ne fixth Book of the ENEID. 41 



tive principle, derived either from the Deity himfelf, or from 

 that univerfal fpirit whom he created in the beginning, who 

 animates all nature, and of whom the vital principle of brutes 

 is alfo, according to Virgil, an emanation; 2dly, a fliade or 

 ghoft, umbra, an'tma, Jtmulacrum, or ei^a'Xov, as Homer calls it; 

 and '^dly, a body. At death^ the vital principle was re-united 

 to that univerfal fpirit whereof it was originally a part ; the 

 body was burned or buried, and returned to the earth whence 

 it came ; and the (hade or ghoft went to the nether world, and 

 appeared before Minos or Rhadamanthus, who affigned it fuch 

 a manfion of happinefs, of torment, or of expiatory fuffering, as 

 the perfon's behaviour on earth had merited, or his circumftances 

 with refpedl to pollution or purity reqtiired. Thefe fliades or 

 ghofts were fo far corporeal as to be vifible, but could not be 

 touched ; they retained the fame appearance their bodies had 

 before death ; they had reafon and fpeech and confcioufnefs, 

 and a remembrance of their paft lives ; they could be happy or 

 unhappy ; retained all the paflions and affedions of humanity ; 

 and. were capable (fuch of them at leaft as had not been atro- 

 cious criminals) of being purified from the pollutions of guilt 

 by the operation of air, fire and water. 



That part of the lugentes campi which Eneas firft pafTed 

 through, after croffing the Styx, was peopled by the fhades of 

 infants, of perfons who had fuffered death by a falfe accufation, 

 and of thofe who had taken away their own lives. Thefe are 

 all placed in the fame neighbourhood, probably becaufe, ha- 

 ving been cut off, as we fay, before their time, they had not 

 had the means, while on earth, of difplaying their charader in 

 its full extent. This, however, is but conjedure ; for the poet 

 only mentions the circumftance, without afligning a reafon. 

 The felf-murderers, who occupy this diftridt, are termed infcntes, 

 innocent or harmlefs ; an epithet which the commentators do 

 not underftand, or at leaft do not fee the propriety of in this 

 place. Virgil, we are fure, did not mean to infinuate, that 

 • Vol. II. F felf- 



