composition as the English language, in the same style of verse, can
boast. I have ventured to point out a passage or two, for they are rare,
where the sublimity has been weakened by epithets; and I have done this,
because it is a fault, particularly with young writers, so common. In
the most truly sublime images of Scripture, the addition of a single
word would often destroy their effect. It is therefore right to keep as
nearly as possible to the very words. No one understood better than
Milton where to be general, and where particular; where to adopt the
very expression of Scripture, and where it was allowed to
paraphrase.--BOWLES.

The fourth eclogue of Virgil is devoted to celebrating the coming birth,
while Pollio is Consul, of a boy whose infancy will usher in the golden
age, and whose manhood will witness its fullness. Wars are to cease; the
beasts of prey are to change their natures; the untilled earth is to
bring forth fruits spontaneously; and peace, ease, and plenty are to
reign supreme. The names of the parents of this expected child are not
recorded, and the commentators are greatly divided upon the question.
The most reasonable conjecture is that the intention was to do homage to
the ruling genius at Rome, Augustus, or Caesar Octavianus, as he was then
called, whose wife Scribonia was pregnant at the time. Unhappily for the
prognostications of the poet the infant "proved a daughter, and the
infamous Julia."[2] Virgil grounds his glowing anticipations upon
certain Cumaean or Sibylline verses; for, as Jortin well remarks, he
would have deprived his announcement of all authority if he himself had
set up for a prophet. He could only hope to accredit his promised
marvels by appealing to an oracle that was popularly believed to be
inspired. "The Sibylline books," says Prideaux, "were a main engine of
state. When they were ordered to be consulted the keepers of them always
brought forth such an answer as served their purpose, and in many
difficulties the governors helped themselves this way."[3] Virgil was
equally diplomatic. He probably had no faith in the wonders he
announced. His object was to pay court to Augustus, and to assist in
establishing his patron's power.

The resemblance which portions of the Pollio bear to passages in Isaiah
is generally admitted. "This," says Pope, "will not seem surprising when
we reflect that the Eclogue was taken from a Sibylline prophecy on the
same subject." He does not att