OPINIONS OF VIRGIL AND PLINY 271 



And, for the contentment which is supposed to accom- 

 pany a country life, we have not only the best authority 

 of our own time to support it, but even that of the best 

 poets of the Augustan age. Virgil surely felt what he 

 wrote, when he said, " O fortunatos nimitmi, sua si 

 dona, nori?it, agricolas !" and Horace's famous ode, 

 " Beatus Me qui procul negotiis" seems not less to 

 come from the heart of a man who is generally 

 allowed to have had a perfect knowledge of man- 

 kind ; and this, even at the time when he was the 

 favourite of the greatest emperor, and in the midst 

 of all the magnificence of the greatest city, in the 

 world. 



The elegant Pliny also, in his Epistle to Minutius 

 Fitnda?ius, which is admirably translated by the Earl 

 of Orrery, whilst he arraigns the life that he leads at 

 Rome, speaks with a kind of rapture of a country life: 

 " Welcome," says he, " thou life of integrity and 

 virtue ! Welcome, sweet and innocent amusement ! 

 Thou art almost preferable to business and employ- 

 ment of every kind ! " And it was here, we are told, 

 that the great Bacon experienced his truest felicity. 

 With regard to the otium cum dignitate, so much re- 

 commended, no one, I believe, understands the true 

 meaning of it better, or practises it more successfully, 

 than you do. 



A rural life, I think, is better suited to this kingdom 

 than to any other ; because the country in England 

 affords pleasures and amusements unknown in other 

 countries ; and because its rival, our English town 

 (or ton) life, perhaps is a less pleasant one than may 



