NORTH.
"In that fine passage in the Second Book of the Georgics," says Mr Alison, "in which Virgil celebrates the praises of his native country, after these fine lines—
'Hic ver assiduum, atque alienis mensibus æstas;
Bis gravidæ pecudes, bis pomis utilis arbos.
At rabidæ tigres absunt, et sæva leonum
Semina: nec miseros fallunt aconita legentes:
Nec rapit immensos orbes per humum, neque tanto
Squameus in spiram tractu se colligit anguis.'
There is no reader whose enthusiasm is not checked by the cold and prosaic line which follows,—
'Adde tot egregias urbes, operumque laborem.'
The tameness and vulgarity of the transition dissipates at once the emotion we had shared with the Poet, and reduces him, in our opinion, to the level of a mere describer."
SEWARD.
Cold and prosaic line! Tameness and vulgarity! I am struck mute.
NORTH.