48 REMARKS on fome Pnpges of 



ther ; but found that the (hade, though vifible, eluded the 

 touch. 



After a fhort converfation, Eneas happening to fee, in a 

 grove through which a river was flowing, an innumerable 

 multitude of human beings flying about, afked his father who 

 they were, and what river it was. The river, faid he, is Lethe, 

 of which thofe fouls are taking a draught, being about to re- 

 turn to the upper world, in order to animate new bodies. Is 

 it to be imagined, exclaims Eneas, that fouls fliould ever leave 

 this happy place, and go back to the imprifonment of the bo- 

 dy, and all the wretchednefs of mortality ? I will explain the 

 whole matter to you, replies Anchises. 



Know, then, that all tlie parts of this vifible univerfe, the 

 heavens, and earth, and flty, the fun, moon, and ft;ars, are, like 

 one vaft body, animated by an viniverfal fpirit, whereof the 

 fouls, or vital principles, of all animals, of men and beafl:s, of 

 filhes and fowl, are emanations. This vital principle is, in eve- 

 ry animal, the fource of fenfation and motion ; but, from the 

 influence that the body has over it, becomes fubjedl to inordi- 

 nate paflions, and forgetful of its heavenly original. The foul 

 of man, in particular, (for nothing further is faid of the other 

 animals) contracts, while fliut up in the dark prifon of the bo- 

 dy, a degree of debafement which does not leave it at death, 

 and from which the fufferings of a fubfequent flate of purga- 

 tion are necefl~ary to purify it. Thefe are of different kinds 

 and degrees, according to the different degrees and kinds of 

 guilt or impurity which the foul has contradted. Some fouls 

 are expofed to the beating of winds, fome are waflied in water, 

 and fome purified by fire. Every one of us (fays Anchises, 

 including himfelf ) fuffers his own peculiar pains of purifica- 

 tion. Then we are fent into this vaft Elyfium, and a few of 

 us remain in the eternal pofleflion of it *. The reft continue 



here, 



• I fiippofc the words Et pnuct licta arvn tenemiis, to be a parenthefis ; which, in my 

 opinion, clears the text of all obfcurity. By the cliange of the perfon, in the four lalt 



lines 



