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النشر الإلكتروني

clude our remarks with the following extract from Virgil, descriptive of the subject:

"A greater omen, and of worse portent
Did our unweary minds with fear torment,
Concurring to produce the dire event.
Laocoon, Neptune's priest by lot that year,
With solemn pomp then sacrificed a steer;
When (dreadful to behold!) from sea we spy'd
Two serpents, rank'd abreast, the seas divide,
And smoothly sweep'd along the swelling tide.
Their flaming crests above the waves they show:
Their bellies seem to burn the seas below:
Their speckled tails advance to steer their course,
And now the sounding shore the flying billows force.
And on the strand, and now the plain, they held.
Their ardent eyes with bloody streaks were fill'd:
Their nimble tongues they brandish'd as they came,
And lick'd their hissing jaws, that sputter'd flame.
We fled amaz'd; their destin'd way they take,

And to Laocoon and his children make:

And first around the tender boys they wind,

Then with their sharpen'd fangs their limbs and bodies grind.

The wretched father, running to their aid

With pious haste, but vain, they next invade:

Twice round his waist their winding volumes roll'd;

And twice about his gasping throat they fold.

The priest thus doubly chok'd-their crests divide,

And tow'ring o'er his head in triumph ride.

With both his hands he labours at the knots;

His holy fillets the blue venom blots:

His roaring fills the flitting air around.

Thus, when an ox receives a glancing wound,

He breaks his bands, the fatal altar flies,

And with loud bellowings breaks the yielding skies.
Their tasks perform'd, the serpents quit their prey,
And to the tow'r of Pallas make their way:
Couch'd at her feet, they lie protected there,
By her large buckler, and protended spear.
Amazement seizes all; the gen'ral cry

Proclaims Laocoon justly doom'd to die,
Whose hand the will of Pallas had withstood,

And dar'd to violate the sacred wood.

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ENEID, B. II.

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