Yet ev❜n, dread ruler of the Gods, when young, Thy mind was perfect and thy fense was strong: 'Twas hence thy brother's, though the first in birth, Nobly avowing thy fuperior worth, 90 And scorning envy, own'd it right, when giv'n This paffage appears to me in a fense fomething different from that which the commentators in general give it; they imagining the encreafe was of his mind only, not of his body. "I don't take the words ou d'annoas, fays Stephens, as if they meant, Jupiter foon grew up in ftature, but that he was ripe or adult in wisdom before the ufual time, and even in his childhood (for the poet fubjoins αλλ' ετι παιδιος των left any one fhould imagine him in mind and judgment a child." The fenfe of the paffage feems literally this: "Swift was your encreafe or growth, great Jove, for (d is frequently used for yag) for excellent was the method of your education: Swift you grew up to manhood, and the foft down rose early on your chin; though during the short seafon you continued a child, your foul was in its full perfection, and your thoughts great, ripe, and worthy of God. For which reafon, because your thoughts were always great, &c. your brothers envied you not, as being far their fuperior in worth, the empire of the heavens, &c." This fenfe is much different from that wherein the paffage is commonly taken, but I think, conveys a loftier idea of his God, and 95 Did DID I form fables, like those bards of old, Lɛr me avow, that not by chance was given, But by thine own right hand the throne of heav'n : Ver. 99. Did I, &c] Mr. Prior and Mr. Pitt, after him, have omitted a line in this place, which, to me, gives the original a very grand and admirable turn. After he has convicted the old poets, the author, preparing to give (what he calls) the true account, feizes upon the reader's attention in this line. Ψευδοιμην αιοντος ακιν πεπίθοιεν ακέην. In the true meaning of which the commentators are divided, which might occafion the omiffion in these gentlemen; the fcale feems to incline to Stephens's fide, his appearing the moft natural and easy sense of the paffage. He tranflates it Mentirer que perfuaderi poffint auribus ejus qui ea audiret.-After the author has told us, that what the old poets related thus of the divifions between the three brethren, c. was a mere fable; he goes on, I wonder, they fhould relate fuch glaring falfhoods, which manifeftly contradict common sense and reafon: As to myfulf, was I inclined to tell fabulous ftories, I would do it with more caution: do, &c. I would at least so manage my fables and fictions, as to draw credit from my hearer, and if not ftrictly true, yet they should wear the face of probability." "Peffime vertunt, fays the younger Dr. Bentley; thus I tranflate it: Si mentiri velim, ea mendacia dicam, quæ fint verifimilia, & quæ auditorem inducant, ad credendum. Poeta, fays Plautus, facit illud verifimile, quod mendacium eft. As to that interpretation of Gronovius, which Grævius approves, it is inexplicable, stupid, unmeaning." The doctor himself is indebted to Stephens for this explication, which he gives as his own; and therefore might as well have 100 Dread fpared that dogmatical affertion at the end: For certainly there is great beauty in the interpretation of Gronovius, and it was no difficult matter for an interrogation to have dropt from the end of a line, as Gronovius imagines; nay, we know the original MSS have no ftops at all:Mentirerne ego, quæ placerent auribus ejus, qui ea audiret? The poet having told you the abfurdity of the fables related upon this occafion by the former poets, gives his own performance the air of truth: "Thefe, fays he, are fables, with which mankind has been amufed and deceived: For my own part (in matters of fuch moment) I would not relate untruths to gain the approbation of every hearer." Wou'd I-great Jupiter or cou'd I do this ?—No, in order to expofe their folly, I rehearse their fictions-but, as thy poet and prophet, in this, facred hymn to thy honour and fervice, I deliver only what is the religious truth, and my particular creed." There appears nothing in this fo ftupid and inexplicable; nothing works upon any reader or hearer, fo much as an appearance of ftrict attachment to truth in an oration or work; and we find, that it was no uncommon method with the old cere?) to affume this appearance, and thereby, a poets (and why fhould we not believe them finfuperiority over other poets: Euripides introduces his Hercules refuting the fcandalous tales of the former bards, concerning the amours of the Gods, and faying, Dread Power and Strength their mutual aid supply'd, 105 I have endeavoured to exprefs both fenfes in the tranflation, as the original will bear both; and fubjoin a paraphrase by Stephens, as a juftification of my own. Haud mentiri illos vates tam abfurda decebat, Ver. 105. Power, &c.] Bin and Kapros were fuppofed by the antients to be two perfonages attendant on Jupiter; they are introduced by the poet Oefchylus as the fatellites of Jupiter, whom Vulcan addreffes thus Κρατος Βίατε σφωση μεν εντολή Διος Έχες τέλος δε και εδεν εμποδων ετι. And when Ovid in his Fafli, tells us, that honor and reverence begat majesty, by whofe fide awe and dread placed themfelves, and being defended by Jupiter never fince left the heavens, he fpeaks in the fame manner with our author: -Honor, placidoque de ens reverentia vultu Fulmina de coeli jaculatus Jupiter arce Vertit in auctores pondera vafta fues: His bene majeftas armis defenfa Deorum, Reftat et ex illo tempore firma manet : Affidet illa Jovi, Jovis eft fidiffima cufos, To It is fcarce neceffary to put the reader in mind of the many paffages in Scripture, the Pfalms particularly, to which our author is remarkably fimilar: With his own right hand, and with his holy arm hath he gotten himself the victory. Pfalm xcviii. 1. I looked and there was none to help, and I wondered that there was none to uphold; therefore mine own arm (faith Jehovah our Redeemer) brought falvation unto me, and my lix. 16. Thou haft a mighty arm, strong is thy fury it upheld me. Ifaiah Ixiii. 5. compare alfo hand and high is the right hand: Justice and judgment are the habitation [marg eftablishment] of thy throne: Mercy and truth fhall go before thy face. Pfalm lxxxix. 13. com. xcvii 2. Christ is called the power of God, and the wisdom of God. 1 Cor. i. 24. and honour and tower [xpatos] are by St. Paul afcribed to him. 1 Tim. vi. 16. I It will be neceflary to remind the reader of a ftrange mistake, which Mr. Prior hath made here in his tranflation, mifled by a bad Latin paraphrafe of our author which renders Appov, currum, a chariot, though it here fignifies fedem, a feat, the throne of Jupiter: The reader will, by confulting Mr. Prior, foon fee the error. Ver. 107. The eagle, &c.] Callimachus calls it→→ Οιωνον μεγ' υπείροχον the bird far most excellent of al others. Agreeably to our author Horace fpeaks thus in the beginning of one of his beft odes Qualem miniftrum fulminis alitem As the majestic bird of tow'ring kind, Et præflat fine vi fceptra tremenda Jovis, &c. And as thus being Jove's thunder-bearer, the eagle To me and mine oh! may he ever prove The happy omen of thy care and love! THYSELF fupreme; as thou haft well affign'd, The Gods fubordinate command mankind : 110 The eagle was particularly affigned to him, and in father, as alfo of fire; the eagle, of God the his favour. — quæ fulmina curvis Ferre folet pedibus-Divùm gratissima regi. The cause why the eagle was fo particularly appropriated to Jupiter and called his thunderbearer, has greatly perplexed and puzzled the mythologists, who have given a number of reafons, no lefs abfurd than improbable; Servius fets down very gravely to account for this matter, and tells us a couple of ftrange ftories concerning Jupiter's being carried away when an infant by an eagle, and of his being in love with a boy named Arros, the Greek word for an eagle. Such ftories want only to be mentioned, to refute themfelves. It appears very plain, why the heathens used this fymbol, if we refer to the Scripture, and nothing elfe can give us any plaufible folution of the matter. We may firft reflect, what it is, that really bears the thunder, is the vehicle, by which it is carried, and that we all know to be the air, from whence we reasonably conclude that the eagle was a fymbol of the air: This is confirmed by the whole voice of antiquity, by which we are clearly affured that the eagle was worshipped as a fymbo! of the air. But how came it fo to be? for this we muft have recourfe to the figure of the Cherubim, fet up at the gates of Paradife, and in the Holy of Holies, of which Ezekiel has given us fo full a defcription in his 1ft and 10th chapters. This figure of the cherubim was a compound figure of four faces joined to one body-the faces were thofe of a bull, an eagle, a lion, and a man, and was a fymbolical representation of the Trinity in Unity, with the great mystery of the Incarnation the bull, being a type of God the - Holy Ghoft, as alfo of air; and the lion of God the Son, as alfo of light; and the man, of human nature taken into the effence and joined to the lion, God the Son. The eagle was thus made an emblem of the Holy Spirit, and alfo of air, which, with the addition of Holy, is the name of the Third Perfon αγιον πνεύμα, the Holy Ghoft, fpirit, air: And being thus in the very original of things confecrated to that purpose, was afterwards, by idolaters, mifapplied, and mifunderstood; remaining ftill amongst them a type or fymbol of the air, though they had forgotten the next step, namely, that the air was itself but a type: From this figure of the Cherubim most of the abufes and furprising conjunctions in the heathen mythology arofe; but as it would be too long to speak fully of it here (or at leaft as its importance demands) I will fubjoin a fhort account of it in the appendix: In the mean time, we may remember that the Greek name of the eagle Aros, confirms what hath been advanced, that the bird is a fymbol of the air: For the etymol. magnum. derives it from αισσω ; Αετος, παρα το αίσσω, το ορμώ, to rush on or forwards, to move round with impetuofity, the very characteristic of the air, which rushes in every where, and moves round in circulation from the center of the universe to the circumference. The Almighty in the Pfalms is faid to ride upon a cherub, and to fy; and then what that cherub is, we are informed, "He came flying upon the wings of the wind:" xviii. 10. i. e.upon the wings of the eagle, the cherub, and fymbol of the wind, air, or fpirit, agreeable to which the Romans describe their Jupiter Olympius, riding upon an eagle, as you may fee in any of the mythologifts. The merchant, poet, and the man of war, Each to his guardian power prefers his prayer: While mighty kings (whose universal sway 115 The foldier, merchant and the bard obey) Their grateful offerings to the altar bring Of Jove, their fovereign, Jove of kings the king. MARS reigns defpotic o'er the warrior throng, And gentle PHOEBUS claims the fons of song: By Jove ordain'd, defended, and divine. They rule from thee: while from thy towers on high O'er kings, their nation's scourge, or kings, their nation's joy.} To these of glory thou the means hast giv'n, Such as befuits the delegates of heav'n : Ver. 124. By Jove, &c.] This fentiment that all the power and authority of kings was derived from the fupreme, and fo, confequently divine, is by no means peculiar to our author: there is fcarce any of the poets that do not herein agree with him: we have it in Homer, Hefiod, Theocritus, Mofchus, Pindar, Horace, Virgil, &c. indeed Hefied and Virgil ufe the fame words with our author- Εκ δε Διος Βα σιληές fays the former; and ab Jove funt reges, the latter; and Horace beautifully, Regum timendorum in proprios greges 120 125 Thine |