(tiro) 
tfion or full purport of the Poet in thefe lines, and after pc- 
rufingthcma while, what was before dark and cbfcure, ap- 
peared fo plain and evident, that I was immediately con- 
vinced in tnyfelf, be could not poffibly have any other mea- 
than this. 
After he had in the Verfes going" before, acknowledged 
how much he was owing to the bounty of his Mufe, here 
•he makes a fudden exclamation to extol her great Art and 
Ivlyftery, who By mixing various Notes, could compofe fuch 
fweet Harmony upon the Gnilded Lyre or Tcjlndoy and by 
lier furprizing Power could when (he picafcd, give even to 
mute Fifties, or the hollow Shells of the Tejludmes Aquatic <e 
or Water Tvrtoifes, a fort of Fifti, of which I imagined they 
made their Lyres in old Times, the fweet melody of the 
Swan. 
As for the comparifon he makes to the voice of a dying 
Swan 5 tho this were granted an error, yet I thought it fuch 
a one, as might pafs very well, (ince it ierves here only as 
an aliufion, and might be ufcd for that end, becaufe it was 
certainly a received vulgar opinion in Horaces days, as it 
prevails ftill in oursjand therefore might properly enough,tho 
aFiftion, illuftrate this mighty attribute he in fuch pofitive 
Terms, and in fo furprizing a manner afcribes here to his 
Mufe : for ' even a Vulgar Err^r univerfally imbraced, was 
ever Authority fufBcient for either a Poet or aa Orator to 
draw from it a comparifon or a fimile, 
Monfieur Dacier I canfefs,to whom we are obliged for the 
fulleft, moft learned and Judicious comment extant upon 
this Author, has nothing that in the leaft favours the forego- 
ing explanation 3 but on the contrary in his Glofs upon thefe 
Words in the fame Ode,. 
Totum Mmeris hoc tui e/?,^8cc. 
Says, Horace could not have given a more ample Tefti- 
wtony of his Modefty, than he has (hewn in this Expreffion 
which 
