xlviii. Therefore a God him fage antiquity Through guilefull femblaunts which he makes us fee. These lines may be farther illuftrated, as they are probably drawn, from the following paffage in Natalis Comes. "Dictus eft autem GENIUS, ut placuit latinis, a gignendo, vel quia nobifcum gignatur, vel quia illi procreandorum cura divinitus commiffa putaretur. Hic creditur nobis clam nunc fuadens, nunc diffuadens, univerfam vitam noftram gubernare....... Nam exiftimantur Genii Damones rerum, quas voluerint nobis perfuadere, spectra et imagines fibi tanquam in fpeculo imprimere, quodcunque illis facillimum fit. In quæ spectra cum anima noftra clam refpexerit, illa fibi veniunt in mentem, quæ fi ratione perpendantur, tum recta fit animi deliberatio: at fiquis pofthabita ratione, malorum fpectrorum et viforum ductu feratur, ille in multos errores incurrat neceffe eft, fi fpectra fuerint præcipue a malignis dæmonibus oblata." That the first Genius here mentioned was likewife called 4. 3. AGDISTES, AGDISTES, we learn from the fame author. poftea Agdiftem appellarunt. *" « Quem The ceremony of offering flowers and wine to the Genius expreffed in these lines, With diverse flowres he daintily was deckt, And ftrowed round about, and by his fide Is found in Horace, ft. 49. Floribus et vino GENIUM memorem brevis ævit. The GENIUS fpoken of in the following stanzas, feems to be that which is represented in the PICTURE of the fophift Cebes. And double gates it had, which open'd wide, Th'one faire and freshe, the other old and dride : OLD GENIUS, the which a double nature has. xxxii. He letteth in, he letteth out to wend, All that to come into the world defire: A thousand thoufand naked babes attend 3. 6. 31. About About him day and night, which doe rèquire, Οραίε, εφη, τον περίβολον τέλον; Ορωμεν. Τοίο πρώτον δεν ειδέναι ὑμας, ὅτι καλείται ὁ τοπο 80, ΒΙΟΣ. Και ο όχλο ὁ πολυς, ὁ παρα την πύλην εφεσως, δι μελλονίες εισπορεύεσθαι εις τον βίον, ετοι εισιν. Ο δε ΓΕΡΩΝ, ὁ άνω εςηκώς, ἔχων χαρΤην τινα εν τη χειρι, και τη ἕλερα ώσπερ δεικνύων τι, ε]Θ ΔΑΙΜΩΝ καλείται. Προσβάλει δε τοις εισπορευομένοις τι δει άυλες TOLELY, &c." "Cernitis, inquit, feptum hoc? Cernimus. Hoc primùm vobis tenendum eft, locum hanc appellari vitam; et magnam multitudinem, quæ porta affiftit, eos effe qui in vitam venturi funt. Senex is qui fuperne ftat, chartam quamdam una manu tenens, altera vero quiddam quafi monftrans, Genius dicitur. Mandat autem ingredientibus, quid eis, ubi in vitam venerint, faciendum fit.” THE THIRD BOOKE OF THE FAERIE QUEENE; CONTAINING The Legend of BRITOMARTIS, OR OF CHASTITY. BRITOMARTIS, among the Cretans, was another name for Diana, the goddess of Chastity; and in this book, Spenfer's Britomartis is reprefented as the patronefs of Chastity. I think fhe is fo called in Claudian. It is not improbable, as our author has copied the greatest part of the fecond Canto of this book from the Ceiris of Virgil, that he found, from the the fame poem, that Britomartis was a name for Diana, viz. Dyetinnam dixere tuo de nomine Lunam*. She was a Cretan nymph, and the daughter of Jupiter and Charme, whom Virgil has introduced, in his Ceiris, as the nurfe of Scylla, and from whom our author has copied his Glauce, Britomart's nurfe, in the Canto mentioned above. She was called Dictynna, because the invented nets for hunting, which being also one of Diana's names, Britomartis and Diana were looked upon as the fame. Callimachus speaks of her as one of the nymphs of Diana's train, but adds, that she was called by the Cydonians, Dictynna. He has left the hiftory of Britomartis in his hymn to Diana. Εξοχα δ' αλλαων Γορτυνίδα φιλαο νύμφην Ελλοφονον ΒΡΙΤΟΜΑΡΤΙΝ, ευσκοπόν ἧς πολε Μίνως Δικτυα, τα σφ' επαωσεν. Οθεν μελεπείλα Κύδωνες Ver. 395 Νύμφαν Νύμφαν μεν ΔΙΚΤΥΝΑΝ· ορ© δ ̓ ὅθεν ηλαίο νυμφη Πέρα δε ξεζωσι *. Præcipue autem inter alias omnes Gortynida amafti Nympham, Cervarum Venatricem, Britomartin, Jaculatricem ; cujus olim Minos Amore perculfus, peavagatus eft montes Creta. Illa vero alias quidem hirtis fub quercubus latitabat Nympha, Alias autem in locis uliginofis. At ipfe novem menfes per currebat Loca prærupta, et pendentes fcopulos: nec intermifit infectationem, Donec apprehenfa ferme Nympha infiliit in mare Ab alto vertice: infiliit autem in piscatorum Retia, quæ ipfam confervarunt: hinc deinceps Cydones Dictœum appellitant excitatifque ibi facris Upon the word Bpilouaglis, fays the fcholiaft, BPITOΜΑΡΤΙΣ ονομα το κυριον της νυμφης αφ ̓ ἧς καὶ ἡ ΑΡΤΕΜΙΣ ΕΝ Κρήτη ΒΡΙΤΟΜΑΡΤΙΣ τιμάται, ὡς Διογενιαν. And Soli Tursis Agl. v. 189. We read nearly the fame account of this nymph in the METAMOPONZEIZ of Antoninus Liberalis, Fab. 40. p. 50. Bafil. 1568. nus |