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though the fcene of both thefe poems lies in the fame place; the fpeakers in them are of quite a different character, fince the precepts of husbandry are not to be delivered with the fimplicity of a ploughman, but with the addrefs of a poet. No rules therefore, that relate to Pastoral, can any way affect the Georgics, fince they fall under that clafs of poetry, which consists in giving plain and dire& inftructions to the reader; whether they be moral duties, as thofe of Theognis and Pythagoras; or philofophical fpeculations, as thofe of Aratus and Lucretius; or rules of practice, as those of Hefiod and, Virgil. Among thefe different kind of fubjects, that which the Georgics go upon is, I think, the meanest and leaft improving, but, the most pleasing and delightful. Precepts of morality, befides the natural corruption of our tempers, which makes us averfe to them, are fo abstracted from ideas of fenfe, that they feldom give an opportunity for those beautiful defcriptions and images which are the spirit and life of poetry. Natural philofophy has indeed fenfible objects to work upon but then it often puzzles the reader with the intricacy of its notions, and perplexes him with the multitude. of its difputes. But this kind of poetry I am now speaking of, addreffes itself wholly to the imagination : It is altogether converfant among the fields and woods, and has the most delightful part of nature for its province. It raifes in our minds a pleasing variety of fcenes and landskips, whilst it teaches us; and makes the dryeft of its precepts look like a description. “A "Georgic therefore is some part of the science of hus_

bandry

"bandry put into a pleafing dress, and fet off with all "the beauties and embellishments of poetry." Now fince this science of husbandry is of a very large extent, the poet fhews his skill in fingling out fuch precepts to proceed on, as are useful, and at the fame time most capable of ornament. Virgil was fo well acquainted with this fecret, that to set off his first Georgic, he has run into a fet of precepts, which are almost 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 themselves in the best and most advantageous light. They should all be fo finely wrought together in the fame piece, that no coarse feam may discover where they join; as in a curious brede of needle-work, one colour falls away by fuch just degrees, and another rises so infenfibly, that we see the variety, without being able to distinguish the total vanishing of the one from the first appearance of the other. Nor is it fufficient to range and dispose this body of precepts into a clear and easy method, unless they are delivered to us in the most pleasing and agreeable manner; for there are several ways of conveying the fame truth to the mind of man; and to choose the pleasantest of these ways, is that which chiefly distinguishes poetry from profe, and makes Virgil's rules of hufbandry pleasanter to read than Varro's.

Where the

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profe writer 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 pleasing 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 pleasanter every manner of expreffion 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 "Vertere in alterius, mutatamque infita mala "Ferre pyrum, et prunis lapidofa rubefcere corna. Steriles platani malos geffere valentes,

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"Caftaneæ fagos, ornufque incanuit albo

"Flore pyri : glandemque fues fregere fub ulmis. Nec longum tempus : & ingens

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"Exiit ad cœlum ramis felicibus arbos;

"Miraturque novas frondes et non fua poma."

Here we see the Poet confidered all the effects of this union between trees of different kinds, and took notice of that effect which had the most furprize, and by confequence the moft delight in it, to exprefs the capacity that was in them of being thus united. This way of writing

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 juft 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 by-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 reft by the strength of her own faculties.

But, fince the inculcating precept upon precept will at length prove tirefome to the reader, if he meets with no entertainment, the Poet must take care not to incumber his poem with, too much business; but fome. times to relieve the fubject, with a moral reflexion, 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 least 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 description of the original of Agriculture, of the fruitfulness of Italy, of a country life, and the like; which are not brought in by force,

force, but naturally rife out of the pricipal argument and design of the poem. I know no one digreffion in the Georgics that may feem to contradict this obfervation, besides that in the latter end of the first book, where the Poet launches out into a difcourfe of the battle of Pharfalia, and the actions of Auguftus: but it is worth while to confider how admirably he has turned the courfe of his narration into its proper channel, and made his husbandman concerned even in what relates to the battle, in those inimitable lines;

"Scilicet et tempus veniet, cum finibus illis
Agricola incurvo terram molitus aratro,
"Exefa inveniet fcabrâ rubigine pila :
"Aut gravibus raftris galeas pulfabit inanes,

« Grandiaque effoffis mirabitur offa fepulchris.” And afterwards, fpeaking of Auguftus's actions, he ftill remembers that Agriculture ought to be fome way hinted at throughout the whole poem.

"Non ullus aratro

"Dignus honos: fqualent abductis arva colonis. "Et curve rigidum falces conflantur in enfem." We now come to a ftyle which is proper to a Georgic; and indeed this is the part on which the Poet must lay out all his ftrength, that his words may be warm and glowing, and that every thing he describes may immediately prefent itself, and rife up to the reader's view. He ought in particular to be careful of not letting his fubject debase his style, and betray him into a meanness of expreffion; but every where to keep up his verfe in all the pomp of numbers, and dignity of words.

I think

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