The fixth Book of the EN EI D. 35 



As the chief thing I have in view is, to illuftrate the moral 

 and theological fentiments of my author, I need not take up 

 much time, either in vindicating, or in apologizing for, his ge- 

 neral fiction ; I mean, his laying the fcenery of a future ftate in 

 the fubterranean regions. That on the coafl of Italy, in the 

 neighbourhood of Cumae, there mould be a pafTage under 

 ground, leading to the rivers Acheron, Cocytus and Styx, and 

 thence to Tartarus on the left hand, and Elyfium on the right ; 

 that in this Elyfium, though thus fituated, there fhould be a 

 fun and ftars, and graffy plains, and delightful groves and ri- 

 vers, and two gates, the one of ivory, the other of horn, open- 

 ing into the upper world, at no great diftance from the Cumse 

 above mentioned ; and that in the fubterranean fpaces thus 

 bounded, there fhould be different forts of accommodation for 

 all the fhades or fouls of the dead: — thefe, I fay, are fables, 

 which, as they cannot, according to our way of judging, be 

 reconciled to probability, or even to poflibility, we mufl endea- 

 vour to acquiefce in the beft way we can. So, in reading Ovid's 

 ftory of Phaeton, if we would enter into the poet's views, 

 and be fuitably affedled with his narrative, we mufl fuppofe, 

 what we know to be abfolutely impoffible, that the fun is 

 driven about the world in a chariot, which, though made of 

 gold and filver, and dragged by real horfes, and fupported by 

 nothing but air, yet paffes along in a beaten highway, where the 

 marks of the wheels are clearly difcernible. Fables of this fort, 

 however inconfiftent with the laws of nature, when rendered by 

 the art of the poet confiftent with themfelves, it is not our in- 

 terefl to criticize too minutely ; efpecially if, like that now un- 

 der consideration, they abound in fublime defcription and in- 

 ftruclive leffons of morality. The fable then let us acquiefce 

 in for a moment. Our dreams, while they lafl, we believe 

 without inconvenience ; and the fcenery of this fable will not 

 be more lafling than that of a dream. 



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