34 R E MA R K S on fome Pqffages of 



the fyftem, and who probably owed them to philofophers of the 

 Pythagorean fchool. 



The learned Bifhop Warburton has commented on this 

 part of the Eneid. Many of his obfervations are pertinent, 

 but fome are fanciful ; and in more places than one he feems to 

 have mifunderftood the author. His general pofition is, That 

 what the poet fays of Elyfium and the infernal regions, we are 

 to underftand as nothing more than a figurative account of the 

 myfteries exhibited in the temple of Ceres at Eleufis ; and that 

 the poet meant in this way to tell us, that Eneas had, like 

 fome other heroes and lawgivers of old, been initiated into 

 thofe myfteries. This theory he fupports very ingenioufly, but 

 not, I believe, to the fatisfaclion of many readers. I admit 

 there are allegories in the book, as I fhall have occalion to (how ; 

 but that the whole is an allegory, or rather an allegorical repre- 

 fentation of the Eleufinian allegories, I can no more fuppofe, 

 than that the arrival at Carthage is an allegory, or the viflt to 

 Evander, or the combat with Turn us, or any other of our 

 hero's achievements. I confider this epifode as truly epic, 

 and as a part, though not a neceflary part, of the poet's fable ; 

 and that he contrived it, firft, that he might embellifh his work 

 with a poetical account of a future (late, and fecondly, and 

 chiefly, that he might thence take an opportunity to introduce 

 a compliment to his country, by celebrating the virtues of fome 

 of the great men it had produced. As thefe great men did not 

 flourifh till after the death of Eneas, there were but two ways 

 in which the poet could make him acquainted with them. 

 One was, by caufing fome prieft or foothfayer to prophecy con- 

 cerning them ; and the other, by fo availing himfelf of the doc- 

 trines of pre-exiftence and tranfmigration, then taught in fome 

 of the fchools, as to exhibit in their pre-exiftent ftate,fuch of the 

 hero's pofterity as there might be occafion for. He chofe the 

 latter method ; and has fo managed it, that we muft acknow- 

 ledge the choice to have been judicious. 



As 



