respect and love which was paid you, not only is the province where you live, but generally by all who had the happiness to know you, was a wise exchange for the honours of the court: a place of forgetfulness, at the best, for well-deservers. It is necessary for the polishing of manners, to have breathed that air; but it is infectious even to the best morals to live always in it. It is a dangerous

which is not always clean: you have chosen for yourself a private greatness, and will not be polluted with ambition. It has been observed in former times, that none have been so greedy of employments, and of managing the public, as they who have least deserved their stations. But such only merit to be called patriots, under whom we see their country flourish. I have laughed sometimes (for who would always be an Hera-commerce, where an honest man is sure at the first clitus?) when I have reflected on those men, of being cheated; and he recovers not his losses, who from time to time have shot themselves into but by learning to cheat others. The undermining the world. I have seen many successions of smile becomes at length habitual; and the drift them some bolting out upon the stage with vast of his plausible conversation, is only to flatter one, applause, and others hissed off, and quitting it that he may betray another. Yet it is good to with disgrace. But while they were in action, I have been a looker-on, without venturing to play; have constantly observed, that they seemed de- that a man may know false dice another time, sirous to, retreat from business: greatness they though he never means to use them. I commend said was nauseous, and a crowd was troublesome; not him who never knew a court, but him who a quiet privacy was their ambition. Some few forsakes it because he knows it. A young man of them I believe said this in earnest, and were deserves no praise, who out of melancholy zeal making a provision against future want, that they leaves the world before he has well tried it, and might enjoy their age with ease: they saw the runs headlong into religion. He who carries a happiness of a private life, and promised to them- maidenhead into a cloister, is sometimes apt to selves a blessing, which every day it was in their lose it there, and to repent of his repentance. He power to possess. But they deferred it, and only is like to endure austerities, who has already lingered still at court, because they thought they found the inconvenience of pleasures. For almost had not yet enough to make them happy: they every man will be making experiments in one part would have more, and laid in to make their soli- or another of his life; and the danger is the less tude luxurious. A wretched philosophy, which when we are young; for, having tried it early, we Epicurus never taught them in his garden: they shall not be apt to repeat it afterwards. Your loved the prospect of this quiet in reversion, but lordship therefore may properly be said to have were not willing to have it in possession, they chosen a retreat, and not to have chosen it until would first be old, and made as sure of health you had maturely weighed the advantages of rising and life, as if both of them were at their dispose.higher with the hazards of the fall. But put them to the necessity of present choice, and they preferred continuance in power: like the wretch who called Death to his assistance, but refused him when he came. The great Scipio was not of their opinion, who indeed sought honours in his youth, and endured the fatigues with which he purchased them. He served his country when it was in need of his courage and conduct until he thought it was time to serve himself: but dismounted from the saddle when he found the beast which bore him began to grow restiff and ungovernable. But your lordship has given us a better example of moderation. You saw betimes that ingratitude is not confined to commonwealths; and therefore though you were formed alike, for the greatest of civil employments, and military commands, yet you pushed not your fortune to rise in either; but contented yourself with being capable, as much as any whosoever, of defending your country with your sword, or assisting it with your counsel, when you were called. For the rest, the

Res non

parta labore, sed relicta, was thought by a poet to be one of the requisites to a happy life. Why should a reasonable man put it in the power of fortune to make him miserable, when his ancestors have taken care to release him from her? let him venture, says Horace, qui zonam perdidit. He who has nothing, plays securely; for we may win, and cannot be poorer if he loses. But he who is born to a plentiful estate, and is ambitious of offices at court, sets a stake to fortune, which she can seldom answer: if he gains nothing, he loses all, or part of what was once his own; and if he gets, he cannot be certain but he may refund.

In short, however he succeeds, it is covetousness that induced him first to play, and covetousness is the undoubted sign of ill sense at bottom. The odds are against him, that he loses; and one loss may be of more consequence to him than all his former winnings. It is like the pre. sent war of the Christians against the Turki

every year they gain a victory, and by that a town; but if they are once defeated, they lose a province at a blow, and endanger the safety of the whole empire. You, my lord, enjoy your quiet in a garden, where you have not only the leisure of thinking, but the pleasure to think of nothing which can discompose your mind. A good conscience is a port which is landlocked on every side, and where no winds can possibly invade, no tempests can arise. There a man may stand upon the shore, and not only see his own image, but that of his Maker, clearly reflected from the unReason was intended disturbed and silent waters.

THE FIRST BOOK OF
THE GEORGICS.

THE ARGUMENT.

THE poet, in the beginning of this book, propounds
the general design of each georgic: and, after a
solemn invocation of all the gods who are any
way related to his subject, he addresses himself
in particular to Augustus, whom he compliments
with divinity; and after strikes into his business.
He shows the different kinds of tillage proper to
different soils, traces out the original of agri-
culture, gives a catalogue of the husbandman's
tools, specifies the employments peculiar to
each season, describes the changes of the wea-
ther, with the signs in Heaven and Earth that
forebode them, instances many of the pro-
digies that happened near the time of Julius
Caesar's death, and shuts up all with a sup.
plication to the gods for the safety of Augustus,
and the preservation of Rome.

for a blessing, and such it is to men of honour
and integrity: who desire no more than what they
are able to give themselves: like the happy old
Coricyan, whom my author describes in his fourth
Georgic: whose fruits and sallads, on which he
lived contented, were all of his own growth, and
his own plantation. Virgil seems to think that the
blessings of a country life are not complete, with-
out an improvement of knowledge by contempla-The fruitful soil, and when to sow the corn;
tion and reading.

O fortunatos nimiùm, bona si sua norint,
Agricolas !

It is but half possession not to understand that happiness which we possess: a foundation of good sense, and a cultivation of learning, are required to give a seasoning to retirement, and make us taste the blessing. God has bestowed on your lordship the first of these, and you have bestowed on yourself the second. Eden was not made for beasts, though they were suffered to live in it, but for their master, who studied God in the works of his creation. Neither could the Devil have been happy there with all his knowledge, He for he wanted innocence to make him so.

brought envy, malice, and ambition into paradise,
which soured to him the sweetness of the place.
Wherever inordinate affections are, it is Hell.
Such only can enjoy the country, who are capable
of thinking when they are there, and have left
Then
their passions behind them in the town.
they are prepared for solitude; and in that soli-
tude is prepared for them

Et secura quies, et nescia fallere vita.
As I began this dedication with a verse of Virgil,
so I conclude it with another. The continuance of
your health, to enjoy that happiness which you so
well deserve, and which you have provided for
yourself, is the sincere and earnest wish of

your lordship's

most devoted, and
most obedient servant,

JOIN DRYDEN.

WHAT makes a plenteous harvest, when to turn

The care of sheep, of oxen, and of kine;
And how to raise on elms the teeming vine;
The birth and genius of the frugal bee,
I sing, Mæcenas, and I sing to thee.

Ye deities! who fields and plains protect,
Who rule the seasons, and the year direct;
Bacchus and fostering Ceres, powers divine,
Who gave us corn for mast, for water wine:
Ye fawns, propitious to the rural swains, [plains,
Ye nymphs, that haunt the mountains and the
Join in my work, and to my numbers bring
Your needful succour, for your gifts I sing.
And thou, whose trident struck the teeming Earth,
And made a passage for the courser's birth;
And thou, for whom the Caan shore sustains
The milky herds, that graze the flowery plains;
And thou, the shepherds tutelary god,
Leave for a while, O Pan! thy lov'd abode :'
And, if Arcadian fleeces be thy care,
From fields and mountains to my song repair.

Inventor, Pallas, of the fattening oil,
Thou founder of the plough and ploughman's toil;
And thou, whose hands the shroud-like cypress
Come, all ye gods and goddesses that wear [rear;
The rural honours, and increase the year.
You, who supply the ground with seeds of grain;
And you, who swell those seeds with kindly rain:
And chiefly thou, whose undetermin'd state
Is yet the business of the gods' debate;
Whether in after-times to be declar'd
The patron of the world, and Rome's peculiar
Or o'er the fruits and seasons to preside, [guard,
And the round circuit of the year to guide;
Powerful of blessings, which thou strew'st around,
And with thy goddess mother's myrtle crown'd.
Or wilt thou, Cæsar, choose the watery reign,
To smooth the surges, and correct the main?
Then mariners, in storms, to thee shall pray,
Ev'n utmost Thule shall thy power obey;
And Neptune shall resign the fasces of the sea,
The watery virgins for thy bed shall strive,
And Tethys all her waves in dowry give.

Or wilt thou bless our summers with thy rays,
And seated near the Balance, poise the days:
Where in the void of Heaven a space is free,
Betwixt the Scorpion and the Maid, for thee.
The Scorpion, ready to receive thy laws,
Yields half his region, and contracts his claws.
Whatever part of Heaven thou shalt obtain,
For let not Hell presume of such a reign;
Nor let so dire a thirst of empire move
Thy mind, to leave thy kindred gods above.
Though Greece admires Elysium's biest retreat,
Though Proserpine affects her silent seat,
And, importun'd by Ceres to remove,
Prefers the fields below to those above.
But thou, propitious Cæsar! guide my course,
And, to my bold endeavours, add thy force.
Pity the poet's and the ploughman's cares,
Interest thy greatness in our mean affairs,

And use thyself betimes to hear and grant our
prayers.

While yet the spring is young, while earth un-
Her frozen bosom to the western winds; [binds
While mountain-snows dissolve against the Sun,
And streams, yet new, from precipices run;
Ev'n in this early dawning of the year,
Produce the plough, and yoke the sturdy steer,
And goad him till he groans beneath his toil,
Till the bright share is bury'd in the soil.
That crop rewards the greedy peasant's pains,
Which twice the Sun, and twice the cold sustains,
And bursts the crowded barns, with more than pro-
mis'd gains.

But ere we stir the yet unbroken ground,
The various course of seasons must be found;
The weather, and the setting of the winds,
The culture suiting to the several kinds

Th' ensuing season, in return, may bear
The bearded product of the golden year.
For flax and oats will burn the tender field,
And sleepy poppies harmful harvests yield,
But sweet vicissitudes of rest and toil
Make easy labour, and renew the soil.
Yet sprinkle sordid ashes all around,
And load with fattening dung thy fallow ground.
Thus change of seeds for meagre soils is best;
And earth manur'd, not idle, though at rest.

Long practice has a sure improvement found,
With kindled fires to burn the barren ground;
When the light stubble, to the flames resign'd,
Is driven 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 humours through 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 soking showers should pierce her secret seat,
Or freezing Boreas chill her genial heat;
Or scorching suns too violently beat.

Nor is the profit small, the peasant makes,
Who smooths with harrows, or who pounds with
rakes

The crumbling clods: nor Ceres from on high
Regards his labours with a grudging eye;
Nor his, who ploughs across the furrow'd grounds,
And on the back of earth inflicts new wounds;
For he with frequent exercise commands
Th' unwilling soil, and tames the stubborn lands.
Ye swains, invoke the powers who rule the sky,

Of seeds and plants, and what will thrive and risc, For a moist summer, and a winter dry:
And what the genius of the soil denies.

This ground with Bacchus, that with Ceres suits;
That other loads the trees with happy fruits;
A fourth with grass, unbidden, decks the ground:
Thus Tmolus is with yellow saffron crown'd;
India, black ebon and white ivory bears;
And soft Idume weeps her odorous tears.
Thus Pontus sends her beaver stones from far;
And naked Spaniards temper steel for war.
Epirus for th' Elean chariot breeds
(In hopes of palms) a race of running steeds.
This is th' original contract; these the laws
Impos'd by Nature, and by Nature's cause,
On sundry places, when Deucalion hurl'd
His mother's entrails on the desert world:
Whence men, a hard laborious kind, were born.
Then borrow part of winter for thy corn:

And early with thy team the glebe in furrows

turn.

That, while the turf lies open and unbound,
Succeeding suns may bake the mellow ground.
But if the soil be barren, only sear
The surface, and but lightly print the share,
When cold Arcturus rises with the Sun:
Lest wicked weeds the corn should over-run
In watery soils; or lest the barren sand
Should suck the moisture from the thirsty land.
Both these unhappy soils the swain forbears,
And keeps a sabbath of alternate years:
That the spent earth may gather heat again;
And, better'd by cessation, bear the grain.
At least, where vetches, pulse, and tares have stood,
And stalks of lupines grew, (a stubborn wood)

For winter drought rewards the peasant's pain,
And broods indulgent on the bury'd grain.
Hence Mysia boasts her harvests, and the tops
Of Gargarus admire their happy crops.
When first the soil receives the fruitful seed,
Make no delay, but cover it with speed:
So fenc'd from cold; the pliant furrows break,
Before the surly clod resists the rake.
And call the floods from high, to rush amain
With pregnant streams, to swell the teeming grain.
Then, when the fiery suns too fiercely play,
And shrivell'd herbs on withering stems decay,
The wary ploughman, on the mountain's brow,
Undams his watery stores, huge torrents flow;
And, rattling down the rocks, large moisture
yield,

Tempering the thirsty fever of the field.
And lest the stem, too feeble for the freight,
Should scarce sustain the head's unwieldy weight,
Sends in his feeding flocks betitnes t' invade
The rising bulk of the luxuriant blade;
Ere yet th' aspiring offspring of the grain
O'ertops the ridges of the furrow'd plain :
And drains the standing waters, when they yield
Too large a beverage to the drunken field.
But most in autumn, and the showery spring,
When dubious months uncertain weather bring:
When fountains open, when impetuous rain
Swells hasty brooks, and pours upon the plain;
When earth with slime and mud is cover'd o'er,
Or hollow places spue their watery store.
Nor yet the ploughman, nor the labouring steer,
Sustain alone the hazards of the year;

But glutton geese, and the Strymonian crane,
With foreign troops, invade the tender grain:
And towering weeds malignant shadows yield;
And spreading succory chokes the rising field.
The sire of gods and men, with hard decrees,
Forbids our plenty to be bought with ease:
And wills that mortal men, inur'd to toil,
Should exercise, with pains, the grudging soil.
Himself invented first the shining share,
And whetted human industry by care:
Hinself did handycrafts and arts ordain,
Nor suffer'd sloth to rust his active reign.
Ere this, no peasant vex'd the peaceful ground,
Which only turfs and greens for altars found :
No fences parted fields, nor marks nor bounds
Distinguish'd acres of litigious grounds:
But all was common, and the fruitful Earth
Was free to give her unexacted birth.
Juve added venom to the viper's brood,

And swell'd, with raging storms, the peaceful flood:
Commission'd hungry wolves t' infest the fold,
And shook from oaken leaves the liquid gold.
Remov'd from human reach the cheerful fire,
And from the rivers bade the wine retire:
That studious need might useful arts explore:
From furrow'd fields to reap the foodful store;
And force the veins of clashing flints t' expire
The lurking seeds of their celestial fire.
Then first on seas the hollow'd alder swam;
Then sailors quarter'd Heaven, and found a name
For every fix'd and every wandering star:
The Pleiads, Hyads, and the Northern Car.
Then toils for beasts, and lime for birds were found,
And deepmouth'd dogs did forest-walks surround:
And casting-nets were spread in shallow brooks,
Drags in the deep, and baits were hung on hooks.
Then saws were tooth'd, and sounding axes made
(For wedges first did yielding wood invade);
And various arts in order did succeed.
(What cannot endless labour, urg'd by need?)
First Ceres taught, the ground with grain to sow,
And arm'd with iron shares the crooked plough,
When now Dodonian oaks no more supply'd
Their mast, and trees their forest-fruit deny'd.
Soon was his labour doubled to the swain,
And blasting mildews blacken'd all his grain.
Tough thistles chok'd the fields, and kill'd the corn,
And an unthrifty crop of weeds was borne.
Then burs and brambles, an unbidden crew
Of graceless guests, th' unhappy field subdue:
And oats unblest, and darnel domineers,
And shoots its head above the shining ears.
So that unless the land with daily care
Is exercis'd, and with an iron war

Of rakes and arrows the proud foes expell'd,
And birds with clamours frighted from the field;
Unless the boughs are lopp'd that shade the plain,
And Heaven invok'd with vows for fruitful rain,
On other crops you may with envy look,
And shake for food the long abandon'd oak.
Nor must we pass untold what arms they wield,
Who labour tillage and the furrow'd field:
Without whose aid the ground her corn denies,
And nothing can be sown, and nothing rise.
The crooked plough, the share, the towering height
Of waggons, and the cart's unwieldy weight;
The sled, the tumbril, hurdles, and the flail,
The fan of Bacchus, with the flying sail.
These all must be prepar'd, if ploughmen hope
The promis'd blessing of a bounteous crop.
VOL XIX.

Young elms with early force in copsés bow,
Fit for the figure of the crooked plough.
Of eight foot long a fasten'd beam prepare,
On either side the head produce an ear,
And sink a socket for the shining share.
Of beech the ploughtail, and the bending yoke;
Or softer linden harden'd in the smoke.

I could be long in precepts, but I fear
So mean a subject might offend your ear.
Delve of convenient depth your threshing-floor:
With temper'd clay then fill and face it o'er:
And let the weighty roller run the round,
To smooth the surface of th' unequal ground;
Lest crack'd with summer heats the flooring flies,
Or sinks, and through the crannies weeds arise.
For sundry foes the rural realms surround:
The field-mouse builds her garner under ground,
For gather'd grain the blind laborious mole
In winding mazes works her hidden hole.
In hollow caverns vermin make abode,
The hissing serpent, and the swelling toad:
The corn-devouring weasel here abides,
And the wise ant her wintry store provides.
Mark well the flowering almonds in the wood;
If odorous blooms the bearing branches load,
The giebe will answer to the sylvan reign,
Great heats will follow, and large crops of grain.
But if a wood of leaves o'ershade the tree,
Such and so barren will thy harvest be:
In vain the hind shall vex the threshing-floor,
For empty chaff and straw will be thy store.
Some steep their seed, and some in caldrons boil
With vigorous nitre, and with lees of oil,
O'er gentle fires; th' exuberant juice to drain,
And swell the flattering husks with fruitful grain.
Yet is not the success for years assur'd,
Though chosen is the seed, and fully cur'd;
Unless the peasant, with his annual pain,
Renews his choice, and culls the largest grain.
Thus all below, whether by Nature's curse,
Or Fate's decree, degenerate still to worse.
So the boat's brawny crew the current stem,
And, slow advancing, struggle with the stream:
But if they slack their hands, or cease to strive,
Then down the flood with headlong haste they drive.
Nor must the ploughman less observe the skies,
When the Kids, Dragon, and Arcturus rise,
Than sailors homeward bent, who cut their way
Through Helle's stormy straits, and oyster-breed-
ing sea.

But when Astrea's balance, hung on high,
Betwixt the nights and days divides the sky,
Then yoke your oxen, sow your winer grain 5
Till cold December comes with driving rain.
Linseed and fruitful poppy bury warm,
In a dry season, and prevent the storin.
Sow beans and clover in a rotten soil,
And millet, rising from your annual toil:
When with his golden horns, in full career,
The Bull beats down the barriers of the year;
And Argos and the Dog forsake the northern sphere.
But if your care to wheat alone extend,
Let Maia with her sisters first descend,
And the bright Gnosian diadem downward bend;
Before you trust in earth your future hope:
Or else expect a listless lazy erop.

Some swains have sown before, but most have found
A husky harvest, from the grudging ground.
Vile vetches would you sow, or lentils lean,
The growth of Egypt, or the kidney-bean?

X