Class II. TAME SWAN. 569 



Befides thefe opinions, the antients held another 

 flill more Angular, imagining that the fwan fore- 

 told its own end : to explain this we muft confider - 

 the twofold character of the poet, Fates and Poeta, 

 which the fable of the tranfmigration continue to 

 the bird, or they might be fuppofed to derive 

 that faculty from Apollo * their patron deity, the 

 god of prophecy and divination. 



As to their being fuppofed to fing more fweetly 

 at the approach of death, the cau-ie is beautifully 

 explained by Plato, who attributes that unufual me- 

 lody, to the fame fort of Ecftafy that good men are 

 fometimes faid to enjoy at that awful hour, fore- 

 feeing the joys that are preparing for them on 



putting off mortality, Mavlutu ts eiiTi, km TT^oEi^orEg ra ev 

 Ada ayc&x, alfc&i te, km Tspvrovrcu EjcEivyv tw vjAEgav diaQsgovTcog 



n, tv ra 7r§o<r$Ev x$ow -}-. " They become prophetic, 

 and forefeeing the happineis which they mall enjoy 

 in another irate, are in greater ecitafy than they have 

 before experienced". 



This notion, tho' accounted for by Plato, feems 

 to have been a popular one long before his time, 

 for Mfchylus alludes to it in his Agamemnon -, Cly- 

 temneftra fpeaking of Cajfandra* fays, 



— — — 7] 3e T01, HVKV8 $IK°,1V 9 



Toy urccTov fxs^ocaa, §<xvmtiuov yoov, 

 KaW 



— She like the fwan 

 Expiring, dies in melody. 



* Platanis Phado* Ed. Cantab. 1683. p. 124. 

 f Ibid. 



P p 4 Grey 



