172 Jvne — The Classic Pastorals. 



The holly, that served for the goad, flowers nearly at 

 the same time with the sycamore, but not at all con- 

 spicuously, though its flowers are visible. I may just 

 observe what a great difference there often is in pictorial 

 importance between the flowers and fruit of the same 

 plant. In some plants, as, for example, the bird-cherry 

 tree, the flowers are glorious, and the berry of scarcely 

 any visible importance ; in others, as the holly, the 

 flowers would almost escape the notice of anybody but 

 a botanist, whilst it is impossible to avoid paying atten- 

 tion to the fruit. 



XXXIII. 



The Classic Pastorals — Inferiority of the Classical Writers in Passion 

 for Natural Beautv — Superiority of Chaucer to Virgil — Virgil's 

 laconic Way — Chaucer's abounding Eloquence — Virgil never 

 intense when speaking of Nature — Virgil's blending of Human 

 Interest with Nature — How Virgil particularizes — He cared for 

 Nature independently of Personal Ease and Enjoyment — Catho- 

 licity of Taste in Virgil — His preference of Olive to Willow — Affec- 

 tionate Comparison of Species — True Classic Love for Nature 

 contrasted with Wilful Ignorance of False Modern Classicism — 

 Facility of brief poetical Word-painting — A little Virgilian Picture 

 — Virgil's Coloring — Much effect with little Labor — Excessive 

 Brevity of Classical Writers — Their Laborious Corrections — Per- 

 manent Interests of Sylvan Life — Virgil's prospective Sense of 

 Duration in Sylvan Things — The Anchorite and the Cicada. 



I HAD reserved the reading of the classic pastorals 

 for the full bloom of leafy summer, hoping that 

 in our retirement we might have better access to the 

 thoughts of the poets when the green light fell upon 



