And now the Vines are ty'd, nor longer ask The Pruning Hook; the weary Dresser now With Songs salutes his outmost Ranks complete: Yet must we still sollicit the dull Mold; And the ripe Grapes have still to fear from Jove.
I need not explain myself any farther. To produce all the Instances of this Kind, would be to transcribe the Georgics. 'Tis with the same View the great Author of them is so copious upon the different Properties of Trees and Cattle; the Combat of Bulls; the Conduct and Politics of Bees, and the like.
To vary the Form of Instruction, and to add Life to his Precepts, he sometimes instils them as Matters of Fact, and conveys them under the Appearance of a Narration:
[267] Quid dicam, jacto qui semine cominus arva Insequitur, cumulosque ruit male pinguis arenæ?
What shou'd I say of him; who, having sown His Grain, with ceaseless Industry proceeds, And spreads abroad the Heaps of barren Sand?
[268] Quid, qui, ne gravidis procumbat culmus aristis, Luxuriem segetum tenera depascit in herba?
Or what of him; who, lest the Stalks, o'ercharg'd By the plump Ears, shou'd sink beneath their Weight, Crops their Luxuriance in the tender Blade?
And in another Place:
[269] Et quidam seros hyberni ad luminis ignes Invigilat, ferroque faces inspicat acuto; Aut dulcis musti Vulcano decoquit humorem, Et foliis undam trepidi despumat aheni.
One watches late by Light of Winter Fires; And with the sharpen'd Steel for Torches splits The spiky Wood.—— Or of sweet Must boils down the luscious Juice; And skims with Leaves the trembling Cauldron's Flood.