computing the time betwixt Scipio and Augustus. By which 'tis plain, that Virgil cannot mean the same Marcellus; but one of his Descendants; whom I call a new Marcellus; who so much resembled his Ancestor, perhaps in his Features, and his Person, but certainly in his Military Vertues, that Virgil cries out, quantum instar in ipso est! which I have translated,
How like the former, and almost the same.
Line, 1236,
Two Gates the silent House of Sleep adorn;
Of polish'd Iv'ry this; that of transparent Horn.
Virgil borrow'd this Imagination from Homer, Odysses the 19th. Line 562. The Translation gives the reason, why true Prophetic Dreams are said to pass through the Gate of Horn, by adding the Epithete transparent: Which is not in Virgil; whose Words are only these;
Sunt geminae Somni portae; quarum altera fertur
Cornea
What is pervious to the Sight is clear; and (alluding to this Property,) the Poet infers such Dreams are of Divine Revelation. Such as pass through the Iv'ry Gate, are of the contrary Nature; polish'd Lies. But there is a better Reason to be giv'n: For the Iv'ry alludes to the Teeth, the Horn to the Eyes. What we see is more credible, than what we only hear; that is, Words
