Page:Virgil's Pastorals, Georgics and Aeneis - Dryden (1709) - volume 1.pdf/77

 in latter times than it did near his own. This took not its rise so much from the Alexis, in which Pastoral there is not one immodest Word; as from a sort of ill-nature that will not let any one be without the imputation of some Vice; and principally because he was so strict a follower of Socrates and Plato. In order therefore to his Vindication, I shall take the matter a little higher.

The Cretans were anciently much addicted to Navigation, insomuch that it became a Greek Proverb, (tho' omitted, I think, by the Industrious Erasmus,) A Cretan that does not know the Sea. Their Neighbourhood gave them occasion of frequent Commerce with the Phænicians, that accursed People, who infected the Western World with endless Superstitions, and gross Immoralities. From them it is probable, that the Cretans learn'd this infamous Passion, to which they were so much addicted, that Cicero remarks, in his Book de Rep. that it was ''a disgrace for a young Gentleman to be without Lovers. Socrates'', Rh