Page images
PDF
EPUB

Nil facimus non sponte Dei: nec vocibus ullis
Numen eget: dixitque semel nascentibus auctor
Quidquid scire licet: stereleis nec legit arenas,
Ut caneret paucis, mersitque hoc pulvere vocem.
Estne Dei sedes nisi terra, et pontus, et aër,

Et caelum, et virtus? Superos quid quarinus ultra ?
Jupiter est quodcunque vides, quocunque moveris.
Sortilegis egeant dubii, semperque futuris
Casibus ancipites: me non oracula certum,

Sed mors certe facit: pavido fortique cadendum est.
Hoc satis est dixisse Jovem." d

Phars. Lib. ix.

d Full of the God that dwelt within his breast,
The hero thus his secret mind express'd,

And inborn truths reveal'd; truths which might well
Become ev'n oracles themselves to tell.

Where would thy fond, thy vain inquiry go?

What mystic fate, what secret would'st thou know?
Is it a doubt if death should be my doom,

Rather than live till kings and bondage come,
Rather than see a tyrant crown'd in Rome?
Or would'st thou know of what we value here,
Life be a trifle hardly worth our care?

What by old age and length of days we gain,
More than to lengthen out the sense of pain?
Or if this world, with all its forces join'd
The universal malice of mankind,

Can shake or hurt the brave and honest mind?
If stable Virtue can her ground maintain,
While Fortune feebly threats and frowns in vain ?
If Truth and Justice with uprightness dwell,
And honesty consist in meaning well?

If right be independent of success,

And conquest cannot make it more nor less?

}

While engaged on this subject, we may turn to consider the argument which M. de Voltaire, by a perverted application of this cele

Are these, my friend, the secrets thou wouldst know,
Those doubts for which to oracles we go?
"Tis known, 'tis plain, 'tis all already told,
And horned Ammon can no more unfold.
From God deriv'd, to God by nature join'd,
We act the dictates of his mighty mind;

And though the priests are mute and temples still,
God never wants a voice to speak his will.

When first we from the teeming womb were brought,
With inborn precepts then our souls were fraught
And then the maker his new creatures taught.
Then, when he form'd, and gave us to be men,
He gave us all our useful knowledge then.
Canst thou believe the vast eternal mind

Was ere to Syrts or Libyan sands confin'd?

That he should choose this waste, this barren ground,

To teach the thin inhabitants around,

And leave his truth in wilds and desarts drown'd:
Is there a place that God would choose to love,
Beyond this earth, the seas, yon heav'n above,
And virtuous minds the noblest throne for love?
Why seek we further then ? behold around,
How all thou seest does with the God abound,
Jove is alike in all, and always to be found.
Let those weak minds, who live in doubt and fear
To juggling priests for oracles repair;

One certain hour of death to each decreed,

My fix'd, my certain soul from doubt has freed,
The coward and the brave are doom'd to fall;
And when Jove told this truth, he told us all.

B. ix. v. 954.

}

brated passage in the

Pharsalia," urges

against epick machinery in general; not confining his deductions to the historical poem only, but extending them to the poetical epos. "Ceux qui prennent les commencemens d'un art pour les principes de l'art même, sont persuadés qu'un poëme ne saurait subsister sans divinités parceque l'Iliade en est pleine; mais ces divinités sont si peu essentielles au poëme, que le plus bel endroit qui soit dans Lucain, et peut-être dans aucun poëte est le decours de Caton, dans lequel ce Stoïque, ennemi des fables dedaigne d'aller voir le temple de Jupiter Ammon."

e

The explanation before given of the conduct of the "Pharsalia," not to insist on the peculiar character of the Roman people, or that of the very remarkable period of their history, from which the subject of that poem is drawn, must be sufficient to prove that this passage affords no general model for the conduct of the epopee. And this consideration alone would be sufficient to expose the unfairness in this reasoning of M. de Voltaire, where he fastens not merely upon this poem itself, but upon a distinguished passage in it,

Sur la Poes. Epiq. ch. v.

pre

as affording an argument against the necessity of introducing machinery into epick poetry. For though the observation be perfectly just, that Lucan is not only grand beyond all cedent in this passage, but has, generally, maintained a suitable elevation in the whole conduct of his poem; it does not follow, nor is it the case, that the whole compass of history affords another subject capable of being similarly conducted to that of the "Pharsalia."

Nor has the critick taken into account some circumstances of considerable importance, in forming a just estimate of the present question; which having arisen from the change in manners and opinions since the times of the Roman republic, have added as much to the dignity of Lucan's description, as they have taken from the splendour of the antient poetical machinery. The refinement, or indeed effeminacy, of modern manners, has taught us as much to overrate the sternness of that stoical virtue which the poet has undertaken to celebrate; as a total revolution in religious belief has led us to contemn the absurdities which debase that religious system, which he has treated with disregard. From these considerations, the entire of Lu

can's work acquires an accidental dignity, which contributes not a little to raise the passage, selected by M. de Voltaire, above what is justified even by its intrinsick merit. And of course, this solitary passage, being of itself but peculiarly circumstanced, cannot establish a precedent to evince the truth of his general position, that the poetical epos can support a suitable elevation without the assistance of machinery.

« PreviousContinue »