PHOEBUS no choir, Cyrene, more divine, Nor ftate more favour'd, e'er beholds than thine : Mindful for ever of the ravish'd dame Whose wond'rous charms infpir'd and blest his flame : And hence fuperior honours are bestow'd By grateful fons of Battus on their God. Antiftrophe 3. There fhall they rule, their laws the fame, And make of men's delight the man, a God: 135 140 Swift In the Pythian's facred toils: give Fame to thofe realms, whence all their fame receive, &c. Ver. 142. And the fell Python, &c.] The afcribing this exploit to Apollo teems evidently to have arifen from a corrupt tradition of what the Redeemer was to do, a tradition founded on the promife of God, that the feed of the woman fhould bruife the ferpent's head." We fee (as was before remarked, note 34.) that this triumphant found of lo Paan, took its original from this victory of the God over the ferpent, which confirms the agreement noted above between it and Hallelujah, which is an acclamation of victory and triumph: as here the people are introduced finging this fong of joy to their Apollo for the deliverance wrought by him, fo in the Revelation xii. 9. we read, that when the great dragon was caft out, that old ferpent called the devil and fatan,--when he was caft out into 錄 Teleficrates. Swift from thy bow they pierc'd the monster's heart, While still the people cry'd, "Elance the dart:" Each shaft with acclamations they attend, “Io, send forth, another arrow send: "Thee thy bleft mother bore, and pleas'd affign'd "The willing Saviour of diftreft mankind.” 66 into the earth and fubdued, a loud voice was heard in heaven, faying, "Now is come falvation and ftrength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Chrift, &c. See ver. 13. and xx. 2, 3. It is obferveable, that Callimachus only explains the name In, and that of emitting, which nothing affects the explanation given in the before mentioned note: for Пlamor, Paan, muft indifputably come from waw, percutio, ferio, to ftrike, emit, fend forth; and Scapula immediately fays, Apollo was called Paan, wapaтo maie, à feriendo, quod a fagittis Pythonem ferpentem confoderit." And we must remember, that In (however deduced) is finally derived from E, to be, which comes from Ew, and whence is derived Inus. See Stephens's Thefaurus, and Scapula's Lexicon. So that In, fe, or reverfed E7 immediately expreffes the effence, thou art : and must be appropriated to the divinity, as before proved. The connection between w, if, ini, &c. are well worth the notice of the critical and learned etymologift. I fhall have occafion to fpeak more of Python in the hymn to Delos. Ver. 147. Thee, &c.] The people in their acclamations to their triumphant deity do not barely fay, that he was born, the Saviour, &c. or that his father begat him a Saviour, &c. but that his mother bore him, 145 ENVY mologifts explain it by Bonterra autoμatus aveu ons na xλndoros, one that lends his affiftance entirely of his own accord, without being called upon, or demanded, &c. nor can I tell of any better method of expreffing it, than "a willing, voluntary Saviour and deliverer," and I know not of any thing which can give us an idea of the word fave his gracious name and mercy, who loved us and gave himself for us, Ephef. v. 2. a ransom for all, 1 Tim. ii. 6. who put away fin by the facrifice of himself, Heb. ix. 26. and of his OWN WILL begat us with the word of his truth, James i. 18. A learned friend obfers, "That the true interpretation of Ge. iii. 20. will throw confiderable light on this expreffion. The words are, Adam called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. On merely reading our tranflation, there are few perfons but take living for a word of the plural number, whereas it is really fingular, and may be interpreted cither living or life (vivens or vita). The learned Dr. Hodges (Elibu, p. 252, 3. 4to edit) has the following remarks on this verle. "The words, fays he, I think ought to be rendered, Adam upon the promife being given) called his wife's name CHaVa H, because he was to be (futura effet, fays a commentator cited by Poole) the mother of all or univerfal life, as the original may, I had almoft faid, must be rendred.--Eve's name is undoubtedly derived from the verb CHaVaH, as our tranflators inform us in the margin, which begins with a CHeth, whofe expofition, according to Marius, is to make manifest, shewforth, declare, demonftrate, exhibit, &c. and is ufed in Daniel for a particular exhibition and declaration, of thofe eventual realities, which H were ENVY, grown pale with self-consuming cares, Thus fhed her poifon in APOLLO's ears: "I hate the bard, who cannot pour his fong, "Full as the Sea, and as the torrent strong," The fiend APOLLO fcorning, fpurn'd afide With angry foot indignant, and replied : Headlong defcends the deep Affyrian flood, "But with pollution foul'd, and black with mud; were adumbrated and enigmatically reprefented in Nebuchadnezzar's dream. It is evident, I think, that the words when firft delivered were understood by Eve in * this fenfe from what fhe fays upon the birth of Cain, I have gotten the man, the Jehovah, as the words are rendred by very learned men. See Glaffius, Poole, Hutchinfon, &c. Had Eve attended to every particular of this prophecy, fhe would have looked farther for the completion of it. A mother only being mentioned as being to have the fole honour and bleffing of producing this univerfal life (who was properly fo called, as he was the author and giver of life) fhe might have inferred, that Cain could not be the promifed feed, fince he was conceived by Adam's knowing her. A future Eve was therefore pointed out, who fhould produce a man without the affiftance of man, and fo be a mother in an exclufive fenfe. This man, or production was likewife to be all, or univerfal life, the fountain of life, or reftorer of immortality." Hath not the poet preferved the tradition with remarkable exactnefs? He does not fay, sude your acconeup, thou waft born the Saviour, &c. ເນ but ευθύ σε μητηρ γεινατ' άοσσητηρα, thy mother bore thee a Saviour, &c. 150 155 "While Ver. 149. Envy, &c.] It has been imagined by many commentators, that this was a fecret infinuation of the attempts made by fome envious person to depreciate Callimachus in the eye of his patron and Apollo, Ptolemy, and of the fruitleffnefs of the attempt; and this opinion is confirmed by what Callimachus fays of himself, that he fung xsova Barnanns. His enemies took the handle from the minutenefs of our author's ge-. nius, and the fmallness of his performances: he always profeft himself a great admirer of concilenefs, the fagoogia, and is faid to have had conftantly in his mouth μsya Biblia, peya xaxor, a great book, a great evil. It is moreover conjectured, that the author in the words of envy alludes to fome poem well known in his times, probably the Argonautic of his cotemporary Apollonius Rhodius, between whom and Callimachus there appears to have been great jealoufy; whofe Argonautics he might well characterife by the title of worros, as their fubject is principally the expedition in the Euxine fea, and as that poet begins them thus, Αρχομενος στο φοίβε, &c Μνησομαι οι ΠΟΝΤΟΙ Ο κατα τομα, &c. And I leave it to the reflection of every confiderate reader, whether the fenfe here proposed be not much more pertinent to the then state of nian, than that in which they are, I doubt, commonly underfood. J. P. The "While the Meliffe facred waters bring, "Not from each ftream, but from the pureft fpring, "From whofe fmall urn the limpid current rills "In clear perfection down the gladden'd hills.” HAIL king, once more thy conquering arm extend, To final ruin rancorous Envy fend! The fcholiaft informs us, that Callimachus was abfolutely compelled by thefe reproaches of his enemies, to write a long poem, which he called Hecale. The Melia were the priesteffes of Ceres. Mr. Prior has wandered very widely from his author in the conclufion of this hymn: nay, and indeed in the beginning of this fpeech of Envy's to Apollo, whom the poet introduces, as infinuating privately into the ears of the God her bitter venom; in a manner beautifully defcribed by Mr. Pope; "Willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike, Juft hint a fault and hesitate dislike. Mr. Prior thus renders the paffage, Envy thy latent foe fuggefted thus, Like thee I am a power immortal: therefore partial Thofe poets, &c. And the laft line, 160 End of the Hymn o APOLLO. J.Jajerys sculp THE Third H Y M N of CALLIMACHUS. * To DIANA. ODDESS, delighting in the fylvan chace, Thee will we fing, and hence begin the fong; Hymn to DIANA.] The poet having fung the praifes of Apollo, proceeds next to speak of his fifter Diana, whom he makes it a point of religion to celebrate, and a duty incumbent upon the poetical fons of Apollo, not to forget the fifter of their God: fo greatly efteemed as fhe was amongst mankind; nay, and even honoured with the title of Ewriga, as that of Erng, Saviour, was given to her brother. Se hymn to Apollo, ver. 62, and 147. By Diana, in the heathen fyftem, it is well known, is meant the moon, 5 How, whom with the fun and ftars we are affured, from infallible truth, the antient idolaters worfhipped. "And left thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seeft the SUN, and the MOON, and the STARS, even all the host of heaven, fhouldft be driven to worship them, &c. Deut. iv. 19. comp. Job xxxi. 26. The reader must not expect to find fo many beautiful allufions to revelation in this hymn as in the former, which abounds with fable, and as being principally narrative, is of neceffity not fo inftructive. in |