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of lightning from a cloud; but the soul that is carnal and immersed in sense 105, like a heavy and dank vapour, with difficulty kindles and expires. There is therefore no occasion, against nature, to send the bodies of good men to heaven; but we are to conclude that virtuous souls, by nature and the divine justice, rise from men to heroes, from heroes to genii: and at last, if (as in the Mysteries) they be perfectly cleansed and purified, shaking off all remains of mortality and all the power of the passions, finally attain the most glorious and perfect happiness; and ascend from genii to gods, not by the vote of the people, but by the just and established order of nature

106

French critic went upon the supposed analogy between fire and dryness but there is a much more natural and more obvious analogy, which may help us to the interpretation of this pas sage, that is, the near relation which dryness has to purity or cleanliness; and indeed we find the word sos used metaphorically in the latter sense, ξηροι τροποι.

105 Milton, in his Comus, uses the same comparison :
-The lavish act of sin

Lets in defilement to the inward parts.
The soul grows clotted by contagion,
Imbodies, and imbrutes, till she quite lose
The divine property of her first being.

Such are those thick and gloomy shadows damp
Oft seen in charnel vaults and sepulchres,
Lingering and sitting by a new-made grave,
As loth to leave the body that it loved,
And link'd itself by carnal sensuality
To a degenerate and degraded state.

(vv. 465-475.) (L.)

The same idea may be traced P. L. vi. 660. ix. 165. Nor need we be surprised at it's recurrence: for, as Warton remarks (in loc.) the notion is to be found much expanded in the Phædon of Plato; and Henry More the Platonist, who was Milton's contemporary in Christ College, might have given his mind an early bias to the study of that great master, "This poetical philosophy (says Bishop Hurd) nourished the fine spirits of Milton's time, though it corrupted some.' "*

106 Hesiod was the first, who distinguished these four natures, men, heroes, genii, and gods. He saw room, it seems, for per

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The surname that Romulus had of Quirinus, some think was given him, as [another] Mars; others, because they call the Roman citizens Quirites; others again, because the ancients gave the name of Quiris to the point of a spear, or to the spear itself; and that of Juno Quiritis to the statues of Juno, in which she was represented leaning on a spear. They likewise stiled a certain spear, which was consecrated in the palace, Mars; and those, who distinguished themselves in war, were rewarded with a spear. Romulus then, as a martial or warrior-god, was named Quirinus; and the hill, upon which his temple stands, has on this account the name of Quirinalis. The day of his disappearance is called "The flight of the people," and None Caprotine, because then they go out of the city to offer sacrifice at the Goat's-Marsh. Upon this occasion they pronounce aloud some of their proper names, Marcus and Caius for instance, representing the flight which then happened, and their calling to one another amidst the general terror and confusion. Others, however, are of opinion that this is not a representation of flight, but of haste and eagerness, deriving the ceremony from the following source: When the Gauls, after the taking of Rome, were driven out by Camillus, and the city thus weakened did not easily recover itself, many of the Latins under the conduct of Livius Posthumius marched against it. This army sitting down before Rome, a herald was sent to signify that the Latins were desirous of renewing their old alliance and affinity, which was now declining, by new inter-marriages. If therefore they

petual progression and improvement in a state of immortality. And when the heathens tell us that, before the last degree (that of divinity) is reached, those beings are liable to be replunged into their primitive state of darkness, one would imagine they had heard something of the fallen angels.

would send them a number of their virgins and widows, peace and friendship should be established between them, as before with the Sabines upon the like occasion. When the Romans heard this, though they would have willingly avoided the war, they yet considered the giving up of their women as not at all more eligible than captivity. While they were still in suspense, a servant-maid named Philotis (or, according to others, Tutola) advised them to do neither; but by a stratagem, which she had concerted, to avoid both the war and the giving of hostages. The stratagem was, to dress Philotis herself and other handsome female slaves in good attire, and send them instead of free-born virgins to the enemy. After which, Philotis in the night time was to light a torch, as a signal for the Romans to attack the enemy, and despatch them in their sleep. The Latins were satisfied, and the scheme was carried into effect. For Philotis set up a torch on a wild fig tree, screening it behind with curtains and coverlets from the sight of the enemy, while it was visible to the Romans. As soon as they beheld it, they set out in great haste, often calling to each other at the gates to be expeditious; and falling upon the Latins, who expected nothing less, cut them in pieces. Hence this feast, in memory of the victory. The day was called Nona Caprotina, on account of the wild fig-tree,' in the Roman tongue caprificus. The women are entertained in the fields, in booths made of the branches of the fig-tree; and the servant-maids, in companies, run about and play: they afterward come to blows, and throw stones at one another, in remembrance of their having then aided and assisted the Romans in the battle. These particulars are admitted but by few historians. Their calling upon each other's names in the day-time indeed, and their walking in procession to the Goat's

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Marsh 107, like persons that were going to a sacrifice, seems rather referable to the former account: though possibly both these events might happen, in distant periods, upon the same day 108. Romulus is said to have been fifty-four years of age, and in the thirty-eighth of his reign 109, when he was taken from the world.

107 Instead of ws ETTI JaλaTTay (the reading in Bryan's text) which has no tolerable sense, an anonymous copy gives us WoTEρ aλaλale. And that to sacrifice,' or rather to offer up prayers at a sacrifice,' is one sense of aλaλalev, appears from the scholiast on Sophocles's Trachiniæ, where he explains αλαλαγαις by ταις επι των θυσίων ευχαίς. This signification, we suppose, it gained from the loud accent, in which those prayers were said or sung.

108 A happy illustration of this conjecture occurs in Bishop Watson's Apology for the Bible, Lett. ii.: where, in answer to Paine's objection with regard to the double reason assigned in Scripture for hallowing the Sabbath (Exod. xx. ii., and Deut. v. 15.) he adduces with singular felicity the detection of the gunpowder-plot, and the arrival of William III., as having "happened in distant periods on the same day;" and therefore investing it with a double sanctity, and supplying two reasons for it's annual observance.*

109 Dion. Halic., and indeed Plutarch himself in the beginning of the Life of Numa, says that Romulus left the world in the thirty-seventh year after the foundation of Rome. But perhaps those two historians may be reconciled, as to the age at which he died. For Plutarch states, that he was then full fifty-four years of age, and Dionysius that he was in his fifty-fifth year.

ROMULUS AND THESEUS

COMPARED.

THIS is all I have met with, that deserves to be related concerning Romulus and Theseus. To come therefore now to the comparison. First it appears, that Theseus was inclined to great enterprises of his own choice, compelled by no necessity; since he might have reigned in peace at Træezene, over a kingdom by no means contemptible, which would have fallen to him by succession: Whereas Romulus, in order to avoid present slavery and impending punishment, became valiant (as Plato expresses it) through fear, and was driven by the terror of extreme sufferings to arduous attempts. Besides, the most illustrious action of Romulus was the killing of one tyrant in Alba: But the first exploits of Theseus, performed occasionally and by way only of prelude, were those of destroying Sciron, Sinnis, Procrustes, and Corynetes; by whose punishment and death he delivered Greece from several cruel tyrants, before he was even known to those, for whose preservation he was exerting himself. He might likewise have gone safely to Athens by sea, without any danger from robbers; but Romulus could have no security, as long as Amulius lived. This difference then is evident: Theseus, when unmolested himself, went forth to rescue others from their oppressors. On the other hand, Romulus and his brother, while they themselves were uninjured by the tyrant, quietly suffered him to exercise his cruelties. And, if it was a great thing for Romulus to be wounded in

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