Page:Virgil's Pastorals, Georgics and Aeneis - Dryden (1709) - volume 2.djvu/66

 priety, Ganimede and Mercury; and Juno had Iris. It was not for Virgil to create new Ministers; he must take what he found in his Religion. It cannot therefore be said that he borrow'd them from Homer, any more than from Apollo, Dia­na, and the rest, whom he uses as he finds occasion for them, as the Grecian Poet did: but he invents the Occasions for which he uses them. Venus, after the destruction of Troy, had gain'd Neptune entirely to her Party; therefore we find him busy in the beginning of the Æneis, to calm the Tempest rais'd by Æolus, and afterwards conducting the Tro­jan Fleet to Cumes in safety, with the loss only of their Pilot; for whom he Bargains. I name those two Examples amongst a hundred which I omit; to prove that Virgil, generally speaking, employ'd his Ma­chines in performing those things, which might possibly have been done without them. What more frequent than a Storm at Sea, upon the rising of Orion? What wonder, if amongst so many Ships there shou'd one be overset, which was commanded by Orontes; though half the Winds had not been there, which Æolus employ'd? Might not Palinurus, without a Miracle, fall asleep, and drop into the Sea, having been over-wearied with watching, and secure of a quiet passage, by his observation of the Skies? At least Æneas, who knew nothing of the Machine of Somnus, takes it plainly in this Sense.

But Machines sometimes are specious things to amuse the Reader, and give a colour of probability to things otherwise incredible. And besides, it sooth'd the vanity of the Romans, to find the Gods so visibly con­cern'd in all the Actions of their Predecessors. We