But
between the productions of the two poets, there is no other similarity
than that of their common subject. The precepts of Hesiod, in respect of
agriculture, are delivered with all the simplicity of an unlettered
cultivator of the fields, intermixed with plain moral reflections,
natural and apposite; while those of Virgil, equally precise and
important, are embellished with all the dignity of sublime versification.
The work is addressed to Mecaenas, at whose request it appears to have
been undertaken. It is divided into four books. The first treats of
ploughing; the second, of planting; the third, of cattle, horses, sheep,
goats, dogs, and of things which are hurtful to cattle; the fourth is
employed on bees, their proper habitations, food, polity, the diseases to
which they are liable, and the remedies of them, with the method of
making honey, and a variety of other considerations connected with the
subject. The Georgics (168) were written at Naples, and employed the
author during a period of seven years. It is said that Virgil had
concluded the Georgics with a laboured eulogium on his poetical friend
Gallus; but the latter incurring about this time the displeasure of
Augustus, he was induced to cancel it, and substitute the charming
episode of Astaeus and Eurydice.

These beautiful poems, considered merely as didactic, have the justest
claim to utility. In what relates to agriculture in particular, the
precepts were judiciously adapted to the climate of Italy, and must have
conveyed much valuable information to those who were desirous of
cultivating that important art, which was held in great honour amongst
the Romans. The same remark may be made, with greater latitude of
application, in respect of the other subjects. But when we examine the
Georgics as poetical compositions, when we attend to the elevated style
in which they are written, the beauty of the similes, the emphatic
sentiments interspersed, the elegance of diction, the animated strain of
the whole, and the harmony of the versification, our admiration is
excited, at beholding subjects, so common in their nature, embellished
with the most magnificent decorations of poetry.

During four days which Augustus passed at Atella, to refresh himself from
fatigue, in his return to Rome, after the battle of Actium, the Georgics,
just then finished, were read to him by the author, who was occasionally
relieved in the task by his friend Mecaenas. We may e