Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 17.djvu/85

Rh Accordingly we read in Sylla's time of such a philosopher taken near Dyrrachium, who would not be persuaded to give them a lecture by all they could say to him, and only showed his power in sounds by neighing like a horse.

But a more successful attempt was made in Augustus's reign by the inquisitive genius of the great Virgil; whom, together with Varus, the commentators suppose to have been the true persons, who are related in the sixth Bucolick to have caught a philosopher, and doubtless a genuine one of the race of the old Silenus. To prevail upon him to be communicative (of the importance of which Virgil was well aware) they not only tied him fast, but allured him likewise by a courteous present of a comely maiden called Ægle, which made him sing both merrily and instructively. In this song we have their doctrine of the creation, the same in all probability as was taught so many ages before in the great pygmæan empire, and several hieroglyphical fables under which they couched or embellished their morals. For which reason I look upon this Bucolick as an inestimable treasure of the most ancient science.

In the reign of Constantine we hear of another taken in a net, and brought to Alexandria, round whom the people flocked to hear his wisdom; but as Ammianus Marcellinus reporteth, he proved a dumb philosopher; and only instructed by action.

The last we shall speak of, who seemeth to be of the true race, is said by St. Jerome to have met St. Anthony in a desert; who inquiring the way of him,