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death_n	body_n	pain_n	soul_n	8,495	5	5.3269	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A95995	Æneas his descent into Hell as it is inimitably described by the prince of poets in the sixth of his Æneis. / Made English by John Boys of Hode-Court, Esq; together with an ample and learned comment upon the same, wherein all passages criticall, mythological, philosophical and historical, are fully and clearly explained. To which are added some certain pieces relating to the publick, written by the author.; Aeneis. Liber 6. English	Virgil.; Boys, John, 1614?-1661.	1660 (1660)	Wing V619; Thomason E1054_3; ESTC R200370	157,893	251

pro●essors of Christianism but exploded as absurd by the sounder sort of Ethnick Philosophers themselves as you may read in Aristot l. 1. de Anima c. 3. who terms the transmigration of souls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Pythagorean Fable Pythagoras flying the tyranny of Polycrates the invader of his Countryes liberty came to Crotôna in Italy Tarquinius Superbus lording it then at Rome A. Gell. l. 17. c. 21. where setting open his School he published and by this device as Meyênus takes it from Hermippus got credit to his new doctrine Pythagoras sayes he at his first arrival in Italy made himself an habitation under ground where hiding himself he charged his Mother to record carefully all memorable passages during his absence she observant of her sonnes injunction compiled a perfect diurnal of all things in the mean time he having lived thus a whole year at last came forth out of his subterranean mansion lean pale squalid and gastly as if he had risen from the dead then assembling the multitude he told them that he returned from Hell and that he might the better perswade what he intended to instill he repeated to them all what had hapened in that part of Italy during his absence so punctually that the people thinking that there was more than an ordinary spirit in the man without further dispute or examination embraced his doctrine which in Pythagoras his own person is thus delivered by Ovid. Met. l. 15. f. 3. O genus attonitum gelidae formidine mortis Quid Styga quid tenebras nomina vana timetis Materiem Vatum falsique pericula Mundi Corpora sive rogus flammâ seu tabe vetustas Abstulerit mala posse pati non ulla putetis Morte carent animae semperque priore relictâ Sede novis domibus vivunt habitantque receptae Ipse ego nam nemini Trojani tempore belli Panthoides Euphorbus eram cui pectore quondam Haesit in adverso gravis hasta minoris Atridae Cognovi clypeum laevae gestamina nostrae Nuper Abantëis templo Junonis in Argis Omnia mutantur nihil interit errat illinc Huc venit hinc illuc quoslibet occupat artus Spiritus eque feris humana in corpora transit Inque feras noster nec tempore deperit ullo Vtque novis facilis signatur cera figuris Nec manet ut fuerat nec formam servat eandem Sed tamen ipsa eadem est animam sic semper eandem Esse sed in varias doceo migrare figuras We will not so farre injure the Poet as to express him otherwise then what his ingenuous Translatour hath done who renders him thus O you whom horrours of cold death affright Why fear you Styx vain names and endless night The dreams of Poets and feign'd miseries Of forged hell whether last flames surprize Or age devour your bodyes they nor grieve Or suffer pains Our souls for ever live Yet evermore their ancient houses leave To live in new which them as Guests receive In Trojan warres I I remember well Euphorbus was Panthous sonne and fell By Menalaüs lance my shield again At Argos late I saw in Juno's Fane All alter nothing finally decayes Hither and thither still the spirit strayes Guest to all bodies out of beasts it flies To men from men to beasts and never dies As pliant wax each new impression takes Fixt to no form but still the old forsakes Yet it the same so souls the same abide Though various figures their reception hide This doctrine being easily imbibed by his Auditors so farre dispersed it self that even the Gauls a people farre sequestred from those parts of Italy were taught the same by their Druides as you may read in Lucan vobis Authoribus umbrae Non tacitas Erebi sedes noctisque profundae Pallida regna petunt regit idem spiritus artus Orbe alio longae canitis si cognita vitae Mors media est Certè populi quos despicet Arctos Faelices errore suo quos ille timorum Maximus haud urget lethi metus inde ruendi In ferrum mens prona viris animaeque capaces Mortis ignavum est periturae parcere vitae Dislodged souls if you conceive aright To hell descend not and those realms of night The body in another world is by The same spir't ruld in your Philosophy Death to another life the way doth show In your mistake O happiest of those who Are to the North-starre subject whom the fear Of death of fears the greatest doth not skare Hence on drawn steel you rush your great souls hence Disdain to stick at your vile blood's expence Herod it seems was a Pythagorean in this also whilst he said that the soul of St. John the Baptist by him wickedly murdered was entred into the body of our blessed Saviour Josephus l. 2. c. 7. de bell Judaic affirms that the Pharisees were tainted with the same erroneous belief who held that the souls of good men did pass into other bodies but that those of the wicked were for ever tormented in hell But haply we wade too farre in these speculations we shall therefore proceed to the next head which is concerning the creation of things The Poets sense and meaning here is briefly this that there is a certain spirit or soul which doth inform actuate complete cherish and sustain all Beings whether elementary viz. the Fire Air comprehended in the word Coelum or the heaven Earth and Water periphrastically expressed in the words Campos liquentes the liquid or watrie plains or celestial exemplified in the Sun and Moon as the two most glorious operative and powerfull Planets in generation Astra Titania put here by an Enallage for Astrum Titanium signifies the Sun from Titan who was so skilfull an Astrologue that he was feigned to be Brother to the Sun as Cael. Rhodig observes out of Pausan in Corinthiacis lect antiq l. 24. c. 17. and Titan is often taken for the Sun it self hence Astrum Titanium is only a circumlocution of Titan or the Sun But to proceed from the operation of this soul or spirit not only simple bodies as the Elements and Heavens took their being and are by the propitious influx thereof preserved therein but mixt bodies also as he instances in men beasts birds and fishes The sum of all is this viz. that there is a certain spirit or soul to whose operations and powerfull insinuations the world and all therein contained owes both its existence and subsistence If we by the spirit or soul here mentioned understand God himself or his omnipotent Spirit and the powerfull emanations thereof nothing is more consonant not only to reason but also to the analogie of the holy Scriptures then the assertion of our Poet For God is truly that Spirit which being present every where is without extension of it self diffused through all things and doth intus alere cherish and sustain all things This is that soul which actuates the vast Machine of this world which

on the Sea and Land After what hazards Sonne by thee sustaind Doe I embrace thee Oh! how did I feare Lest thee the Court of Carthage should ensnare But he thy Ghost Father thy woefull Ghost Often appearing forc'd mee to this coast Our Fleete rides in the Tyrrhene sea give me Thine hand dear Sire nor my embraces flie Hee spoke and wept thrice his embraces sought In vain thrice at the fleeting shadow caught Like winde which vanish'd or a winged dream Mean while Aeneas the Lethaean stream Which by those pleasant seats did softly glide And fair inclosures in the vale espyde About whose banks a multitude did stray As buzie Bees doe on a Sunn●e day Upon the flowërs brood and spo●t about The painted Meadowes with the murm'ring rout The Plains resound This unexpected sight To wonder and enquiry did invite The stranger Prince who ask'd what streams those were What those who in such numbers did repair Unto the same The Father doth reply Those unhous'd 78 Soules for whom by fates Decree New Mansions are reserv'd on Lethes brink Oblivion and thought-quelling draughts doe drink Long since I these before thee to present Have wish'd and to recount who their descent From mee derive that thou maist thence the more Rejoyce when thou shalt touch the wished shore Of Italie Father can it descend Into our thoughts that Souls from hence ascend That they shall their dull bodies reinvest Are th' wretches with such love of life possest Anchises then Sonne I le not thee delay But all things in due order here display The 72 heav'ns the earth the watry plains the bright And round-fac'd Moon the Suns unborrow'd light A Soul within Sustains whose virtues passe Through ev'ry part and mixe with the whole masse Hence Men beasts birds take their Original Those Monsters hence which in the Sea do dwell 73 But those Souls there of firie vigour share The Principles of them coelestiall are Unlesse they from the body clogged bee And ill-contrived Organs doe deny To them their operations hence Grief Joy Fear Hope and all wild passions us annoy Nor doe they their Original regard Whil●st shut up in the bodies darksome ward Nor 74 though they disembodied bee are they Freed from those stains which whilst inhous'd in clay They did collect having so long convers'd They with much filth from thence must be aspers'd Hence to their crimes their pains proportion'd are Some are expos'd to the all-searching Ayre Some are in Waters plung'd in fire some tryde Our Purgatory thus we all abide Then through the vast Elysium we are sent But few these joyfull Champaigns doe frequent Untill the fate-praefixed time have tane And purg'd away what e're contracted stain 75 Leaving of spots that heavenly Being cleer Of fire a compound and uninixed Ayr. A thousand yeers the destin'd period Fulfill'd the God calls them to Lethes flood That all things past forgot they may review The upper world and bodies reindue 76 This said his Sonne together with the Maid Into the thickest of the throng heled And mounts a hillock whence he might discern Them march in order and their faces learn Loe now thy future fates to thee I le shew What glory shall to Dardan's race accrue What Nephews shall from Latian stem be born Illustrious Souls who shall our name adorn That youth do'st see supported on his Lance Shall next to light by fates Decree advance Sylvius an Alban name thy posthume Sonne In whose veins Latium's royall blood shall run Shall next above appear the same thy dear Consort a king and Sire of kings shall bear Amidst the woods from whence our princely line Derived shall over long Alba reign That next is Prccas who the Trojan name Shall aeternize then those of no lesse fame Capys and Numitor That fourth like thee Sylvius Aeneas shall sirnamed be Alike for piety and arms extold If ever hee the Alban Scepter hold The goodly limbs of these brave youths survey But who with Civiek 77 wreaths are shadow'd they Nomentum Gabii and Fidenae shall Found and erect Collatia's toured wall Pometii Castrum Bola Cora too Shall then be names though they be namelesse now But with his 78 Grandsire martiall Romulus Shall reigne whom Ilia from Assaracus Sprung shall bring forth behold his double crest Him Jove himself doth even now invest With Deity Sonne under his command Renowned Rome shall to the utmost land Her Empire stretch her prowesse to the skies And blest with a stout race of men comprize Sev'n hills within her walls With towrs thus crownd Cybel ' doth Phrygias towns in triumph round Proud of her divine ofspring num'rous race Which in Olympus all as Gods take place But 79 both thine eyes here bend thy Romans see This Caesar is this the whole progenie Of thy Iülus ready now t' ascend This this is hee whom fates to thee commend God-sprung Augustus the golden age again He shall restore as in old Saturns reign Beyond the Garamants and Indians hee Shall rule beyond the Stars a land doth lye Beyond the walk both of the Sun and yeer Where Atlas doth the spangled axel bear Now from all quarters of the Sea-girt earth The Oracles foretell his dreaded birth Both from the Caspian and Maeotick coast And from whence Nile into the sea doth post Nor did Alcîdes so much ground run o're Tbe brasse-hoof'd hinde and Erymanthian Boar Although he slew and Lerna terrifide Nor the victorious Bacchus who doth guide With vine-bound reigns his Chairet hurrying down His Tigers Nysa from thy ayrie crown And doubt wee of our valour proofe to give From Italy shall dastard fear us drive But 80 who is he who with the Olive bough And off'rings comes His hoarie locks him show To be that Roman King who to a great Empire From a small Dorp advanc'd the State On wholsom Law 's did build Then 81 Tullus shall Succeed and the unpractiz'd people call To warfare hee an enemy to peace Disused Triumphs shall revive Next these The haughty 82 Ancus struts already hee With pop'lar breath inflated seems to bee Would'st 83 thou the Tarquins and stout 84 The fasces from the kings recover'd He The Cons'lar pow'r and cruel Rods the first Brutus see Shall exercise his rebel Sons who durst New wars excite th' unhappy father shall To punishment for rescu'd freedom call What e're Posterity'othe fact shall say Him love of fame and 's Country shall o'resway But see the 85 Decii and the 86 Drusi there With 87 Torquate who a blood-staind axe doth bear With ensignes laden brave 88 Camillus see But those 89 two Souls who alike armed bee And friendly now whilest shrouded in death's night What warr 's when rais'd to lives more cheerfull light What slaughter shall they cause the Father from The Alps shall with his northern forces come The Sonne to him oppose the armed East Brave Souls proceed not in this dire contest

with green metall in our thickets grows This shall be thine the crop we give to thee Thou with the yellow fruit inrich'd shalt be § 20 The second thing Aeneas was to doe in order to his enterprize was to perform the funerall Rites due to the dead body of his friend Misênus The story of whose death and funerall is not added here by the Poet rashly and without designe For this Sciomancie or ceremonies which were to be performed to the infernall Gods could not be completed without the intervention of the dead corps of a man slain Hence Virgil feigns Misênus to be murdered by Triton in the manner you read though some say that he was for this purpose murdered by Aeneas himself though dissembled by Virgil beause he would not make Aeneas guilty of so foul a fact Homer doth the like in the person of Elpênor Vlysses his friend upon the same occasion And because the interrement of the dead body by which the Fleet was polluted was the proper expiatory for such pollution and necessarily previous to his sacrificing to the Manes and his descent into Hell therefore he is feigned to perform these funerall Rites before he puts in execution the third and last precept of Sibylla contained in this following verse Duc nigras pecudes haec prima piacula sunto § 21 Achâtes is alwayes introduced by the Poet as Aeneas his constant Companion and inseparable Associate and that not without reason if we reflect upon the etymologie of the word for Achâtes is derived 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies care and thoughtfulness the individuall adherent to great men and Princes qui es fidus Achâtes It comes § 22 It is recorded by Donâtus in Virgils life that he broke off as his manner often is at Misenum Aeoliden and that whilst he did recite this book before Augustus he did substitute ex tempore this Hemistich with the following verse quo non praestantior alter Aere ciére viros Martemque accendere cantu § 23 By this brace of Doves sacred to Venus Aeneas his Mother because salacious and fruitfull and esteemed a very lucky Augurie Mythologists understand the two wings of the soul contemplative and moral virtue which serve as guides to go before us to the golden bough of true sapience and verity and to lead us out of those errors wherein without their assisting conduct we are irrecoverably lost and this is that sylva immensa wherein Aeneas is said to be Others more Theologically understand by this Wood the World with those Labyrinths of temptations and Mazes of allurements wherewith whilst here we are involved and fastly engaged and by the Doves the blessed Spirit and grace of God which leadeth the pious through all wordly impediments to the fruition of eternall bliss which is the true golden Bough § 24 It is the nature of this Bird to peck and feed as it goes along and according to Interpreters our Author alludes here to that kind of Augurie or Divination which they called Augurium pullarium the manner whereof was this There were certain Chickens kept for this purpose in a Coop before which the Augur called Pullarius cast crums of bread if the Chicken lept hastily out of the Coop and eat so greedily of the crums that some of them falling out of their mouths rebounded from the ground which they termed Tripudium then it was taken for a good Omen and those who came to consult proceeded in their intended designe But if to the contrary the Chicken or Pullets came but slowly out of the Coop went back again or flew from the meat then they took it for an evil sign and desisted from their enterprise The Roman History furnisheth us with a pretty tale and to our purpose Claudius Pulcher collegue with L. Junius Pullus An. Vrb 504. designing to surprize Adherbal the Carthaginian Admiral in the Port of Drepanum in Sicilia before he put to sea asked counsell as the custome was of the Pullarius and when the Augur told him that the Chicken would not come out of the Coop and therefore advised him at present to desist till he might have a more encouraging Augurie answered quia esse nolunt bibant Because they will not eat let them drink and so threw them into the sea but mark the event the Romans never received a more memorable overthrow at sea for the Consul escaping with 30 ships left 93 in the hands of his victorious enemy This disaster was generally ascribed to his contempt of religion and slighting the Augury so carefull is the Devill by such examples to assert the credit of his wicked superstition and to drill on his followers to their own inevitable destruction This story you may read in Livie l. 19. Val. Max. l. 1. c. 4. Cicer. l. 2. de Nat. Deor. and in Suet. in Tiber c. 1. § 25 Misletoe of which birdlime is made see the manner in Pliny l. 24. c. 6. is an excrescence or exsudation of the tree on which it grows not proceeding from any seminall vertue thereof whence Virgil sayes quod non sua seminat arbos but is according to Scaliger Exerc. 168. produced as horns are in living creatures from the abundance of excrement ex vitali arboris excremento There is a popular and received error that this plant is generated from the dung of the Thrush which gave birth to this adagie Turdus sibi cacat malum or necem which is spoken of a man who is the fond Author of his own mischief but this is sufficiently refuted by the subtle Scaliger ib. Of this there are two kinds the one common growing in Apple-trees the other more rare shooting out of the Oak and therefore called viscum quercinum Misleto of the Oak and this is meant here by the Poet. This was esteemed sacred and much ceremony was used in the gathering of it Plin. l. 16. c. 44. This s●militude is very apt both in regard of the colour for the best sort as the same Author writes is extra fulvum intus porraceum quo nihil est glutinosius Secondly in regard of the manner of its growing for it is an excresence And lastly because it was accounted sacred all which three properties answer to the nature of the golden Bough § 26 Virgil who was generally learned never shews more exactnesse then when he treats of ancient Rites and Customes wherefore I have stuck here as also in the following description of the sacrifices performed to the infernall Deities more closely then elsewhere to the literall sense and Grammaticall construction of the Author because every word hath its weight and significancie we shall take every thing in the same order it lies here First they raised the Pyre or funerall Pile which was built of Oak and Pitch-trees as most combustible materials piceae flammis alimenta supremis Stat. This according to the quality of the person deceased was more or lesse large Virgil sayes here that they did struere ingentem

as Virgil sayes of it here and of which Homer l. 5. Odyss in the person of Calypso to Vlysses writes thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bear witness earth and the wide heavens above Yea Stygian waters which beneath do move The highest and most serious oath which ties The blessed Gods who dwell in starry skies Nor could the Gods either revoke that promise or frustrate that oath which they had confirmed by the intervention of that sacred name if they did they were for a penalty of their perjury expelled the Councel and society of the Gods for 10 years and interdicted the celestiall drink and food of Nectar and Ambrosia as you may read in Hesiods Theogonia This honour was conferred upon the River Styx as the same Author affirms for assisting Jupiter against the rebelling Giants The learned Lord Verulam in his book de sapientiâ Veterum says that by Styx we are to understand Necessity which though it hath no law it self is of all laws the most binding and Leagues of Princes which though with all solemnity and formality concluded are easily frustrated unlesse the Deity of Styx that fatall and irremeable River be called to witness and seal to the Conditions that is unless there be a firmer tye then either that of oath or bed a necessity of keeping the Articles of agreement by some mutuall pledges given or for fear of some losse danger diminution of State or Customes and then Leagues are held truly sacred and strictly observed and as it were confirmed by the invocation of Styx when there is a fear of that interdiction and suspension from the society and banquets of the Gods under which name and title the Ancients signified all rights and prerogatives of Empire with all affluence and felicity which good Patriots study to procure for their beloved Country Phlegeton is a fourth River called by Homer Pyriphlegeton from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fire and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to burn This is meerly fictitious and is said to roll rapid and fearfull flames of fire down its soultry channel As this flowed with fire so Cocytus as we have sayd was swoln up with tears both which according to Claudian l. 2. in Ruff. embraced the infernal Palace of Rhadamanthus Phlegeton represents to us the burning wrath of God against sinners and is a type of those torments which the wicked deservedly suffer in Hell in inextinguishable flames The fifth and last River of Hell is Lethe which signifies Oblivion which whosoever drunk of forgot all fore-passed actions or sufferings Pythagoras and from him the Platonists held and maintained the transmigration of souls which after their solution from the body descended into a certain Purgatory where after a great many years purgation they were brought to this River Lethe of which having drunk they forgot whatsoever miseries or incommodities they had suffered when they were formerly joyned with the body and thence reverted without any reluctancy into the same but we shall examine this fancie more strictly hereafter Lethe is indeed as Stephanus witnesseth a River in Africa flowing by the walls of Berenice which is swallowed up by a great gulph and running under ground many miles breaks forth again which gave occasion to the Country-people to think that this River sprung from Hell All which Rivers are thus described by Sil. Ital. l. 13. Punic late exundantibus urit Ripas sa●vus aquis Phlegeton turbine an●elo Parte aliâ torrens Cocytus sanguinis atri Vorticibus furit spumanti gurgite fertur At magnis semper Divis regique Deorum Jurari dignata palus picis horrida rivo Fumiferum volvit Styx inter Sulphura limum Tristior his Acheron sanie crassoque veneno Aestuat gelidam eructans cum murmure arenam Descendit nigrâ lentus per stagna palude Rough-swoln Phlegeton its banks doth burn And in its soultry-streames scortch'd stones doth turn Cocytus torrent then with putrid blood Doth flow driving along its foaming flood But Styx by which the great Gods and the King Of Gods vouchsaf's to sweare black with its spring Of molten Pitch its reaking mud commixt With Sulphur tumbles Acheron the next More sad then this with poyson swells and gore And belching up its noysom sand doth rore Whil'st slow with its black waters through a Lake It into Hell doth fall And this is the vulgar and common interpretation of these fictions Macrobius l. 1. c. 10. in Somnium Scipionis treading in the steps of the more ancient and primitive Philosophers who were of opinion that Hell was nothing but our very bodies wherein our souls being included underwent a nasty horrid and irksome restraint finds all those things in our selves which fabulous Antiquity attributed to Hell the Region of the Damned Hence according to their assertion he affirms that Lethe or the River of Oblivion is nothing else but the errors and mistakes of the soul forgetting the state majesty and perfect knowledge wherein it lived before it was confined to the loathsome Dungeon of the body That Phlegeton or the River of fire is nothing else but that preternaturall inflammation and exorbitant fire of lust concupiscence anger and other untamed affections which put the soul out of that equall temper which is naturall to it That Styx is whatsoever doth sink the Soul into dislike and hatred of its own actions Cocytus whatsoever causeth tears and grief Acheron whatsoever deprives us of the joy and content of our lives Hence they concluded that the soul was dead so long as it remained in the body and that then it recovered its pristine life and liberty when it by death hand emancipated it self from the bonds and servitude of the same Hi vivunt qui è corporum vinculis evolaverun nostra autem quae dicitur vita mors est Cicer. in Somn. Scipion. Charon which signifies joy was the sonne of Night and Erebus as Hesiod will have it who makes all the infernal Monsters the progenie of those Parents see him here to the life depainted by Virgil so that nothing can be added to that genuine and lively Prosopopaea which the Poet hath given us of him we will only illustrate our description with the like out of Seneca in Herc. furent Hunc servat amnem cultu aspectu horridus Pavidosque manes squallidus gestat senex Impexa pendet barba deformem sinum Nodus coercet concavae lucent genae Regit ipse conto Portitor longo ratem A foul old man frightfull in dresse and face Guarding these streams the fearfull Ghosts doth pass His beard untrimmed hangs and you might see Through his thin hollow cheeks a knot doth tye His nasty coat himself with a long pole His boat doth steer Charon was said to be rough and unpleasant to all his Passengers whatsoever for seeing all whom he wasted over naked alike he thought that no one was better then another that there was no difference between Kings and

therefore called by him animae carcer the prison of the soul reflecting haply upon that of Plato 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the body is the souls grave or sepulchre For as those who are shut up in a dark prison have all objects intercepted from their eyes so the soul incarcerated in the body is utterly blinded nor can auras respicere have the free prospect of the air whereof it is compounded The Poet here occurres to a tacite objection the soul it is true loseth of its original purity by conjunction with the body but when freed from thence it may recover its pristine state of purity and perfection no it retains still after its separation much of that pollution which it contracted whilst it was immers'd in the body And hence he layes the foundation of his imaginary Purgatory which as necessarily previous to that Transmigration we have already discoursed of he makes of three sorts either by ventilation by air purgation by fire or rinsing by water all according to the doctrine of Plato purging as Physicians doe by contraries for fire which is hot and dry air which is hot and moist water which is cold and moist are the most proper purgatives for earthy contagions i. e. for those stains the soul hath contracted from the commerce with the body which is earthy Earth being both the coldest of the 4. elements and in that most contrary to Fire which is the hottest and the driest and in that most opposite to Water which is the moistest in both to Air which is both hot and moist this is St. Austins conceit l. 21. de Civit. Dei c. 13. we will not say that the Roman Cath●lick hath no better authority for his Purgatory then that of a Roman Poet. This we may safely affirm that it was an opinion received amongst the Heathens many centuries before it was introduced into the Church of Rome with this only difference they held that after death the souls went into Purgatory and from thence ascended not into eternall bliss but into this world where they were reinvested with new bodies these that after their purgatory they ascended into hea●●n they both allow of a Purgatory and a subsequent resurrection and differ only in the terminus adquem the place to which that resurrection tends § 75 There is no one passage in this book more obscure then this in the literal construction you shall find more sound of words then soundness of sense for what can you understand by leaving the etherial sense pure and a fire of simple breath or air for so it runs if verbally translated We have therefore paraphrased upon this place as we have done elsewhere where the sense required it therefore by sensus aethereus we are to understand the Soul a heavenly or aethereal Being and therefore said by Virgil a little above to be coelestis originis as here to be aethereus sensus and to be ignis aër simplex for he sayes here auraï i. e. aurae simplicis ignem for auram simplicem ignem according to the opinion of those who held the soul to be compounded of air and fire therefore the sense of Igneus est ollis vigor coelestis orgio Seminibus is here expressed in other words whilst he sayes purumque reliquit Aetherum sensum atque auraï simplicis ignem which I think according to the sense both of the Author and the Context may not unaptly be paraphrased in these words Leaving of spots that heavenly Being clear Of Fire a compound and unmixed Air. But to summe up our precedent discourse and to shew the connexion thereof you must know that there is a certain soul or spirit which actuateth and presideth over this Universe and from whence all things derive their birth and original amongst the rest men whose souls we have and doe still speak according to the principles of Virgil and the Gentiles are compounded of fire and air as their bodies are of water and earth whence they resembling their principles are active and pure these drossie and dull they from the long commerce with the body contract stains from thence which adhere to them even after their separation Hence they are to be purged in the other world after which when purified they are brought by Mercury to the River Lethe the River of Forgetfulness and having drunk thereof they then return into this world and are received into other bodies We have insisted much upon the exposition of the Author in these precedent Paragraphs Interpreters have laboured much herein as upon a place knotty and obscure though full of much learning and abstruse speculations if we have either in our Translation or notes conferred any thing to the explication of the Author and the Readers satisfaction we shall think our pains in the one and our collections in the other not altogether misemployed § 76 We come now to the primarie scope and design of the Poet and which indeed as the end is was primus in intentione though ultimus in executione Virgil composed this Poem on purpose to celebrate the Family of Augustus and to consecrate the names of some of the most deserving and illustrious Houses of Rome to following Ages And to this only tends Aeneas his descent into Hell with all the precedent descriptions We shall here exhibit a Summary of the Roman History from the Alban Kings to Augustus his time following the series and method of our Author who presents them not according to the order of time wherein they were born or lived but as he fancies them to stand before Anchises the person here speaking § 77 The first therefore who appeared and was to ascend was Sylvius Aeneas his Sonne by Lavinia Latinus his Daughter and half-Brother to Ascanius sirnamed Iülus Aeneas his Sonne by Creüsa he is here called an Alban name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by way of excellence because from him all the Alban Kings were denominated Sylvii Aeneas his posthume sonne because born after his Fathers death and Sylvius because born in the Woods The Story is briefly this Lavinia being left with child by Aeneas fled for fear of her sonne in law Ascanius to Tyrrhus the Master of her Father Latinus his flocks but was delivered by the way of a son in the woods whom from thence she called Sylvius i. e. Du Bois or Wood and from him the succeeding Alban Kings were styled Sylvii but being freed from her ill-grounded jealousie she was at last brought back to Ascanius who looking upon her as the dear Relict of his honored Father did not only receive her with all demonstrations of love but leaving Lavinium built by Aeneas and so called from Lavinia his beloved Consort to her he founded Alba or the white City so called from the white Sow the Trojans found at their first landing and Longa from its figure it being extended in length See Aur. Victor de orig gent. Rom. And this became the royal residence of the Alban Kings