[ 109. ] 
MISCELLANEOUS .ESSAYS. 
‘Remarks on fome Paffages of the fixth 
Book of the Eneid, Ly James Beat- 
tie, LL. D. &c. from Sranfadions 
of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. 
HERB is nothing in Virgil 
more explicit than the ac- 
count of Tartarus; and f know not 
why it has been fo generally mif- 
underftood. Dr. Warburton fays, 
in one place, that Eneas faw the 
fights of Tartarus at a diftance, and 
in another, that Eneas pafled through 
Tartarus. In fact, he did neither. 
He could not pafs through without 
entering ; and this, we are told, was 
to him impoflible: «« Nulii fas cafto 
{celeratum infiftere limen.”” And 
though he had been permitted to 
enter, he could not pafs through, 
without firft crofling a river of fire, 
and then defcending.into an im- 
menfe gulph, twice as deep beneath 
the level of the other regions of 
darknefs, as thofe are remote from 
heaven. It was equally impoflible 
‘for him to fee from a diftance what 
was doing in fuch a gulph, even 
though the gate that led to it had 
been open, which, however; at this 
_ time, happened to be fhut. « You 
fee, faid the Sybil, what a centinel 
fits without in the porch, (meaning 
Tifiphone); another, fill more 
dreadful, has her flation within;” 
which, as he could not fee it, the 
informs him i a huge ferpent, or 
hydra, with fifty heads. An oper- 
ing of the gate is indeed mention- 
ed, which Rueus underftandsto have 
taken place at the very time when 
the Trojan and the Sybil were look~ 
ing at it. But that is a miftake. 
The Sybil only tells her companion, 
that; when Rhadamanthus has made 
the criminals confefs their guilt, 
then at length (tw demum) the gate- 
opens for their reception into the 
place oftorment. It is ftrange that» 
Rueus and Dr. Warburton did not 
fee that this is the obvious import 
of the words of Virgil; and that, if 
we do not underftand them in this 
fenfe, the paflage mult appear con- 
fufed, if not ungrammatical.. Ina 
word; of the infide of Tartarus the 
Trojan hero faw nothing; he faw 
the outfide only, the walls, the 
gates, the tower of iron, &c. and 
thefe he faw at fome diftance. What 
was pafling within he learns from - 
the Sybil’s information. 
« And now,” fays fhe, “ let us be: 
going. Yonder, on the right hand, 
is the palace of: Proferpine, where, 
in the vaulted porch that fronts us, 
we are commanded to depofit the. 
olden bough.” This ceremony 
‘neas performs, after having f{prink- 
led himfelf with pure water; which 
was cuftomary with thofe who made 
offerings to the gods. 
They then went onward to Ely- 
fium, the gay {cenery of which, im- 
mediately 
