trembling step, and this must I long
endure.

"For thou beholdest me, having now lived seven ages; it remains for me
to equal the number of particles of the dust; {yet} to behold three
hundred harvests, {and} three hundred vintages. The time will come, when
length of days will make me diminutive from a person so large; and when
my limbs, wasted by old age, will be reduced to the most trifling
weight. {Then} I shall not seem to have {once} been beloved, nor {once}
to have pleased a God. Even Phoebus himself will, perhaps, not recognize
me; or, {perhaps}, he will deny that he loved me. To that degree shall I
be said to be changed; and though perceived by none, I shall still be
recognized by my voice. My voice the Destinies will leave me."

[Footnote 11: _Parthenope._--Ver. 101. The city of Naples, or
Neapolis, was called Parthenope from the Siren of that name, who
was said to have been buried there.]

[Footnote 12: _Son of AEolus._--Ver. 103. Misenus, the trumpeter,
was said to have been the son of AEolus. From him the promontory
Misenum received its name.]

[Footnote 13: _Long-lived Sibyl._--Ver. 104. The Sibyls were said
by some to have their name from the fact of their revealing the
will of the Deities, as in the AEolian dialect, +Sios+ was 'a God,'
and +boule+ was the Greek for 'will.' According to other writers,
they were so called from +Siou bulle+, 'full of the Deity.']

[Footnote 14: _Juno of Avernus._--Ver. 114. The Infernal, or
Avernian Juno, is a title sometimes given by the poets to
Proserpine.]

EXPLANATION.

The early fathers of the church, and particularly Justin, in their
works in defence of Christianity, made use of the Sibylline verses
of the ancients. The Emperor Constantine, too, in his harangue
before the Nicene Council, quoted them, as redounding to the
advantage of Christianity; although he then stated that many persons
did not believe that the Sibyls were the authors of them. St.
Augustin, too, employs several of their alleged predictions to
enforce the truths of the Christian religion.

Sebastian Castalio has warmly maintained the truth of the oracles
contained in these verses, though he admits that they have been very
much interpolated. Other writers, however, having carefully examined
them, have pronounced them to be spurious, and so many pious frauds;
which, perhaps, may be pronounced to be the genera