But to this I have answered formerly that his fear was not for himself, but for his people. And who can give a sovereign a better commendation, or recommend a hero more to the affection of the reader? They were threatened with a tempest, and he wept; he was promised Italy, and therefore he prayed for the accomplishment of that promise;—all this in the beginning of a storm; therefore he showed the more early piety and the quicker sense of compassion. Thus much I have urged elsewhere in the defence of Virgil: and since, I have been informed by Mr. Moyle, a young gentleman whom I can never sufficiently commend, that the ancients accounted drowning an accursed death. So that if we grant him to have been afraid, he had just occasion for that fear, both in relation to himself and to his subjects. I think our adversaries can carry this argument no farther, unless they tell us that he ought to have had more confidence in the promise of the gods. But how was he assured that he had understood their oracles aright? Helenus might be mistaken; Phoebus might speak doubtfully; even his mother might flatter him that he might prosecute his voyage, which if it succeeded happily he should be the founder of an empire: for that she herself was doubtful of his fortune is apparent by the address she made to Jupiter on his behalf; to which the god makes answer in these words:— “_Parce metu_, _Cytherea_, _manent immota tuorum_ _Fata tibi_,” &c. Notwithstanding which the goddess, though comforted, was not assured; for even after this, through the course of the whole “Æneis,” she still apprehends the interest which Juno might make with Jupiter against her son. For it was a moot point in heaven whether he could alter fate or not; and indeed some passages in Virgil would make us suspect that he was of opinion Jupiter might defer fate, though he could not alter it; for in the latter end of the tenth book he introduces Juno begging for the life of Turnus, and flattering her husband with the power of changing destiny, _tua_, _qui potes_, _orsa reflectas_! To which he graciously answers— “_Si mora præsentis leti_, _tempusque caduco_ _Oratur juveni_, _meque hoc ita ponere sentis_, _Tolle fugâ Turnum_, _atquc instantibus eripe fatis_. _Hactenus indulsisse vacat_. _Sin altior istis_ _Sub precibus venia ulla latet_, _totumque moveri_ _Mutarive putas bellum_, _spes pascis inanis_.” But that he could not alter those decrees the king of gods himself confesses in the book above cited, when he comforts Hercules for the death of Pallas, who had invoked his aid before he threw his lance at Turnus:— “_Trojæ sub mænibus altis_ _Tot nati cecidere deûm_; _quin occidit unà_ _Sarpedon_, _mea progenies_; _etiam sua Turnum_ _Fata vocant_, _metasque dati pervenit ad ævi_.”