1 1 4 On the Machineri/ of the 



hero through many difficulties and conflicts 

 finally to triumph^ and, therefore, it might be 

 expected, that his poem would be so managed 

 as to derive the final triumph of his hero from 

 his ascendant virtue, and to illustrate the ex- 

 cellence of piety by a striking exhibition of its 

 rewards. But the conduct of the poem 

 presents no such view, and the piety of ^Eneas 

 appears to have but . little influence on his 

 fortunes. Not all his piety can soften the 

 ha Sceva Juiionis ; nor is the interposition of 

 any god, not even of the supreme Jove, in his 

 favour, ever, that I remember, referred to his 

 piety. The maternal piety of Venus, and not 

 the resigned piety of yEneas to the gods in 

 general, appears to be his most effectual friend.. 

 Viro-il clothes his hero with the virtue of 

 piety, bur, having- done this, the condufct and 

 the machinery of the poem are but httle ac- 

 Gommodated thereto. Virgil, I think, was of 

 the Stoic sect,, and with submission to my 

 lords, the critics, I would offer a conjecture,, 

 that the Stoic maxim is not foreign to the 

 spirit and conduct of the /Eneid, viz. that a 

 consistency of character, and steady pursuit of 

 one groat object will be attended with an ho- 

 nourable issue, and triumph O'ver thp oppo- 

 sition both of gods and men. If there were 

 but a moral in it,^ but unfortunately it is of 

 3 



