140 On the Machinery 0f4]ie 



which tradition i^ad liberally intermingled it. 

 The faith 6f the Greeks and Romans ap- 

 pears to have contemplated their supposed 

 divinities, as having no nobler occupation than. 

 %o be busiied with the interests and passions, 

 and prejudices of men, and, though the expedi- 

 tion against Troy had no higher end in view, 

 fhan to recover a beautiful adulteress from the 

 arms of her paramour, who had also violated 

 the rights of hospitality, yei they deemed the 

 cau«e of sufficient importance to interest the 

 whole coutt of heaven, and thought the gods, 

 to wh'om they ascribed the most partial and 

 J3tienle affections, would enter into the quarrel, 

 and ai^reeably to their several inclinations 

 range the*mselves on the part of Greece or 

 Troy, without any regard to right or wrong. 

 Homer, therefore, witb.out a sense of impro- 

 priety, might deem tlie celestial maehinery to 

 be an embellishment of his poem. 



But It was not so with Virgil. In his day 

 philosophy had rniade considerable progress, 

 and the-refore no light and easy faith can 

 well be ascribed to him. He was a Stoic, and 

 must-have imbibed a thorough contempt for the 

 fooleries of the popular creed. But this po- 

 pular creed no Roman, however sceptical j, 

 ever pubHcly insulted ; it was a powerful in- 

 strument of siate policy, and though philosophy 



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