For his
father, he takes him on his back. He leads his little son, his wife
follows him; but losing his footsteps through fear or ignorance he
goes back into the midst of his enemies to find her, and leaves not
his pursuit till her ghost appears to forbid his farther search. I
will say nothing of his duty to his father while he lived, his
sorrow for his death, of the games instituted in honour of his
memory, or seeking him by his command even after death in the
Elysian fields. I will not mention his tenderness for his son,
which everywhere is visible; of his raising a tomb for Polydorus;
the obsequies for Misenus; his pious remembrance of Deiphobus; the
funerals of his nurse; his grief for Pallas, and his revenge taken
on his murderer, whom otherwise, by his natural compassion, he had
forgiven: and then the poem had been left imperfect, for we could
have had no certain prospect of his happiness while the last
obstacle to it was unremoved.
Of the other parts which compose his character as a king or as a
general I need say nothing; the whole "AEneis" is one continued
instance of some one or other of them; and where I find anything of
them taxed, it shall suffice me (as briefly as I can) to vindicate
my divine master to your lordship, and by you to the reader.
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