26o STUDIES OF NATURE. 



** ter." Aufler is the Wind of the South, which 

 almoft always occafions thundery weather in Eu- 

 rope. 



The Poet has afterwards had the boldnefs to 

 place metaphyfical fenfations on the anvil of the 

 Cyclopes: metuniy "fear;'* iraSy "wrath." He 

 amalgamates them with the thunder. Thus he 

 Ihakes, at once, the phyfical fyftem, by the con- 

 trail of the elements ; and the moral fyftem, by 

 the confonance of the foul, and the perfpedive of 

 Deity. 



Flammifque fequacibus iras. 



He fets the thunder a-roUing, and fhews Jupiter 

 in the cloud, 



Firgilj farther, oppofes to the head of Pal/as, 

 that oi Medufa ; but this is a contrail in common 

 to him with all the Poets. But here is one pecu- 

 liar to himfelf. Vulcan commands his Cyclopian 

 workmen to lay afide their operations defigned for 

 the ufe of deities, and to give undivided attention 

 to the armour of a mortal. Thus he puts in the 

 fame balance, on the one hand, the thunder of 

 Jupiter y the car of Aijr.f, the œgis and cuirafs-of 

 Pallas J and on the other, the deilinies of the Ro- 

 man Empire, which were to be engraven on the 

 buckler of a man. But if he gives the preference 



to 



