e off, in full precipitation, for a
place of refuge, if harbour or haven may be had. Or, as the same
inspired bard elsewhere has it--"fugere ferae"--the wild beasts have
fled.

The triumph is complete. The panic seizes their imperial mistress
herself, who, turning her prow, sweeps with all sails set from the lost
battle.

"Ipsa videbatur ventis REGINA vocatis
Vela dare et laxos jam jamque immittere funes;
Illam inter caedes, pallentem morte futura,
Fecerat Ignipotens undis et Iapyge ferri."

And why is Augustus made Victor? Does not his name stand, to all time,
as the emperor of good letters? Is an Augustan age a less precise and
potential phrase for a golden age of the arts, than a Saturnian age for
the same of the virtues? And why is Antony beaten? Surely, because he
represents the collective Antony-Lumpkinism of literature. And what has
the dear Cleopatra to do in the fight? The meretricious gipsy--the word
is Virgil's own--by her illicit attractions, and by the dusk grain of
her complexion, doubly expresses to the life the foul daughter of Night
whom the Dunces obey and worship.

Vulcan, says Virgil, made the shield, like a god, knowing the future.
But here Virgil makes Vulcan. And we have now seen enough fully to
justify the later popular tradition of his country in steadfastly
attributing to him the fame of an arch-wizard. Looking at the thing in
this light, we derive extreme consolation from the final augurous words
of our last citation--"pallentem morte futura"--which we oppose with
confidence to the appalling final prophecy of Pope, and believe that the
goddess is, as the nymphs were said to be, exceedingly long-lived, but
not immortal.

* * * * *

_Edinburgh: Printed by Ballantyne and Hughes, Paul's Work._

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume
58, Number 358, August 1845, by Various

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH ***

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