Page:Hero and Leander; a poem (IA heroleanderpoem00musa).pdf/37

 lence of this venerable institution, I am oblig'd for the above quotation to Dr. Potter's Antiquities, Vol. i, p.203. Oct. Edit. 1751, who acquaints us with the opinion of Eustathius, the famous, and in general authentic interpreter of the customs in Homer's time, that it was an institution of later ages, that the Priestesses should be Virgins—a voucher which however may be questioned from the consideration, that the ancients (as Servius tells us) us'd to exclude those, who had been twice marry'd, from the Priesthood—'Antiqui a Sacerdotiis repellebant bis nuptas'—Now if the ancients excluded those, who had been twice marry'd, and even the Daughters of such women, from this sacred office, it may be reasonably concluded, that those who were marry'd for the first time, would not be esteemed by them so eligible, as those who never had been marry'd. I speak as to the female sex; for Priests were frequently appointed, who were fathers of children, and indeed the name of Father was particularly honorable both in Greece and Rome. Minutius Felix, in his account of the profligate character, which recommended Priests and Priestesses, certainly alludes either to local degeneracy in Ancient Greece, or to later ages of Paganism; which deviated greatly from the original solemnity of their religion. The Romans in the days of Minutius were equally corrupted with the Greeks he mentions. See Dr. Potter's Antiquities, Vol. i. p. 204.

This verse has a suspicious aspect. In the line immediately preceding, Hero's limbs are call'd a Meadow of Roses; a poetical expression, which requir'd no illustration, and ought not to be enfeebled by this subsequent reason—'for her skin was red.' Add, that apply'd to  is a spiritless epithet; not to omit, that the intrusion of the verse now criticiz'd spoils a beautiful connection between  and ; a connection, which takes from the aukwardness of the repetitions, and , otherwise glaring within the space of so few lines.