1798.) | 
contradictory. Squinting eyes, a divided 
tongue and heart, feet and hands dif- 
ferent, and acting in oppoilite diretions, 
make up a figure that could not really 
exift, and which, therefore, offends againit 
the rules of juft perfonification. Poets 
may be allowed to combine torms and 
properties which nature never joined; but 
there muft be no manifeft incompatibility 
in. the union. 
The Furizs may certainly be regard- 
ed as allegorical perfonages ; but the dif- 
tinct office and character of each of the 
three are not clearly marked out by the 
poets. Sometimes they are the inftru- 
ments of divine vengeance for dreadful 
crimes committed, in which cale they 
reprefent horror and remorfe: trequent- 
ly, being poffeifed by the Furies, fignities 
falling into a fit of frenzy.  Univerfally, 
their agency is fomething highly terrible 
and noxious to mankind; which is de- 
noted by their ghaftly countenances, their 
ferpents, torches, and bloody {fcourges. 
I fhall here only confider,a fingle inftance 
of this fidtion, the celebrated appearance 
of Aleoin the feventh book of the Zxeid, 
AleS&to, in this place may, I think, 
with perfeét propriety be confidered as 
the demon of revenge or hatred perionified. 
The ‘!purpole of her miffien is to in{pire 
‘Turnus and the mother of Lavinia with 
hoftile rage againft Afneas, whole arvival 
had difconcerted the plan of union be- 
tween. the two families. No occafion 
could be more likely to call forth a fpirit 
of hatred, and thirft for revenge, efpe- 
cially in Turnus, whofe deareft hopes 
were thus fruftrated by a ftranger. The 
Furies are painted too much alike in their 
hurtful powers and inclinations to be 
readily difcriminated ; yet the charaéter of 
Ale&to, as given by Virgil, feems per- 
fe&tly to agree with the idea of a Being. 
whole office was to ftir up all the furious 
paffions of the human breaft. 
—— — —— Cui triftia beHa 
Treque, infidieque, & crimina noxia cordi 
a eee ke oe Sag ae ee ee Re 
Tu potes unanimes armare in preelia fratres, 
Atque odiis verfare domos : tu verbera tectis 
Funereafque inferre faces: tibi nomina mille, 
« Mille nocendi artes, 
This Fury fit for her intent fhe chofe, 
One who delights in wars and human woes. 
*Tis thine to ruin realms, o’erturn a ftate, 
Betwixt the deareft friends to raife debate, 
#And kindle kindred blood to mutual hate ; 
Thy hand o’er towns the funeral torch dif- 
lays, 
And-forms a theufandills a thoufand ways. 
of Aofirad Ideas 1a Poetr>. y 
ainfli&s. 
The fiery and malignant fpirit of re- 
venge feems emblematically indicated 
by the means fhe employs to effeét her 
miichievous purpoles. Shedrives Amata 
to madne{s by throwing on her one of her 
ferpents, which infeéts the queen with its 
venem, 
————Vipeream infpirans animam, 
Breathing a viper’s foul: 
and, appearing to Turnus in his fleep, 
fhe hurls her torch at him, and fixes its 
black fires in his breaft. She afterwards 
founds the horn which is to fummon the 
ruftics to arms. 
ENVY is a perfonage frequently intro- 
duced by the poets, and we have feveral 
defcriptions of her, all, indeed, formed 
on the fame model, and copied from each 
other. The firft of thefe. is in Ovid's 
Metamorphofis, Book II. where fhe is em- 
ployed, like a Fury, by Minerva, to 
infect the mind of Aglauros. The de- 
{cription is. partly natural, partly emble- 
matical. She is reprefented as dwelling 
in a cave feated in a cold dark valley. 
She is found chewing the flefh of vipers ; 
which may be interpreted, feeding on 
malignant thoughts, ¢ 
-—-— Vitiorum alimenta fuorum : 
The aliment of her vices. 
Her gait is flugoith; her countenance 
pale; her body lean; fhe looks afkance : 
her breaft is fuffufed with gall; and her 
tongue flows with poiion. She never 
fmiles, but at mifchier: fhe is tleeplefs 
through anxiety ; fhe pines at the view of 
profperity, and fuffers as much as fhe 
‘This is little more than the na 
tural defcription of an envious perfon, 
the bodily effe&ts of which corroding paf- 
fion are almoft literally to envenom the 
juices, and caufe 4a fuperabundance of 
acrid gall. It’is a ftroke’ of nature too, 
when the is reprefented as fighing deeply 
at. the view of Minerva’s beauty and 
{plendour; and fcarcely forbearing to 
‘weep as the paffes over the flourithing and 
opulent city of Athens. Her thorny ftaff 
allegorically exprefled the perfonal ftings 
belonging to envious affeCiions. The 
blicht and defolation produced in the fub- 
jacent earth where fhe takes her flight, 
denote the baleful effeéts of this paffion. 
————baculum capit; quod fpinea totum 
Vincula cisgebant: adopertaque nubibus atris, 
Quacunque ingreditur, floren‘ia proterit arva, 
Exuricque herbas, et» fummia cacumina car- 
pit 5 
Afiatuque fyo populos, urbefque, domofcue 
Palluit. 

€ze 
