SISYPHUS is feen, as Ovid describes him, bending under the weight of a vaft ftone. Lucretius makes him only an emblem of the ambitious, as Horace does Tantalus of the covetous .

IXION (condemned for impiety and ingratitude) appears as fixed to his wheel, which hurries him round in one perpetual whirl. In this manner he is defcribed by the poets

h.

V. The fifth divifion, ELYSIUM, or the REGION OF BLISS, is the habitation of those who died for their country; thofe of pure lives; inventors of arts; and all who have done good to mankind. Virgil does not speak of any particular districts, but fuppofes that all have the liberty of going where they please in that delightful region. He only mentions the vale of Lethe, or Forgetfulness, as appropriated to any particular

use.

Here, according to the Platonists, and other philofophers, the fouls which had gone

Homer's fine defcription of him agrees with the more common way of punishment, as rolling up a great ftone against the side of a steep mountain, which always rolls down, before he can fix it on the top, Met. xiii. v. 26. Met. iv. v. 459. Lucr. iii. v. 1015.

h Met. iv. v. 461. Stat. Theb. viii. v. 51. Geo. iv. v. 484. Geo. iii. v. 39. Our author thinks that angues here should be orbes, which agrees with Ixion's punishment, whereas angues does not. See Polym. p. 280.

through

through fome periods of their trials, were immersed in a river which gives name to the vale, in order to be put into new bodies, and to fill up the course of their probation in our world 1.

The ancient, as well as the modern poets, never failed more in any thing than in making a heaven. Virgil's ideas, though preferable to Homer's, are ftill very mean. The perfons in his Elyfium are, fome dancing, others ingaged in what they moft delighted in whilst on earth. Thus Orpheus, for inftance, is playing on his lyre. He speaks alfo of delightful groves, and a cascade of water. But taking in all he fays, his defcription of Elyfium, and the pleasures enjoyed there, are fo very low, that it feems almoft to be borrowed, from the manner in which the common people at Rome paffed their holydays on the banks of the Tyber *.

ACUS, the proper judge of Elyfium, is neither described by the poets, nor represented by the artifts. But PLUTO and PROSERPINA are common fubjects with both. Their palace stood where the three great roads of Ades meet, near the centre of their dominions. There is a great resemblance

i Æn. vi. v. 660. 675. 679. 703.749.

* Compare the description of the one by Ovid, Fast. iii. v. 540. and of the other by Virgil. Æn. vi. v. 647. The fulleft and beft description is in Pindar, Olymp. od. z

in

in the faces of the three brothers, Jupiter, Nep tune, and Pluto, which appears in their feveral figures (and is certainly well preserved by Raphael, in his feaft of the gods, on the marriage of Cupid and Psyche) only the look of Jupiter is the most serene and majestic, and Pluto's the most fullen and fevere. The Poets make the same diftinction. Statius calls him the Black Jupiter, and his complexion (as well as his veil) should be dark and terrible. He is fometimes called Dis, as Proferpina is named Perfephone'.

From the little the poets fay of Proferpina's perfon, it may be inferred, that she was of a brown complexion. Though Pluto made her. the partner of his throne, it was a great while before she could forgive the violence he had offered her, or forget the delightful vales of Enna, where she used to be so happy with her nymphs.

1 In one of the pieces of painting discovered about the end of the last century, in an old burial-place of the Nassonian family, Pluto and Proferpina are fitting on thrones, whilst Mercury is introducing the ghof of a young woman, who feems intimidated at Pluto's stern look. Behind stands her mother, waiting to conduct her back to some grove in ElysiPluto holds a sceptre in his hand (Met. v. v. 420.) and bath a veil over his head, which Claudian calls Nubes. Claud de rapt. Prof. Stat. Theb. iv. v. 475. Theb. ii. v. 50. Stat. Theb. xii. v. 273. Luc. i. v. 577. Faft. iv. v. 44. Met. v.

um.

v. 470,

A gloom

A gloom hung over her face for a long time. Statius makes her keep a fort of register of the dead, and to mark down all who fhould be added to that number. He gives her another and more agreeable office. He fays, when any remarkably good wife dies, Proferpina orders the spirits of the best women to walk in proceffion to welcome her to Elyfium, and to ftrew all the way with flowers ".

m

Our author concludes here his inquiry concerning the agreement between the works of the Roman poets, and the remains of the ancient artifts. The chief use he has found in this ftudy is, not so much in difcovering what was wholly unknown, as in fetting what was known before in a stronger and more beautiful light. When a fine profpect is viewed in a cloudy day, you behold the fame objects which you fee in a clear one. But what a new life and luftre does the fun give to every thing, how much more plainly, and with how much greater pleasure, are all the objects seen by us? It is the fame with the works of the old poets, when illustrated by the nobler remains of the artift. You knew, for inftance, that fuch a defcription was a defc iption of Venus, but when you have once got ftrong ideas of the tenderness of her form, and

m Hor. 1. ii. od. 13. v. 21. He calls her furva, Faft. iv. v. 525. Met. v. v. 508.

the

the fineness of her make, from the Venus of Medici, you see the fame defcription with other eyes; it ftrikes you more ftrongly, and touches the mind with a great deal more pleasure than it did before. This is the principal ufe which shouldbe proposed from fuch inquiries. What farther profit may be reaped from them fhould be looked upon as clear gains.

FINI 3