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 qua pronus erat. Mæander direxit aquas: Rhodanumque morantem a Whene'er the proud inchantress gives command, No more heav'n's rapid circles journey on, And everlasting night pollutes the skies. And, unconsenting, hears his thunders roll. Now, with a word, she hides the sun's bright face, Lonely anon she shakes her flowing hair, The clouds fly swift away, and stops the drizzly rain. Their power over animated nature is no less extensive. Omne potens animal leti, genitumque nocere, Phars. Lib. vi. Huge mountains have been levell'd with the plain, While wond'ring eyes, the dreadful cleft between, ROWE'S PHARS. vi. v. 739. b Each deadly kind by nature form'd to kill, The pois'nous race they strike with stronger death, 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, "Quid quæri, Labiene, jubes? An liber in armis • Victorious Cæsar by the gods was crown'd, The vanquish'd party was by Cato own'd. ROWE'S PHARS, i. v. 241. |