Which Cowley has thus rendered :

In a full flood stands Tantalus, his kin
Wafh'd o'er in vain, for ever dry within.
He catches at the ftream with greedy lips,
From his touch'd mouth the wanton torrent flips.
You laugh? yet change the name, this fable is thy
ftory,

Thou in a flood of ufelefs wealth doft glory;
Which thou canft only touch, but never tafte,
Th' abundance ftill, and still the want does laft.
Macrobius in Somn. Scip. lib. i.
66
cap. 10. An-
tequam ftudium Philofophiæ circa Naturæ inqui-
fitionem ad tantum vigoris adolefceret, qui per
diverfas gentes auctores conftituendis facris cere-
moniarum fuerunt, aliud effe inferos negaverunt,
quam ipfa corpora, quibus inclufæ animæ carce-
rem fœdum tenebris, horridum fordibus, et cruore
patiuntur: hoc animæ fepulchrum, hoc Ditis con-
cava, hoc inferos vecaverunt, et omnia, quæ illic
effe credidit fabulofa perfuafio, in nobifmetipfis, et
in ipfis humanis corporibus aflignare conati funt.
-Illos aiunt epulis ante ora pofitis excruciari
fame, et inedia tabefcere, quos magis magifque
acquirendi defiderium cogit præfentem copiam
nen videre: qui in affluentiâ inopes, egeftatis ma-
la in ubertate patiuntur; nefcientes parta refpi-
cere, dum egent habendis." But Lucretius repre-
fents the fable of Tantalus otherwife, and inter-
prets it in a different manner, telling us, that
No Tantalus looks up with fearful eye,
Or dreads th' impending rock to crush him from
on high;
[hours;
But fear of chance on earth disturbs our eafy
Or vain imagin'd wrath of yain imagin'd pow'rs.
Dryd.
Where we fee he follows their opinion, who fay,
that a ftone is harging over the head of Tantalus
in hell, the fall of which he perpetually dreads.
Thus too Euripides in Oreftes:
Κορυφῆς ὑπερβάλλοντα δειμαίνων πέτριν
Αερι ποτᾶται, καὶ τίνει ταυτήν δίκην.

Ver. 984 In thefe eleven verfes, he defcribes the punishment, and explains the fable of Tityus, the fon of Jupiter, by Elara, daughter of Orchomenus. He attempted to ravish Latona, the mother of Apollo, who killed him with his arrows, and fent him into hell, where a vulture is continually digging into his liver, and feeding upon it; which, nevertheless, grows as fast as the vulture devours it. He is feigned to have been of fo enormous a fize, that, when he lay down, his body covered no less than nine acres of ground. Thus Ovid. Metam. iv. ver. 457.

Vifcera præbebat Tityus lanianda, novemque
Jugeribus diftentus erat.

And Virgil, Æn. vi. ver. 595.

Nec non et Tityon, Terræ omniparentis Alum

num,

Cernere erat, per tota novem cui jugera corpus Porrigitur; roftroque immanis vultur obnunco Immortale jecur tundens, fœcundaque pænis Vifcera, rimaturque epulis, habitatque fub alto Pectore; nec fibris requies datur ulla renatis.

But Lucretius teaches that this is merely a fable of the poets, and that

No Tityus, torn by vultures, lies in hell;
Nor could the lobes of his rank liver fwell
To that prodigious mafs for their eternal meal;
Not though his monftrous bulk had cover'd o'er
Nine fpreading acres, or nine thousand more;
Not though the globe of earth had been the gi
ant's floor.

Nor in eternal torments could he lie;
Nor could his corps fufficient food fupply;
But he's the Tityus, who by love opprefs'd,
Or tyrant paffion preying on his breast,
And ever anxious thoughts, is robb'd of rest.

Dryd

And this opinion of Lucretius is confirmed by Servius, who, on the above-cited paffage of Vir gil, fays, "Sane de his omnibus rebus mire reddidit Lucretius, et confirmat in noftrá effe vità omnia, quæ finguntur de Inferis. Dicit enim li cundum Phyficos et Medicos, in jecore eft, ut Rityum amorem effe, hoc eft Libidinem, quæ, fefus in Splene, Iracundia in Felle," &c. And Ma crobius is of the fame opinion, when he fays, "Vulturem jecur immortale tundentem nihil aliud intelligi voluerunt (veteres) quam tormenta confcientiæ, obnoxia flagitio, vifcera interiora rimantis, et ipfa vitalia indest ssa admiffi fceleris admonitione laniantis, femperque curas, fi forte requiefcere tentaverint, excitantis, tanquam fibris renafcentibus inhærendo, nec ulla fibi miferatione parcentes; lege hâc, qua fe judice nemo nocens abfolvitur, nec de fe fuam poteft vitare fenten tiam." In Somn. Scip. lib. i. cap. 10. this agrees the epigram in Petronius: Qui vultur jecur ultimum pererrat, Et pectus trahit, intimafque fibras, Non eft quem timidi vocant Poetæ, Sed cordis mala, livor atque luxus. Prometheus too is faid by fome to fuffer the like punishment.

And with

Ver. 995. In thefe ten verfes, he explains the fable of Sifyphus, the fon of Eolus, who, for infefting Attica with his robberies, was flain by Thefeus, king of the Athenians; in whofe honour the Greeks feigned that Sifyphus was condemned in hell to roll a ftone to the top of a mountain, which, when with great labour he had forced it up. tumbled down again, fo that he was always to begin his task anew. But Lucretius fays, The Sifyphus is he, whom noife and ftrife Seduce from all the foft retreats of life;

Recoils, and rolls impetuous down, and smokes along the plain. Dryd. And Macrobius, in the place laft cited, agrees with Lucretius in this opinion, and fays, "Saxum ingens volvere inefficacibus laboriofifque conatibus, vitam terentes, atram filicem lapfuram femper et cadenti fimilem, illorum capitibus imminere, qui arduas poteflates, et infauftam ambiunt Tyrannidem, nunquam fine timore victuri, et cogentes fubjectum vulgus odiffe, dum metuat, femper fibi videntur exitium, quod merentur excipere.'

Ver. 1005. In thefe ten verses the poet explains the fable of the Fifty Daughters of Danaus king of the Argives, who were married to the fifty fons of their father's brother Ægyfthus; and who, all of them, except Clytemnestra, killed their husbands in one night. Of them the poets fabled that they were doomed in hell to fill a leaky veffel with water. See Macrobius in Somn. Scip. lib. i. cap. 10. and Horat. Od. 2. lib. iii. But Lucretius interprets it of the luxurious, who are never filed or fatisfied with the bleffings of this life; and fays,

Then fill to treat thy ever-craving mind
With ev'ry bleffing, and of ev'ry kind,
Yet never fill thy rav'ning appetite,
Though years and feafons vary the delight;
Yet nothing to be feen of all the ftore;

But till the wolf within thee barks for møre..
This is the fable's moral, which they tell,
Of fifty foolish virgins damn'd in hell
To leaky vellels which the liquor fpill,

To vellels of their fex which none could ever fill.

Dryd.

Ver. 1015. In thefe twelve verfes, he teaches, that there are no fuch things as the Furies, Cerberus, nor any of thofe punishments with which the guilty are faid to be tortured in hell; and, indeed, having taught that fouls are mortal, it of neceffity follows, that there are no punishments after death. He therefore interprets all thofe things to be meant only of this life; and fays that,

As for the dog, the furies, and their fnakes,
The gloomy caverns and the burning lakes,
And all the vain infernal trumpery,
They neither are, nor were, nor e'er can be.
But here on earth the guilty have in view,
The mighty pains to mighty mifchiefs due:
Racks, prifons, poifons, the Tarpeian rock,
Stripes, hangmen, pitch, and fuffocating smoke;
And last, and most, if these were caft behind,
Th' avenging horror of a confcious mind,

Whofe deadly fear anticipates the blow,
And fees no end of punishment and woe,
But looks for more at the laft gasp of breath:
This makes a hell on earth, and life a death.

Dryd.

To this purpose, Cicero in his oration for Rofcius Amerinus, fays admirably well. "Nolite putare, quemadmodum in Fabulis, eos, qui aliquid impiè fceleratèque commiferunt, agitari et perterreri Furiarum tedis ardentibus: fua quamque fraus, fuos terror maxime vexat, fuum quemque fcelus agitat, amentiaque afficit, fuæ malæ cogitationes confcientiaque animi terrent. Hæ funt impiis affiduæ domefticæque Furiæ, quæ dies noctesque parentum pænas à confceleratiflimis filiis repetunt." Do not fancy what the fables fay, that men who have committed any impious or wicked action, are haunted and terrified with the flaming torches of the furies. Every man's own offences, his own terror chiefly disturb him; every man's own wickedness haunts and makes him mad; his own cruel thoughts, and the confcioufnefs of his own guilt terrify him. These are to the impious thofe affiduous and domeftic furies, who day and night require and avenge the punishments of the parents, of their moft flagitious fons. And Lactantius fays, there are three paffions that drive men headlong into all manner of wickedness: anger, covetousness, and luft. Therefore, the poets faid there are three furies that torment the minds of men. Anger feeks for revenge; covetoufnels for riches and luft for fenfual delights. "Tres funt Affectus, qui homines in omnia facinora præcipites agunt Propterea Poetæ tres Furias effe dixerunt, quæ mentes hominum exagitant: ira ultionem defiderat, cupiditas opes, libido voluptates." De vero Cultu, cap. 19.

Ibid. The Furies] They were three in number; the daughters of the river Acheron, and of night. The poets feigned them to have fnakes inftead of hair, and to be the inflictors of the torments in hell; and alfo, that they always bore flaming torches and whips in their hands. Virgil, Æneid. vi. v. 576.

Continuo fontes ultrix accina flagello
Tifiphone quatit infultans, torvofque finistrå
Intentans angues, vocat agmina fæva fororum.
And ver. 605.

-Furiarum maxima juxta
Accubat-

Exurgitque facem attollens, atque intonat ore.
Straight o'er the guilty ghosts the fury flakes
The founding whip, and brandishes her fnakes;
And the pale finner with her fifters takes.
The queen of furies by their fides is fet:
-Her hifing fnakes fhe rears,
Tolling her torch, and thund'ring in their ears.
Dryd

Ibid. Cerberus] He is feigned by the poets to be a dog with three heads, that guards the gates of hell. Apollodorus defcribes him with three heads, à dragon's tail, and his back ftuck thick with ferGg iiij

he,

Which Dryden, who keeps more clofe, in this place, to the original, renders the Tarpeian rock, which was a precipice, from whence such as were guilty of treafon against the ftare were thrown down. It was called Mons Tarpeius, from Tarpcia, a veftai virgin, who was buried there. This was who agreed with the Salines to betray the ca pitol to them, provided they would give her what they wore on their left arms; which they promifed to do; he meant their bracelets: but they had no fooner entered the capitol by her means, than they fell to throwing their targets upon her, which instantly preffed and mothered her to death. Horace, lib. i. fat. 6. mentions this punishment:

Audes

Dejicere è faxo cives; aut tradere Cadmo?

Ver. 1021. Dryden, in the tragedy of Aurenge. zebe, has an excellent defcription of the tormenting terrors of a guilty mind; and which agrees very well with this paffage of our author:

Severe decrees may keep our tongues in awe :
But to our thoughts what edict can give law?
Ev'n you yourself to your own breaft fhail tell
Your crimes, and your own confcience be your
hell:

Amidst your train this unfeen judge will wait;
Examine how you came by all your flate;
Upbraid your inpious pomp: and in your ear
Will hollow rebel! traitor ! murderer!

Your ill-got pow'r, wan looks, and cares fhall bring;

Known but by difcontent to be a king:
Of crowds afraid, yet anxious when alone,
You'll fit, and brood your forrows on a throne.
And Lee, in Mithridates, fays finely:

My ugly guilt flies in my confcious face:
And I am vanquifh'd, flain with bofom war.

Ver. 1027. In thefe thirty-two veríes, the poet rebukes that worthlefs race of men, who feem to think themselves born for no other purpose, than to indulge themselves in eafe and pleasure, and to waste their days in idleness: For why should fuch men, who are altogether ufelefs in their generations, repine at their being fubject to the fame laws and neceflity of fate, to which the moft po. tent emperors, legiflators, founders of cities, the greateft wits, and the moft illuftrious in arts and fciences, have in all times been fubject, and forced to fubmit. Certainly their condition ought to be worfe, and yet they complain of its being equal. Ancus, fays he, Xerxes, and Scipio, died long ago. All the poets, and even Homer, the prince and father of them all; Democritus, nay, Epicurus himself, the beft of all philofophers, is dead: Therefore.

When thoughts of death disturb thy head,
Confider, Ancus, great and good, is dead:
Ancus, thy better far, was born to die:
And thou, do'st thou bewail mortality?

Dryd

Be gone then, whofoever thou be, and learn net to deplore the inevitablenets of that deftiny, which fuch, and fo great men, especially Democritus, and Epicurus, have willingly, nay, joyfully under

gone.

king of the Romans, and grandíon of Numa by a daughter. Of him Livy. "Avitæ gloriæ me mor: medium erat in eo ingenium, et Numa et Romuli memor, cuilibet fuperiorum regum belli pacifque et artibus et gloria par." He was emulous of the glory of his progenitors, and feemed to have inherited a mixed temper of mind, be tween that of Numa and of Romulus: He was equal to any of his predeceffor kings in the glory and art both of war and peace. Virgil has bet omitted to make Anchifes how him to Encas mong the race of his fucceffors:

Ver. 1028. Ancus Martius: He was the fourth

Quem juxta fequitur jactantior Ancus, Nunc quoque jana nimium gaudens popularibus En. vi. ver. 815.

auris.

For he obtained the kingdom by the favour and voice of the people, as well as of the fenators.

Ver. 129. Lucretius took this thought from Homer, who fays,

Κάτθανε καὶ Πάτροκλος, ὅπερ σέο πόλλον ἀμείνων.

Ver. 1032. In thefe four verfes he speaks of Xerxes, the king of the Perfians, who, by laying a bridge over the Hellefpont, and digging a channe round the mountain Athos, walked over the fea, and failed upon land, as Herodotus in Polyhymn. fays of him. Confider, fays Lucretius,

How many monarchs, with their mighty flate,
Who rul'd the world, were over-rul`d by fate?

That haughty king, who lorded o'er the main, And whofe ftupendous bridge did the wild waves restrain,

In vain they foam'd, in vain they threaten'd wreck,
Whne his proud legions march'd upon their back;
Him death, a greater monarch, overcame,
Nor fpar'd his guards the more for their immortal

name.

Dryd

Ver. 1033. "E: contempfit, aquis infultans, marmura ponti," fays Lucretius, alluding, in all appearance, to what the fame Herodotus fays of him: That hearing that his bridge over the Hellepont was broken to pieces by a form, he commanded three hundred ftripes to be given to the waves, and the fea to be lafhed, and bound in chains; and that fome of thofe who were ordered to execute this fentence, feverely chid and reproached the infolent fea in thele words: "O thou falt and bitter water; thy lord fends thee this greeting, and inflicts this punishment on thee, becaufe thou haft bafely done an injury to him, who never gave thee any provocation. But know, that the great king Xerxes will walk over thee, in fpite of all thou canst do to hinder him. with good reafon that no man facrifices to thee, tuce thou art at beft but a bitter and deceitful ftream." Manilius, lib. i. ver. 773.

Perfidis et victor ftrârat qui claffibus æquor.

Which Creech has thus paraphrafed;

It is

With Xerxes fleet, and check'd the growing god: Who broke his force, when Neptune bore the chain,

And prov'd his jufter title o'er the main.

Ver. 1036. Scipio] He fpeaks of P. Cornelius Scipio Africanus Major, who in the year U. C. 543,

When he was but 24 years of age, was, preferaby to others, fent into Spain, from whence he drove the Carthaginians. In the year 549, he Was made contul, and the year following fent proConful into Africa; where having overcome the Carthaginians, he obliged Hannibal to return out of Italy to the defence of his own country; having fubdued Carthage, he impofed a tribute on the Carthaginians, and made them give him hoftages; for which he was furnamed Africanus: He was allowed a triumph at the end of the fecond Punic war, in the year 553. Then he was made cenfor in the year 555, and again conful in the year $60. He was thrice chofen prince, or prefident of the fenate. He went legate, or licutenant-general, in the expedition against Antiochus king of Syria, which was commanded in chief by his brother Lucius, who, for the victory he obtained over that king, was furnamed Afiaticus. Our Scipio, being returned to Rome, was accufed by the tribunes of the people, of having taken money of Antiochus to procure him a peace; and thinking it unworthy of a man like himfelf to be prefent, and plead in his own defence, he went to

The other was the fon of Emilius Paulus Macedonicus, who was adopted into the Cornelian fa→ mily by the fon of Scipio Africanus Major, and called Publius Cornelius Scipio Emilianus: He took and utterly deftroyed Carthage, in the third and iaft Punic war, and reduced Africa into the form of a Roman province; for which he triumphed and gained the furname of Africanus Minor. This last famed for his juftice, as well as for his great knowledge in the art of war, whence the proverb, "Scipione juftior et militarior:" which we find in Tertullian's Apologet. chap. 2. Lucius Florus, fpeaking of them fays, "Fatale Africæ nomen Scipionum videbatur." See more of them in Livy, Velleius Paterculus, Orofius, Appian. de Bello Civil. Lucius Florus, Aurelius Victor, et Eutropies.

Ver. 1c40. Homer] Thus too Manilius, in the

beginning of his fecond book, is lavish in the praife

of Homer, and having mentioned the chief arguments of his poems, he concludes with a high character, and ftyles him, "The Fountain of all Poetry :"

-Cujus ex ore profufos

Omnis pofteritas latices in carmina duxit,
Amnemque in tenueis aufa eft deducere rivos,
Unius fœcunda bonis.-

Which Creech thus renders:

-From whofe abundant fpring, Succeeding posts draw the fongs they fing. From him they take, from him adorn their themes; And into little channels cut his ftreams: Rich in his ftore

Ovid. Amor. lib. iii. eleg. 8, to the fame purpose,

Vatum Pieriis ora rigantur aquis. -à quo, ceu fonte perenni,

And Longinus, de Sublim. fect. 13. fays, that ne only Sterfichorus and Archilochus, but Herodotus the historian, and Plate the philofopher, owe their

chief beauties to Homer. Lucretius therefore with good reafon, fpeaking of the inventors of arts and sciences, fays;

-Quorum avus Homerus

Sceptra potitus eadem fopitu' quiete 'ft.

Upon which our tranflator expatiates; and this thought, "What Troy," &c. is taken from Waller. Dryden keeps closer to the original, and renders this paffage thus:

The founders of invented arts are loft;
And wits, who made eternity their boast:
Where now is Homer who poffeis'd the throne?
Th' immortal work remains, the mortal author's
gone.

Ver. 1044. Democritus] Of whom fays Lucretius, "Sponte fua letho caput obtulit obvius ipfe." Which Hermippus in Laertius explains. When Democritus was worn out with age, and feemed to be near his death, his fifter was one day complaining to him, that if he should chance to die TT popogíav iog (feftivals in honour of Ceres), the should not be able to perform her vows to that goddefs: but he bid her take heart, and bring him every day fome warm loaves of bread: by fmelling to which he kept himself alive till that folemnity was at end: Now it lafted three days, and when they were past aλorórala rov Bior gońza. Diog. Laert. lib. ix. in Vit. Democ. And thus, to use the words of Dryden,

Democritus, perceiving age invade,

His body weaken'd, and his mind decay'd,
Obey'd the fummons with a cheerful face;

there, and ftraight return to town; they wish for things, which, when obtained, they lothe. Men in all conditions are oppreffed with a load of cares and anxieties of mind, because, wherever they go, they carry with them the fear of death, and all the uneafy wishes and defires that spring from it; but would they govern themfelves by the precepts of true philofophy, that is to fay, by the wife doctrine of Epicurus, they would learn that the foul is mortal, and every man would lay down the load that he feels fo heavy.

Oh if the foolish race of man, who find
A weight of cares ftill preffing on their mind,
Could find as well the caufe of this unreft,
And all this burden lodg'd within their breast,
Sure they would change their course, not live as

now,

Uncertain what to wish, or what to vow:
Uneafy both in country and in town,
One, reftlefs in his palace, walks abroad,
They fearch a place to lay their burden down:
And vainly thinks to leave behind the load;
But ftraight returns; for he's as restless there,
And finds there's no relief in open air :
Another to his villa would retire,
And fpurs as hard as if it were on fire;
No fooner enter'd at his country door,
But he begins to ftretch, and yawn, and snore;
Or feeks the city which he left before.
Thus, ev'ry man o'erworks his weary will
To fhun himself, and to shake off his ill,
The shaking fit returns, and hangs upon him

ftill:

the race.

Of Democritus, fee more, ver. 356 of this book; and ver. 335 of book iv.

Ver. 1048. Epicurus] Of whom see book i. ver. 88, and the beginning of this book. Our poet here praifes him, as far excelling all the other wife: and yet, fays he, even he was forced to fubmit to death:

That ftroke, ev'n Epicurus could not bar,
Though he in wit surpass'd mankind, as far
As does the mid-day fun the midnight ftar.
Then thou, dost thou disdain to yield thy breath,
Whofe very life is little more than death?
More than one half by lazy fleep poffeft;
And, when awake, thy foul but nods at best,
Day-dreams and fickly thoughts revolving in
thy breaft.

Eternal troubles haunt thy anxious mind,
Whose cause and cure thou never hop'ft to find:
But ftill uncertain, with thyself at ftrife,
Thou wander'ft in the labyrinth of life.

Which known, would all his fruitlefs troubles

Why are we then so fond of mortal life,
Befet with dangers, and maintain'd with ftrife?
A life, which all our care can never fave,
One fate attends us, and one common grave.
Befïdes, we tread but a perpetual round, 7
We ne'er ftrike out, but beat the former ground,
And the fame maukifh joys in the fame track)
are found.

For fill we think an abfent blessing befl,
Which cloys, and is no blefling when poffeft;
A new-arifing with expells it from the breaft,