BISHOP DOUGLAS" MNEID. 227 



the best known and perhaps the most frequently quoted passage 



in Virgil : — • 



" Facilis descensus Avemi, 

 Noctes atque dies patet atri janua Ditis ; 

 Sed revocare gradum, superasque evadere ad auras 

 Hoc opus, hie labor est," &c. 



" It is richt faciU and sith gate, I thfe tell, 

 For to descend and pass on doun to hell : 

 The black yettis of Pluto and that dirk way, 

 Standis evir open and patent nycht and day : 

 But therefra to return agane on hicht, 

 And here aboue recouir this airis light. 

 That is difficill werk, there labour lyis ; 

 Full fewe there bene quhom heich aboue the skyis, 

 Thare ardent vertew has rasit and upheit. 

 Or yet quhame squale Jupiter deifyit, 

 Thay quhilkis bene gendrit of goddis may thidder attane. 

 All the midway is wilderness vnplane, 

 Or wilsum forrest ; and the laithly flude 

 Cocytus with his dresy bosom vnrude 

 Mowis enuiron rounde about that place." 



"Warton {History of English Poetry) says of Bishop Douglas' 

 jSneid, that "it is executed with equal spirit and fidelity, and is 

 a proof that the Lowland Scotch and English languages were then 

 nearly the same." We may state that Douglas' ^neid, irrespective 

 of its many and great intrinsic merits, is especially interesting, as 

 being the first translation of a Roman classic into the English 

 language either in verse or prose. We have quoted above an old 

 Highland belief in the exceeding efficacy, even in the most serious 

 ailments, of the kindly beams of a May-day sun. Another belief 

 of theirs was this — 



" Oeir fiidh air a ghaWiail 'n ad bhroinn, 's air a shuaihadh 

 ri cf dhruim 's ri d thaobh — 

 Am fear nach leighis sid, cha'n 'eil leagheas ann." 



That is — the fat of deer applied internally and externally, the 

 invalid whose sickness that does not heal, why, then, there is no 



