Think'st thou by wit to model their escape? The bowl fhall fparkle, and the banquet rife; And menace death: thofe menaces fhall move And thy loft friends return to humankind. Left to the naked fecret fraud be meant, 360 Or magic bind thee, cold and impotent. Thus Thus while he fpoke, the fovereign plant he drew, Where on th'all-bearing earth unmark'd it grew, And fhew'd its nature and its wondr'rous pow'r: Black was the root, but milky white the flow's; 365 Moly the name, to mortals hard to find, But all is easy to th' ethereal kind. This Hermes gave, then gliding off the glade A -The fovereign plant he drew, While v. 361. Where on th'all-bearing earth unmark'd it grew, &c.] This whole paffage is to be understood allegorically. Mercury is Reason, he being the God of Science: The plant which he gives as a preservative against incantation is instruction; the root of it is black, the flower white and fweet; the root denotes that the foundation or principles of inftruction appear obfcure and bitter, and are distasteful at firft, according to that laying of Plato, The beginnings ef inftruction are always accompanied with reluctance and pain. The flower of Moly is white and sweet; this denotes that the fruits of inftruction are fweet, agreeable, and nourishing. Mercury gives this plant; this intimates, that all inftruction is the gift of Heaven: Mercury brings it not with him, but gathers it from the. place where he ftands, to fhew that Wisdom is not confin'd to places, but that every where it may be found, if Heaven vouchfafes to difcover it, and we are difpofed to receive and follow it. Thus Ifocrates underftands the Allegory of Moly; he adds, separ εἶναι ρίζαν αυτῆς τὸ δὲ Μώλυος ἄνθος, λευκὸν κατὰ γάλα διὰ τὴν τὸ τελᾶς παιδείας λαμπρότητα, ἠδὴ καὶ τὸ ἡδὺ καὶ τρόφιμον. The root of Moly is bitter, but the flower of it white as milk, to denote the excellency of inftruction, as well as the pleasure and utility of it in the end. He further illuftrates the Allegory, by adding Κάρπες τῆς παιδείας εἰ καὶ μὴ γάλακτι ικέλες ἀλλὰ γλυκείς, ό That is, the fruits of inftruction are not only white as milk, but fweet though they fpring from a bitter root. Euftathius. Maximus Tyrius alfo gives this ftory an allegorical fenfe, Differt. 16. Αὐτὸν μὴν τὸν Ὀδυσσέα εχ ὁρᾶς, ὡς πανοίαις συμφοραῖς ἀντλεχνώ μενος ἀρετῇ σώζει, τότο αυτῷ τὸ ἐκ Κίρκης Μῶλυ, τῦτο τὸ ἐν θαλάτ xphdevov; that is, "Doft thou not obferve Ulyffes, how by op While full of thought, revolving fates to come, 3701 fpeed my paffage to th' enchanted dome: Arriv'd, before the lofty gates I ftay'd; The lofty gates the Goddess wide display'd: 375 Radiant with starry ftuds, a filver feat Receiv'd my limbs ; a footstool cas'd my feet. "pofing virtue to adverfity he preferves his life? This is the Scarf "that protects him from Circe, this is the Scarf that delivers him «from the ftorm, from Polypheme, from Hell, &c. See also Differt. 19. It is pretended that Moly is an Ægyptian plant, and that it was really made ufe of as a prefervative against Enchantments: but I believe the Moly of Mercury, and the Nepenthe of Helen, are of the fame production, and grow only in Poetical ground. Ovid has tranflated this paffage in his Metamorphofis, lib. 14, Pacifer huic dederat florem Cyllenius album; There is a remarkable sweetness in the verse which defcribes the - Νεηνίη ἀνδρὶ ἐοικώς Πρῶτον ὑπηνήτῃ τῇ πὲρ χαριεσάτη ἥβη. -On his bloomy face Youth fmil'd celeftial- Virgil was fenfible of the beauty of it, and imitated Ora puer prima fignans intonfa juventâ. But in the opinion of Macrobius, he falls fhort of Homer, lib. fa Saturn 13. Pratermifsà gratiâ incipientis pubertatis ́p, xapssára, Minus gratam fecit latinam defcriptionem, She She mix'd the potion, fraudulent of foul; I took, and quaff'd it, confident in heav'n : Go, be a beast! I heard, and yet was man, Then fudden whirling like a waving flame My beamy faulchion, I affault the dame. 385 Struck with unufual fear, the trembling cries, She faints, fhe falls; fhe lifts her weeping eyes. What art thou? fay! from whence, from whom you O more than human! tell thy race, thy name. Amazing ftrength, thefe poyfons to fuftain! 390 Not mortal thou, nor mortal is thy brain. (came? v. 379. I took, and quaff'd it, confident in heav'n.] It may be ask'd if Ulyffes is not as culpable as his companions, in drinking this potion? Where lies the difference? and how is the Allegory carried on, when Ulyffes yields to the folicitation of Circe, that is Pleasure, and indulges, not refifts his appetites? The moral of the fable is, that all pleasure is not unlawful, but the accefs of it: We may enjoy, provided it be with moderation. Ulyffes' does not tafte till he is fortify'd against it; whereas his companions yielded without any care or circumfpection; they indulged their appetites only, Ulyffes taftes merely out of a defire to deliver his affociates: he makes himself mafter of Circe, or Pleasure, and is not in the power of it, and enjoys it upon his own terms; they are flaves to it, and out of a capacity ever to regain their freedom but by the affiftance of Ulyffes. The general moral of the whole fable of Circe is, that pleafure is as dreadful an enemy as Danger, and a Circe as hard to be conquer'd as a Polypheme. Or Or art thou he? the man to come (foretold Sheath thy bright fword, and join our hands in peace; And how, dread Circe! (furious I rejoyn) 400 Can Love and love-born confidence be mine? Beneath thy charms when my companions groan, To fhare thy feaft-rites, or ascend thy bed; Or fwear that oath by which the Gods are ty❜d, v. 403. -Shall I be led To share thy feaft-rites.] Euftathius obferves, that we have here the picture of a man truly wife, who when Pleasure courts him to indulge his appetites, not only knows how to abstain, but fufpects it to be a bait to draw him into fome inconveniencies: A man fhould never think himfelf in fecurity in the houfe of a Circe. It may be added, that these apprehenfions of Ulyffes are not without a foundation; from this intercourfe with that Goddess, Telegonus sprung, who accidentally Qew his father Ulyffes. Swear, |