Page:Hesiod, and Theognis.djvu/128

114 priate ground on which to trace their likeness and unlikeness. As Hesiod's passage was not quoted in our second chapter, its citation will be forgiven here, the version selected being that of Mr Elton:—

Virgil does not set himself to reproduce the myth of the metallic ages of mankind; but having assuredly the original of the passage just quoted before him, has seen that certain features of it are available for introduction into his account of Jove's ordinance of labour. He dismisses, we shall observe, the realistic allusions to the sickness, death, and decrepit old age, which in the golden days were "conspicuous by their absence," and of which Hesiod had made much. These apparently only suggest to him a couple of lines, in which mortal cares are made an incentive to work, instead of a destiny to be succumbed to; and the death