226 TAME SWAN. Class IL 



pares himself to a bee, contenting itself with 

 the creeping thyme, sends his Dircaum cyg- 

 num into the clouds : 



Multa Dircceum levat aura cygnum, 



Tendit, Antoni, quoties in altos 



Nubium tractus. Ode II. Lil\ IV, 



but when he finds himself struck with a true 

 poetical spirit, he at once assumes the form of 

 this favourite bird, 



Non usitata nee tenui feror 

 Penna, biformis per liquidum a^thera 

 . " V Vates : 



et album mutor in alitem. Ode. XX. Lib. II. 



And doubtless he was on the wing in his first ode, 



Sublimi feriam sydera vertice. 



Besides these opinions, the antients held an- 

 other still more singular, imagining that the 

 swan foretold its own end : to explain this we 

 must consider the twofold character of the poet, 

 Vates and Poeta, which the fable of the trans- 

 migration continues to the bird, or they might 

 be supposed to derive that faculty from Apollo * 

 their patron deity, the god of prophecy and di- 

 vination. 



As to their being supposed to sing more 

 sweetly at the approach of death, the cause is 

 beautifully explained by Plato, who attributes 



* Platonis Phcedo. Ed. Cantab. l683. p. 124. 



