A leffon of great importance to the pagan lawgiver. This fuperftitio ignara veterum deorum was, as we have fhewn, a matter he took much care to rectify in the myfteries; not by deftroying that fpecies of idolatry, the worship of dead men, which was indeed his own invention, but by fhewing why they paid that worship; namely for benefits done by those deified heroes to the whole race of mankind. 66 Quare agite, O Juvenes! tantarum in munere laudum, Cingite fronde comas, et pocula porgite dextris. The conclufion of Evander's fpeech, "COMMUNEMQUE VOCATE DEUM, et date vina volentes, as evidently alludes to that other inftitute of Cicero, in the fame Book of Laws. SEPARATIM nemo habeffit Deos: neve novos neve advenas nifi publice adfcitos PRIVATIM Colunto. Of which he gives the reafon in his Comment, fuofque Deos, aut novos aut alienigenas coli, confufionem habet religionum, et ignotas ceremonias. Nor should we omit to obferve a further beauty in this. epifode; and in imitation ftill of Cicero; who, in his book of laws hath taken the beft of the Roman inftitutes for the foundation of his fyftem. For the worship of Hercules, as introduced by Evander, and adminiftred by the Potitii, on the altar called the ara maxima, was, as Dion. Hal. tells us, the oldest establishment in Rome; and continued for many ages in high veneration. To this, the following lines allude. "Hane ARAM luco ftatuit, quæ MAXIMA femper Dicetur nobis, et erit quæ maxima semper. -Jamque facerdotes, primufque POLITIUS ibant. 2. In the ninth book we have the fine episode of Nifus and Euryalus; which presents us with many new graces, when confidered (as it ought to be) as a representation of one of the most famous and fingular of the Grecian inftitutions. CRETE, that ancient and celebrated school of legislation, had a civil cuftom, which the Spartans firft, and afterwards all the principal cities of Greece borrowed from them, for every man of diftinguished valour or wisdom to adopt a favourite youth; for whose education he was anfwerable, and whofe manners he had the care of forming. Hence Nifus is said to be "COMES Euryalus, quo PULCHRIOR alter Non fuit Eneadum, Trojana neque induit arma; Ora PUER prima fignans INTONSA JUVENTA. The loyers (as they were called) and their youths always served and fought together; - fo Virgil of these : "His amor unus erat, pariterque in bella ruebant, The lovers used to make presents to their favourite youths. So Nifus tells his friend: "Si TIBI, quæ POSCO promittunt (nam mihi fatti The ftates of Greece, where this inftitution prevailed, reaped fo many advantages in it, that they gave it the greatest encouragement by their laws: fo that Cicero, in his book of a Republic, obferved, "Opprobrio fuiffe adolefcentibus fi amatores non haberent." Virgil has been equally intent to recommend it by all the charms of poetry and eloquence. The amiable character, the affecting circum circumftance, the tenderness of diftress, are all inimitably painted. The youth fo educated were found to be the best bulwark of their country, and moft formidable to the enemies of civil liberty. On which account the tyrants, wherever they prevailed, used all their arts to fupprefs an inftitution fo oppofite to private intereft and ambition. The annals of ancient Greece afford many examples of the bravery of these bands, who chearfully attempted the most hazardous adventures: So that Virgil did but follow history when he put these two friends on one of the moft daring actions of the whole war; as old Aletes understood it; “Dí patrii, quorum femper fub numine Troja eft, -! Plutarch, speaking of the Thebans, in the life of Pelopidas, fays, that "Gorgias firft enrolled the facred band, confifting of three hundred chofen men; and that this corps was faid to be compofed of LOVERS and their FRIENDS. It is reported, fays he, that it continued unconquered till the battle of Chæronea; and when, after the action, Philip was furveying the dead, and came to the very spot where these three hundred fell, who had charged in close order fo fatally on the Macedonian lances, and obferved how they lay heaped upon one another, he was amazed; and being told, that this was the band of Lovers and their Friends, he burst into tears, and said, Accurfed be they who can suspect that these men either did or fuffered any thing difhoneft. But certainly (continues my author) this inftitution of lovers did not arife in Thebes, as the poets imagined, from the PASSION of Laius, but from the WISDOM of legiflators *." Such • Vol. ii. p. 218, 219, Brian. Edit. was was the friendship, our poet would here reprefent, where he fays, Nifus AMORE PIO pueri and where he makes Afcanius call Euryalus, VENERANDE puer. The one dies in defence of the other; revenges his death; and Tum fuper exanimem fefe projecit AMICUM The poet promises them an eternal memory, not for their fake, but for the fake of the institution, he would recommend under their story. Before I leave these previous circumftances, permit me only to obferve, that this was the fecond fpecies of the epic poem; our own countryman, Milton, having produced the third: For just as Virgil rivalled Homer, fo Milton emulated both of them. He found Homer poffeffed of the province of morality; Virgil of politics; and nothing left for him, but that of religion. This he feized, as afpiring to share with them in the government of the poetic world: And, by means of the fuperior dignity of his fubject, hath gotten to the head of that triumvirate which took fo many ages in forming. Thefe are the three fpecies of the epic poem; for its largest sphere is human action, which can be confidered but in a moral, a political, or religious view; and these the three great MAKERS; for each of their poems was ftruck out at a heat, and came to perfection from its first effay. Here then the grand scene was closed, and all farther improvements of the epic at an end. It being now understood, that the Æneis is in the style of ancient legislation, it is hard to think fo great a mas ter ter in his art would overlook a DOCTRINE, which, we have fhewn, was the foundation and fupport of ancient politics; namely, that of a future ftate of rewards and punishments. Accordingly he hath given us a complete fystem of it, in imitation of his models, Plato's vision of Erus, and Tully's dream of Scipio. Again, as the lawgiver took care to fupport this doctrine by a very extraordinary inftitution, and to commemorate it by a RITE, which had all the allurement of fpectacle, and afforded matter for the utmost embellishments of poetry, we cannot but confefs a defcription of fuch a scene would add largely to the grace and elegance of his work; and muft conclude he would be invited to attempt it. Accordingly, we fay, he hath done this likewife, in the allegorical defcent of Æneas into hell; which is no other than an enigmatical reprefentation of his INITIATION INTO THE MYSTERIES. Virgil was to represent a perfect lawgiver, in the perfon of Æneas; now initiation into the myfteries was what fanctified his character and ennobled his function. Hence, we find all the ancient heroes and lawgivers were, in fact, initiated. And it was no wonder the legiflator fhould endeavour, by his example, to give credit to an inftitution of his own creating. Another reafon for the hero's initiation, was the important inftructions he there received in matters of the highest moment concerning his office t. A third reafon for his initiation, was the cuftom of feeking fupport and infpiration from the God who prefided in the mysteries t A fourth reafon for Eneas's initiation, was the circumstance in which the poet has placed him, unfettled in his Homeri Fragm. Hymn. in Cer. apud Pauf. Corinth. + Diod. p. 224. See Div. Leg. B. 3. §. 2. † See the Rhetor Sopater, in his διαιρέσεις ζητημάτων. affairs, |