Sometimes he foretels the ill Consequences of a contrary Practice:
[270] Quod nisi & assiduis terram insectabere rastris, Et sonitu terrebis aves, & ruris opaci Falce premes umbras, votisque vocaveris imbrem; Heu! magnum alterius frustra spectabis acervum, Concussaque famem in silvis solabere quercu.
Unless then with assiduous Rakes thou work The Ground, and chase the Birds with scaring Noise; And with the crooked Pruner lop the Shades Of spreading Trees, and pray to Heav'n for Show'rs, Another's Store, in vain, alas! admir'd, Thou shalt behold, and from a shaken Oak Thy hungry Appetite in Woods relieve.
Or he describes the ill Effects he has observ'd to attend it:
[271] Semina vidi equidem multos medicare serentes, Et nitro prius, & nigra perfundere amurca, &c. Vidi lecta diu, & multo spectata labore, Degenerare tamen.
Many I've known to medicate their Seed, In Nitre steep'd, and the black Lees of Oil; And tho' o'er mod'rate Fire Moist, and precipitated, and with Pain Long try'd, and chosen, oft they have been prov'd Degen'rate.
By this agreeable Variety the Reader's Attention is wonderfully awaken'd, tho' he sees not the Reason of it; and the Poet's Art is the more to be admir'd, because it escapes Observation.
But the greatest Ornaments of this sort of Poems, are the frequent Excursions into some more noble Subject, which seem'd naturally to arise out of that the Poet is treating of. Sometimes, for Instance, he runs back into History and Antiquity, or, perhaps, the very Origine of Things:
[272] Ante Jovem nulli subigebant arva coloni, &c.