MISCELLANEOUS ESSAYS. 
atid go back to the imprifonment of 
the body, and all the wretchednefs 
of mortality? I will explain the 
whoie matter to you, replies An- 
chifes, 
Know, then, that all- the parts of 
this vifible univerfe, the heavens, 
and earth, and fky, the fun, moon,’ 
and flars, are, like one vaft body, 
animated by an univerfal fpirit, 
whereof the fouls, or vital princi- 
ples, of all animals, of men and 
beafis; of fifhes and fowl, are ema- 
nations, ‘This vital principle is, in 
every animal, the fource of fenfation 
and motion; but, from the influence 
that the body has over it, becomes 
fubje& to inordinate paflions, and 
forgetful of its heavenly original. 
The foul of man, in particular, (for 
nothing further is faid of the other 
' animals) contraéts, while fhut up in 
the-dark prifon of the body, a de- 
gree of debafement which does not 
leave it at death, and from which 
the fufferings of a fubfequent ftate of 
purgation are neceflary to purify it. 
Thefe are of different kinds and de- 
grees, according to the different de- 
grees and kinds of guilt or impu- 
- 
Irt 
rity which the foul has contracted. 
Some fouls are expofed to the beat- 
ing of winds, fori€’ are wafhed iz 
water, and forme purified by fre. 
Every one of us (fays Anchifes, in- 
cluding himfelf) fuffers his own pe~ 
culiar pains of purification. Then 
we are fent into this vaft Elyfiam, 
and a few of us remain in the eternaf 
poffeflion of it *. The reft conti- 
nue here, till by the air and tran- 
quillity of the place, they: have en- 
tirely got the better of the impu- 
rity contra&ed in the world, have 
had every impreffion of the pains of 
purgatory worn out, and are re- 
ttored to their original fimplicity of 
nature. “Thus refined, they are, at 
the end of a thoufand years +, fum- 
moned by a divine agent, or god, 
to meet in one great afiembly, where 
they drink of Lethe to wafh away 
remembrance, and then, in com- 
pliance perrey en own inclination, 
are fent back to the earth to ani- 
mate new bodies. 
~ Having ended this account, An- 
chifes, with his fon and the Sybil, 
paffes to a rifing ground, and points 
out ina ftate of pre-exiftence, 2 
* I fuppofe the words Et pauci leta arva tenemus, to be a parenthefis; 
which, in my opinion, clears the text of all ob{curity. By the change of the per- 
fon, in the four lait lines of the f{peech,—Has omnes,—volvere,—incipiant,—re+ 
wifant, it appears, that Anchifes does not include himfelf among thofe who were 
to return to the world; which afcertaips fufficiently the import of tenemus. The 
dearned Rucus conftrues the paffage in a way fomewhat different; but his gene, 
ral account of the poet’s doétrine differs pot effentially from mine. ' 
+ More literally, «¢ When they have rolled the wheel, or circle, for a thoufand 
_ years 5" that is, when the revolution of a thoufand years is completed. For this 
_ Mmterpretation we are indebted to Servius, who tells us further, that this fingular 
rafe was taken from Ennius. Anciently perhaps rota might mean a circle, as 
well as a wheel,) and poetically a year; fo that, in Ennius’s time, wolvere rotam 
mightbe a figurative phrafe of the fame import with annum peragere, to pafs a 
_ year. The original meaning of annus is @ circle, whence the diminutive annulusy 
aring. The fame reference to the circular nature of the year, may be feen in the 
‘Greek tnavres, which Virgil certainly had in his mind when he wrote, ** Atque 
in fe {ua per veftigia volvitur annus.’ When this is attended to, our author's 
| wfeof the phrafe in queition will appear not fo harfh as it might otherwife be 
thought to’ be, and not at all too figurative in this very folemn part of the 
pow. 
proceflion 
