On natural Phenomena, 339 



Among the birds, whose departure I had observed, 



least. See Georgic lib 1. ver. 82. " Sic quoque mutatis, &;cj*' — 

 which Dryden translates, — 



" Thus change of seeds for meagre soils is best, 

 *' And earth manured ; — not idle, tho' at rest." 

 I find too, that I learned at grammar school, the mode of improv- 

 ing ia7id, by burning. See ver. 84, Sc seq. 



" Saepe etiam steriles incendere profuit agros," &c. 

 whereof I give Dry den* s translation. — 



" Long practice has a sure improvement found, 



*' With kindled Jires to burn the barren ground ; 



" When the light stubble^ to the flames resign'd, 



" Is driv*n along and crackles in the wind. 



" Whether from hence the hollow womb of earth 



*' Is warm'd with secret strength for better birth ; 



*' Or when the latent vice is cur'd by fire, 



" Redundant humors thro' the pores expire ; 



" Or that the warmth distends the chinks, and makes 



" New breathings, whence new nourishment she takes ; 



" Or that the heat the gaping ground constrains, 



" New knits the surface, and new strings the veins, 



'' Lest soaking showers should pierce her secret seat, 



*' Or freezing Boreas chill her genial heat ; 



" Or scorching suns too violently beat." 



Some other excellent practices, deemed modern, might be shown 

 to be more than seventeen hundred years old. 



Virgil has also anticipated Linnaus^ in his tests of the characters 

 of seasons ; from observations on the Jloiveiing oi trees, or shrubs. 

 See 1 Georg. v. 187. 



" Contemfilator item quum se JSfux plurima Silvisy" — kc. 

 " Mark well ihejloivering alinojids in the wood,— 

 " If od'rous blooms the bearing-branches load, 

 *' The glebe will answer to the sylvan reign, 

 " Great heats will follow, and large crops of grain. 



1 



