hints at Theocritus* because he had taken so much from him, and his subject led to it; and does the same by Hesiod,+ for the same reasons. He never speaks a single word of Homer: and indeed could not do it, where some would have had him, because of the Anachronism. They have blamed him for not mentioning Homer, instead of Musæus (Æn. vi. 667.), without considering, that then Homer must have been put into Elysium long before he was born.-P. Virgil's triumph over the Greek poets in his Georgics,+ is one of the vainest things that ever was written.—There are not above two or three lines in Virgil from Hesiod's Works, he acknowledges imitating that poet; and would never do so, for two or three lines only.-Perhaps what we call Hesiod's Works, at present, are misnamed. The Theogony has little prettinesses in it, not like the greatness of antiquity. The Shield of Hercules is taken from Homer's Shield of Achilles, and there are several lines exactly the same in both. The Huɛgwv, has the truest air of antiquity. —Nudus ara,§ is, I think, from the Egywv: but possibly none of it is Hesiod's.-P. Virgil's great judgment appears in putting things together, and in his picking gold out of the dunghills of the old Roman writers. He borrowed even from his cotem- ↳ poraries, as I think Aulus Gellius tells us.-The Eneid was evidently a party piece: as much as Absalom and * Prima Syracosio dignata est ludere versu Ecl. vi. 1, 2. + Ascræumque cano Romana per oppida carmen. Georg. ii. 176. Georg. iii. 10—22. § Ib. i. 299. Achitophel. I have formerly said that Virgil wrote one honest line, “Secretosque pios, his dantem jura Catonem,” and that, I now believe, was not meant of Cato Uticensis.-P. Otho Vænius has published a picture-book, which he calls the Emblems of Horace. "Misce consiliis stultitiam brevem," is represented by Minerva leading a little short child, with a fool's cap on, by the hand.—“ Paulum sepultæ distat inertiæ celata virtus,” is Virtue in a dark corner, Laziness in a sepulchre, and only a thin partition-wall between them.-P. Nil Admirari, is as true, in relation to our opinions of authors, as it is in morality; and one may say, O, admiratores, servum pecus! full as justly as O, Imitatores !—P. What terrible moments does one feel, after one has engaged for a large work!—In the beginning of my translating the Iliad, I wished anybody would hang me, a hundred times.—It sat so heavily on my mind at first, that I often used to dream of it, and do sometimes still.*—When I fell into the method of translating thirty or forty verses before I got up, and piddled with it the rest of the morning, it went on easy enough; and when I was thoroughly got into the way of it, I did the rest with pleasure.-P. He used to dream that he was engaged in a long journey, puzzled which way to take; and full of fears that he should never get to the end of it.-Spence. END OF SECTION V. T was Cardinal Maurice who bought the Tabula Isiaca, after the taking of Mantua, and sent it to Turin; where it is now kept in the Archives of the Royal Academy. It is one of the finest Egyptian antiquities in the world, and had run a great many risks of being destroyed. At the sacking of Rome, five years before, it was sold to a locksmith. Bembo bought it of him and gave it to the Duke of Mantua. At Mantua it fell into the soldiers' hands again, and was saved the second time by the Cardinal of Savoy. It is a sort of table, of a particular metallic composition, four feet two inches long, and two feet and a half wide. The ledges • Several articles relating to the King of Savoy and his states, at the commencement of this section, are left out, because statistical accounts of that period are certainly out of their place here.-The seventh and eighth centuries, (according to Mr. Spence's division,) are here blended into one section; many unimportant and uninteresting articles being omitted, together with some which had been printed before, such as the Account of Magliabecchi, &c. Editor. are two inches and a quarter, and figured. The figures on the table are, or were, all inlaid. They are neater, and of a better taste than those on the obelisks, but not so high as some Egyptian statues and relievos at Rome. They are dispersed in three long compartments or ranges, and in the midst of the second range Isis sits enthroned ; whence it is called the Mensa Isiaca. The things inlaid are of a different colour to the groundwork or table itself, there is a great deal of mighty pretty silver work among it, and you see the places where there was more, before the soldiers picked it out to sell it. They found it so thin that it was scarce worth while, or met with a purchaser for the table before they had time to do more damage to it.-Mr. D. V. Emanuel the First, and his son the Cardinal Maurice, were pretty active in making a collection of statues, busts, medals, and pictures. Emanuel the Second began a gallery for them, which would have been one of the most considerable in Italy.-The late king (Victor), was so perpetually engaged in affairs of much greater consequence to his family and his country, that the taste for the arts, which began to arise, was quite chilled, and continues so to this day. Most of the antiques that had been got together, were flung as rubbish into a ground room of the palace, and that part of the gallery which was built for them is turned into archives and offices for the Secretaries of State.-Mr. D. V. There was a God called Pennus, much worshipped, on the great St. Bernard, some remains of his temple, and I think of his statue, are still to be seen there.-Count Richa. [Pen signified high or chief. Hence the Alpes Penninæ, and the Apennines in Italy. And with us the Pen ap pen, near High Wycomb in Buckinghamshire: the old Pennocrusium or Penkridge in Staffordshire: Pendennis in Cornwall: Penmaenmawr, and many others, in North Wales. -Spence.] When you come near Poverino, two posts from Turin on the way to Alessandria, the sand looks just like the sea shore I have tried it in several places, and have always found a stratum of shells five or six feet under the surface. -Count Richa. The finest remains I ever saw of the deluge are at Pianoro, the first post from Bologna in the way to Firenzuola. There are several pieces of rock, full of shells, lie scattered behind the post-house, in the channels that the torrents make as they fall down the Apennine: and in particular I remarked one square slab, large enough to make a table, which I have often wished I had brought away with me in my chaise. Mr. T.* There are no less than three of those strange fires, which constantly appear by night, on the road from Bologna to Florence. When we were got a mile beyond Pietra Mala, we saw the largest of them: it was an even yellow light, like the body of the sun, and seemed to be about three feet long and one broad.—At the place itself, they say, it is about ten feet long. There is no cavity: the earth on the spot is of a reddish colour, and so is the soil a good way round about it. It will burn a piece of paper if put into it, and may be lighted with a candle when it does not appear of itself. The people of the country say it has been there time out of mind, and indeed it is mentioned so long ago Most probably Mr. Townley.-Editor. |