} This when unhappy mortals chanc'd to spy, Whilft cruelty was not improv'd by art, And rage not furnish'd yet with fword nor dart; With fills, or boughs, or ftones, the warriors fought; Thefe were the only weapons nature taught: But when flames burnt the trees, and fcorch'd the ground, 1370 Then brafs appear'd, and iron fit to wound. Their weapons brafs, and brafs gave ev'ry wound: Thus arm'd, they frait invade their neighbours field, And take his beafts: to arm'd the naked yield: Thus men first learn'd to ride a fingle horse: And whilst their steady left hands rul'd the courfe, 1380 Their ftronger right hands fought before they knew Or brought to wars, a chariot drawn by wo; vain: Because when hot in fight they fiercely fall For they obferv'd that falling feeds did grow; They faw them fix'd, and bound to fleady roots, Then rife, and fpread, and promise noble fruits: Then fome began to graft; and till the field, And found the trees a better burden yield, When drefs'd with care, and in a richer foil; The fruits increas'd, and did reward their toil: They forc'd the cumb'ring wood to narrow bounds, Enlarging fill their corn, and pafture grounds: The tyrant wood, that all the plains did fill, Was now confin'd unto the barren hill : 1450 T And left the vales to olive, corn, and vine, Through which fmooth ftreams in fair meanders twine; Now kifs the tender roots with wanton play, Through all the woods they heard the charm- Of chirping birds; and try'd to frame their voice, And thus the pipe was fram'd, and tuneful reed; And fweetest rofes grow around their head; And with uneven steps they danc'd around; new: And thus they pass'd the day in gay delight; eye. Thefe now our wantons ufe; with toil and pain, 1490 They learn to dance in méafure: all in vain : The later good our various thoughts employs; And we contemn the guft of former joys. Thus man defpis'd their ancient eafy food, Their acorns, and their apples of the wood: When clothes were found, and other cov'rings fpread, 1500 They fcorn'd their skins of beafts, and graffy Not long enjoy'd, but by a treach'rous wound 1530 Then letters found; and the poetic rage And towns, the comforts and fupport of man; For farther fearch, and leads to height or art. NOTES ON BOOK V. LUCRETIUS begins this book with the praife of Epicurus, an not only makes him equal to th gods, but even roclaims him a god; lecaufe, fays he, his divine difcoveries have been more beneficial to mankind than the inventions of Ceres, or of Bacchus, or than the many glorious M m iiij exploits of Hercules: fince men might have lived happily enough without them. But true wifdom, which Epicurus firft difcovered and taught, is of the greatest utility to mankind, because it chases away all uneafinefs from the mind, and inftructs us aright in the nature of all things, and concerning the immortal gods. Ver. 15 Lactantius, lib iii. cap. 14. " de falfâ fapientiâ:" and many others, pretend from this expreflion of Lucretius, that he did not mean Epicurus, but one of the more ancient philofophers, as Pythagoras, or Socrates, or Thales, or fome other of the feven fages: But they are evidently mistaken, as appears by verfe fixty of this book, where he says, Cujus ego ingreffus veftigia His fteps I trace▬▬▬▬ And Cicero certainly had his thoughts on this paffage, when in fufcul. 4. he fays: Qua quidem cogitans foleo fæpe mirari nonnullorum infolentium philofophorum, qui Naturæ cogni. tionem admirantur, ejufque inventori et principi gratias exultantes agunt, eumque venerantur ut Deum iiberatos enim fe per eos dicunt graviffim's Dominis." When I reflect on thefe things, I often wonder at the infolence of fome philofoppers who admire the knowledge of nature, and give thanks with transport of mind to the inventor and first author of natural philofophy; owning that he has delivered them from most tyrar nous lords. Thus our grateful poet confeffts to whom he owes his knowledge in the Nature of Things: And indeed, if Epicurus did deliver the minds of men from cares, and fears, and fuperftition, he justly deferved to be revered preferably to any of the heathen gods. The words of this paffage run thus in the original, Qui primus vitæ rationem invenit eam, quæ For wisdom was the name which the Epicureans, who were a fort of men not burdened with too much modefty, gave only to their own philofophy. Horat. lib. i. Od. 33. Parcus Deorum cultor, et infrequens But the other philofophers were content to call their doctrine by the name of the love of wifdom: for fo the word philofophy fignifics. Ver. 15. The fon of Jupiter and Semele: He is faid to have been the drit that planted vines, and made wine of the grapes: For which reafon the poets made him the god of wine: He travelled over the whole earth, conquered the Indies, and was the first who triumphed, which he did, riding upon an elephant. The chief badges and erablems of his power were tygers and the thyr fus: The tygers were harnafled to his car; and thus be was wont to be carried about. Virg. Andid. vi. v. 804. Nec qui pampineis victor juga flectit habenis, Liber, agens cello Nifæ de vertici tigres. Nor Bacchus, turning from his Indian war, Betygers drawn, triumphant in his car, From Nita's top defcending to the plains, With curling vines around his purple reins. The thyrfus, was a fpear or javelin, wrapped about with vine branches and ivy; whofe point ended in the thape of a cone: Bacchus, and the mad drunken women, his companions, who were called Bacchæ, always carried a thyrfus in their hands: Moreover, Lucretius in this place, calls Bacchus by the name of Liber: Namque Ceres fertur fruges, Liberque liquoris Vitigeni laticem mortalibus inftituiffe. Virg. Georg. i. v. 5. -Vos, O clariffima mundi Upon which the interpreters fay, that the poet " à cre liberty the country of Boeotia, where he was Curas, et arcanum jocofo Regum apices, neque militum arma. Of Bacchus fee more, Book ii. v. 616. and Book iv. v. 1165. Ver. 16. Ceres.] She was daughter of Saturn and Ops, and mother of Proferpine. She was believed to be the first that fowed corn, and found out the art of ufing it. Virgil, Georgic i, v. 147. Prima Ceres ferro mortales vertere terram For which reafon they made her the goddess of corn; and hence too, as Varro, Cicero, and Arnobius, witnefs, fhe was called Ceres, as it were Geres, because, to ufe the very words of Arnobius, lib. iii." Salutarium feminum fruges gerat." See more, Book II. v. 616. and Book IV. v. 1165. Ver. 18. Diodorus Siculus, Book Ill., fays, That the inhabitants on the coaft of the Gulf of Arabia, and of the countries of Troglodytia and South Ethiopia, know not the ufe of corn or wine; but that fome of them live upon fish and fnails, others upon roots, others upon the leaves, feeds, and fruits of trees, and others upon locufts. Mela witneffes, that the Troglodytes live in dens, and feed upon ferpents: fome of which, fays Pli. ny, Nat. Hift. lib. xxxi. cap. 2. are twenty cubits in length. And Faber, in his note on this paffage of our author, fays, that fcarce the fixth part of mankind do yet know what wheat is. Therefore we may well, fays Lucretius, live without corn and wine, but not without wifdom: "Sapientia enim," fays Cicero, lib. i. de Fin., " eft una quæ mæftitiam pellat ex animis, quæ nos exborrefcere metu non finat, quâ præceptrici in tranquillitate vivi poteft, omnium cupiditatum ardore reftincto:" For wifdom only it is that drives away forrow and uneasiness from the mind, that fuffers us not to ftand aghaft with fear; and by whofe advice we may extinguish the flame of all inordinate defires, and lives in tranquillity, and exempt from all manner of paffion, Ver. 19. Lucretius: At bene non poterat fine puro pectore vivi. Where by puro pectore the poet means a mind undisturbed by ignorance, and not obnoxious to errors; a heart fincere, and free from all anxiety: for, as Horace fays, their minds, from all vain anxieties, and restless defires: He chafed from our fouls the terrors at which we were ftartled and ftood aghaft, and diffipared the darkness of errors which clouded the happiness of life. Ver. 25 Hercules: he was called Alcides from his grandfather Alcæus, who was father of Amphitryo of Thebes: For Hercules was the fon of Now, before either Hercules or Euryftheus, king Jupiter, by Alcmena the wife of Amphitryo. of Mycenae, were born, Juno, who knew that the fates had decreed, that whether of them came into the world laft, fhould ferve the other, contrived the matter fo, that Hercules was born af.ter Eurytheus, who, at her inftigation, commanded Hercules to go upon many dangerous exploits; but he proved fuccefsful in all of them, therefore was called Hercules, from "Haz, Juno, his renown, though fore against her will. · Virand asos, glory, becaufe the was the caufe of all gil. Æn. 8. v. 291. -ut duros mille labores Rege fub Euryftheo, fatis Junonis iniquæ Pertulerit. Ver. 26. That is the Nemean lion. "Nemæus magnus hiatus leonis," fays Lucretius. This is the fifth of the labours of Hercules, according to the order in which the chief of them, which are thirty-four in number, are enumerated. Now there haunted in the Nemean wood, near Cicone, a city of Achaia, in the country of Peloponnefus, a vaft and terrible lion, that did a world of mifchief: Hercules not being able to kill him, either with his club or with his darts, laid hold of him, and tore him to pieces with his nails; then took his fkin, which neither ftone nor iron could penetrate, and wore it on his fhoulders, as a badge of honour. Diod. Sicul. lib. iii. Plaut in Perf. Virg. En. 8. This gave occafion to the inftitution of the Nemean games, which were celebrated every third year, in honour of Hercules. But fome, Sincerum eft nifi vas, quod cunque infundis, particularly Statius, will have this folemnity to acefcit. In like manner, without fincerity of heart and purity of mind, it is impoffible to lead a happy life, or to país our days in tranquillity: And Cicero teaches us, that the only way to acquire this purity of mind is by the help of wildom, which, by delivering us from all terrors and defires, and from the temerity of all falle' opinions, is the fureft guide to pleasure. "Mentem autem puram ut habcas, adhibenda eft fapientia, quæ, et terroribus cupiditatibufque detractis, et omnium faifarum opinionum temeritate direptâ, certiffimam fe nobis duceni præbeat ad voluptatem," I. de Fin. Ver. 24. In these twenty-four verses the poet enumerates fome of the labours of Hercules, which, he tells us, fall as far fhort of the difcoveries of wisdom, made by Epicurus, as the foul is more excellent than the body: For Hercules did indeed deliver men from monsters, that were deftructive to the body; but Epicurus, who first inftructed men in the art of wifdom, delivered have been first inftituted to celebrate the funeral of Opheltes, fon of Lycurgus, and who was killed by an adder. Ver. 27. This was his feventh labour; for Lucretius does not obferve the order, and mentions only the chief of them. He fpeaks here of the dreadful boar that haunted upon the mountain Erymanthus in Arcadia, and laid wafte all the country round. Hercules took him, and carried him to Eurytheus, king of Mycene. Ver. 28. This was his ninth labour. A buil that infefted the country about Crete: Hercules brought him alive likewife to Euryftheus. Some fay this bull was fent into Crete by Neptune, whom Minos, king of Crete, had offended: others, that it was the same bull which brought Europa, the mother of Minos, into Crete; and others, that it was the bull, for love of which, Pafiphae, the wife of Minos, run mad. Ibid. This was his third labour. It was a ferpent that lived both upon land and in the water, and was called Hydra, from idag, water. It kept for the most part in the lake Lerna, between My- and others an hundred; and no fooner was one of Ver. 30. This was the fixteenth labour of Hercules. Geryon was a king of Spain, faid to have three bodies, either because he governed three iflands of Spain, the Greater and Leffer Baleares, how called Majorca and Minorca. and Ebufus, now Ivica: or because he and his two brothers, who were united in the stricteft ties of friendship, were all flain by Hercules, who took away their herds of cattle, and brought them into Italy. Paufan. lib. i. and Diodor. lib. 4. Virg. Æn. 8. ver. 201. Nam maximus ultor, Tergemini nece Geryonis, fpoliifque fuperbus, Ver. 31. This was the fixth labour. Diomedes was a king of Thrace, who, to make his horfes the more fierce and wild, fed them, as the abovecited Diodorus fays, not with cats and barley, but with human flesh. Hercules took him, and gave him to his own horfes to eat. to others, in an ifland. Others place these garden -Whofe fruit, burnish'd with golden rind, Ver. 38. The west of Mauritania, which is a Ver. 32. This was the eighth labour. These birds were called Stymphalides, from Stymphalus, the name of a town, mountain, and lake, in Arcadia, where thefe birds haunted: they were of the fize of cranes; in fhape, like the bird called Ibis, which we generally interpret a fnipe; and had beaks fo hard, that they would enter into iron: Thefe Hercules killed with his darts, as Paufanias and Catullus teftify; but Diodorus Si-petus, and king of Mauritania, being admon culus, lib. 4. fays, he frighted them out of the country with a great brafs rattle. Ver. 34. The fourteenth labour. Hesperus, the brother of Atlas, had three daughters, Ægle, Arethufa, and Hefperethufa, who are faid to have had gardens planted with trees that bore golden fruit. Thefe gardens were guarded by a vigilant dragon, whom Hercules flew by the command of Euryftheus, and took away the apples. Befides the dragon, Virgil adds a prieftefs, and a temple, perhaps of Venus, to whom the apples were confeciated. Hinc mihi Maffyla gentis monflrata Sacerdos, Hefperidum templi cuftos, epulafque draconi Qua dabat, et facros fervabat in arbore ramos. Eneid. iv. ver. 483 And the fame poet, according to the common opinion, defcribes the fituation of the gardens to be in the Mauritania Tingitana, now the kingdoms of Fez and Morocco, about the town of Lixa, in the extremeft western part of Africa: According to fome, they were in the continent; according 2 by Themis, that he was in danger of being k Atlantis duri, cœlum qui vertice fulcit |