adduced as proofs of the truth of the Chriftian Religion by any found and conclufive reafoner. The learned Heyne has difcuffed this point in his notes on the fecond eclogue of Virgil, p. 73. v. I.; and he adds an opinion about prophecy in general, too remarkable to be omitted, but of too delicate a nature to be quoted in any words but his own. "Scilicet inter omnes populos, magna imprimis calamitate oppreffos, Vaticinia circumferri folent, quæ five graviora minari, five lætiora folent polliceri, eaque, neceffariâ rerum viciffitudine, melioribus aliquando fuccedentibus temporibus, ferè femper eventum habent. Nullo tamen tempore vaticiniorum infanius fuit ftudium, quàm fub extrema Reipublicæ Romanæ tempora, primofque imperatores; cum bellorum civitium calamitates hominum animos terroribus omnis generis agitatos; ad varia portentorum prodigiorum, & vaticiniorum ludibria convertiffent. Quafcunque autem hoc in genere defcriptiones, novæ felicitatis habemus, five in Orientis five in Græcis & Romanis poetis, omnes inter fe fimiles funt: beftiæ ac feræ cicures, ferpentes innocui, fruges nullo cultû enatæ, mare plaidum, dii prefentes in terris, aliaque ejufmodi in omnibus memorantur. contradiction to this opinion the reader is defired to turn to as remarkable a paffage at the end of the twenty-firft of Bishop Lowth's excellent Lectures on the Hebrew Poetry. In Y MESSIAH, A SACRED ECLOGUE. E Nymphs of Solyma! begin the song: To heav'nly themes, fublimer ftrains belong. The moffy fountains, and the fylvan fhades, The dreams of Pindus and th' Aonian maids, Delight no more-O Thou my voice inspire Who touch'd Ifaiah's hallow'd lips with fire! Rapt into future times, the Bard begun : A Virgin fhall conceive, a Virgin bear a Son! IMITATIONS. 5 VER. 8. A Virgin fhall conceive-All crimes fhall ceafe, &c.] Virg. Ecl. iv. ver. 6. 66 Jam redit et Virgo, redeunt Saturnia regna Jam nova progenies coelo demittitur alto. ; "Now the Virgin returns, now the kingdom of Saturn returns, now a new progeny is fent down from high heaven. By means of thee, whatever reliques of our crimes remain, shall be wiped away, and free the world from perpetual fears. He shall govern the earth in peace, with the virtues of his father." Ifaiah, Ch. vii. v. 14.-" Behold, a Virgin fhall conceive and bear a fon.". -Ch. ix. v. 6, 7. "Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; the Prince of Peace: of the increase of his government, and of his peace, there fhall be no end: Upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order and to establish it, with judgment, and with juftice, for ever and ever." P. * Dante fays, that Statius was made a Christian by reading this paffage in Virgil. See L. Gyraldus, p. 534. From From Jeffe's root behold a branch arife, REMARKS. VER. 10. with fragrance fills] Badly tranflated by Dr. Johnson; mulcentefque æthera flores Cæleftes lambunt animæ VER. 13. The heav'ns! from high the dewy nectar pour, And in foft filence fbed the kindly Show'r!] His original fays, " Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the fkies pour down righteoufness: let the earth open, and let them bring forth falvation, and let righteoufnefs fpring up together."-This is a very noble description of divine grace fhed abroad in the hearts of the faithful under the Gofpel difpenfation. And the poet understood all its force, as appears from the two lines preceding thefe,-Th' Ethereal Spirit, &c. The prophet describes this under the image of rain, which chiefly fits the first age of the Gospel: The poet, under the idea of dew, which extends it to every age. And it was his purpose it fhould be fo understood, as appears from his expreffion of foft filence, which agrees with the common, not the extraordinary effufions of the Holy Spirit. The figurative term is wonderfully' happy. He who would moralize the ancient Mythology in the manner of Bacon, would fay, that by the poetical nectar, is meant the grace of the Theologifts. W. This interpretation of the words rain and dew, and of the common and the extraordinary effufions of the Holy Spirit, is to the laft degree forced, and fanciful, and far-fetched. Warburton, it must be confeffed, frequently difgraced his acuteness and great talents, by endeavouring to find out and extort new meanings in the authors whom he undertook to criticife. This interpretation. is near a-kin to that marvellous one which he has given to a fpeech in the second Act of Hamlet, where he contends, that the words, "if the fun breeds maggots in a dead dog, being a God, kiffing carrion," point out the fupreme caufe diffufing its bleffings a Ifai. xi. v. I. b Ch. xlv. v. 8. on The с The fick and weak the healing plant shall aid, All crimes fhall cease, and ancient fraud fhall fail Peace o'er the world her olive wand extend, 15 And white-rob'd Innocence from heav'n defcend. 20 REMARKS. on mankind, who is, as it were, a dead carrion, dead in original fin, man, instead of a proper return of duty, fhould breed only corruption and vices. Are these fort of interpretations a jot lefs ridiculous than that of Father Harduin's on the twentieth ode of the fecond book of Horace, who tells us, this ode is a profopopeia of Chrift triumphing and addreffing the Jews after his refurrection? That biformis vates alludes to his being in formâ dei, and in formâ fervi. That the fecond part of the allegory points to the Dominicans, who should preach and diffuse his gofpel to distant nations; that alitem album, meant their white garments; and refidunt pelles cruribus afpere, their boots. VER. 17. ancient fraud] i. e. the fraud of the ferpent. VER. 2 W. ..23. See Nature] Perhaps the dignity, the energy, and the fimplicity of the original, are in a few paffages weakened and diminished by florid epithets, and ufelefs circumlocutions. See Nature haftes her earliest wreaths to bring, IMITATIONS. VER. 23. See Nature haftes, &c.] Virg. Ecl. iv. v. 18. "At tibi prima, puer, nullo munufcula cultu, Are "For c Ifai. xxv. v. 4. VOL. I. 4 Ch. ix. v. 7. See H с See lofty Lebanon his head advance, See nodding forests on the mountains dance: REMARK S. 25 30 Are lines which have too much prettiness, and too modern an air. The judicious addition of circumstances and adjuncts is what renders poefy a more lively imitation of nature than profe. Pope has been happy in introducing the following circumstance: the prophet fays, "The parched ground fhall become a pool;" our Author expreffes this idea by faying, that the shepherd shall start amid the thirfty wild to hear New falls of water murm'ring in his ear * A ftriking example of a fimilar beauty may be added from Thomfon. Melifander, in the Tragedy of Agamemnon, after telling us he was conveyed in a veffel, at midnight, to the wildeft of the Cyclades, adds, when the pitiless mariners had left him in that dreadful folitude, I never heard "For thee, O Child, fhall the earth, without being tilled, produce her early offerings; winding ivy, mixed with Baccar, and Colocafia with fmiling Acanthus. Thy cradle fhall pour forth pleafing flowers about thee." Ifaiah, Ch. xxxv. v. 1. "The wilderness and the folitary place shall be glad, and the defert fhall rejoice and blossom as the rofe."-Ch. lx. v. 13. "The glory of Lebanon fhall come unto thee, the fir-tree, the pine-tree, and the box together, to beautify the place of thy fanctuary." VER. 29. Hark! a glad voice, etc.] Virg. Ecl. iv. v. 46. "Aggredere ô magnos, aderit jam tempus, honores, P. Ipfi e Ifai. xxxv. v. 2. f Ch. xl. v. 3, 4. * Meff. v. 70. A God, |