Page:Virgil's Pastorals, Georgics and Aeneis - Dryden (1709) - volume 1.pdf/63

 His Dantem jura Catonem,

may relate to his Office, as he was a very severe Censor. Nor would he name Cicero, when the occasion of mentioning him came full in his way; when he speaks of Catiline; because he afterwards approv'd the Murder of Cæsar, tho' the Plotters were too wary to trust the Orator with their Design. Some other Poets knew the Art of Speaking well; but Virgil, beyond this, knew the admirable Secret of being eloquently silent. Whatsoever was most curious in Fabius Pictor, Cato the Elder, Varro, in the Ægyptian Antiquities, in the Form of Sacrifice, in the Solemnities of making Peace and War, is preserv'd in this Poem. Rome is still above ground, and flourishing in Virgil. And all this he performs with admirable Brevity. The Æneis was once near twenty times bigger than he left it; so that he spent as much time in blotting out, as some Moderns have done in Writing whole Volumes. But not one Book has his finishing Strokes: The sixth seems