Glass II. TAME SWAN. 225 



to be real, which philosophers and poets only 

 meant metaphorically. 



In time a swan became a common trope for 

 a Bard ; Horace calls Pindar, Dircceum cygnum, 

 and in one ode even supposes himself changed 

 into a swan ; Virgil speaks of his poetical bre- 

 thren in the same manner, 



Vare, tuum nomen 



Cantantes sublime ferent ad sydera cygnl. Eclog. IX. 



When he speaks of them figuratively, he ascribes 

 to them melody, or the power of music; but 

 when he talks of them as birds, he lays aside 

 fiction, and like a true naturalist gives them 

 their real note, 



Dant sonitum rauci per stagna loqiiaciacygni. JEneid. Lib. XI. 



Thus he, as well as Pliny,^' in fact, gave no 

 credit to the music of swans. Aristotle speaks 

 of it only by hearsay, f but, when once an er- 

 ror is started, it is not surprizing that it is adopt- 

 ed, especially by poets, men of all others of 

 the most unbounded imagination. For this rea- 

 son poets were said to animate swans, from the 

 notion that they flew higher than any other 

 birds, and Hesiod distinguishes them by the 

 epithet of jcaxvo* as^tTmota.i,'^ " the lofty flying 

 swans." Thus Horace, whilst he humbly com- 



* Lib. X. c. 33. t Hist. an. 104'). ''"'" 



X Scut. Here. 1. 3 16. . ■■••-.• 



VOL. II. Q 



