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CANTO IV

but I doubt of its being a universal doctrine of Pagan theologians, because I do not find it asserted in the Aeneid. It would certainly be implied there, if any of its verses unequivocally limited the du ration of Elysium to a thousand years: for then there must have been some eternal Paradise to counter-poise that eternal Tartarus; some final home for the auraï simplicis ignem as soon as its earthly stains were purged away, whether by punishments in the world of shades, or by returning to this one, in order to redeem the errors of its former life by living better. But to punish it when become stainless by sending it back to where its stains had been contracted, and exile it then from that blissful Elysium into this wretched existence, would be unjust and contradictory. The Pagan belief therefore as to Paradise, would not be so remote from our own, if it could be positively ascertained that it was an article of the Pagan faith that Elysium was not eternal. But to me that is not clear; and even the following passage may be construed without any such admission:

Quisque suos patimur manes: exinde per amplum
Mittimur Elysium et pauci læta arva tenemus ;
Donec longa dies, perfecto temporis orbe,
Concretam exemit labem, purumque reliquit
Ethereum sensum atque auraï simplicis ignem.
Has omnes, ubi mille rotam volvêre per annos,
Lætheum ad flumen Deus evocat (2). :

(1) Aeneid. Lib. v1. v. 743.

CANTO IV.

There is something dubious in the syntax, as well as in the sentiment; for donec may refer either to pauci, or to tenemus; and has omnes allude either to the inhabitants of Elysium, or to those of the adjacent purgatorial hell. But two things are evident: Firstly, that Virgil, contrary to his practise, is obscure here, and secondly, that there is no deciding from the passage as to whether Elysium was to be an eternal abode for its denizens, or whether they were at last to obtain their apotheosis and become enumerated among those few (such as Romulus) whom the Pagan Creed (in this far more parsimonious than the Roman Catholic one) taught, beyond all doubt, to be saints, not in Elysium, but in a celestial home, whether under the title of Dei, or Semidei (1). Whatever was Vir gil's private opinion, he probably chose to avoid precision on a matter not expressly defined by the established religion of his Country. Dante, in a situation not dissimilar, followed his example; and had too good taste to prefer the decisive inferences of church-men, to the mild, liberal, noble indecision of the Church itself.

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(1) Ollos quos endo cælo merita vocaverint. De Legibus. Lib. 11, Cap. 8.

(2) Aeneid. Lib. VI. v. 66a.

CANTO IV.

was certainly to be understood as including Homer; but was not that generic eulogy rather meagre in the mouth of a man who had drawn on him so lavishly as Virgil? And who thus gave Macrobius a just occasion to affirm that the Aeneid was nothing but a mirror reflecting the Iliad and Odyssey (1). Dante is more grateful to his illustrious predecessors (2). His giving the poetic Sovereignity to Homer is only a confirmation of general opinion; nor do I believe that there will be any objection started to the rank assigned to Horace, or Ovid: but the one which Lucan is here made to occupy has been subjected to bitter criticism.

Whatever be the decision as to the epic superiority of the Pharsalia, its author was dear to Dante as the panegyrist of liberty; and no doubt but in his eyes this moral destination would have enhanced the value of even inferior poetry. But whatever

(1) Omne opus Virgilianum velut de quodam Homerici Operis speculo formatum est. Saturnalia. Lib. v. Cap. 2.

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(2) That he should award Poets precedence above all the Heroes, and Philosophers that are to appear, may be condemned: but be it recollected firstly, that it is unjust to argue from an abuse; and secondly that heavenly poetry, which has been so abused by its minor followers, was always in its chiefs, Homer, Virgil, Tasso, Milton, etc, an incentive to virtue; and thirdly, that it is an historical fact that they were Poets who shed the earliest light of knowledge throughout the world — as is still testified by those oldest of books, the Bible, and the Iliad and Odyssey: for, in the language of Strabo, it is impossible to be a good poet without being first a good man' —šu díov Te αγαθόν γενεσθαι ποιητὴν, μὴ πρότερον γενηθεντα ἄνδρα ἀγαθὸν. I. "Nor are any of the nobler poets false to this cause -says my Lord Shaftesbury with great truth. Characteristics, Vol. 1. p. 121.

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CANTO IV.

be the degree assigned on the critical scale to the poetry Lucan left behind, he was himself a poet of the very first order, a sovereign genius, a most sublime enthusiast, whose blemishes are all deducible from a defect too easily removed, that of being very young, a writer whom some have not scrupled to prefer to Virgil (1), and who would possibly have really surpassed Virgil, had he been allowed time to chasten the brilliancy of his fancy. His daring genius and incredible assiduity (for, although cut off scarce in his twenty-seventh year he left above ten literary works), the irony of his dedication to Nero, and the intrepidity which in such a court of slaves and under such a ferocious tyrant, engaged him to pronounce a panegyric upon freedom (the cause to which he at last made the libation of his blood), the memory of his Uncle, and the manner of both their murders, a Sage bleeding to death amid his secretaries, the other a juvenile poet expiring slowly while reciting the beautiful verses which he had long previously composed on a wounded soldier whose vital stream was, like his own, ebbing eaque illi suprema vox fuit (2): almost every circumstance about Lu• can's fate conspires to insure him our tender regard. Yet according to the Berlin Critics he was little better than a demon, and his Muse was truly infernal: the Pharsalia being an invective

(4) Andres, Letteratura T. 2. p. 126–30.

(2) Taciti Ann. Lib. xv. Cap. 79.

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against absolute power, and even praising the regicide Brutus (1).' Now, as to preferring a Republic to a military despotism, I do think it is su perfluous to defend either Lucan, or his admirer, Dante. M. Merian might possibly have meant to imitate the banter of the dedication of the Pharsalia, and to praise the sentiments which he appears to condemn: but this can be perceptible to his intimate friends alone, whereas the generous aim of the philosopher's nephew could scarcely have been dubious to any but those totally unworthy of perceiving it; besides which, no military master of the last century can be compared for a moment with the murderer of Brittanicus. So that in this case aiso (of concealed encomium) it would have become M. Merian to have testified less violence in speaking of one, whom he secretly revered and to whom he must have been conscious of being inferior in even political courage. As to the fall of Cæsar, it were sufficent for me to remark that those who blame Lucan's sentiments on that head, can have no reason to complain of Dante; for he severely condemns Brutus and Cassius, as we shall find: although he did not consider this difference of opinion to be a ground for denying the young author of the Pharsalia his poetical pre-eminence.

(1) Un poëte détestable qui blaspheme contre la famille royale... La Pharsale n'est qu' une invective contre le pouvoir absolu et le panegyrisme de l'esprit républicain. Le regicide Brutus ment applaudi. Merian, Mem. de l'Acad. de Berlin. 1778.

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