VOL. XXIII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 713 



tise de Re Poetica, lib. 6, recommends above all the rest, and gives it a most 

 extravagant encomium ; declaring he would rather be the true author of this 

 little poem, than absolute king of Arragon, so high an opinion he had of its 

 matchless excellency. 



However, after all the extraordinary commendations which the critics have 

 bestowed upon this performance, yet one of the most beautiful passages, and 

 surprising fancies of the ode, seems to have been so overlooked by them, that 

 neither they, nor any of the commentators I have hitherto had an opportunity 

 to consult, have fully comprehended the meaning of the Poet, or the whole 

 scope of his sense ; which he expresses in these words, 



O testudinis aureae 

 Dulcem quae strepitum, Pieri, temperas ! 



O mutis quoque piscibus 

 Donatura cygni si libeat sonum ! 



Now when I first reflected on these lines, and observed Horace's great heat 

 and vehemency, in his repeated exclamation, on admiring his Muse's power, 

 because she could give when she pleased even to mute fishes, the melodious 

 voice of the swan, I considered entirely the fancy as forced and groundless, 

 founded on nothing that was real or true in nature ; and therefore it could pass 

 for no more than a wild rant, or extravagant whim of the poet's. Yet, not 

 being able to reconcile this to Horace's character, as a judge and master in the 

 art of poetry, and so particularly remarked for his propriety of thought, and 

 delicacy of expression ; upon second thoughts I was convinced that this was the 

 meaning of the passage, viz. that after he had, in the foregoing verses, ac- 

 knowledged how much he was indebted to the bounty of his Muse, he here makes 

 a sudden exclamation to extol her great art and mystery, who by mixing various 

 notes, could compose such sweet harmony on the gilded lyre or testudo, and by 

 her surprising power could, when she pleased, give even to mute fishes, or the 

 hollow shells of the testudines aquaticae, or water tortoises, a sort of fish, of 

 which I imagine they made their lyres, the sweet melody of the swan. 



Now on searching among ancient authors, to discover whether the testudo, or 

 lyre of the ancients, was made of the back or hollow shell of the tortoise, as 

 the name seemed fully to import, I found that it was a current piece of history, 

 generally received among the ancients, that Mercury was the first inventor of 

 the lyre, (whence Horace in his 10th Ode of the 1st book stiles him Curvas 

 Lyrae Parentem,) and that he made it of the shell of a dead tortoise, he acci- 

 dentally found on the banks of the Nile. I might produce several testimonies 

 to this point, but I think the two following will be sufficient. 



VOL. IV. 4 y 



