and inspired the English poet in his great invocation:—
I thence
Invoke thy aid to my adventurous song,
That with no middle flight intends to soar
Above the Aonian mount, while it pursues
Things unattempted yet in prose and rhyme.
The sense of difficulty and the joy of overcoming it meet us with a keen bracing effect in many passages of the poem. He speaks disdainfully of those enquirers who fall into error by shrinking from the more adventurous paths that lead to truth—
Ardua dum metuunt amittunt vera viai.
Without disowning the passion for fame,—'laudis spes magna,'—so powerful an incentive to the Roman temperament, he is more inspired or supported in his arduous task by 'the sweet love of the Muses.' The delight in the exercise of his art and the joyful energy sustained through the long processes of gathering and arranging his materials appear in such passages as iii. 419-20:—
Conquisita diu dulcique reperta labore