"remains and venerable monuments of personages "who flourished in ages long since past. Janus "founded the one, and Saturn the other: hence, "this obtained the name of Janiculum, and that "of Saturnia." Here are the principal monuments of Rome, as well as the earliest religious establishments ascribed to the Arcadians. The Romans celebrated the feast of Saturn in the month of December. During that period of festivity the masters and the slaves sat down at the same table; and these last then enjoyed the liberty of saying and of doing whatever they pleased in memory of the ancient equality of Mankind, which prevailed in the reign of Saturn. The altar and the gate Carmentalis, long subsisted at Rome, as well as the grotto of Pan-Lupercal, which was under Mount Palatine. Virgil opposes, with the ability of a great Master, the rusticity of the ancient Sites which surrounded the small Arcadian city of Pallentum, to the magnificence of those very places within the precincts of Rome; and their rude altar, with their venerable and religious traditions under Evander, to the gilded temples of a city in which nothing venerable or religious was any longer to be seen, under Augustus. There is here likewise another moral contrast, which produces a more powerful effect than all the physical contrasts, and which admirably paints the simplicity, and the uncorrupted integrity, of the King of Arcadia. It is when that Prince justifies himself, without being called upon to do so, from the suspicion of having caused the death of his guest Argus, D 3 and and appeals, as a witness of his innocence, to the wood which he had consecrated to him. This Argus, or this Argian, had insinuated himself into his house with an intention to murder him; but, having been detected, was condemned to die. Evander had a tomb reared to his memory, and here solemnly protests that he had not violated in his case the sacred rights of hospitality. The piety of this good King, and the protestation which he makes of his innocence, respecting a stranger who was deeply criminal against himself, and justly condemned by the laws, forms a wonderfully fine contrast to the illegal proscriptions of guests, of parents, of friends, of patrons, whereof Rome had been the theatre for an age before, and which had excited in no one citizen either scruple or remorse, The quarter of Argiletum extended, in Rome, along the banks of the Tiber. The town Janiculum had been built on the mount of that name, and Saturnia on the rock first called the Tarpeian and afterwards the Capitol, the place of Jupiter's residence. This ancient tradition of Jupiter's frequently collecting the clouds on the summit of this forest-covered rock, and there brandishing his dark ægis, confirms what has been said in my preceding Stu-, dies of the hydraulic attraction of the summits of mountains, and of their forest, which are the sources of rivers. This was the case likewise with Olympus, frequently involved in clouds, on which the Greeks fixed the habitation of the Gods. In the ages of ignorance, religious sentiments explained physical effects: in ages of illumination, physical effects bring men back to religious senti ments. ments. Nature at all times speaks to Man the same language in different dialects. Virgil completes the contrast of the ancient monuments of Rome, by presenting a picture of the poor and simple habitation of the good King Evander, in the very place where so many sumptuous palaces were afterwards reared. Talibus inter se dictis a tecta subibant Pauperis Evandri: passimque armenta videbant Ut ventum ad sedes: Hæc, inquit, limina victor Aude, hospes, contemnere opes, et te quoque dignum Dixit; et angusti subter fasligia testi Ingentem Æneam duxit: stratisque locavit, ÆNEID, B. viii. L. 359–368. "While thus conversing, they drew nigh to the "lowly roof of the poor Evander: and saw the "cattle strolling up and down, and heard their 46 lowing, in what is now the Roman Forum, and "the splendid quarter of the Rostra. Being arrived, Thus they convers'd on works of ancient fame, D 4 -PITT. "This "This threshold, says he, received the victorious "Alcides; this humble palace entertained a guest "so illustrious. Dare like him, my beloved guest "to look down on wealth, and thus approve thy "celestial origin, and kindly accept the hospitality "of this poor mansion. He spake, and conducted "the mighty Eneas through a narrow portal; and placed him on a couch of foliage, covered with "the skin of a Lybian bear." It is here evident how deeply Virgil is penetrated with the simplicity of Arcadian manners, and with what delight he sets Evander's cattle a-lowing in the Forum Romanum, and makes them pasture in the proud quarter of the city, distinguished by the name of Carina, thus called, because Pompey had there built a palace ornamented with the prows of ships in bronze. This rural contrast produces the most agreeable effect. This author of the Eclogues recollected assuredly in this place the shepherd's pipe. Now he is going to lay down the trumpet, and to assume the flute. He proceeds to oppose to his picture of the dreadful conflict with Cacus, to the hymn of Hercules, to the religious traditions of the Roman monuments, and to the austere manners of Evander, the most voluptuous episode of his whole Work. It is that of Venus, coming to solicit Vulcan to make a suit of armour for Eneas * Nox ruit, et fuscis tellurem amplectitur alis ; At Venus haud animo nequicquam exterrita mater, * Now awful Night her solemn darkness brings, And stretches o'er the World her dusky wings; When Laurentumque minis et duro mota tumultu, When Venus (trembling at her dire alarms When Cruel Greece and unrelenting Fate When |