It is true that the most usual, and most generally received division, among the Hebrews, and those to whom their traditions extended, was that of seven millenary periods; but it will be seen that this is also in accordance with the computation of the book of Enoch, which consists of ten weeks, as they are called in the translation from the Ethiopic, each consisting of seven hundred years, and thus making up the same sum total as that of the seven millenary periods.

Fabricius observes, that it was the opinion of the learned Vossius, that Juvenal, in the following well known lines, must have referred to the calculation of the Sibylline books.

"Nona ætas agitur, pejoraque sæcula ferri

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Temporibus, quoniam sceleri non invenit ipsa

Nomen, et a nullo posuit natura metallo.”

"The ninth age passes on, a period worse

"Than that of iron; for whose wickedness

"Nature no name hath found, no metal made.”

It is evident that the poet must have meant to represent the tenth, as the final age; and while we are aware of the source from which he might have obtained this computation, it will

* Bib. Græc. i. p. 186.

hardly be imagined that the description can have arisen merely from the fertility of his fancy, in augmenting the five ages mentioned by Hesiod.

The same observation will be still more applicable to the testimony afforded by Virgil on this subject; because it is not only probable that he must himself have had some previous knowledge of the computation which he mentions, but it will also be seen that the whole structure of his eulogium makes it necessary to assume that an allusion has been made to some common and generally received opinion..

Beautifully modulated as the expressive strains of the fourth Eclogue are, they would yet have failed of their effect had they only conveyed to the ear a poet's hope, unsupported by that tradition which prepared his hearers to understand and to appreciate their allusions. Had not the prediction been familiar to all around, his promise that the unborn infant should be the author of some yet unheard of and unexpected state of felicity on earth, would have been as uninteresting, as it must have seemed improbable. But the belief of those to whom the verses were ad

dressed, formed the ground-work of the poet's fiction; and the force of his poetry was effectual, in proportion to the assurance which was impressed upon the mind of every auditor, that the melody of verse was only used to enhance the dignity of an ancient and authentic prediction.

Even if we had not a distinct reference to the Sibylline verses, the "Cumæum carmen,' we could scarcely imagine that the words of Hesiod could have been the source from which the expressions of Virgil were drawn, because the order of the ages in Hesiod is not only reversed by the poet, but he has referred to some future course of ages, about to commence with the arrival of the last age of the Sibyl. The allusion which, as I suppose, is made to the fable of Astrea, in the words "Jam redit et Virgo," seems to be but the ornament given by an imaginative mind, to the detail of the two previous lines, in which the facts predicted are referred

to:

"Ultima Cumæi venit jam carminis ætas ;

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Magnus ab integro sæclorum nascitur ordo."

That the poet must have referred to the tenth,

as being the last age, appears from the computation used in the four first Sibylline books, as well as from the expressions which are there twice repeated, as to the final period.

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Ανθρωποις οσα νυν τε και οπωωσα γινεται αυθις,

“ Εκ πρώτης γενεης αχρις ενδεκατης αφικέσθαι,

“ Ατρεκεως καταλεξαι *.”

"The things which are, and those which yet shall be, "Successive, from the first to th' eleventh age,

At first sight it might indeed appear, as has been observed by Fabricius t, that these lines were inconsistent with the assertion which follows them :

“Αλλα τα μεν δεκατῃ γενεῃ μαλα παντα τελειται.”

"In the tenth age these things shall all conclude."

But if we compare these lines with a passage of the prophecy of Enoch, their apparent inconsistency is explained by the latter.

"And on the seventh day of the tenth week "there shall be an everlasting judgment, which "shall be executed on the Watchers."-" After

"wards there shall be many weeks, which shall

Thus as the tenth week, or age, is said to be concluded by the judgment, this statement agrees with the declaration, that "in the tenth

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age all these things shall be finished;" while, on the other hand, the many weeks which, it is said, shall afterwards exist, may, without any inconsistency, be spoken of as the eleventh age. But as it does not appear in what other manner these two statements can be reconciled, it becomes the more probable, that they may have been compiled from the book, which, when referred to, so simply explains their meaning.

By this reference, the term of magni menses, which otherwise appears so obscure, is found to agree with the declaration, that,

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Magnus ab integro sæclorum nascitur ordo ;"

for as the former expression may probably relate to the " many weeks which should eternally "exist" after the closing of the tenth week; so the latter may be taken to express very correctly the long duration, which should succeed" ab