Hoc opus, hic labor est. Pauci quos æquus amavit
Jupiter, aut ardens evexit ad æthera virtus,
Dis geniti potuere. Tenent media omnia silvæ,
Cocytusque sinu labens, circumvenit atro.
Is it not obvious, from the preceding explanation, that by Avernus in this place, and the dark gates of Pluto, we must understand a corporeal nature, the descent into which is indeed at all times obvious and easy, but to recall our steps, and ascend into the upper regions, or, in other words, to separate the soul from the body by the cathartic virtues, is indeed a mighty work, and a laborious task? For a few only, the favourites of heaven, that is, born with the true philosophic genius, and whom ardent virtue has elevated to divine contemplations, have been enabled to accomplish the arduous design. But when he says that all the middle regions are covered with woods, this too plainly intimates a material nature; the word silva, as is well known, being used by antient writers to signify matter, and implies nothing more than that the passage leading to the barathrum of body, i. e. into profound darkness and oblivion, is through the medium of a material nature: and this medium is surrounded by the black bosom of Cocytus, that is, by bitter weeping and lamentations, the necessary consequence of the soul’s union with a nature entirely foreign to her own. So that the poet in this particular perfectly corresponds with Empedocles in the line we have cited above, where he exclaims, alluding to this union,
For this I weep, for this indulge my woe,
That e'er my soul such novel realms should know.
In the next place, when he thus describes the cave, through which Æneas descended to the infernal regions;
Spelunca alta fuit, vastoque immanis hiatu,
Scrupea, tuta lacu nigro, nemorumque tenebris;
Quam super haud ullæ poterant impune volantes
Tendere iter pennis; talis sese halitus atris
Faucibus effundens supera ad convexa ferebat;
Unde locum Graii dixerunt nomine Aornum.
Does it not afford a beautiful representation of a corporeal nature, of which a cave, defended with a black lake, and dark woods, is an obvious emblem? For it occultly reminds us of the ever-flowing and obscure condition of such a nature, which may be said
