All safe she found, and join'd herself to them.
In the seventh Book:
[128] —agisque Carminibus grates, & Diis auctoribus horum.
You secret Transports on your Charms bestow, And on the Gods, the Authors of them, too.
Nothing can be more palpable than the Absurdities I have here produced: In Ovid they are almost unpardonable, who, as he wanted not Genius, must needs have fallen into them thro' gross Inadvertency and Supineness.
There's another Species of Style, called the Sarcastical and Invective, suited, as Reason will tell us, more peculiarly to Satire. But we shall no where find a more lively Instance of it than in Virgil:
[129] Cantando Tu illum? aut unquam tibi fistula cera Juncta fuit? non tu in triviis, indocte, solebas Stridenti miserum stipula disperdere carmen?
Thou him in piping! Had'st thou e'er a Pipe Jointed with Wax?. Wert thou not wont, thou Dolt, In the Cross-ways, upon a screeching Straw To murder a vile Tune with viler Notes?
Here, it is plain, the Mordacity lies in the Expression more than the Thought; which is no more than that the Shepherd mention'd was a miserable Piper; but the Words are emphatically cutting, in triviis, stridenti, miserum, stipula, disperdere; each of which is arm'd with Poignancy, and dresses out the Image with fresh Ridicule. On the other Hand, sometimes the Invective turns wholly upon the Thought; as in another Verse of Virgil: