shown a greater relish for natural beauty, than Horace. It is indicated in almost every ode, that he has written.-If he celebrate the powers of wine, the pleasure of sitting under the shade of the vine tree is remembered too:-If he sing, in Lydian measures, the charms of his mistresses, -the rose is not more beautiful, the violet has no sweeter perfume. One he invites to the woods, and another he describes, as reclining on beds of roses, in a cool and shady grotto. Does he sing of war?-he forgets not to contrast its pains and its horrors with the pleasures of a smiling country, peopled with rural animals, and a rural population. -Upon a couch, at Rome or at Lucretilis, indulging in the joys of Bacchus, he calls to mind the season of the vintage, when grapes hang, in purple clusters, on the vines; and when the happy peasants dance, in various groupes, upon the margin of a river." With a fountain of clear water," says he, " and a shady wood, I am happier than a prince of Africa.Ah! how am I delighted, when wandering among steep rocks and woods; since the shades of forests and the murmuring of waters inspire my fancy, and will render me famous in all future ages.-Sing, oh! ye virgins, the beauties of Thes

salian Tempe, and the wandering isle of Delos; celebrate, oh! ye youths, the charms of that goddess, who delights in flowing rivers and in the shades of trees; who lives on the mountain of Algidus, among the impenetrable woods of Erymanthus and on the green and fertile Cragus*."

How happy is he at his various villas!—and with what delight does he celebrate the superior advantages of a country life in his second epode! -a poem, which forcibly recals to our recollection Virgil's Corycian swain, and Claudian's old man of Verona.

XXXV. Pliny, who was accustomed to say, that if à man would perpetuate his fame, he must do things worth recording, or write things worth reading, was never happier, than when he was indulging himself at his country seats, where he found leisure to write to his friends, and to celebrate the views, which his villas afforded."Thuscum," says he, with honest and elegant pride, “is situated in a fine, natural amphitheatre, formed by the richest part of the Apennine, whose towering summits are crowned with oak, and

* Lib. III. ode 15. Iv. ode 26. ode 4, ode 3. 1. ode 21.

broken into a variety of shapes, with springs, welling perpetually from the sides, and interspersed with fields, copses, and vineyards.""Here," he observes in another letter, "I enjoy the most profound retirement:-all is calm and composed;-circumstances, which contribute no less, than its clear and unclouded sky, to that health of body, and cheerfulness of mind, which, in this place, I so particularly enjoy.”—Pliny had several country seats on the Larian Lake, two of which he was particularly partial to*.—The manner, in which he spent his time at those villas, he has described con amore in a letter to Fuscus ; and because we have but an imperfect idea of Roman villas, I would have sent you a translation of the description, he has given of his villa at Laurentium, had I not despaired of imitating that diligent negligence of style, which so much excited the admiration of the great Erasmus.-In regard to epistolary writing, I am tempted, with the scholiasts, to give Cicero the preference, when the subjects of his letters are of a public nature; but when they relate to the daily occurrences, and to the private sentiments of the

* Plin. Epist. Romano. vII.

writers, I think our favourite Pliny has but few competitors.-There is an urbanity and an elegance, a devotedness of affection, and an undisguisedness of heart irresistibly winning and agreeable; which none of the moderns have equalled, and which none of the ancients, if we except Cornelia*, ever surpassed.—

XXXVI. Equally with Pliny, was Tibullus a sincere and ardent lover of the country-his elegies, therefore, are frequently embellished with allusions to natural objects, and with descriptions of the joy, the content, and happiness of a country life. But it is not the poetry of Tibullus only, that recommends this amiable man so much to our attention and applause.-Few poets have had principles so fixed, and have adhered to them with such firmness and constancy as Tibullus; few have panegyrised so little, where flattery was so sure of reward; and though Virgil may excel him in the grandeur of his subject and the majesty of his numbers; though Horace bears the palm for acute satire, sprightliness of wit and brilliancy of intellect; I would rather

*Note 11.

wear the honours, arising from the consistent and manly politics of Tibullus, than be entitled to the most vivid laurel of the poetic wreath.-Descended from an honourable branch of the Albian family, he fought the cause of the people by the side of Messala, at Philippi, and though animated with all the fervency of a grateful friendship towards that distinguished statesman, he disdained to follow his example, in paying court to the conqueror of that fatal day.-The crown of Augustus derived none of its lustre from the praises of Tibullus.-Weary with a hopeless contest, and disgusted with the corruptions of the times, he retired to Pedum;-there to indulge in the innocent occupations of a country life; to recruit his impaired finances, and, in the alternate amusements of agriculture and poetry, to soothe the disappointments of his heart;

to invoke the favours of his mistress;—and, above all, to retain, unimpaired, those high and genuine ideas of liberty, which he had imbibed in early youth from the lessons of his preceptors and from the splendid examples of former ages.

XXXVII. "If life were not too short," says Sir William Jones, " for the complete discharge