Page:Virgil's Pastorals, Georgics and Aeneis - Dryden (1709) - volume 2.djvu/94

 with me. But the same Style being continu'd thro' the whole, and the same Laws of Versification observ'd, are proofs sufficient, that this is one Man's Work: And your Lordship is too well acquainted with my manner, to doubt that any part of it is anothers.

That your Lordship may see I was in earnest, when I promis'd to hasten to an end, I will not give the Reasons, why I Writ not always in the proper terms of Navigation, Land-Service, or in the Cant of any Profession. I will only say, that Virgil has avoided those proprieties, because he Writ not to Mariners, Souldiers, Astronomers, Gardners, Peasants, &c. but to all in general, and in particular to Men and Ladies of the first Quality; who have been better Bred than to be too nicely knowing in the Terms. In such cases, tis enough for a Poet to write so plainly, that he may be understood by his Readers: To avoid impropriety, and not affect to be thought Learn'd in all things.

I have omitted the Four Preliminary Lines of the First Æneid; because I think them inferiour to any Four others, in the whole Poem; and consequently, believe they are not Virgil's. There is too great a gap betwixt the Adjective vicina in the second Line, and the Substantive Arva in the latter end of the third, which keeps his meaning in obscurity too long: and is contrary to the clearness of his Style.

Is too ambitious an Ornament to be his, and

Are all words unnecessary, and independent of what he had said before.