14 . JticUnt gild prtfdit Stait if Sc^Ua and Char^'hdh, 



Here Scylla bellows from her dire abodes, 

 Tremendous peft ! abhorr'd by man and gods ! 

 Hideous her voice, and with lefs terrors roar 

 The whelps of lions in the midnight hour ! Pope. 



The Greek poet, when he pourtrays the rock which is the habitation of Scylla, finifhes 

 the picture higher than the Latin, by reprefenting it as fo lofty that its fummit is conti- 

 nually wrapped in the clouds, and fo fteep, fmooth and flippery, that no mortal could af- 

 cend it, though he had twenty hands and twenty feet. 



'0( SSe Jua trxoTTEXoi, o |tt£v ougavov tvpuv mam 

 Kuantif 10 /xEv ownoT e^aii, owJettot' ai^pt: 



KtiVOU EXEl M^U<pW, cut' £V Sff £1 OVt' £V O'TTU^lf. 



Oi/Je Kiv aixBam Ppolof m»)f, ov xcSaQam, 

 OvV £1 hi X^'?^i y^ tiMotn xai woh; titv, 

 nilpyiyapMitri'ai^i^srneiwtx, HoM. OdyfT. Xll. 



High in the air the rock its fummit {hrouds 



In brooding tempefts and in rolling clouds ; 



Loud ftorms around and mifls eternal rife, 



Beat its bleak brow and intercept the fkies. 



When all the broad expanfion, bright with day, 



Glows with th' autumnal or the fummer ray ; 



The fummer and the autumn glow in vain. 



The flcy for ever low'rs, for ever clouds remain. 



Impervious to the ftep of man it Hands, 



Though borne by twenty feet, though arm'd with twenty hand«. 



Smooth as the polifli of the mirror rife 



The flippery fides, and (hoot into the fkies. Pope. 



Such, three thoufand years ago, or nearly fo, appeared the rock of Scylla, according to 

 the obfervation of Homer j and fuch is nearly its appearance at this day. 



The accuracy of this truly <' firft great painter of antiquity," which has likcwife been ob- 

 fervcd by fcientific travellers in other defcriptions which he has given, fhews that the level 

 of the waters of the fea was at that time at nearly the fame height as at prefent, fince, had 

 it funk only a few fathom, it muft have left the foot of the rock, which, according to my 

 obfervations, is not very deep, entirely dry. And this I confider as one among feveral ftrong 

 arguments, that the moft remarkable finkings of the fea are anterior to the time of Homer.. 



Such is the fituation and appearance of Scylla : let us now confider the danger it pcca» 

 fions to mariners. Though the tide is almoll imperceptible in the open parts of the Medi- 

 .tcrranean, it is very ftrong in the ftrait of Meffina,in confequence of the narrownefs of the 



channel," 



