Note 22 — MESSIAH,
Reading edition
Virg. Ecl. iv. 46:
Aggredere, ô magnos, aderit jam tempus, honores, Cara deum soboles, magnum Jovis incrementum.
Ecl. v. 62:
Ipsi lætitia voces ad sidera jactan Intonsi montes, ipsæ jam carmina rupes, Ipsa sonant arbusta, Deus, deus ille, Menalca!
"Oh come and receive the mighty honours: the time draws nigh, O beloved offspring of the gods, O great increase of Jove! The uncultivated mountains send shouts of joy to the stars, the very rocks sing in verse, the very shrubs cry out, A god, a god!"
Isaiah xl. 3, 4. "The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord! make straight in the desert a high way for our God! Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain." Chap. xliv. 23. "Break forth into singing, ye mountains! O forest, and every tree therein! for the Lord hath redeemed Israel."—Pope.
The passage from Virgil, in which the shrubs are supposed to cry out "a god, a god," is not from the same Eclogue with the rest of Pope's extracts, and has no reference to the anticipated appearance of a ruler who should regenerate the world. The occasion of the shout is the presumed deification of one Daphnis who is dead.