£63 TAME SWAN. Class II. 



Thus he, as well as Pliny*, in fact, gave no 

 credit to the mufick of fwans. Arifiotle fpeaks of 

 it only by hearfay-J-, but, when once an error is 

 flarted, it is not furprizing that it is adopted, 

 efpecially by poets, geniufes of all others of the 

 moil unbounded imaginations* For this reafon 

 poets were faid to animate fwans, from the notion 

 that they flew higher than any other birds, and 

 Hefiod diftinguifhes them by the epithet of mwvt* 

 eteprm&tai^ " the lofty flying fwans" ; Thus Ho- 

 race, whilft he humbly compares himfelf to a bee, 

 contenting itfelf with the creeping thyme, fends 

 his Dircaum Cygnum into the clouds 



Multa Dircceiim levat aura cygiium, 



Tendit, Jntoni, quoties^ in altos 



Nubium tra&us. Ode. II. Lib. 4. 



but when he finds himfelf (truck with a true poeti- 

 cal fpirit, he at once alfumes the form of this fa- 

 vourite bird, 



Non ufitata nee tenui feror 



Penna, biformis per liquidum aethera 



Vates : 



— et album mutor in alitem. Ode. XX. Lib. 2* 



And doubtlefs he was on the wing in his firft ode, 



Sublimi feriam fydera vertice. 



* Lib. X. c. 33. 

 f Hi/}, an. 1045. 

 % Scut. Here* 1. 31 6* 



Befides 



