With prosperous gales we pass the quiet sounds Of still Helorus, and his fruitful bounds. Then, doubling Cape Pachynus, we survey The rocky shore extended to the sea. The town of Camarine from far we see, And fenny lake, undrained by Fate's decree. In sight of the Geloan fields we pass, And the large walls, where mighty Gela was; Then Agragas, with lofty summits crowned, Long for the race of warlike steeds renowned. We passed Selinus, and the palmy land, } And widely shun the Lilybæan strand, } Unsafe, for secret rocks and moving sand. } At length on shore the weary fleet arrived, Which Drepanum's unhappy port received. Here, after endless labours, often tossed } By raging storms, and driven on every coast, } My dear, dear father, spent with age, I lost-- } Ease of my cares, and solace of my pain, Saved through a thousand toils, but saved in vain. The prophet, who my future woes revealed, Yet this, the greatest and the worst, concealed; And dire Celæno, whose foreboding skill Denounced all else, was silent of this ill. This my last labour was. Some friendly god From thence conveyed us to your blest abode." Thus, to the listening queen, the royal guest } His wandering course and all his toils expressed; } And here concluding, he retired to rest. } FOOTNOTES: [101] Dr Carey proposes to read _our_; but the alteration seems unnecessary. NOTE ON ÆNEÏS, BOOK III. And children's children shall the crown sustain.--P. 300. _Et nati natorum, et qui nascentur ab illis._ Virgil translated this verse from Homer, Homer had it from Orpheus, and Orpheus from an ancient oracle of Apollo. On this account it is that Virgil immediately subjoins these words, _Hæc Phœbus_, &c. Eustathius takes notice, that the old poets were wont to take whole paragraphs from one another; which justifies our poet for what he borrows from Homer. Bochartus, in his letter to Ségrais, mentions an oracle which he found in the fragments of an old Greek historian, the sense whereof is this in English, that, when the empire of the Priamidæ should be destroyed, the line of Anchises should succeed. Venus therefore, says the historian, was desirous to have a son by Anchises, though he was then in his decrepit age; accordingly she had Æneas. After this, she sought occasion to ruin the race of Priam, and set on foot the intrigue of Alexander (or Paris) with Helena. She being ravished, Venus pretended still to favour the Trojans, lest they should restore Helen, in case they should be reduced to the last necessity. Whence it appears, that the controversy betwixt Juno and Venus was on no trivial account, but concerned the succession to a great empire. ÆNEÏS, BOOK IV. ARGUMENT.