VIRGIL.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR:1
Sr,—In the Spectator of November 21st, it was remarked of Virgil that he "could never say a plain thing in a plain way.
No doubt the diction of Virgil in the "Eclogues" and 4' Georgics," as well as in the "./Eneid," is, as a rule, in the highest degree elaborate and artificial. But that this great poet was incapable of direct simplicity is, I think, a charge which can hardly be substantiated. I give two short passages which seem to rebut it. The first, from the 8th Eclogue, is said to have been a special favourite with Lord Macaulay :— " Sepibus in nostris parvam te roscida mala, Dux ego vester eram, vidi cum matre legentem Alter ab undecimo tam me jam ceperat annus, Jam fragiles poteram a terra contingere ramos. lJt vidi, ut peril, ut me malus abstulit error !"
'he second is the well-known simile from the first book of the -".ZEneid:"— "Ac veluti magno in populo cum stepe coorta eat Seditio, sievitque animis ignobile vulgus ; Jamque faces et saxa volant, furor arma ministrat ; Tam pietate gravem ac meritis si forte visum quem Conspexere, silent, arrectisque auribus adstant ; [lie regit dictis animos, et pectora mulcet."
In such passages, while the diction is perfect, Virgil cannot be excused of having introduced a single word of superfluous ornament. The address of Melibceus to Tityrus, in the 1st Eclogue, "Fortunate senex, ergo tua rura manebunt," &c., would be of the same character, were it not deformed by the -epithet " Hyblwis" applied to the bees.—I am, Sir, &c.,
A LOVER OP VIRGIL.
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