FRAGMENT. 26.7 



^* Like a tender violet, or knguifhîng hyacinth, 

 *' cropped by the fingers of a virgin ; which have 

 '* not yet loft their beauty and their radiance ; but 

 ** their parent Earth fuftains them no more, no 

 *' more fupplies them with nourifliment." 



Mark another confonance with the death of 

 V alias. In order to exprefs the idea that thefe 

 flowers have not fuffered in being feparated from 

 the parent ftem, Virgil reprefents them as gathered 

 by a young maiden : Virgineo demejftm pollice i li- 

 terally, '* reaped by a virgin finger," and from 

 that gentle image, there refults a terrible contraft 

 with the javelin of Turms, which had nailed the 

 buckler of Pallas to his breaft, and killed him by 

 a lingle blow. 



Finally, Virgil, after having reprefented the 

 grief of Evander, on beholding the dead body of 

 his fon, and the defpair of that unhappy father, 

 imploring the vengeance of Eneas, derives, from 

 the very death of Pallas, the termination of the 

 war, and the clofe of the Eneid ; for Turnus, over- 

 come in fingle combat by Eneas, refigns to him 

 the vidory, the empire, the Princefs Lavinia, and 



The root no more the mother earth fupplies. 

 Yet ftill th' unfaded colour charms the eyes ! 



Vim 



fupplicates 



