The Sun.
London, England, 1819-08-04 00:00:00

LITERARY REVIEW.

Toe ANEIS of VIRC;TL. Translated by CHARLE4 SYMMONS,

D.D. of Jesus Crolleze, Oxfurd.--itu.

*clic videmnr, et in.metliis conatibus mg re

Succidimas, non Lingua valet.

To proceeed recolArly with our extracts from
Dr. SYMNIONS'S Volume, we shall now prrsent to
our Readers some of his Noses, which occur in
immediate sequence to the subjects of our last
citation. As they ate not occupied with verbal
or philosophical, hut with popular Criticism. the
Notes which we now insert cannot fail, as we
persuade ourselves, to be generally acceptable to
the reading community. In our subsequent pro
greys through this Commentary, we may hAve oc-
casion to address ourselves more particularly to
those who are conversant with learned Criticism,
and are pleased with its researches.

BvoK VIII.
L. IS9.—" From Salamis the Princely train pursued
Their devious course, and cold Arcadia view d.

" There is something peculiarly pleasing in all
this passage, as it revives the past generation,
and brings us into immediate fellowship with

Priam and Anchises, in the full lustre of their
fortunes, and in their prick ot heroic beauty and
prowess. Arcadia, a mountainous country iii the
middle of the pelopoonesiis, is remarkable for the
coldness of its atmosphere, with reference to its
latitude, and to the general climate ot Greece.
From the report of an intelligent and vet arions
Modern traveller, Dr. HOLLAND, who speaks from
iris own ext,erience, an Arcadian winter may vie,
in the intensity ot cold, with a winter on the
liaoks of the Elbe or the Vistula. Fot the infnr-
tn,ttit.n and entertainment ot my Re titers, I will
transcribe the passage in Dr. l-lot.t.AND's narra-
tive, to which I refer :
" After traversing it," (the plain of Tripolizza)
" for some distance, the excessive cold, and the
impossibility of keeping the trdek, compelled its
to stop for tie night at the villat!e of Steno ;
where, in a wretched hovel, we huddled, together
milli a family of twelve people, over the embers

of a wood fire The rofd, ilowtver. was s+►ch,
h e%en in this situation we could procure no
wainith. At seven the next morning my tiler•
mometer slow! at 18 degrees, and I afterwards
lemnit T,ipolizza, that at six &ctu►ck it was as
low as 16 degrees of Fahrenheit. We con►inued

our way to this city through the snow, actually

cre•sitt,_; a considerable stream on horseback over
the ice. Arrived at Tripolizza, we obtained a

jodEzina in the house of Theodosius, the Greek

diagc►u►an to the Pasha of the Morel', which
meant have Bern comfort4ble but tot a degree of

cold, which neither the construction 01 the Greek
Douses, nor the nature of the fuel the Greeks
enwl,,y, are at ill fitted to obviate. At 3P. M.

this day, the thermometer WAS at 29 degrees, and
it continued below the freezing point fur the three
socceedith.; days, which we passed in this city,
wind tle'ing chiefly from the noir(' and north-
It hate been my design to have made an
excursion tiom Tripolizza to the site of the At).

dent Soait4, which is little more than thirty
wiles eistant ; but the snow lay so deeply on the
iicervening country, that the route Was deemed
in practicable, and no one would c •nsent to at-
tend us. A Tartar arvived front Patras on the
evening of the 29th" (ot January 1813), "so
much affected by the frost, that I was obliged to
have recourse to active means to save one of his

feet In short, tie degree and continuance of the
cold were such as I scarcely recollect to have ex-
perienced in England, and ►his in the very centre
at Arcadia."—(llolland's Trarels, p. 426.)
" 'Co a country, of whtcli the climate is exposed
to tuch a winter as is here desct ibed, well tnight
our Poet attic() the cpirl►et of cold ; and bpeak of
the "Ircudiez gelidos—fines.

L, 3131.—" Thy hand unconquer'd hero! also slew," &c.
" "flits beauttitil transition Irom the third to the
frst person, has very generally been admired, nod
the title imitation of it by NILLTON, its the Even-
ill! Prayer of ma Fist Patents in Paradise,
Leen the subjeist ot= a (pal notice and applause.
"Thus at their sh,cly lodge arrired, both stood;
lioth turo'd and, tinder open sky, rclor'd
The (Sod that mad,- both sky, air, earth, and heaven,
Which they beheld; the moom's resplendant globe,
Aud starry pole;-- Ilion also modest the night
h:aker omnipotent! and thou the day."
B. IV. 1720.
" Doctor WARTON, who cites this passage from
MturoN, cites another of the sane nature from 4
Poem, Wl'iCll I conceive to he too much neglect-
ed, the " Leonidas" of GLovEtt.—(iii. 53.)
,‘ If the band
Of Orornasdes on precarious life
Shed wealth and pleasure, soon the infernal God
With wild excess or avarice blast, the
Otomasdes! cietory dust give.
Dy thee with lime the regal head is crown'd.

" In the " Leonidas" are to be town' some bean-
tirol strains of poetry ; and its author, however
lift may he itoks., overlooked, was no ordinary man.
His head was illuminated, and his heart was up-
tight and large.
L. 44/.—" F.ren then the dread religion of the place,
With holy hortor struck the peasant race."

" To enthrone, from the remotest times, On the
summit of the Capitolian Hill a visible divinity,
arrayed ni all 'be terrors of the Monarch of the
Gu►l+, was a sublime idea, which has been exe-
cuted as nobly as it was conceived. I never rend

the passage without being affected by its awful
gnityktir. 'rhe darkness ‘vith which VIRGIL has
in this place surrounded the majesty of the God,
and described as emanating from his iEgis (agitla
rig; antern) is productive of the most sublime ef-
fect.—ln the Holy Scriptures darkness is attri-
buted as an attendant on the glory of the Al-
mighty—'• It was dark under his feet."
He made his pavillion of dark waters end
thick clouds to cover him," &c. &c.---llow nobly
Alit.ToN iias acaileri himself of this idea is too ge-
nerally kno.A ii to require to be pointed out.
." How oft amidst
Thick clouds and cai k cloth Heaven's all-ruling Sire,
litise to reside ;
Alto! with the of (hirkise,s round
Curers hi. Ihrunr.—P. 1. iI.
4. c is something pecUliarly sublime and
swt„l ;is the clippie idea of darkness."