, FRAGMENT. 253 



" inures her maidens to lengthened tafks by a 

 '' glimmering light ; to fave herfelf from the temp- 

 " tation of infidelity to her hiifband's bed, and to 

 *' fupply the means of rearing her tender off- 

 " fpring." 



Ftrgil goes on to deduce new and fublime con- 

 trails, from the humble occupations of this vir- 

 tuous matron. He oppofes, in clofe fucceffion, to 

 her feeble induftry, ieiiui Minerva, the ingenious 

 Vulcan ; to her dying embers, which fhe re- kind les, 

 fopitos ignes, the continually flaming crater of a 

 volcano ; to her maidens, among whom flie diftri- 

 butes balls of wool, longo exercet penfo^ the tremen- 

 dous Cyclopes forging a thunder-bolt for Jupter, 

 a car for MarSy an segis for Minerva, and who, at 

 the command of their mafter, interrupt their celef- 

 tial engagements, to undertake a fuit of armour for 

 Eneas, on the buckler of which were to be en- 

 graved the principal events of the Roman Hiftory. 



■^ Haud fecus Ignipotens, nee tempore fegnior illo, 

 Mollibus è flratis opera ad fabrilia.furgit. 

 Tnfula Sicanium juxta latus iEoliamque 

 Erigitur Liparen, fumantibus ardua faxis j 



* So to his tafk, before the dawn, retires 

 From foft repofe, the father of the fires. 

 Amid th' Hefperian and Sicilian flood. 

 All black with fmoke, a rocky iiland flood, 

 The dark Vulcanian land, the region of the God. 



Here 



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