At tibi prima, puer, nullo munuscula cultu, Errantes hederas passim cum baccare tellus, Mixtaque ridenti colocasia fundet acantho.—v. 18. The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.-Is. xxxv. 1. Many theories have been proposed respecting the child to whom allusion is made in this eclogue, not one of which was satisfactory to Gibbon;1 but the following is adopted by Heyne as the most probable. The peace of Brundisium was cemented by the marriage between Antony and Cæsar's half-sister Octavia. She was the widow of Marcellus, and appeared likely to give birth to a posthumous child. To this child yet unborn, the poet applies all the blessings promised by the Sibylline oracles, and predicts that, under his auspices, the peace and prosperity already inaugurated shall be confirmed. VI. In the sixth, Virgil represents allegorically, under the character of Silenus the tutor of Bacchus, his own instructor Syron; and thus makes it the vehicle of a short account of the Epicurean philosophy. It was not long since the same subject had been treated of at greater length by the eloquent Lucretius; and it is said that when Cicero heard it recited by the mime Cytheris, he was so struck with admiration as to exclaim that he was "Magnæ spes altera Romæ." This eclogue is parodied by Gay in the Saturday of his Shepherd's Week. x. The tenth can scarcely be distinguished from any other amatory poem, except that the heroic metre is not so usual in that species of poetry as the elegiac. The loves of the poet Gallus are sung; Arcadia is fixed upon as the place of his exile; and the lay is said to be set to the music of the oaten-pipe of Sicily: but this eclogue has no other claim to be entitled a bucolic poem. One passage in this eclogue, which suggested the following beautiful lines in Milton's "Lycidas" illustrates the truth that poetry often derives additional beauty from the fact of its being a successful imitation: 1 Decl. and Fall. c. xx. vol. iii. p. 269. IMITATION BY MILTON. Quæ nemora aut qui vos saltus habuere, puellæ Ecl. x. 9. Where were ye, Nymphs, when the remorseless deep For neither were ye playing on the steep, Nor yet where Deva spreads her wizard stream. Milton's Lycidas. 251 CHAPTER IV. BEAUTY OF DIDACTIC POETRY-ELABORATE FINISH OF THE GEORGICS-ROMAN LOVE OF RURAL PURSUITS-HESIOD SUITABLE AS A MODEL-CONDITION OF ITALY-SUBJECTS TREATED OF IN THE GEORGICS-SOME STRIKING PASSAGES ENUMERATEDINFLUENCE OF ROMAN LITERATURE ON ENGLISH POETRY-SOURCES FROM WHICH THE INCIDENTS OF THE ENEID ARE DERIVED-CHARACTER OF ENEAS-CRITICISM OF NIEBUHR. DIDACTIC poetry is of all kinds the least inviting. As its professed object is instruction, there is no reason why its lessons should be conveyed in poetical language-its purpose, could in fact, be better attained in prose. Pretending, therefore, to poetry, it demands great skill, elaborate finish and such graces and embellishments as will conceal its dry character, and recommend it to the reader's attention. The beauty of a didactic poem depends only partially on the just views and correct discrimination which it evinces, and principally on the beauty of the language, the picturesque force, and pleasing character of the descriptions, and the interest that is thrown into the episodes. In fact, the accessaries are the parts most admired, and extracts brought forward as specimens of this kind of poetry are invariably of this kind. Poetry naturally deals with the beauties and terrors of external nature— with the emotions and passions, whether of a tender or violent kind-the sober practical rules of life are scarcely within its sphere. True it is that when all literature was poetical, the precepts of moral and physical philosophy, and even the dry commands of laws and institutions, were embodied in a metrical form; but when literature divides itself into poetry and prose, the subjects appropriated to each other become spontaneously separate likewise. For this reason, the Georgics of Virgil especially display his ability as a poet, his correct taste the "limæ labor,” the ROMAN LOVE OF RURAL PURSUITS. 253 pains which he took in polishing and correcting. In none of his poems can we form a better idea of the description which he gives of his patient toil, when he says, that "like the she-bear he brought his poetical offspring into shape by constantly licking them." The majesty of the language elevates the subject, and divests it of so much of the homeliness as would be inappropriate to poetry, and yet at the same time it is not too grand or elevated. The following criticism of Addison is by no means too favourable:-"I shall conclude this poem to be the most complete, elaborate, and finished piece of all antiquity. The Eneis is of a nobler kind; but the Georgic is more perfect in its kind. The Eneis has a greater variety of beauties in it; but those of the Georgic are more exquisite. In short, the Georgic has all the perfection that can be expected in a poem written by the greatest poet, in the flower of his age, when his invention was ready, his imagination warm, his judgment settled, and all his faculties in their full vigour and maturity." Rome offered a favourable field for a poet to undertake a poem on the labours and enjoyments of rural life. Agriculture was always there considered a liberal employment: tradition had adorned rustic manners with the attributes of simplicity and honesty, and divested them of the ideas of coarseness usually connected with them. The traditions of those ages of national freedom and greatness, to which the enthusiasm of the poet delighted to carry back the thoughts of his readers, had connected some of the noblest names of history with rural labours. Curius and Cincinnatus were called from the plough to defend and save their country; and after their task was performed they returned with delight to it again. Cato, the representative of the old and respected generation, and other illustrious men, had written on the pursuits and duties of rural life. Agriculture was never connected with ideas of debasing and illiberal gain, such as attached to trade and commerce. The poet, moreover, had a model ready at hand, after which to construct his work. It was Greek, and therefore sure to be acceptable upon the recognised principles of taste. It described a species of rural life, hard, frugal, and industrious, very much A. Gell. N. A. xvii. 10. 2 Misc. Works, vol. i. like that led by the agriculturists of Italy. It painted a standard of morals, which even the licentious inhabitants of a luxurious capital could appreciate, though they had degenerated from it. The discriminating judgment of Virgil saw that the rural life of Italy could really be represented, in the same way in which Hesiod had painted that of Boetia, and he wisely determined— To sing through Roman towns Ascræan strains. There exists, however, precisely that difference between the Georgics of Virgil and their model that might be expected. The Hesiodic poem belongs to a period when poetry was the accidental form-instruction the essential object; and, therefore, the teaching is systematic, precise, detailed, homely, sometimes coarse and unpolished. Virgil looks at his subject from the poetical point of view. His precepts are often put, not in a didactic but a descriptive form; they are unhesitatingly interrupted by digressions and episodes, more or less to the point; and out of a vast mass of materials such only are selected as are suitable to awaken the sensibilities. The state of Italy also contributed to enlist a poet's sympathies in favour of the rural classes, and to devote his pen to the patriotic task of reviving the old agricultural tastes. War had devastated the land; the peasant population had been fearfully thinned by military conscriptions and confiscation; wide districts had been depopulated and left destitute of cultivation. Instead of the sword being beat into a ploughshare and the spear into a pruning-hook, the Italian peasant had witnessed the contrary state of things. The poet laments the sad change which now disfigured the fair face of Italy: non ullus aratro Dignus honos, squalent abductis arva colonis, Geo. i. 507. The credit of having proposed this subject to Virgil is given to his patron Mæcenas; and, to him, consequently, the Georgies are addressed; but the poet doubtless gladly adopted the sug |