180 June Much Effect with little Labor. 



You have the white bull, the dark ilex, and then the 

 middle tint of herbage, which is called pale by com- 

 parison with the tree. 'Black' is merely the popular 

 term for dark, whether dark green or dark purple ; it is 

 still constantly used in this way in different languages, 

 especially with reference to trees : thus we have the 

 black poplar, the black forest, the black islands, &c. 

 It is not too much to say that another color is sug- 

 gested by the simple mention of the hyacinth, and 

 there is a delicate hint of pity for the flower crushed 

 under the weight of the animal; but this belongs to 

 poetry rather than to painting. I do not believe that 

 any artist in words ever painted so complete a picture 

 of animal and landscape with so few touches. You 

 have color (viiveum, hyacintho), you have texture (molli), 

 and you have light and shade (nigra pallentes). What- 

 ever may be wanting in the tiny masterpiece is supplied 

 at once by our own memory and imagination, form 

 is only indicated by the mention of the kind of animal 

 and the kinds of plants ; but then we remember imme- 

 diately what is the shape of a bull, of an ilex, and of a 

 hyacinth. 



To appreciate the full artistic quality of such a per- 

 fect bit of work as this, it is enough to place beside it 

 any piece of common descriptive verse having a similar 

 subject. But whilst thus heartily acknowledging Virgil's 

 peculiar gift, and the art with which he so skilfully used 

 it, a modern critic can hardly escape some feeling of 

 surprise at what seems to him the excessive brevity 

 of the classical writers. They said what they had to 



