700 



GLEA^1:NGS IJS B^K CULTtJEE. 



KoV. 



his author — and even err a little on that side, If he 

 must err at all? 



At the point where — 

 Nor on the hearth the reddening lobsters roast, 

 Virgil does not add a word to explain why shell flsh 

 must not be roasted by bee-keepers. A solution is 

 attempted in a note under my version; but Dryden, 

 without any superfluity of either truth or poetry, 

 renders: 



"Nor roast red crabs, to offend the niceness of tlieir 

 nose." 



When "Virgil's language admits of more than one 

 meaning I take the sense which is in accordance 

 with the facts. Candidly, my friends, is not this the 

 right way to do? A writer should be credited with 

 talking sense, till something else is proven. At the 

 place where the bees cease from their fanning, and 

 become quiet at night, Dryden renders — 



" — Their evening bells 

 Dismiss the sleepy swains, and toll them to their 



cells. 

 When once in beds their weary limbs they steep." 



In this place the idea of bees creeping into their 

 cells to sleep on summer nights can be deduced 

 from the original without violence; but as it is not 

 correct in fact, and not at all a necessary inference 

 from the original, I render differently. Thf-ir tolling 

 of evening bells. In convent style, is a gratuitous ad- 

 dition of Dryden's. 



Dryden's translation has done more to form the 

 prevalent opinion concerning Virgil's treatise on 

 bees than any other influence; perhaps more than 

 all others combined. As to my own translation, let 

 criticism take a definite shape, and I will retract any 

 passage where I am convinced of material error; 

 but the general charge, that 1 am making Virgil out 

 too wise, I must not be expected to regard much, as 

 I started out to show that a very general opinion is 

 false. 



SPONTANEOUS PRODUCTION OF SWARMS. 



If all the race by sudden chance should fail. 

 And no resource to gain them should avail, 

 'Tis time a great invention to unfold. 

 Taught by a wise Arcadian of old; 

 To tell how tainted gore of bullocks shun 

 Hath often brought the race of bees again. 

 Searching tradition to its fountain well. 

 The utmost of the matter I will tell. 



Where by the outspread liver of the Nile, 



Steeping its vast and placid flood the while. 



Where the blest race of Canopus remains. 



And sail with painted boats their farm domains. 



Where wide the river spreads its mighty surge 



To quiver-bearing Persia's western verge. 



Flowing from lands where negroes dark are seen, 



With its dark silt it raaketh Egypt green; 



And as to meet the sea it pouring glides. 



Into seven different mouths the stream divides. 



All Egypt firm believes in evei-y part 



A sure relief by this surprising art. 



First, for this use a little spot is found. 



And lightly built with roof and walls around; 



And facing the four winds that blow from heaven. 



Four slanting windows to the roof are given. 



Tl^en a young bullock's sought, upon whose brow 



The two-yeared horns took their first curve just 



now; (1) 

 And while he strives for life with might and main. 

 They stop his breath, and close his nostrils twain; 

 Then slain with blows that do not break the skin, 



The tissues bruised are half dissolved within. (2) 

 Thus placed they leave him in the pent-up room; 

 Yet underneath his sides they place perfume. 

 Sweet leafy branches broken well are strewn, 

 And mixed with thyme, and cassia newly grown. 

 'I'his should be done when first, on gentle wing, 

 The zephyrs play among the waves of spring, 

 Before the meadows blush with colors new. 

 And bloom with early flowers of rosy hue. 

 And ere beneath the beam, on fragile rest. 

 The chattering swallow doth suspend her nest. 

 Meanwhile a humor, of itself alone. 

 Warmed into life within each tender bone. 

 Ferments, and presently in wondrous way 

 Are living creatures seen in thick array. 

 First lacking feet, a little waiting brings 

 Their members all, and, buzzing with their wings. 

 They circle round and r<)und again with care. 

 And more and more they try the subtile air. 

 Until at length they burst away a swarm, (3) 

 As rain poured out when summer showers form: 

 Or as the arrows from the whizzing string. 

 Athwart the sky a sudden glimmer fling. 

 And ope the battle with their rustling flight. 

 When the swift Parthians begin a fight. 



(1) Bossy at first has no horns, then little loose 

 buttons fastened to the skin, then short straight 

 horns, then horns that are curved in one simple 

 curve, and finally in oil age, horns that are long, 

 and curved with a complexity of curves. Just the 

 age when the horns no longer look straight was con- 

 sidered right for this piece of sorcery. Apparently 

 they considered it important that the animal should 

 be aged just right. 



(2j If one would realize what Christianity has done 

 for us, let us look at this. What a condition the 

 wisdom, the chemistry, the heart, of the ancient 

 wcjrld was in to be trying to accomplish things by 

 such exquisitely cruel performances as this!— 



" Dark places — full of habitations of cruelty." 



(3) I'm going to defend Virgil right manfully 

 here. Not that the scheme he gives would ever suc- 

 ceed; but almost any sensible person, standing 

 under the light which Virgil possessed, would sup- 

 pose it might succeed. It was sensible to seek a 

 perpetual motion until something of the great 

 doctrine of the conservation of force was realized; 

 but now only uneducated persons and cranks are 

 expected to work at perpetual motors. It was sen- 

 sible to seek a means of turning all metals into gold 

 just so long as metals could be considered compounds. 

 Metals have a strong family likeness to each other, 

 and the thought that they might be a family of com- 

 pounds with the main ingredient the same in each, 

 just as a large family of oxides and salts is often 

 found to contain the same element as a base, was 

 once a very reasonable thought. It is played out at 

 the present day, that's all. But the belief in spon- 

 taneous generation can hardly be written played 

 out ju6t yet. A large percentage of our population, 

 take them just as they run, believe in it this very 

 day. Minute living organisms sometimes appear so 

 suddenly, and in such countless numbers, that it is 

 still a common impression and remark, that they 

 "just breed out of nothing." Far beyond all this, 

 our scientists do not altogether scout the notion. It 

 is, I believe, not yet twenty years since the scientific 

 world was all agog about the spontaneous genera- 

 tion of a certain species of minute insects in a given 

 chemical solution, after all organic germs bad been 



