Page:Virgil's Pastorals, Georgics and Aeneis - Dryden (1709) - volume 1.pdf/85

 Hic illius arma, Hic currus fuit

the rest is none of his.

He was so good a Geographer, that he has not only left us the finest description of Italy that ever was; but besides, was one of the few Ancients who knew the true System of the Earth, its being Inhabited round about under the Torrid Zone, and near the Poles. Metrodorus, in his five Books of the Zones, justifies him from some Exceptions made against him by Astronomers. His Rhetorick was in such general esteem, that Lectures were read upon it in the Reign of Tiberius, and the Subject of Declamations taken out of him. Pollio himself, and many other Ancients Commented him. His Esteem degenerated into a kind of Superstition. The known Story of Mr. Cowley is an instance of it. But the sortes Virgilianæ were condemn'd by St. Augustin, and other Casuists. Abienus, by an odd Design, put all Virgil