nas, 1110; the balanus of Rondeletius de Teftaceis, 28; and the dattili of the modern Italians, which are to this day eaten, and even pickled. To this list of fea-fish, which were admitted in those days to table, may be added the fturgeon, and ling; and there is twice mention, in archbishop Nevill's great feaft, of a certain fish, both roafted and baked, unknown at present, called a thirl-poole. The feal was also reckoned a fifh, and, with the fturgeon and porpefs, were the only fresh fish which, by the 33d of Henry VIII. were permitted to be bought of any ftranger at fea, between England and France, Flanders, and Zealand, On April 11th of the prefent year, I paffed through Billingfgate, and obferved, on the ground, fome large pieces of ice, in which I was told the falmon from Berwick, and others of our northern fishery, was packed in boxes. The ice is preferved in ice-houses throughout the winter entirely for that purpose. Price of provifions provided for a dinner given by certain ferjeants at law, in the year 1531. £. s. d. Brought to the flaughterOne carcafe of an oxe house 24 beeves, each - 16 8 from the fhambles One hundred fat muttons, each Fifty-one great veales, at Thirty-four porkes, at Ninety-one pigs, at Capons of Greece, of one poulter (for he had three) ten dozens, at (apiece) Capons of Kent, nine dozen and fix, at Cocks of grose, seven dozen and nine, at Cocks courfe xiii dozen, at 8 d. and 3 d. apiece. Pullets, the best 2 d. cach. Other pullets Pigeons, 37 dozen, each dozen Swans xiii dozen. dozen 1 4 0 2 10 MISCELLANEOUS MISCELLANEOUS ESSAYS. Remarks on fome Paffages of the fixth Book of the Encid, by James Beattie, LL. D. &c. from Tranfactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. THE HERE is nothing in Virgil more explicit than the account of Tartarus; and I know not why it has been fo generally mifunderstood. Dr. Warburton fays, in one place, that Eneas faw the fights of Tartarus at a distance, and in another, that Eneas paffed through Tartarus. In fact, he did neither. He could not pafs through without entering; and this, we are told, was to him impoffible: "Nulli fas cafto fceleratum infiftere limen." And though he had been permitted to enter, he could not pass through, without first croffing a river of fire, and then defcending into an immenfe gulph, twice as deep beneath the level of the other regions of darkness, as those are remote from heaven. It was equally impoffible for him to fee from a diftance what was doing in fuch a gulph, even though the gate that led to it had been open, which, however, at this time, happened to be fhut. "You fee, faid the Sybil, what a centinel fits without in the porch, meaning Tifiphone); another, ftill more dreadful, has her ftation within;" which, as he could not fee it, she informs hm is a huge ferpent, or $ hydra, with fifty heads. An opening of the gate is indeed mentioned, which Rueus understands to have taken place at the very time when the Trojan and the Sybil were locking at it. But that is a mistake.The Sybil only tells her companion, that, when Rhadamanthus has made the criminals confefs their guilt, then at length (tum demum) the gate opens for their reception into the place of torment. It is ftrange that Rucus and Dr. Warburton did not fee that this is the obvious import of the words of Virgil; and that, if we do not understand them in this fenfe, the paffage must appear confufed, if not ungrammatical. In a word; of the infide of Tartarus the Trojan hero faw nothing; he faw the outfide only, the walls, the gates, the tower of iron, &c. and thefe he faw at fome diftance. What was paffing within he learns from the Sybil's information. "And now," fays fhe, "let us be going. Yonder, on the right hand, is the palace of Proferpine, where, in the vaulted porch that fronts us, we are commanded to depofit the golden bough." This ceremony Eneas performs, after having fprinkled himself with pure water; which was cuftomary with those who made offerings to the gods. They then went onward to Elyfium, the gay fcenery of which, immediately mediately fucceeding the gloom of purgatory and the horrors of Tartarus, is fo charming, that every reader feels himself refreshed by it. Here were groves, and plains, and meadows, clothed with perpetual verdure, the abodes of tranquillity and joy, and illuminated by a fun and stars of the most refulgent beauty. Here were fcafting, and dancing, and mufic, and poets accompanying their verfes with the harmony of the lyre. Here thofe warlike exercises were renewed, in which the heroes while on earth had fo much delighted; and here were horfes, and chariots, and arms, and every thing that could gratify an heroic mind. It must be owned, that all this is very inadequate to the defires and the capacity of an immortal foul: but Virgil had heard of nothing better; and it was impoffible for him to describe what he could not conceive. In this Elyfium, which, with all its imperfection, is, as well as the infernal world, founded on the best ideas of retributive juftice that could be expected from a pagan, the poet places in a ftate of endlefs felicity "the fhades of the pure and the pious; of heroes who have died in defence of their country; of ingenious men who have employed their talents in adorning human life with elegant arts, or in recommending piety and virtue; and of all who, by acts of beneficence, have merited the love and the gratitude of their fellow-creatures.' To a company of thefe happy beings, who had flocked round the two ftrangers, and efpecially to the poet Mufeus, whom the knew, the Sybil addreffed herself, defiring to be informed where Anchifes refided. We have no certain habita tions, returned the poet; we wander about, and amuse ourselves wherever we pleafe; but follow me to yonder rifing ground, and I fhall put you in a path that will conduct you to him. Some writers blame Virgil for not making Eneas find Homer in this part of Elyfium; and infinuate, that the Roman poet must have been both invidious and ungrateful, in neglecting fuch an opportunity of doing honour to his great master, to whom he owed fo much. Those critics do not confider that Eneas was dead an hundred years before Homer was born. Our poet has been cenfured for a fuppofed anachronifm, in making Eneas and Dido contemporary; and here he is found fault with for having judicioufly avoided a real anachronism. It chanced that Anchifes was at this time in a remote valley, reviewing, in their state of pre-existence, fome of his pofterity, who were afterwards to diftinguish themselves in the Roman republic. When he faw his fon advancing towards him, he heid forth both his hands, gave him an affectionate welcome, and wept for joy. The hero would have embraced his father; but found that the fhade, though visible, eluded the touch. After a fhort converfation, Eneas happening to fee, in a grove through which a river was flowing, an innumerable multitude of human beings. flying about, afked his father who they were, and what river it was. The river, faid he, is Lethe, of which thofe fouls are taking a draught, being about to return to the upper world, in order to animate new bodies. Is it to be imagined, exclaims Eneas, that fouls fhould ever leave this happy place, and and go back to the imprisonment of the body, and all the wretchedness of mortality? I will explain the whole matter to you, replies Anchifes. Know, then, that all the parts of this vifible univerfe, the heavens, and earth, and sky, the fun, moon, and stars, are, like one vaft body, animated by an univerfal fpirit, whereof the fouls, or vital principles, of all animals, of men and beafts, of fishes and fowl, are emanations. This vital principle is, in every animal, the fource of fenfation and motion; but, from the influence that the body has over it, becomes fubject to inordinate paffions, and forgetful of its heavenly original. The foul of man, in particular, (for nothing further is faid of the other animals) contracts, while fhut up in the dark prifon of the body, a degree of debasement which does not leave it at death, and from which the fufferings of a fubfequent ftate of purgation are neceffary to purify it. Thefe are of different kinds and degrees, according to the different degrees and kinds of guilt or impu rity which the foul has contracte. Some fouls are expofed to the beating of winds, fome are washed in water, and fome purified by fire. Every one of us (fays Anchifes, including himself) fuffers his own peculiar pains of purification. Then we are fent into this vaft Elyfium, and a few of us remain in the eternal poffeffion of it *. The reft continue here, till by the air and tranquillity of the place, they have entirely got the better of the impurity contracted in the world, have had every impreffion of the pains of purgatory worn out, and are reftored to their original fimplicity of nature. 'Thus refined, they are, at the end of a thousand years +, fummoned by a divine agent, or god, to meet in one great affembly, where they drink of Lethe to wash away remembrance, and then, in compliance with their own inclination, are fent back to the earth to ani'mate new bodies. Having ended this account, Anchifes, with his fon and the Sybil, paffes to a rifing ground, and points out in a ftate of pre-existence, a *I fuppofe the words Et pauci læta arva tenemus, to be a parenthesis; which, in my opinion, clears the text of all obfcurity. By the change of the perfon, in the four laft lines of the fpeech,-Has omnes,-volvere,-incipiant,--revifant, it appears, that Anchifes does not include himfelf among thofe who were to return to the world; which afcertains fufficiently the import of tenemus. The learned Rueus conftrues the paffage in a way fomewhat different; but his general account of the poet's doctrine differs not effentially from mine. More literally, "When they have rolled the wheel, or circle, for a thoufand years," that is, when the revolution of a thousand years is completed. For this interpretation we are indebted to Servius, who tells us further, that this fingular phrafe was taken from Ennius. Anciently perhaps rota might mean a circle, as well as a wheel,) and poetically a year; fo that, in Ennius's time, volvere rotam might be a figurative phrafe of the fame import with annum peragere, to pass a year. The original meaning of annus is a circle, whence the diminutive annulus, a ring. The fame reference to the circular nature of the year, may be feen in the Greek mauros, which Virgil certainly had in his mind when he wrote, Atque in fe fua per veftigia volvitur annus." When this is attended to, our author's ufe of the phrafe in question will appear not fo harsh as it might otherwife be thought to be, and not at all too figurative in this very folemn part of the poem. proceffion proceffion of Roman heroes, who were in due time to defcend from lim; briefly defcribing their feveral characters, in a moft fublime ftrain of poetical prophecy. I fhall fubjoin a few remarks on the concluding fcene of this noble epifode; on the gates of horn and ivory. Thefe gates have given no little trouble to critics, both ancient and modern; who, after all, feem to have been not very fortunate in their conjectures. This is owing, not to obfcurity in the poet, but to the refinement of thofe interpreters, who mistook a plain pafiage for a profound allegory, and were determined to find a fecret meaning in it. The gate of ivory, fay they, tranfmits falfe dreams, and that of horn true ones; and Eneas and his companion are difmiffed from Elyfium, and let into the upper world, through the ivory gate. What can this imply, but that the poet meant to infinuate, that every thing he had faid concerning a state of future retribution, was nothing more than a falla cious dream? And, in fupport of this conjecture, they generally quote from the Georgic three verfes to prove, that Virgil was in his heart an Epicurean, and confequently difbelieved both a future ftate and a providence. The verfes are-" Felix qui potuit rerum cognofcere caufas, Atque metus omnes, et inexorabile fatum, Subjecit pedibus, ftrepitumque Acherontis avari." Now, in the first place, it does not appear to me, that thefe lines can prove their author ever to have been an Epicurean, or that he meant to fay more than Happy is the man whofe mind philofophy has raised above the fear of death, as well as above all other fears." For, in the Georgic, he not only recom mends religion and prayer, which Epicureans could not do confiftently with their principles, but again and again afferts a providence; and, in terms equally elegant and juft, vindicates the Divine wifdom in establithing phyfical evil as the means of improving and elevating the mind of man. But does he not, in his fixth eclogue, give an account of the formation of the world according to the Epicurean theory? He does; and he makes it part of the fong of a drunkard: no proof that he held it in very high esteem. But, 2dly, Suppofing our poet's admiration of Lucretius might have made him formerly partial to the tenets of Epicurus, it does not follow that he continued fo to the end of his life, or that he was fo while employed upon the Eneid. The duties of religion, and the superintending care of providence, are by no other Pagan author fo warmly enforced as in this poem; and the energy with which, in the fixth book, and in one paffage of the eighth, (v. 666,) he afferts a future retribution, feems to prove, that he was fo far in earnest with regard to this matter, as to believe, that it was not, as the Epicureans affirmed, either abfurd or improbable. Let it be remarked, in the third place, that no poet ever thought of fo prepofterous a method of pleafing and inftructing his readers, as firit to employ all his skill in adorn ing his fable, and then tell them, that they ought not to believe a word of it. The true poet's aim is very different. He adapts himself to the opinions that prevail among the people for whom he writes, that they may the more eafily acquiefce in his narrative; or he is careful, at leaft, to make his fable confiftent |