SO 
painful to see, in the poem of Lucretius, 
and in the Essay on Man, of Pope, so 
much beautiful poetry employed in deve- 
loping the bad system of Epicurus, and 
the optimism of Leibnitz. These poets, 
it is true, possessed a merit, independant 
of the chimeras of philosophy. ‘The one 
has successfully combated the supersti- 
tion of his age, the other has sounded 
the human heart, and has consecrated 
some essential truths in the most harmo- 
mous verse. At the same time that the 
et must imstruct, he should enliven his 
mstructions by the introduction of such 
figures and circumstances as may amuse 
the imagination, conceal the aridity of his 
subject, and embellish it with poetical 
colouring. Virgil, in his Georgics, is un- 
doubtedly the most perfect model of this 
kind. More modest than Lucretius in 
his choice of a subject, he chose to im- 
struct the agriculturist; but while he 
gives lessons to the labourer, he has en- 
ebied agriculture itself, and has raised to 
that most useful of all human knowledge 
the most splendid monument that poetry 
could bestow. He has the art of raising 
and beautifying the most trivial circum- 
stance im rural life, and of dignifying the 
most humble oceupation. He has con- 
quered the obvious difficulties of his de- 
sign by the force, the elegance, and the 
graces of his style; he has pamted to 
the imagination, with all the truth of na- 
ture, apparently the most trifling details; 
he has given interest to the formation of 
a furrow, and the construction of a 
plough. When he wishes to say that 
the labours of the country shou!d be- 
gin m spring, he thus expresses him- 
self:— 
Vere-novo, gelidus canis cum montibus hu- 
mor 
Liquitur, et Zephyro putris se gleba resolvit 5 
Depresso incipiat jam tum mihi taurus ara- 
tro 
Ingemere & sulco attritus splendescere vomer. 
Lib. I. 1. 43. 
Tnstead of telling his husbandman, in ' 
piain language, that his crops will fail 
through bad management, his language 
3S, 
Heu, magnum alterius frustra spectabis acer- 
yum ; 
Concussaque famem in sylvis solabere quercii. 
Lib. Y. 1. 158. 
Instead of ordermg him to water his 
grounds, he presents us with a beautiful 
fandscape:— =~ 
Lyceum of Ancient Literature—Didactic Poeiry. [Feb. 1, 
Ecce supercilio clivosi tramitis undam 
Elicit : illa cadens, raucum per levia murmur 
Saxa cletescatebrisque arentia temperat arva, 
. Lib.1. 1. 108. 
Hesiod had gone before him in this 
pleasing species of poetry, but the slight- 
est examination will convince us how 
much superior Virgil is to the Greek. He- 
siod was more an agriculturist than a po- 
et. Intent ongiving the most wholesome 
instructions, he rarely pleases his readers. 
His rules of husbandry, however judi- 
cious and exact, are never varied by 
heauty or variety of digressions. His 
descriptions are natural; but there is too 
much confusion in his precepts, which 
are always loaded with details too mi- 
nute, and images often puerile and incon- 
sistent. Virgil has embraced only the 
first principles of agriculture, as a Ssci- 
ence; but when he descends to the mi- 
nutie of his subject, which is rarely the 
case, he has proved that poetry, inspired 
by genius, and corrected by judgment, 
can equally adorn the shears of the culti- 
vator, and the sword of the conqueror. 
Notwithstanding the apparent simplicity 
of his plan, he has embellished his poem 
with the most sagacious observations, the 
most pleasing descriptions, and the most 
enchanting episodes. The necessity of 
these occasional transitions, to avoid the 
tardiness of a long and serious poem, has 
been acknowledged and conrplied with by 
all the poets who have since imitated 
Virgil; such as Vaniere, Rapin, Thom- 
son, and Delille. 
The very common observation, “ that 
there is no rule without an exception,” 
is peculiarly applicable to poetry. It is 
therefore almost superfluous to add, that 
there is a wide difference between barren 
insipidity, and unnecessary profusion. 
Though didactic poetry is in a high de- 
gree susceptible of embellishment, it de- 
mands more than any other the most ex- 
act medium between the two extremes. 
Much tnduubtedly depends upon the 
subject. In the poets whom we have 
jast named, the objects which they cele- 
brated were of all others the most likely 
to call forth all the flowers of poetry, and 
it seemed almost impossible that they 
snould avoid falling into that profusion of 
images and exuberance of diction, for 
which some of them have been censured. 
To Virgil alone it appears to have been 
given to combine the opposite qualities 
of richness and judgment, and alternately 
to indulge, or restrain with so much ad- 
mirable 
