and rich cultivated land, which northern and central Italy exhibit, must have made such scenes as that described at ii. 186-188, Qualem saepe cava montis convalle solemus Despicere, etc., and again the opening scene of the poem, at i. 43, Vere novo gelidus canis cum montibus umor familiar to Roman readers. And while the 'caeli indulgentia' characteristic of the Italian climate is felt as a pervading genial presence through the various books of the poem, the sudden and violent vicissitudes to which that climate is especially liable form part of the varied and impressive spectacle presented to us. The passage i. 315-321, Saepe ego cum flavis. . . . stipulasque volantis, records a calamity to which the labours of the Italian husbandman were peculiarly exposed. In the description of the storm of rain, immediately following, the words 'collectae ex alto nubes' remind us, like the description of a similar storm in Lucretius (vi. 256–261), that Virgil, as Lucretius may have done, must often have watched such a tempest gathering over the sea that washes the Campanian shores. The inundation of the Po is described among the omens accompanying the death of Caesar, in lines which may have been suggested by some scene actually witnessed by the poet, and which with vivid exactness represent for all times the destructive forces put forth by the great river that drains the vast mountainranges of Northern Italy: Proluit insano contorquens vertice silvas Fluviorum rex Eridanus, camposque per omnes Cum stabulis armenta tulit. And while the general representation of Nature, in the freshness or serene glory of her beauty and in her destructive energy, is true to that aspect which she presents in Italian scenery, the characteristic features and products of particular localities in the various regions of Italy are recalled to memory with truthful effect. The love of Nature in Lucretius appears apart from local associations. In Horace this feeling seems to link itself to places dear to him from the memories of childhood, or from the personal experience of later years. In Virgil the feeling is both general as in Lucretius, and combined with attachment to or interest in particular places as in Horace. But Virgil is able to feel enthusiasm not only for places dear to him through personal association, but for all which appeal to his sentiment of national pride. As was seen in the last chapter, the episode, which perhaps more than any other brings out the inspiring thought of the poem, is devoted to a celebration of the varied beauties of the land; and the names of Clitumnus, of Larius, and Benacus are still dearer to the world because they are for ever intermingled with the rich Virgilian rustic measure1.' In the body of the poem also we find many local references to the northern, central, and southern regions of Italy. The light bark, hollowed out of the alder, is launched on the 1 The lines, 'And now we past From Como, when the light was gray, The rich Virgilian rustic measure Of Lari Maxume, all the way, Like ballad-burthen music, kept,' etc., are so familiarly known that they hardly need to be quoted in support of this statement. But among other testimonies to the power of Virgilian associations, one may be quoted from another great poet, whose mind was less attuned to Latin than to Greek and English poetry. Goethe, in his 'Letters from Italy,' mentions, on coming to the Lago di Garda, that he was reminded of the line, Fluctibus et fremitu adsurgens, Benace, marino. He adds this remark: This is the first Latin verse, the subject of which ever stood visibly before me, and now, in the present moment, when the wind is blowing stronger and stronger, and the lake casts loftier billows against the little harbour, it is just as true as it was hundreds of years ago. Much, indeed, has changed, but the wind still roars about the lake, the aspect of which gains even greater glory from a line of Virgil.' rapid flood of the Po; the starwort, out of which wreaths are made to adorn the altars of the gods, is gathered by shepherds by the winding banks of the Mella (a river in Northern Italy mentioned also by Catullus); the meadowland which unfortunate Mantua lost is adduced as a type of the best kind of pasture, and the land in the neighbourhood of Capua and the region skirting Mount Vesuvius as that most suitable for corn-crops. We read also of the rose-beds of Paestum, of the olives clothing the sides of the Samnian Taburnus, of the woodland pastures of Sila, of those by the banks of the Silarus, on Alburnus green with ilexes, and by the dry torrent-bed of the Tanager, and of the yellow corn-fields through which the dark Galaesus flows. The Aeneid affords further testimony of the interest which Virgil awakens in the region which forms the distant environment of Rome. But the sentiment of the Georgics is a sentiment of peace inspired by the land, quite different from that inspired by the Imperial City, and from the memories of war and conquest with which the neighbourhood of Rome is associated. And though the aspect which Nature generally presents in the poem is that of her nobler mood, yet that air of indolent repose which characterises her presence in the Eclogues is not altogether absent from the severer poem. The sense of rest after toil-the 'molles sub arbore somni,'-the quiet contemplation of wide and peaceful landscapes,-'latis otia fundis,'— relieve the strain of strenuous labour which is enforced as the indispensable condition of realising the glory of the land. pore. 5. The religious (and ethical) thought of the poem is also in accordance with what was happiest and best in the old Italian faith and life. The poetical belief in many protecting agencies Dique deaeque omnes studium quibus arva tueri— watching over the labours of the husbandman, and present at his simple festivals and ceremonies, is in accordance with the genial character of the rustic Paganism of Italy and with the attributes of the great gods of the land, Faunus and Saturnus. Human life appeared to Hesiod as well as to Virgil to be in immediate dependence on the gods. But the graver aspect of Virgil's faith is purer and happier than that of Hesiod; as the trust in a just and beneficent father is purer and happier than the fear of a jealous task-master. But on the other hand, the faith of Virgil is less noble than that of Aeschylus and of Sophocles. It is more of a passive yielding to the longing of the human heart and to the impulses of an aesthetic emotion, than that union of natural piety with insight into the mystery of life which no great poets, Pagan or Christian (unless it may be Dante), exhibit in equal measure with the two great Athenian dramatists. In the religious spirit of Virgil, which accepts and does not question, which finds its resource in prayer rather than in reverent contemplation and searching out of the ways of God, we may recognise a true note of his nationality,— a submissive attitude in presence of the Invisible Power, derived from the race whose custom it was to veil the head in sacrifice and in approaching the images of their gods1. 6. Equally true to the national character is the ethical ideal upheld in the Georgics. The negative elements in that ideal were seen to be exemption from the violent passions and pleasures of the world. And in these negative elements the ideal of the Georgics coincides with that of Lucretius. But, on the positive side, Virgil's ideal implies the active performance of duties to the family and to the State. One has only to remember the low esteem 1 Cp. Mommsen, book i. chap. 2: As the Greek when he sacrificed raised his eyes to Heaven, so the Roman veiled his head; for the prayer of the former was vision, that of the latter reflection.' Cf. also Lucret. v. 1198: Nec pietas ullast velatum saepe videri Vertier ad lapidem atque omnis accedere ad aras; and Virg. Aen. iii. 405-409:— Purpureo velare comas adopertus amictu. Hunc socii morem sacrorum, hunc ipse teneto ; Hac casti maneant in religione nepotes. in which women were held and the indifference to family ties in the palmiest days of Athenian civilisation, or to recall the ideal State of Plato's imagination, to perceive how true to Italian, and how remote from Greek sentiment, are the pictures presented in such passages as these and this Interea dulces pendent circum oscula nati Interea longum cantu solata laborem Friendship among men, and even the social friendliness which makes life more pleasant, were ranked among the virtues by Greek philosophy; and the first is treated by Aristotle, not only as a single virtue, but as the condition under which all virtue can best be realised: but natural affection is regarded as a mere instinct, and the duties of family life do not fall under any of those conditions with which ethical philosophy concerns itself. On the other hand, the legendary history of the early Republic, and many great examples, in the midst of the corruption of the later Republic and of the Empire, prove that the ideal of domestic virtue and affection among the Romans was no mere passing fancy or dream of an age of primitive innocence, but was in harmony with the national conscience throughout the whole course of their history. In devotion to the good of the State no superiority can be claimed for the Romans over the Athenians of the times of Cleisthenes, Themistocles, and Pericles. And while each people, in its best days, was equally ready to serve the Republic in war and by the performance of public duties, and while the Roman perhaps more than the Athenian regarded the labour of his hands as a service due from him', the Athenian freely gave the higher energy of his genius to make the life of his fellow-citizens brighter and nobler. And it is the peculiar glory of the Athenians of the 1 Compare the double meaning of 'moenia' and 'munia,' as illustrated by Mommsen. |