Note 34 — Chapter VI
Reading edition
If Virgil has given us a highly-finished personification of Rumour, if Horace speaks of his
atra Cura
, if Lucretius present us with an awful picture of Superstition, their portraits are so vague as scarcely to communicate any discriminate idea, and are characterized by their operation and effects, rather than by their poetical insignia. Of the ancient Roman authors, perhaps there is no one that abounds in these personifications more than the tragedian Seneca; yet what idea do we form of Labour, when we are told that
"Labor exoritur durus, et omnes Agitat curas, aperitque domos:"
'Or, of Hope or Fear, from the following passage:
"Turbine magni, spes solicitæ Urbibus errant, trepidique metus."
'The personification of Hope, by Tibullus, (Lib. II. Eleg. 6.) is scarcely worthy of that charming author; and if he has been happier in his description of Sleep, (Lib. I. Eleg. 1.) it is still liable to the objections before mentioned.'