This state of alarm is shown to be connected with the great national crime which Rome was still atoning,-the murder of Julius Caesar. The episode arises immediately out of the enumeration of the signs of the weather, which, from their importance to the husbandman, are treated of at considerable length in the body of the poem. As the sun is the surest index of change in the physical, so is he said to be in the political atmosphere. The eclipse which occurred soon after the murder of Caesar is regarded as a sign of compassion for his fate and of abhorrence of the crime. Then follows an enumeration of other omens which accompanied or preceded that event,-some of them violations of natural law, such as those which occur in the narrative of Livy, when any great disaster was impending over the Roman arms,— Infandum pecudesque locutae, Et maestum inlacrimat templis ebur, aeraque sudant ;— others arising out of a great sympathetic movement among the spirits of the dead, Vox quoque per lucos volgo exaudita silentis Ingens, et simulacra modis pallentia miris others showing themselves in ominous appearances of the sacrifices, or in strange disturbance of the familiar ways of bird and beast, Obscenaeque canes importunaeque volucres Signa dabant Et altae Per noctem resonare lupis ululantibus urbes ; others manifesting themselves through great commotion in the kingdom of Nature,-earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, great floods, The noise of battle hurtling in the air,' lightnings in a clear sky, and the blaze of comets portending doom. These all succeed one another in Virgil's verse according to no principle of logical connexion, but as they might be successively announced to the awe-struck citizens of Rome. The whole passage is pervaded by that strong sense of awe before an invisible Power-the 'religio dira'by which the Roman imagination was possessed in times of great national calamity. The issue of all these portents appeared in the second great battle in which Roman blood fattened the Macedonian plains. Then by a fine touch of imagination, and looking far forward into the future, the poet reminds us of the contrast, indicated in other passages of the poem, between the peaceful and beneficent industry of the husbandman and the cruel devastation of war: Scilicet et tempus veniet, cum finibus illis Aut gravibus rastris galeas pulsabit inanis, Grandiaque effossis mirabitur ossa sepulchris. Next follows the prayer to the national gods of Italy to preserve the life of him who could alone raise the world out of the sin and ruin into which it had fallen, and alone restore their ancient glory to the fields, which now lay waste from the want of men to till them : Non ullus aratro Dignus honos, squalent abductis arva colonis, Et curvae rigidum falces conflantur in ensem. In the second of the great episodes this sorrow for the past and foreboding for the future has entirely cleared away. The feeling now expressed is one of pride and exultation in Italy, as a land of rich crops and fruits, of vines and olives, a land famous for its herds and flocks and breed of horses, for its genial climate, for the beauty of the seas washing its coasts, for its great lakes and rivers, its ancient cities and other mighty works of men; famous too for its hardy, energetic, and warlike races, Haec genus acre virum Marsos pubemque Sabellam, Extulit, for its great men and families who had fought for it in old times, and for one greater still, who was then in the furthest East defending Rome against her enemies, Haec Decios magnosque Camillos, Scipiadas duros bello, et te, maxime Caesar, Qui nunc extremis Asiae iam victor in oris This passage, introduced as a counter-picture to the description of the rank luxuriance of Nature in the vast forests and jungles of the East, concentrates in itself the deepest meaning and inspiration of the poem. The glory of Italy is declared to be the motive for the revival of this ancient theme Tibi res antiquae laudis et artis Ingredior. As Varro represents his speakers as looking on the great picture of Italy in the Temple of Tellus while they discuss the various ways of tilling and improving the soil, so Virgil in the midst of his didactic precepts holds up this ideal picture of the land to the love and admiration of his countrymen. By a few powerful strokes he combines the characteristic features and the great memories of Italian towns in lines which recur to every traveller as he passes through Italy, Adde tot egregias urbes operumque laborem, Tot congesta manu praeruptis oppida saxis, No expression of patriotic sentiment in any language is more pure and noble than this. It is a tribute of just pride and affection to the land which, from its beauty, its history, its great services to man, is felt to be worthy of the deep devotion with which Virgil commends it to the heart and imagination of the world. In the last of the great episodes which remains to be considered, all the higher thoughts and feelings by which beauty, dignity, and moral grandeur are given to the subject are found concurring; and the presence of Lucretius is again felt as a pervading influence, though modified by Virgil's own deepest convictions and sympathies. The charm of peaceful contemplation, of Nature in her serenest aspect and harmony with the human soul, of an ethical ideal based on religious belief and national traditions, of a life of pure and tranquil happiness, remote from the clash of arms and the pride and passions of the 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 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 timentque1. In their protest against the world both poets are entirely at 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 1 Lucret. iii. 70-73. 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 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 Praeripere1. Other elements in Virgil's ideal Lucretius would have sympathised with, as he did with all natural human pleasure; but the element of social kindliness expressed in the lines Ipse dies agitat festos, etc. could mix only as an occasional source of refreshment with his lonely contemplative activity. 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 iuvencos. This ideal Virgil seems to regard as one that may be 1 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 will burn, And climb his knees the envied kiss to share. |