 59 
 
 
 ■78. 
 
 
 67 
 
 - 8 
 
 135 
 
 2 . 
 
 187, &c.- 
 
 -10 
 
 79 
 
 3 
 
 44 - 
 
 18 
 
 9 
 
 8 
 
 49 
 
 7i 
 
 39 
 
 Ars Poet. 
 
 Faft. 
 
 144 ■ 
 
 413 
 
 62 
 
 16 
 
 2 5 . 
 
 -14 
 
 90 
 
 Lib. I. 
 
 f. 2- 
 
 
 2 
 
 44 - 
 
 ■-- 14 
 
 75 
 
 
 37 -. 
 
 . 9 
 
 110 
 
 
 
 
 
 95 .- 
 
 
 119 
 
 J 7 . 
 
 
 6 3 
 
 
 114-- . . 
 
 
 I2 7 
 
 3 -- 
 
 
 57 
 
 
 125-- 
 
 
 118 
 
 9 .... - 
 
 
 7 
 
 
 141- 
 
 -8 
 
 102 
 
 41- 
 
 
 116 
 
 
 1 99 - 
 
 - _ - - 5 
 
 c 
 
 
 
 
 
 229, &c. - - - 
 
 - - - - 12 
 
 I2 5 
 
 34 -- 
 
 
 7 1 
 
 
 234- 
 
 
 8 
 
 35 -- 
 
 
 21 
 
 
 281- 
 
 
 57 
 
 60 --- 
 
 
 58 
 
 
 286-- - 
 
 -14 
 
 86 
 
 
 
 
 
 614 ------ 
 
 -14 
 
 104 
 
 19 - -- 
 
 - - - 6 
 
 26 
 
 
 645- 
 
 -15 
 
 21 
 
 36- 
 
 
 34 
 
 
 652 - - - - 
 
 
 67 
 
 69- 
 
 
 186 
 
 
 711- 
 
 
 53 
 
 71- 
 
 
 180 
 
 II. 
 
 28- 
 
 .6 
 
 19 
 
 30. 
 
 
 37 
 
 
 72- 
 
 
 35 
 
 94 . 
 
 -- 6 
 
 37 
 
 
 79 . 
 
 
 23 
 
 99 -- 
 
 
 37 
 
 
 81- 
 
 
 4 2 
 
 126. 
 
 
 106 
 
 
 1 55 --- 
 
 
 93 
 
Classical Index 
 
 Dial. Note Faft. 
 
 *155. 
 
 . 15 
 
 59 
 
 Lib. 
 
 VI. f. 
 
 755 - 
 
 312- 
 
 - - - - - 12 
 
 
 
 
 77 2 
 
 312- 
 
 - - - - - 12 
 
 109 
 
 Amorum. 
 
 
 418. 
 
 -9 
 
 107 
 
 Lib. 
 
 El. I . jr. 
 
 .10- 
 
 455 - 
 
 - - - - - 11 
 
 67 
 
 I. 
 
 2. 
 
 31 - - • 
 
 496- 
 
 - 9 
 
 108 
 
 
 3 - 
 
 11--- 
 
 501 ----- 
 
 -9 
 
 109 
 
 
 8. 
 
 50 - - 
 
 597 . 
 
 -14 
 
 123 
 
 
 
 59 - 
 
 607 ----- 
 
 -6 
 
 26 
 
 
 9 - 
 
 31- 
 
 634- 
 
 -15 
 
 35 
 
 
 
 40- 
 
 856 - - - - - 
 
 .12 
 
 10 
 
 
 i 3 * 
 
 2 - - 
 
 43 - 
 
 .12 
 
 59 
 
 
 
 10- 
 
 45 . 
 
 .. 7 
 
 84 
 
 
 14. 
 
 31, &c. 
 
 108 - - - - - 
 
 - - - 11 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 34 - - 
 
 235 - 
 
 --- 12 
 
 7 2 
 
 II. 
 
 6. 
 
 46 - - 
 
 363. 
 
 - 10 
 
 33 
 
 III. 
 
 1. 
 
 r, &c. 
 
 IV. 
 
 404 - 
 500 - 
 690 - 
 7 2 9 - 
 773 - 
 789 - 
 848 - 
 1 - 
 14 - 
 127 - 
 H3 * 
 162 ■ 
 J62 - 
 196 • 
 231 ■ 
 
 37 1 ■ 
 388 ■ 
 424 ■ 
 603 
 
 -9 
 
 14 
 
 " 9 
 ' 9 
 
 - 9 
 
 - 6 
 
 - -7 
 
 - -8 
 
 15 
 - H 
 
 96 
 86 
 46 
 
 77 
 82 
 
 88 12. 
 
 78 Ars Am. 
 J 9 
 
 3 - 
 
 6 . 
 
 10. 
 
 40 
 
 44 
 
 3 
 
 43 
 
 57 
 
 J 7 
 
 56 
 
 77 
 43 
 59 
 39 
 106 
 106 
 116 
 
 Lib. 
 
 I. 
 
 712-- 
 
 
 102 
 
 657 - - - - 
 
 - 7 
 
 »4 
 
 714 . 
 
 --12 
 
 97 
 
 670 - - - - 
 
 .12 
 
 57 
 
 8 95 - 
 
 --12 
 
 66 
 
 III. 62- 
 
 .12 
 
 58 
 
 907, &c.- 
 
 -1 5 
 
 69 
 
 62 - - - - 
 
 .12 
 
 114 
 
 944- 
 
 - - - - - 12 
 
 99 
 
 65- 
 
 
 i '4 
 
 954 - 
 
 -6 
 
 53 
 
 84 - - - - 
 
 ------ 12 
 
 92 
 
 16 - - - - - 
 
 -12 
 
 22 
 
 141- 
 
 -8 
 
 60 
 
 37 - 
 
 --16 
 
 169 
 
 M 3 . 
 
 -- 8 
 
 93 
 
 80- 
 
 -8 
 
 45 
 
 180- - - - • 
 
 ------ -12 
 
 26 
 
 104- 
 
 .8 
 
 130 
 
 347 - 
 
 . 9 
 
 98 
 
 127. 
 
 
 58 
 
 34s- 
 
 ' .. 9 
 
 Ss 
 
 160-- - 
 
 
 99 
 
 348- 
 
 ‘ -. 9 
 
 IOO 
 
 169 ----- - 
 
 -15 
 
 41 
 
 388- 
 
 ------ 12 
 
 45 
 
 209, &c. - - - 
 
 -,5 
 
 54 
 
 411-- 
 
 -- 9 
 
 99 
 
 217. 
 
 .12 
 
 112 
 
 452 - - - - 
 
 - 7 
 
 16 
 
 323- 
 
 
 5 i 
 
 504 ' - ‘ - 
 
 .6 
 
 68 
 
 356, &c.- 
 
 . »5 
 
 53 
 
 Rem. Am. 
 
 
 
 413. 
 
 .- 11 
 
 96 
 
 *•39 - 
 
 - - - - . - - 7 
 
 30 
 
 550. 
 
 
 81 
 
 547 - 
 
 - 7 
 
 20 
 
 91- 
 
 -10 
 
 53 
 
 660 - - - - 
 
 . 7 
 
 16 
 
 35 s- 
 
 . *5 
 
 25 
 
 702 - - - - 
 
 -. 7 
 
 30 
 
 375 - 
 
 . 9 
 
 no 
 
 Heroides. 
 
 
 
 487 - - — 
 
 - _ --6 
 
 26 
 
 Ep. 4 -*- 39 -- 
 
 .- 8 
 
 93 
 
 652. 
 
 -6 
 
 57 
 
 l 59 . 
 
 ------- 12 
 
 28 
 
 707 ----- 
 
 .8 
 
 80 
 
 5. 28 - - - - 
 
 .6 
 
 2Q 
 
 
 
 
 Heroides. 
 
 J 
 
34 6 
 
 Heroides. 
 
 Ep. 7. j/. 60 - - - 
 
 8. 1 05 - - - 
 
 9. 77, &c. 
 98 - - - 
 
 12 . 
 
 * 3 - 
 
 * 5 ' 
 
 16. 
 
 * 7 - 
 
 20 . 
 
 H ' 
 79 ' 
 33 
 
 23 ■ 
 
 24 - 
 165 ■ 
 
 64 • 
 81 - 
 88 - 
 1 
 
 41 - 
 60 - 
 
 Ibis. 
 
 201 - - - 
 Conf. ad Liv. 
 
 121, Sec. 
 
 164 - - 
 282 - - - 
 361 - -. 
 
 Metamorph. 
 
 Lib. I. 14 - - - 
 
 59 ‘ - 
 
 II. 
 
 108 - - - 
 327 - - - 
 166 - - - 
 176 - - - 
 184- 
 
 265 — 
 
 270- 
 
 331 - 
 
 333 - 
 
 528 - - - 
 
 564- 
 
 579 - 
 
 671 - - - 
 690 - - - 
 
 13- 
 
 23, &c. - 
 
 25 - 
 
 26 - - - 
 
 26 - - - 
 
 27 - 
 
 28 - - - 
 
 29 -- 
 
 30 -■ 
 
 41 -• 
 
 50- 
 
 63 * - - 
 
 83 - - - . 
 
 85- 
 
 n 9 - 
 
 *33 - 
 
 *43 - - - - 
 195, &c. - ■ 
 231 ... . 
 
 S S I 
 
 cal Index, 
 
 Dial. 
 
 Note 
 
 Metamorph. 
 
 - 14 
 
 *7 
 
 Lib. II. y. 255 - - 
 
 - 12 
 
 29 
 
 272, &c. 
 
 - - 9 
 
 76 
 
 3 2 5 - - 
 
 - - 9 
 
 45 
 
 3 2 5 - * 
 
 --*3 
 
 56 
 
 752 - - 
 
 - - *3 
 
 7 
 
 773 * * 
 
 - - 8 
 
 IOt 
 
 848 - - 
 
 - - 9 
 
 85 
 
 849 - - 
 
 ~ - 8 
 
 1 
 
 HI. 45 -- 
 
 - - 9 
 
 8 5 
 
 l80 - - 
 
 - - 8 
 
 63 
 
 2 93 - - 
 
 - - 8 
 
 119 
 
 421 - * 
 
 
 27 
 
 421 - - 
 
 ' *5 
 
 43 
 
 607 - - 
 
 ■ - 10 
 
 2 7 
 
 608 * - 
 
 - 10 
 
 20 
 
 IV. 17, &c. 
 
 - *4 
 
 39 
 
 20 * - 
 
 92 - - 
 
 
 7 ° 
 
 188 - - 
 
 189 - - 
 
 - *4 
 
 64 
 
 *93 - - - 
 
 
 73 
 
 490 - - - 
 
 
 96 
 
 494 - - 
 
 
 40 
 
 656, See. 
 
 665 - - 
 
 
 >4 
 
 719 - 
 
 
 3 2 
 
 726 - - • 
 
 
 11S 
 
 V. 3 t 9 - - 
 
 
 18 
 
 3 2 5 - - 
 
 
 5 
 
 339 - - 
 
 
 27 
 
 506 - - 
 
 
 *5 
 
 553 “ - 
 
 - 16 
 
 169 
 
 VI. 74 - - ■ 
 
 - '3 
 
 11 
 
 76 - - - 
 
 
 79 
 
 1 1 s - 
 
 ~ *4 
 
 8 
 
 I 30 - - - 
 
 *4 
 
 8 
 
 - S 
 -I 4 
 
 123 
 
 7 
 
 6 3 
 
 117 
 
 59 
 
 49 
 
 46 
 8 © 
 56 
 1 1 5 
 
 61 
 
 62 
 66 
 72 
 28 
 10 
 
 39 
 
 56 
 
 36 
 
 Il 3 
 
 44 
 
 90 
 
 56 
 
 *75 ‘ - 
 217 - - 
 231 - . 
 265 - - 
 
 2 93 - - 
 298 - - 
 487 - - 
 686 - - 
 705 - - 
 VII. 4ii,&c. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 IX. 
 
 i So, &c. 
 185 - 
 2 59 - - - 
 
 Dial. Note 
 76 
 *3 
 
 ' *4 
 ‘ ' *5 
 - 6 
 - 6 
 - 6 
 - -6 
 - -6 
 - - 6 
 
 - - - 16 
 " ~ • 16 
 
 16 
 
 J 9 
 - 6 
 
 - 6 
 ’ *5 
 - 8 
 
 - - 8 
 - 8 
 
 542-- - 
 
 
 581 . 
 
 -16 
 
 821, Sec. - - - - 
 
 
 13- 
 
 
 31-. 
 
 ■ --8 
 
 150- 
 
 
 181 -. 
 
 207- 
 
 
 270 ------ 
 
 373 , &c. - - - - 
 
 - 7 
 
 481, &c.- 
 
 - - - 16 
 
 35 
 
 60 
 
 5 ^ 
 
 35 
 
 6 
 
 96 
 
 1 
 
 9 
 
 89 
 
 84 
 
 94- 
 
 84 
 
 77 
 
 90 
 64 
 66 
 
 *37 
 *5 39 
 
 8 126 
 
 -8 126 
 
 -8 126 
 
 16 168 
 
 - 16 
 
 I 7 I 
 45 
 20 6 
 
 7 
 
 2 
 
 6 
 
 106 
 
 59 
 
 4 * 
 
 92 
 
 90 
 
 89 
 
 88 
 
 85 
 
 40 
 
 2 3 
 
 24 
 
 35 
 
 42 
 
 4 1 
 45 
 61 
 
 1 '9 
 58 
 
 3 2 
 
 57 
 
 Mctamorpi'i 
 
Si WMm Z X 
 
 Classical Index, 
 
 Metamorph. 
 
 
 Dial. 
 
 Note 
 
 Lib. 
 
 Lib. IX. *■ 
 
 268 - - - 
 
 .. 9 
 
 57 
 
 I. El. 10. 
 
 
 481-- 
 
 - 7 
 
 4 i 
 
 II. 1. 
 
 X. 
 
 21 - - - - - 
 
 
 92 
 
 3 - 
 
 
 22-- 
 
 
 94 
 
 5 - 
 
 
 160 - - - - 
 
 
 8 
 
 III. 4. 
 
 
 l6l - - - - 
 
 - - - - - 21 
 
 10 
 
 
 XI. 
 
 48 - - - - 
 
 
 125 
 
 IV. 13. 
 
 
 158 - - - - 
 
 . »5 
 
 45 
 
 Lib. 
 
 
 l66- 
 
 -8 
 
 60 
 
 9 o 
 
 Propertius. 
 
 XII. 
 
 J 72 . 15 
 
 , 95 -13 
 
 257 --12 
 
 592, &C..16 
 
 619, &c..16 
 
 39, &c.- j 3 
 
 53, &c.-- - - 13 
 
 Dial. Note 
 - 10 55 
 
 XIII. 26 - 
 
 399 
 
 895 
 
 XIV. 143 
 
 89 
 
 II. El. 
 
 . 20. 
 
 *•7 - 
 
 - 8 
 
 9 1 
 
 
 2 3 - 
 
 19. 
 
 . 7 
 
 6 7 
 
 
 27. 
 
 12-- - - 
 
 - * - * 13 
 
 32 
 
 
 3 i- 
 
 16.- - 
 
 -8 
 
 70 
 
 III. 
 
 i 5 - 
 
 38, &c. -- 
 
 
 
 
 20. 
 
 18 -. 
 
 
 21 
 
 IV. 
 
 1. 
 
 5 . 
 
 . 5 
 
 8 
 
 
 2. 
 
 25-- 
 
 
 8 
 
 
 4 ’ 
 
 40- 
 
 
 5 ° 
 
 
 6. 
 
 30 -- 
 
 • - - - - 8 
 
 21 
 
 
 
 57 - 
 
 .... g 
 
 65 
 
 
 
 68 .- 
 
 
 6 5 
 
 
 
 70 . 
 
 •-8 
 
 72 
 
 347 
 
 XV. 
 
 Columella. 
 
 De Cult. Hort. 
 
 44 
 
 547, &c. 
 654, &c. 
 789 - - - 
 
 Trill. 
 
 Lib. I. El. 6. 2 
 
 II. 125 
 
 296 - - - 
 521, &c. 
 528- 
 
 IV. 
 
 Ph-zedrus. 
 
 Lib. Fab. 
 
 III. 10. jfr. 9, &c. - - - - ■ 
 
 IV. 6. 6, &c.. 
 
 21. i,&c.. 
 
 Lib. 
 
 Manilius. 
 
 V. 3- 43 
 Ex. Pont. 
 Lib.lI.Ep. 8.^19 
 10. 12 
 III. 1. 11 
 
 83 
 
 TIBULLUS. 
 
 II. 
 
 U u u u 
 
349 
 
 Classical Index. 
 
 6 . 
 
 8 . 
 
 186 • 
 
 Statius. 
 
 Sylvie. 
 
 14 
 
 - 6 
 
 Dial. Note 
 
 Valerius Flaccus,' 
 
 Argonaut. 
 
 Lib. i . -j/, 16, &c. ----- _ Ix 
 
 78------ i 0 
 
 io6 
 116 
 
 129, See . - -- -- -- a 
 
 *3 2 . 14 
 
 *54.- - 9 
 
 593, &c.-13 
 
 6 lO - -------- 
 
 652 .. 13 
 
 6SO - - 
 
 2 . 102 , &C. 
 
 207 -- - l6 
 
 208 -- - _ 7 
 
 2 7*. 9 
 
 49 2 " .- 8 
 
 3. 47’ &c --15 
 
 5 6 - - -.15 
 
 524 - ----- 12 ^ 
 
 4. 93>&c. - --12 31 
 
 67°. 6 
 
 5. 210 
 
 4i3> &c - -.11 
 
 4H.12 
 
 416- 11 
 
 5 G .6 
 
 5 6 .- 6 
 
 174.6 
 
 457 . 7 
 
 29. 12 
 
 70-16 
 
 50 
 
 67 
 
 66 
 
 80 
 
 87 
 
 45 
 
 12 
 
 57 
 
 10 
 
 5 2 
 
 6 
 
 61 
 
 51 
 
 62 
 
 85 
 
 1 
 
 86 
 82 
 
 80 
 14 110 
 
 122 
 
 Lib. 
 
 2. Sy!. 131 
 
 3. 1. 18 - 
 
 27 - 
 
 39 - 
 
 40 - 
 48 - 
 
 132 • 
 J 35 
 
 2. i 5 . 
 34 
 
 3- 7 
 
 62 
 
 14 
 
 7 
 
 29 
 
 ■ H 
 
 5- 
 
 Thebais. 
 
 2 9 - 
 
 83 
 
 16 
 
 67- 
 
 5 ■ 
 
 6 
 3 i 
 40 
 
 57 
 
 58 
 156 
 2 35 
 
 26 
 
 124 
 
 129 
 
 6 
 
 7 » 
 
 * r 5 
 
 291 
 
 10 
 
 19 
 
 4 
 
 &c. 
 
 Dial. Note 
 
 - 16 29 
 
 - 12 77 
 
 5 2 
 61 
 76 
 
 15 
 
 79 
 
 12 59 
 
 11 119 
 
 --9 
 
 " 9 
 
 - 9 
 
 - 7 
 
 r 4 
 
 - - 9 
 ‘ 9 
 ’ - 7 
 ' - 7 
 
 ’ - 7 
 
 - - 9 
 
 - 9 
 
 - - 9 
 
 - 16 
 ' * 7 
 
 - - 9 
 
 - - 9 
 
 .Syl.i 
 
 [^•69- 
 
 -14 
 
 102 
 
 Lib. 1. 24, &c. - - - . 
 
 ■ - - - - I I 
 
 
 2I 7.. 
 
 
 68 
 
 28- 
 
 
 
 2 .->5 - - . 
 
 
 63 
 
 91 - -- 
 
 
 2. 
 
 10 - - - - 
 
 -8 
 
 3 1 
 
 in ------ 
 
 
 
 44 -- 
 
 
 87 
 
 203-. 
 
 
 
 11S-■ 
 
 --14 
 
 l 9 
 
 338.- 
 
 
 
 249- 
 
 -9 
 
 99 
 
 351 - 
 
 - - - - I 3 
 
 
 270 ------- 
 
 
 8 
 
 352 -. 
 
 
 3 - 
 
 62- 
 
 -15 
 
 59 
 
 483- 
 
 
 
 73 -- 
 
 
 97 
 
 4S7- 
 
 - -9 
 
 
 75 -. 
 
 
 98 
 
 631- 
 
 
 4 - 
 
 25- 
 
 -9 
 
 104 
 
 633- 
 
 
 
 101 -- 
 
 -- 9 
 
 102 
 
 662 -- 
 
 
 
 ioS-- - 
 
 •--9 
 
 103 
 
 2 - 45 .. 
 
 
 5 - 
 
 3 - ~ - -- 
 
 --9 
 
 98 
 
 47 - 
 
 -14 
 
 
 4 -- 
 
 -8 
 
 1 35 
 
 49 -- 
 
 
 
 8- 
 
 ■- 7 
 
 79 
 
 13 6 -. 
 
 
 
 iS.. 
 
 .14 
 
 123 
 
 208 -- 
 
 
 6. 
 
 4 - 
 
 -_ 12 
 
 5 
 
 218 -. 
 
 
 
 5 . 
 
 
 78 
 
 236- 
 
 -6 
 
 
 62- - — - -- 
 
 --10 
 
 22 
 
 23 s . 
 
 
 1. 
 
 217- 
 
 - - - - 12 
 
 68 
 
 528.- 
 
 
 6. 
 
 73, &c.- 
 
 -16 
 
 49 
 
 716 ------ 
 
 
 7 * 
 
 34, &c.- 
 
 -4 
 
 36 
 
 3. 2-- 
 
 
 48 
 
 36 
 
 85 
 
 104 
 
 18 
 
 5 i 
 
 128 
 
 100 
 
 70 
 73 
 57 
 *7 
 
 7 1 
 7 i 
 44 
 6 3 
 42 
 42 
 
 - 9 105 
 
 - 9 98 
 
 - - 9 99 
 
 - 9 99 
 
 14 107 
 
 - 12 98 
 
 - 16 63 
 
 ’ - 8 135 
 
 50 
 28 
 
 2 3 
 
 33 
 
 16 
 
 92 
 
 3 6 
 
 89 
 
 96 
 82 
 111 
 
 56 
 
 57 
 88 
 5 ^ 
 90 
 
THE 
 
 general index. 
 
 3 S3 
 
 A. 
 
 A bundantia ; how diftinguifhed, 
 
 p. 148. 
 
 Achelous, . .. ------ p.235. 
 
 Adtius, the Poet, - ---p. 13, & 23. 
 
 Ades ; what part of the fubterraneous world was 
 
 meant by that name, --p. 259. 
 
 /EaciiSj - -- -- -- -- -- - p. 259, & 282. 
 
 Aigeon,... p. 278. 
 
 /Egis; the proper fignification of that word, 
 among the Romans* ----- p. 62, N. 78. 
 /Eoius, - -- -- -- -- -- -- -- - p, 209. 
 
 /Equitas ; how marked our,- - --P- 138. 
 
 /Eftas, - p. i^r. 
 
 Asternitas,----- p. 187. 
 
 Afranius, the Poet, - -- -- -- -- -p. 13. 
 
 Africa,.p. 242. 
 
 Africus, (the S. W. Wind,)-p. 202, 205. 
 
 Ages : the four Ages, or gradations of life; fee, 
 Infancy, &c. 
 
 Air-Nymphs; fee, Aurte. 
 
 Albula, ----- - p. 239. 
 
 Aledto, the Fury, p. 275.—From what part 
 of Italy Virgil makes her defcend into hell, 
 p. 276, N. 162. 
 
 Alexandria, - -- -- -- -- -- -- - p. 244. 
 
 Algus, ... . p. 192. 
 
 Allegories; and Allegorical Reprefentations : 
 thofe of the Greeks and Romans, not to be 
 confounded together, p. 5. —The antients 
 
 dealt much more in Allegories, than they are 
 generally imagined to have done, p^ 208, 229, 
 N. 74, 239. See the greater part of the ar¬ 
 ticles in this Index.-How exadt the an- 
 
 tient artifts were in adapting not only the cha¬ 
 racters, but the very poftures and colour of 
 their figures, to the things fignified by them, 
 p, 228. See, Sculptors.—Generally point out 
 the thing intended eafily, and clearly ; and 
 often, by fome fingle circumftance, p. 292.— 
 Propriety and fimplicity, their general cha¬ 
 racter, ibid.—The modern artifts fail much, 
 in both, ib.—The obfeurity, and extravagance 
 of the modern Allegories ; inftanced, from 
 Ripa, p. 293, &c. — Their lownefs, and 
 frivoloufnefs ; from Venius, Rubens’s mailer, 
 p, 295.—Defects of this kind in Rubens him- 
 . felf : fliewn from his defigns, for the Entry of 
 Ferdinand of Auftria into Antwerp, p. 296. 
 From his paintings, in the Banqueting-Houfe, 
 
 at Whitehall, p. 297 ; and from thofe in the 
 Luxemburg palace, at Paris, p. 298.—In- 
 ftances of Dominiquin’s and Raphael’s falling 
 Ihort of the propriety and fimplicity of the 
 antient allegorifts; p. 144, & 299.—Faults 
 of our poets ; in their allegorical ddcriptions : 
 inftanced, from Spenier, p. 302, &c.—Faults 
 of our tranflators of the antient poets ; in re¬ 
 lation to their Allegories: inftanced, from 
 Dryden, p. 309, &e. See; Machinery. 
 
 Alo ' 1 ' d ®>.-.- p. 278. 
 
 Altus, in the Roman poets, fometimes relates to 
 the attitude of a perfon, or figure; p. 55, N. ”6- 
 
 Amphitrite, . ..- * - - p. 219. 
 
 Anaduomene : fee, Venus. 
 
 Andromeda : as a Conftellation, - - - - - p. 16S. 
 
 Anguis ; or, the great Serpent: its windings on 
 the antient globes, . ..p. jg^. 
 
 Anio, - -- -- -- -- -- -- -- - p. 233; 
 
 Annona: how diftinguifhed from Abundantia, 
 p. 148. 
 
 Annus; fpoken of perfonally, p. 190.—See, 
 Magnus Annus. 
 
 Anteros ; one of the two chiefs over all the Cu¬ 
 pids : the caufe of love’s ceafing, - - - p. 69, 
 
 Apenninus; mentioned perfonally, - - - p. 248. 
 
 Apollo : the diftinguifhing character of his ptr- 
 fon,.- --p. 834 
 
 Apollo Adlius : how reprefented, on the Pro¬ 
 montory of Adtium, p. 93 —How in the 
 temple built to him by Auguftus, on the Pa¬ 
 latine hill, p. 94. 
 
 Apollo Belvedere : the nobleft of all the antient 
 ftatues, that remain to us, - - - - - - - p. 83* 
 
 Aquarius,--p. 1721 
 
 Aquila : the Conftellation, - p. j.gg. 
 
 Aquilo ; (the N. E. Wind,) p. 202. 205. & 
 206, N. 37. 
 
 Ara: the Conftellation, - -- -- — - p. 
 
 Arabia : how reprefented,.- - p. 242. 
 
 Arcitenens: the Conftellation, - - - - - p. 171. 
 
 Ardti: fee, Helice and Cynofura. 
 
 Arcturus, ------- * p. 17S. 
 
 Argo : the Conftellation, ---p. 174,. 
 
 Aries, - - - - --- p. 173, 
 
 Arts : the politer Arts, never much pradtifed 
 by the Romans themfclves, p. 5,—Long be¬ 
 fore they were received at Rome, p. 7, 36, 
 37.—No tafte, or rather a total infenfibility to 
 the fineft works of art; encouraged among the 
 Romans « 
 
Generat, I 
 
 N d e x. 
 
 554 
 
 Romans i till the fecond Punic war, p. 38.— 
 
 M. ncellus was the fiift, who (in the time of that 
 war; introduced the love of the Arts among 
 them, p. 35.—It got ground, very rapidly, ibid. 
 Was gradually fed, and augmented •, by the 
 triumphs of their generals, p. 4.0. and the ra- 
 pacioul'nefs of the governors, over the nations 
 
 conquered by them, &c. p. 41-Arrived 
 
 to its perfection, under Auguftus, p. 43.— 
 Sunk after his death ; and was quite fallen, by 
 the time of Gallienu , ibid.—See, Painting, 
 and Sculpture. 
 
 Afia ; how reprefented, ----- p. 241, 247. 
 Athos: mentioned perfonally, - - - - p. 248. 
 
 Atlas -..-p. 245, 246. 
 
 Aufidus : how diftinguifhed, ----- p. 232. 
 Auguftus ; his character, as a critic and writer, 
 p. 26.—An extreme piece of vanity, in that 
 emperor, p. 85, 86. 
 
 Aurae ; Sylphs, or Air-Nymphs, p. 207. 
 
 N. 42, ibid. 
 
 Auriga: the Conftellation, - -- -- -- p. 
 
 Aurora, - --.- — - - p 
 
 Aufter, (the S. Wind,) p. 202. 203. &c 
 N. 37. 
 
 Autumnus, - -- -- . ..- p- 191 
 
 See 
 
 169. 
 
 194. 
 
 206, 
 
 B. 
 
 Bacchus, a great warrior, p. 127, 128. N. 77, 
 78.—The diftinguifhing characters of his 
 perfon, p. 128.—F.qual to Apollo for beauty, 
 p. 130. and joined with him, as prefiding over 
 Poetry, p. 13 1, N. 98. 
 
 Bobte% - -------------- - p. 165. 
 
 Boreas, (theN. Wind,) p. 204—His alpeCt; in 
 a painting of Zeuxis, p. 205, N. 23. 
 
 Briareus, - -- -- -.- - - p. 2 6 y. 
 
 Britannia,.. . p. 242. 
 
 Brontes,. p. 209, N. 55. 
 
 Bruma ; the true fignification of the word, among 
 the Romans, p. 192, N. 76.—Spoken of per¬ 
 fonally, ibid. 
 
 C. 
 
 Caecilius ; the Poet,...p. 11. 
 
 Caeruleus : fee, Colours. 
 
 Cam*,..p. 278. 
 
 Calliope ; the chief, of all the Mufes, p. 90.— 
 How to be diftinguifhed, from the reft, ibid. 
 Calumny •, reprefented perfonally, p. 261, N. 26. 
 Cancer: the Conftellation, - -- -- -- p. 169. 
 
 Canicula, - -- - - - - -.--p. j 77. 
 
 Canis Major: fee, Canicula. 
 
 Canis Minor: fee, Procyon. 
 
 Capella: the Conftellation, -. p. X69. 
 
 Cappadocia,-- p . 242. 
 
 Capricornus, - -- -- -- -- -- -- p_ j^ 2 . 
 
 Carbafa ; ufed for the veils, of Water-Nymph*, 
 p. 236, N. 125. 
 
 Cares-, fpoken of perfonally, p_ 6 0> 
 
 Carmina, Cantare, &c. ufed of other things tv- 
 fide poetry, p. 8, N. 11. & 76, N. 76. See, 
 Vates. 
 
 Caffiopaea ; as a Conftellation,- - - - . n r ge 
 Caftor, and Pollux ; how much alike in their 
 
 faces, attributes, &c. p. 135, ?. r . X15._Dilliii- 
 
 guifhed by their attitudes, p. 247. 
 
 Cato, the Cenfor; a great enemy of the arts, 
 and a friend to punning, p. 39, N. 20. 
 
 Catullus; the Poet, . .. _pj- 
 
 Centaurs ; in general, - p. 2 6“ 
 
 Centaurus: the Conftellation,- - - - . _ p. 
 Centuries ; fpoken of perfonally : fee; Ssecula. 
 
 Cerberus, - - — - 7 ---------- p. 268» 
 
 Ceres.- p . , 03> 233, 
 
 Cetus: the Conftellation, - -- -- -- p. x-^ 
 Charon, - -- -- -- -- ---- - p. 267 
 
 Charybdis ; fpoken of perfonally, - - _ p. 2 ^o. 
 Chimera, --- - .-- - p. 2 6;7 
 
 Choice, between a virtuous life, or a vicious one - 
 expreffed by feveral allegorical ftories, among 
 the antients, p. 141, Sec .—The Choice of 
 Hercules, p. 155, See.—of Palis, p. 143._ 
 of Ulyffcs, ibid. N. 26.—and of Scipio Afri- 
 canus, p. 141, N. 24. 
 
 Clementia ; how dillinguifiied, p. 246.— Long 
 before fhe was received as a goddefs among 
 the Romans, ibid. 
 
 Clio ; how to be diftinguifhed from the other 
 Mufes,... p. S8. 
 
 Cloud-Nymph : fee, Nephele. 
 
 Cold ; fpoken of, perfonally : fee. Algus. 
 
 Colours ; the Latin names of them, very difficult 
 to be afcertained in Englifh, p. 167, N. 24. 
 —p. 186, N. 35.—p. 228, N. 67. 
 
 Concordia: how diftinguilhed,. p. 14S. 
 
 Confttllations : fee, Anfti, &c. 
 
 Copia : fee, Abundantia. 
 
 Cornua, of a lyre ; whence fo called, - - p. 166. 
 
 Corona: the Conftellation.- - p. 165. 
 
 Corus (the N. W. Wind,) - - - p. 202, 205. 
 Corvus : the Conftellation, - -- -- - p. tyg. 
 Crater: the Conftellation, - -- -- -- p. 17^, 
 Crinitus -, how fignificant an epithet, when ap¬ 
 
 plied to Apollo, p. 85.—Ditto, when applied 
 to Iopas, p. 93. 
 
 Crowns : Ivy-Crowns much more ufual for the 
 Roman Poets, than thofe of laurel, p. 132, 
 N. 99.—Laurel-Crowns ; moft properly, the 
 reward of warriors and conquerors of old» 
 p. 149. 
 
 Cruelty : reprefented perfonally, p. 261, N. 2 6- 
 
 Cupids ; the ufual chara&ers of their figures, 
 p. 70.—Very numerous, p. 69.—Two chiefs, 
 over all the reft, ibid. See, Eros ; and Ante¬ 
 ros. —Cupids, under the character of Somnus, 
 
 p. 264. 
 
 Curtius ; (after his deification,) ----- p. 233. 
 Cybele, ... p . 240, 
 
 Cygnus; 
 
Genera l 
 
 Cygnus: the Conftelladon, - --p. 167. 
 
 Cynofura, - — ----------- -p, 165, 
 
 D. 
 
 Dacia, - - - ---p. 242. 
 
 Damafcus ; reprefented { erfonally, p. 245, N T . 33. 
 Dances : oiten ufed of old, in a re'igious way •, 
 
 and as afls of devotion, p. 102, N. 99.- 
 
 Dancing of characters, and ftories •, ufed among 
 the antient3, p. 222, N. 37. 
 
 Danube •, reprefented perfonally, --p. 230. 
 
 Death ; how reprefented, ----- p. 260, &c- 
 December; fpoken of, perfonally, - - - p. 193- 
 
 Delphinus : the Conftelladon, ----- p. 167. 
 
 Deltoton, .. p. 168. 
 
 Deus; the very different fignification of that 
 word among the Romans, from what it car¬ 
 ries with us, p. 2, & 62. 
 
 Diana : the diffinguifhing character of her per- 
 
 fon,--p. 100. 
 
 Dies; fpoken of, perfonally, p. 193. See, 
 Oriens. 
 
 Dii Patrii ; what, - --- p. 315, N. 39. 
 
 Dii re: fee, Furies. 
 
 Difcord ; reprefented perfonally, p. 260, N. 26. 
 Dife«i!i-' , fpoken of, perfonally, p. 260, N. 23. 
 Diyades, - -- -- -- -- -- p. 246, & 250. 
 
 E. 
 
 EdtfTa; reprefented perfonally, p. 245, N. 33. 
 
 Egfria,-p. 233: 
 
 Egeftas; fpoken of, perfonally, p. 26c, N. 23. 
 
 Egypt, - - ---p. 242. 
 
 Elyfium; in what part of Ades, - - — p. 259, 
 
 Enceladus, - -- -- -- -- -- -- - p. 278. 
 
 Ennius, the Poet, ------ - ----- p. 10. 
 
 Envy ; fpoken of, perfonal'y, - - p. 261, N. 26. 
 Erato : her figures difficult to be diftinguifhed ; 
 
 and why, ...p. 89. 
 
 Erebus: the diffindi meaning of the word, p. 
 258, N. 4. 
 
 Eridanus ; how reprefented,- - - - - - p. 231. 
 
 Eros : one of the two chiefs, over all the other 
 
 Cupids ; the caufe of love, - - -- p. 
 
 Eryx ; mentioned perfonally, ----- p. 248. 
 
 Efculapius,.. ---- - p. jgg. 
 
 Etefise ; fpoken of, perfonally, - - - - p. 206. 
 Eumenides: fee. Furies. 
 
 Euphrates, . ....p. 230. 
 
 Europe; how reprefented, ------ p.241. 
 
 Eurus r (the S. E. Wind,) p. 202. 203. & 206, 
 N. 37. 
 
 Euterpe : how to be diftinguifhed from the other 
 Mufes, . ..- p. 89. 
 
 F. 
 
 FaUhood : reprefented perfonally, p. 261, N. 2 6- 
 Falx ; feveral of the fenfes of that word, among 
 the Romans, -------- p. 182, N. 8. 
 
 Fama, - -- -- -- -- -- -- -- - p. 214. 
 
 i N D E X. 
 
 Fames; (orHunger,)p. 260, N. 23. Sc 261, N. 2 6. 
 
 Fata : fee, Parcse. 
 
 Facum ; among the Romans, fignified what¬ 
 ever was fpoken, i. e. decreed, by Jupiter, 
 
 p. 151, N. 70.—-They had no [ ei fonal rc- 
 
 prelemaiion of Fatum, as a fingle ptrfonage, 
 p. 151. 
 
 Fauns ; tlie rural deities of that name,) p. 25 2. 
 
 Felicitas ; how marked out, ------ p. 146. 
 
 Fides ; (Fidelity, or Hontfty :) reprefented per¬ 
 fonally, p. 145.-Sola Fidcs; downright 
 
 Honefty, ibid. N. 37. 
 
 Flabrum ; a peculiar fenfe of that word, that has 
 been generally overlooked, — - - - p. 2 06. 
 
 Flaccus, (Valerius;) his character, p. 33.—Hew 
 much ftiperior to Statius, where they both 
 treat of the fame fuhjtdl, - - - p. 7-, N. 6-• 
 
 Flora, p. 230.—Her Garden, the Roman rt- 
 radife, 1 id. N. 54, &. -—; H r _ , ; 
 Lucretius’s proctflion of ti;e ii Hus ; - . 
 
 Flumen: the Confte'la'iuii, - . 
 
 Formofus, and Pi 1 ir.i ; the different ideas ah- 
 nexed to th<T words, p. 84, N. 2, & 3. 
 
 Fortitude : lee Virtus. 
 
 Fortune : long, btfore file was received as a 
 gtxldefs among the Rooi-ns p. ijo, N. 6g. 
 & 154, N. So.—How her figures were di- 
 ftinguifhed, p. 155. 
 
 Fountain ^ : fee. Statues. 
 
 Fiance,... p . 1A2 
 
 Fulmen ; the true import of the word, p. 49, 
 N. 10. 
 
 Fulminans, & Fulgurans ; their different figni- 
 fications,- --p. 54 . 
 
 Furies: vaft numbers of them, p.271.—The 
 Dirte, or three chiefs over all the reft, p. 272, 
 —See, Aledlo ; Megtera ; and Tifiphone. 
 
 G. 
 
 Gemini : the Confteilation,.. p. 174. 
 
 Gemma ; the natural fignification of the word, 
 p. 165, N. 12. 
 
 Genius : one, fuppofed confcantly to attend each 
 perfon born into the world, p. 154.—They 
 were reprefented exactly like the perfors they 
 actended, ibid.—and were confequently fome 
 
 male, and fome female, ib.-The female 
 
 genius’s were called, Junones, ib. 
 
 Germany, - -- -- -- -- -- -- - p. 242. 
 
 Geryon, -- p. 267. 
 
 Ghofts : fee. Souls of the departed. 
 
 Giants ; the Rebel-Giants, p. 277. See, Ty- 
 pheeus, &c. 
 
 Glaucus ; how reprefented,. p. 222. 
 
 Gloria : fee, Honos. 
 
 Gorgon, - -- -- -.-p. 61. 267. 
 
 Gratis: (or, the Three Graces.,) - - p. 72. 250- 
 
 Grief ; fpoken of, perfonally, ----- p. 260- 
 
 Growing-Figures ; what,.p. 214. 274. 
 
 Gyges ; one of the Rebel-Giants, - - - p. 278. 
 Y y y y Hama- 
 
 l 
 
35 6 
 
 General 
 
 Index. 
 
 h. 
 
 Hamadryades, - - -- - - P- 251, N. 59. 
 
 Harpies, - ----p. 267. 
 
 Hebe,.... - - p. i8b’. 
 
 Hecate, the proper name of the triple Diana ; 
 
 Trivia, an accidental one,—p. 102, N. 102. 
 Helice : the Conftellation,-- --p. 165- 
 
 Hercules •, the diftinguifhing charafter of his 
 figures, p. 115.—Looked on as the great 
 Exemplar of life, by the Greeks and Romans, 
 p. 114.—His Previous Labours, p. 115.— 
 His Twelve fated Labours, p. 117, &c. & 
 N. 2Ij ib.—His Extraordinary Labours, 
 p. 121, &c. & N. 38, ib. 
 
 Hefperus, or the Evening-Star •, how diftin- 
 guifhed, p. 183, 195. 
 
 Hiems ; how reprefented, - -- -- -- p. 191. 
 
 Hieroglyphics •, a mose intelligible fort of them, 
 much in u(e among the Greek and Roman 
 fculptors and othei artifts: fee. Sculptors. 
 
 Hilaritas -, how reprefented, ------ p. 147. 
 
 Hcedi: the Conftellation, - -- -- -- p. 169. 
 
 Honeftus ; fignified, Beautiful, among the Ro¬ 
 mans ; and why, - - ----- p. 309, N. 1. 
 
 Honefty : fee, Fides. 
 
 Honos •, how marked our,-- - - - p. 149. 
 
 Horace •, his character, p. 21.—A conjedture re¬ 
 lating to his death, ibid. N. 22. 
 
 Hours i reprefented perfonally, ----- p. 195. 
 
 Hunger: fee. Fames. 
 
 Hyades-, fpoken of, perfonally,.p. 178. 
 
 Hydra -, fometimes reprefented with a human 
 head, and fnakes growing out of it, p. 118, 
 N. 24 & 267, N. 80. 
 
 Hydrus: the Conftellation,.- p.175. 
 
 I. 
 
 Janus-, how diftinguifhed, - - - - - - - p. 197. 
 
 Janus ; any open place, or paffage, fo called by 
 the Romans, - -- -- -- -p. 196, N. 123. 
 
 Iapetus ; one of the Rebel-Giants, - - - p. 278. 
 
 Ida ; reprefented perfonally, ------ p. 247. 
 
 Ignavia -, fpoken of, perfonally, p. 266, N. 72. 
 —Reprefented perfonally, p. 261, N. 26. 
 
 Ignorance j reprefented perfonally, p. 261, N. 
 
 2 6 . 
 
 Immortality : fee, Hebe. 
 
 Inachus, - -- -- -- -- -- -- -- p. 234. 
 Indigites (Dii) --------- p. 315, N. 39. 
 
 Infancy •, reprefented perfonally, - - - - p. 190. 
 Ingeniculatus : a Conftellation, - - - - p. 166. 
 Iris ; how reprefented, - -- -- -- - p. 213. 
 Ifmenides, - -- -- -- -- - p. 236, N. 121. 
 
 Ifmenos, - -- -- -.- - - - p. 235. 
 
 Italy ; reprefented perfonally, ----- p. 242. 
 Judaea ; how reprefented, - -. p. 242. 
 
 Judgment of Hercules : fee, Choice. 
 
 Juno •, how diftinguifhed, among the Romans, 
 p. 55.—Juno Matrona, fignified the fame 
 as Juno Romana, or the Roman Juno, ibid. 
 
 —Juno, as preliding over the air, how repre¬ 
 fented, p. 210, 
 
 Junones ; the genius’s of women fo called, 
 among the Romans: fee, Genius. 
 
 Jupiter ; the diftinguifhing character of his fi¬ 
 gures, p. 46.—How reprefented, when con- 
 fidcred only as the director of a planet, p. 182. 
 —Jupiter Pluvius, p. 210. 
 
 Juftitia : lee, ^Equitas. 
 
 Juvenal •, his character,- -------- p. 34. 
 
 ixion, - -- -- -- -- -- -- -- - p. 280. 
 
 L. 
 
 Laetitia, or Joviality •, how marked out, p. 147. 
 Lares, ---------------- - p. 243. 
 
 Laurel-Crowns: fee, Crowns. 
 
 Laurus i uled by Virgil for orange-trees, p. 3 11, 
 N. 15. 
 
 Leo: the Conftellation, - - - - - - - p. 169. 
 
 Lethum ; a diftindt perfonage, from Mors, p. 
 261, N. 28.—How deferibed, p. 263. 
 
 Libertas j how marked our,-- - p. 147. 
 
 Libra: the Conftellation,-P- 170. 
 
 Livius Andronicus ; the Poet: why called Scrip- 
 
 tor by Horace, - --- p. 10- 
 
 Lucan, p. 28.—His virtues, and faults, p. 29, 
 &c.—Quintilian falfly inferted in the lift of his 
 
 Encomiafts ibid. N. 5. 
 
 Lucifer : fee, Phofphorus. 
 
 Lucilius -, the Poet, - --.- p. 14. 
 
 Lucretius, p. 14.—Highly complimented by Vir¬ 
 gil, ibid. N. 48. 
 
 Ludtus •, fpoken of, perfonally, p. 260, N. 23. 
 
 Luna •, the planet,... p. 184. 
 
 Lull i fpoken of, perfonally, - - p. 261, N. 26. 
 
 Luteus •, what colour, fignified by that word, 
 p. 194, N. 97. 
 
 Luxury •, fpoken of, perfonally, p. 261, N. 26. 
 
 Lyra: the Conftellation,-- - - - p. 166. 
 
 Lyre •, one fort of Lyre called Teftudo, and 
 why, - -- -- - - -- -- -- -- p, 107. 
 
 M. 
 
 Machinery : the true idea of its ufage, among the 
 antients, p. 316.—and the miftakes about it, 
 among the moderns, p. 3 17, &c. 
 
 Machines : fee, Allegories. 
 
 Maecenas ; a very bad, affedted writer, - - p. 17. 
 
 Magnus Annus, or the Great Platonic Year ; 
 reprefented perfonally, - -- -- -- - p. 189. 
 
 Manhood ; reprefented perfonally, - - - p. 190. 
 
 Manilius ; the Poet, --p. 24. 
 
 Mars, p. 77.—In his planetary charadter, p. 183. 
 —The fine relievo, relating to his marriage 
 with Neriene, explained, ------ p. 79. 
 
 Marfyas : the whole feries of his ftory might be 
 colledted from different antiques, - - - p. 96- 
 
 Martial, - - -- -- -- -- -- -- -- p. 34, 
 
 Medufa ; the three different characters of her 
 face, in the works of the antient artifts, p. 6r. 
 
 Megaera •, the Fury, -------- p. 277. 
 
 Melpomene •, 
 
General 
 
 Index. 
 
 357 
 
 A 
 
 Melpomene; how to be diftinguifhed from the 
 other Mufes, - — --------- - p, g Im 
 
 Mens; fpoken of, perfonally, p. 138, N. 9.— 
 Mens Bona, ibid. N. 1 1. 
 
 Mercury ; the diftinguifhing charafler of his per- 
 fon, p. 104.—How reprefented, as director of 
 a planer, p. 184. 
 
 Mefopotamia; reprefented perfonally,—p. 230. 
 
 Merus ; fpoken of, perfonally, p. 260, N. 23- 
 
 Mimas; one of the Rebel-Giants, - - - p. 278. 
 
 Mincius ; fpoken of, perfonally, - - - - p. 233 
 
 Minerva ; the diftinguifhing charatter of her 
 perfon,- p. 59 . 
 
 Minos,--- p. 259. 268. 
 
 Minotaure; how reprefented, - - p. 310, N. 3. 
 
 Montfaucon; not fo careful or exadt as he 
 fhould have been, in his Collection of Anti¬ 
 quities, ---------------- p, 4. 
 
 Months ; fpoken of, perfonally, p. 193.—See, 
 December. 
 
 Morbi : fee, Difeafes. 
 
 Morpheus, - -..p. 266. 
 
 Mors, - -- -- -- -- -- -- - p_ 260, & c. 
 
 Mortes, -p. 261. 
 
 Mountains: the Genius’s, of Mons Caelius in 
 Rome, p. 246.—Of the Palatine-hill, ibid.— 
 Of a hill, in the Campus Martius, ib.—Of 
 the Apennines, p.248.—Of Mount Eryx, in 
 Sicily, ibid.—Of Athos, in Greece, ib.—Of 
 Rhodope, in Thrace, ib.—Of Atlas, in Africa, 
 p. 245.—And of Ida, Timolus, and Taurus, 
 in Afia, p. 246. 
 
 Mummius ; inflances of his remarkable io'no- 
 rance, as to works of art, p. 40, N. 27. 
 
 Mundi Harmonia ; reprefented perfonally, p. 
 181. 
 
 Mufes : fee, Calliope, &c. 
 
 Mufic of the Spheres: fee, Mundi Harmonia. 
 
 N. 
 
 Navius ; the Poet,..p. 8. 
 
 Naiads, - - --p .236. 
 
 Naples; reprefented perfonally : fee, Parthenope. 
 
 Nature; reprefented perfonally,-- - p. 239. 
 
 Necefiitas ; how marked out, -.p. 151. 
 
 Nemefi3, -.. p. 263, N. 50. 
 
 Nephele ; a Cloud-Nymph, - - - p. 209, N. 48. 
 
 Neptune; the diftinguilhing character of his 
 perfon,.- - p. 65. & 218, N. 5. 
 
 Neptunius ; or, the defendants of Neptune, 
 p. 217. 224. 
 
 Nereids, - -- -- -- -- -- -- p, 217. 224. 
 
 Neriene : fee, Mars. 
 
 Nile; how diftinguifhed, - -- -- -- p. 229. 
 
 Nimbus: fee, Nubes. 
 
 Niobe : the fine fet of figures relating to her 
 ftory, in the Villa Medici; not difpofed fo 
 judicioufiy, as they fhould have been, p. 98, 
 & g 9 . 
 
 Notus: fee, Aufter. 
 
 Nox; fpoken of, perfonally, - - - - - p. 193. 
 
 Nubes ; tiled for a veil, as well as Nimbus, p. 
 284. 
 
 Numa a Poet, - -- -- -- -- -- - p. g. 
 Numicius ; fpoken of, perfonally, p. 233, N. 
 99- 
 
 Nymphs: fee, Aura; Dryads; Hamadryads; 
 Naiads ; Nereids ; Nephele ; Neptunins ; 
 Oceanitides; Oreades ; Tiberinides, &c. 
 
 O. 
 
 Oblivia; fpoken of, perfonally, p. 266. N. 72. 
 
 Oceanitides,---. - --p. 217. 223. 
 
 Oceanus, -p. 217. 218. & 240, N. 12. 
 
 Cr/.afj.evii ; (or, the part of the earth formerly 
 fuppofed to be inhabited ;) ie; ;tfented per- 
 
 foiMlIy,--- p . 2 j 9j n _ 1 
 
 Old-Age ; reprefented perfonally, p. 290. 260. 
 
 Ophiuchus : the Conftdlation,.p. 166. 
 
 Optimus Maximus ; the true meaning of thofe 
 words, when applied to Jupiter by the Ro- 
 
 mans >--p. 49 . 
 
 Orbis ; reprefented perfonally, ----- p. 241 
 Orchus ; the whole fubterraneous world, p. 259 
 Oreades ; or, Mountain-Nymphs, p. 246. 250 
 Oriens ; (or, the Civil-Day ;) fpoken of, perfo 
 
 ”%■- ..p. .93 
 
 Orion: as a Conftellation, - --p.177 
 
 Orpheus,-p. asl 
 
 Otia ; fpoken of, perfonally, - - p. 266, N. 72 
 Ovid; his Metamorphofis, the laft poem that 
 he wrote at Rome ; p. 23.—And the moft 
 
 faulty of any he did write there, ibid._His 
 
 great fault, in general, ib. N. 31. & p. 241, 
 N. 13. 
 
 Pacuvius ; the Poet, . . ..P-*3- 
 
 Ptetus ; what idea was annexed to that word, 
 among the Romans, ----- p, 68, N. 14. 
 
 Painters : fome good fubjedts recommended to 
 our modern painters, from delciiptions in the 
 
 old poets.-The manner of reprefenting 
 
 the Venus Anaduomece, p. 220, N. 17._ 
 
 Aurora, fetting out, p. 194. Driving away 
 
 Nox and Somnus, p. 195. - Cerberus; 
 
 dragged by Hercules, into the light, p. 269. 
 
 —The Deftinies, p. 153, N. 75.-The 
 
 Furies; in general, p. 271, & 273, &c.— 
 The Garden, of Flora, p. 72. 250.—Love, 
 and the Graces; fprinkling flowers over a 
 ntw married couple, p. 72.— Megara, tor¬ 
 menting the Lapitha, p. 277.-Nature ; 
 
 looking on Jupiter, for aid. p. 240-—Piety ; 
 wiping away the tears from the face of a good 
 
 man, p. 145.- Scipio; preferring Virtue 
 
 to Pleafure, p. 142.—ProcelTion of the Sea- 
 fons, p. 192.— Somnus ; in four compart¬ 
 ments ; and with a very well-chofen compa¬ 
 nion, in each, p. 265—Tifiphone, purfuing 16 , 
 and vanquifhed by the genius of the Nile, 
 
 p. 275.-Vengeance, embracing Death, 
 
 p. 263.-The Genius of the South-Wind, 
 
 p. 203. 204. The Genius of the North- 
 Wind, 
 
 
 5 
 
 1 
 
 L 
 
 § 
 
358 
 
 General Index. 
 
 Wind, p. 20?, N. 24. The four chief Dei- 
 - ties of the Winds, how fit to contrail and fet 
 off one another, p. 205. 
 
 Painting: fee, Poetry. 
 
 Palatinus, (Apollo :) fee, Apollo A&ius. 
 
 Pan, -..' P- ^ 54 - 
 
 Panes : fee, Satyrs. 
 
 Parete ; how reprefented, . .."P- J 5 2 * 
 
 Parthenope, --------- p- 244, N. 3O. 
 
 Party-rage; reprefented perfonally, p. 260, N. 
 
 20. 
 
 Pater, ufed for a governor; from the old pa¬ 
 triarchal form of government, p. 52. 128- & 
 2 17, N. 1. 
 
 Pax; how reprefented,—p. 148 ; & 310, N-3- 
 Pegafus: theConftellation, ------ p. 167. 
 
 Penates ; the Great Penates, p. 58, N. 53 ; and 
 the Lefs, p. 245. 
 
 Peneus, - -- - — - -- -- -- -- - p. 234. 
 Perfidy; fpoken of, perfonally, p. 261, N. 26. 
 Pergamus ; reprefented perfonally, p. 245, N. 
 
 65 - 
 
 Perfeus; as a Conftellation,-- - p. io». 
 
 Perfius, the Poet, - --" P' 3 1 - 
 
 Phaedrus, the Poet,-*.P- 2 4 - 
 
 Phantafos,..' P* 266 ' 
 
 Philofophia; the character of her perfon, p. 137, 
 N. 2. 
 
 Phobtetor,-P- 2<56 - 
 
 Phofphorus, or, the Morning-Star, - - - p 194. 
 Pietas -, or Devotion : her diftinguifhing cha¬ 
 racter, p. 144.—As Filial Piety ; (or, Duty 
 to parents) p. 145.-—As Parental Piety; (or, 
 Tendernefs to children,) ibid. 
 
 Pifces: the Conftellation, ----- - - p. 172. 
 Planets: fee, Sol, &c.—Machines to ffiew their 
 different motions, mentioned by fcveral of the 
 antient writers, p. 180.—A very noble idea 
 for one ; in Valerius Flaccus, ibid, N. 122- 
 
 Plautus,.... - p- ii- 
 
 Pleiades,...* p. 178- 
 
 Pluto,-p. 282. 
 
 Poetry, Painting, and Sculpture ; their compa¬ 
 rative powers, p. 67.—Advantages of Poetry, 
 over each of the other, p. 67. 214. & 22 r. 
 Poetry. The rife of it among the Romans, p. 
 7, &c. Introduced for the fervice of religion, 
 p. 8. This, one reafon why mod of their 
 firft poets dealt fo much in dramatic poetry, 
 p. 14. What remains to us of all the writ¬ 
 ings of the Roman poets of the firft age, 
 p. 15. The character of thefe old Poets bal¬ 
 anced ; from what Cicero, Horace, and Quin¬ 
 tilian fay of them, p. 16.—The flourilhing 
 date of Poetry among the Romans; or, the 
 Auguftan age, p. 17, &c. The higheft ex¬ 
 cellence the Roman Poets ever attained to, 
 was to be good copiers of the Greek, p. 22, 
 23. Dramatic Poetry not fo high in the Au- 
 guftan age, as in the age before, p. 23. What 
 remains to us of the poetical writings of the 
 
 Auguftan age, p. 25.—The third age; or, the 
 Fall of Poetry among the Romans, p. 28, &c. 
 What remains to us of the poetical wricers of 
 this age, p. 28. 32. & 34.—The compara¬ 
 tive character of all the three ages, p. 35.— 
 For the particular characters of all the Roman 
 Poets of thefe three ages, who have written 
 any thing that remains to us; fee, Livius, 
 Nrevius, &c. each under his proper article.— 
 Their comparative character ; as to exadtnefs, 
 and knowledge of the arts, p. 44.—The Ro¬ 
 man poets had a more credible, and a lefs cre¬ 
 dible fet of ftories ; and the marks, by which 
 they ufed to diftinguilh the latter from the for¬ 
 mer, p. 60, N. 62. & p. 82, N. 84.—Strokes 
 in them probably taken from fome old paint¬ 
 ings, or relievos, that are loft to us, p. 55. 
 81. 84, N. 4. 96. 105, N. 120. 120, 191, 
 204, 214, 222, & 229. 
 
 Poliux : fee, Caftor. 
 
 Polyhymnia; her figures difficult to be diftin- 
 guilhed, and why, - -- -- -- -- -p. 89. 
 
 Pomona, - -- -- -- -- -- -- - p. 251. 
 
 Porphyrion ; one of the Rebel-Giants, p. 278. 
 
 Priapus, ..... p. 252. 
 
 Procyon: the Conftellation, ------ p. \yn. 
 
 Propertius ; the Poet, - -.p. 22. 
 
 Proferpine, - - - --- - - p. 283. 
 
 Proteus, * -. ------ - p. 221. 
 
 Providentia, or Divine Providence ; how marked 
 out, - -- --._ p. 150. 
 
 Providentia, or Human Prudence ; fee, Pru¬ 
 dentia. 
 
 Prudentia; how marked out,-p. 138. 
 
 Pfyche ; (or, the Soul,) p. 71.—Several Pfy- 
 ches, ibid. 
 
 Pudicitia; how reprefented, ------ p. 146. 
 
 Pulvis ; ufed by the Romans, to fignify a Circus: 
 in the fame manner, as Arena was ufed by 
 them to fignify an amphitheater, p. 121, 
 N. 42. 
 
 Q, 
 
 Quies ; fpoken of, perfonally,—p. 266, N. 72. 
 
 Quirinus; the character of his perfon,—p. 133. 
 
 R. 
 
 Rage: fee, Party. 
 
 Religion : occafional hints at fome few of the 
 refemblances, between that which was pro* 
 felled of old, at Rome ; and that, which is 
 praftifed there now.—In their mutual receiv¬ 
 ing of legends, and ftrange ftories, lor facred 
 truths, p. 198, N. 132.—In making faints of 
 old women, &c. p.281, N. 192.—In the 
 doeftrine of Erebus, among the antienc Ro¬ 
 mans ; and that of Purgatory, among the 
 modern, p. 258.—In the laiter’s making the 
 fame honours and characters concenter in the 
 E. Virgin ; which were attributed by the for¬ 
 mer to Juno, Diana, and Cybele, &c. 
 
 P- 
 
359 
 
 Genera 
 
 p. 240, -N* 10.—In their devotional pomps 
 and proceffions, p. 156, & 192. In offering 
 up their devotions to old trees, p. 252, N. 
 59. In paying more worfhip to the flatues 
 of the very lame perfon under one chara&er, 
 than under another ; and in one place, rather 
 than another, p. 4S, N. 8. and, p. 234, 
 N. 107. In their priefls making the flatues 
 they worfhipped, play tricks with their wor- 
 fhippers, p. 60. 155. 
 
 Repentance ; reprefenred perfonally, p. 261, 
 
 N. 26. 
 
 Rhadamanthus, - -- -- -- -- -- - p, 259. 
 Rhaecus ; one of the Rebel-Giants, - - p. 278. 
 
 Rhamnufia, - --- p, 263, N. 49* & 50. 
 
 Rhine ; reprefented perfonally-,-p. 231. 
 
 Rhodope : fee. Mountains. 
 
 Robigo •, fpoken of, perfonally, - - - - p. 253. 
 Rome ; how reprefented, - -- -- -- p. 243. 
 Romulus : fee, Quirinus. 
 
 Rubigus i fpoken of, perfonally, - - - ib. N. 69. 
 
 S. 
 
 Sabinus, ---p. 31 r, N. 17. 
 
 Stecula ; fpoken of, perfonally, - - - - p. 1S9, 
 Sagitta : the Conftellation, - -- -- - p. 167. 
 
 Salus ; how marked our, --- - p. 146. 
 
 Sapientia, the original name for Philofophy, 
 among the Romans, p. 131, N. 1. See, Phi- 
 loiophia. 
 
 Saturn ; as prefiding over a planer, p. 1S1.—As 
 
 the God of Time* p. 182. 
 
 Satyrs,..-p. 254. 
 
 Scamander, - -p. 247. 
 
 Sceptrum ; the true idea annexed to that word, 
 
 of old, - - - ----p. 51. 
 
 Scorpius : the Conflellation, - -- -- - p. 171. 
 
 Sculptors. The Greek and Roman artifb, and 
 their fculptors in particular, pradlifed a lbrt of 
 Rational Hieroglyphics; or in other words, 
 had a method of exprefiing their fentiments, 
 by the figures of things-. whether animate, in¬ 
 animate, or imaginary, p. 71-Thus they 
 
 expreffed Activity, or inclination for ac¬ 
 tion •, by the fhort drefs, of the perfon repre¬ 
 fented, p. 244:—The Certainty of events •, 
 by one of the vafl nails, or pins, ufed by 
 them to fatten the beams in their ftrongefl 
 buildings, p. 151, and, Uncertainty ; by 
 
 wings, p, 310, N. 3. -The Characters 
 
 of perlbns : fometimes; by the attitudes of 
 their figures, p. 50, 69, 155, 240, & 26S, 
 and fometimes, either by the materials em¬ 
 ployed, or the colours of them, p. 53, 152* 
 229, & 264.—The Stings of Conscience •, 
 by the ferpents, in the hands of the furies, p. 
 
 280, N. 189.-Defence-, by a club, p. 
 
 154.—The Dicnity of a perfon ; by long 
 
 robes, p. 103. -The Roman Emperors 
 
 called the Hope, the Joy, the Security, &c. 
 of their Subjects; by having the figures of 
 
 Inde x. 
 
 Spes, Laetitia, or Securitas ; on the r'ererfe 
 of their medak, p. 260. Ditto, called Gods ; 
 by giving them either the refemblance, or the 
 attributes of fuch and fuch deities, p. 62, & 
 156. — Equality, of Day and Night-, fig- 
 
 nified by a balance, held even, p. 171.- 
 
 Eternity} by feveral very clear emblems: 
 and among the reft, by that of a Serpent, 
 placed circularly, and holding his tail in his 
 mouth, p. 188. —-The Fierceness of any 
 perfon’s temper; by his having a Lion, at Ins 
 
 feet, p k 79.- Gain ; any opportunity of 
 
 making it, not to be deferred: by Mercury 
 offering a purfe, and ready to fly away, p. 
 
 108. -Golden-Age ; the reftoration of it: 
 
 by the Genius of the Great Platonic Year, 
 p. 189.-The Hereditary-Right of the Ju¬ 
 
 lian family : by Romulus’s Sacerdotal Scepter, 
 on the medals of Julius CaTar, p. 134, N. 
 hi.—Honesty, or opennels of behaviour-, 
 by rhe tranfparence of the robes, on the 
 goddefs Fides, p. 145.— Hope ; by a bud, 
 juft opening, p. 147.—The thoughtfulnefs, 
 and idlenefs, of Love ; by reprefenting their 
 Cupids under the figures of children, playing, 
 p. 70. -The power of Love, over the hu¬ 
 
 man foul; by Cupids caretting, or torment¬ 
 ing Pfyche, p. 71. Ditto, by their playing 
 with butterflies, or torturing' them, ibid.—* 
 That Love harmonizes and foftens men of the 
 roughed tempers ; by Cupid with a lyre in 
 his hand, and riding on a lion, who feerhs 
 quite tame, and pleafed with liftening to him, 
 ibid.—That Love fubdues the greateft war¬ 
 riors ; by Hercules, bending under a little 
 Cupid, p. 126.—That it weakens and ef¬ 
 feminates them : by Cupid, dealing away the 
 club of Hercules -, and by thac heroe’s dref- 
 fing himfelf in his miftrefs’s clothes, p. 127. 
 —The power of Love oVer all living crea¬ 
 tures ; or over all the elements : by Cupids, 
 fometimes riding on a lion ; fometimes, on a 
 dolphin ; fometimes in a car, drawn by butter¬ 
 flies -, and fometimes, breaking the fiery bole 
 
 of Jove, p. 71.-The Mildness of any 
 
 one’s temper -, by placing a young (Iamb, or) 
 kidj at their feet, p. 79.—That Nature 
 produces, and nourifhes all things; by the 
 emblems of each element, and the number of 
 breads they gave to the figures of that god¬ 
 defs, p. 239.—The Persons of their gods ; 
 by their attributes, or things confecrated to 
 them, p. 58, N. 51. —The Piety of any 
 perfons ; by their having an altar by them, 
 or their facrificing upon it, p. 154.—Plenty ; 
 by Amalthea’s horn, p. 148. —A prince’s 
 being the Preserver of his people -, by an 
 oaken-crown, p. 233.—The firmnefs of a 
 Promise; by two hands joined, p. 146.—- 
 Providence; by a globe, fufpended in the 
 
 air, p. 150. -An entire Sentence-, (to 
 
 Z Z Z Z wit; 
 
3 6o 
 
 
 General Index. 
 
 wit •, That te Auguftus Caefar, was born, to Statuaries: fee, Sculptors; 
 govern the world ;”) clearly and diftinttly ex- Statues •, good fubjedts, for fountain-ftatues. 
 prefled by the figures on a medal, p. 172.— Venus, in her ffiell, p. 220. The transfor- 
 
 The power of Sleep; by the figures of that mation of Acis, p. 235.— The Genius of 
 
 deity, refting on a lion, p. 264. — Time, in mount Atlas, p. 246. 
 
 general ; the fwiftnefs, or flownefs of it •, by Sa- Sufpicion ; reprefented perfonally, p. 261, N. 
 
 turn’s wings, or fetters, p. 182.—The parti- 2 6. 
 
 cular Time of year •, by the Zodiac on gems, Sylphs : fee, Aurae. 
 
 and Phoebus’s head coinciding with fuch a part 
 of it, p. 187, N. 45.—A Virtuous life •, its 
 difficulties : by fteep afcent up a craggy moun¬ 
 tain, p. 140.—The Universal Monarchy, 
 of the Romans: by the Genius of Rome, either 
 oppreffing, or raifing up the Genius’s of the 
 different nations, round about them, p. 243.— 
 Ditto ; by globe, under the foot of the god- 
 dcfs of Fortitude, p. 139.—By the Genius of 
 Rome, holding the globe of the world in her 
 hand, p. 242.—By the Genius of Italy, fitting 
 on the globe of the heavens, ibid.—The par¬ 
 ticular Wisdom of any action; by reprefent- 
 ing the goddefs of Wifdom, as prefent at the 
 execution of it, p. 122. 
 
 Sculpture : fee, Poetry. 
 
 Scylla ; how reprefented,.p. 249. 
 
 Seafons ; the four Seafons of the year: fee, Ver, 
 &c. 
 
 Security ; reprefented perfonally, - * - - p. 147. 
 
 Segefta ; fpoken of, perfonally, p.244, N. 31, 
 & 32. 
 
 Seia ; ditto, ibid. 
 
 Seneca, (L. Annaeus:) fee, Tragedies. 
 
 Septentrio : fee, Boreas. 
 
 Sidon ; reprefented perfonally, - - p. 245, N. 33. 
 
 Silentia -, fpoken of, perfonally, p. 266, N. 72. 
 
 Silius Italicus •, his charadler,-p. 32, & 44. 
 
 Silvium ; reprefented perfonally, p. 245, N. 33. 
 
 Simois,.-.p- 247. 
 
 Sinus fometimes ufed by the Roman writers, 
 for the drapery of figures, - - p. 203, N. 12. 
 
 Sirens •, how reprefented, of old, — p. 302, N. 7. 
 
 Sirius : fee, Canicula. 
 
 Sifyphus, . -...P-2 79. 
 
 Sloth reprefented perfonally : fee, Ignavia. 
 
 Smyrna-, reprefented perfonally, p. 245, N. 33. 
 
 Sol ; as a planet, - . ..p. 185. 
 
 Solanus the E. Wind, - -- -- -- - p. 202. 
 
 Solus -, the meaning of the word when applied to 
 Fides, or Innocentia, - - - - p. 145, N. 37. 
 
 Somnia ; fpoken of, perfonally, p. 266, N. 74. 
 
 Somnus reprefented perfonally, - - - - p. 264, 
 
 Soul: fee, Ffyche. 
 
 Souls, of the departed ; reprefented perfonally, 
 p. 267, & 271. 
 
 Spain ; reprefented perfonally,.p. 242. 
 
 Sparta ; reprefented perfonally, -- p. 245, N. 33. 
 
 Spes; how marked out,.- p. 147. 
 
 Stars : fee, Ardturus, &c. 
 
 Statius; the Poet, p. 32.—Juvenal falfely in- 
 ferted in the lift of his Encomiafts, p. 33, N. 
 33- 
 
 Sylvanus 
 
 P- 2 53 - 
 
 T. 
 
 Tantalus, - -- -- -- -- -- -- - p. 2 79. 
 
 Tarfus ; reprefented perfonally, p. 245, N. 33. 
 
 Tartarus-, what part of Ade c ,-- - p. 259. 
 
 Taurus; the Conftellation, ------ p. 173. 
 
 Taurus; the mountain : reprefented perfonally, 
 p. 256. 
 
 Tellus, .- -*----- p. 240. 
 
 Tempe ; ufed by the Romans for any very p ■ ,1- 
 fant vale, as well as that in Theflaly, pi 116 
 
 Temperantia, -. ------ - p. 
 
 Tempefts, and Bad Weather; deified among 
 the Romans, ----- p. 209, N. 49, & 51. 
 
 Terence, p. 11.—'The furprifing elegance of his 
 flile, confidering the time he lived in, p. 12. 
 —Owns his having been affifted by Scipio 
 and Ltelius, ibid. N. 36. 
 
 Terpfichore; her figures difficult to be diftin- 
 
 guiffied, and why, --------- p. 8^. 
 
 Teftudo : fee, Lyre. 
 
 Tethys,-p. 217. 218. 
 
 Thalia; how to be diftinguifiied from the other 
 Mufes,..p. 89. 
 
 Theology, of the Romans. They ufed the word 
 Dcus, in a very different manner from what 
 we do the word God, p. 2.—They applied 
 that name to any intelligent being, which they 
 looked upon as more powerful than man, ib. 
 But held there was but one God, in our fenfe 
 of the word, p. 47, N. 4. fee, p. 176.—* 
 They held, that every thing in the moral as 
 well as the natural world, was produced and 
 adfuated by the will and influence of the fu- 
 preme Being, p. 47, N. 4. & 316, N. 47. 
 —They fuppofed an infinity of nominal deities, 
 as deputies and affiftants under him, p. 47. 
 but own, that this was only a fuppofition ; 
 and that it was intirely owing to their own 
 ignorance and weaknefs, p. 2. N. 1.—In this 
 view, they admitted of bad gods, as well as 
 good, p. 2, N. 1. 260, N. 26. 272, N. 113. 
 & 276, N. 162. And flocked heaven and 
 hell, and each of the elements, with one or 
 other of them, p. 2. 47, &c. 179, N. 118. 
 208. 217. 239. & 258, &c.—•—Out of all 
 this variety of fuppofed gods, they fet up 
 twelve, as chiefs over all the others, p. 46, 
 N. 2.—Diftinguiffied three even among thofe 
 twelve, as much fuperior to the reft, p. 57^ 
 &c. N. 49, &c. ibid.—And fpeak of thefe 
 three, as equal in power; and as one and the 
 
 fame 
 

 Genera 
 
 fame being, p. 63, & 64 ; & N. 80, & 81, 
 ib.—They alfo believed the immortality of 
 the foul, p. 152. 190.—They fuppofed fix 
 of their chief heroes to have been received into 
 the highefl heaven*, p. u 3 , &c. Several 
 other heroes, 8cc. to have been received among 
 the flats, p. 179, N. 116. and that the 
 fouls of all other people were conveyed into 
 a general receptacle, appointed for them under¬ 
 ground j where they were either rewarded, 
 or puniOied, according to the merit or demerit 
 of their adlions in this life, p. 259, N. 16. 
 268, N. 91. 270, N. 104. & 283, N. 106. 
 See, Religion. 
 
 Thetis, ---- p. 223. 
 
 Tiber; reprefented perfonally,-- p. 227. 
 
 Tiberinides,. -----p. 236, N. 121. 
 
 Tibullus; hischara&er,..p. 22. 
 
 Tigris -, reprefented perfonally, ----- p. 230. 
 
 Time: fee, Saturn. 
 
 Timolus ; reprefented perfonally, - - - p. 248. 
 
 Tifiphone, - - p. 273. 
 
 Tityos, -- - - p. 278. 
 
 Tmolus: fee, Timolus. 
 
 Tragedies ; (the colledtion of Latin tragedies, 
 publifhed under the name of L. Annaeus Se¬ 
 neca.) - + * - -- -- -- -- -- - p. 24. 
 
 Tranquillitas, (or Serenity of mind,) how repre¬ 
 fented,- .- - • - - p. 147. 
 
 Tranquillitas ; a goddefs, prefiding over fair 
 weather,.. p. 209> n. 5 q. 
 
 Treachery; reprefented perfonally, p. 2 6i, N. 
 26. 
 
 Triton >..p. 221. 
 
 Trivia: fee, Hecate. 
 
 Truth ; reprefented perfonally,—p. 261, N. 26. 
 
 Tyana ; reprefented perfonally, p. 245, N. 33. 
 
 Typhceus,-- p. 2y8 , 
 
 Typhon, -- p. 278. 
 
 Tyre; reprefented perfonally,— p. 245, N. 33. 
 
 U. 
 
 Vates : fome old profe-writers among the Ro¬ 
 mans, fo called j and their character, p. 9. 
 See, Carmina. 
 
 Venus, p. 66.—The Venus of Medici : feve- 
 ral of the beauties of that figure, p. 66, & 
 67. Always injur'd, by any copy ; and, 
 
 particularly, by ail the prints of it, ibid._ 
 
 Venus; as the goddefs of Jcaloufy : how de¬ 
 fer^» p. 74, &c—The Venus Anaduo- 
 mene, p. 219, &c.—Venus; as prefiding 
 over a planer, p. 183. See, Hefperus, and 
 Phofphorus. 
 
 Ver -...p. t 3 t. 
 
 Vertumnus, -- p 2JJ _ 
 
 Veto : not certain, that there were any figures 
 of this goddefs, among the Romans, p. 81, 
 & 82 s & N. 83, & S4. Ibid. 
 
 L i N D E X. 
 
 Victoria ; how marked out, - .p 
 
 Virgil, p. 17, &c - - - Horace’s character of 
 his paftoral poems, p. 17, N. 2—His Geor¬ 
 gies, Jalfely accufed by Seneca, p. tS, N. ;. 
 —The political crime of his Aeneid, p. iS. 
 
 The poetical excellencies of it, p. 20, & 2 r._. 
 
 His great and fine imagination, in defcribi.ng 
 the appearance and actions of their deities, 
 P- 20, N. 16; & p. 65, N. 5.—TIis judge" 
 ment, omitting fuch circumltances in his 
 imitations of Homer, as would have dallied 
 with the tade and cuftoms of the Romans 
 P- 53. & 210. 
 
 Virgil: the famous MS Virgil i„ the Vatican 
 wuh p,flares; of what age, p. IO j . N. ,2,. 
 
 \ irgo ; the Con (lei Lit ion, -. p 
 
 Virtus ; the idea annexed to that word, atpt-ng 
 the old Romans, p. ,o 9 , & tjq.—How re- 
 prefented, p. ,39, & I+01 . 1 
 Volucris; firm-rimes applied to the imaginary 
 bungs only to fignify that they were repre- 
 femed Wish wings, p. 264., N. 59 : & 265, 
 
 N. 66. 
 
 Ul.inu ; how to be diffingoilhcd from the other 
 
 36l 
 
 Mules, 
 
 -na ; Sic pjoT.iir urna; a proverbial expref- 
 t fion > among die Romans, p. i? 2 , N. 69. 
 
 Urfa Major : ice, Htlice. 
 
 Uria Minor: lee, Cynofura, 
 
 \ ulcan ; his low charafter, p. 80, 8? 8r. 
 
 Vulturnus; one of the Northerly Winds, p. 202, 
 N. 4.—Spoken of perfonally, p. 206, N. 3S, 
 
 Vulturnus ; the River-god,-- . . ’ p 2 j 3 ’ 
 
 W. 
 
 Want i fpoken of, perfonally, ----- p. a 6o. 
 
 Water-deities ; thofe of the Sea, p. 2 17. Thofe 
 of the Rivers, p. 227, &c.—Habitations, for 
 the former, p. 1S6, N. 43 : & p. 225, N. 
 55 s &c.—--Habitations, for the latter, p 226 
 N. 61. r 
 
 Weather: Bad Weather; fee, Tempefts.-. 
 
 Fair Weather; fee. Tranquillitas. 
 
 Winds : the three divifions of them ; and which 
 mod in ule, among the Romans, p. 202, 
 
 N - 5.-How reprefented, on the famous 
 
 temple of the Winds at Athens, p. 202.-_ 
 
 How deferibed, among the Romans: fee, 
 Auller, &c. 
 
 Y. 
 
 Years; fpoken of, perfonally, p. 190. See, 
 Annus. 
 
 Youth; reprefented perfonally,---p. ig Q , 
 
 Zephyrus; (the W. Wind,) p. 202.—Walk¬ 
 ing before Ver, in the proceflion of the Sea- 
 fons, p. 192.—Several Zephyri, of an in¬ 
 ferior order, p. 204. 
 
 Zethes, - - ----p. 208, N. 47 
 
 
 \ 
 
Directions for the Binder. 
 
 Place the Author's Head, facing the Title-page. 
 
 Plate, N° 
 
 
 Dial. 
 
 Page 
 
 J. 2. 3 ' & 4 - . 
 
 
 
 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, & 10.-- 
 
 
 
 11,12,13,14, & 13. — 
 
 
 
 16, 17, 18, 19, & 20.- 
 
 
 
 21, 22, & 23.-- - - - 
 
 
 
 24, & 23.- 
 
 
 
 26, & 27.-- - 
 
 
 
 28, & 29. - — - — - - - 
 
 - 13 - - - - 
 
 
 30, & 31. —. 
 
 
 
 3 2 > 33 > 34 . Sc 35 -. 
 
 
 
 3 6 - 37 > 3 8 - 39 > 4 °. & 41. - - 
 
 
 
 Plate 9, 18, 24, & 34; to be done with guards. 
 
noc i • . : I W, :it which this principle may 1 
 
 tt.. I. Th.- ;.r "itocturo of the *#geta'».e wi rid an. 
 "f the animal world ere alike aubjoct to it, it governs 
 t-.,- :< rm» of tr -.iws ; f tree, of boughs and bran.' 
 anu su-ns and Itaf-fibres, and ehapos the ekel<- 
 aud 'lum* and muscles and arteries and vein 
 acimais. And not only does this principle -f 
 
 direct natnral 
 a checa on the operations of all iiv.in; 
 T: -i svm-e of fatigue is the fumi tinder 
 
 rs itself, impelling them 
 tho earliest way—that is, the 
 y bo done by tiio expenditure 
 
 1 by the presence i;, many 
 —perhaps ill all except tho highest—of rudimentary 
 or aborted organa :— 
 
 " Ainniie tin? many wonders of Maturo then; is nothing 
 tebrate typo to tin- inliuiw variety oF life to which it i 
 every possible change or a'Miluuyif aupemnictuie could iio 
 
 fecial function as 1? 
 
 * 
 
 t 1 even draigted for I 
 
 particjJai y'-ita vt it which 
 
 It is 
 
 
 a ■ ■ 
 
 :1c Hu ; era cf a seal, arid 
 
 cotrbir.atirat which imlicaui complete kaowlclge, n 
 Of what ’.V 'llof srhr.t 
 
 ! which ?. r are. rh. cad 
 
 
 
 1 . tsoar 
 
 
 material only, 
 
 • * ■ r ■ 
 
 on is not tiio economy of 
 our in construction. Tt 
 i. It is not realized by 
 :ion which requires the 
 
 mdition of a minimum ro- 
 :e being had both to material and work. Tho 
 moreover, of tho thing to be constructed and 
 o best form of construction must first be 
 formed in tho mind of the constructor, and thought 
 
 This e 
 
 
 . . n, for there is a law of economy 
 in thought and a tveariuess in thin king which subjects 
 men to that Jaw, Tho projector of many schemes 
 will probably project them ill some respects alike, 
 because that will he easier to him than to imagine 
 them in all respects new. The inventor of many 
 machines will probably use some expedients of 
 mechanism alike in all to save himself trouble in in¬ 
 venting. The divisions of labour in the mechanical 
 arts, as well as the professions, are all evidences of 
 the economy, not only of manual labour, but of 
 thought. 
 
 The same man of science in his researches into 
 nature will follow the same lints of thought. In 
 this he effects an economy of thought. The poet's 
 creation will have a resemblance, however different 
 the subjects. There is in this oil economy in the 
 exercise of the poetic faculty ; and in the like 
 manner there runs through the portraits of different 
 men by tho same painter a continuity of typo by 
 which tie effects an economy in artistic conception 
 mid handling. 
 
 The existence of an econumy of power in the exer¬ 
 cise of infinite power seems to us very wonderful. 
 But since it exists, and sinco it presents in this 
 respect an anulogy to that law of economy under 
 which wh are ourselves placed, and which manifests 
 itself in a continuity of type (greater or less) in all 
 human creations of the same mind and the same 
 hand, is it rash or irreverent to think wo see an 
 economy also of power in that continuity of type 
 which appears in animal structures, and ijl those 
 organs which having their origin in one stago of 
 creation where they uo not serve their ultimato use 
 (although, probably some other) are not destroyed 
 in the next stage, but carried on and shaped and de¬ 
 veloped from stago to stago until they reach that 
 where finally they accomplish the result for which 
 they were from tho first intended ? 
 
 A space scorns to stand vacant in modern thought 
 for the study of natural theology. There is uo 
 book other than that boforo us which brings it up 
 
 among the natural sciences, it is a book which 
 opens up many new lines of thought, and ex¬ 
 presses many deep and suggestive trutliB and in¬ 
 telligible forms of words. Is is not systematic, but 
 that may he no disadvantage, reference being had 
 to fhe popular inode of treatment at which it aims. 
 It is very readable, and there are few books : 
 which a thoughtful reader will 
 will dosiro to remember. 
 
 c that he 
 
 TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES. 
 
 a few observations o 
 
 Regent's Park catastrophe 
 
 the majority of persons, wero warned not to go on tho ice. 
 The verbal warning, which was unheeded, proves tho cxcep- 
 tioo. Not one of the many persona I conversed with on 
 the subjeot had received any warning of any kind ; hot on 
 the day in question the gates of the privato part of tho park 
 were formally opened, which is never done, or ought never 
 to bo done, unless tho ico is supposod to bo safe. Moreover, 
 in one instance at least, inquirers on that very day, when no 
 accident occurred in tho other Parks, wero told by those 
 placed in authority, if any were, “To-day it is safe, and tho 
 Park is opened.” If called npon, my informant will givo 
 
 You rightly ask, “What is insufficient thickness?” 
 Whose business is it to decide this? The answer is, “No¬ 
 on tlie day before the accident, in one part byboys at play, 
 in another by a gardoner who was anxious to keep the 
 public from bis beds, in another for tho fowls, and on tho 
 island, up to the moment when the accident took place, by 
 working men, employed by nobody knows who. At least. 
 Ibis was the Coroner’s observation shortly before tho ioves. 
 tigation closed. Add to this, that where no stream (lasses 
 through tho water tho level must necessarily fall, and it 
 
 tho ornamental waters, the publio has a right to press npon 
 the Government, ns the jury has done, the consideration of 
 the whole subject of skating and sliding on frozen water. 
 
 I am, Sir, your obedient servant, 
 
 Abbey-lodge, Jan. 30. ERNEST DE BUNSEN. 
 
 tickets. 1.160 ; total visitors. 2,604. 
 
 
 THE TIMES, THURSDAY, JANUARY 31, 1S67. 
 
 BUS.' 
 
 :. i r an , wealth :n thi 
 1 WI ' M ’•'I'- ’ ”- ,,br ia c illectui, 
 
 1 1 . cos ( i M I iroocli an . 
 
 11 " " Ui r-U.p-u. tho Karls cf 
 
 . “ I Lard Algernon 
 
 1 'hum cultivate i 
 
 n ccllccli-uia 
 
 :. While, how- 
 
 rat bur of 
 
 t least, ( 
 
 ardent scholar will hardly find within the OhiVrsity 
 walls the means of attaining, certainly will fail to 
 find an oucouragcment to pursue, tho subject of 
 classical archieology from its most refining and 
 fascinating aspect, that of classical art. With a few 
 exceptions, such astliatof the marbles at Laiisdowne 
 " or the Tnwnley Gallery, our century has not 
 
 .cuutuiyn 
 
 private collections made with a 
 or learning at all approaching to that which tho 
 Duke do Luyues, or the father ancl son Dukes 
 do Biacas, or the Count do Pourtales, and 
 many more accomplished and wealthy foreigners, 
 brought to tho formation of their famous collec¬ 
 tions Oil the Continent. Gems—that is to say, hard 
 ami beautiful stones—engraved, whether in intaglio 
 or cameo, are, it must bo owned, on account of 
 the frequent uncertainty as to their genuineness and 
 antiquity, an unsatisfactory class of objects for an 
 
 ordinary amateur to collect, 
 would successfully culled them as examples of 
 antique art must bring to his task a vorv farce ex¬ 
 perience, a refinement of classical taste, ’and an in¬ 
 stinctive power of induction, quick to siipdo out 
 characteristics however minute and subtle, whether 
 in technical or mechanical method, in stylo of 
 drawing, in classical details, and even in the nature 
 and form of particular materials as associated with 
 particular kinds of work. I hi the other hand, gems 
 portable arid beautiful, and while presenting a 
 
 inpendious, they 
 
 
 t than. i.i 
 
 thoso which survive in the Phtenician or Punic 
 alphabet. Tho language of Etruria can thus bo 
 read, but nevertheless not two words of it havo 
 ever been interpreted. The history of tho Etruscan 
 characters ought to shed one faint ray of light, 
 at least, on tho nature of the language, but what 
 is their history ? Was this Semitic typo of writing 
 engrafted on Etruscan civilization ? Was it bor¬ 
 rowed directly from the Phtenician, or indirectly 
 through the Greek ? Or, on tho other hand, 
 thoso characters 
 
 “ Traced from tho right on linen white 
 “ By mighty seers of yore,” 
 ancient as the establishment of tho Etrurian 
 oplo and their polity, and coeval in origin with 
 i appropriation by early Greeks of kindred cliarac- 
 ra equally Semitic in their type ? A greater than 
 r. King must answer these questions. In an 
 allusion to one very interesting and famous gem he 
 i to hint that the Etruscan writing was traced 
 . is Lord Macaulay’s poein hints, from the right 
 only, hut backwards and forwards in alternate lines, 
 after the manner termed liovarpoQylhr of the ancient 
 
 Uoliadic writings. This, boa-over, 
 on tho gem in question, which is a scarab, with 
 representation in the quaint Etruscan manner of 
 five of tho seven heroes against Thebes, found at 
 Perugia, and now at Berlin. Tho names of tho heroes 
 are written in tho Etruscan character, 
 what of a Hellenic, or rather old Italiot ft 
 of tho letters; but tho names do not run alternately 
 backwards and forwards as an ox goes in plough- 
 
 t-'-erb f s-‘ Mr. King has 
 -d a Triuily F3 ?owi 
 -- is co?v become A :,nd 
 
 "la - I lie*. H s lav,- 
 
 * i'f 'tty i:t*lu volante *■ - 
 
 ““ ux. goes in piuiigu- 
 
 written that tho word hegiuB 
 from towards tho top and ends toward tho bottom of 
 the gem, some reading from right to left on tho gem 
 itself, others doing so only on the impression from it. 
 
 but if no cannot follow Mr. King’s “ will o’tlu 
 wisp” through tho trackless wilds of Peliesgian or 
 Etruscan myths, or seo in his mirage of the days of 
 Sargon the fountain head of the art of gem engraving 
 
 yet take him as a pleasant gossiping companion 
 through tho raoro cultivated land of Greek * ’ 
 Roman art. 
 
 While tho cylinder was tho Asiatic, and tho 
 nrabreus an Egyptian, Phtenician, and Etruscan 
 rm of ornamental signet, the Greek wore hi; 
 
 i - [or. it nos, in sbnrr, a “signet- 
 I'.e the favi.V .j. A very few scarab”!! have, :t 
 true, been foetid with Greek work and Grew» in 
 riptbins, in purely Greek localities; let Him i* 
 - tv.donee that ties form was ever really ado;Ite . 
 
 
 re'vexra than"'” basn'Fw skewed T' 5 ’' • 
 von twee t ■ racing of his site? '. 
 :-ks. We may fi d i:sp.,t er.t cf theTtyle 
 idem writing wh-c'i he adopts, and of the -am 
 laeity with which he rusfies along wls-re 
 wisest students of archfeology havo trod(3:i a 
 - 
 
 - ■ • - ' - r . i . v, 1 : or " . 
 
 sorprlfine number it ts e- -i- nr -jj . 
 
 k of even Homeric 
 is; indeed, in the i 
 there is evidence o' 
 
 i* having toe eariu-sl tur 
 le metal of the ring, 
 u f n statement (page lb) thi 
 archaic maimer are found i: 
 
 language who has tn sted systematic».Iy O 
 subject ,reins at all. Ta 3 cf hajf.r.o.r 
 
 books have recent y e eive . a tr on lly hih .... 
 
 ircAU-. . 
 
 •e r.eed hardly -I * II h ug on the ref 
 .nrecantod heresies of Mr. King’s that have 
 already disposed of by tho Edinburgh re- 
 
 lilollg, si 
 
 
 The Han.il.' 
 
 quotation front the boos of Enoch 
 traditionary antiquity of the gom-engrav 
 ar-.l ill another part c:f the lolr.mewe 
 pretty fable ,,f E" jb making Prometheus ^ ( ,, 
 
 ’us ringer a symbol of his punishment, yet «.’.hid a , 1 
 
 " I •' i ' ' - ’ ' - It uo- :.vi: ( 
 
 tho f irr.t - f a link of his tr -n c: ain, set with a frag- ! ‘ ■ 
 ti.ent Ilf the adamantine rocs in which it hi . m mi 
 anchored; but Mr. lying only invokes these u,vtn'- 
 eii:.nunc.Clients in or.ior to reject the.r autl.--r.tv 
 and adhero to a statement made in his first book, 
 that tho engraving of hard stones dates from but 
 little earlier thau the days of Sargon, some T2u G.C. 
 
 No doubt tho chronology of tho Mesopotamian 
 nations and dynasties, as wo receive it at the 
 i most activo interpreter, rests on 
 foundations that may possibly bo hereafter proved 
 uiraound ; but there are in the British Museum 
 hard jasper cylinders vigorously engraved, ami 
 carrying archaic names which, as at present inter¬ 
 preted, carry us back to nn age some 2,000 years 
 boforo our era ; nor is anything likoly to bo turned 
 up by the ploughshare of criticism that shall bring 
 down their dates to a period approaching to so lato 
 nn ago os that of Sargon ; and as regards tho art in 
 Egypt, an antiquity only somo 500 yeara less remote 
 than that attributed to these cylinders must bo 
 
 igned to an engraved Egyptian tablet of yellow 
 jasper, of tho comparatively artistic age of Anu.-no- 
 
 sph.rrulal d-im- sometimes, however, 
 i--- -i nr i r.' s ..arab id form, it 
 aionaily Lccurs with the fir.eat Greek work upm it. 
 as .a the great gem with Victory and •» tr -phy u: 
 
 the British Museum ; and in several others found 
 at Kcrtch, and now at St. Petersburg. 
 
 Asiatic and Porsinn.andoccaskinuilyEgyptian sub¬ 
 jects, also occur upon it,tho material of the scarab:,,id 
 being usually chalcedony, though sometimes also it 
 is amethyst. In the Pourtalc3 collection then, was 
 a grooved amethyst scarahaud, with a figure of a 
 bearded warrior assuming his armour, enclosed in 
 graded border, and of somewhat early, but not 
 work; but tho majority nr the early 
 i found to have been already formed 
 as little discs adapted for mounting in tho ring, the 
 kind of signet of which Pliny speaks os being 
 essentially Greek. 
 
 The materials of which such signets wero com¬ 
 posed were by no means numerous. 
 
 Nino out of ton of them, if not nineteen out of 
 twenty, were varieties of chalcedony. Usually they 
 were sard, nhard translucent variety of that mineral 
 
 Mack (the sardoine of tiio French),:! stone distinguish¬ 
 able by its hardness, it3 homogeneity, and its frac¬ 
 ture from tho common carnclian. Sometimes, again, 
 they were tho blueish, tho amethystine,or otherwise 
 pale-tinted sorts of chalcedony ; of the greatest 
 
 stone. Another s 
 1 earlier mid also 
 ' ripened Greek till 
 
 phis If., tho authenticity of whichMr. King 
 Bomewhat lamely, to invalidate. 
 
 Passing from tho curious chapter of the history of 
 im engraving that treats of those cylindncally- 
 formed signets which tho Mesopotamian peoples, 
 
 
 
 whether in nameand nationality Ch.' 
 
 Babylonian, or Persian, used from the days, proba¬ 
 bly, of Abraham to those of Xerxes, wo may discuss 
 
 with Mr. King ihe signets and ornaments, formed . . 
 
 tliu shape of the beetle—tho searabaius gems.— j sl , c (, ) a y, 
 
 ice, It may be mentioned that 
 tlm ** onyx" and “ sardonyx” are terms technically, 
 but without much reason, applied to this samo stone 
 whon cut parallel to the different layers of the 
 original agate, the former term implying that there 
 tho sardonyx that there are more than two 
 
 very age, and are hardiy less 
 of Phnuiician and Etruscan cities. This 
 boetle-forni disseminated by the Phoenician 
 trader, and at tho same time adopted by tho re¬ 
 ceptive but not inventive Phtenician artist, was in 
 turn borrowed by the Etruscan, who received at 
 second hand what the mingling commerce of hU own 
 and Phtenician merchants brought home to him. 
 But the Etruscan scarabieus involves other questions 
 than the source of its peculiar form. We have to 
 . for instance, whence came the nrt which, in tho 
 form of an engraved device, as for a seal, it carries 
 its base, and wherefore was the complexion of 
 it art so decidedly Greek, more particularly in 
 jard to tho subjects engraved on theso Etruscan 
 scarabtei ? Why are thoso subjects taken from 
 Greek myths 1 Nay, who were the Etruscans that 
 thus borrowed or inherited Hellenic " A 
 thology i 
 
 It is hero that scholars _—. 
 
 King so bold. Commencing with the Pelasgians, 
 
 and evolving from liis '. 
 
 ment that they 
 graving 
 
 of Egyptian Carnots of tho almandino, or bluish roil—: 
 
 believe, of tho scarlet variety—wore sometimos used 
 by tho Greek artist, though from their great hard¬ 
 ness the work on them is generally hut rudely 
 finished. It is rarely, however, very shallow. On 
 the so-called hyacinth, on the other hand, tho work 
 is usually in very low relief. Tho stone thus named 
 is probaoly always the hyacinthine garnet, not tho 
 true hyacinth or jacinth, which is a kind of zircon. 
 Trueautique work certainly occurs on it, but rarely. 
 It was, on tho other hand, a favourite stone in the 
 renaissance period, and superb work was wrought 
 oil it both then and in tile last century; and very 
 deep work in it, like tho little statuette busts seen 
 in many collections cut out of it, may generally bo 
 asaigned to ono or other of these epochs. The. 
 amethyst and the lapis lazuli were also among the 
 stones engraved by the Greek artist. The introduc¬ 
 tion of diamond dust ill appreciable quantities ns an 
 articlo of Indian commerce must have given a great 
 cautious and Mr. impulso to gom engraving, but particularly to tho 
 use of the wheel ns an engraving implement in tho 
 hands of tho Rom an artis ts , for it not 
 
 s and my- 
 
 ss the state- 
 
 gein stones for their intruding conquerors, Mr. King 
 descends to the solution of the other problems after 
 a very old world fashion ; for he adopts tho myth 
 that the Etruscans wero descended from a colony of 
 Pclasgic Tyrrhenes driven out of Southern Lydia 
 that Bottled in Etruria. He might have cited Hero 
 dotas, or quoted Virgil’s— 
 
 “ UhiLviliusarva 
 
 Teter opima virflm leni fluit agmine Tibn»; 
 
 but modern criticism has long ago estimated the 
 evidence of both theso witnesses on this point at a 
 lower valuo than Mr. King does. Wo do not know, 
 for ills stylo is one that does not appeal much to 
 authority, what are his reasons for finding an 
 analogy between the Etruscau language and 
 that of Armenia, or wherefore ho treats as au¬ 
 thentic history tho legend that the ruling Ltru- 
 rian family was of Assyrian stook; Sandonidui (a 
 sort of Heraclidto) descendants of Sandon, the Baby¬ 
 lonian Hercules. Of course, no one is goingtodeny 
 tho possibility of a Pclasgic clement in Etruscan 
 blood—nay, considering tho mythic character, c-ven 
 in the Homerio age, of those early inhabitants, as 
 well of Greece as of Italy—of the avrhxQerit of 
 Lucania, no loss than of those ovum rb TliAo'?'.ion 
 'ApyoQ ti'iuoa, few will be prepared to deny IMas- 
 gian blood to any oven nf their successorsinthotenuro 
 of thesoil. ButMr. King is too sanguine a theorist 
 to bo contont only with what might have been, for 
 ho dresses a theory or even a random guess ui lan¬ 
 guage as positive as that in which he recounts a 
 fact. Buforo leaving the history of the Etruscan 
 scarabieus, it may bo worth while to allude to a 
 point which Mr. King touches on vaguely and not 
 very accurately, for in doing so ho stands on very in¬ 
 teresting ground. The scalable! sometimes have the 
 nes of tho gods or heroes who form the subject 
 tho design on them, written in well-formed 
 characters in tho field ’of the stone. These names 
 generally uro a sort of corruption of the '«reek 
 imes. Tho writing is in the Etruscan chsr.ictor, 
 •a character nearly related to tho archaio forms 
 Greek letters (“ tho letters Cadmus gave’) 
 id to those of tho Italioto-Greek letters. All 
 of theso are, wc may with somo confidence say, 
 derived from Semitic characters kindred with 
 
 • The IJnmlloolc of Engraved Gems, byC.W. King- M. A. 
 Follow of King’s College, Cambridge, aed authored ,4n 
 tigue Gems, &o. With numerous illustrations. sni 
 
 process than before, but rendered 
 the cutting of such hard stones ns sapphire, 
 garnet, and emerald. This commerce could hardly 
 have taken its full proportions much bofore the 
 first century of our era. Previous to this 
 emery was tho material chiefly used to giro biting 
 power to the metal tools it was employed with, 
 though splinters of Bapphiro and oven of diamond 
 seem to havo played au important, and in Greek 
 art a very characteristic, part in grooving the lines 
 into tho atone. On whatever materials the Greek 
 workmau expended his toil the work he performed 
 .marked by simplonnd noble characteristics., ■” J 
 
 re difficult than to assign a 
 
 yet there is nothing 
 date to aGreek gem. 
 
 Of tho age of Phidiira what remains to us ? ' 
 in an archaic style are not rare, which mu 
 called prtn-Phidioc, if we ore to employ tho 
 criteria in regard to gems that would bo applied 
 to coins and other remains of art in Ionian cities 
 tho Helladic States ; but probably in tho more n 
 merous cases where such gems havo been found i 
 Italian soil they may generally bo assigned to 
 age somewhat later thau that of Phidias. In the noble 
 style of that age itself as it existed in Athens 
 there may, perhaps, bo half-a-dozen gems in Europe, 
 among which tho Hermes in the Blenheim collec¬ 
 tion may take high rank. 
 
 Gems belonging to tho styles of 
 
 cceded tl 
 enough, and, a 
 various degrei 
 
 t that suo- 
 
 o numerous 
 
 vrorkm-insli , 
 membered the 
 
 of tho Parthenon 
 might be expected, they present 
 of merit, ns well in stylo as in 
 •at, as regards style, it is to be re- 
 a gem was vory frequently a copy 
 atue, the gem engraver's nrt being, as it 
 , ...iillary to that of tho sculptor. Mr. Kingre- 
 minds us of cases in which famous statuesof antiquity 
 may now be represented only upon gems ; and tho 
 rhymed translation of tho poem liy Christodorus on 
 Zeuxippus’s gymnasium, at Constantinople, which 
 
 ho includes in his volume, lias a special value 
 giving a description of many statues, the subjects of 
 which may perhaps be found thus embalmed. On 
 the other hand, it by no means follows that tho gem 
 was contemporary with the statue, or that tho style 
 in which a subjeot is drawn and treated on tho gem 
 stono may not bo the reflection from a work done 
 even centuries before it. 
 
 Hence it is certainly true of Greek gems that, if 
 we exclude those which aro really archaio 
 wo shall find it only in tho rarest cases pi 
 
 assign a date to any of them within limits bounded 
 by an age earlier even than that of Alexander on 
 tho one hand, and by the reign of Augustus ou the 
 
 Among tho few that assert thoir date by intrinsic 
 evidence would be certainraroportraits of tho Kings 
 who ruled the several fragments into which the Em¬ 
 pire of the great Macedonian conqueror became di¬ 
 vided. Among these an occasional portrait head, repre¬ 
 senting one, perhaps, of tho later Macedonian 
 ICingB, or of the Pontine Sovereigns, of the Scleu- 
 cidio or of tho Ptolomies, will find a place, and such 
 gems represent the finest portraiture ever wrought 
 by tho hand of either tho die-sinker or gem-eu- 
 gravor. We might indicato among theso a noble 
 head of Ptolemy Physcon on a “ black sard” (tho 
 sardoine of the French), boqueathod by the lato Mr. 
 Eastwood to tho British Museum. In tho Florence 
 Collection, too, there is a tine heat! on a hyacinthine 
 garnet cut en cabochon (i.e., with a convex surface), 
 representing the portrait generally recognized as 
 that of Phileberus, King of Pergamus, as coined by 
 his son Attalus I., and in the same collection is a 
 largo amethyst, with a portrait of (thu first of gem 
 collectors) Mithridates tho Groat. But at tho 
 same timo that wo must thus acknowledge an 
 habitual hesitation in assigning a dato hi a 
 Greek gem, it is to be remarked that special 
 tendencies and fashions of art in difiorent 
 regions of the Greok world are noticeable. It 
 is, no doubt, truo that great Sovereigns at¬ 
 tracted to their Courts the most renowned 
 artists of Greece, ns well from Ionian Islands ns 
 from the Tyrrhene and Tarentino seaboards; but 
 tho coinsof different States and cities show that art, 
 even after tho age of Alexander, was not thereby 
 rendered uniform in its lovel, or that lucid schools 
 of art altogether ocascd to be. The cities of 
 Magna Griecia and Sicily, as is evidenced in 
 their coins, revelled iu a voluptuous cast of 
 art almost overburdenod with tho wealth of 
 its details and the depth of its handling, while, 
 iu this respect, thoso of tho Greek Islands, of Asia 
 Minor, of Hellas Proper, stand somewhat in the 
 order in which we have enumerated thorn in com¬ 
 parison with their Italiot contemporaries. Wc eer- 
 taiuly fail to trace with anything like this confidence 
 -about characteristics in tho gum-engraver’s art in 
 the different divisions of the Hellenic world. 
 
 Tho disentombed relies of those two or three 
 great centuries aro far moro numerous in Italian 
 than in Eastern localities. But of the latter enough 
 mlhcnticated gems are known to enable ns to con¬ 
 clude that while, ou the one hand, the gems yielded 
 ■i;, by the ruins of tho once wealthy Italo-Greek 
 colonies accord rather in style with the rich treat¬ 
 ment we trace in their coins than with the single - 
 limplo statuesque character of tho arts of Hellas ; j 
 so, on tho other hand, tho Greek Islands and the 
 o>mbs of Kertch haveeenei ally produced gems mure 
 iu accord with art of the simpler and severer kind ; 
 and tho samo may bo asserted of the works of Ptole- 
 maio Egypt. fA t ^ Pomo hal 
 
 i-ocomo tho centre of the world. Thither whs at- j 
 fronted, by that centripetal furco which wealth and ' 
 power establish as by a natural law, all tlmt was rare i 
 and valuable—tho artist nud Ilia genius, no less-in- 
 exorably than the trader in gold and gems. Hence 
 file artnf the early Empire is Gruek,bnt it is Greok 
 art paying homage to Roman tastes and traditions, 
 and largely occupied in rendering Roman portrai¬ 
 ture. Thus it soon begins to acquire a new form, 
 and, indeed, to undergo a debasement as a con- 
 lequcneo of this servility. No doubt, too, a native 
 Latin art. with a largo Etruscan element, helped to 
 modify tno traditious of tho Grieco-Roman gom-ou- 
 graver, and to shape his art into, what it became 
 even before the days of Domitian, a “Roman” style. 
 The greater use of tho wheel rendered this trans¬ 
 formation as regarded gems a more rapid one ; 
 
 days of Hadrian we find sta- 
 and gems alike witnessing to the 
 grjwth of a Roman school of art, excellent in 
 s portraiture, lmt teeming with details wanting 
 lo finer handling and tender modelling of high 
 Irenk art, hut atill aspiring to a mastery over tech¬ 
 nical difficulties which tho true Greek hand seemed 
 instinctively to have surmounted. 
 
 That mastery Roman art never attained, and it 
 soon fell from such height as it had reached, till it 
 became in the third century idinost lifeless. 
 
 Tho decay of the ancient religion had no doubt 
 something to do with this fall; the luxurious habits 
 and degeneracy of taste and of education must have 
 had even more. 
 
 Tho gems thatdato from tho middle of tho second 
 contnry aro usually of tho poorest workmanship. The 
 talisinanie stones engraved for tho Gnostic followers 
 of Valentinian and Basilcides, represent, perhaps, 
 tho lowest depths to which the art hadsuuk, and were 
 often, we may suppose, engraved by tho .-Alexandrian 
 workmen of a generation succeeding those in 
 which Mithraic subjects had exercised the 
 skill of tho gem-engraver. Theso Gnostic gems 
 aro frequently adorned with the form of tho 
 Abraxas deity—n form moro like n hideous 
 nightmare than a creation of art or the symbo¬ 
 lical embodiment of a religious sentiinout or system. 
 But while tho Gnosis, with it3 gems and talismans, 
 
 “ rose like an exhalation” from the fermenting mix¬ 
 ture of Eastern and Western religious thought, in 
 the East an impulse of another kind was being given 
 to tho fast-sinking art of the gem-engraver. The 
 Parthian, or Persian gems, under the Sassanian 
 dynasty, prolonged tho history of that art for some 
 three or four more centuries. Tho earlier gems of 
 this kind are often carefully if rather rudely exe¬ 
 cuted, and some of them, with their conspicuous 
 
 Marcia, to whom Mr. King would attribute the! ” , 
 female head, would not have boon a probable object? »*., 
 for complimentary deification in a later age. i “ 
 
 Wo will not follow Mr. King into the dark agos,- v „ 
 or attempt even to select from the really valuable! t® . 
 and curious lore which he has from far and wide: a-' 
 collected into tho interesting portion of his volunjbc 
 in which he deals with the singular adaptations of c f ■- 
 pagan gems to the.ornamentation of tho sigcls and: V' 
 ecclesiastical vessels of Christian times. Soma 
 of this matter would certainly havo been better i 1 ' 
 transferred to the capital chapter of gossipi&U 
 which ho devotes to “ famous rings and signets.' 1 .. <• 
 Among other Buch subjects Mr. King alludes to the - 
 audacious forgery of a portrait of the Saviour on- ' 
 an emerald protended to have been made by Pilate’»- 
 order for presentation to Tiberius, and further tore' 
 havo been given by the Sultan from tho Byzantinei 
 Treasury to Pope Innocent VIII. as a ransom for a ' 
 captive brother. Mr. King dissipates the fable bjp 
 showing not only that the work of the gem is in ’’ 
 peculiar style of tho Italian revival, 
 
 that thd * 
 
 head is actually copied from tho head in Ralfaelle’e i* 
 cartoon of tho Miraculous Draught of Fishes 1 
 Mr. King has a chapter entitled “ Cabinets 
 
 Gems.' 1 Now, a good chapter giving carefully chosen J - 
 dotails and a really scholarlike sketch of all tho most, b 
 world-famous collections of gems, would constitute* re¬ 
 in itself a most valuablo handbook, to which thci 
 previous material in Mr. King’s work, if reduced- 
 " ' ’’ systematically 
 
 smaller balk, 
 ranged, and its inaccuracies corrected, would! if 
 make an admirable introduction. Y ‘ '* * ~ 
 chapter i3 too meagre to auswer any very prao-kf 
 tical purpose in the hands of the student, thei - 
 collector, or the tourist. Ono can hardly under-:' 
 stand Buch an enthusiastic collector of gem-lore o' -' 
 every kind as Mr. King not having carefully visited, n* 1 - 
 tlie foreign and sought out tho English collectione s 
 before setting about writing a handbook to describe 
 thorn. As it is, one is surprised to find himt t 1 
 describing so few of the great gems of the Conti-t 'I 
 nontal collections with the authority of one who had. 
 seen them. It is tho same as regards Florence and n 
 Berlin—even Paris—as it is in respect to St. Peters-- 
 burg, and one might almost say o' 
 
 London ; for he has not even taken the trouble tat 
 become thoroughly acquainted with the gems 
 the British Museum. It is as though a writer ot<t 
 ono of Mr. Murray’s haudbooka were not to think 
 it necessary to have visited the country he describes. 
 
 Of some indeed of the most important European- 
 gems notices aro given in a subsequent part of his 
 book, but they aro from the hand of Dr. Brunnul 
 Before alluding to the chapter that contains them,- 
 wo must revert to the one on tho history of gem-. 
 
 order to discuss a subject therein! 
 
 entered upon, viz., the age of forgery. 
 
 The revival iu Italy had fanned into a flame the I 
 long smouldering embers of an art that had never l 
 been quite extinct. Artists encouraged by Lore 
 
 Pehlcvi legends may bo called artistic, though 
 best of them retain a stiffness in tho drawing ana 
 treatment that, when compared with the cylinders 
 and seal-stamps of the Asiatic world of earlier 
 times, almost savours of a national characteristic. 
 
 Imperial portraits, moro particularly cameos, 
 during tho earlier centuries of this period, also 
 attest tho continuance of tho art in Rome and after¬ 
 wards at Constantinople, though in a form much 
 debased. 
 
 Tho stones all these later gems were engrave,, on 
 ere variod and beautiful, and tho tastes of tho 
 Romans were in this respect not behind those 
 of the Parthians, for there is hardly a coloured 
 ot put to the engraver’s use 
 Persepolis. Amethysts, sand- 
 onyxes, tho nicolo (or onyculo, an onyx with a thin 
 bluish white upper layer spread ovor a dark base), 
 translucent plasmas of every lovely tint of green (con- 
 fino d, ho wever, it would seem, to the Roman ateliers); 
 *i— * -^— '-t—" Wt e ne, or he liotrope, 
 
 and other coloured kinds of tho jasper, 
 sively into fashion, whilo lapi» lazuli, tho alman- 
 dino, and the hyacinthino garnet, the peridot, tho 
 sapphire, even tho ruby, sometimes were made 
 vehicles for tho designs that adorned as well tho 
 ring stone'or tho stono ring of the Persian as the 
 signet of the Roman or the talisman of tho believer 
 
 the Gnosis. 
 
 A very interesting section of Mr. King's chapter 
 on tho history of tho glyptic art, as he terms it! * s 
 dovoted to tho subject of cameos. Many archmo- 
 logists will perhaps feel less hesitation - 
 
 King expresses as to tho artists of Greece, espe¬ 
 cially of Ptolcmaio Egypt, haying wrought in 
 cameo. On tho other hand, without doubt, the 
 age especially prolific in the productions of these 
 polychrome works was tho reign of Hadrian. 
 
 To that timo is to be referred a great number of 
 the fino Roman cninei, representing in apotheosis 
 the members of tho Julian mid Claudian families 
 often upon sardonyxes of vast dimensions, and ex¬ 
 hibiting from two to four or five differently coloured 
 layers of the stone, each of which has been taken 
 dvantage of by the engraver for tho rendering of 
 ome particular portion of his design. Mr. King’s 
 
 description of the great ;-*-.e. . 
 
 Europe — ' 
 
 the collections of 
 useful and interesting episodo 
 his history of tho art. He will have an op¬ 
 portunity now of correcting his view about the 
 great Strozzi gem, which he 
 sotting down tc *’-*' 
 
 with Gori 
 
 of Constantine. That 
 
 .. this moment with the 
 
 rest of the collection of gems of the Duke de Biacas 
 in tho British Museum, and Mr. King can readily 
 
 Batisfy himself of tho character of ' L ."' ’ 
 
 diadem by which somo medimval art 
 times has replaced the laurel wreath 
 
 io-callcd 
 
 bably, oven in tho days of “tho Cicsars,” had 
 oncireled this magnificent Greek cut portrait 
 of Augustus. Nor can we concur with Mr. 
 King in his attribution of tho great Blonhcim 
 cameo usually designated 03 tho portraits of 
 Didius Julian and Manlia Scantilla. It is a 
 very lato and tame work, on, porhapB, the most 
 extraordinary sardonyx in tho world. It may 
 have belonged to some series of Imperial portraits 
 wrought at a late period—so late a period, perhaps, 
 as the ago of Constautine—but it preseuts no 
 marked likeness to any Imperial pair of heads; 
 certainly, not more a likoness to Commodus than 
 weeks’ Emperor, Didius Julian : whilo 
 
 dci Medici soon learned to work in intaglio and in- 
 cameo with a facility and a perfection that is asto¬ 
 nishing whon we consider how rapidly this artistic: 
 poworwaa developed. With two or three exceptions,.» 
 
 G chaps tho loveliost cameos ever wrought be- 
 lg to tho period of that LGth contury. 
 
 The 17th century was an ago of retrogression; 
 but in the 18th patrons again arose who called for ■: 
 gems as they called for pictures in their character of 
 wealthy dilettanti , to whose merit be it said that even | 
 in an age of imperfect criticism they chose to ex-. 
 pend their monoy in tho refinement of thoir own i 
 and other people’s tastes by collecting objects of nrt. t 
 The art of gem-origraving soon revived, but, sti¬ 
 mulated by tho demand of collectors and guided 
 by tho harpies who fattened on the supply of that, 
 demand, a disastrous turn was soon given to the rej 
 
 Buscitated art. it paid 
 slavishly to copy the antique than to do origins'! 
 work. So antiques, of course, were forged, and th. 1 
 trade was systematically supplied with them. Oil" 
 gems were reworked with the liner implements of . 
 modern art; antique pastes were copied, auiL 
 it is said, destroyed, that tho originals migh' 
 not be appealed to ; and gems, both an . 
 tiquo and modern, were inscribed with Greek’ 
 names that had come down through all the’ 
 centuries as those of the famous engravers o! 
 old, and these gems were passed into the world as th' 
 veritable works of those engravers’ hands. Deter 
 tion, of courso, soon followed, but how was the amt; 
 
 teur uf the 18th century to sift the wheat from th'- 
 chaff—nay, how is the criticof the 19th to do so f Tj , 
 this question many modern critics have applied them 
 selves, and one in particular, Dr. Brunn, of Munich^! 
 has done sowith a learning and a sagacity that invest'’ 
 his work with great claims to our Confidence. The t 
 questions at issue aro, firstly, what antique gems in: 
 the collections of Europo carry names really ns, 
 ancient as tho designs associated with thoso names ? 
 and, secondly, what do these Greok nauic3 thus en¬ 
 graved npon them mean ? To the first of these - 
 questions Dr. Brimu gives auswers by investigating , 
 every such gem that is known to him, by the light ' 
 of internal evidence, and of such facts as ho could 
 gather regarding tho history of tho gom itsolf. 
 
 Mr. King has published in his book u condensed 
 ahstmet nf this part of Dr. Bruun’s work, but it is 
 not always very correct in its reproduction even of 
 Dr. Brurm’B paheography. But we are bound to say 
 that faults of this kind, together with the many 
 typical errors iu this volumo, are, we believe, to be 
 traced to failing eyes in one who has been too prodi¬ 
 gal in their use on objects tho most trying to the 
 eyesight. 
 
 ’ Tho existence on a few gems of ono of the well- 
 known forms of signature by an ancient artist, that, ,1 
 namely, in which a name is followed by EIIOIEI I 
 (the form kept up in the “ ferit" of a modern en¬ 
 graver), was enough to suggest that tho artist’s sig- 1 
 nature was possibly also to bo recognized in cases 
 where the name alone occurred, and more especially 
 whore that nairm was in the genitive case. 
 
 The coins of the Greek cities sometimes carry in 
 unobtrusive guise ou some secondary ornament tho 
 names of artistic die-sinkers in the genitive anti 
 
 1 EYMHNOY ( 
 
 
 -Syracuse and Catana ; and in this respect they 
 seem to accord with the forms of signature on many 
 
 But in applying this fact to gems another 
 appears on the stago to assert a fecit» sta 
 enrid in tho person of tho owner for who 
 siguot probably was out. How, then, are we 
 tingnish hero betweon the owner and tho artist f 
 Nay, let us add still another element to tho con¬ 
 fusion. May not those gems which are inscribed, 
 •vitli proper names in tho gonltivo ease, in some in-* 1 
 stances imply that they are representations—copies, 
 in fact, made in ancient times from well-known 
 works of famous artists ? 
 
 The original works of a Dioscorides may have 
 been thus repeated by unnamed engravers ; the 
 Diomod master of the Palladium, in the Devon¬ 
 shire Collection, the 11 Holdemess" Mercury in that 
 at Blenheim, the lo now at Florence, two well- 
 known heads of Julius Ctosar in the British 
 Museum, too lifelike in the haggard t 
 yet eaglo physiognomy for a modern 
 tion, yet too exaggerated for a groat artist’s 
 work from life,—all aro inscribed with the 
 signature AIOSKOrPIAOY, except one of the 
 
 last-named, the Biacas’ Julius, which has tho name 
 AIOSKOPIAOS (not, by the way, AlOSKQPIAOE, sa 
 Mr. King writes it), while among tho rest are gems 
 whose pedigreo is well authenticated. May not 
 these, wo would ask, be copies from the different 
 works of the most renowned of the Augustan gem- 
 engravers? May not tho inscription imply that 
 they are from the originals of Dioscorides ? The 
 lunar Rigma at least would hardly bo mot with as a 
 usual form on a gom so early as of the Augustan 
 
 i in tho genitive to 
 ^ Those in the nomi¬ 
 native ho only allows to bo signatures of the artist 
 whon they are followed by tho verifying EIIOIEI. 
 Ho considers these tho only gems signed by the 
 to havo been always large-'- — 1 —‘ “ 
 
 “ trial pieces,” kept by the artist himself as stand¬ 
 ing evidences of his skilL It may seem hardly 
 worth while meeting these somewhat haphazard 
 theories by asking if the full inscription was 
 undoubtedly put on the gem because of its mag¬ 
 nitude, and even on the idea that such largo gems 
 were cut as proofs of skill, wherefore this should 
 preclude tho artist from putting his signature us was 
 done on coins, in a smaller and less obtrusive form, 
 on gems cut “to order ” for tho signots of particular 
 persons on the smaller sized stones ? Mr. King tries 
 to fortify his singular position by discrediting the 1 
 evidence afforded by coins, and would assert that 
 the names, whether in the nominative or 
 genitive, inscribed on these so minutely as hardly 
 to be visible to the naked eye, are those 
 not of the die-cutter, but of the moueyer. Money- 
 —'- ’- by tho very nature 
 
 of t 
 
 , however, 
 
 written in large u 
 
 are, lly mu very uovuie 
 the Consular Roman coins, 
 legible characters as a gua- 
 
)0 for the coin itself, and correspond 
 le owner’s name on a »em than to the ar 
 owner’s name was, without doubt, often 
 ed on a gem, sometimes probably in 
 inative, often in the genitivo ; and usua. 
 ,inly in large characters. It is where 
 d in the nominative or genitive occurs in smal» 
 in such a manner as to be part of the original 
 ;n that critics have recognized in it the artist’s 
 iture ; in the latter form we have ventured to 
 that the genitive name may indicate a copy 
 the known work of some great master of earlier 
 . Mr. King seems to admit a somewhat similar 
 anation in tile case of cameos. The genitive 
 oins may equally imply that they were copies 
 3 by the artisans of the Mint from an original 
 imo noted die-designer. 
 
 ms the name UVA1NET0T occurs on coins 
 ,-ell as of Catana as of Syracuse, and may 
 i been that of a master die-sinker employed 
 >oth those wealthy aud neighbouring cities, 
 ugh has been said to show that the so-called 
 t’s signatures on gerns present as chrioU3 a 
 le as ever archaeologist or critic set himself to 
 ivel, while the forgeries of the last century, and 
 ibly oven of far remoter times, only servo to 
 o the confusion worse confounded, 
 r. King’s volume is illustrated by engravings 
 wood by Mr. L'tting, and by some copper 
 3s by Salandri. The former clever, but, 
 iaps, too bold for the rendering of delicato 
 leations oil a gem, tho latter excellent 
 loint of delicacy and truth. One may wish 
 ■ had represented the great gems in Etiro- 
 l cabinets. Of these, unfortunately, but a few- 
 given, the great majority being taken from the 
 resting little collection belonging to Mr. King 
 3elf, a collection, however, by no means calcu- 
 1 for tho illustration of a Handbook of Jin- 
 ■ed Genus in general. We close Mr. King’s 
 t witli some regret at having to allude to ex- 
 agances or inaccuracies in it ; but those are, for 
 lers to whom critical accuracy is not of value, 
 e than counterbalanced by its thoroughly read- 
 character, and by the great store of information 
 I sons that it contains. 
 

 
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