eorgics, we may justly suppose that it was the same in the Aeneid. Yet,
after all this labour, he intended to devote three years entirely to its
farther amendment. Horace has gone so far in recommending careful
correction, that he figuratively mentions nine years as an adequate
period for that purpose. But whatever may be the time, there is no
precept which he urges either oftener or more forcibly, than a due
attention to this important subject.

(191) Saepe stylum vertas, iterum quae digna legi sint
Scripturus.--Sat. i. x.

Would you a reader's just esteem engage?
Correct with frequent care the blotted page.--Francis.

--------Vos, O
Pompilius sanguis, carmen reprehendite, quod non
Multa dies et multa litura coercuit, atque
Perfectum decies non castigavit ad uuguem.
De. Art. Poet.

Sons of Pompilius, with contempt receive,
Nor let the hardy poem hope to live,
Where time and full correction don't refine
The finished work, and polish every line.--Francis.

To the several causes above enumerated, as concurring to form the great
superiority of the Augustan age, as respects the productions of
literature, one more is to be subjoined, of a nature the most essential:
the liberal and unparalleled encouragement given to distinguished talents
by the emperor and his minister. This was a principle of the most
powerful energy: it fanned the flame of genius, invigorated every
exertion; and the poets who basked in the rays of imperial favour, and
the animating patronage of Mecaenas, experienced a poetic enthusiasm
which approached to real inspiration.

Having now finished the proposed explanation, relative to the celebrity
of the Augustan age, we shall conclude with recapitulating in a few words
the causes of this extraordinary occurrence.

The models, then, which the Romans derived from Grecian poetry, were the
finest productions of human genius; their incentives to emulation were
the strongest that could actuate the heart. With ardour, therefore, and
industry in composing, and with unwearied patience in polishing their
compositions, they attained to that glorious distinction in literature,
which no succeeding age has ever rivalled.

FOOTNOTES:

[106] A town in the ancient Volscian territory, now called Veletra. It
stands on the verge of the Pontine Marshes, on the road to Naples.

[107] T