Chapter XXXIII: Section VI: Privation

ALL _general_ privations are great, because they are all terrible; _vacuity_, _darkness_, _solitude_, and _silence_. With what a fire of imagination, yet with what severity of judgment, has Virgil amassed all these circumstances, where he knows that all the images of a tremendous dignity ought to be united at the mouth of hell! Where, before he unlocks the secrets of the great deep, he seems to be seized with a religious horror, and to retire astonished at the boldness of his own design:

Dii, quibus imperium est animarum, umbraeque _silentes_!
Et Chaos, et Phlegethon! loca _nocte silentia_ late!
Sit mihi fas audita loqui! sit numine vestro
Pandere res alta terra et _caligine_ mersas!
Ibant _obscuri_, _sola_ sub _nocte_, per _umbram_,
Perque domos Ditis _vacuas_, et _inania_ regus.

"Ye subterraneous gods! whose awful sway
The gliding ghosts, and _silent_ shades obey:
O Chaos hoar! and Phlegethon profound!
Whose solemn empire stretches wide around;
Give me, ye great, tremendous powers, to tell
Of scenes and wonders in the depth of hell;
Give me your mighty secrets to display
From those _black_ realms of darkness to the day."

PITT.

"_Obscure_ they went through dreary _shades_ that led
Along the _waste_ dominions of the _dead_."

DRYDEN.