i20 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



it*s firft fortrefs. For this reafon it is, that Virgil 

 denominates King Evander the Founder of the 

 Roman fortrefs ; 



Rex Evandrus^ Romans Conditor arcis. 



EnjiiD. Lib. viii. Vlr. 313. 



I feel an irrefiftible propenfity to infert, in this 

 place, feme paffages of the Eneid, which have a 

 direft relation to the manners of the Arcadians, 

 and which difcover, at the fame time, their in* 

 fluence on thofe of the Roman People. I am 

 abundantly fenfible, that I ftiall give but a very 

 indifferent tranflation of thofe paflages, as I have 

 done of all the Latin quotations already introduced 

 into my Book ; but the delicious poefy of Virgil 

 will indemnify the Reader for my bad profe, and 

 gratify the tafte which it will infpire into myfelf, 

 of what is natural to me. This digreffion, befides, 

 is by no means foreign to the general plan of this 

 Work. I fhall produce in it, various examples 

 of the powerful effefts arifing from confonances 

 and contrails, which I have confidered, in my pre- 

 ceding Studies, as the firft moving principles of 

 Nature. We (liall fee that, after her example, 

 Virgil abounds with them, and that they alone are 

 the caufe of the harmony of his ftyle, and of the 

 magic of his pidures, 



Firft, 



