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 (niveum, hyacintho), you have texture (mo//i), 

 and you have light and shade (nigra patient es). 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 



