That f angry Justice form'd a dreadful hell, By children question'd, and by men despised: YET THESE DO THOU BELIEVE. What thoughts declare, Ye Scipios, once the thunderbolts of war! AN UNBELIEVING SHADE invades your rest? Ye fly, to expiate the blasting view; ་ Fling on the pine-tree torch the sulphur blue, And from the dripping bay, dash round the lustral dew. VER. 226. Ye fly, to expiate the blasting view; &c.] "The ancient manner of purifying those who were polluted by the sight or touch of impure objects, was with sulphur, and fire made of the unctuous pine:" they were also sprinkled with a laurel branch dipped in water. Juvenal's expression is-cuperent lustrari, si qua darentur, if they could get sulphur, &c. i. e. says Lubin, apud inferos, ubi talia FORTE non sunt! I love a careful commentator like Lubin. In the simplicity of his heart, he sometimes ventures to suspect the veracity of his author; but that he could ever be guilty of the crime of poetry, does not once seem to have entered his thoughts. For the rest; we see here, that the poet attributes the profli gacy of the times to the disbelief of a future state, and certainly with great reason; for were it possible that such incredulity could AND yet to these abodes we all must come, Believe, or not, these are our final home;:: become general, no barrier would remain of sufficient force to check the torrent of vicious propensities, which would burst upon us from a thousand springs, and again, as in the days of Noah, "fill the earth with corruption and violence." It is to be lamented that Juvenal, who appears extremely anxious to impress upon the minds of his countrymen, the existence of a future state, should yet give a description of it which, to speak tenderly, borders upon the mean, if not the ridiculous. But he is rather to be pitied than blamed. Such doctrines as his creed supplied, he laboured to enforce. It is true, purer sources of information had been opened, but before we condeinn his ignorance, we ought to be sure that he had it in his power to avail himself of them. Mr. Owen has an excellent observation on this passage. "Many strange conceptions have prevailed, even among Christians, with regard to the circumstances of the invisible world. And no wonder: we can only conceive it under sensible images. But the general truth stands independent of all fictions, and follies. Scepticism may smile at the croaking frogs, and squalid ferryman, but Nature will not be laughed out of her hopes and fears." These "strange conceptions," however, do not affect Christianity. They are the reveries of men, unmindful alike of the language of their divine Master, and of his Apostle. By the former, a state of reprobation is briefly, but forcibly, described as a place where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched:" and of a state of blessedness, the latter says, with unrivalled energy and beauty, "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." It is elsewhere said, that on the revision of this work, few errours were discovered that affected the sense of the original: the translation of this passage, however, has been controverted by some of my literary friends. As their arguments all tend to the same point, I subjoin those of the Laureat, which I consider as the most elaborate, for the reader's consideration. "The absurd stories of the infernal regions are now hardly credited in the nursery, but suppose them true, and think what the ghosts of our ancient warriours would feel, when the shades of wretches like these come among them; they would seek every means of lustration, as being polluted by the sight. Though wide around our conquering arms are hurl'd, And the huge grasp embrace the polar world. Here Juvenal has completely done with this part of his subject, and what follows connects with what immediataly preceded the passage. "Alas! wretches that we are! we are now brought to that disgraceful situation, that while our arms are victorious in the most remote parts of the earth, we are stained with crimes unknown to the barbarians we have subdued.” Your own note, beginning It is to be lamented, convinces me that it was by no means the intention of Juvenal to "impress the belief of a future state on the minds of his countrymen," for had that been his intention, he would have selected, as Virgil has done in his sixth Eneid, the most solemn and impressive notion of a future state: instead of which, he has chosen the most absurd, puerile, and improbable circumstances, and the una transire vadum tot millia cymba is to me decisive of his own incredulity; and it should seem that you are something of the same opinion, as you have scarcely noticed it. However unlikely the unlearned men of ancient Rome were to be tainted with that scepticism which prevailed among their posterity, surely it was not the shade of an unbeliever that was so peculiarly calculated to rouse the indignation of those "thunderbolts of war," as one of those effeminate wretches who form the object of the whole satire, as well after as before this passage: besides, to whom can talis umbra relate, but to the imperial pathick or the noble and cowardly gladiator ?" Such is the opinion of Mr. Pye: it is also that of Ruperti, who sees no difficulty in the expression, taken in this sense. Vol. II. 91. It would ill become me to have appeared as a translator of Juvenal, without previously weighing these and similar objections. I could never believe the author capable of saying, "I inform you, Gracchus, that there is no future state; but-if there should be, what would the spirits of our ancient warriours think of you?” Gracchus must have laughed outright at such a question, and, if he condescended to notice it at all, have replied that-he need not trouble himself with conjecturing what might be thought of him by those who, according to the interrogator's own premises, were nonentities. But Juvenal was no unbeliever. He describes, indeed, the world of spirits, as peopled by the figments of the poets; and I know not how he could do otherwise: but it does But why of conquest boast? the conquer'd climes Are free, O Rome, from thy detested crimes. not therefore follow that he gave credit to those fooleries. He uses them as Socrates, perhaps, would have done, in conformity to the traditionary creed, as a simple vehicle of his opinion respecting the immortality of the soul, and nothing more. As to his "selection of circumstances," I might attribute it to the want of a correct taste, which is visible on other occasions; but I am more inclined to place it to the account of his peculiar turn for satire: he is-petulanti splene cachinno, and sometimes weakens his argument by too free an indulgence of it. Here he evidently aims at Virgil, with whose description of Charon, Styx, &c. he does not appear greatly edified, and which, indeed, whatever may be thought of its sublimity, is scarcely less puerile than his own. The "frogs" are not very heroick, it must be confessed; but the una transire, &c. is a mere parody of the Eneid, where the grave account of Charon's taking the two adventurers into his crazy boat, driving the ghosts into a corner to make room for them, and finally landing them, completely drenched, on the mud, is as obnoxious to ridicule, as any thing in the passage before us.. But Ruperti, and those who think with him, render Sed tu vera puta, Suppose these things should be true!" a version which agrees as little with the spirit as the sense of the original. No instance can be produced, I believe, where a simple supposition is conveyed in such emphatick language; which, to me, has all the air of a solemn injunction: "BUT BE THOU PERSUADED THAT THESE THINGS ARE TRUE." Nor do I think the criticks more successful in their explanation of Illuc* heu miseri traducimur ! they say it means, "To what a pass are we wretches come !" I see nothing of the language of indignation in this apostrophe, but rather of pathos and deep dejection, arising from the conviction of a momentous truth: 66 And yet to these abodes we all must come, There is a passage in Petronius, which seems to ascertain the sense of this disputed exclamation. Trimalchio produces at his table, a larvam argenteam, (a model of a skeleton, I suppose,) and after bandying it about for some time among the guests, affectedly breaks out, "HEU, HEU, NOS MISEROS! quam totus homuncio nilest! "Sic erimus cuncti, postquam nos auferet Orcus." * Several good MSS. read Illic. No-one Armenian all our youth outgoes, VER. 235. No-one Armenian &c.] Et tamen unus, &c. Ruperti thinks that there would be more spirit in this passage, if it were put into the dramatick form; and I have adopted his idea. The objection is raised by a friend, to what is said in a preceding line,- -non faciunt illi quos vicimus; there is now additional point in the reply, Aspice quid faciant commercia! an expression perhaps for which the poet was indebted to that verse of Menander, so appositely quoted by St. Paul: Φθείρεσιν ήθη χρησθ ̓ ὁμιλίαι κακαι. Juvenal gives the name of the poor youth mentioned in the text, (Zalates,) so that the anecdote was probably well known when he wrote. It was customary with the Romans, when they received hostages from a conquered or tributary state, to place them, under a pretence of honour, in some of the most respectable houses; the masters of which were responsible for their safety. The tribune, to whom Zalates was intrusted, betrayed his duty, and corrupted the principles of his unsuspecting guest. |