our minds a pleafing variety of fcenes and landscapes, whilst it teaches us, and makes the d yet of its precepts look like a defcription. A Georgic therefore is fome part of the science of hufbandry put into a pleafing dress, and fet off with all the beauties and embellishments of poetry.' Now fince this fcience of husbandry is of a very large extent, the poet fhews his kill in fingling out fuch precepts to proceed on, as are useful, and at the fame time moft capable of ornament. Virgil was fo well acquainted with this fecret, that to fet off his first Georgic he has run into a fet of precepts, which are almoft foreign to his fubject, in that beautiful account he gives us of the figns in nature, which precede the changes of the weather. And if there be fo much art in the choice of fit precepts, there is much more required in the treating of them, that they may fall in after each other by a natural unforced method, and fhew themfelves in the best and most advantageous light. They fhould all be fo finely wrought together in the fame piece, that no coarfe feam may difcover where they join; as in a curious brede of needle-work one colour fails away by fuch juft degrees, and another rifes fo inentibly, that we fee the variety without being able to diftinguish the total vanishing of the one from the first appearance of the other. Nor is it fufficient to range and difpofe this body of precepts into a clear and easy method, unless they are delivered to us in the most pleafing and agreeable manner; for there are feveral ways of conveying the fame truth to the mind of man; and to choose the pleafanteft of these ways, is that which chiefly diftinguishes poetry from profe, and makes Virgil's rules of husbandry pleasanter to read than Varro's. Where the profewriter tells us plainly what ought to be done, the poet often conceals the precept in a defcription, and reprefents his countryman performing the action in which he would inftruct his reader. Where the one fets out, as fully and distinctly as he can, all the parts of the truth which he would communicate to us; the other fingles out the most pleafing circumftance of this truth, and fo conveys the whole in a more diverting manner to the understanding, I fhall give one inftance out of a multitude of this nature that might be found in the Georgics, where the reader may fee the different ways Virgil has taken to exprefs the fame thing, and how much pleafanter every manner of expreflion is, than the plain and direct mention of it would have been. It is in the fecond Georgic, where he tells us what trees will bear grafting on each other: Et fæpe alterius ramos impune videmus Exit ad cœlum ramis felicibus arbos ; Here we fee the poet confidered all the effects of this union between trees of different kinds, and took notice of that effect which had the most furprise, and by confequence the most delight in it, to exprefs the capacity that was in them of being thus united. This way of writing is every where much in ufe among the poets, and is particularly practifed by Virgil, who loves to fuggeft a truth indirectly, and without giving us a full and open view of it, to let us fee juit fo much as will naturally lead the imagination into all the parts that lie concealed. This is wonderfully diverting to the understanding, thus to receive a precept, that enters, as it were, through a bye-way, and to apprehend an idea that draws a whole train after it. For here the mind, which is always delighted with its own difcoveries, only takes the hint from the poet, and feems to work out the rest by the ftrength of her own faculties. But fince the inculcating precept upon precept, will at length prove tiresome to the reader, if he meets with no entertainment, the poet must take care not to incumber his poem with too much business; but fometimes to relieve the subject with a moral reflection, or let it reft a while, for the fake of a pleafant and pertinent digreffion. Nor is it fufficient to run out into beautiful and diverting digreffions (as it is generally thought) unless they are brought in aptly, and are fomething of a piece with the main defign of the Georgic: for they ought to have a remote alliance at leaft to the fubject, that fo the whole poem may be more uniform and agreeable in all its parts. We fhould never quite lofe fight of the country, though we are fometimes entertained with a diftant profpect of it. Of this nature are Virgil's defcriptions of the original of agriculture, of the fruitfulness of Italy, of a country life, and the like, which are not brought in Scilicet et tempus veniet, cum finibus illis And afterwards, fpeaking of Auguftus's cut the whole poem : -Non ullus aratro Dignus honos: fqualent abductis arva colonis : We now come to the ftyle which is proper to a Georgic; and indeed this is the part on which the poet muit lay out all his ftrength, that his words may be warm and glowing, and that every thing he defcribes may immediately prefent itfelf, and rife up to the reader's view. He ought, in particular, to be careful of not letting his fubject debafe his ftyle, and betray him into a meannefs of expreffion, but every where to keep up his verfe, in all the pomp of numbers and dignity of words. who has not only excelled all other poets, but even himself in the language of his Georgics; where we receive more ftrong and lively ideas of things from his words, than we could have done from the objects themfelves; and find our imaginations more affected by his defcriptions, than they would have been by the very fight of whit he defcribes. Thefe I fhall now, after this fhort scheme of rules, confider the different fuccefs that Hefiod and Virgil have met with in this kind of poetry, which may give us fome further notion of the excellence of the Georgics. To begin with Hefiod; if we may guefs at his character from his writ ings, he had much more of the husbandman than the poet in his temper: he was wonderfully grave, difcreet, and frugal: he lived altogether in the country, and was probably, for his great prudence, the oracle of the whole neighbourhood. principles of good hufbandry ran through his works, and directed him to the choice of tillage and merchandize, for the subjec of that which is the most celebrated of them. He is every where bent on inftruction, avoids all manner of digreffions, and does not ftir out of the field once in the whole Georgic. His method in defcribing month after month, with its proper feafors and employments, is too grave and fimple; it takes off from the furprife and variety of the poem, and makes the whole look but like a modern almanack in verte. The reader is carried through a course of wea ther, and may before-hand guess whether he is to meet with fnow or rain, clouds or funfhine, in the next defcription. His defcriptions indeed have abundance of naI think nothing which is a phrafe or ture in them, but then it is nature in her faying in common talk fhould be admitted fimplicity and undrefs. Thus when he into a ferious poem; because it takes off fpeaks of January, "The wild beats," from the folemnity of the expreffion, and fays he, " run fhivering through the woods, gives it too great a turn of familiarity: "with their heads ftooping to the ground, much lefs ought the low phrafes and terms "and their tails clapt between their legs; of art that are adapted to husbandry, have the goats and oxen are almost flea'd any place in fuch a work as the Georgic, "with cold; but it is not fo bad with the which is not to appear in the natural fim-"fheep, because they have a thick coat plicity and nakedness of its fubject, but in "of wool about them. The old men too the pleafanteft drefs that poetry can beftow" are bitterly pinched with the weather; on it. Thus Virgil, to deviate from the common form of words, would not make ufe of tempore but fydere in his first verse; and every where elie abounds with metaphors, Grecifms, and circumlocutions, to give his verfe the greater pomp, and preHerve it from finking into a plebeian flyle. And herein confifls Virgil's mafter-piece, "but the young girls feel nothing of it, "who fit at home with their mothers by " a warm fire-fide." Thus does the old gentleman give himself up to a loose kind of tattle, rather than endeavour after a juž poetical defcription. Nor has he fhewa more of art or judgment in the precepts he has given us, which are fown fo very thick, that they clog the poem too much, and are often fo minute and full of circumftances, that they weaken and unnerve his verfe. But after all, we are beholden to him for the first rough sketch of a Georgic where we may ftill difcover fomething venerable in the antiqueness of the work; but if we would fee the defign enlarged, the figures reformed, the colouring laid on, and the whole piece finished, we muft expect it from a greater mafter's hand. Virgil has drawn out the rules of tillage and planting into two books, which Hefiod has difpatched in half a one; but has fo raifed the natural rudeness and fimplicity of his fubject, with fuch a fignificancy of expreffion, fuch a pomp of verfe, fuch variety of tranfitions, and fuch a folemn air in his reflections, that if we look on both poets together, we fee in one the plainnefs of a downright countryman, and in the other fomething of ruftic majefty, like that of a Roman dictator at the plow-tail. He delivers the meaneft of his precepts with a kind of grandeur; he breaks the clods and toffes the dung about with an air of gracefulness. His prognoftications of the weather are taken out of Aratus, where we may fee how judiciously he has picked out thofe that are molt proper for his hufbandman's obfervation; how he has enforced the expreffion, and heightened the images, which he found in the original. The fecond book has more wit in it, and a greater boldness in its metaphors, than any of the reit. The port, with a great beauty, applies oblivion, ignorance, wonder, defire, and the like, to his trees. The laft Georgic has indeed as many metaphors, but not fo daring as this; for human thoughts and paffions may be more naturally ascribed to a bee, than to an inanimate plant. He who reads over the pleafures of a country life, as they are defcribed by Virgil in the latter end of this book, can scarce be of Virgil's mind, in preferring even the life of a philofopher to it. We may, I think, read the poet's clime in his description; for he feems to have been in a fweat at the writing of it: O quis me gelidis fub montibus Hæmi Siftat, et ingenti ramorum protegat umbra! And is every where mentioning among his chief pleatures, the coolnets of his fhades and rivers, vales and grottos; which a more northern poet would have omitted, for the defcription of a funny hill and firefide. The third Georgic feems to be the most laboured of them all; there is a wonderful vigour and spirit in the defcription of the horfe and chariot-race. The force of love is reprefented in noble inftances, and very fublime expreffions. The Scythian winterpiece appears fo very cold and bleak to the eye, that a man can fcarce look on it without fhivering. The murrain at the end has all the expreffivenefs that words can give. It was here that the poet ftrained hard to outdo Lucretius in the defcription of his plague; and if the reader would fee what fuccefs he had, he may find it at large in Scaliger. But Virgil feems no where fo well pleafed as when he is got among his bees, in the fourth Georgic; and ennobles the actions of fo trivial a creature, with metaphors drawn from the most important concerns of mankind. His verses are not in a greater noife and hurry in the battles of Æneas and Turnus, than in the engagement of two fwarms. And as in his neis he compares the labours of his Trojans to thofe of bees and pifmires, here he compares the labours of the bees to thofe of the Cyclops. In fhort, the laft Georgic was a good prelude to the Æneis; and very well fhewed what the poet could do in the defcription of what was really great, by his defcribing the mock grandeur of an infect, with fo good a grace. There is more pleafantnefs in the little platform of a garden, which he gives us about the middle of this book, than in all the fpacious walks and water-works of Rapin. The speech of Proteus at the end can never be enough admired, and was indeed very fit to conclude fo divine a work. After this particular account of the beauties in the Georgics, I fhould in the next place endeavour to point out its imperfections, if it has any. But though I think there are fome few parts in it that are not fo beautiful as the reft, I fhall not prefume to name them, as rather fufpecting my own judgment, than I can believe a fault to be in that poem, which lay fo long under Virgil's correction, and had his laft hand put to it. The first Georgic was probably burlefqued in the author's life time; for we ftill find in the fcholiafts a verfe that ridicules part of a line tranflated from Heliod-Nudus ara, fere nudus, And we may eafily guefs at the judgment of this extraordinary critic, whoever he was, from his cenfuring in this particular precept. We may be fure Virgil would not have tranflated it from Hefiod, had he not difcovered fome beauty in it; and indeed the beauty of it is what I have before obferved to be frequently met with in Virgil, the delivering the precept fo indirectly, and fingling out the particular circumftances of fowing and plowing naked, to fuggeft to us that thefe employments are proper only in the hot feafon of the year. I fhall not here compare the ftyle of the Georgics with that of Lucretius, which the reader may fee already done in the preface to the fecond volume of Dryden's Mifcellany Poems; but fhall conclude this poem to be the most complète, elaborate, and finifhed piece of all antiquity. The Eneis, indeed, is of a nobler kind; but the Georgic is more perfect in its kind. The Aneis has a greater variety of beauties in it, but thofe of the Georgic are more exquifite. In short, the Georgic has all the perfection that can be expected in a poem written by the greatest poct in the flower of his age, when his invention was ready, his imagination warm, his judgment fettled, and all his faculties in their full vigour and maturity. Addijon. $236. Hiftory of the HEATHEN DEITIES. 1. COELUS and TERRA. Coelus is faid to be the son of the Air, great father of the gods, and husband of Terra the daughter of the Earth; by whom he had the Cyclops, Oceanus, Titan, the Hundred Giants, and many other children, the moft eminent of which was Saturn. Nothing is more uncertain than what is related of Coelus and Terra ; and the whole fable plainly feems to fignify that the Air and Earth were the common father and parent of all created beings. Coelus was called Uranus by the Greeks, and Terra was alfo named Vefta; fhe prefided over all feafts and banquets; and the first fruits of the earth were offered to her in the most folemn facrifices. According to the fable, Cœlus was dethroned by his youngeft fon Saturn, and wounded by him, to prevent his having more children. 2. SATURN. Saturn was the fon of Cœlus and Terra, and the moft ancient of all the gods. Titan, his elder brother, refigned his birth-right to him, on condition that he should deftroy all his male iffue, that the empire of the world might in time fall to his pofterity. Saturn accepted of this condition; but Titan afterwards fufpecting that his brother had broke the contract between them, made war againft him, and kept him in prifon; from whence he was releafed by his fon Jupiter, and re-inftated in his government: he was afterwards dethroned by Jupiter himself. Saturn being driven from his throne, left the kingdom, and went into Italy, and there lived with king Janus. That part of Italy where he concealed himself was called Latium. He is reprefented as the emblem of Time, with a fcythe in his hand; and in his time, it is faid, was the golden age of the earth, when the ground yielded all forts of fruit without culture, and Area, or Juftice, dwelt among men, who lived together in perfect love and amity. The Saturnalia, or Feafts of Saturn, were inftituted by Tullus king of the Rcmans; or, according to Livy, by Sempronius and Minutius the confuls. 3. CYBELE. Cybele was the wife of Sa. turn, and accounted mother of the gods: fhe was called Ops by the Latins, and Rhea by the Greeks. She was alfo named Bena Mater, Vefta, and Terra. Cybele hath her head crowned with towers, and is the goddefs of cities, ga:rifons, and all things that the earth fuitains. She is the earth itself, on which are built many towers and caftles. In her hand the carries a key, because, in winter the earth locks up her treasures, which in the fpring the unloofes, brings forth and difpenfes with a plentiful hand. She is feated in a chariot, because the earth hangs in the air, being poised by its own weight. Her garments were painted with flowers of various colours, and figured with images of feveral creatures; which needs no explanation, fince every one knows, that fuch a dress is fuitable to the earth. Divine honours were daily paid to this goddefs; and the priests of Cybele performed their facrifices with a confufed noife of timbrels, pipes, cymbals, and other inftruments; and the facrificants profaned both the temple of their goddefs, and the ears of their hearers, with howling, riot, and every kind of wantonnefs. The priests of this goddefs were called Galli, from a river in Phrygia. They were were also called Curetes, Corybantes, Tel- the firft temple that ever was built in chines, Cabiri, and Idæi Dactyli. 4. JUPITER. Jupiter, fon of Saturn and Cybele, or Ops, is the father and king of gods and men. He is reprefented fitting on a throne of ivory and gold, holding thunder in his right hand, and in the left a fcepter made of cyprus; which wood, being free from corruption, is a fymbol of eternal empire. On this fcepte: fits an eagle; either becaufe he was brought up by that bird, or that heretofore the eagle fitting upon his head, portended his reign; or becaufe in the war against the Giants, it brought him the thunder, and thence was called his Armourbearer. He had golden fhoes, and an embroidered cloak, adorned with various flowers, and figures of animals. He was educated, as well as born, upon Ida, a mountain in Crete; but by whom, the variety of opinions is wonderful. There are fome who affirm, that he was nurfed by the Curetes, or Corybantes; fome by the Nymphs; and fome by Amalthea, daughter of Meliffus king of that iland. Others, on the contrary, have recorded, that he was fed by the bees with honey; others, by goat's milk. They add befides, that the goat being dead, and the skin pulled off, Jupiter made cf it a fhield, called Agis, which he ufed afterwards in the battle against the Giants. Jupiter, after he had depofed his father Saturn from the throne, and expelled him the kingdom, divided the parental inheritance with his two brothers, Neptune and Pluto. He fo obliged and affitied mankind by great favours, that he not only got the title of Jupiter, but also obtained divine honours, and was esteemed the common father of gods and men. Jupiter had names almoft innumerable; which he obtained, either from the places where he lived, and wherein he was worhipped, or from the various actions of his life. The Greeks called him Ammon or Hammon, which fignifies fandy. He obtained this name first in Lybia, where he was worshipped under the figure of a ram; becaufe when Bacchus was athirft in the defarts of Arabia, and implored the affistance of Jupiter, Jupiter appeared in the form of a ram, opened a fountain with his foot, and difcovered it to him. He was called Capitolinus, from the Capitoline hill, on the top whereof he had Rome; which Tarquin the Elder first vowed to build, Tarquin the Proud did build, and Horatius the Conful dedicated. He was befides called Tarpeius, from the Tarpeian rock on which this temple was built. He was alfo ftyled Optimus Maximus, from his power and willingness to profit all men. The tile of Dodonæus was given Jupiter from the city Dodona in Chaonia, which was fo called from Dodona, a nymph of the fea. Near to this city was a grove facred to him, which was planted with oaks, and famous, becaufe in it was the mot ancient oracle of all Greece. The name Feretrius was given him, becaufe after the Romans had overcome their enemies they carried the imperial fpoils (Spolia Opima) to his temple. Romulus firft prefented fuch fpoils to Jupiter, after he had flain Acron, king of Canina; and Cornelius Gallus offered the fame spoils, after he had conquered Tolumnius, king of Hetruria; and, thirdly, M. Marcellus, when he had vanquished Viridomarus, king of the Gauls. Thofe fpoils were called Opima, which one general took from the other in battle. He is alfo named Olympius from Olympus, the name of the mafter who taught him, and of the heaven wherein he refides. The Greeks called him Erne (Soter) Servator, the Saviour, becaufe he delivered them from the Medes. He was likewife called Xenius, or Hofpitalis; because he was thought the author of the laws and customs concerning hofpitality. 5. JUNO. Juno was the Queen of Heaven, both the fifter and wife of Jupiter; the daughter of Saturn and Ops; born in the island Samos, where the lived while fhe continued a virgin. Juno became extremely jealous of Jupiter, and never ceated to perplex the children he had by his miftreffes. She was mother of Vulcan, Mars, and Hebe; fhe was alfo called Lucina, and prefided over marriages and births; and is represented in a chariot drawn by peacocks, with a fcepter in her right hand, and a crown on her head; her perfon was auguft, her carriage noble, and her dress elegant and neat. Iris, the daughter of Thaumas and Electra, was fervant and peculiar meffenger of |