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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

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

upholds preserves and governs the great fabrick of the Universe which otherwise would fall into disorder confusion and into that primitive Chaos out of which it was at first educed for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In him we live move and have our being If we give tbis interpretation to the Poet these few verses seem to be an epitome or brief comprehension of the first chapter of Genesis touching the Creation for as Moses sayes there In principio Deus creavit coelum terram so Virgil here Principio coelum terras c. Spiritus intus alit and whereas Moses sayes that Spiritus Dei movebat vel incubabat supra faciem aquarum that the Spirit of God did move or brood upon the face of the waters so Virgil here tels us of a Spiritus or Mens which magno se corpore miscet as mention is made there of the Creation of those two great Luminaries the Sun and the Moon the like is here also Lastly as the Creation of Beasts Birds Fish and then of Man is there specified so Virgil sayes here Inde i. e. à Deo operante hominum pecudumque genus vitaeque volantum Et quae marmoreo fert monstra sub aequore pontus But others and with them I am apt to concurre are of opinion that Virgil here speaks according to the mind and sense of his Master Plato who followed Trismegistus and Pythagoras herein the first founders and fautors of the Academick Philosophy as he did in his opinion concerning the transmigration of souls Plato in his Timaeus and elsewhere as Wendilinus cites him Phys contempl sect 2. c. 6. endeavours to prove that this World or Universe is informed by a soul distinct from the World it self which doing the office which other souls doe in the particular beings they inform doth preserve move and govern this All and all its parts making the world hereby an Animal rul'd and govern'd by its own peculiar soul nor is God meant hereby but some other entity different from that ens entium and by them styled Anima vel Spiritus Mundi But this is throughly winnowed and refuted by the learned Wendilinus in the place above mentioned and the arguments of its assertors fully answered to whom for more ample satisfaction herein as also to the subtile Scaliger Exerc. 6. sect 2. we shall referre the Reader and proceed § 73 Anchises pointing to those souls before him which stood upon the brink of the river Lethe for the Antecedent to illis which the Ancients used for illis is Animae sayes that they are of a fierie nature and that their principles which he here calls semina are of heavenly extraction or composition which is not to be understood onely of those souls there but of the humane soul in general for according to the Theologie of some Gentils the soul was not judged as it really is a simple and spiritual essence but an elementary compound of Fire and Air the two more pure desecated and active elements as the body was thought to be of Water and Earth the two more gross material and inactive principles We shall easily elucidate this dark place if we reduce the Authors sense into this single Theoreme viz. the humane soul is a most excellent being as consisting of the two more excellent principles viz. Fire and Air From the first there is in it igneus vigor from the second it is coelestis originis for coelum is taken here as often it is pro aëre or the air Hence it is plain what the Poet means by Igneus est ollis vigor coelestis origo Seminibus Thus paraphrased But those souls there of fiery vigour share The principles of them celestiall are That the soul consists of fire was the opinion of Hipparchus that of air of Anaximenes that of both of Boethos and our Virgil here Epicurus added to these two a third ingredient whilst he held that it was a speceies igne aëre spiritu mixta as you may read in Macrob. l. 1. c. 14. in Somn. Scip. who there delivers the various opinions of the Ancients concerning the nature of the Soul Hence according to Homers doctrine who held with Hipparchus that the soul was originated from fire the Heroes abhorred nothing more then drowning as most contrary to the fierie nature of the Soul which they thought would thereby be extinguished See how apprehensive Virgil makes Aeneas of drowning l. 1. Aen. Extempló Aeneae solvuntur frigore membra Ingemit duplices tendens ad sidera palmas Talia voce refert c. A cold sweat doth Aeneas limbs surprize He sighs and his hands stretching to the skies He thus begins c. Whereas otherwise he makes him a person of a most undaunted and unshaken constancy 〈◊〉 l. 6. Non ulla laborum O virgo nova mî facies inopináve surgit no dangers unto me Are strange or Virgin shake my constancie Doubtless Virgil herein concurred with Homer in his opinion And from hence the Stoicks opin'd that the soul as soon as freed from the body presently took its flight to the Concave of the Moon the place or region of the element of fire But of these dreams more then enough let us now return to our Author Virgil from these premisses inferres that the Soul is of an active piercing and subtile nature as are the principles whereof it consists that it is of it self free from all passions and perturbations quantum non noxia corpora tardant Unless by the commixtion and conjunction with the body it abate of its naturall vigour and become as that is heavy and drossie All souls are equally intelligent and alike impassionate But according to the variety of complexions the abundance of humors the pureness of the spirits the disposition of the organs especially of the brain they are more intense or remiss § 74 Hence the Poet sayes that as to the intellectual part thereof it becomes heavy dull and inapprehensive so to the appetitive or will it becomes subject to sundry irregularities and passions which he specifies here in four whereof two have for their object an Evil and two a Good The first is Fear which is a passion of the soul touching a future evil as Grief The second is touching an evil present and now upon us The third is Desire or Concupiscence which is a passion of the soul about a good absent as Joy The fourth is about a good present and in fruition or the acquiescence of the Soul in the possession of its desired object Three of these viz. Desire Joy and Grief are placed in the Concupiscible Appetite and one viz. Fear in the irascible He inferres further that the soul is not only subject to error and passion whilst united to the body but that it doth absolutely for●● it s own nature nor is at all sensible of its originall which is of fire and air which he means here whilst he saies nec auras respiciunt the body is

to Circe and Medêa worthy shoots of such a stock She as were her Daughters was a famous Sorceresse a woman so transcendently cruel that when at hunting she could finde no other game she would with her lance or sword kill some of her Attendants She used to sacrifice all strangers whose evill starres had unfortunately guided them to those parts lastly having poysoned her Father she usurped his Throne For which rare endowments and goodly merits she was deified invoked and sacrificed to by those of her own damnable profession Thus have I shewed you Hecate in the true mirrour of history and now you may behold her through the opticks of poesie where she appears as foul a Monster in her externals as you have seen her in her internals She was said to be half a surlong tall which is the ●6 part of a mile without question the properest of her sex She had three heads the right of a horse the left of a dog and the middle of a wild sow from whence the Poets gave her the epithets of triceps triformis and tergemina instead of hair serpents and vipers hung hissing wreathing and curling themselves about her shoulders She was called Brimo from the ugly howling noise she used to make I cannot in particular give a reason why they represented her thus only in generall because she was thought to be an infernall Goddesse and Patronesse of Sorceresses and Witches they imagined that they could not depaint her with too much horrour and terribleness But to the purpose Hecate is a genericall word applicable to many particulars for by it sometimes we are to understand Luna sometimes Diâna and sometimes Proserpina In fine when it is applied to Heaven it is taken for Luna when to Earth for Diâna when to Hell for Proserpine So the Sun in heaven is called Sol in earth Liber Pater in hell Apollo hence Virgil sayes that she is Coeloque Ereboque potens to which he might also have added terrâ And from these three denominations we may more rationally call her triceps three-headed or else from the threefold aspect of the Moon at the increase full and decrease At the increase she is said to be in heaven and to borrow light from the Sun at the full to impart her own to the earth and in the wane to decline unto darknesse and as it were to the infernal Mansions Mayênus gives this reason why Hecate is said to be Coelo Ereboque potens i. e. apud inferos superos potestatem habens because whilst the Moon is above the Horizon she giveth light to us who are Superi or above in regard of our Antipodes and whilst she is beneath the Horizon she giveth light to our Antipodes who are inferi or beneath in regard of us After this invocation the Sacrificer whom the Latines call Popa or Victimarius slew the sacrifice using in this also a different ceremony ●or when they sacrificed to the celestial Gods having knocked the beast on the head they laid him upon his back with his throat upward and so cut it but when to the Infernals they let out his blood holding his head towards the ground hence Virgil sayes supponunt alii cultors See Turneb l. 15. c. 12. Cultros supponere does imply in what posture the Victim lay Nor did the Victimarius alwayes slay the sacrifice sometimes those who came to offer slew it themselves which was as the same Author observes heroico ritu after the manner of the ancient Heroes Homer makes Agamemnon doe it Il. 3. as Virgil doth Aeneas here who did himself slay and offer a black-fleec'd Lamb to the Furies which is Nox or the Night and to her Sister which is Terra or the Earth they may well be so neer akin for the night is nothing but the interposition or shadowing of the earth To Proserpine because she is said never to have been pregnant he offered a barren Cow to Pluto an entire Bull or Holocaust who because he was deemed as Nat. Comes observes lib. 1. cap. 11. that divine minde or spirit which as the soul thereof was diffused through the whole mass of the earth and did there preside order and govern all things as Neptune in the sea Juno in the aire and Jupiter in the celestiall bodies I say for this reason there was little or no difference in the Ceremonies used to Pluto and in those used to the Celestials for here as you see were Altars Holocausts Oyl the only difference is that all infernall sacrifices ought to be performed as we have said in the night But for the better elucidation of this place and the fuller understanding of those Rites and Customes used by the Ancients in their Necyomancy Necromancie Sciomancie and other infernall Ceremonies read Statius Theb. l. 4. Sil. Ital. l. 13. Ovid. Met. l. 7. f. 2. * Sen. Oedip Act. 2. Scen. 1. Lucan Pharsal l. 6. out of all which thou mayst learn the wicked and ridiculous superstition of deluded Antiquity Hell is said to be empty and void either beause Death and the Grave are never satisfied or because there are none but ghosts and shadows there which being incorporeall take up no room nor fill any place § 34 The Romans according to A. Gellius l. 16. c. 5. and after him Macrobius l. 6. c. 8. used in their buildings to leave a spatious vacant place or base-Court before their Palaces which divided the same from the street or high-way this they called Vestibulum where those who came to salute or speak with the Master of the house remained a while before they had admittance whence Vestibulum has its denomination from ve an augmentative particle and stare as vetus from ve and aetas and vehemens from ve and mens ve signifying here as much as valde ab illâ ergo grandis loci consistione quasi quadam stabulatione vestibulum appellatum est This they used to adorn with Pictures and Statues as well to feed the eyes of their expecting friends and to make their delayed reception seem lesse tedious as to grace and ennoble the building To which custome Virgil alluding here placeth various forms and monsters as well before the Vestibulum of Hell as within the same Here Reader thou mayest with Quintilian observe the excellent judgement of the Poet and great happiness in the choice of his Epithets Others of the Latins have aspired to imitate Virgil herein who though in their attempt not unhappy yet must submit to this true idêa and prototype of poesie Thus Claudian l. 1. in Ruffin in emulation of our Master describes an Assembly or Sessions of the like Monsters in most luculent verses and is herein inferiour to none unlesse to him who never found his equall Let us not seem to deviate from the purpose if we make good our assertion by these following instances glomerantur in unum Innumerae pestes Erebi quocunque sinistro Nox genuit faetu nutrix Discordia belli Imperiosa Fames leto vicina

death did boast And spoils that great Avenger to our coast Did come and did his Cattle hither guide His Heards possest the vale and river-side § 44 Spain was anciently a most fertile Country abounding in all things necessary as well for the use and sustenance of man as serving for superfluous pleasures and luxurie and in those daies was esteemed the Granary of Italy and Rome that insatiable Cormorant and devourer of the riches and plenty of the whole world as you may read in Justin l. 44. c. 1. But of all the parts of Spain those Islands subject to Geryon were most happy and so abounding in herbage that if they did not sometimes take their Cattle off from feeding they would dye either of fat or repletion so much is the present soil altered and impaired to what it was in elder times whence the Droves of Geryon wherein consisted the sole wealth of that Age were so famous that they invited Hercules that great Land-looper to an expedition out of Asia into Europe Aeneas having passed through the Vestibulum or base-Court of Hell proceeds to the river Acheron which next receives those who travell into those dark and irremeable Kingdomes We shall confine our speculations concerning the infernall Rivers to this Section they were 5. in number Acheron Cocytus Phlegeton Styx and Lethe all mentioned by Virgil in this Poem Nor were these fantasticall but real Rivers and feigned to be infernall streams either from the unpleasantness and unwholsomness of their waters or for that losing themselves under ground they did disappear and after a long subterranean course as if springing from Hell break forth again And for these reasons Pausanias in Atticis is of opinion that Homer confined them to Hell and imposed on them the names by which they are now known Thus Acheron so called as Servius will have it quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 joyless or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it is a River which flows with grief and trouble is a River of Epirus neer the Town of Pandosia in the Province of the Threspoti flowing out of the Lake Acherusia which receiving many smaller streams into its channel posts along with them into the Bay of Ambracia and is now known by the name of Velichi There is another of this name in the Country of the Brutii a Province of Italy with a Town so called also where Alexander King of Epirus Brother to Olympias and Uncle to the great Macedonian Alexander lost his life for being forewarned by the Dodonêan Oracle to avoid the River Acheron and the Town of Pandosia and ignorant that there were any other places so called passed into Italy where partly to shun the danger threatned him and partly to satisfie his own innate ambition and thirst of Empire he joyned with the Tarentines against the Brutii but meeting there an Acheron and a Pandosia he met those fates also which he endeavoured to elude his life and vain hopes expiring together under the walls of Brutian Pandosia Justin l. 12. c. 2. Strabo l. 6. Livie l. 8. But to come to the Mythologie Acheron taken as here it is for one of the infernall Rivers was said to be the Son of the earth because that Auri sacra fames that accursed covering of riches which are dug and forced out of the bowels of the earth creates very great inquietudes and perturbations of mind signified by this word Acheron according to the above given etymologie thereof and because men for the love of wealth often hazard their souls and pass the River Acheron into eternall damnation Acheron was said to be thrust down into hell for administring drink to the Titans when they fought against Jupiter by this are covertly meant the wicked and rebellious togitations whereby in assisting and cherishing out sinnes his enemies we fight against our great Creator justly repayed with the worst of punishments because they have offended the best of Entities The water thereof is said to be of a most ungratefull and unpleasant taste because the recordation of our past actions and the account we are to give cannot but be very unpleasant and distastefull to us Lastly it is the first of all the Rivers which the Deceased are to pass because when wicked men are upon the point of death an Acheron or grief of mind doth thereupon seise them both in regard of those dearly beloved pleasures they leave behind them and of those dreaded pains which they expect as the just guerdon of their former delinquencies Acheron amongst the Poets is frequently taken for Hell it self § 45 Cocytus according to Pausanias is a River of Epire also neer the Town of Cichyrus in the Province of the Threspoti and haply may joyn and mingle with Acheron Hence Virgil alluding to the true position and topography of these two Rivers may say that Acheron does eructare omnem arenam in Cocytum fling up its sand into Cocytus id est with its thick and troubled waters discolour the purer stream of Cocytus This is also feigned to be a River of Hell taking its name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to weep or lament this was said to receive a continuall supply of waters from the tears of the Damned and is therefore called by Silius lacrymarum fons the mythologie of this is coincident with that which we have given of Acheron Styx is a fountain at the foot of Nonacris a Mountain of Arcadia whose water by reason of the intense coldnesse thereof was deadly to all who tasted it dissolving all sorts of metal insomuch that it could not be kept or contained in any vessel of gold silver brass or iron or any thing else but an Asses hoof and was thought to be that poyson which by Antipaters means was administred to Alexander the Great as you may read in Plut. in his life This River is mentioned by Herodot in Erato by Pausanias in Arcadicis by Pliny l. 2. c. 103. and l. 31. c. 2. This also for its subterranean passage and the poysonous quality of its waters is reckoned amongst the infernall streams and is called Styx 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. hatefull which in a literall sense may be verified of it in regard of its nature and qualities in a moral in regard of that hatred which the penitent dying man hath to sin for as by Acheron we are to understand that sorrow and contrition which an expiring man conceives for his past offences so by Styx is meant that detestation loathing and disclaiming which we feel in our souls for the same Cael. Rhodiginus l. 27. c. 5. alluding to the etymon of Styx from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hatefull sayes that therefore the Gods swore by Styx or the hatefull River quia â Diis hominibus odio habentur qui ad dejurium sunt procliviores because the perjur'd are hatefull both to God and Man This was therefore that Stygian floud Dii cujus jurare timent fallere numen

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