The fixth Book of the E N E I D. 49 



here till, by the air and tranquillity of the place, they have 

 entirely got the better of the impurity contracted in the world, 

 have had every impreffion of the pains of purgatory worn out, 

 and are reflored to their original fimplicity of nature. Thus 

 refined, they are, at the end of a thoufand years f , fummoned 

 by a divine agent, or god, to meet in one great alTembly, where 

 they drink of Lethe to wafh away remembrance, and then, in 

 compliance with their own inclination, are fent back to the 

 earth to animate new bodies. 



Having ended this account, Anchises, with his fonand the 

 Sybil, pafTes to a rifing ground, and points out, in a ftate of 

 pre-exiftence, a proceffion of Roman heroes, who were in due 

 time to defcend from 4iim j briefly defcribing their feveral cha- 

 racters, in a moft fublime ftrain of poetical prophecy. 



I shall fubjoin a few remarks on the concluding fcene of 

 this noble epifode ; — on the gates of horn and ivory. Thefe gates 

 have given no little trouble to critics, both ancient and modern ; 

 who, after all, feem to have been not very fortunate in their 



Vol. II. G conjectures. 



lines of the fpeech, — Has omnes, — volvere, — incipiant, — revifant, it appears, that An- 

 chises does not include himfelf among thofe who were to return to the world ; which 

 afcertains fufficiently the import of tenemus. The learned Rueus conilrues the paflage 

 in a way fomewhat different j but his general account of the poet's doctrine differs not 

 effentially from mine. 



f More literally, " When they have rolled the wheel, or circle, for a thoufand 

 " years j" that is, when the revolution of a thoufand years is completed. For this 

 interpretation we are indebted to Servius, who tells us further, that this Angular 

 phrafe was taken from Ennius. Anciently perhaps rota might mean a circle, (as well 

 as a wheel,') and poetically a year ; fo that, in Ennius's time, volvere rotam might be a 

 figurative phrafe of the fame import with annum peragere, to pafs a year. The original 

 meaning of annus is a circle, whence the diminutive annulus, a ring. The fame reference 

 to the circular nature of the year, may be feen in the Greek ivt«vr»s f which Virgil cer- 

 tainly had in his mind when he wrote, *' Atque in fe fua per vefligia volvitur annus." 

 When this is attended to, our author's ufe of the phrrife in queftion will appear not fo 

 harm as it might otherwife be thought to be, and not at all too figurative in this very 

 folemn part of the poem. 



