Class II. TAME SWAN. j6? 



which arofe from the Pythagorean doctrine of the 

 tranfmigration of the foul into T:he bodies of ani- 

 mals ; from the belief, that the body of the fwan 

 was allotted for the manfion of departed poets. 

 Thus Plato makes his prophet fay, ww ^v yap tyxw 



£<PYI "TOV 7T0TE Op$ECC$ VSVOfAEVYIV KUfflZ $IQV aipSfJLEVYJy *. CC I faW 



the foul of Orpheus prefer the life of a fwan." 



After the antients had thus furnifhed thefe birds 

 with fuch agreeable inmates, it is not to be doubted 

 but they would attribute to them the fame powers 

 of harmony, that poets poi^dTed, previous to their 

 tranfmigration : but the vulgar not diftinguifhing 

 between the fweetnefs of numbers, and that of 

 voice, ignorantly believed that to be real, which 

 philofophers and poets only meant metaphorically. 

 In time a fwan became a common trope for a 

 Bard ; Horace calls Pindar Dirc^eum Cygnum, and 

 in one ode even fuppofes himfelf changed into a 

 fwan \ Virgil fpeaks of his poetical brethren in the 

 fame manner, 



Vare 9 tuum nomen 



Cantantes fublime ferent ad fydera cygnl. Eclog. IX. 



when he fpeaks of them figuratively, he afcribes to 

 them melody, or the power of mufick ; but when 

 he talks of them as birds, he lays afide fldtion, and 

 like a true naturalift gives them their real note, 



Dant fonitum rauci per ftagna loquacia cygni. JEneid. Lib. X. L 



* De RepubL Lib. X, fab fine. 



P p 3 Thus 



