June Catholicity of Taste in Virgil. 177 



fruit-trees ; but the poet is clearly alive to the beauty 

 of the ash, to that of the poplar, very different kinds 

 of sylvan beauty, whilst it may be especially observed 

 that the faculty of perceiving any thing to admire in 

 the 'fir on the lofty mountains' has been supposed 

 to be exclusively modern. Yet, although Virgil had 

 the catholicity of taste which appreciates many different 

 forms of beauty, he had, like all true lovers of Nature, 

 his own little private preferences, which it is interesting 

 to note when an accident of his verse reveals them. 

 For example : he preferred the olive-tree to the willow, 

 a preference which, when I think of the perfect 

 beauty of willows that have never been mutilated by 

 farmers, I find it difficult to share, though it is possible 

 that a poet living so far south may have had in his 

 mind the peculiar grandeur of very ancient olive-trees, 

 and the value of their pale foliage, which he especially 

 notices, in scenes pervaded by the Italian azure of sky 

 and Mediterranean bays : 



* Lenta salix quantum pallenti cedit olivae, 

 Puniceis humilis quantum saliunca rosetis ; 

 Judicio nostro tantum tibi cedit Amyntas.' 



* As much as the pliant willow is inferior to the pale olive- 

 tree ; as much as the humble lavender is inferior to red roses ; 

 so much, in our opinion, is Amyntas inferior to thee.' 



Every lover of Nature has preferences of this kind, 

 and the poet supposes that the gods must have them 

 also ; thus he reminds us that the vine was especially 

 beloved by Bacchus, the poplar by Hercules, the myrtle 

 by beautiful Venus, and ( his laurel' by Phoebus. But 



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