FIO 
mediately fucceeding the gloom of 
purgatory and the horrors of Tar- 
tarus, is fo charming, that every 
reader feels himfelf refrefhed by it. 
Here were groves, and plains, and 
meadows, clothed with perpetual 
verdure, the abodes of tranquillity 
and joy, and illuminated by a fun 
and ftars of the moft refulgent 
beauty. Here were feafting, and 
dancing, and mufic, and poets ac- 
companying their verfes with the 
harmony of the lyre. Here thofe 
warlike exercifes were renewed, in 
which the heroes while on earth had 
fo much delighted; and here were 
horfes, and chariots, and arms, and 
every thing that could gratify an 
heroic mind. It muft be owned, 
that all this is very inadequate to 
the defires and the, capacity of an 
immortal foul: but Virgil had heard 
of nothing better; and it was im- 
poflible for him to defcribe what he 
could not conceive. 
In this Elyfium, which, with all 
its imperfection, is, as well as the 
infernal world, founded on the bett 
ideas of retributive juftice that could 
be expected from a pagan, the poet 
places in a ftate of endlefs felicity 
“< the fhades of the pure and the pi- 
ous; of heroes who have died in de- 
fence of their country; of ingenious 
men who have employed their ta- 
Jents in adorning human life with 
elegant arts, or in recommendin 
piety and virtue ; and of all who, by 
atts of beneficence, have merited the 
love and the gratitude of their fel- 
low-creatures.”” 
To a company of thefe happy 
‘beings, who had flocked round the 
two ftrangers, and efpecially to the 
oet Mufeus, whom fhe knew, the 
Sybil addreffed herfelf, defiring to 
be informed where Anchifes  re- 
fided. We have no certain habita- 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 1996: 
tions, returned the poet; we wander 
about, and amufe ourielves wherever — 
we pleafe; but follow me to yonder 
rifing ground, and I fhail put you in 
a path that will conduct you to 
him. 
Some writers blame Virgil for 
not making Eneas find Homer in 
this part of Elyfium; and infinuate, 
that the Roman poet mutft have been 
both invidious and ungrateful, in ~ 
negle€ting fuch an opportunity of — 
doing honour to his great matter, — 
to whom he owed fo much. ‘Thofé — 
critics do not confider that Eneas — 
was dead an hundred years before 
Homer was born. © Our poet hag 
been cenfured for a /uppofed ana- 
chronifm, in making Eneas and — 
Dido contemporary ; and here he is 
found fault with for having judici- 
oufly avoided a real anachronifm. 
It chanced that Anchifes was at. 
this time in a remote valley, review- 
ing, in their ftate of pre-exiftence, 
fome of his pofterity, who were af- 
terwards to diftinguifh themfelves: 
.in the Roman republic. When he 
faw his fon advancing towards him, 
he held forth both his hands, gave 
him an affectionate welcome, and 
wept for joy. The hero would have 
embraced his father; but found that || 
the fhade, though vifible, eludedthe 
touch. . 
After a fhort converfation, Eneas 
happening to fee, in a grove through 
which a river was flowing, an innu- 
merable 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 return to 
the upper world, in order to ani- 
mate new bodies. Is it to be ima- — 
gined, exclaims Eneas, that fouls — 
fhouid ever leave this happy 7 
an 
