BUCOLICORUM

ECLOGA DECEM.

THE

BUCOLICKS OF VIRGIL,

WITH

AN ENGLISH TRANSLATION

AND

NOTES.

BY JOHN MARTYN, F. R. S.

PROFESSOR OF BOTANY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE.

THE FOURTH EDITION.

OXFORD,

PRINTED BY W. BAXTER,

FOR G. AND W. B. WHITTAKER, AVE MARIA LANE, LONDON.

1820.

THE feeding of cattle, how mean and contemptible soever it may appear to us, is very ancient, and in the most early ages of the world was esteemed to be honourable. The first man was a gardener, and a husbandman; and of his sons we read, that one was a husbandman, and another a shepherd. The same employment seems to have been chiefly followed by the patriarchs after the flood; for we find that Abraham, who is called a mighty prince", was a feeder of cattle, his great wealth consisting in sheep, oxen, asses, and camels. Isaac, Esau, Jacob, and the rest of his posterity continued the same way of life, applying themselves wholly to the care of their flocks and herds, with which they travelled from place to place, as they found convenience of pasturage. Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his fatherin-law, when he was called by God, and appointed to be the deliverer and prince of his peopled. Hence it has been observed, that the employment