Clafe II. TAME SWAN. 445 



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

 credit to the mufick of fwans. Arijlotle fpeaks of 

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

 ftarted, it is not lurprizing that it is adopted, 

 efpecially by poets, geniufes of all others of the moffc 

 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 xvwot aspo-woT*/ J, " the lofty 

 flying fwans" ; Thus Horace whilfl: he humbly com- 

 pares himfelf to a bee, contenting itfelf with the creep- 

 ing thyme, fends his Dircaum Cygnum into the clouds, 



Multa Dircaum !evat aura cygnum, 



Tendit, Antoni, quoties in altos 



Nubium traclus. Ode. II. lib. 4. 



but when he finds himfelf Uruck with a true poetical 

 fpirit, he at once affumes the form of this favourite 

 bird, 



Non ufitata nee tenui feror 



Penna, biformis per liquiduni sthera 



Vates : 



et album mutor in alitem. Ode. 20. lib. 2. 



Anddoubtlefs he was on the wing in his firft ode, 



Sublimi feriam fydera vertice. 



Befides thefe opinions the antients held another Hill 

 more lingular, imagining that the fwan foretold its 

 own end : to explain this we rnuft confider the two* 



* Lib. x. c. 33. 

 + HiJI. an. 1045. 

 % Scut. Here. 1. 316. 



F f 2 fold 



