Hence! ye fmooth fillets on the forehead Whose bands the brows of Chastity furround, She is reprefented in the habit of a Roman Matron. Matrona præter faciem nil cernere poffis, Hor. Sat. 2. Lib. 1. Besides, a Matron's face is feen alone; Mr. Creech. That, ni Catia eft, fays Cynthio, is a beauty unknown to most of our English Satirifts. Horace knew how to stab with address, and to give a thrust where he was leaft expected. Boileau has nicely imitated him in this, as well as his other beauties. But our English Libellers are for hewing a man downright, and for letting him fee at a distance that he is to look for no mercy. I own to you, fays Eugenius, I have often admired this piece of art in the two Satirifts you mention, and have been surprised to meet with a man in a Satire that I never in the least expected to find there. They have a particular way of hiding their ill-nature, and introduce a criminal rather to illuftrate a precept or paffage, than_out of any seeming defign to abuse him. Our English Poets on the contrary fhow a kind of malice prepense in their Satires, and instead of bringing in the person to give light to any part of the Poem, let you fee they writ the whole VOL. III. Poem C Poem on purpose to abuse the perfon. But we of head-drefs is that of Piety? As Chastity, fays Philander, appears in the habit of a Roman matron, in whom that Virtue was fuppofed to reign in its perFIG. II. fection, Piety wears the drefs of the Vestal Virgins, who were the greatest and most shining examples of it. Vittata Sacerdos is you know an Expreffion among the Latin Poets. I do not question but you have feen in the Duke of Florence's gallery a beautiful antique figure of a woman ftanding before an Altar, which fome of the Antiquaries call a Piety, and others a Vestal Virgin. The woman, Altar, and fire burning on it, are seen in marble exactly as in this coin, and bring to my mind a part of a fpeech that Religion makes in Phadrus's fables. Sed ne ignis nofter facinori praluceat, Fab. 10. Lib. 4. It is to this Goddefs that Statius addreffes himfelf in the following lines. Summa deûm Pietas! cujus gratiffima cœlo Statius Silv. Lib. 3. 1 Chief of the Skies, celeftial Piety! Whose god-head, priz'd by those of heavenly birth, Revifits rare these tainted realms of Earth, Mild in thy milk-white veft, to footh my friend, With holy fillets on thy brows defcend," Such as of old (ere chac'd by Guilt and Rage) A race unpolifh'd, and a golden age, Beheld thee frequent. Once more come below, See, fee, thy own Hetrufcus waftes the day The little trunk fhe holds in her left hand is the Acerra that you fo often find among the Poets, in which the frankincenfe was preferv'd that Piety is here fuppos'd to ftrow on the fire. Dantque facerdoti cuftodem thuris acerram. Ov. Met. Lib. 13. Hæc tibi pro nato plená dat lætus acerrâ Phoebc Mart. Lib. 4. Epig. 45. FIG. 12. The figure of Equity differs but little from that our painters make of her at present. The fcales the carries in her hand are fo natural an emblem of justice, that Perfius has turned them into an allegory, to exprefs the decifions of right or wrong. -Quirites, Hec puto non juftum eft, illud male, rectiùs iftud; Scis etenim juftum geminâ fufpendere lance Ancipitis Libra. Romans, know, Against right reafon all your counfels go; But thou, no doubt, canst set the business right, The next figure I present you FIG. 13. with is Eternity. She holds in her hand a globe with a Phoenix on it. How proper a type of Eternity is each of these you may fee in the following quotations. I am fure you will pardon the length of the latter, as it is not improper to the occafion, and fhows at the fame time the great fruitfulness of the Poet's fancy, that could turn the fame thought to so many different ways. Hac Eterna manet, divisque fimillima forma eft, De Rotunditate Corporum. Manil. Lib. 1 'This form's eternal, and may juftly claim Par Par volucer fuperis: Stellas qui vividus aquat A God-like bird!' whofe endlefs round of years. |