Page:Virgil's Pastorals, Georgics and Aeneis - Dryden (1709) - volume 1.pdf/31

 one of his Tragedies to himself. Glory neglected in proper time and place, returns often with large Increase, and so he found it: For Varus afterwards prov'd a great Instrument of his Rise: In short, it was here that he form'd the Plan, and collected the Materials of all those excellent Pieces which he afterwards finish'd, or was forc'd to leave less perfect by his Death. But whether it were the Unwholsomness of his Native Air, of which he somewhere complains, or his too great abstinence, and Night-watchings at his Study, to which he was always addicted, as Augustus observes; or possibly the hopes of improving himself by Travel, he resolv'd to Remove to the more Southern Tract of Italy; and it was hardly possible for him not to take Rome in his Way; as is evident to any one who shall cast an Eye on the Map of Italy: And therefore the late French Editor of his Works is mistaken, when he asserts that he never saw Rome, till he came to Petition for his Estate: He gain'd the Acquaintance of the Master of the