Page:Virgil's Pastorals, Georgics and Aeneis - Dryden (1709) - volume 1.pdf/62

 Meteor shone around his Head, to the astonishment of his Souldiers: Virgil transfers this to Æneas.

Lætasque vomunt duo tempora flammas.

It is strange that the Commentators have not taken notice of this. Thus the ill Omen which happen'd a little before the Battel of Thrasimen, when some of the Centurions Lances took Fire miraculously, is hinted in the like accident which befel Acestes, before the Burning of the Trojan Fleet in Sicily. The Reader will easily find many more such Instances. In other Writers there is often well cover'd Ignorance; in Virgil, conceal'd Learning.

His silence of some Illustrious Persons is no less worth observation. He says nothing of Scævola, because he attempted to Assassinate a King, tho' a declar'd Enemy. Nor of the Younger Brutus; for he effected what the other endeavour'd. Nor of the Younger Cato, because he was an implacable Enemy of Julius Cæsar; nor could the mention of him be pleasing to Augustus; and that Passage