138 On the Machinery of the 



sinks in dignity; and human heroism, its only 

 proper subject, is debased. Virgil, too ser- 

 vilely copying his model, has, in the last 

 conflict with Turnus, dishonoured ^Eneas, in 

 whose person he intended to do honour to the 

 Poman story, iflneas conquered, not without 

 a divine assistance, the King of the Latins 

 knew from whose hand his death issued, he 

 renders no homage to ^neas, his last words 

 are, 



I feared no death from Ihee, 



Jove and a fiend from hell, have conquered roe. 



What is there then, which, in an appeal to 

 taste or judgment, can plead with a modern 

 the cause of the heathen deities, as an auxiliary 

 of the ancient epic poem . The mythology of 

 Greece and Rome is the most contemptible 

 creation of man. We observe in it no whole, 

 but a motley composition, formed out of dis- 

 cordant materials, loosely adhering, and al- 

 together presenting neither dignity, nor ele- 

 gance; nor even the playfur luxuriance of a 

 wild but captivating fancy. In its gross, 

 ferocious and bmtal part, it most resembles the 

 Icelandic Edda ; what claim it has to elegance 

 and taste, as in the fiction of Venus and Cupid, 

 appears to be derived from the licentiousness 

 of the Syrian goddess, or in the animation, 



