Page:Virgil's Pastorals, Georgics and Aeneis - Dryden (1709) - volume 1.pdf/232

90 Georgic: And Ennobles the Actions of so trivial a Creature, with Metaphors drawn from the most important Concerns of Mankind. His Verses are not in a greater noise and hurry in the Battels of Æneas and Turnus, than in the Engagement of two Swarms. And as in his Æneis he compares the Labours of his Trojans to those of Bees and, here he compares the Labours of the Bees to those of the Cyclops. In short, the last Georgic was a good Prelude to the Æneis; and very well shew'd what the Poet could do in the description of what was really great, by his describing the Mock-grandeur of an Insect with so good a grace. There is more pleasantness in the little Platform of a Garden, which he gives us about the middle of this Book, than in all the spacious Walks and Water-works of Rapin's. The Speech of Proteus at the end can never be enough admir'd, and was indeed very fit to conclude so Divine a Work.

After this particular account of the Beauties in the Georgics, I shou'd in the next place endeavour to point out its imperfections, if it has any. But tho' I think there are some few parts in it that are not so Beautiful as the rest, I shall not presume to name them, as rather suspecting my own Judgment,