chiefly affected by the partition. Cremona had, unfortunately, espoused the cause of Brutus, and thus peculiarly incurred the vengeance of the victorious party. But as its territory was not found adequate to contain the veteran soldiers of the triumvirs, among whom it had been divided, the deficiency was supplied from the neighbouring district of Mantua, in which the farm of Virgil lay. The discontent which this oppressive measure created in Italy, being augmented by the artifices of Fulvia and Lucius Antony, the wife and brother of the triumvir, gave rise to the war which terminated favourably for Augustus with the capture of Perugia. Pollio, being a zealous partisan of Antony, and supporting the party of his brother and Fulvia, who unsuccessfully opposed the division of the lands, had it probably no longer in his power to protect Virgil from the aggressions of the solHe was dispossessed under circumstances of ger to his personal safety; being compelled on one occasion to escape the fury of the centurion Arrius by swimming over the Mincius. He had the good fortune, however, to obtain the favour of Alphenus Varus, with whom he had studied philosophy at Naples, under Syro the Epicurean, and who now either succeeded Pollio in the command of the district, or was appointed by Augustus to superintend in that quarter the division of the lands. Under his protection Virgil twice repaired to Rome, where he was received, not only by Mecenas, but by Augustus himself, from whom he procured the restoration of the patrimony of which he had been deprived. This happened in the commencement of the year 714; and during the course of that season, in gratitude for the fa Tales. It does not seem certain, or even probable, | district to the north of the Po was, in consequence, that Virgil went at all to Rome from Naples. It rather appears that he returned to his native country, and to the charge of his paternal farm; and if, as is generally supposed, he intended to describe his own life and character under the person of Tityrus, in the first eclogue, it is evident that he did not visit Rome until after the battle of Philippi, and consequent division of the lands among the soldiery. Some poems which are still extant, as the Culex and Ciris, were at one time believed to have been the fruits of his genius at this early period. We are also told, that, in the warmth of his earliest youth, he had formed the bold design of writing, in imitation of Ennius, a poem on the wars of Rome, but that he was deterred from proceeding by the ruggedness of the ancient Italian names, which wounded the delicacy of his ear. It seems certain, at least, that, previous to the composition of his Eclogues, he had made imperfect attempts in the higher depart-diers. ments of heroic poetry. (Eclog., 6, 3.)-The battle peculiar violence, and which even threatened danof Mutina (Modena) was fought in 711 A.U.C., and the triumvirate having been shortly afterward formed, Asinus Pollio was appointed, on the part of Antony, to the command of the district in which the farm of Virgil lay. Pollio, who was a noted extortioner, levied enormous contributions from the inhabitants of the territory intrusted to his care; and, in some instances, when the pecuniary supplies failed, he drove the ancient colonists from their lands, and settled his veterans in their place. He was fond, however, of poetry, and was a generous protector of literary man. The rising genius of Virgil had now begun to manifest itself. His poetic talents and amiable manners recommended him to the favour of Pollio; and, so long as that chief continued in command of the Mantuan district, he was relieved from all exaction, and protected in the peace-vours he had received, he composed his eclogue entiable possession of his property. Residing constantly in the country, and captivated with the rural beauties of the Idyllia of Theocritus, Virgil early became ambi tious of introducing this new species of poetry into his native land; and, accordingly, he seems to have bent his chief endeavours at this time to imitate and rival the sweet Sicilian. The eclogue entitled "Alexis," which is usually placed second in the editions of his works, is supposed to have been his first pastoral production, and to have been written in 711, the year in which Pollio came to assume the military command of the territory where our poet resided. It was quickly followed by the "Daphnis" and "Silenus," as also by the "Palamon," in which he boasts of the favour of Pollio, and expresses his gratitude for the favour that leader had extended to him. But the tranquillity he enjoyed under the protection of Pollio was of short duration. Previously to the battle of Philippi, the triumvirs had promised to their soldiers the lands belonging to some of the richest towns in the empire. Augustus returned to Italy in 712, after his victory at Philippi, and found it necessary, in order to satisfy their claims, to commence a division of lands in Italy on a more extensive scale even than he had intended. In that country there were considerable territories which had been originally and legally the patrimony of the state. But extensive tracts of this species of public property had, from time to time, been appropriated by corporations and individuals, who were unwilling to be disturbed in their possessions. Julius Cæsar had set the example of reclaiming these farms and colonizing them with his soldiers. His successor now undertook a similar but more extensive distribution. In the middle and south of Italy, however, the lands were chiefly private inheritance, or had been so long retained by individuals that a claim had been acquired to them by length of possession; but in the north of Italy they were for the most part public property, on which colonists had been more recently settled. These were the lands first assigned to the soldiers; and the tled Tityrus, in which he introduces two shepherds, one of whom laments the distraction of the times, and complains of the aggressions of the soldiery, while the other rejoices over the recovery of his farm, and vows ever to honour as a god the youth who had restored it. The remaining eclogues, with the exception, perhaps, of the tenth, called "Gallus," were produced in the course of this and the following year.Virgil had now spent three years in the composition of pastoral poetry and in constant residence on his farm, except during the two journeys to Rome which he was compelled to undertake for its preservation. In his pastorals, however, though written in his native fields, we do not find many delineations of Mantuan scenery, or very frequent allusions to the Mincius and its borders. His great object was to enrich his native language with a species of poetry unknown in Latium, and, to promote his success, he chose Theocritus as his model. With few attempts at invention, he pretended to little more than the merit of being the first Roman who had imitated the Sicilian poet, and hence he did not hesitate to borrow, not only the sentiments and images, but even the rural descriptions of his master.-The situation of Virgil's residence was low and humid, and the climate chill at certain seasons of the year. His delicate constitution, and the pulmonary complaint with which he was affected, induced him, about the year 714 or 715, when he had reached the age of thirty, to seek a warmer sky. To this change, it may be conjectured, he was farther instigated by his increasing celebrity and the extension of his poetic fame. His countrymen were captivated by the perfect novelty of pastoral composition, and by the successful boldness with which Virgil had transferred the sweet Sicilian strains to a language which, before his attempt, must have appeared, from its hardness and severity, but little adapted to be a vehicle for the softness of rural description or the delicacy of amorous sentiment, and which had scarcely yet been polished or refined to the susceptibility of such smooth numbers as the pastoral muse demanded. The Bucolics accordingly were relished and admired by all classes of his contemporaries. So universal was their popularity, that the philosophic eclogue of Silenus, soon after its composition, was publicly recited in the theatre by Cytheris, a celebrated actress of mimes.On quitting his paternal fields, Virgil first proceeded to the capital. Here his private fortune was considerably augmented by the liberality of Mecenas (Martial, 8, 56); and such was the favour he possessed with his patron, that we find him, soon after his arrival at Rome, introducing Horace to the notice of the minister (Hor., Sat., 1, 6), and attending him, along with that poet, on a political mission to Brundisium. Nor did Virgil enjoy less favour with the emperor himself than with his minister. It is said that he never asked anything of Augustus that was refused; and Donatus even affirms, though, it must be confessed, with-ber, comparing himself in this respect to a she-bear, out the least probability, that Augustus consulted him with regard to his resignation of the government, as a sort of umpire between Agrippa and Mæcenas. It was probably during this period of favour with the emperor and his minister that Virgil contributed the verses in celebration of the deity who presided over the gardens of Mecenas; and wrote, though without acknowledging it, that well-known distich in honour of Augustus, "Nocte pluit tota; redeunt spectacula mane; Divisum imperium cum Jove Cæsar habet.” The story goes on to relate, that Bathyllus, a contemptible poet of the day, claimed these verses as his own, and was liberally rewarded. Vexed at the imposture, Virgil again wrote the verses in question near the palace, and under them, "Hos ego versiculos feci, tulit alter honores; with the beginning of another line in these words, "Sic vos non vobis," four times repeated. Augustus wished the lines to be "Sic vos non vobis nidificatis aves ; trious and literary men. Thither Virgil retired about A.U.C. 717, when in the thirty-third year of his age; and he continued, during the remainder of his life, to dwell chiefly in that city, or at a delightful villa which he possessed in the Campania Felix, in the neighbourhood of Nola, ten miles east of Naples, leading a life which may be considered as happy when compared with the fate of the other great epic poets, Homer, Tasso, and Milton, in whom the mind or the vision was darkened. About the time when he first went to reside at Naples, he commenced his Georgies by order of Mæcenas, and continued, for the seven following years, closely occupied with the composition of that inimitable poem. During this long period he was accustomed to dictate a number of verses in the morning, and to spend the rest of the day in revising and correcting them, or reducing them to a smaller numwhich licks her misshapen offspring into proper form and proportion. (Aul. Gell., N. A., 17, 10.) Little is known concerning the other circumstances of Virgil's life during the years in which he was employed in perfecting his Georgics. He had a dispute, it is said, with his neighbours, the inhabitants of Nola, from whom he requested permission to convey a small stream of water into his villa, which was adjacent to their town. The citizens would not grant the favour, and the offended poet expunged the name of Nola from the following lines of his Georgics, and city. "Talem dives arat Capua, et Vicina Vesevo Nola jugo-" substitued the word ora instead of the obnoxious (Aul. Gell., N. A., 7, 20.) The story, however, is entitled to no credit. (Vid. Nola.)-The genius of Virgil, being attended with some degree of diffidence, seems to have gained, by slow steps, the measure of confidence which at length imboldened him to attempt epic poetry. He had begun his experience in verse with humble efforts in the pastoral line; though even there we behold his ardent Muse frequently bursting the barriers by which she ought naturally to have been restrained. He next undertook the bolder and wider topic of husbandry; and it was not till he had finished this subject with unrivalled success that he presumed to write the Eneid. This poem, which occupied him till his death, was commenced in 724, the same year in which he had completed his Georgics. After he had been engaged for some time in its composition, the greatest curiosity and interest concerning it began to be felt at Rome. A work, it was generally believed, was in progress, which would eclipse the fame of the Iliad (Propert., 2, 34, 66); and the passage which describes the shield of Æneas appears to have been seen by Propertius. Augustus himself at length became desirous of reading the poem so far as it had been carried; and, in the year 729, while absent from Rome on a military expedition against the Cantabrians, he wrote to the author from the extremity of his empire, entreating him to be allowed a perusal of it. Macrobius has preserved one of Virgil's answers to Augustus: "I have of late received from you frequent letters. With regard to my Eneas, if, by Hercules, it were worth your listening to, I would willingly send it. But so vast is the undertaking, that I almost appear to myself to have commenced such a work from some defect in judgment or understanding; especially since, as you know, other and far higher studies are required for such a perform proved himself to be the author of the distich, and the poetical usurper became the sport and ridicule of Rome. During his residence at Rome, Virgil inhabited a house on the Esquiline Hill, which was furnished with an excellent library, and was pleasantly situated near the gardens of Maecenas. The supposed site, and even ruins of this mansion, were long shown to modern travellers. Yet, however enviable was Virgil's present lot, the bustle and luxury of an immense capital were little suited to his taste, to his early habits, or to the delicacy of his constitution, while the observance and attention he met with were strongly repugnant to the retiring modesty of his disposition. Such was the popularity which he derived from his general character and talents, that, on one occasion, when some of his verses were recited in the theatre, the whole audience rose to salute Virgil, who was present, with the same respect which they would have paid to the emperor. (De Caus. corr. eloq., c.ance." (Sat., 1, 24.)-Prevailed on, at length, by 13.) And so great was the annoyance which he felt on being gazed at and followed in the streets of Rome, that he sought shelter, it is said, in the nearest shops or alleys from public observation.-At the period when Virgil enjoyed so much honour and popularity in the capital, Naples was a favourite retreat of illus these importunities, Virgil, about a year after the return of Augustus, recited to him the sixth book, in presence of his sister Octavia, who had recently lost her only son Marcellus, the darling of Rome, and the adopted child of Augustus. The poet. probably, in the prospect of this recitation, had inserted the affect ing passage in which he alludes to the premature | Donatus says that he had ordered it to be burned, but death of the beloved youth: "O nate, ingentem luctum ne quære tuorum," &c. But he had skilfully suppressed the name of Marcellus till he came to the line, adds, that on Varius and Tucca representing to him that Augustus would not permit it to be destroyed, he committed it to them for revisal and correction. Moreri relates the story as it is told by Macrobius, Aulus Gellius, and Pliny; and Bayle, as usual, reprehends him because he has not given it accord"Tu Marcellus eris-manibus date lilia plenis." ing to the version of Donatus. Augustus, however, It may well be believed that the widowed mother interposed to save a work which he no doubt saw of Marcellus swooned away at the pathos of these the prince who patronised him. It was accordingly would at once confer immortality on the poet and on verses, which no one, even at this day, can read un-intrusted to Varius and Tucca, with a power to revise moved. Virgil is said to have received from the and retrench, but with a charge that they should make afflicted parent 10,000 sesterces (dena sestertia) for each verse of this celebrated passage.-It was much no additions; a command which they so strictly obthe practice among the Roman poets to read their served as not to complete even the hemistichs which productions aloud; and Virgil is said to have recited have struck out twenty-two verses from the second had been left imperfect. They are said, however, to his verses with wonderful sweetness and propriety of articulation. During the composition of the Eneid, book, where Æneas, perceiving Helen amid the smohe occasionally repeated portions of it to those friends king ruins of Troy, intends to slay her, till his design whose criticisms he thought might improve the pas-trou, Euvres de Virgile; Dissert. sur le 2d livre is prevented by his goddess mother. (Consult Casage he rehearsed. Eros, his librarian and freedman, used to relate, when far advanced in life, that, in the de l'Eneide, note 10.) These lines, accordingly, were course of his reciting, his master had extemporarily have been subsequently restored to their place. There wanting in many of the ancient manuscripts, but they filled up two hemistichs; the one was "Misenum Eoliden," to which he immediately added, "quo non was also a report long current, that Varius had made præstantior alter," and the other the half verse fol- a change, which still subsists, in the arrangement of lowing, "Ere ciere viros," to which, as if struck by ond and third, the latter having stood first in the oritwo of the books, by transposing the order of the secpoetic inspiration, he subjoined, "Martemque accendere cantu;" and he immediately ordered his amanu- four lines "Ille ego quondam," &c., which are still ginal manuscript. According to some accounts, the ensis to insert these additions in their proper places in the manuscript of his poem.-Having brought the prefixed to the Eneid in many editions, were expunEneid to a conclusion, but not the perfection which ged by Varius and Tucca; but, according to others, he wished to bestow upon it, Virgil, contrary to the they never were written by Virgil, and are no better advice and wish of his friends, resolved to travel into than an interpolation of the middle ages.--Virgil beGreece, that he might correct and polish this great siderable, to a brother. The remainder was divided queathed the greater part of his wealth, which was conproduction at leisure in that land of poetic imagination. It was on undertaking this voyage that Horace ad- among his patron Mecenas, and his friends Varius and dressed to him the affectionate ode beginning, Tucca. Before his death, he had also commanded that his bones should be carried to Naples, where he had lived so long and so happily. This order was fulfilled, under charge of Augustus himself. Accord "Sic te Diva potens Cypri," &c. (1, 3). Virgil proceeded directly to Athens, where he coming to the most ancient tradition and the most commenced the revisal of his epic poem, and added the monly received opinion, the tomb of Virgil lies about magnificent introduction to the third book of the two miles to the north of Naples, on the slope of the Georgics. He had been thus engaged for some months hill of Pausilippo, and over the entrance to the grotto at Athens, when Augustus arrived at that city, on his or subterraneous passage which has been cut through return to Italy, from a progress through his eastern do- its ridge, on the road leading from Naples to Puteoli. minions. When he embarked for Greece, it had been Cluverius and Addison, indeed, have placed the tomb the intention of Virgil to have spent three years in that on the other side of Naples, near the foot of Mount country in the correction of his poem; after which he Vesuvius; but the other opinion is based upon the proposed to pass his days in his native country of Man- common tradition of the country, and accords with the tua, and devote the rest of his life to the study of philoso-belief of Petrarch, Sannazarius, and Bembo: it may phy, or to the composition of some great historical poem. The arrival of Augustus, however, induced him to shorten his stay, and to embrace the opportunity of returning to Italy in the retinue of the emperor. But the hand of death was already upon him. From his youth he had been of a delicate constitution; and, as age advanced, he was afflicted with frequent headaches, asthma, and spitting of blood. Even the climate of Naples could not preserve him from frequent attacks of these maladies, and their worst symptoms had increased during his residence in Greece. The vessel in which he embarked with the emperor touched at Megara, where he was seized with great debility and languor. When he again went on board, his distemper was so increased by the motion and agitation of the vessel, that he ex-hung the simple edifice. (More's Travels, Letter 65.) pired a few days after he had landed at Brundisium, on the southeastern coast of Italy. His death happened A.U.C. 734, when he was in the 51st year of his age. When he felt its near approach, he ordered his friends Varius and Plotius Tucca, who were then with him, to burn the Eneid as an imperfect poem. The ancient classical authorities only say that Virgil commanded the Eneid to be burned. (Plin., 7, 30.Aul. Gell., N. A., 17, 10.-Macrob., Sat., 1, 24.) still be cherished, therefore, by the traveller who climbs the hill of Pausilippo, and he may still think that he hails the shade of Virgil on the spot where his ashes repose. Notwithstanding, however, the veneration which the Romans entertained for the works of Virgil, his sepulchre was neglected before the time of Martial, who declares that Silius Italicus first restored its longforgotten honours. What is at present called the tomb, is in the form of a small, square, flat-roofed building, placed on a sort of platform, near the brow of a precipice, on one side, and on the other sheltered by a superincumbent rock. Half a century ago, when More travelled in Italy, an ancient laurel (a shoot, perhaps, of the same which Petrarch had planted) over Within the low vaulted cell was once placed the urn supposed to contain the ashes of Virgil. Pietro Stefano, who lived in the thirteenth century, mentions that he had seen the urn, with the epitaph inscribed on it, which is said to have been written by the poet himself a few moments before his death: "Mantua me genuit; Calabri rapuere; tenet nun: Parthenope. Cecini pascua, rura, duces." It was a common practice among the Latin poets to py. Thus much for the pastoral poetry of Virgil. write their own epitaphs; and, if the above distich be We come next to the Georgics. This poem, which is the production of Virgil himself, it is eminently ex- in four books, derives its title from the Greek Tewayipressive of that modesty which is universally allowed ká, which last is compounded of yéa (yn), “ the earth.” to have been one of the many amiable features of his and pyov, "labour." The subject is husbandry in character, and which is by no means observable in the general. The poem of the Georgics is as remarkable epitaphs composed for themselves by Ennius and Næ- for majesty and magnificence of diction, as the EcVius. The Italian writer just cited also remarks, logues are for sweetness and harmony of versification. that Robert of Anjou, apprehensive for the safety of It is the most complete, elaborate, and finished poem such a relic during the civil wars, had the urn conveyed in the Latin, or perhaps in any language; and, though to Castel Nuovo. It seems that so much care was the choice of subject and the situations afforded less taken, that it was concealed too well to be ever after- expectation of success than the pastorals, so much has ward discovered.-We have seen that, at Rome, Vir- been achieved by art and genius, that the author has gil avoided all public honours, and was disconcerted chiefly exhibited himself as a poet on topics where it by marks of general admiration. But, though he was difficult to appear as such. Rome, from its local loved retirement and contemplation; though he was of situation, was not well adapted for commerce; and, a thoughtful and somewhat melancholy temper; and from the time of Romulus to that of Cæsar, agriculthough he felt not that anxiety for paltry distinctions ture had been the chief care of the Romans. Its opor trivial testimonies of honour which harassed the erations were conducted by the greatest statesmen, morbid mind of Tasso, it seems to be a mistaken idea and its precepts inculcated by the profoundest scholars. that he was indifferent to glory, as Donatus and As- The long continuance, however, and fatal ravages of conius Pedianus have asserted. He was evidently the civil wars, had now occasioned an almost general fond of fame, and desirous to obtain the applause of desolation. Italy was, in a great measure, depopulahis contemporaries. And while he shunned the vul- ted of its husbandmen. The soldiers, by whom the gar gaze and shrunk from the pressure of the multi-lands were newly occupied, had too long ravished the tude, he was not, in the hours of retirement, without fields to think of cultivating them; and, in consethat proud exultation of spirit, that consciousness of quence of the farms lying waste, a famine and insurhigh intellectual endowments and strong imaginative rection had nearly ensued. (Georg, 1, 505.) In these powers, which announced to him that he was called circumstances, Mæcenas resolved, if possible, to revive to immortality, and destined to confer immortality on the decayed spirit of agriculture, to recall the lost his country. It has already been remarked, that, in habits of peaceful industry, and to make rural improvehis pastoral poetry, Virgil was the professed imitator ment, as it had been in former times, the prevailing of Theocritus: his images, indeed, are all Greek, and amusement among the great and he wisely judged, his scenery such as he found painted in the pages of that no method was so likely to contribute to these the Sicilian poet, and not what he had himself observ- important objects as a recommendation of agriculture ed on the banks of the Mincius. Yet, with all this im- by all the insinuating charms of poetry. At his sugitation and resemblance, the productions of the two gestion, accordingly, Virgil commenced his Georgics, poets are widely different. Thus, the delineations of which were thus, in some degree, undertaken from a character in Theocritus are more varied and lively. political motive, and with a view to promote the welHis Idyls exhibit a gallery of portraits which enter- fare of his country; and, as in the eclogue which antains by its variety or delights by its truth; and in nounces the return of the golden age, he strove to which every rural figure is so distinctly drawn, that it render his woods worthy of a consul, so, in his Georstands out, as it were, from the canvass, in a defined gics, he studied to make his fields deserving of Maand certain form. But that want of discrimination of cenas and Augustus. But, though written with a pacharacter, which has been so frequently remarked in triotic object, by order of a Roman statesman, and on the Eneid, is also observable in the pastorals of Vir- a subject peculiarly Roman, the imitative spirit of gil. His Thyrsis, Daphnis, and Menalcas resemble Latin poetry still prevailed, and the author could not each other. No shepherd is distinguished by any pe- avoid recurring, even in his Georgics, to a Grecian culiar disposition or humour; they all speak from the model. A few verses on the signs and prognostics of lips of the poet, and their dialogue is modelled by the the weather have been translated from the Phænomena standard of his own elegant mind. A difference is of Aratus. But the Works and Days of Hesiod is the likewise observable in the scenes and descriptions. pattern which he has chiefly held in view. In referThose of Theocritus possess that minuteness and accu- ence to his imitation of this model, he himself styles racy so conducive to poetic truth and reality; Virgil's his Georgics an Ascræan poem; and he appears, inrepresentations are more general, and bring only vague deed, to have been a sincere admirer of the ancient images before the fancy. In the Idyls of Theocritus bard. In the Works and Days, Hesiod, after a dewe find a rural, romantic wildness of thought, and the scription of the successive ages of the world, points most pleasing descriptions of simple, unadorned nature, out the means for procuring an honest livelihood. Of heightened by the charm of the Doric dialect. But these the proper exercise of agriculture is one of the Virgil, in borrowing his images and sentiments, has principal. He accordingly gives directions for the laseldom drawn an idea from his Sicilian master without bours of the field, and enumerates those days on which beautifying it by the lustre of his language. The chief the various operations of husbandry ought to be permerit, however, of Virgil's imitations lies in his judi- formed. It is chiefly, then, in the first and second cious selections. Theocritus's sketches of manners are books of the Georgics (where Virgil discourses on tiloften coarse and unpleasing; and his most beautiful lage and planting) that he has imitated the Works and descriptions are almost always too crowded. But Vir- Days. Hesiod has not treated of the breeding of catgil refined whatever was gross, and threw aside all that tle or care of bees, which form the subjects of the third was overloaded or superfluous. He made his shep- and fourth books of the Roman poet. But in the forherds more cultivated than even those of his own time. mer books he has copied his predecessor in some of He represented them with some of the features which his most minute precepts of agriculture, as well as in are supposed to have belonged to the swains in the his injunctions with regard to the superstitious observearly ages of the world, when they were possessed of ance of days. Virgil's arrangement of his topics is great flocks and herds, and had acquired a knowledge at once the most natural, and that which best carries of astronomy, cosmogony, and music; when the pas- his reader along with him. He begins with the preptoral life, in short, appeared perfection, and nature aration of the inert mass of earth and the sowing of had lavished all her stores to render the shepherd hap-grain, which form the most intractable part of his sub ject. Then he discloses to our view a more open | abridgment of the subject of that poem, and several prospect and a wider horizon, leading us among the passages are nearly copied from it. Of other modrich and diversified scenes of nature, the shades of ern Latin poems which have been written in imivineyards, and blossoms of orchards. He next pre-tation of the Georgics, Vaniere's Prædium Rusticum sents us with pictures of joyous and animated exist- approaches nearest to it in the subject; but it is a ence. The useful herds, the courageous horse, the tedious and languid production. The Italian poem Nomades of Africa and Scythia pass before us, and of Alamanni, in six books, entitled “Della Coltivazithe fancy is excited by images of the whole moving one," enlarges on the various topics discussed in the creation. He at length concludes with those insects first three books of Virgil; while Rucellai, the counwhich have formed themselves into a well-ordered com- tryman and contemporary of Alamanni, has, in his munity, and which, in their nature, laws, and govern- poem Le Api, nearly translated the fourth book, omitment, seem most nearly to approach the human spe- ting, however, the fable of Aristaus. Both these pocies. Many of Virgil's rules, particularly those con- ems, in versi sciolti, are written with much elegance cerning the care of cattle, have been taken from the and purity of style, and contain many passages which works of the ancient agricultural writers of his own might bear a comparison with the most celebrated parts country. Seneca, indeed, talks lightly of the accuracy of that immortal work on which they were modelled. and value of his precepts. But Columella speaks of A few lines in the fourth book have also given to Rahim as an agricultural oracle ("verissimo vati velut pin the hint for his Latin poem, Horti; but, as Addioraculo crediderimus"); and all modern travellers, who son has remarked, "there is more pleasantness in the have had occasion to examine the mode of agriculture little platform of a garden which Virgil gives us, than even at this day practised in Italy, bear testimony to in all the spacious walks and waterworks of Rapin." his exactness in the minutest particulars. His pre- The same subject has been enlarged on by Delille, cepts of the most sordid and trivial descriptions are de- who was a translator and enthusiastic admirer of Virlivered with dignity, and the most common observa- gil, and has borrowed from him some of the finest tions have received novelty or importance by poetic passages, both in Les Jardins, and his other poem, embellishment. It is thus that he contrives, by con- L'Homme des Champs, which may be considered as verting rules into images, to give a picturesque col- a continuation of the Georgics, by adding a moral part ouring or illustration to the most unpromising topics, to the Latin poem. St. Lambert, in his Saisons, and to scatter roses amid his fields, and to cover, as it Roucher, in his Mois, have also frequently availed were, with verdure the thorns and briers of agricultural themselves of the Georgics. It is impossible here to discussion. This talent of expressing with elegance point out particular imitations; but it may be observed what is trifling and in itself little attractive, is one of of these poems in general, that they are vague and the most difficult arts of poetry, and no one was better diffuse, and never reach that pregnant brevity of style acquainted with it than Virgil. But, though he has by which their great original is distinguished. It has inculcated his precepts with as much clearness, ele- been remarked by Wharton, that, of all our English gance, and dignity as the nature of the subject admits, poems, "Philip's Cider, which is a close imitation of and even in this respect has greatly improved on He- the Georgics, conveys to us the fullest idea of Virgil's siod, still it is not on these precepts that the chief beau- manner, whom he has exactly followed in conciseness ty of the Georgics depends. With the various discus- of style, in throwing in frequent moral reflections, in sions on corn, vines, cattle, and bees, he has interwo- varying the method of giving his precepts, in his diven every philosophical, moral, or mythological episode gressions, and in his happy address in returning again on which he could with propriety seize. In all didac- to his subject; in his knowledge, and love of philosotic poems the episodes are the chief embellishments. phy, medicine, agriculture, and antiquity, and in a cerThe noblest passages of Lucretius are those in which tain primeval simplicity of manners, which is so conhe so sincerely paints the charms of virtue, and the spicuous in both." But no English poet has been so delights of moderation and contentment. In like man- much indebted to Virgil for his fame as Thomson. ner, the finest verses of Virgil are his invocations to In his Seasons he sometimes assembles together difthe gods, his addresses to Augustus, his account of the ferent passages from the Georgics, and sometimes prodigies before the death of Cæsar, and his descrip- scatters verses belonging to the same passage through tion of Italy. How beautiful and refreshing are his different parts of his own production, but at other praises of a country life! how solemn and majestic his times he translates straightforward. In his Spring, encomiums on the sage who had triumphed, as it were, though Lucretius has contributed a share, he has closely over the powers of destiny; who had shut his ears to imitated from Virgil the description of the golden age, the murmurs of Acheron, and dispelled from his ima- and of the desires which the early season excites among gination those invisible and inaudible phantoms which the brute creation. From the same source he has borwander on the other side of death! In these and rowed, in his Summer, many circumstances of the thunmany other passages, it is evident that Virgil contends der-storm, and the panegyric on Great Britain, which is with Lucretius, and strives hard to surpass him. parodied from the praises of Italy. The eulogy which There is a close resemblance in the topics on which he introduces in his Autumn on a philosophical life these two poets descant, but a wide difference between may be cited as an example of the closeness with them in tone and manner. Lucretius is more bold and which, on some occasions, he imitates the Latin poet. simple than his successor, and displays more of the -The Eneïs next claims our attention. It has for its vivida vis animi; but his outlines are harder, and we subject the settlement of the Trojans in Italy. This never find in Virgil any of those rugged verses or un-production belongs to a nobler class of poetry than polished expressions which we so frequently encounter in Lucretius. In the theological parts, and those which relate to a state of future existence, Lucretius assumes, as it were, a tone of defiance, while Virgil is more calm, contemplative, and resigned. As the works of Virgil were never completely forgotten during the dark ages, or, at all events, were the first classical productions which were brought to light or studied at the revival of literature, we find imitations of the Georgics in the earliest poets who appeared after that period. The "Rusticus" of Politian, "in Virgilii Georgicon enarratione pronunciata," is an the Georgics, and is, perhaps, equally perfect in its kind. It ranks, indeed, in the very highest order, and it was in this exalted species that Virgil was most fitted to excel. Undisturbed by excess of passion, and never hurried away by the current of ideas, he calmly consigned to immortal verse the scenes which his fancy had first painted as lovely, and which his understanding had afterward approved. The extent, too, and depth of the design proposed in the Eneid, rendered this subjection to the judgment indispensable. It would be absurd to suppose, with some critics, that Virgil intended to give instruction to princes in the art |