thofe exhibiting the muscles are, in our opinion, fuperior to the reft; but by this commendation of a part, we mean not to cenfure the others. ART. IV. Obfervations on the Subject of the Fourth Eclogue, the Allegory in the Third Georgic, and the primary Design of the Eneid of Virgil: With incidental Remarks on fome Coins of the Jews. By Samuel Henley, F. S. A. Rector of Rendlesham, Suffolk. 8vo. 2s. 6d. Boards. Johnfon. 1788. OF F the various and interefting compofitions of the great Rothe various and man poet, none feems to have more forcibly excited the attention, both of ancient and modern scholars, than that which is the principal fubject of the work now before us. The fourth Eclogue of Virgil has given rife to various controverfies, both critical and theological: it has been appealed to by primitive Fathers, and by modern Divines, as affording evidence for the truth of Chriftianity; it has been fpiritualized by pious myftics into a prediction of the holy Virgin, of the Meffiah, of the propagation and effects of the Gospel, and even of the doctrine of the * Trinity; it has been imitated by one of the beft English poets; it has repeatedly exercifed the fagacity of the ableft commentators of almost every nation of Europe; and it, perhaps, ftill opens not an unfruitful field of investigation to the grammarian, the hiftorian, and the critic. The Obfervations of Mr. Henley are occafioned by Bifhop Lowth's twenty-firft Lecture on the Sacred Poetry of the Hebrews. The learned Prelate there afferts the connection between the fourth Eclogue and the writings of the Hebrew prophets.He maintains, that Virgil muft have drawn his images, either mediately or immediately, from the Scriptures-either from the Septuagint verfion, which was at that time well known through the world,-or from thofe prophecies which, having probably been taken thence by the Hellenistic Jews, and thrown into Greek verfe, were then current under the names of the Sibyls. He thinks that there is fomething more mysterious in the compofition of the poem than has been generally imagined-that the true design of the poet has not yet been difcovered-and that * We shall not, we truft, incur the imputation either of heretical impiety, or of querulous morofenefs, if we object to the expofition which Ludovicus Vives has ventured to give of the 47th line Concordes ftabili fatorum numine Parca. "Fortaffe nimium curiofum videri poffet, fi per hafce Parcas concordes numine et voluntate fatorum intelligi Sibyllam voluiffe diceremus tres perfonas in Divinitate.-Sed hæc ne attingamus; ne obtundamur vel impiorum, vel moroforum, vociferatione ac quiritatione." REV. O&. 1788. X the the hiftory and fituation of the Roman world at that time fupplies no character, nor events, concerning which fuch magnificent predictions could poffibly have been uttered. He then concludes the Lecture by delivering his own opinion in the following words: Cum vero hæc ipfa adeo luculenter explicet peregrina quædam Interpretatio ex Hebræorum rebus ac monumentis fuperinducta, cujus vim omnem et magnitudinem nullo modo complecti potuerit, aut etiam attingere, ipfius Poetæ animus; quid mihi hac in re concedent eruditi, nefcio; quid fentiam, vix audeo exponere: et tamen dicam, id mihi tam mirabile tamque prodigii fimile videri, ut nonnunquam pene inducar, ut ferio credam, id femel eveniffe quod Socrates gwvvvD ut folet, apud Platonem de poetis ait *: δια ταύλα ὁ θεος, εξαιρουμενος τούτων νουν, τουτοις χρηται ύπηρεταις και τοις χρησμῳδοις και τοις μαντεσι τοις θείοις· ἶνα ἡμεῖς οἱ ακούοντες ειδωμεν, ότι εχ' οντοι εἰσιν οἱ ταυτα λεγολες ουτω πολλου αξία, οἷς νους μη παρεστιν, αλλ' ὁ θεός αυτός εστιν ὁ λέγων, δια τούλων δε φθεγίεται προς ή μας. In a note fubjoined to the Lecture, after refuting the opinions of Servius, and other commentators, in favour of Saloninus, Afinius Gallus, or any fon of Pollio; after afferting that the prediction of the poet agrees neither with the age nor fituation of Marcellus, nor Drufus, this able critic readily admits its congruity, fo far as a fon is concerned, to the child with whom Scribonia was at that time pregnant. Here the difficulty with his Lordship begins. For how, confidering the fituation of Octavius at this period, could his child be the fubject of fuch a prediction ?-Why, in predicting the future greatness of a son of Octavius, fhould Virgil addrefs his prediction to Pollio?—And, fuppofing thefe difficulties folved, how can the language of the prediction itself be reconciled to the fubject of it?' In answer to the first queftion, refpecting the fituation of Octavius, Mr. H. ftates, that in the year 714, when all the horrors of civil difcord were impending over Italy, a reconciliation was effected between Antony and Octavius, by the mediation of Cocceius, Pollio, and Mecenas. The refult of this treaty was a new partition of the Roman world, which was highly favourable to the afpiring views of Octavius, and which left him, at the time when this Eclogue was written, mafter of Italy, and that part of the empire which under its own name comprehended the world. Under thefe circumftances, at peace with his colleague abroad, having nothing to apprehend at home, and invefted with power to appease those commotions by which the empire had been fo lately convulfed, Mr. H. afks, what might not Octavius hope-or, what might not the flattery of a poet, who in circumstances lefs favourable had stiled him a GOD, now prompt his afpiring mind, and on the ground of a divine prediction, to expect would be the future greatnefs of his fon ?" * PLATO in Ione. Mr. Mr. H. endeavours to remove the fecond objection of Bishop Lowth, viz.-that it is highly improbable that Virgil fhould have addressed a poem, predicting the future greatness of a fon of Octavius, to Pollio, who had not been the friend of Octavius, but of his rival Antony-by faying, that whatever political enmity might have exifted between Pollio and Octavius, prior to the treaty of Brundifium, yet in the patronage of genius, at leaft, they had been unanimous-that while Pollio held the territory of Venice for Antony, the talents of Virgil attracted his noticeand that by his means the Poet had been introduced to the knowlege and favour of Octavius, who reftored to him his patrimony, which the foldiers had ufurped. He thinks, therefore, that nothing could be more natural, nothing more confiftent with the nicelt addrefs, than that Virgil, whofe poetic talents had first procured him the protection of Pollio, and, by his means, the munificence of Octavius, fhould offer through his firft patron, who was not only at this time Conful, but had been chiefly inftrumental, by negotiating the peace, to the establishment of Octavius in power, a poetic compliment to his greater benefactor, on a prediction fuppofed to point out his fon?' Mr. Henley enters more largely into a refutation of the Bishop's third objection-that the language of the prediction cannot be reconciled with the fubject of it. He adduces a number of circumftances which have a tendency to prove that Virgil could not have been ignorant of the exiftence of the Jewifh Scriptures. He thinks it inconceivable that the effulgence of their poetic fplendor fhould have failed to catch his attention-and he fays, that if we add to this the fimilarity between the fubject of the Jewish prophecies and his own, a doubt can scarcely remain, that the lips of the Sicilian Mufes were touched by the Poet with a coal from the Prophet's altar. Our Author then proceeds to explain fuch paffages of the Eclogue as appear moft likely to illuftrate and fupport his hypothefis. The most novel remark which we meet with, feems to be that on line 11: Teque adeo, decus hoc avi, te Confule, inibit, Pollio; et incipient magni procedere menfes. "During thy Confulfhip, O Pollio! during thine, fhall this glory of the age be conceived, and the months of geftation advance." *Or rather," shall quicken." An infant may be faid VITAM INIRE, cum jam maternorum vifcerum latens onus. SENEC. Epift. cxxiv. Thus, in GENES. XXV. 22: ΕΣΚΙΡΤΩΝ δε τα παιδία εν αυτη. Confult Hippocrates on the first motions of the foetus. HESYCH. in Arua. -The force of this remark, communicated by a polite and accomplished scholar, is confirmed by LUCRETIUS, iii. 631. Præterea fi, jam perfecto corpore, nobis X 2 "This "This glory of the age:" that is, the age predicted. It was in the confulfhip of Pollio that the marriage of Octavius to Scribonia took place; the great months therefore are the months of her pregnancy, which at this time was advancing.' This interpretation is ingenious, though we are not convinced of its propriety. Mr. H. produces no inftance in which the the verb ineo is thus ufed abfolutely, inibit for vitam inibit, or vita limen inibit. We will, however, furnifh him with two paffages from Tacitus, which may, perhaps, tend in fome degree to remove this difficulty, which is complained of both by Burman and Heyne. Annal. lib. iii. 11. Quanquam patres cenfuiffent, ob receptum Maroboauum, et res aftate priore geftas, ut ovans iniret, &c. Lib. xv. 32. Namque ad eam diem indifcreti inibant, quia lex Rofcia nihil, nifi de quatuordecim ordinibus, fanxit. In the former paffage, iniret is used for urbem iniret: in the lat ter, inibant for fcenam inibant. Lines 26, 27, 28, 29. "At fimul beroum laudes et falta parentis Jam legere, et quæ fit poteris cognofcere virtus ; Incultifque rubens pendebit jentibus uva”. are thus explained by Mr. H.: "Before you be old enough to view on those plains, which have fo lately been the theatre of heroifm and horror, the devaftations of civil difcord; its veftiges fhall gradually difappear, and the tranquil occupations of bufbandry fhall hide them.' The paffage is thus fancifully interpreted by Ludovicus Vives, and wrefted to the support of his fyftem-" Sequenti ætate, inflituta doctrina Dei, exemplis Chrifti, difciplina Apoftolorum, extendet fe pietas latime; non jam ad mu nufcula et res minutas, fed ad colligenaam messem, vindemiam, mel. Ingredientur Judæi, et magna multitudo gentilium: flavefcet paulatim arifta gentilis tenera, et in fpinis humanæ contumacia colligetur uva fuavis, et in dura ignorantia nafcetur dulcedo mellis." Mr. Henley concludes his obfervations on the fourth Eclogue in the following words: Notwithstanding what is advanced in the Lecture, on the incongruity of Virgil's language to his fubject, upon any other idea. than that of a mysterious relation to the Meffiah and his kingdom; it is the voluntary conceffion of his Lordship, in the perfon could be any where found more worthy of this prophetic Ecnote, that, no logue, nor whom it would more aptly fit, or with whom its contents would better quadrate, than a fon of Octavius; provided it could be fhewn that a fon was born to him, in the year when Pollio was Conful." Now, though it be impoffible to fupply the proof which his Lordship requires; yet, fo far as the fpirit of the poftulate is concerned, a fatisfactory anfwer can be given. For notwithstanding upon the prefent hypothefis (which perfectly harmonizes with the history of facts) Octavius had no child, till the year after Pollio was Conful, Conful, and then only a daughter; yet, as Scribonia became pregnant in the confulfhip of Pollio, and the Eclogue was written in that very year, Virgil (whatever the coincidence of the time with the adopted prediction might have led him to expect) certainly could not know, without the gift of prefcience, the fex of this unborn child.' On lines 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, of the third Georgic, our Author obferves Thefe lines are part of an Allegory, intended to prefigure the ENEID; which Virgil was at this time meditating, in honour of his patron Auguftus. They exhibit the Poet in an agonistic capacity; and, from a confcioufnefs of his powers, fecure of fuccefs. In the folemnities of the Pythian Games, not thofe only who were eminent for athletic skill, but fuch alfo as excelled in mental endowments, were equally admitted to contend. It was therefore in a competition of this kind, that Virgil propofed to engage. The fummit of the Aonian mount being the fcene of this projected conteft; and the leading thence the Mufes of Greece the object; it follows, that the highest honours of poefy were to be the prize, and HOMER the destined Antagonist. Hence, the fable of the Grecian Bard was adopted by his Roman Rival, and every incident felected from it, that could give energy to emulation. How far the fuccefs anticipated by Virgil, was realized in the judgment of his countrymen, the exultation of Propertius may help to decide: Cedite, Graii! Nefcio quid majus nafcitur ILIADE. Having come off victorious, at leaft in idea, the conqueror, as was ufual with victors in the Grecian games, falutes his natal foil with the promise of a triumphal return; and of bringing back to it, a fecond time, the emblems of his conqueft: PRIMUS Idumæas Referam tibi, Mantua, palmas. In explanation of the Allegory, it may be obferved that, by Mantua, is to be understood his native language; which he now purposes to honour with an EPIC as fuperior to Homer's, as he had furpaffed Theocritus in ECLOGUE: -the Mufes of the Aonian Mount characterizing the one, and Thofe of Sicily the other: SICELIDES MUSE! paullo majora canamus. — The palms to grace this fecond triumph, like thofe he had borne to fignalize the former, were to be IDUMEAN: that is, the APPROPRIATE IMAGERY of the JEWISH PREDICTIONS.-To fupport this The following statement of facts, from Appian and Dio, will place this matter in the cleareft light:-The confulfhip of Pollio commenced with the year 714; in the former part of that year, Octavius married Scribonia; towards the clofe of it, the treaty of peace was confirmed; and early in the following, Julia was born.-Profeffor HEYNE, from verfes 11 and 61, concludes, that the birth of the child foretold was expected to happen in 714; but it is evident from verfe 10, that the 61 muft be taken proleptically; and there is nothing in verfe 11 to carry back the pregnancy fo far as his pofition demands.' |