world, is made present to us in a strain of continuous and modulated music, which neither Virgil himself nor any other poet has surpassed. Virgil creates a new ideal of happiness for the contemplation of his countrymen by combining the old realistic delight in the husbandman's life with the imaginative longing for the peace and innocence of a Saturnian Age, and with that new delight in the living beauty of the world and in the charm of ancient memories which it was his especial office to communicate. This ideal is contrasted, as is the older poet's ideal of plain living and high thinking,' with the pomp and magnificence of city life,— Si non ingentem foribus domus alta superbis Si non aurea sunt iuvenum simulacra per aedes and, as in the older poet also, with the distractions, the restless passions, and the crimes of ambition. Virgil, as in other passages, compresses into a few lines the thought which Lucretius with simpler art follows through all its detail of concrete reality. Thus the Gaudent perfusi sanguine fratrum 2 of Virgil is intended to recall and be explained by the more fully developed representation of the old cruelties of the times. of Marius and Sulla, contained in the lines— Sanguine civili rem conflant divitiasque Conduplicant avidi, caedem caede accumulantes; Et consanguineum mensas odere timentque 3. In their protest against the world both poets are entirely at 1 Though no lofty mansion with proud portals pours forth from all its chambers its wave of those who pay their court in the morning.'Though there are no golden statues of youths through their chambers, holding blazing torches in their right hands.' 2. They revel in the bloodshed of their brethren.' 3 By the bloodshed of their fellow-citizens they amass an estate, and covetously double their riches, heaping murder upon murder: they take a cruel joy in the sad death of a brother; and hate and fear the board of their kinsmen.' Lucret. iii. 70-73. one. But the ideal of Virgil's imagination, on its positive side, is more on the ordinary human level than that of lonely contemplation in accordance with which Lucretius lived and wrote. The Virgilian ideal, like that of Lucretius, recognised a heart at peace and independent of Fortune as a greater source of happiness than any external good. But this peace the one poet sought for in a superiority to the common beliefs of men; the other rather in a more trusting acceptance of them. Some other elements in Virgil's ideal Lucretius too would have ranked among the supreme sources of human happiness. The lines Interea dulces pendent circum oscula nati, Casta pudicitiam servat domus1, beautiful as the thought and picture is, are not more true to human feeling, scarcely touch the heart and imagination so vividly, as the lines which suggested them— Iam iam non domus accipiet te laeta, neque uxor Optima, nec dulces occurrent oscula nati Praeripere 2. Other elements in Virgil's ideal Lucretius would have sympathised with, as he did with all natural human pleasure; but the elements of social kindliness expressed in the lines— Ipse dies agitat festos, etc. could mix only as an occasional source of refreshment with his 1 'Meantime his dear children hang with kisses round his lips; a pure household keeps well all the laws of chastity.' 2 Soon no longer shall thy home receive thee with glad greeting, nor thy most excellent wife, nor thy dear children run to meet thee to snatch the first kiss.' The most classical of our own poets seems to combine both representations with the thought and representation of an earlier passage of the Georgics (Et quidam seros hiberni ad luminis ignes, etc.) in the familiar stanza For them no more the blazing hearth shall burn, No children run to meet their sire's return, And climb his knees the envied kiss to share. lonely contemplation. The great difference between the two men is that Virgil's ordinary feelings and beliefs are in unison with the common ways of life; he has a more active sympathy with the toils and pleasures of simple men; and, above all, he regards it as the highest good for man, not to secure peace of mind for himself, but to be useful in supporting others, in contributing to the well-being of his country, of his family, even of the animals associated with his toil: hinc patriam parvosque Penates Sustinet, hinc armenta boum meritosque iuvencos1. This ideal Virgil seems to regard as one that might be attained by man, if he only could be taught how to appreciate it2; nay, that has been attained by him in happier times when the land was cultivated by free men, each holding his own plot of ground. This was the life of the old Italian yeomen, the life by which Etruria waxed strong and brave, the life to which Rome herself owed the beginning of her greatness. It is the life which the national imagination, in its peaceful mood, and yearning to return into the ways of innocence and piety, discerned in that distant Golden Age, when all men lived in contentment and abundance under the rule of the old god, Hence he supports his country and his humble home, hence his herds of cattle, and his well-deserving steers.' 2 Cp. Le mot triste et doux de Virgile: "O heureux l'homme des champs, s'il connaissait son bonheur" est un regret, mais, comme tous les regrets, c'est aussi une prédiction. Un jour viendra où le laboureur pourra être aussi un artiste, si non pour exprimer (ce qui importera assez peu alors) du moins pour sentir le beau.' G. Sand. 3 Virgil rightly connects this greatness with the site of Rome in the line, Septemque una sibi muro circumdedit arces. It was from the necessities imposed by that site that Rome at an early period became the largest urban community in Italy, and was forced, in consequence of the contiguous settlements of other races, to begin that incorporating and assimilating policy which ultimately enabled her to establish universal empire. Cp.Rome herself, like other cities of Italy, Gaul, and elsewhere, grew out of the primitive hill-fortresses; the distinction between Rome and other cities, the distinction which made Rome all that she became, was that Rome did not grow out of a single fortress of the kind, but out of several.' Historical and Architectural Sketches, by E. A. Freeman, D.C.L., etc.-Walls of Rome, p. 160. from whom the land received the well-loved name 'Saturnia tellus 1.' Hanc olim veteres vitam coluere Sabini, Hanc Remus et frater, sic fortis Etruria crevit 1 Cf. 'Itaque in hoc Latio et Saturnia terra, ubi Dii cultus agrorum progeniem suam docuerunt.' Columella. 2 Such was the life that the old Sabines lived long ago, such the life of Remus and his brother; thus in truth brave Etruria grew strong and Rome became the glory of the world, and though a single city enclosed seven hills within her wall. Nay, even before the Sovereign-lord, born on Dicte, wielded the sceptre, and an unholy generation feasted on slaughtered steers, this was the life of Saturn on earth in the golden age. Not yet had men heard the blare of the war-trumpet, not yet had they heard the clang of the sword on the hard anvil.' CHAPTER VII. THE GEORGICS AS THE REPRESENTATIVE POEM OF ITALY. THE Consideration of the motives which influenced Virgil to undertake the composition of the Georgics, of the form of art adopted by him, of the national interest attaching to his subject, of the materials used by him and the sources from which he derived them, of the author who most influenced him in speculative idea and in the general manner of treating his subject, leads to the conclusion that, in its essential characteristics, the poem is a genuine work of Italian art and inspiration. If the original motive influencing him was the ambition to treat of rural life in the serious spirit of Hesiod, as he had done in the lighter vein of Theocritus, that motive was soon lost in the strong impulse to invest with charm and dignity the kind of life in which the Italian mind placed its ideal of worth and happiness. By thus identifying himself with a great national object Virgil raised himself to a higher level of art than that attained by poets whose interests are purely personal and literary. Next to satire, there was no form of poetry which had more of a Roman character than didactic poetry. By becoming a province of Roman art, this form acquired all its dignity and capacity of greatness. And though the Georgics, being a work of Italian culture as well as of Italian inspiration, could not escape some relation, not in form only but in materials and mode of expression, to Greek originals, there is no great work of Latin genius, except the Satires and Epistles of Horace, in which the debt thus incurred is so small. And not only is the |