receives a great light from the preceding verfes. She is pofted between two military enfigns, for the good quality that the poet afcribes to her of preferving the public peace, by keeping the army true to its allegiance. I fancy, fays Eugenius, as you have difcovered the age of this imaginary Lady from the description that the poets have made of her, you may find too the colour of the drapery that he wore in the old Roman paintings, from that verfe in Horace. Te fpes et albo rara fides colit Velata panno Hor. Od. 35. Lib. 1. Sure Hope and Friendship cloth'd in white, Mr. Creech, One would think, fays Philander, by this verfe, that Hope and Fidelity had both the fame kind of drefs. It is certain Hope might have a fair pretence to white, in allusion to those that were candidates for an employ. quem ducit biantem Cretata ambitio Perf. Sat. 5. agrees And how properly the epithet of Rara with her, you may fee in the transparency of the next figure. She is FIG. 8. here dreffed in fuch a kind of veft as the Latins call a Multicium from the finenefs of its tiffue. Your Roman beaus had their fummer toga to fuch a light airy make. Quem tenues decuere toga nitidique capilli. Į that had lov'd Hor. Ep. 14, Lib. 1, Curl'd powder'd locks, a fine and gawdy gown. I remember, fays Cynthio, Juvenal rallies Creticus, that was otherwife a brave rough fellow, very handsomely, on this kind of garment, fed quid Non facient alii cum tu multitia fumas, Cretice? et hanc veftem populo mirante perores In praculas et pollineas. Acer et indomitus libertatifque magifter, Cretice, pelluces Juv. Sat. 2. Ibid, -Nor, vain Metellus, fhall From Rome's tribunal thy harangues prevail But pray what is the meaning that this tranfparent Lady holds up her train in her left left-hand? For I find your women on medals do nothing without a meaning. Befides, I fuppofe there is a moral precept at least couched under the figure the holds in her other hand. She draws back her garment, fays Philander, that it may not incumber her in her march. For fhe is always drawn in a pofture of walking, it being as natural for Hope to prefs forward to her proper objects, as for Fear to fly from them, Ut canis in vacuo leporem cum gallicus arvo As when th' impatient grayhound flipt from far, And gaining fhelter doubts if yet she lives:- Mr. Dryden. This beautiful fimilitude is, I think, the prettiest emblem in the world of Hope and Fear in extremity. A flower or bloffom that you fee in the right-hand is a proper ornament for Hope, fince they are these that we term in poetical language the hopes of year. the Vere novo, tunc herba nitens, et roboris expers And lavishly perfumes the fields around. Mr. Dryden. The fame poet in his De faftis, fpeaking of the vine in flower, expreffes it. In fpe vitis erat Ov. de Faft. Lib. 5. The next on the lift is a Lady FIG. 9. of a contrary character, and therefore in a quite different pofture. As Security is free from all purfuits, she is represented leaning carelefly on a pillar. Horace has drawn a pretty metaphor from this posture. Nullum Nullum me à labore reclinat otium. No case doth lay me down from pain. She rests herself on a pillar, for the fame reason as the poets often compare an obstinate refolution or a great firmness of mind, to a rock that is not to be moved by all the affaults of winds or waves. Non civium ardor prava jubentium, Hor. The man refolv'd, and steady to his trust, The tyrant's fiercenefs he beguiles, And the ftern brow and the harsh voice defies, And with superior greatness smiles. Not the rough whirlwind that deforms Adria's black gulf- &c. Mr. Creech. I am apt to think it was on devices of this nature that Horace had his eye in his ode to Fortune. It is certain he alludes to a pillar that figured out Security, or fomething very |