54 REMJRKS on feme Pajfages of the ENEID. 



world at all : and that gate the poet probably made choice of, 

 which firft occurred to him ; and that probably would firft oc- 

 cur which founded bed in his verfe : or perhaps one might fay, 

 in the way of conjecture, that he thought fit to open the ivory 

 gate, becaufe the other, being appropriated to the purified 

 ghofts, might not be fo well fuited to mere mortals. This is 

 certain, that, though the ablative eburna ftands very gracefully 

 in the 898th line, the ablative cornea could not ; becaufe, being 

 the foot ampbimacer, it can have no place in a regular hexa- 

 meter. 



As to the analogy that fome critics have fancied between horn 

 and truth, and between falfehood and ivory, it is fo whimfical, 

 and fo abfurd, that I need not mention it. 



And now, by removing the mift of allegory from Virgil's 

 gates, I flatter myfelf, that I have made thefe verfes fomewhat 

 more intelligible than they have been generally fuppofed to be ; 

 that I have proved the latter part of this epifode to be confident 

 with the reft of it ; and that I have vindicated a favourite au- 

 thor from the heavy charges of impiety and ill-manners, where- 

 of, however repugnant to his general character, it would not be 

 eafy for thofe to clear him who follow the common, though lefs 

 obvious, interpretations. 



III. 



