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, fend forth, another arrow fend: "Thee thy bleft mother bore, and pleas'd assign'd "The willing Saviour of diftreft mankind." into the earth and fubdued, a loud voice was heard in heaven, faying, "Now is come falvation and strength, 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 Пanov, Pæan, muft indifputably come from waw, percutio, ferio, to ftrike, emit, fend forth; and Scapula immediately fays, 66 Apollo was called Paan, wapaтo main, a feriendo, quod a fagittis Pythonem ferpentem confoderit." And we must remember, that In (however deduced) is finally derived from Eui, to be, which comes from Ew, and whence is derived Inu. 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 tw, eiμi, inui, &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, Ευθυ σε ΜΗΤΗΡ Γενατ' ΑΟΣΣΗΤΗΡΑ. for we must remark, that according to the promife, it was the SEED of the WOMAN that was to bruife the ferpent's head. I know not of any one word in the English language, which fully expreffes adonna in the original; the ety 145 ENVY mologifts explain it by Bonterra autoμatws arou ooons xai xλndoros, one that lends his affistance 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 obferves, "That the true interpretation of Gen. 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 either living or life (vivens or vita). The learned Dr. Hodges (Elihu, p. 252, 3. 4to edit.) has the following remarks on this verfe. "The words, fays he, I think ought to be rendered, Adam (upon the promife being given) called his wife's name CHaVaH, 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 1, whofe expofition, according to Marius, is to make manifeft, fhewforth, declare, demonftrate, exhibit, &c. and is ufed in Daniel for a particular exhibition and declaration, of thofe eventual realities, which ENVY, grown pale with felf-confuming cares, “ I hate the bard, who cannot pour his fong, 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, Peole, 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) the might have inferred, that Cain could not be the promised 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, ແບ and your acconing, thou waft born the Saviour, &c. αοσσητηρε but ευθυ σε μητηρ γεινατ' άϊσσητηρα, 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. perfon 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 xoa Baoxanns. His enemies took the handle from the minutenefs of our author's genius, and the fmallnefs of his performances: he always profeft himself a great admirer of concileness, the Bayunoyia, and is faid to have had conftantly in his mouth μya Bibor, pɛya 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; whole 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, And I leave it to the reflection of every confiderate reader, whether the fenfe here proposed be not much more pertinent to the then ftate of nian, than that in which they are, I doubt, commonly underflood. 7. P. The "While the Meliffe facred waters bring, "Not from each fiream, but from the purest spring, "From whose small 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 send ! The fcholiaft informs us, that Callimachus was Willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike, Envy thy latent foe fuggefted thus, 160 Χαιρε αναξ· ο δε Μωμος, αν ο φθορος ενθα νεοιτο. Io Apollo, mighty king: let envy Genuine, and with foft murmurs gently rilling, Thus I have gone through this celebrated and excellent hymn, in which are found many remakable paffages, fuch as I fear, are not to be parallelled in thofe which follow: if from any of them, the leaft light is thrown on any part of fcripture, however fmall, I fhall rejoice, and think my labours not wholly in vain. End of the Hymn to APOLLO. 1 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 fpeak 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 Eriga, as that of Earnę, Saviour, was given to her brother. See 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 fars we are affured, from infallible truth, the antient idolaters wor-shipped. "And left thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou feeft the SUN, and the MOON, and the STARS, even all the host of heaven, shouldst be driven to worship them, &c. Deut. iv. 19. comp. Job xxxi. 26. The reader muft not expect to find fo many beautiful allufions to revelation in this hymn as in the former, which abounds with fable, and as being prin-. cipally narrative, is of neceffity not fo inftructive in How, when a prattler on the thunderer's lap, "*. She in religious truths: yet it wants not beauties, and has been always juftly esteemed as an incomparable piece of poetry. The word which I have rendred fylvan chace in the firft line is, in the original xayaBohias, wretchedly tranflated Retia in the Latin verfion: the proper fenfe of the word is hunting of hares, but according to no uncommon cuftom, it is applied from that fpecies of it, to hunting in general, as sλapnßoλia, which though commonly used for hunting in general, fignifies in particular flag-hunting. DIANA'S Speech.] Frifchlinus is ingenious enough in his annotation on the following speech: The poet, fays he, puts a fpeech into the mouth of the Goddess entirely becoming her her petitions are all fuch as Diana might afk; and more, I think they may all be understood of the moon, Quae quidem omnia de luna aptiffimè intelligi poffunt: hæc enim femper virgo eft, &c. "She is always a virgin, because the always retains the fame vigour of age, and never grows old: for the heavenly bodies do not experience that mutation and metamorphofis, which other frail and paffing things, fubject to many cor ruptions, experience. She is faid to emit her darts or arrows, and to hunt wild beafts, becaufe, with her rays fent forth and difperfed in the night, the enlightens these lower regions, and supplies them with moisture, and the proper power of encrease and vegetation. She is moft patient and enduring of labours in her course, because the moon in her period, which she forms with admirable swiftnefs, is never wearied: fhe is accompanied with many nymphs and attendants; becaufe when the fhines in the night, she is on all fides furrounded with ftars; the is in fine, montium cuftos, nemorumque virgo, the guardian of the mountains, and virgin Goddess of the groves; because, when fhe arifes fhe feems to us to arise from the mountains, when fhe fets, to defcend down into them." Of the power of the moon in vegetation we are informed from the fcriptures, where we are told of the precious things put forth by the moon, Deut. xxxiii. 14. and per Pliny remarks, that cresente luna frumenta gran- Ver. 8. Virginity.] Her firft petition is for Da mihi perpetuâ, genitor chariffime, dixit, Give me, my lord, she said, to live and die, DRYDEN. his note on this place: «For, he fays, women But bright Diana Venus ne'er cou'd move, "The chace, the choir, the dance engage her foul, And ftates where virtue and religion rule. ཕ |