Whose head from heav'n with hideous aspect frown'd On abject mortals prostrate on the ground, Horribili super aspectu mortalibus instans, ▬▬nos exæquat victoria Cœlo. The Rhapsodist has translated this last line in a sense different from that, which is generally attached so it, and, we conceive, not without reason. It is evident that the doctrines of Epicurus were neither calculated or intended, like those of the Stoics, to raise man to a level with the DIVINITY; but they were both intended and calculated to lift him above all those superstitious terrors, that the phænomena of Nature, considered in the light of omens, were adapted to inspire. Such, then, in our opinion, is the qualified meaning, which the verb exæquare derives from the context. It is very much the fashion, with some of our modern literateurs, to inveigh against the impiety and blasphemy of this poet. Cicero, who was neither impious or blasphemous, must have thought otherwise of the moral tendency of his work, or he would not have become its editor, thus rescuing it from oblivion. Neither, in the eye of a rational Christian, can this truly great poet be considered as justly liable to so severe a charge. Providence often works by secondary means; and, in this point of view, the books DE RERUM NATURA were well adapted to Detested, yet adored!—his daring eyes The bard uprear'd, and chased it from the skies. Nor heaven's deep murmurs, nor the bolts of Jove; But more erect his ardent genius glow'd, And burst through nature, and unveil'd her God. Wing'd with a vivid energy of soul, Far, far above high heaven's eternal pole His spirit soar'd, and grasp'd the mighty whole. prepare the heathen world for the light of revelation, by shaking almost to ruins the huge fabrick of Polytheism. There is something, if we except the last line, not only wonderfully sublime, but something wonderfully analagous with the christian theology, in the poet's description of the Deity, which is about to lose much, perhaps all, of its excellence, in the following attempt at translation :———————-—-—-—-— Blest with eternal peace, and deathless life, The example of this great poet might be adduced as a proof of the position respecting the unfitness of philosophical disquisitions as the subject-matter of Poetry. Who more fit than he to encounter the difficulties inherent in such a subject? And if the vivida vis animi of Lucretius was not able to overcome them, is not that alone sufficient to deter even the greatest genius from venturing upon a rock, where he has split ?" H Triumphant thence, he tells the forms that lie How things are bounded, and what powers control * Struck by the light of genius, TULLY gave * Lucretii poemata, ut scribis, ita sunt multis luminibus ingenii, multæ tamen artis. † Σοὶ δ' ἐνὶ μὲν μορφη επεων, ἑνὶ δε φρενεσ εσθλαιο Fateor me oratorem, si modò sim, aut etiam quicunque sim, non ex Rhetorum Officinis, sed ex Academiæ spatiis extitisse. Who * gave Philosophy her Latian home, Graced with the freedom of imperial Rome; Whose mind beheld, beyond the scope of sense, † And, armed by her, his Country's champion rose, ‡ See, TULLY, see the pride of conquest own || * Itaque mihi videris latinè docere Philosophiam, et ei quasi Civitatem dare. + Insidebat videlicet in ejus mente species Eloquentiæ, quam cernebat animo, re ipsâ non videbat. Qui verò ita se se armat eloquentiâ, ut non oppugnare commoda Patriæ, sed pro his pugnare possit, is mihi vir et suis et publicis rationibus utilissimus atque amicissimus civis videtur. Cedant arma toga, concedat laurea linguæ. Frustrà se vicisse Pompeius fateb àtur, ni Consul Marcus Tullius Urbem atque Patriam victoribus servasset. * Rome's towering genius sunk beneath its blow, The column sunk, and sunk the crumbling bust; See, crowned with palms of Idumæa, comet -Roma Parentem, Roma patrem patriæ Ciceronem libera dixit. + Primus Idumæas refram libi, Mantua, palmas. |