ADVERTISEMENT. In reading several passages of the Prophet Isaiah, which foretel the coming of Christ and the felicities attending it, I could not but observe a remarkable parity between many of the thoughts, and those in the Pollio of Virgil. This will not seem surprising, when we reflect, that the Eclogue was taken from a Sibylline prophecy on the same subject. One may judge that Virgil did not copy it line by line, but selected such ideas as best agreed with the nature of pastoral poetry, and disposed them in that man ner which served most to beautify his piece. I have endeavoured the same in this imitation of him, though without admitting any thing of my own; since it was written with this particular view, that the reader, by comparing the several thoughts, might see how far the images and descriptions of the Prophet are superior to those of the Poet. But as I fear I have prejudiced them by my management, I shall subjoin the passages of Isaiah, and those of Virgil, under the same disadvantage of a literal translation1. P. 1 As Pope made use of the old translation of Isaiah in the passages which he subjoined, it was thought proper to use the same, and not have recourse to the more accurate and more animated version of Bishop Lowth. The spuriousness of those Sibylline verses which have been applied to our Saviour, has been so fully demonstrated by many able and judicious critics, that, I imagine, they will not be again adduced as proofs of the truth of the Christian Religion by any sound and conclusive reasoner. The learned Heyne has discussed this point in his notes on the second Eclogue of Virgil, pag. 73. v. 1.; [in his Argument to the fourth Eclogue. W. S. D.] and he adds an opinion about prophecy in general, too remarkable to be omitted, but of too delicate a nature to be quoted in any words but his own. "Scilicet inter omnes populos, magna imprimis aliqua calamitate oppressos, Vaticinia circumferri assolent, quæ sive graviora minari sive lætiora solent polliceri, eaque, necessaria rerum vicissitudine, melioribus aliquando succedentibus temporibus, fere semper eventum habent. Nullo tamen tempore vaticiniorum insanius fuit studium, quam sub extrema Reipublicæ Romanæ tempora, primosque Imperatores; cum bellorum civilium calamitates hominum animos terroribus omnis generis agitatos ad varia portentorum, prodigiorum, et vaticiniorum ludibria convertissent.-Quascunque autem in hoc genere descriptiones novæ felicitatis habemus, sive in Orientis sive in Græcis ac Romanis poetis, omnes inter se similes sunt: bestiæ ac feræ cicures, serpentes innocui, fruges nullo cultu enatæ, mare placidum, dii præsentes in terris, aliaque ejusmodi in omnibus memorantur." In contradiction to this opinion the reader is desired to turn to as remarkable a passage at the end of the twenty-first of Bishop Lowth's excellent Lectures on the Hebrew Poetry. MESSIAH, A SACRED ECLOGUE. YE Nymphs of Solyma! begin the song: IMITATIONS. 5 Ver. 8. A Virgin shall conceive-All crimes shall cease, &c.] Virg. Ecl. iv. ver. 6. "Jam redit et Virgo: redeunt Saturnia regna'; Jam nova progenies cœlo demittitur alto. Te duce, si qua manent, sceleris vestigia nostri Pacatumque reget patriis virtutibus orbem." "Now the Virgin returns, now the kingdom of Saturn returns, now a new progeny is sent down from high heaven. By means of thee, whatever relics of our crimes remain, shall be wiped away, and free the world from perpetual fears. He shall govern the earth in peace, with the virtues of his father." Isaiah, Ch. vii. v. 14.—“ Behold a Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son."- -Ch. ix. v. 6, 7. "Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; the Prince of Peace: of the increase of his government, and of his peace, there shall be no end: Upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order and to establish it, with judgment, and with justice, for ever and ever." P. 1 Dante says, that Statius was made a Christian by reading this passage in Virgil. See L. Gyraldus, p. 534. 2 From Jesse's root behold a branch arise, Whose sacred flow'r with fragrance fills the skies: Th' Ethereal Spirit o'er its leaves shall move, And on its top descends the mystic Dove. 3 Ye heav'ns! from high the dewy nectar pour, REMARKS. 11 Ver. 10. with fragrance fills] Badly translated by Dr. Johnson; mulcentesque æthera flores Cælestes lambunt animæ Ver. 13. Ye heav'ns! from high the dewy nectar pour, And in soft silence shed the kindly show'r!] His original says, "Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness: let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together.”—This is a very noble description of divine grace shed abroad in the hearts of the faithful under the Gospel dispensation. And the poet understood all its force, as appears from the two lines preceding these, Th' Ethereal Spirit, &c. The prophet describes this under the image of rain, which chiefly fits the first age of the Gospel: The poet, under the idea of dew, which extends it to every age. And it was his purpose it should be so understood, as appears from his expression of soft silence, which agrees with the common, not the extraordinary effusions of the Holy Spirit. The figurative term is wonderfully happy. He who would moralize the ancient Mythology in the manner of Bacon, would say, that by the poetical nectar, is meant the grace of the Theologists. W. This interpretation of the words rain and dew, and of the common and the extraordinary effusions of the Holy Spirit, is to the last degree forced, and fanciful, and far-fetched. Warburton, it must be confessed, frequently disgraced his acuteness and great talents, by endeavouring to find out and extort new meanings in the authors whom he undertook to criticise. This interpretation is near akin to that marvellous one which he has given to a speech in the second act of Hamlet, where he contends, that the words, "if the sun breeds maggots in a dead dog, being a God, kissing carrion," point out the supreme cause diffusing its blessing on mankind, who is, as it were, a dead carrion, dead in Ch. xlv. v. 8. 2 Isai. xi. v. 1. 4 The sick and weak the healing plant shall aid! 15 From storms a shelter, and from heat a shade. All crimes shall cease, and ancient fraud shall fail; Returning justice lift aloft her scale; 5 Peace o'er the world her olive wand extend, And white-rob'd Innocence from heav'n descend. 20 REMARKS. original sin, man, instead of a proper return of duty, should breed only corruption and vices. Are these sort of interpretations a jot less ridiculous than that of Father Harduin's on the twentieth ode of the second book of Horace, who tells us, this ode is a prosopopeia of Christ triumphing and addressing the Jews after his resurrection? That biformis vates alludes to his being in forma dei, and in forma servi. That the second part of the allegory points to the Dominicans, who should preach and diffuse his gospel to distant nations; that alitem album, meant their white garments; and residunt pelles cruribus asperæ, their boots. Ver. 17. ancient fraud] i. e. the fraud of the serpent. W. Ver. 23. See Nature] Perhaps the dignity, the energy, and the simplicity, of the original, are in a few passages weakened and diminished by florid epithets, and useless circumlocutions. See Nature hastes her earliest wreaths to bring, With all the incense of the breathing spring: are lines which have too much prettiness, and too modern an IMITATIONS. Ver. 23. See Nature hastes, &c.] Virg. Ecl. iv. v. 18. "At tibi prima, puer, nullo munuscula cultu, Isai. xxv. v. 4. • Ch. ix. v. 7. |