If we proceed to the Georgics, we shall find as few marks of genius in them as in the Paftorals, in fpite of the blind admiration which has been paid that poem. The fubject is confeffedly unhappy: for Virgil in this was the imitator of Hefiod, as in his Paftorals of Theocritus, and in his Eneid of Homer.

O imitatores fervum pecus !

was the just exclamation of his more ingenious cotemporary, Horace. How blind, my friend, muft thofe be who could not infer, if this remark be just, how little is Virgil! Virgil, whose whole fame refts upon three fpecimens. of imitation!

To examine the Georgics by the criterion of invention, which is that of genius and true poetry, we must confefs, that in a didactic poem, the precepts are quite out of the province of invention; and for this reafon the didactic is the lowest of all the kinds of poetry. But the Georgics are allowed to be Virgil's chief work: the work on which his fame principally refts; tho he afterwards afpired to be an epic writer, (what an epic writer!) and it follows, that, at the moft, Virgil is but an excel

excellent didactic writer, even in the opinion of his most fanguine admirers: that is, if you pleafe, we will grant for a moment that he ftands first in the very meanest rank of poetry: furely no high praise.

1

WHERE is his fame as a poet, if it is proved" that even this praife, flender as it is, is yet infinitely too high for him? Yet this will be eafily proved to those whofe minds are not fecured from the light of truth by the impenetrable fhades of prejudice.

A DIDACTIVE poem must be written in fuch a style as to be understood by those to whom it is addreffed. If painting, for example, is the fubject, the language ought to be fuch as may be understood by any painter of common intelligence. This rule, univerfally just as it is, must always be followed; elfe the abfurdity were as great as if a country curate should preach to his staring parishioners in Hebrew, and expect they should follow precepts which it was impoffible they fhould underftand. Common fenfe, my friend, which is fo uncommon a thing among the critics, and yet which enables

any

any man to judge better of writing than all the capricious dictates of criticism, teaches us that the neceffity of following this rule is indifpenfable. Yet it has not been followed by Virgil, who writes to country farmers in a most elaborate, and to them impenetrably obLcure, ftyle. Who can help fmiling to see him conftantly addreffing himself to people, who, as he well knew, could not poffibly understand him? Yet he is called the judicious Virgil, by those who can fee very near as far as their nofes, with the help of a borrowed lanthorn!

WHY dwell on particular abfurdities of a production, which, in its very effence, is abfurdity itself? Yet we must not pass the Epifodes and ornaments of the Georgics, which have been hitherto allowed the very brightest proofs Virgil has given of genius or invention. Let us weigh thefe proofs, if poffible, in the very scales which critical Juftice holds,

THE invocation to Cæfar's fpirit, the fpirit of a tyrant, who trampled on the liberties of his country, could never have been written by a poet of real genius; for invincible honefty of

mind

mind has always been its attendant. Fulfome flattery and adulation, unworthy of the foul of a flave, constitute the merits of Virgil, in this admired addrefs. May execration pursue his memory, who has placed a crown on the brows of a tyrant, that were much too bright for the best of kings! The figns preceding the death of Julius, enumerated in the end of the book, are in the same style with the address; fuperftitious offerings on the altar of flavery. They who find invention in either of thefe ornaments, are welcome to feed on it, mixed up with a little whipt cream.

I ALLOW it were prejudice alone that could induce a reader to deny the beauty of the panegyric on a country life, which closes the Second Book; but at the fame time it may be fafely faid, that there are no marks in it of a fuperlative poet. Of invention there are furely none, nor of originality; for the theme has been, in all ages of poetry, a trite one. Virgil in this paffage, therefore, as in others, only dif plays great skill in the mechanical part of poetry, but leaves the praise of a great poet to happier rivals.

THE

THE description of the plague, in the end of the Third Book, is evidently in imitation of Lucretius, only more full and rich. But facile eft inventis addere; and this Episode may give Virgil the fame of a happy imitator, but never that of a true poet.

THE ftory of Ariftæus in the last Book difplays not the powers of Ovid, tho fuperior in chastity of verfification. But who ever faid Ovid was a poet?

Ì TRUST it will appear from this deduction, that Virgil has not in his Paftorals, nor in his Georgics, given any proofs of genius, invention, or that which properly constitutes a poet.

THE Æneid hall, if you like the fubject, be examined fome future opportunity; and will, I know, add still lefs renown to Virgil as a crea

tor.

YET Virgil deferves all his fame: a paradox, you will fay, worthy of Rouffeau.