No More Learning

Nor are there wanting several Spanish writers,
particularly Barbosa, who seriously affirm that Homer drew the fine
description of Elysium, in his fourth Odyssey, from the beautiful
valleys of Spain, where, in one of his voyages, they say, he arrived.
Egypt, however, seems to have a better title to this honour. The fable
of Charon, and the judges of hell, are evidently borrowed from the
Egyptian rites of burial, and are older than Homer. After a ferryman had
conveyed the corpse over a lake, certain judges examined the life of the
deceased, particularly his claim to the virtue of loyalty, and,
according to the report, decreed or refused the honours of sepulture.
The place of the catacombs, according to Diodorus Siculus, was
surrounded with deep canals, beautiful meadows, and a wilderness of
groves. It is universally known that the greatest part of the Grecian
fables were fabricated from the customs and opinions of Egypt. Several
other nations have also claimed the honour of affording the idea of the
fields of the blessed. Even the Scotch challenge it. Many Grecian
fables, says an author of that country, are evidently founded on the
reports of the Phoenician sailors. That these navigators traded to the
coasts of Britain is certain. In the middle of summer, the season when
the ancients performed their voyages, for about six weeks there is no
night over the Orkney Islands; the disk of the sun, during that time,
scarcely sinking below the horizon. This appearance, together with the
calm which usually prevails at that season, and the beautiful verdure of
the islands, could not fail to excite the admiration of the Phoenicians;
and their accounts of the place naturally afforded the idea that these
islands were inhabited by the spirits of the just. This, says our
author, is countenanced by Homer, who places his "islands of the happy"
at the extremity of the ocean. That the fables of Scylla, the Gorgones,
and several others, were founded on the accounts of navigators, seems
probable; and, on this supposition, the Insulae Fortunatae, and
Purpurariae, now the Canary and Madeira islands, also claim the honour of
giving colours to the description of Elysium. The truth, however,
appears to be this: That a place of happiness is reserved for the
spirits of the good is the natural suggestion of that anxiety and hope
concerning the future which animates the human breast.
All the barbarous
nations of Africa and America agree in placing their heaven in beautiful
islands, at an immense distance over the ocean. The idea is universal,
and is natural to every nation in a state of barbarous simplicity.

[501] The goddess Minerva.

[502] _The heav'n-built towers of Troy. _--Alluding to the fable of
Neptune, Apollo, and Laomedon.

[503]

_On Europe's strand, more grateful to the skies,
He bade th' eternal walls of Lisbon rise. --_

For some account of this tradition, see the note on Lusiad, bk. iii. p.
76. Ancient traditions, however fabulous, have a good effect in poetry.
Virgil has not scrupled to insert one, which required an apology:--

_Prisca fides facto, sed fama perennis. _

Spenser has given us the history of Brute and his descendants at full
length in the Faerie Queene; and Milton, it is known, was so fond of
that absurd legend, that he intended to write a poem on the subject; and
by this fondness was induced to mention it as a truth in the
introduction to his History of England.

[504] _The brother chief. _--Paulus de Gama.

[505] _That gen'rous pride which Rome to Pyrrhus bore.