5 2 REMARKS on fame Pafages of 



through the ivory gate, as any other falfehood. Had Octavia 

 underftood this to be the poet's meaning, fhe would not have 

 rewarded him fo liberally for his matchlefs encomium on the 

 younger Marcellus. Had this indeed been his meaning, all 

 the latter part of the fixth book would have been a fludied in- 

 fult on Augustus, and the other heroes there celebrated, as well 

 as on the whole Roman people. Strange, that the moft judi- 

 cious writer in the world mould commit fuch a blunder in the 

 moft elaborate part of a poem which he had confecrated to the 

 honour of his country, and particularly to that of his great 

 patron Augustus ! 



We mult therefore admit, either that Virgil had loft his 

 fenfes, or, which is more probable, that, in fending Eneas and 

 the Sybil through the ivory gate, he intended no farcaftic re- 

 flection either on his country or on his poetry. In a word, we 

 muft admit, that, in this part of his fable, he was juft as much 

 in earneft as in any other ; and that there was no more joke in 

 Eneas's a/cent through the gate of ivory, than in his defcent 

 through the cave of Avernus. How then are we to underftand 

 this adventure of the gate ? I anfwer, By making the poet his 

 own interpreter, and not feeking to find things in his book 

 which we have no good reafon to think were ever in his head. 



In the nineteenth book of the Odyffey, Penelope, fpeaking 

 of dreams, fays to her nurfe, that there are two gates by 

 which they are tranfmitted to us ; one made of horn, through 

 which the true dreams pafs, and the other of ivory, which 

 emits falfe dreams. This thought Homer probably derived 

 from fome Egyptian cuftom or tradition, which one might dif- 

 cufs with many quotations and much appearance of learning ', 

 and this, no doubt, gave Virgil the hint of the paffage now 

 before us. But Virgil's account differs from Homer's more 

 than the commentators feem to be aware of. Homer does not 

 fay in what part of the world his gates are ; Virgil's are in 

 Italy, not far from Cumac, and are faid to be the outlet from 



Elyfium 



