Even Hercules did not run over so many countries, though he transfixed the brazen-footed hind, quelled the forests of Erymanthus, and make Lerna tremble with his bow: nor Bacchus, who in triumph drives his car with reins wrapped about with vine-leaves, driving the tigers from Nyssa's lofty top. And doubt we yet to extend our glory by our deeds? or is fear a bar to our settling in the Ausonian land? is Procas, the glory of the Trojan nation; then Capys and Numitor follow, and Æneas Silvius, who shall represent thee in name, equally distinguished for piety and arms, if ever he receive the crown of Alba. See what youths are these, what manly force they show! and bear their temples shaded with civic oak; these to thy honour shall build Nomentum, Gabii, and the city Fidena; these on the mountains shall raise the Collatine towers, Pometia, the fort of Inuus, But who is he at a distance, distinBola, and Cora. These shall then be guished by the olive boughs, bearing the famous names; now they are lands sacred utensils? I know the locks and without names. Further, martial Ro- hoary beard of the Roman king, who mulus, whom Ilia of the line Assaracus first shall establish the city by laws, sent shall bear, shall add himself as com- from little Cures and a poor estate to panion to his grandsire Numitor. See vast empire. Whom Tullus shall next you not how the double plumes stand succeed, who shall break the peace of on his head erect, and how the father his country, and rouse to arms his inof the gods himself already marks him active subjects, and troops now unused out with his distinguished honours! Lo, to triumphs. Whom follows next vainmy son, under his auspicious influence, glorious Ancus, even now too much reRome, that city of renown, shall mea-joicing in the breath of popular applause. sure her dominion by the earth, and her valour by the skies, and that one city shall for herself wall around seven strong hills, happy in a race of heroes; like Mother Berecynthia, when crowned with turrets she rides in her chariot through the Phrygian towns, joyful in a progeny of gods, embracing a hundred grandchildren, all inhabitants of heaven, all seated in the high celestial abodes. This way now bend both your eyes; view this lineage, and your own Romans. This is Cæsar, and these are the whole race of Iülus, who shall one day rise to the spacious axle of the sky. This, this is the man whom you have often heard promised to you, Augustus Cæsar, the offspring of a god; who once more shall establish the golden age in Latium, through those lands where Saturn reigned of old, and shall extend his empire over the Garamantes and Indians: their land lies without the signs of the zodiac, beyond the sun's annual course, where Atlas, supporting heaven on his shoulders, turns the axle studded with flaming stars. Against his approach, even now both the Caspian realms and the land about the Palus Mæotis are dreadfully dismayed at the responses of the gods, and the quaking mouths of seven-fold Nde hurry on their troubled waves. But Will you also see the Tarquin kings, Ah those arms out of thy hand, O thou, the deep disaster of thy kindred; him my own blood! That one, having the Fates shall just show on earth, nor triumphed over Corinth, shall drive suffer long to exist. Ye gods, Rome's his chariot victorious to the lofty Capi- sons had seemed too powerful in your tol, illustrious from the slaughter of eyes, had these your gifts been perGreeks. The other shall overthrow manent. What groans of heroes shall Argos, and Mycenae, Agamemnon's that field near the imperial city of seat, and Eacides himself, the descend- Mars send forth! what funeral pomp ant of valorous Achilles; avenging his shall you, O Tiberinus, see, when you Trojan ancestors, and the violated glide by his recent tomb! Neither temple of Minerva. Who can in silence shall any youth of the Trojan line in pass over thee, great Cato, or thee, hope exalt the Latin fathers so high; Cossus? who the family of Gracchus, nor shall the Land of Romulus ever or both the Scipios, those two thunder- glory so much in any of her sons. bolts of war, the bane of Africa, and piety! ah that faith of ancient times! Fabricius in low fortune exalted? or and that right hand invincible in war! thee, Serranus, sowing in the furrow none with impunity had encountered which thy own hands had made? him in arms, either when on foot he Whither, ye Fabii, do you hurry me rushed upon the foe, or when he pierced tired? Thou art that Fabius justly with his spur his foaming courser's styled the Greatest, who alone shall flanks. Ah youth, meet subject for pity! repair our state by delay. Others, I if by any means thou canst burst rigorous grant indeed, shall with more delicacy fate, thou shalt be a Marcellus. Give mould the breathing brass; from marble me lilies in handfuls; let me strew the draw the features to the life; plead blooming flowers; these offerings at causes better; describe with the rod least let me heap upon my descendant's the courses of the heavens, and explain shade, and discharge this unavailing the rising stars: to rule the nations with duty. Thus up and down they roam imperial sway be your care, O Komans; through all the Elysian regions in these shall be your arts; to impose spacious airy fields, and survey every terms of peace, to spare the humbled, object: through each of which when and crush the proud. Anchises had conducted his son, and fired his soul with the love of coming fame, he next recounts to the hero what wars he must hereafter wage, informs him of the Laurentine people, and of the city of Latinus, and by what means he may shun or surmount every toil. Thus Father Anchises, and, as they are wondering, subjoins: Behold how adorned with triumphal spoils Marcellus stalks along, and shines victor above the heroes all? He, mounted on his steed, shall prop the Roman state in the rage of a formidable insurrection; the Carthaginians he shall humble, and the rebellious Gaul, and dedicate to Father Quirinus the third spoils. And upon this Æneas says; for he beheld marching with him a youth distinguished by his beauty and shining arms, but his countenance of little joy, and his eyes sunk and dejected: What youth is he, O father, who thus accompanies the hero as he walks? is he a son, or one of the illustrious line of his descendants? What bustling noise of attendants round him! How great resemblance in him to the other! but sable Night with her dreary shade hovers around his head. Then Father Anchises, while tears gushed shore. forth, began: Seek not, my son, to know! Two gates there are of Sleep, whereof the one is said to be of horn; by which an easy egress is given to true visions; the other shining, wrought of white ivory; but through it the infernal gods send up false dreams to the upper world. When Anchises had addressed this discourse to his son and the Sibyl together, and dismissed them by the ivory gate, the hero speeds his way to the ships, and revisits his friends; then steers directly along the coast for the port of Caïeta: where, when he had arrived, the anchor is thrown out from the forecastle, the sterns rest upon the CICERO'S VISION OF SCIPIO. now an eminence that was full of stars, bright Translated by Cyrus R. Edmonds. When I had arrived in Africa as military tribune of the fourth legion, as you know, under the Consul Lucius Manlius, nothing was more delightful to me than having an interview with Massinissa, a prince who, for good reasons, was most friendly to our family. When I arrived, the old man shed tears as he embraced me. Soon after, he raised his eyes up to heaven and said, I thank thee, most glorious sun, and ye the other inhabitants of heaven, that before I depart from this life I see in my kingdom, and under this roof, Pub-tol in your triumphal chariot, you shall lius Cornelius Scipio, by whose very name I am refreshed, for never does the memory of that greatest, that most invincible of men vanish from my mind. After this I informed myself from him about his kingdom, and he from me about our government; and that day was consumed in much conversation on both sides. Afterward, having been entertained with royal magnificence, we prolonged our conversation to a late hour of the night; while the old man talked of nothing but of Africanus, and remembered not only all his actions, but all his sayings. Then, when we departed to bed, owing to my journey and my sitting up to a late hour, a sleep sounder than ordinary came over me. In this, (I suppose from the subject on which we had been talking, for it commonly happens that our thoughts and conversations beget something analogous in our sleep, just as Ennius writes about Homer, of whom assuredly he was accustomed most frequently to think and talk when awake,) Africanus presented himself to me in that form which was more known from his statue than from his own person. No sooner did I know him than I shuddered. Draw near," said he, "with confidence, lay aside your dread, and commit what I say to your memory. You see that city, which by me was forced to submit to the people of Rome, but is now renewing its former wars, and cannot remain at peace," (he spoke these words pointing to Carthage from find the government thrown into confusion by the machinations of my grandson; and here, my Africanus, you must display to your country the lustre of your spirit, genius, and wisdom. "But at this period I perceive that the path of your destiny is a doubtful one; for when your life has passed through seven times eight oblique journeys and returns of the sun, and when these two numbers (each of which is regarded as a complete one-one on one account and the other on another) shall, in their natural circuit, have brought you to the crisis of your fate, then will the whole state turn itself toward you and your glory; the Senate, all virtuous men, our allies, and the Latins, shall look up to you. Upon your single person the preservation of your country will depend ; and, in short, it is your part, as dictator, to settle the government, if you can but escape the impious hands of your kinsmen. (Here, when Lælius uttered an exclamation, and the rest groaned with great excitement, Scipio said, with a gentle smile, "I beg that you will not waken me out of my dream, give a little time and listen to the sequel.") "But that you may be more earnest in the defence of your country, know from me, that a certain place in heaven is assigned to all who have preserved, or assisted, or improved their country, where they are to enjoy an endless duration of happiness. For there is nothing which takes place on earth more acceptable to that Supreme Deity who governs all this world, than those councils and assemblies of men bound together by law, which are termed states; the governors and preservers of these go from hence, and hither do they return.' Here, frightened as I was, not so much from the dread of death as of the treachery of my friends, I nevertheless asked him whether my father Paulus, and others, whom we thought to be dead, were yet alive! "To be sure they are alive, replied Africanus, "for they have escaped from the fetters of the body as from a prison; that which is called your life is really death. But behold your father Paulus approaching you.' No sooner did I see him, than I poured forth a flood of tears; but he, embracing and kissing me, forbade me to weep. And when, having suppressed my tears, I began first to be able to speak, Why," said I, "thou most sacred and excellent father, since this is life, as I hear Africanus affirm, why do I tarry on earth, and not hasten to come to you?" "Not so, my son," he replied; "unless that God, whose temple is all this which you behold, shall free you from this imprisonment in the body, you can have no admission to this place; for men have been created under this condition, that they should keep that globe which you see in the middle of this temple, and which is called the earth. | And a soul has been supplied to them from those eternal fires which you call constellations and stars, and which, being globular and round, are animated with divine spirit, and complete their cycles and revolutions with amazing rapidity. Therefore you, my Publius, and all good men, must preserve your souls in the keeping of your bodies; nor are you, without the order of that Being who bestowed them upon you, to depart from mundane life, lest you seem to desert the duty of a man, which has been assigned you by God. Therefore, Scipio, like your grandfather here, and me who begot you, cultivate justice and piety; which, while it should be great toward your parents and relations, should be greatest toward your country. Such a life is the path to heaven and the assembly of those who have lived before, and who, having been released from Now the place my father spoke of was a radiant circle of dazzling brightness amid the flaming bodies, which you, as you have learned from the Greeks, term the Milky Way; from which position all other objects seemed to me, as I surveyed them, marvellous and glorious. There were stars which we never saw from this place, and their magnitudes were such as we never imagined; the smallest of which was that which, placed upon the extremity of the heavens, but nearest to the earth, shone with borrowed light. But the globular bodies of the stars greatly exceeded the magnitude of the earth, which now to me appeared so small, that I was grieved to see our empire contracted, as it were, into a very point. Of Which, while I was too eagerly gazing on, Africanus said, "How long will your attention be fixed upon the earth? Do you not see into what temples you have entered? All things are connected by nine circles, or rather spheres; one of which (which is the outermost) is heaven, and comprehends all the rest, inhabited by that all-powerful God, who bounds and controls the others; and in this sphere reside the original principles of those endless revolutions which the planets perform. Within this are con tained seven other spheres, that turn round backward, that is, in a contrary direction to that of the heaven. these, that planet which on earth you call Saturn occupies one sphere. That shining body which you see next is called Jupiter, and is friendly and salutary to mankind. Next the lucid one, terrible to the earth, which you call Mars. The Sun holds the next place, almost under the middle region; b is the chief, the leader, and the director of the other luminaries; he is the soul and guide of the world, and of such immense bulk, that he illuminates and fills all other objects with his light. He is followed by the orbit of Venus, and that of Mercury, as attendants; and the Moon rolls in the lowest sphere, enlightened by the rays of the Sun. Below this there is nothing but what is mortal and transitory, excepting those souls which are given to the human race by the goodness of the gods. Whatever lies above the Moon is eternal. For the earth, which is the ninth sphere, and is placed in the centre of the whole system, is immovable and below all the rest; and all bodies, by their natural gravitation, tend toward it." Which as I was gazing at in amazement I said, as I recovered myself, From whence proceed these sounds, so strong and yet so sweet, that fill my ears? "The melody," replies he, "which you hear, and which, though composed in unequal time, is nevertheless divided into regular harmony, is effected by the impulse and motion of the spheres themselves, which, by a happy temper of sharp and grave notes, regularly produces various harmonic effects. Now it is impossible that such prodigious movements should pass in silence; and nature teaches that the sounds which the spheres at one extremity utter must be sharp, and those at the other extremity must be grave; on which account, that highest revolution of the star-studded heaven, whose motion is more rapid, is carried on with a sharp and quick sound; whereas this of the moon, which is situated the lowest, and at the other extremity, moves with the gravest sound. For the earth, the ninth sphere, remaining motionless, abides invariably in the innermost position, occupying the central spot in the universe. ness of the noise. Now this sound, which is effected by the rapid rotation of the whole system of nature, is so powerful that human hearing cannot comprehend it, just as you cannot look directly upon the sun, because your sight and sense are overcome by his beams." Though admiring these scenes, yet I still continued directing my eyes in the same direction toward the earth. On this Africanus said, "I perceive that even now you are contemplating the abode and home of the human race. And as this appears to you diminutive, as it really is, fix your regard upon these celestial scenes, and despise those abodes of men. What celebrity are you able to attain to in the discourse of men, or what glory that ought to be desired? You perceive that men dwell on but few and scanty portions of the earth, and that amid these spots, as it were, vast solitudes are interposed. As to those who inhabit the earth, not only are they so separated that no communication can circulate among them from the one to the other, but part lie upon one side, part upon another, and part are diametrically opposite to you, from whom you assuredly can expect no glory. "You are now to observe that the same earth is encircled and encompassed as it were by certain zones, of which the two that are most distant from one another, and lie as it were toward the "Now these eight directions, two vortexes of the heavens in both direc of which have the same powers, effect tions, are rigid as you see with frost, seven sounds, differing in their modu- while the middle and the largest zone lations, which number is the connecting is burned up with the heat of the sun. principle of almost all things. Some Two of these are habitable; of which learned men, by imitating this harmony the southern, whose inhabitants imprint with strings and vocal melodies, have opened a way for their return to this place; as all others have done, who, endued with pre-eminent qualities, have cultivated in their mortal life the pursuits of heaven. "The ears of mankind, filled with these sounds, have become deaf, for of all your senses it is the most blunted. Thus, the people who live near the place where the Nile rushes down from very high mountains to the parts which are called Catadupa, are destitute of the sense of hearing, by reason of the great their footsteps in an opposite direction to you, have no relation to your race. As to this other, lying toward the north, which you inhabit, observe what a small portion of it falls to your share; for all that part of the earth which is inhabited by you, which narrows toward the south and north, but widens from east to west, is no other than a little island surrounded by that sea which on earth you call the Atlantic, sometimes the great sea, and sometimes the ocean; and yet, with so grand a name, you see how diminutive it is! Now do you think it possible for |