14 
gates are the gates of dreams ; Vir- 
gil calls his the gates of fleep. The 
former are not faid to tranfmit any 
thing but dreams ; of the latter, one 
tranimits dreams, and the other real 
ghofts or shades. For. thus, though 
all the commentators areagainft me, 
I muft underftand the words umbyis 
weris; becaufe in Virgil wmdbra often 
fignifies a ghof, but never in him, 
nor in any other good writer, (fo 
far as I know) adream. If it be 
afked, what ghotts they were that 
ufed to pafs this way ; the anfwer is 
eafy: they were thofe who, after 
having been a thoufand years in E- 
lyfium, and taken a draught of Le- 
the, were fent back to the upper 
world to animate new bodies., If 
again it were afked, whether fuch 
beings might not be of fo fubtle a 
nature as to work their way into the 
upper world without pafiing through 
a gate; I fhould anfwer, that vifible 
fubftances, which might be purified 
by fire, or wafhed in water, and 
could not get over the river Styx 
but in a boat, muft be fo far mate- 
rial at leaft,as to be capable of con- 
finement, and confequently of being 
fet at liberty. 
The fal/a infomnia that go out by 
the ivory gate may mean, either de- 
ceitful dreams, ox dreams in general, 
that is, unfubftantial things, as op- 
poled to realities; which laft I take 
to be the preferable fignification, 
Be this, however, as it will, Encas 
- and the Sybil were neither ghofts 
nor dreams, but human flefh and 
blood; and could no more be fup- 
pofed to partake of the qualities al- 
luded to in the zame of the gate by 
“which Anchifes difmiffed them, than 
a man is fuppofed to be lame for 
having pafled through Cripplegate, 
or than the Lord Mayor of London, 
by entering in proceflion through 
os 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 1790. 
Temple-bar, is fauppofed to have be- 
come a better churchman than be- 
fore, or a better lawyer. ‘Through 
one or other of the gates of fleep the 
Trojan and his guide mutt pafs, or 
they never could return to the up- | 
per world at all: and that gate the ~ 
poet probably made choice of, 
which firftoccurred to him; and that — 
probably would firft occur which 
founded beft in his verfe: or per- 
haps one might fay, in the way of 
conjecture, that he thought fit to 
open the ivory gate, becaufe the 
other, being appropriated to the pu- 
rified ghotts, might not be fo well 
fuited to mere mortals. This is 
certain, that, though the ablative 
eburna ftands very gracefully in the 
898th line, the ablative cornea could — 
not: becaufe, being the foot am- 
phimacer, it can have no place ina 
regular hexameter. 
As to the analogy that fome cri- 
tics have fancied between horn and 
truth, and between falfehood= and — 
ivory, itis fo whimfical, and fo ab- 
furd, that I need not mention it. 
And now, by removing the mift 
of allegory from Virgil’s gates, I 
flatter myfelf, that I have made thefe 
verfes fomewhat more intelligible 
than they have been generally fup- 
pofed to be ; that I have proved the 
latter part of this epifode to be con- 
fiftent with the reft of it; and thatI — 
have vindicated a favourite author — 
from the heavy. charges of impiety — 
and ill-manners, whereof, however 
repugnant to his general character, 
it would not be eafy for thofe to © 
clear him who follow the common, — 
though lefs obvious, interpretations. _ 
Extraa from an Account of the Ben / 
man Theatre, by Henry Macken- © 
zie, Bfq. From the /ayite 
IN. 
