Of life unblamed, a pure and pious race,
Worthy that lower heaven and stars to grace,

Divine and equal to the glorious place.

There Pompey's soul, adorned with heavenly light,
Soon shone among the rest, and as the rest, was bright.
New to the blest abode, with wonder filled,
The stars and moving planets he beheld;
Then looking down on the sun's feeble ray,
Surveyed our dusky, faint, imperfect day,
And under what a cloud of night we lay.
But when he saw, how on the shore forlorn
His headless trunk was cast for public scorn-
When he beheld how envious fortune still
Took pains to use a senseless carcass ill—
He smiled at the vain malice of his foe,
And pitied impotent mankind below."*

"When we consider the servile spirit of the age, what a bright exception did Lucan form, and what a treasury of noble sentiments has he left! Future patriots, in the latest times, will light their torches at his altar, and feel their hearts glow with the sacred fire which he has kindled! (A). If he felt such divine ardour in the contemplation of that liberty which Brutus worshipped, and found a mere shadow; with what raptures would he have hailed the real, though distant prospect, of that amelioration in the condition of mankind, which Christianity presents! Poor fellow! he was sensible,

* Rowe, Pharsal. IX., v. 1.

and most acutely sensible, of the groans with which the whole creation resounds; but he knew not where to look for deliverance. He saw and felt the bondage of corruption; but knew nothing of that glorious liberty which is now dawning upon the world! Would to God, that instead of those fallacious hopes and vain remedies, which prompted him to join in Piso's conspiracy to rid the world of one tyrant, probably to make room for another, he had caught but a glimpse of that kingdom which is making its silent progress, until it shall embrace all the nations of the earth! How would it have cheered his ardent, noble spirit! How would he have exclaimed with our divine St. Paul,―

66

"I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed!'

"And with what sublime patience would he have shared in the earnest expectation of the creature waiting for this revelation! I have been led, my dear Claudia, unconsciously into these reflections; but I am sure that you will pardon them.

"There is one circumstance attending the condemnation of Lucan, which has given rise

to some rumours likely to prejudice his memory, which I must not omit to mention. When he was brought before the Emperor, charged with having joined in the conspiracy, the executioner dragged him into the room, wherein was the rack on which Epicharis, the principal conspirator, though a slave, had been tortured; Nero, pointing to it, told him that he might expect the same fate, if he did not disclose the name of his fellow conspirators. Lucan fixing his eyes on Nero, asked him, with a look, which cut the tyrant to the soul

"Would you have me accuse my mother? Cæsar knows that such tortures are not necessary to induce a son to do that.'

"By this, he meant that such tortures were sufficient to break the strongest ties, but that Nero had needed no such coercion to make him perpetrate the crime of matricide. The tyrant knew, and felt his meaning; but the infamous Tigellinus, with the subtlety of a fiend, exclaimed,―

"He has betrayed his mother; let her be be questioned.**

* As this account of Lucan's death differs, in some respects, from that of Tacitus, it is but honest to refer the reader

"This account, I of course, gather from hearsay, as none but the miscreants concerned in the punishment of the conspirators were present but Lucan's fortitude in death, of which I was, alas! an eye-witness, seems to render it probable.

"I am at present employed in assisting his amiable widow in the arrangement and revision of the Pharsalia, which poor Lucan had hardly completed, and of which I send you the accompanying cursory criticism, which I made at Polla's request."

In the same parcel with this epistle, was a critique upon Lucan's Pharsalia, which may not be unacceptable to the classical reader.*

to the latter.-Vid. Tac. Ann. xv. 56. Especially see Murphy's Translation of Tacitus Note to Annals, Book 15, ch. 56. * See note at the end of this volume, (A).

CHAPTER XVII.

A fabric huge

Rose like an exhalation—

Built like a temple, where pilasters round
Were set, and Doric pillars overlaid

With golden architrave; nor did there want
Cornice or frieze, with bossy sculptures grav'n :
The roof was fretted gold. Not Babylon,

Nor great Alcairo such magnificence

Equal'd in all their glories.

PARADISE LOST.

IN consequence of the conspiracy of Piso, the persecution of the Christians was relaxed for a time, the Emperor's attention being too much absorbed in providing for his own safety, to allow him to attend to matters of less personal importance. When the excitement caused by this event had subsided, and the conspirators had atoned for their failure with