L112 
proceflion of Roman heroes, who 
were in due time to defcend from 
him; briefly defcribing their feve- 
ral chara¢ters, in a, moft. {ublime 
firain of poetical prophecy. . 
I fhall fubjoin a few remarks on 
the concluding fcene of this noble 
epifode;—on the gates of horn and 
ivory. Thefe gates have given no 
little trouble to critics, both ancient 
and modern; who, after all, feem to 
have been not very fortunate in 
their conjectures. ‘Chis is owing,, 
not to obf{curity in the poet, but to 
the refinement of thofe interpreters, 
who miftook a plain paflage for a 
profound allegory, and were deter- 
mined to find a fecret meaning in it. 
The gate of ivory, fay they, tranf- 
mits falfe dreams, and that of horn 
true ones; and Eneas and his com- 
panion are difmiffed from Elyfium,, 
and letinto the upper world, through 
the ivory gate. What can this im- 
ply, but that the poet meant to infi- 
nuate, that every thing he had faid. 
‘ concerning a ftate of future retribu- 
tion, was nothing more thana falla-, 
cious dream? And, in fupport of . 
this conjecture, they generally quote 
from the Georgic three verfes to 
prove, that Virgil was in his .heart 
an Hpicurean, and confequently dif- 
believed both.a, future ftate and.a -- 
providence. The verfes are—« Fe-~ 
lix qui potuit rerum: cognofeere 
caufas, Atque metus omnes, et in- - 
exorabile fatum, Subjecit pedibus, 
ftrepitumque Acherontis avari,” 
Now, in the ff place, it does 
not appear to me, that thefe lines 
can prove their author ever to have 
been an Epicurean, or that he meant 
to fay more than “ Happy is the 
man whofe mind philofophy has 
raifed above the fear of death, as 
wellas above all other fears.’’ For, 
in the Georgic, he not only recom- 
s 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 1790. 
‘place, that no poet ever thought of — 
firft to employ all his fkill in adorn 
meénds religion and prayer; which 
Epicureans could not do confittently 
with their principles, but again and 
again afferts a providence; and, in 
terms equally elegant and juft, vin- 
dieates the Divine wifdom in eftab-_ 
lifhing phyfical evil as the means of 
improving and elevating the mind 
of man. But does he not, in his — 
fixth eclogue, give an account of. © 
the formation of the world accord- 
ing to the Epicurean theory? He 
does; and he makes it part of the 
fong of a. drunkard: no, proof that. | 
he held it in very high efteem, 
But, 2dly, Suppofing our .poet’s’ 
admiration of Lucretius might have 
made him formerly partial to the. — 
tenets of Epicurus, it does not fol- 
low that he continued fo to the end’ — 
of his life, or thas he was fo while 
employed upon the Eneid. .'The dus 
ties of religion, and the fuperintend- 
ing care of providence, are by no © 
other Pagan author fo warmly en= 
forced as in this poem; and thé 
energy with which, in the fixth 
book, and in one paflage of the — 
eighth, (v. 666,) he afferts a future — 
retribution, feems to prove; that he ~ 
was fo far in earneft with regard 
to this matter, as.to believe, that it 
was not, as the Epicureans afirmeds — 
either abfurd or improbable. 
: Let it be remarked, in the third ~ 
fo prepofterous a method of pleaf= — 
ing and initructing his readers, as « 
ing. his, fable, and then tell them; ~ 
that they ought not to believé a 7 
word of it. The true poet’s aim is: 
very different. He adapts himfelf 7 
to the opinions that prevail among. ~ 
the people for whom he writes, that ~ 
they may the more eafily acquiefce ~ 
in his narrative; or he is careful, at — 
feaft, to make his. fable confifient 
witli, 
