Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/270

Rh 248 V I R Y I R inhabits desert lands or dry plains, and extends from India through Abvssinia and North Africa to Senegal. Via. 2. Athens burtoni. (Length 12 inches.) The genus Atheris is made up of several more or less problematical species of snakes, all of which present a great contrast to the other Viperidx, in that they have long, slender, and laterally compressed bodies with prehensile tails being altogether adapted for arboreal life. Never theless the head is decidedly viperine, sharply marked off from the neck, broad behind, and heart-shaped when looked at from above. These animals are assisted in climbing, not only by their prehensile tails, but also the strongly keeled scales beneath the lower jaw. All the so-called species are inhabitants of tropical Africa, A. burtoni, A. squamiyera, and A. chloroechis being found on the west coast. Two new species have been lately discovered, A. anisolepis and A. cseviceps, both from the Congo. The genus Acanthophis is sometimes classed with the vipers, but is here excluded on account of its large, truly colubrine head shields. See SNAKES, vol. xxii. p. 198. The Viperidse, are geographically distributed as follows : Palscarctic Kegion. 1 F. bcrus, V. aspis, V. ammodytes, V. lafnstii, V. xanthina, F. pcrsica, V. mauritanica, V. cerastes, F. avi~ennse, E. carinata. Ethiopian Region. F. supcrciliaris, V. arietans, V. nasicornis, F. rhinoceros, V. cornuta, V. caudalis, F. sclincideri, V. inornata, V. atropos, V. atropoidcs, A. burtoni, A. squamigcra, A. chloroechis. Indian Region. F. russcllii, E. carinata. (ST G. M.) VIHGIL (P. VERGILIUS MARO) enjoyed in ancient times an unquestioned supremacy among Roman poets. His pre eminence in poetry was as distinctly recognized as that of Cicero in prose ; and among the llomans, as among all nations who have possessed a great poetical and a great prose literature, the superior power of poetry over that of 1 This region includes Europe, Africa north of the Sahara, and Asia north of the Himalayas. any other mode of artistic expression to embody and per petuate the true ideal of the national imagination and the deepest vein of national sentiment, was fully recognized. The veneration in which his name was held during the long interval between the overthrow of Western civilization and the revival of letters affords testimony of the depth of the impression which he made on the heart and imagin ation of the ancient world. The traditional belief in his pre-eminence has been on the whole sustained, though not with absolute unanimity, in modern times. ]&amp;gt;y the scholars and men of letters of the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries it was never seriously questioned. Only during the first half of the present century has his right to be ranked among the great poets of the world been disputed by eminent. German and English critics. The German mind has always been more in sympathy with the art and genius of Greece than of Rome and Italy ; and during the first half of the present century, when English criticism first came under German influence, there was a strong reaction from the habitual deference paid to those writers who had moulded literary taste in the previous century. The estimation of Virgil, as the most consummate repre sentative of Latin culture, suffered most from this reaction. In the present day the effect of this reaction shows itself only in a juster estimate of Virgil s relative position among the poets of the world. It is no longer a question whether he or Homer was best entitled to hold that &quot; sceptre &quot; among the great poets of antiquity which Lucretius awards to the older poet. It may still be a matter of individual opinion whether Lucretius himself was not a more powerful and original poetical force, whether he does not speak more directly to the heart and imagination of our own time. But it can hardly be questioned, on a survey of Roman literature, as a continuous expression of the national mind, from the age of Nsevius to the age of Claudian, that the position of Virgil is central and com manding, while that of Lucretius is in a great measure isolated. If we could imagine the place of Virgil in Roman literature vacant, it would be much the same as if we imagined the place of Dante vacant in modern Italian, and that of Goethe in German literature. The serious efforts of the early Roman literature the efforts of the older epic and tragic poetry found their fulfilment in him. The revelation of the power and life of Nature, first made to Lucretius, was able to charm the Roman mind, only after it had passed into the mind of Virgil, and been brought nearer to the heart of Romans and Italians by association with the industry most congenial to them. And not only does Virgil absorb and supersede much of what went before him ; he anticipates and supersedes much of what came after him. When we have read the sEneid, we add scarcely anything to our sense of the capacities of the Italian genius and of the Latin language by studying the artificial epics of the empire. It is enough to read any ten lines of them along with any ten lines of Virgil to feel how absolute is his superiority. Virgil is the only complete representative of the deepest sentiment and highest mood of his countrymen and of his time. In his pastoral and didactic poems he gives a living voice to the whole charm of Italy, in the jEneid to the whole glory of Rome. He was in the maturity of his powers at the most critical epoch of the national life, one of the most critical epochs in the history of the world. Keeping aloof from the trivial daily life of his con temporaries, he was moved more profoundly than any of them by the deeper currents of emotion in the sphere of government, religion, morals, and human feeling which were then changing the world ; and in uttering the enthusiasm of the hour, and all the new sensibilities that were stirring in his own heart and imagination, he had, in