Manes_. It places before us, in comparison,
the Flexible, which lives in sunshine upon the earth--and the Inflexible,
which reigns in the gloom of Erebus underneath it.

What does Dryden? He takes down the still, severe majesty of Virgil by too
much of the Flexible--by a double dose of humanity.

"A fault _which easy pardon might receive,
Were lovers judges_, or could Hell forgive."

It is remarkable that he has himself quoted the line of Virgil with great
praise, as one that approaches, within measure, to an Ovidian "turn." He
has himself overstepped the measure, and made it quite Ovidian.

The four verses which describe the fault of Orpheus, and the perception of
it in hell, are unsurpassed:--

"Restitit; Eurydicenque suam jam luce sub ipsa,
Immemor, heu! victusque animi respexit. Ibi omnis
Effusus labor: atque immitis rupta tyranni
Foedera: terque fragor stagnis auditus Avernis."

Only note the growing pathos from the beloved name to the naming of the
dread act. EURYDICEN--_suam_--_jam luce sub ipsa_--_immemor_--_heu!_--
_victusque animi_--RESPEXIT. Five links! Look, too, what a long way on in
the verse that sin of backward-looking has brought you. There shall hardly
be found another verse in Virgil which has a pause of that magnitude at
that advance, in the measure. It is a great stretching on of the thought
against the law of music, which usually controls you to place the logical
in coincidence with the musical--stop; but here you are urged on into the
very midst, and beyond the midst, of the last dactyl--a musical sleight
which must needs heighten that feeling, impressed by the grammatical
structure, of a voluntary delay,--of unwillingness to utter the word
fraught with inevitable death--that mortal RESPEXIT! After this, there is
here no poured out toil--no clashing and rending--No! here is the deep
note of victory--the proclamation sounding out from the abyss that the
prize which was carried off is regained. Thrice down--down--as low as the
pools of Avernus breaks out a peal--

"Terque fragor stagnis auditus Avernis."

This is the master with whom--and this the language, and this the measure
with which--our translator competes--"_imparibus armis_."

"For, near the confines of ethereal light,
And longing for the glimmering of a sight,
The unwary lover cast his eyes behind,
Forgetful of the law, nor master of his mind.
Straight all his hopes exhaled in empty smoke,
And his lon