iE N E 



JET^ T. 



h good for nothing, and he ^vlio believed ever)' Lcdy no 

 better. — Ho who governs many flioiiU hinifeif be nikJ 

 by many. — Thofe who go to law are the birds, the 

 court tiie field, the judge the ntt, and the lawyers the 

 fowlers. — Men ought to be prcfented to dignitier;, not 

 digp.itie.'i to men. — A eovelous man never pleafcs any 

 body, but by his death. To tell lies is a flavifh vice. — 

 Lull fnllies and ilains eveiy age of man, but quite exlin- 

 guifiies i.ld age. 



.^NEATORES, in yltilinuity, the muficians in an army; 

 including thofe who playid trumpets, horns, litui, buccin;r, 

 &C. The word is formed from Aiiicus, on account of the 

 brazen inftruments ufed by them. 



^NEID, in I.iteriiry Hifiory, the title of Virgil's cele- 

 brated epic poem. The fubjctt ot this poem is very hap- 

 pily choren : as nothing could be more noble, fo nothing 

 could bt' more intereiling to the Roman people, than Vir- 

 gil's tracing thc'origin of their Hate to a hero of filch cele- 

 brity as jtneas. VV^hillllhe obiedl was fplendid in itfelf, the 

 theme afforded the pott an oppoitunity of purfiiing, by 

 means of the ti-aditionar^- hiftoiy of his country, the future 

 great exploits of the Romans, and of defcribing Italy and 

 the territory of Rome itfelf, in its ancient and fabulous 

 ttate. Dr. Blair thinks that there is no foundation 

 for the opinion, advanced by fonie critics, that the yEueid 

 is an allegorical poem, bearing conftant reference to the 

 charafter and reign of AuguiUis Ca;far ; or that Virgil's 

 chief defign in compofing it was to reconcile the Romans 

 to the government ot that prince, who is pourtrayed under 

 the charafter ot j^^neas. In this poem, unity of action is 

 perfectly preferved ; one main object being always kept in 

 view, which was the fettlement of ^neas in Italy, by order 

 of the Gods. The epifodes are likewife fufficiently con- 

 nected with the main fubjecl; and the nodus, or intrigue of 

 the potm is, according to the plan of ancient machniery, 

 bi'pnily formed. The wrath of Juno, who oppofes theTrojun 

 fettlement in Italy, occafions all the difficulties which embar- 

 rafs the undertaking of iEncas, and connects, throughout tlie 

 whole work, the human with the celelHal operations. Hence 

 arifc the tcmpeft which throws ^Sneas on the African fhore, 

 the paffion of Dido, who endeavours to detain him at Car- 

 thage, and the eft'orts of Turnus, who oppofes him in war. 

 At lail, however, Juno's refentr.icnt is placated, upon a 

 conipofition with Jupiter, that the Trojan name Should be 

 funk in the Latin, and th.e hero becomes victorious. The 

 poem, however, is not free from imperfections : one oi 

 v.-hich is, that there are fcarce any characters marked in the 

 yEncid. In this refpeft it is infenor to the Iliad, which 

 abounds with charafters and action. The charafter of /Eneas 

 lilmfelf is cold and tame, and not marked with any of thofe 

 ftrokes that touch the hearti His behas iour to Dido rnanifefts 

 obduracy, which renders him unamiable. Dido's own clia- 

 raftcris well fup'poiied, and exhibits a figure more tnily ani- 

 mated than any other which Virgil has chnfen. Befidcs 

 this defeft of cliarafter in the jEneid, the dillribution and 

 management of the fubjcft; are, in fonie refpcCis, excep- 

 tionable. Allowance indeed ought to be made for an in- 

 complete work ; for it in faid, that the fix laft books did 

 not receive the fminiing liand of the author; on which ac- 

 count he ordered, by has will, the >tneid to be committed 

 to the flames, which was happilv prevent-ed by Augultus. 

 The wars with the I^atins are inferior, in point of dignity, 

 to the deftruc^ion of Troy.^ the intrigue with Dido, and 

 the defccnt into hell ; and in tlie conduft of thefe wars, 

 the reader, as Voltaire obferves, is tempted to take part 

 with Turnuf againll /tneas. This defeft niight have 

 Vol.. I. 



been remedied by the poet's inakinfj Mnvxt, inftead of 

 diiliefling Lavinia, by killing her io^er and occafioninpf her 

 mother's death, and embroiling hi.r count:y in a war, deliver 

 her from the periecution of fomc rival, who v/as odious fo 

 her and to the whole country. The diilingjifiiing excel- 

 lence of Virgil is teiide rnefs. He was endowed by natiue 

 with exquifite ieiifibili'.y ; he felt every aftefting circum- 

 ilance in the fceiics which hedefcribes; and he know>; how, 

 by a fingle ftrokt, to reach the heart. This, in an epic 

 poem, is the merit next to fublimity, and renders the coni- 

 pofition intcrefling to every reader. The fccond book ij 

 one of the greatcll malUr-pieccs that was ever executed ; 

 and Virgil feeins to have there exerted all the powers of 

 his genius, as the fubjcft aflorded a variety of fcenes, both 

 of the awful and tender kind. The images of horror, pr;-- 

 fented by a city burning and facked in the night, are lineljr 

 mixed with pathetic and affcfting incidents. The death of 

 old Priam, and the family-pieces of ./Eneas, Anchifcs, and 

 Creufa, are as tender as can be conceived. The fourth 

 book, relating the unhappy p^'.ffion and death of Dido, h:ii 

 been always moft juftly admired. The interview of JEn'-as 

 with Andromache and Helenus in the third book ; the 

 epifodes of I'allas and Evander, of Nifus and Einyalus, of 

 llanfus and Mezentius, in the Itahan wars, are flriklng in- 

 ftances of t)ie poet's power of raif.Kg the tepder emotions. 

 The belt and moil finiflied books, upon the whole, are the 

 iirft, the fccond, the fourth, the fixth, the feventh, the eighth, 

 and the twelfth. Virgil's battles are, in point of fire and 

 fublimity, inferior to thofe of Homer ; but there is one 

 important epifode, the dcfcent into hell, in which he has 

 far exceeded Homer in his OdyfTey. In all antiquity there 

 is nothing equal, in its kind, to the fixth book of the A'ncid. 

 Through tlie whole defcription of the invifible world, 

 there is diiplayed a certain philofophical fubhme, which 

 Virgil's platonic genius, and the enlarged ideas of the Au- 

 gullan age, enabled him to fupport with a degree of ma- 

 jcily far beyond what the rude ideas of Homer's age al- 

 lowed him to attain. It is needlefs to fay any thing in 

 praife of the fweetnefs and beauty of Virgil's number.s, 

 which are univerfally acknowledged. Elegance and tender- 

 nefs are the diftingiii(hing excellencies of the iEiieid. For 

 the feeble pafTages of this poem, it ought to be admitted as 

 an excufe tliat the /Er.eid was an uniiuifhed work. 151air'8 

 Leftures, vol. iii. p. 248 — 2jti. 



A late writer, viz. iSI. la Harpe, in his I.xcee, or I^eftures 

 at the Lyca-uni, does not allow \'irgil to be the inventor of 

 R fingle incident, and fcarccly of a verfe, in his poem. He 

 is not only accufed of imitating Homer in his plan, bis bat- 

 tles, and his principal events, as well as in his verfes, but of 

 plagiarifms from the old poets Ennius, Pacuvius, Acciiis, 

 and Suevius, and from his contemporaries Lucretius, Ca- 

 tullus, Tibullns, Varius, and Furius. It is confcfled, how- 

 ever, that the 3d, 4th, and 6th books are great and admi- 

 rable produftlons. The excellence of \'irgil, in the eftima- 

 tion of this author, reds on the conrtant perfeftion of his 

 flvle, to fuqiaff. v.-hich feems impofuble. It is at once, he 

 favs, the delight and defpair of all who w'ib to cultiv.U'- 

 poetry ; fo that if he has not equalled Homer in invention, 

 variety, en- conftant iiitereft, he has furpafled him in the 

 beauty of particular parts, and in the fine tafte by which he 

 has embelliihed his narratives. 



vENESIPPA, in y/«.-;V;// Geography, called by Strabo 

 /Encfipnjia, an idand of the Mediterranean, on the coaft of 

 Lybia. 



.(ENESISPHYRA, apromontoiy, according to Strabo, 



and a port, according to Ptolemy, at the extremity of the 



U o Catabathmu5 



