4W JTRENGTH AND WEAKNESS OF HUMAN REASON. I am sure, Logisto, you are a gentleman of greater reading than to imagine these are mere fancies of my own : Your ac- quaintance with the heathen writers informs you of, their purga. tort': Plato expressly declares that those "who seem to have lived a middle sort of life, that is, with some virtues and some vices, go into the lake of Acheron, and being cleansed and pùnished are thendismissed, and receive the recompence oftheir well doings." See his Phmdo. And you know, Sir, their doc- trine of transmigration of souls, which is said to be derived originally from Pythagoras the philosopher, and has spread widely among the nations. The poets borrowed their repre- sentations from the philosophers, though they have dressed them with ordaments peculiar to their own genius. Virgil sends AEneas into the other world, and there he finds in or near the Elysian fields, several souls who were ordained to return to other odies : " Inclusas animas, superump ; ad lumen ituras, AndAnima; quibus altera fato Corpora debentur -- And the souls even of the best men, before they are admitted to Elysium, or the state of the blessed, must go through fire and water, and various pains and purifications. Loc. I keep a fewof the classics here in this summer-house, and some polite writings for my diversion. Here is a good edition of Virgil; come, turn to the place, and let us see the lines. PITH. With all my heart, Sir; it is in BookVI. toward the end, verse 735. " Quin &supremo cum lumine vita reliquit, Non tarnenomne malum miseris, nee funditus omnes Corporee excedunt pestes. Ergo exercentur poems, veterumq: malorum Supplicia expendunt: afire panduntur inanes Suspense ad ventes: aliis sub gurgite vasto Infectum eluitur scelus, aut exurrtur igni, Quisque suospatimur manes. Exinde per amplum Alittimur Elysium, &pauci leta area tenemus." Loo. I find after their purgatory, Virgil allows but a few of them to be happy, so great and universal does he suppose their defilement in thismortal state. But as for the bulk and multi- tude of these departed souls, pray what becomes of them ? PITH. Surely, Sir, you have read thefollowing lines, where he teaches us, that they return to bodies again after a thousand years penance: " Donee longa diesperfecto temporis orbe Concretam exemit labem, purumque reliquit 1Ethereum sensum, atque auraisimplicisignem, Has omnes, ubi mille rotten volvere per annoy,.
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