only actual study of the whole poem can fully prove it : 1. 27, 65, 80, 85, 108, 181, 199, 281—3, 293, 295, 320, 328—34, 341, 356, 378, 388, 389, 406—9, 449, 468, 482; 2. 61, 153, 157, 160, 162, 198, 201, 202, 247, 304, 441; 3. 191—5, 239, 276, 284, 285, 341, 422, 518; 4. 174, 261—4, 432, 461, 466, 507, 509. The literary merit of the Georgics is so great that it has to some extent obscured the fact that they are sound sense. It is assumed that because Virgil is a good poet he must therefore be a bad farmer, much as it is often assumed that if a man is a good classical scholar, his solution of an arithmetical problem will necessarily be inaccurate. A curious proof of this neglect of the valuable matter contained in the Georgics deserves attention. In 1. 71-83 Virgil strongly recommends alternate husbandry,' and definitely advises that a crop of cereals should be followed by a crop of leguminous plants, such as peas or vetches. Yet, notwithstanding the many editions of Virgil that existed, the complete disregard that was shown to his practical recommendations is sufficiently proved by the following remarkable extract from the Encyclopaedia Britannica (s.v. Agriculture, c. 2 § 1): At the beginning of the 18th century the agriculture of our country was still of the rudest kind . . . . . The practice of fallowing annually a portion of the arable land, and of interposing a crop of peas between the cereal crops, was becoming a common practice, and was a great improvement upon the previous and yet common usage of growing successively crops of white corn until the land was utterly exhausted, and then leaving it foul with weeds to recover its power by an indefinite period of rest. Green crops, such as turnips, clover, and rye-grass, began to be alternated with grain crops, and hence the name alternate husbandry, by which this improved system is generally known.' This 'improved system' had been recommended by Virgil eighteen centuries previously. No attempt has been made in this Introduction to estimate Virgil's place in literature, but merely to call attention to certain points in the Georgics which may help young students to understand their excellence. His place indeed is assured by the verdict of eighteen centuries, and for an ordinary man to criticise his poetic power is almost an impertinence. It needs a poet to appreciate a poet, and the judgment of Alfred Tennyson outweighs that of a host of critics and commentators. There could be no more just and happy tribute from one master to another than the following Ode addressed by the English to the Roman Virgil.1 1 Printed by permission. TO VIRGIL WRITTEN AT THE REQUEST OF THE MANTUANS FOR THE NINETEENTH CENTENARY OF VIRGIL'S DEATH. I Roman Virgil, thou that singest Ilion's lofty temples robed in fire, Ilion falling, Rome arising, wars, and filial faith, and Dido's pyre; II Landscape-lover, lord of language more than he that sang the Works and Days, All the chosen coin of fancy flashing out from many a golden phrase; III Thou that singest wheat and woodland, tilth and vineyard, hive and horse and herd; All the charm of all the Muses often flowering in a lonely word; IV Poet of the happy Tityrus piping underneath his beechen bowers; Poet of the poet-satyr whom the laughing shepherd bound with flowers V Chanter of the Pollio, glorying in the blissful years again to be, Summers of the snakeless meadow, unlaborious earth and oarless sea; VI Thou that seest Universal Nature moved by Universal Mind; Thou majestic in thy sadness at the doubtful doom of human kind; VII Light among the vanish'd ages; star that gildest yet this phantom shore; Golden branch amid the shadows, kings and realms that pass to rise no more VIII Now thy Forum roars no longer, fallen every purple Caesar's dome Tho' thine ocean-roll of rhythm sound for ever of Imperial Rome-- IX Now the Rome of slaves hath perish'd, and the Rome of freemen holds her place I, from out the Northern Island sunder'd once from all the human race, X I salute thee, Mantovano, I that loved thee since my day began, Wielder of the stateliest measure ever moulded by the lips of man. P. VERGILI MARONIS BUCOLICA ECLOGA I TITYRUS MELIBOEUS. TITYRUS. M. TITYRE, tu patulae recubans sub tegmine fagi silvestrem tenui Musam meditaris avena ; nos patriae fines et dulcia linquimus arva: nos patriam fugimus; tu, Tityre, lentus in umbra formosam resonare doces Amaryllida silvas. ΙΟ T. o Meliboee, deus nobis haec otia fecit. namque erit ille mihi semper deus; illius aram saepe tener nostris ab ovilibus inbuet agnus. ille meas errare boves, ut cernis, et ipsum ludere quae vellem calamo permisit agresti. M. non equidem invideo, miror magis undique totis usque adeo turbatur agris. en ipse capellas protinus aeger ago: hanc etiam vix, Tityre, duco. hic inter densas corylos modo namque gemellos, spem gregis, a, silice in nuda conixa reliquit. saepe malum hoc nobis, si mens non laeva fuisset, |