se principally from those importunate passions which are not
capable of being gratified without a body; and that on the contrary, the
happiness of virtuous minds very much consists in their being employed
in sublime speculations, innocent diversions, sociable affections, and
all the ecstasies of passion and rapture which are agreeable to
reasonable natures, and of which they gained a relish in this life.

Upon this foundation, the poet raises that beautiful description of the
secret haunts and walks which he tells us are inhabited by deceased
lovers.

"Not far from hence," says he, "lies a great waste of plains, that are
called, the 'fields of melancholy.' In these grows a forest of myrtle,
divided into many shady retirements and covered walks, and inhabited by
the souls of those who pined away with love. The passion," says he,
"continues with them after death." He then gives a list of this
languishing tribe, in which his own Dido makes the principal figure, and
is described as living in this soft romantic scene with the shade of her
first husband Sichaeus.[187]

The poet in the next place mentions another plain that was peopled with
the ghosts of warriors, as still delighting in each other's company, and
pleased with the exercise of arms. He there represents the Grecian
generals and common soldiers who perished in the siege of Troy as drawn
up in squadrons, and terrified at the approach of AEneas, which renewed
in them those impressions of fear they had before received in battle
with the Trojans. He afterwards likewise, upon the same notion, gives a
view of the Trojan heroes who lived in former ages, amidst a visionary
scene of chariots and arms, flowery meadows, shining spears, and
generous steeds, which he tells us were their pleasures upon earth, and
now make up their happiness in Elysium. For the same reason also, he
mentions others as singing paeans, and songs of triumph, amidst a
beautiful grove of laurel. The chief of the concert was the poet Musaeus,
who stood enclosed with a circle of admirers, and rose by the head and
shoulders above the throng of shades that surrounded him. The
habitations of unhappy spirits, to show the duration of their torments,
and the desperate condition they are in, are represented as guarded by a
fury, moated round with a lake of fire, strengthened with towers of
iron, encompassed with a triple wall, and fortified with pillars of
adamant, which all the gods together are not able to