"210 Philosophy of Botany. 



That souls discerpt from him shall never die. 



But back resolved to God and heaven shall fly, 



And live forever in the starry sky. — I. Warton. 



In another place the poet introduces Anchyses philosophiz- 

 ing upon the same principles : 



Principio coelum, ac terras, camposque liQuentes 

 Lucentemque globum lunae, Titaniaque astra, 

 Spiritus rntus alit, totamque infusa per artus 

 Mens agitat molem, et magno se corpora miscet. 



Aen. VI., V. 724. 



Know first a spirit with an active flame 



Pervades and animates the mighty frame. 



Runs through the watery worlds, the fields of air, 



The pondrous earth, the depths of heaven, and there 



Glows in the sun and moon, and burns in every star. 



Thus mingling with the mass, the general soul 



Lives in the parts and agitates the whole. — Pitt. 



In another beautiful verse he gives utterance to the Stoical 

 -mood, in honor of Lucretius : 



Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas 

 Atque metus omnes et irrevocabile fatum 

 Subjecit pedibus, strepitumque Acherontis avari! 



— Georg. II., v. v. 490. 



Happy the man whose vigorous soul can pierce 



Through the formation of this universe. 



Who nobly dares despise, with a soul sedate. 



The din of Acheron and vulgar fears and fate. — I. Warton. 



Of the three greatest poets of this era, Virgil alone, in his 

 "" Georgica," occupies himself with the processes of organic 

 nature. Ovid, in his " Metamorphoses," in the touching idyl, 

 "Philemon and Baucis," expresses the belief of the ancients 

 about the divine government of the world, as subject to the 

 unrestrained discretion or pleasure of the gods in exact oppo- 

 ;sition to the modem idea of causation : 



Immense est finemque potentia coeli 



Non habet, et quidqaid super! voluere peract est. 



Immense and unlimited is the power of the gods; 

 And whatever be their wishes, perfected it is. 



