The fixth Book of the E N E 1 D. 39 



kind j ?>dl)\ of thofe who have been cut off by an untimely 

 death, fo that their real characters could not be exactly afcer- 

 tained ; ^thly, of thofe who, though guilty of crimes, had not 

 committed any thing very atrocious ; and, lajlly, of thofe whofe 

 crimes, though atrocious, were confidered as the effects, rather 

 of an unhappy deftiny, than of wilful depravation. 



That the fouls of good men, who were to have an eternal 

 abode in Elyfium, were previoufly obliged to undergo purgation 

 by fuffering, is not exprefsly declared, but may be inferred 

 from what Anchises fays, " Quifque fuos patimur manes;" 

 " every one of us undergoes what is inflicted on him by his 

 " manes;' 1 '' that is, by thofe deities of the nether world who 

 were the difpenfers of expiatory punimment. This is the ori- 

 ginal, or at leafl the moft ufual fenfe of the word manes, which, 

 however, fometimes denotes metonymically the infernal regions 

 in general, and fometimes, but more rarely, the fouls or fhades 

 who inhabited thofe regions. In Tartarus, it does not appear 

 that the Manes had any thing to do. The difpenfers of punifh- 

 ment in that dreadful place wereTifiphone and her fi fie r- furies. 

 The Manes muit have been a gentler fort of beings. Some derive 

 the word from manus or manis, which they fay (on what autho- 

 rity I know not) is an old adjective fignifying good. The invo- 

 cations of the Manes practifed at funerals, the altars that were 

 erected to them, and thofe monumental infcriptions which be- 

 gan with the words Vis Mambus, were all, no doubt, intended 

 as acts of worfhip, or as compliments, to thefe deities, and 

 fuppofed to incline them to mercy in their treatment of the per- 

 fons deceafed, whofe fouls were now in their hands in purga- 

 tory. Horace tells us, that the Manes, as well as the gods 

 above, might be rendered placable by fong — " Carmine di fuperi 

 u placantur, carmine manes." But the furies were inexorable and 

 mercilefs — " Nefciaque humanis precibus manfuefcere corda." 

 And I do not find that worihip, or any other honours, were, ex- 

 cept by witches *, paid them, though to mother Midnight, whofe 



daughters 

 * Hem. Sat. I. 8. *. 33, 



