The Aeneid Virgil (the top 100 crime novels of all time .TXT) đ
- Author: Virgil
Book online «The Aeneid Virgil (the top 100 crime novels of all time .TXT) đ». Author Virgil
âKnow, first, that heavân, and earthâs compacted frame,
And flowing waters, and the starry flame,
And both the radiant lights, one common soul
Inspires and feeds, and animates the whole.
This active mind, infusâd throâ all the space,
Unites and mingles with the mighty mass.
Hence men and beasts the breath of life obtain,
And birds of air, and monsters of the main.
Thâ ethereal vigour is in all the same,
And every soul is fillâd with equal flame;
As much as earthy limbs, and gross allay
Of mortal members, subject to decay,
Blunt not the beams of heavân and edge of day.
From this coarse mixture of terrestrial parts,
Desire and fear by turns possess their hearts,
And grief, and joy; nor can the groveling mind,
In the dark dungeon of the limbs confinâd,
Assert the native skies, or own its heavânly kind:
Nor death itself can wholly wash their stains;
But long-contracted filth evân in the soul remains.
The relics of inveterate vice they wear,
And spots of sin obscene in evâry face appear.
For this are various penances enjoinâd;
And some are hung to bleach upon the wind,
Some plungâd in waters, others purgâd in fires,
Till all the dregs are drainâd, and all the rust expires.
All have their manes, and those manes bear:
The few, so cleansâd, to these abodes repair,
And breathe, in ample fields, the soft Elysian air.
Then are they happy, when by length of time
The scurf is worn away of each committed crime;
No speck is left of their habitual stains,
But the pure ether of the soul remains.
But, when a thousand rolling years are past,
(So long their punishments and penance last,)
Whole droves of minds are, by the driving god,
Compellâd to drink the deep Lethaean flood,
In large forgetful draughts to steep the cares
Of their past labours, and their irksome years,
That, unremembâring of its former pain,
The soul may suffer mortal flesh again.â
Thus having said, the father spirit leads
The priestess and his son throâ swarms of shades,
And takes a rising ground, from thence to see
The long procession of his progeny.
âSurvey,â pursued the sire, âthis airy throng,
As, offerâd to thy view, they pass along.
These are thâ Italian names, which fate will join
With ours, and graff upon the Trojan line.
Observe the youth who first appears in sight,
And holds the nearest station to the light,
Already seems to snuff the vital air,
And leans just forward, on a shining spear:
Silvius is he, thy last-begotten race,
But first in order sent, to fill thy place;
An Alban name, but mixâd with Dardan blood,
Born in the covert of a shady wood:
Him fair Lavinia, thy surviving wife,
Shall breed in groves, to lead a solitary life.
In Alba he shall fix his royal seat,
And, born a king, a race of kings beget.
Then Procas, honour of the Trojan name,
Capys, and Numitor, of endless fame.
A second Silvius after these appears;
Silvius Aeneas, for thy name he bears;
For arms and justice equally renownâd,
Who, late restorâd, in Alba shall be crownâd.
How great they look! how vigârously they wield
Their weighty lances, and sustain the shield!
But they, who crownâd with oaken wreaths appear,
Shall Gabian walls and strong Fidena rear;
Nomentum, Bola, with Pometia, found;
And raise Collatian towârs on rocky ground.
All these shall then be towns of mighty fame,
Thoâ now they lie obscure, and lands without a name.
See Romulus the great, born to restore
The crown that once his injurâd grandsire wore.
This prince a priestess of your blood shall bear,
And like his sire in arms he shall appear.
Two rising crests, his royal head adorn;
Born from a god, himself to godhead born:
His sire already signs him for the skies,
And marks the seat amidst the deities.
Auspicious chief! thy race, in times to come,
Shall spread the conquests of imperial Romeâ â
Rome, whose ascending towârs shall heavân invade,
Involving earth and ocean in her shade;
High as the Mother of the Gods in place,
And proud, like her, of an immortal race.
Then, when in pomp she makes the Phrygian round,
With golden turrets on her temples crownâd;
A hundred gods her sweeping train supply;
Her offspring all, and all command the sky.
âNow fix your sight, and stand intent, to see
Your Roman race, and Julian progeny.
The mighty Caesar waits his vital hour,
Impatient for the world, and grasps his promisâd powâr.
But next behold the youth of form divine,
Caesar himself, exalted in his line;
Augustus, promisâd oft, and long foretold,
Sent to the realm that Saturn rulâd of old;
Born to restore a better age of gold.
Afric and India shall his powâr obey;
He shall extend his propagated sway
Beyond the solar year, without the starry way,
Where Atlas turns the rolling heavâns around,
And his broad shoulders with their lights are crownâd.
At his foreseen approach, already quake
The Caspian kingdoms and Maeotian lake:
Their seers behold the tempest from afar,
And threatâning oracles denounce the war.
Nile hears him knocking at his sevânfold gates,
And seeks his hidden spring, and fears his nephewâs fates.
Nor Hercules more lands or labours knew,
Not thoâ the brazen-footed hind he slew,
Freed Erymanthus from the foaming boar,
And dippâd his arrows in Lernaean gore;
Nor Bacchus, turning from his Indian war,
By tigers drawn triumphant in his car,
From Nisusâ top descending on the plains,
With curling vines around his purple reins.
And doubt we yet throâ dangers to pursue
The paths of honour, and a crown in view?
But whatâs the man, who from afar appears?
His head with olive crownâd, his hand a censer bears,
His hoary beard and holy vestments bring
His lost idea back: I know the Roman king.
He shall to peaceful Rome new laws ordain,
Callâd from his mean abode a scepter to sustain.
Him Tullus next in dignity succeeds,
An active prince, and prone to martial deeds.
He shall his troops for fighting fields prepare,
Disusâd to toils, and triumphs of the war.
By dint of sword his crown he shall increase,
And scour his armour from the rust of peace.
Whom Ancus follows, with a fawning air,
But vain within, and proudly popular.
Next view the Tarquin kings, thâ avenging sword
Of Brutus, justly drawn, and Rome restorâd.
He first renews the rods and ax severe,
And gives the consuls royal robes to wear.
His sons, who seek the tyrant to sustain,
And long for arbitrary lords again,
With ignominy scourgâd, in open sight,
He dooms to death deservâd, asserting public right.
Unhappy man, to break the pious laws
Of nature, pleading in his childrenâs cause!
Howeâer the doubtful fact is understood,
âTis love of honour, and his countryâs good:
The consul,
Comments (0)