Page:Virgil's Pastorals, Georgics and Aeneis - Dryden (1709) - volume 1.pdf/92

 Writer, that Kings, the Shepherds of the People in Homer, laid down their first Rudiments in tending their mute Subjects; nor that the Wealth of Ulysses'' consisted in Flocks and Herds, the Intendants over which, were then in equal esteem with Officers of State in latter times. And therefore Eumæus is call'd  in Homer; not so much because Homer was a lover of a Country Life, to which he rather seems averse, but by reason of the Dignity and Greatness of his Trust, and because he was the Son of a King, stollen away, and Sold by the Phænician Pyrates, which the Ingenious Mr. Cowley seems not to have taken notice of. Nor will it seem strange, that the Master of the Horse to King Latinus, in the Ninth Æneid, was found in the homely Employment of cleaving Blocks, when news of the first Skirmish betwixt the Trojans and Latins was brought to him''.

Being therefore of such Quality, they cannot be suppos'd so very ignorant and unpolish'd;'' the Learning and good breeding of the World was then in the hands of such People. He who was chosen by the consent of all Parties to arbitrate so delicate an Affair, as which was the fairest of the three Celebrated Beauties of Heaven; he who had the address to debauch away Helen from her Husband, her Native Country, and from a Crown, understood what the French call by the too soft name of Gallanterie; he had Accomplishments enough, how''