hood, and the ceremonies of divination, supplied him with materials equally suited to the purposes of poetic description: from these he has derived those truly grand descriptions of the sacred grove at Marseilles, and of the prophetic rites at Delphos, which add so much dignity to his poem. But from the belief of witchcraft and sorcery, prevalent in his age, and particularly attributed to the inhabitants of Thessaly, he was furnished with some of the most splendid imagery that ever adorned an epick subject.

The following passages, selected from his description of the Thessalian enchantresses, convey the most impressive idea of their

power.

Cessavere vices rerum: delataque longa
Hæsit nocte dies: legi non paruit æther,
Torpuit et præceps audito carmine mundus;
Axibus et rapidis impulsos Jupiter urgens
Miratur non ire polos. Nunc omnia complent,
Imbribus, et calido producunt nubila Phœbo;
Et tonat ignaro cœlum Jove. Vocibus iisdem
Humentes late nebulas, nimbosque solutis
Excessere comis. Ventis cessantibus, æquor
Intumuit: rursus vetitum sentire procellas
Conticuit turbante Noto; puppimque ferentes
In ventum tumuere sinus. De rupe pependit
Abscissâ fixus torrens: amnisque cucurrit
Non
Nilum non extulit æstas:

qua pronus erat.

Mæander direxit aquas: Rhodanumque morantem
Præcipitavit Arar: submisso vertice montes
Explicuere jugum. Nubes suspexit Olympus:
Solibus et nullis Scythicæ, cum bruma rigeret,
Dimaduere nives: impulsam sidere Tethyn
Reppulit Hæmonidum, defenso littore, carmen.
Terra quoque immoti concussit ponderis axem,
Et medium vergens nisu titubavit in orbem.
Tantæ molis onus percussum voce recessit,
Prospectumque dedit circumlabentis Olympi."
Phars: Lib: vi.

a Whene'er the proud inchantress gives command,
Eternal motion stops her active hand;

No more heav'n's rapid circles journey on,
But universal nature stands foredone:
The lazy god of day forgets to rise,

And everlasting night pollutes the skies.
Jove wonders to behold her shake the pole,

And, unconsenting, hears his thunders roll.

Now, with a word, she hides the sun's bright face,
Now blots the wide æthereal azure space:

Lonely anon she shakes her flowing hair,
And straight the stormy low'ring heav'ns are fair;
At once she calls the golden light again,

The clouds fly swift away, and stops the drizzly rain.
In stillest calms she bids the waves run high,
And smooths the deep, tho' Boreas shakes the sky.
When winds are hush'd her potent breath prevails,
Wafts on the bark, and fills the flagging sails.
Streams have run back at murmurs of her tongue,
And torrents from the rock suspended hung.
No more the Nile his wonted seasons knows,
And in a line the straight Mæander flows.
Arar has rush'd with headlong waters down,
And driv'n unwillingly the sluggish Rhone.

Their power over animated nature is no less extensive.

Omne potens animal leti, genitumque nocere,
Et pavet Hæmonias, et mortibus instruit arteis.
Hos avidæ tigres, et nobilis ira leonum
Ore fovent blando: gelidos his explicet orbes,
Inque pruinoso coluber distenditur arvo.
Viperei coeunt, abrupto corpore, nodi;
Humanoque cadit serpens afflata veneno.b

Phars. Lib. vi.

Huge mountains have been levell'd with the plain,
And far from heav'n has tall Olympus lain.
Riphæan crystal has been known to melt,
And Scythian snows a sudden summer felt.
No longer prest by Cynthia's moister beam,
Alternate Tethys heaves her swelling stream;
By charms forbid, her tides revolve no more,
But shun the margin of the guarded shore.
The pond'rous earth, by magic numbers strook,
Down to her inmost centre deep has shook;
Then rending with a yawn, at once made way,
To join the upper and the nether day;

While wond'ring eyes, the dreadful cleft between,
Another starry firmament have seen.

ROWE'S PHARS. vi. v. 739.

b Each deadly kind by nature form'd to kill,
Fear the dire hags and execute their will.
Lions to them their nobler rage submit,
And fawning tigers couch beneath their feet;
For them the snake foregoes her wint'ry hold,
And on the hoary frost entwines her fold:

The pois'nous race they strike with stronger death,
And blasted vipers die, by human breath.

Ib. v. 777.

But in the conduct of one part of his work, Lucan is truly admirable: it is such as would have done honour to Homer or Virgil in the happiness and originality of the conception, and the skilfulness and judgment of the execution. This great poet foreseeing that the truth of his subject would be sacrificed, if he introduced preternatural agents into the action of his poem; and that, its truth being sacrificed, its importance must be affected in a proportionable degree, not only determined on the entire suppression of the established machinery of epick poetry, but has contrived to profit by the very circumstances of its rejection. For, taking a just estimate of the religious and philosophical opinions of his countrymen, and observing that they were generally at variance, and that the advantage of respectability was decidedly on the side of the latter, he has contrived to exalt the stoical character above the divine nature, as it was represented by his religion, and could have been introduced into his poem; thus raising it above a standard which possessed an intrinsick elevation, he rendered it an object of reverence. Of this godlike perfection has he drawn his Cato, of whom it may be truly said, that he is the superiour

intelligence that informs the action, and upholds the dignity of the poem. And, regarding his character in this light, it is unjust to degrade it by a comparison with the Jupiter of the Iliad, or any other divinity which conducts or elevates the heathen machinery.

With this view we may perceive, that the poet first introduces this character in that memorable comparison which he institutes between him and the deities:

Victrix causa diis placuit, sed victa Catoni.

Phars. Lib. i. v. 128.

And in the following speech of Cato to Labienus, he has exhibited him with all the majesty of a superiour being.

Ille Deo plenus, tacitâ quem mente gerebat,
Effudit dignas adytis e pectore voces..

"Quid quæri, Labiene, jubes? An liber in armis
Occubuisse velim potius, quam regna videre?
An sit vita nihil, sed longam differat ætas?
An noceat vis ulla bono? Fortunaque perdat
Oppositâ virtute minas laudandaque velle
Sit satis, et nunquam successu crescet honestum ?
Seimus, et hoc nobis non altius inseret Ammon.
Hæremus cuncti superis, temploque tacente

• Victorious Cæsar by the gods was crown'd, The vanquish'd party was by Cato own'd.

ROWE'S PHARS, i. v. 241.