And Horace acquaints us with the objects of curiosity and research, in the contemplation of which he envied his friend Iccius, who was occupied in that way, on his farm:—
“Quæ mare compescant causæ, quid temperet annum;
Stellæ sponte suâ, jussæne, vagentur et errant,
Quid premat obscurum Lunæ, quid proferat orbem.”[[38]]
Lib. i. epist. 12, ad Iccium.
Virgil seemed willing to renounce every other study, in order that he might devote himself to the wonders of astronomy. In the second book of his Georgics, he says:
“Me vero primum dulces ante omnia Musæ,
Quarum sacra fero, ingenti perculsus amore,
Accipiant; cælique vias et sidera monstrent,
Defectus Solis varius, Lunæque labores;