and songs of triumph, amidst a beautiful grove of laurel. The chief of the concert was the poet, Musæus, who stood inclosed with a circle of admirers, and rose by the head and shoulders above the throng of shades that surrounded him. The habitations' of unhappy spirits, to show the duration of their torments, and the desperate condition they are in, are represented as guarded by a Fury, moated round with a lake of fire, strengthened with towers of iron, encompassed with a triple wall, and fortified with pillars of adamant, which all the gods together are not able to heave from their foundations. The noise of stripes, the clank of chains, and the groans of the tortured, strike the pious Eneas with a kind of horror. The poet afterwards divides the criminals into two classes: the first and blackest catalogue consists of such as were guilty of outrages against the gods; and the next, of such who were convicted of injustice between man and man the greatest number of whom, says the poet, are those who followed the dictates of Avarice. It was an opinion of the Platonists, That the souls of men having contracted in the body great stains and pollutions of vice and ignorance, there were several purgations and cleansings necessary to be passed through both here and hereafter, in order to refine and purify them.' 4 Virgil, to give this thought likewise a clothing of poetry, describes some spirits as bleaching in the winds, others as cleansing under great falls of waters, and others as purging in fire, to recover the primitive beauty and purity of their natures. It was likewise an opinion of the same sect of philosophers, that the souls of all men exist in a separate state, long before their union with their bodies; and that upon their immersion into flesh, they forget every thing which passed in the state of pre 10. F. habitation.-[N.] 20. F. its.-[N.] 4 O. F. The road from ignorance and vice.-[N.] -[N.] 3 O. F. even.— existence so that what we here call knowledge, is nothing else but memory, or the recovery of those things which we knew be fore. In pursuance of this scheme, Virgil gives us a view of seve ral souls, who, to prepare themselves for living upon earth, flock about the banks of the river Lethe, and swill themselves with the waters of oblivion. The same scheme gives him an opportunity of making a noble compliment to his countrymen, where Anchises is represented taking a survey of the long train of heroes that are to descend from him, and giving his son Æneas an account of all the glories of his race. I need not mention the revolution of the Platonic year, which is but just touched upon in this book; and as I have consulted no author's thoughts in this explication, shall be very well pleased, if it can make the noblest piece of the most accomplished poet more agreeable to my female readers, when they think fit to look into Dryden's translation of it." No. 155. THURSDAY, APRIL 6, 1710. -Aliena negotia curat Excussus propriis. HOR From my own Apartment, April 5. THERE lived some years since within my neighbourhood a very grave person, an upholsterer,' who seemed a man of more The original of this sketch was an upholsterer in Covent Garden, by the name of Arne. V also No. 160-and the character of Quidnunc in Murphy's farce of the 'Upholsterer, or, What News?'-G. A very poor reason for giving the foregoing analysis of this poem, which the learned reader only, will admire, or can possibly understand. than ordinary application to business. He was a very early riser, and was often abroad two or three hours before any of his neigh bours. He had a particular carefulness in the knitting of his brows, and a kind of impatience in all his motions, that plainly discovered he was always intent on matters of importance. Upon my inquiry into his life and conversation, I found him to be the greatest newsmonger in our quarter; that he rose before day to read the Postman; and that he would take two or three turns to the other end of the town before his neighbours were up, to see if there were any Dutch mails come in. He had a wife and several children; but was much more inquisitive to know what passed in Poland than in his own family, and was in greater pain and anxiety of mind for King Augustus's welfare than that of his nearest relations. He looked extremely thin in a dearth of news, and never enjoyed himself in a westerly wind. This inde fatigable kind of life was the ruin of his shop.; for about the time that his favourite prince left the crown of Poland, he broke and disappeared. This man and his affairs had been long out of my mind, till about three days ago, as I was walking in St. James's Park, I heard somebody at a distance hemming after me; and who should it be but my old neighbour the upholsterer. I saw he was re duced to extreme poverty, by certain shabby superfluities in his dress for notwithstanding that it was a very sultry day for the time of the year, he wore a loose great coat and a muff, with a long campaign-wig out of curl; to which he had added the ornament of a pair of black garters buckled under the knee.1 Upon his coming up to me, I was going to inquire into his present circumstances; but was prevented by his asking me, with a whisper, 'Whether the last letters brought any accounts that one might 1 Nichols's notes contain some amusing details of the fashions of that day.-G. VOL. IV.- -8* L rely upon from Bender?' I told him, 'None that I heard of;' and asked him, 'Whether he had yet married his eldest daughter?' He told me 'No.' But pray,' says he, 'tell me sincerely, what are your thoughts of the king of Sweden?' (for though his wife and children were starving, I found his chief concern at present was for this great monarch.) I told him, 'that I looked upon him as one of the first heroes of the age.' 'But pray,' says he, 'do you think there is any thing in the story of his wound?' and finding me surprised at the question, Nay,' says he, 'I only propose it to you.' I answered, 'that I thought there was no reason to doubt of it.' But why in the heel,' says he, ' more than in any other part of the body? 'Because,' says I, 'the bullet chanced to light there.' This extraordinary dialogue was no sooner ended, but he began to launch out into a long dissertation upon the affairs of the North; and after having spent some time on them, he told me, he was in a great perplexity how to reconcile the Supplement with the English-Post,' and had been just now examining what the other papers say upon the same subject. The Daily Courant (says he) has these words, ' We have advices from very good hands, that a certain prince has some matters of great importance under consideration.' This is very mysterious; but the Post-boy leaves us more in the dark, for he tells us, 'That there are private intimations of measures taken by a certain prince, which time will bring to light.' Now the Postman, (says he) who uses to be very clear, refers to the same news in these words; The late conduct of a certain prince affords great matter of speculation.' This certain prince, (says the upholsterer) whom they are all so cautious of naming, I take to be,' upon which, though there was nobody near us, he whispered I Nichols gives in his notes to No. 91, a good list of the papers of this period-though the English Post' is not included.-G. something in my ear, which I did not hear, or think worth my while to make him repeat. We were now got to the upper end of the Mall, where were three or four very odd fellows sitting together upon the bench. These I found were all of them politicians, who used to sun themselves in that place every day about dinner-time. Observing them to be curiosities in their kind, and my friend's acquaintance, I sat down among them. The chief politician of the bench was a great assertor of paradoxes. He told us, with a seeming concern, that by some news he had lately read from Muscovy, it appeared to him that there was a storm gathering in the Black Sea, which might in time do hurt to the naval forces of this nation. To this he added, that for his part, he could not wish to see the Turk driven out of Europe, which he believed could not but be prejudicial to our woollen manufacture. He then told us, that he looked upon those extraordinary revolutions which had lately happened in these parts of the world, to have risen chiefly from two persons who were not much talked of; and those, says he, are Prince Menzikoff, and the Duchess of Mirandola. He backed his assertions with so many broken hints, and such a show of depth and wisdom, that we gave ourselves up to his opinions. The discourse at length fell upon a point which seldom escapes a knot of true-born Englishmen, whether in case of a religious war, the Protestants would not be too strong for the Papists? This we unanimously determined on the Protestant side. One who sat on my right hand, and, as I found by his discourse, had heen in the West-Indies, assured us, that it would be a very casy matter for the Protestants to beat the Pope at sea; and added, that whenever such a war does break out, it must turn to the good of the Leeward Islands. Upon this, one who sat at the end of the bench, and, as I afterwards found, was the geog |