But down amid a hollow dale meanwhile Æneas sees
A secret grove, a thicket fair, with murmuring of the trees,
And Lethe's stream that all along that quiet place doth wend;
O'er which there hovered countless folks and peoples without end:
And as when bees amid the fields in summer-tide the bright
Settle on diverse flowery things, and round the lilies white
Go streaming; so the fields were filled with mighty murmuring.
Unlearned Æneas fell aquake at such a wondrous thing,710
And asketh what it all may mean, what rivers these may be,
And who the men that fill the banks with such a company.
Then spake Anchises: "These are souls to whom fate oweth now
New bodies: there they drink the draught by Lethe's quiet flow,
The draught that is the death of care, the long forgetfulness.
And sure to teach thee of these things, and show thee all their press,
And of mine offspring tell the tale, for long have I been fain,
That thou with me mightst more rejoice in thine Italia's gain."
"O Father, may we think it then, that souls may get them hence
To upper air and take once more their bodies' hinderance?720
How can such mad desire be to win the worldly day?"
"Son, I shall tell thee all thereof, nor hold thee on the way."
Therewith he takes the tale and all he openeth orderly:
"In the beginning: earth and sky and flowing fields of sea,
And stars that Titan fashioned erst, and gleaming moony ball,
An inward spirit nourisheth, one soul is shed through all,
That quickeneth all the mass, and with the mighty thing is blent:
Thence are the lives of men and beasts and flying creatures sent,
And whatsoe'er the sea-plain bears beneath its marble face;
Quick in these seeds is might of fire and birth of heavenly place,730
Ere earthly bodies' baneful weight upon them comes to lie,
Ere limbs of earth bewilder them and members made to die.
Hence fear they have, and love, and joy, and grief, and ne'er may find
The face of heaven amid the dusk and prison strait and blind:
Yea, e'en when out of upper day their life at last is borne,
Not all the ill of wretched men is utterly outworn,
Not all the bane their bodies bred; and sure in wondrous wise
The plenteous ill they bore so long engrained in them it lies:
So therefore are they worn by woes and pay for ancient wrong:
And some of them are hung aloft the empty winds among;740
And some, their stain of wickedness amidst the water's heart
Is washed away; amidst the fire some leave their worser part;
And each his proper death must bear: then through Elysium wide
Are we sent forth; a scanty folk in joyful fields we bide,
Till in the fulness of the time, the day that long hath been
Hath worn away the inner stain and left the spirit clean,
A heavenly essence, a fine flame of all unmingled air.
All these who now have turned the wheel for many and many a year
God calleth unto Lethe's flood in mighty company,
That they, remembering nought indeed, the upper air may see750
Once more, and long to turn aback to worldly life anew."
Anchises therewithal his son, and her the Sibyl drew
Amid the concourse, the great crowd that such a murmuring sent,
And took a mound whence they might see the spirits as they went
In long array, and learn each face as 'neath their eyes it came.
"Come now, and I of Dardan folk will tell the following fame,
And what a folk from Italy the world may yet await,
Most glorious souls, to bear our name adown the ways of fate.
Yea, I will set it forth in words, and thou thy tale shalt hear:
Lo ye, the youth that yonder leans upon the headless spear,760
Fate gives him nighest place today; he first of all shall rise,
Blent blood of Troy and Italy, unto the earthly skies:
Silvius is he, an Alban name, thy son, thy latest born;
He whom thy wife Lavinia now, when thin thy life is worn,
Beareth in woods to be a king and get a kingly race,
Whence comes the lordship of our folk within the Long White Place.
And Procas standeth next to him, the Trojan people's fame;
Then Capys, Numitor, and he who bringeth back thy name,
Silvius Æneas, great in war, and great in godliness,
If ever he in that White Stead may bear the kingdom's stress.770
Lo ye, what youths! what glorious might unto thine eyes is shown!
But they who shade their temples o'er with civic oaken crown,
These build for thee Nomentum's walls, and Gabii, and the folk
Fidenian, and the mountains load with fair Collatia's yoke:
Pometii, Bola, Cora, there shall rise beneath their hands,
And Inuus' camp: great names shall spring amid the nameless lands.
"Then Mavors' child shall come on earth, his grandsire following,
When Ilia's womb, Assaracus' own blood, to birth shall bring
That Romulus:—lo, see ye not the twin crests on his head,
And how the Father hallows him for day with his own dread780
E'en now? Lo, son! those signs of his; lo, that renownèd Rome!
Whose lordship filleth all the earth, whose heart Olympus' home,
And with begirdling of her wall girds seven great burgs to her,
Rejoicing in her man-born babes: e'en as the Earth-Mother
Amidst the Phrygian cities goes with car and towered crown,
Glad in the Gods, whom hundred-fold she kisseth for her own.
All heaven-abiders, all as kings within the house of air.
Ah, turn thine eyeballs hitherward, look on this people here,
Thy Roman folk! Lo Cæsar now! Lo all Iulus' race,
Who 'neath the mighty vault of heaven shall dwell in coming days.790
And this is he, this is the man thou oft hast heard foretold,
Augustus Cæsar, sprung from God to bring the age of gold
Aback unto the Latin fields, where Saturn once was king.
Yea, and the Garamantian folk and Indians shall he bring
Beneath his sway: beyond the stars, beyond the course of years,
Beyond the Sun-path lies the land, where Atlas heaven upbears,
And on his shoulders turns the pole with burning stars bestrown.
Yea, and e'en now the Caspian realms quake at his coming, shown
By oracles of God; and quakes the far Mæotic mere,799
And sevenfold Nile through all his mouths quakes in bewildered fear.
Not so much earth did Hercules o'erpass, though he prevailed
To pierce the brazen-footed hind, and win back peace that failed
The Erymanthus' wood, and shook Lerna with draught of bow;
Nor Liber turning vine-wreathed reins when he hath will to go
Adown from Nysa's lofty head in tiger-yokèd car.—
Forsooth then shall we doubt but deeds shall spread our valour far?
Shall fear forsooth forbid us rest in that Ausonian land?
"But who is this, the olive-crowned, that beareth in his hand
The holy things? I know the hair and hoary beard of eld
Of him, the Roman king, who first a law-bound city held,810
Sent out from little Cures' garth, that unrich land of his,
Unto a mighty lordship: yea, and Tullus next is this,
Who breaks his country's sleep and stirs the slothful men to fight;
And calleth on the weaponed hosts unused to war's delight
But next unto him Ancus fares, a boaster overmuch;
Yea and e'en now the people's breath too nigh his heart will touch.
And wilt thou see the Tarquin kings and Brutus' lofty heart,
And fasces brought aback again by his avenging part?
He first the lordship consular and dreadful axe shall take;819
The father who shall doom the sons, that war and change would wake,
To pain of death, that he thereby may freedom's fairness save.
Unhappy! whatso tale of thee the after-time may have,
The love of country shall prevail, and boundless lust of praise.
"Drusi and Decii lo afar! On hard Torquatus gaze,
He of the axe: Camillus lo, the banner-rescuer!
But note those two thou seest shine in arms alike and clear,
Now souls of friends, and so to be while night upon them weighs:
Woe's me! what war shall they awake if e'er the light of days
They find: what host each sets 'gainst each, what death-field shall they dight!
The father from the Alpine wall, and from Monœcus' height830
Comes down; the son against him turns the East's embattlement.
O children, in such evil war let not your souls be spent,
Nor turn the valour of your might against the heart of home.
Thou first, refrain, O thou my blood from high Olympus come;
Cast thou the weapons from thine hand!