t thou restored to thy declining town?
But say, what wounds are these? what new disgrace
Deforms the manly features of thy face?"

Dryden, xi. 369.

284 --_Like a thin smoke._ Virgil, Georg. iv. 72.

"In vain I reach my feeble hands to join
In sweet embraces--ah! no longer thine!
She said, and from his eyes the fleeting fair
Retired, like subtle smoke dissolved in air."

Dryden.

285 So Milton:--

"So eagerly the fiend
O'er bog, o'er steep, through strait, rough, dense, or rare,
With head, hands, wings, or feet pursues his way,
And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies."

"Paradise Lost," ii. 948.

286 "An ancient forest, for the work design'd
(The shady covert of the savage kind).
The Trojans found: the sounding axe is placed:
Firs, pines, and pitch-trees, and the tow'ring pride
Of forest ashes, feel the fatal stroke,
And piercing wedges cleave the stubborn oak.
High trunks of trees, fell'd from the steepy crown
Of the bare mountains, roll with ruin down."

Dryden's Virgil, vi. 261.

287 --_He vowed._ This was a very ancient custom.

288 The height of the tomb or pile was a great proof of the dignity of
the deceased, and the honour in which he was held.

289 On the prevalence of this cruel custom amongst the northern nations,
see Mallet, p. 213.

290 --_And calls the spirit._ Such was the custom anciently, even at the
Roman funerals.

"Hail, O ye holy manes! hail again,
Paternal ashes, now revived in vain."

Dryden's Virgil, v. 106.

291 Virgil, by making the boaster vanquished, has drawn a better moral
from this episode than Homer. The following lines deserve
comparison:--

"The haughty Dares in the lists appears:
Walking he strides, his head erected bears:
His nervous arms the weighty gauntlet wield,
And loud applauses echo through the field.
* * * *
Such Dares was, and such he strode along,
And drew the wonder of the gazing throng