"It's unlucky, they say, to stumble at the threshold: but what has a plenteous harvest to do here? Virgil would not pretend to prescribe rules for that which depends not on the husbandman's care, but the disposition of heaven altogether. Indeed, the plenteous crop depends somewhat on the good method of tillage; and where the _land'_s ill-manur'd, the corn, without a miracle, can be but indifferent; but the harvest may be good, which is its properest epithet, tho' the husbandman's skill were never so indifferent. The next sentence is too literal: and when to plough had been Virgil's meaning, and intelligible to every body; and when to sow the corn, is a needless addition.
Ver. 3.
"The care of sheep, of oxen, and of kine,
And when to geld the lambs, and shear the swine,
"would as well have fallen under the cura boum, qui cultus habendo sit pecori, as Mr. D.'s deduction of particulars.
Ver. 5
"The birth and genius of the frugal bee
I sing, Maecenas, and I sing to thee.
"But where did experientia ever signify birth andgenius? or what ground was there for such a figure in this place? How much more manly is Mr. Ogylby's version?
"What makes rich grounds, in what celestial signs
'Tis good to plough, and marry elms with vines:
What best fits cattle, what with sheep agrees,
And several arts improving frugal bees;
I sing, Maecenas.
"Which four lines, though faulty enough, are yet much more to the purpose than Mr. D.'s six.
Ver. 22.