Where he feems to deny not only centaurs, but alfo all manner of monfters. Yet Empedocles held that there were fuch creatures as centaurs; and Claudius Cæfar likewife, witnefs Pliny, who writes, "Hippocentaurum in Theffaliâ natum eodem die interiiffe; et nos principatu ejus allatum illi ex Ægypto in melle vidimus." A Hippocentaur was born in Theffalia, and died the fame day: and I myself faw it, when by his command it was brought to him in honey out of Egypt. Voluterranus fays, that he had seen a half dog: and others other monsters, of which Lycofthenes has made a collection in his book de Prodig. & Oftent. Sometimes women have brought forth frogs, ferpents, ftones, and the like, that had been generated in their womb. Such productions are indeed preternatural, and the effects of disease; but not therefore to be deemed impoffible, or reckoned among the number of things that cannot be. Whether the forming faculty fubmits and gives way to the mother's imagination, is not our bufinefs in this place to inquire, no more than it is to decide this question: whether from the execrable and unnatural copulation of a man with a brute beaft, an animal of a mixed and dubious nature may not be generated. Herodotus writes, that in his days a certain woman used publicly to couple with a goat: And Pliny, lib. 7. cap. 3. witneffes, that Alcippe brought forth an elephant: and that another, in the beginning of the Marsian war, was delivered of a ferpent. And the fame author in the place abovecited, mentions feveral

other monftrous births.

Ver. 935. The Schoolmen call centaurs, and the like imaginary creatures, entia rationis; but they are rather entia imaginationis: fantastic creatures, that have no exiftence but in the imagination.

Ver. 946. Scyllas.] There were two of this name; one the daughter of Nifus, the other of Glaucus, fays Faber, and Creech after him, but they feem to be both mistaken, for fhe was daughter of Phorcus, with whom Glaucus was in love. The Scylla of Nifus is said to have been changed into the monster of that name, whom we have defcribed, book. i. ver. 740. and book iv. ver. 733But Ovid Metam. lib. 8. ver. 148. fays the was changed into a bird.

At aura cadentem

Suftinuiffe levis, ne tangeret æquora,
vifa eft:
Pluma fuit: plumis in avem mutata vocatur
Ciris, et à tonfo eft hoc nomen adepta capillo.
Milton in the second book of Paradife Loft, de-
fcribing Sin, whom he makes the porterefs of
hell-gate, had certainly an eye on this fabulous
monster his words are these :

She feem'd a woman to the waist, and fair,
But ended foul in many a fcaly fold,
Voluminous and vaft; a ferpent arm'd
With mortal fting: about her middle round
A cry of hell-hounds never ceafing bark'd
With wide Cerberian mouths full loud, and rung
A hideous peal: yet, when they lift, would creep
If ought difturbed their noife, into her womb,

And kennel there; yet there fill bark'd, and howl'd,

Within unseen: Far lefs abhorr'd than her,
Vex'd Scylla, bathing in the fea, that parts
Calabria from: the hoarfe Trinacrian fhore, &c.

Ver. 955. In like manner the poet, book iv. ver. 646 fpeaking of the plant which he there calls veratrum, and which our tranflator there calls hemlock, as he does here the plant which his author calls cicuta,

Thus hemlock-juice prevails,

And kills a man, but fattens goats and quails.
See the note on that paffage.

Ver. 958. Chimeras.] This ignivomous monster, that had the head of a lion, the breaft of a goat, and the tail of a ferpent, the poet himself fufficiently explains: and no doubt he took the defcription from Homer,

Πρόσθε λεὼν, καὶ ὄπισθε δράκων.

See more in the note on ver. 660. book ii. To which I here add, that Bellerophontus, the fon of Glaucus, king of Epire, is therefore faid to have killed this monfter, riding on the fea-horfe Pegafus, whom Neptune had lent him, because he ren

dered habitable a mountain of the fame name in

Lycia; whofe top, which was wont to throw out flames, was full of lions, the foot of it ftored with ferpents, and the fide of it proper for the pastarage of goats. Crefias in Pliny fays, that the fire of that mountain kindles with water, and is extinguished with earth, or with hay.

Ver. 968. Lucretius, book i. v. 239. has taught, why Nature could not at the beginning create men of so vast a fize,

That while they wade through feas, and swelling tides,

Th' afpiring waves fhould hardly touch their fides:

Why not fo ftrong, that they with eale might tear The hardest rocks, and throw them through the air?

But becaufe things on certain feeds depend
For their beginning, &c.

Ver. 979. Here the poet defcribes at large the state of man, in the beginning of the world, their manners and way of life: And first in twenty-three verfes he teaches, that the first men were stronger in body than men now are, by reafon of the innate hardness they had inherited and contracted from their ftubborn mother the earth: whence they were lefs fubject to difeafes, and much longer lived; but no man tilled the ground, for all appeafed their hunger with acorns, wildings, and other fruits like thofe. Next he tells us in four verses, that the fprings and rivets invited them by their murmurs to come and quench their thirst: Then in eleven verses, that they had no clothes, nor houses, but that fhrubs, and woods, and caves fheltered them from forms and cold: And in ten verfes, that they had no laws, no focieties; but lived by fpoil and rapine: making ufe of the women in

common, whom they either forced to fubmit to their defires by ftrength and violence, or gained their confent by flattery and prefents, fuch as acorns, pears, and apples.

Lucretius does no where fay, that the firfl men owed their origin to ftones; and our tranflator feems rather to allude to the fabulous reparation of mankind after the deluge, from the ftones, which, by command of Themis, Deucalion and Pyrrha threw behind them: Of which Ovid, Metam. lib. i. ver. 435.

Inde genus durum fumus, experienfque laborum, Et documenta damus, quâ fimus origine nati.

Ver. 991. This paffage of our author, Ovid feems to imitate in his defcription of the Golden Age:

Ipfa quoque immunis, raftroque intacta, nec ullis
Saucia vomeribus, per fe dabat omnia tellus :
Contentique cibis, nullo cogente creatis,
Arbuteos fœtus, montanaque fraga legebant
Cornaque, & in duris hærentia mora rubetis:
Et quæ deciderant patulâ Jovis arbore glandes.
The teeming carth, yet guiltless of the plough,
And unprovok'd did fruitful ftores allow :
Content with food, which Nature freely bred,
On wildings, and on ftrawberries they fed;
Cornels and bramble-berries gave the reft;
And falling acorns furish'd out a feast.

Dryden.

Ver. 995. Macrobius, lib. vi. Sat. cap. 1. obferves, that Virgil has imitated this paffage of Lucretius, when defcribing his happy countryman, he fays,

Quos rami fru&us, quos ipfa volentia rura
Spoate tulere fuâ, carpfit.-

Georg. ii. ver. 500. He feeds on fruits, which, of their own accord, The willing ground, and laden trees afford.

Dryden. Ver. 997. For the chief food of the firft men was acorns : Whence Virgil, Georg. i. ver.

147.

Prima Ceres ferro mortales vertere terram Inftituit: cum jam glandes atque arbuta facræ Deficerent filvæ, & victum Dodona negaret. Where, though the poet says, that the woods failed them, and no longer afforded them acorns, yet it is more probable, that they contemned the ufe of acorns, when they had difcovered the art of fowing corns Thus Juvenal, speaking in the perfon of the old Marfians and others, Sat. xiv. ver. 180.

Panem quæramus aratro, Qui fatis eft menfis; laudant hoc numina ruris, Quorum ope et auxilio, gratæ poft munus arifte Contingunt homines veteris faftidia quercûs.

Arbutum is the fruit of the tree called arbutus, the arbute-tree, a plant frequent enough in Italy; it has the leaves like those of a bay-tree, but grow. ing very thin, and bears a fruit as big as a middling plum, red like a cherry, or rather straw. berry, because of its roughness, Pliny, lib. xv. cap. 24. calls the fruit of this tree," Poma inhonora," apples of no value and indeed though they have a certain fweetness, they are four with al, and unpleasant to the taste, as well as hurtful to the head and ftomach. The ancients delighted much in the fhade of this tree.. Horat. "Nunc viridi membra fub arbuto ftratus." Pliny calls the fruit of this tree "unedines, becaufe, fays he, we cannot eat above one of them, by reafon of their afperity and fournefs. But he is mistaken in making the unedo and the arbutum to be one and the fame thing: The first of them is the fruit of the epimelis, which fome interpret to be a fort of medlar-tree. But the arbutum of the Latins, and which the Greeks call Memacylon, is the fruit of the tree, which the Latins know by the name of Arbutus, and the Greeks by that of comarus. Thus Galen, lib. ii. Aliment. plainly di ftinguishes between the unedo and the arbutuni, afcribing the first to the epimelis, the later to the comarus, or arbutus. Thus Dalecampus in lib. prim. Plin. argues that author of error.

Ver. 1008. Oldhanı,

Hard by, a fream did with such softness creep,
As 't were by its own murmurs hush'd afleep.
And the author of Hudibras,

Clofe by a foftly murm'ring ftream,
Where lovers us'd to loll and dream.

Ver. 1009. The nymphs were fabled to dwell in caves and dens. Of them fee book iv. v. 589.

Ver. 1014. Lucret.

-Neque uti

Pellibus, & corpus fpoliis veftire ferarum:

For, as the poet, will teach by and by, the fr coverings men wore, were the fkins of wild beafts they killed in hunting.

Ver. 1026. This obfervation is the tranflator's, not his author's, who, I believe, would fcarce have faid fo. The prefents Lucretius mentions, were of the greateft value in those days: there fore the price was not lefs than now.

Ver. 1027. Thefe robuft unpolifhed mortals fpent all their time in hunting wild beasts, whom they pursued with ftones, clubs, and fuch like weapons: And when they were either weary of killing them, or that night came on, they rolled themselves up in leaves and grafs, and slept contented, and with a quiet mind; for they did not dread, what the Stoics foolishly believed of them, when night had involved the world in fhade, that night and day would never return, because they had obferved that viciffitude from the first beginning of day and night: This is contained in fifteen verfes. In the thirty-one verfes following, the poet goes on: But, fays he, this life of theirs was vixed

And Manilius, lib. i. ver. 76. Immotufque novos pontus fubduxerat orbes : Nec vitam pelago, nec ventis credere vota Audebant, fed quifque fatis fe noffe putabat.

None refign'd

Their lives to feas, or wishes to the wind; Confin'd their fearch; they knew themfelves alone,

And thought that only worthy to be known.

Ver. 1068. For, as Seneca in Medea fays,

Audax nimium qui freta primus
Rate tam fragili perfida rupit ;
Terrafque fuas poft terga videre,
Animam levibus credidit auftris, &c.

Which the tragedian took from Horace, Od. i. 3.

Illi robur et æs triplex

Circa pectus erat, qui fragilem truci
Commifit pelago rátem

Primus; nec timuit præcipitem Africum, &c.

Thus rendered by Dryden,

Sure he who firft the paffage try'd,
In harden'd oak his heart did hide,
And ribs of iron arm'd his fide:
Or his at least, in hollow wood,
Who tempted firft the briny flood:
Nor fear'd the winds contending roar,
Nor billows beating on the fhore;
Nor Hyades, portending rain,
Nor all the tyrants of the main ;
What form of death could him affright,
Who, unconcern'd, with ftedfaft fight,
Could view the furges, mountain fleep,
And monfters, rolling in the deep?
Could through the ranks of ruin go,
With ftorms above, and rocks below?
In vain did Nature's wife command
Divide the waters from the land,
If daring fhips, and men profane
Invade th' inviolable main;
Th' eternal fences overleap,
And pafs at will the boundlefs deep.
No toil, no hardthips can reftrain
Ambitious man, inur'd to pain;
The more confin'd, the more he tries,
And at forbidden quarry flies.

Ver. 1069." Penuria cibi :" want of food. The next verfe is a thought of our tranflator's, not of his author's.

Ver. 1073. We have hitherto feen only men, who were wild and favage, who wandered in the woods, and lived by fpoil and rapine: but others now enter upon the ftage, who are mild, gentle, and ftudions of civil life. For by this time, fays the poet, in ver. 20. that temperature and calmnefs of the air which reigned when the world was in its infancy, remained no longer; but fonietime's piercing cold, and fometimes fcorching heat, together with ftorms and tempefts, perfecuted mankind. Thofe hardships and inconveniencies weakened them by degrees, and forced them to the

contrivance of building themselves huts and houfes, to shelter their bodies from the inclemen cies of the feafons. They dwelt in thefe new abodes, one man confined to one woman, and were bleffed with a numerous offspring, whofe infant fmiling innocence foftened the rigid fournels of their parent's temper, and changed their innate fullen roughness into calmness and affability. Af ter this, having found out the use of fire, they became fo tender, that, unable to endure any longer their primitive nakednefs, they made themfelves clothes of the fkins of beafts; and grew fo civilized in time, that they entered into friendfhips and focieties, infomuch that they who were defirous to be fafe themselves, found it their best way to abftain from doing injuries to others. Thus concord preferved mankind.

Ver. 1074. Diodorus Siculus, lib. i. fays, that the poets feigned Hercules to be clothed with the fkins of beafts, and that he is painted too in that garb, to put pofterity in mind of this ancient way of drefs of our first fathers.

the contrary.

Ver. 1083. They who endeavour to disgrace religion, ufually reprefent it as a trick of state, and as a politic invention to keep the credulous in awe, which, however abfurd and frivolous, yet is a strong argument against the Atheist, who cannot declare his opinions, unlefs he be a rebel, and a disturber of the commonwealth. The cake of God, and his Cæfar are the fame, and m front can be offered to one but it reflects t both; and that the Epicurean principles are per nicious to focieties, is evident from the account they give of the rife of them. First, then, wt muft imagine men fpringing out of the earth, as from the teeth of Cadmus his dragon (“fra tres fungorum, et tuberum," as Bias called the Athenians, who counted it a great glory to be 'Auloxoves), and like thofe too fierce and cruel; but being foftened by natural decay, and length of time, grew mild; and weary of continual wars, made leagues and combinations for mu. tual defence and fecurity; and invefted fome perfon with power to overlook each man's actions, and to punish or reward those that broke or kept their promifes. Now, if focieties began thus, it is evident that they are founded on intereft alone, and therefore felf-prefervation is the only thing that obliges fubjects to duty; and when they are ftrong enough to live without the protection of their prince, all the bonds to che dience are cancelled, and mutiny and rebellion will neceffarily break forth; for we all know how ambitious every man is of rule, how paflion ately he defires it, and how eagerly he follows it, though ten thousand difficulties attend the pur: