and  he  hungers,  and  thirsts,  and  toils,  and  is  ex-
tended over  nine  acres  of  ground,  and  is  exposed  to
birds  of  prey,  which  feast  upon  his  liver,  and  scoop
his  entrails.  The  bard  had  limited  the  pleasures  of
the  acquitted  dead  to  sensual  enjoyment,  and,  in  the
same  manner,  the  sufferings  of  the  guilty  were  to  be
those  only  of  sense.  We  hear,  we  see,  nothing  of
a  spiritual  and  intellectual  character ;  and  the  whole
scene,  almost  too  fabulous  for  fiction,  can  scarcely
be  said  to  surpass  the  hell  of  the  savage,  whose  hopes
and  fears  are  circumscribed  within  the  narrow  circle
of  bodily  sensations.
>  The  Elysium,  then,  and  the  Tartarus  of  Homer,
are  frail  and  feeble  fancies,  scarcely  plausible  enough
to  deceive  the  credulity  of  the  most  credulous  Pagan.
To  the  upright,  the  first  authenticates  none  of  those
sublime  and  elevating  expectations  of  future  recom-
pence,  which  might  animate  them  in  the  fulfilment  of
duty,  or  console  them  in  the  sufferings  of  sorrow.
