Who, vainly glorying in successful art,
Had left till death atonement's healing part.
Straight o'er the wretch the sovereign Fury stands,
Succinct for torture, and with lifted hands:
In one she rears the scourge: with one she shakes
The fiercer terrors of her twisted snakes;
And to the vengeful task, with thrilling yell,
Calls her dread sisters from the blackest hell:
Then, back upon their thundering hinges roll'd,
Those portals of the fiends at length unfold.
Seest thou what guard upon the threshold waits?
What form of horror threatens at the gates?
Within, a hydra, more than Lerna's dire,
From fifty jaws emits Tartarean fire:
And Tartarus itself as deep beneath
The floor of hell extends its yawning death,
As twice the travel of the toiling eye
Thence to the summit of the Olympian sky.
In this dire gulf, with thunder overthrown,
Earth's ancient sons, the brood of Titan groan,
There the Aloëian twins with wondering eyes
I saw, and gazed upon their monstrous size :
Whose force assail'd the heavens, and proudly
To storm (mad impotence!) the throne of Jove.
There too I saw Salmoneus' cruel doom;
Who durst the Almighty's state and arms assume.
Rapt by four steeds, and wielding flames, he rode,
In impious pomp, through Elis as the god.
Fool! to believe that hoofs on echoing brass
Could for the inimitable thunder pass.
But, throned upon the storm, the almighty Sire,
Not smoky flames, but heaven's authentic fire
Hurl'd,and despatch'd him with the dazzling blow,
In fierce combustion, to the abyss below.
There also Tityos, earth's vast son, I found,
Spread o'er nine acres of the incumber'd ground.
A monstrous vulture, ever fierce for gore,
With ravening beak his deathless liver tore:
Dwelt in the house of blood within his breast;
And, gorged, still revell'd on the immortal feast.
Strong to suffice their pains the fibres grew;
And, ever wasted, were for ever new.
Why should I on the Lapithæ dilate?
Why speak Ixion's or Pirithous' fate?
O'er these, in trembling poise, a sable rock,
Now now to fall, intends the crushing shock.
To those, on whom eternal famine preys,
A regal feast its luxuries displays.
Around the pompous hall in shining rows,
Couches of gold delude with vain repose.
Close at the board the Queen of Furies stands :
Thundering forbids the taste, and lifts her brands
To awe the graspings of their quivering hands.
In this sad place their doom of torture wait
They, who their brothers once pursued with hate;
And they whose hands against their sires were
heaved;
And they whose fraud their client's trust deceived:
They too (most numerous these) whose lonely heart
Hung o'er their wealth, nor gave their own a part;
And they who on the adulterous couch were slain;
And they who, banded on the atrocious plain,
Fear'd not the majesty of law betray'd;
But stood against their country's cause array'd.
Seek not their several lots of pain to know;
What each sustains of heaven-adjusted woe.
Some up a steep a huge rock heave: some feel,
Stretch'd on the spokes, an ever circling wheel.
Unhappy Theseus on his penal stone
Sits, and will ever sit and ever groan:
And Phlegyas, conscious now of guilt's event,
Suffers severer pangs that ne'er relent;
And loudly cries, alarming night's dull ear,
'Learn to be just, O man! and Heaven revere!'
One wretch his country to a master sold;
Made laws and cancell'd them, for guilty gold.
One with dire incest stain'd his daughter's bed:
All dared some mighty crime, and, daring, sped.
Had I a hundred mouths, and each a tongue;
An iron voice, and more than human strong;
Yet all their crimes, and all their pains to speak,
Those tongues would be too few, that voice too
weak.'
FROM THE LATIN OF VIRGIL.
Now in the vale's retreat Eneas sees
A grove, whose foliage whisper'd to the breeze;
And Lethe's placid wave, that, stealing round,
Lull'd, as it warbled, all the enchanted ground.
Thither, in crowds the shadowy hosts repair;
Thick as the bees in summer's noontide air:
When, eager to supply their fragrant cells,
The myriad spoilers sack the lily bells;
And through the field the busy murmur swells.
Struck at the sudden sight, Æneas stood, [flood?
And ask'd, why throng'd the crowds, and what the
To him Anchises: Souls, by Fate decreed To other bodies, there to Lethe speed;
And from the potent stream securely drain
Oblivious draughts of life's preceding pain.
Long have I wish'd thee here, my son! to trace
The rising glories of our destined race:
That thus thou mayst, elate with all my joy,
Plant in thine Italy our root of Troy.'
And can it be, my sire! that souls sublime
Would for our skies exchange this blissful clime;
And wish, with wretched preference, again
For tardy bodies and life's dragging chain?"
All will I tell thee, son!' the sire rejoin'd: 'Nor leave suspense with darkness on thy mind. First, heaven, earth, seas, the moon's resplendent
And the bright stars that circle Titan's throne,
One mighty spirit, one informing soul
Pervades, and blending animates the whole.
Hence men and beasts, the life that wings the skies,
And that which ocean's monstrous brood supplies:
All from one fountain draw celestial flame;
The primal energy in all the same.
But, by dull matter blunted and suppress'd,
The fire burns dimly in its mortal vest.
Thus souls feel joy and fear, desire and pain;
And, bound in darkness, gasp for light in vain.
Nor, e'en when death dissolves the mortal ties,
The gross contagion with the body dies:
But in the soul, the growth of sensual years,
By Nature's strict necessity, inheres.
Hence are they sentenced to atoning pains;
Till just infliction shall erase their stains.
Some are suspended in the viewless wind:
Some deep in roaring waters are confined;
And some are exercised with fire's sharp power:
Each soul must suffer expiation's hour.
Then are we sent to range Elysium's sweets:
And few we are who gain these blissful seats,
Till, his full orb complete, long toiling Time
Has cleansed the foulness of concreted crime;
And left, in all its native radiance bright,
The etherial sense of elemental light.
Then, when a thousand circling years have roll'd,
These all to Lethe crowd, by Heaven controll'd:
That, thence unconscious, they may wish anew
To breathe in bodies, and the sun review.'
DEATH OF LAUSUS AND MEZENTIUS.
FROM THE LATIN OF VIRGIL.
BUT now Mezentius shakes aloft his shield;
And bursts in stronger tempest on the field.
Like vast Orion, when with giant stride
He walks through ocean and surmounts the tide:
Or, in his grasp an ash, the mountain's boast,
Treads earth, and looks amid the starry host.
Thus tower'd Mezentius mid the ranks of fight;
When from afar Æneas mark'd his might;
And hasten'd to oppose it: void of fear
The Tuscan sees the mighty foe draw near;
And firmly on his massy bulk relies:
Then measuring his distance with his eyes:
'Now may this hand and lance, the gods I trust,
To my bold purpose, as they wont, be just!
His spoils, my Lausus! from the pirate torn,
By thee, illustrious trophies, shall be worn.'
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