| Virgil sums up Roman religious experience, and combines it with
hope for the future. Sense of depression in his day; want of
sympathy and goodwill towards men. Virgil's sympathetic outlook;
shown in his treatment of animals, Italian scenery, man's
labour, and man's worship. His idea of pietas. The theme of
the Aeneid; Rome's mission in the world, and the pietas needed
to carry it out. Development of the character of Aeneas; his
pietas imperfect in the first six books, perfected in the last six,
resulting in a balance between the ideas of the Individual and
the State. Illustration of this from the poem. Importance of
Book vi., which describes the ordeal destined to perfect the pietas
of the hero. The sense of Duty never afterwards deserts him;
his pietas enlarged in a religious sense
| [403]-427 |