*This is usually rendered here Experientia, but I should rather take the word in its vulgar sense, for use and conveniency: for Virgil certainly means that man being left to himself, the necessaries of life forced him to rack his thoughts and industry to discover, by little and little, that variety of arts we have in the world. It may likewise signify-frequent trial, or experiments-for in that sense Virgil uses the same word, Georg. II. ver. 22. "Quos ipse viâ sibi repperit usus.” "Meditando, extunderet, paulatim :" Every word requires an emphasis. VER. 143. "Tum ferri rigor, atque argutae lamina serrae." * * How much more beautiful are these expressions than if he had said, "ferrum rigidum et arguta serra ?" "Prima Ceres ferro mortales vertere terram Lucan. Lib. VI. ver. 426. VER. 150-154. "Mox et frumentis labor additus: ut mala culmos "Esset robigo, segnisque *' horreret in arvis. "Carduus: intereunt segetes, subit aspera sylva, 66 Lappaeque ** tribulique. interque nitentia culta "Infelix lolium et stériles dominantur ** avenae.' *' Dr. Martyn well observes, that Horreret is very properly applied to the Thistle, which is horribly armed all over with prickles. His interpretation of segnis is not so easy. He ventures, he says, with Mr. Benson, to translate it lazy, believing Virgil called the Thistle lazy, because none but a lazy husband man would suffer so pernicious a weed to infest his corn. This is a new sort of metaphor I am not acquainted with.-May not segnis be put by way of apposition to horreret? a worthless good-for-nothing weed, looking fierce and making a terrible figure, is a good contrast. *Tribulus is a sort of thistle, so called probably anò τρiv Bohov: not that it has only three points, but which ever way it points, it shews three spears. In like manner as the Tribulus used in war, and described by Vegetius, lib. IV. c. xxiv. **It is a common opinion in Italy that the Loglio, (or Gioglio, as the country people usually call it,) if mixed with the corn in making bread, especially that sort which grows upon the mountains, will make people mad.-Quaer. If the like opinion might not have prevailed formerly, and occasion this epithet infelix?—* et + They are both like corn; which is the worse, because the Lolium, in particular, is of a malignant nature. The antients thought it bad for the eyes. "Et careant loliis oculos vitiantibus agri; "Nec sterilis culto surgat avena solo :' is part of Ovid's prayer, Fast. I. ver. 691. "Mirum est lolio victitare te tam vili tritico. "P. Quid jam? S. Quia luscitiosus. P. Aedepol tu quidem "Caecus, non luscitiosus." Plaut. Mil. Glor. The modern Italians have yet a worse notion of it. They say of a Melancolico, "A mangiato di pane con loglio.”. "Da questi mali effetti del loglio, abbiamo un proverbio che "dice, Io non dormo nel loglio: che significa, Io non son "malordo." Note on Malmantile Racquistato, Cant. VI. Stan. 25. 4 ** Pliny in his chapter," De vitiis frugum," says, " Primum "omnium frumenti vitium avena est, sicut ipsa frumenti sit "instar. Soli maximè coelique humore hoc evenit vitium." Hist. lib. XVIII. c. 17. VER. 160-166. "Dicendum et quae sint duris agrestibus arma: 66 * The common waggons in Italy, especially in Virgil's own country, are still very heavy and move slow. Virgil gives dignity to them, and makes them worthy a place in his poem, by making them sacred to Ceres, alluding to the waggons used at her solemn feasts at Eleusis. The verse is suitable to the pompous procession; and, as Mr. Pope finely observes, on a like occasion "The line too labours, and the words move slow." With such majesty Virgil speaks, when he only orders the husbandmen to provide harvest-carts! ** Pliny, reckoning up the different sorts of instruments made use of to rub out corn, mentions the Tribulum among others. "Messis alibi tribulis in areâ, alibi equarum gressibus "exteritur, alibi perticis flagellatur." Lib. XVIII. c. xxx. See Mons. Thevenot's account of the sledge, now made use of in Persia, for rubbing corn out of the ear, in his Voyages. See likewise a description and draught of the same in Paul Lucas's Journey from Constantinople to Adrianople, Tom. I. chap. xxiv. of his Second Voyage. 3 ** That the ancients commonly made use of rakes with iron teeth appears by a passage in Col. lib. II. c. xi.; where, giving instructions about the sowing Medica, he says: "Quod ubi "feceris, ligneis rastris, id enim multum confert, statim jacta "semina obruantur: nam celerrimè sole aduruntur. Post "sationem ferro tangi locus non debet. Atque, ut dixi, ligneis “rastris sarriendus, et identidem runcandus est.”—This repetition of a particular instruction about covering Medica with wooden rakes shews that iron ones were commonly used for covering other seed. *See the account of Celeus the father of Triptolemus, Ovid. Fast. iv. 507. * The persons, who were initiated into any of the antient mysteries, were to be particularly good: they looked upon themselves as separated from the vulgar of mankind; and as dedicated to a life of singular virtue and piety. This may be the reason that the Fan or Van (the Mystica Vannus Iacchi) was used in initiations: The instrument that separates the wheat from the chaff, being as proper an emblem as can well be, of setting apart the good and virtuous, from the wicked or useless part of mankind. In the drawings of the antient paintings by Bellori, there are two that seem to relate to initiations; and each of them has the Vannus in it. In one of them, the person that is initiating stands in a devout posture, and with a veil on, the old mark of devotion; while two, that were formerly initiated, hold the Van over his head. In the other, there is a person holding a Van, with a young infant in it. The latter may signify much the same with the Scripture-expression of entering into a state of virtue "as a little child," (Mark x. 15.) as the Van itself puts one in mind of another text, relating to a particular purity of life; and the separation of the Good from the Bad. "Whose Fan is in his hand, and he shall thoroughly 66 purge his floor; and will gather the Wheat into his garner, "but the Chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable." Luke iii. 17. VER. 169-174. "Continuo in sylvis magnâ vi flexa domatur "In burim, et curvi formam accipit ulmus *' aratri. * In the kingdom of Naples they sometimes call all the wood of the plough from the point of the handle to the share Ventale, by corruption from Dentale; but properly it is that part only to which the share is fixed. The share is called Gomere, and is made with two corners jutting out, and rising in the middle with a back called Schiena. The plough used in seed-time is made with two ears, or sideboards, called Orecchie, which are necessary to turn the earth over the seed when sown. ** Palladius [one of the old Writers on Agriculture], speaking of the instruments of husbandry, describes two sorts of ploughs, the Simplicia and Aurita, and tells us, that the use of the latter was to raise the ridge higher and make a deeper furrow, in order to throw off the water in a flat deep country. "Aratra Simplicia: vel, si plana regio permittit, Aurita, quibus possint contra Stationes humoris hyberni Sata cel66 siore sulco attolli." Lib. I. Tit. 43. **Stiva is rather a foot-board on which the Ploughmen in Italy, even at this day, usually stand to guide the plough. 'Tis probably so called à Stando.Vid. Columella, 1. I. c. ix. 2. "In re rusticâ nullo minus opere fatigatur prolixior, "quia in arando stivae pené rectus innititur." "Innixus stivae arator." Ovid. Met. 1. VIII. 44. Buris is that part of the plough which the ploughman holds. **Q. If this does not mean when the plough comes to the end of a furrow? for then the ploughman is chiefly employed, "torquere aratrum:" and then, in the kingdom of Naples, he twists the cord round a stick fixed to the handle, and sits upon it, in order the better to turn the plough. See Columella, "Magnâ vi domatur ulmus-Alta fagus caeditur-Currus "torqueat" are all expressions used to ennoble the description. This description of a plough, according to Servius's inter pretation of it, would not deserve great commendation, being, I think, if we believe his comment, very lame; for he makes the Poet omit entirely a principal part of the plough, which is the share, and describe another part twice, making Buris and Stiva to signify the same thing, viz., the crooked part of the plough, which is that which the ploughman holds. VER. 178-180. "Area 1 cum primis ingenti aequanda cylindro, * Varro gives the following instructions: "Aream esse oportet solidâ terrâ pavitam, maxime si est argilla, ne aestu "paeminosa, in rimis ejus grana oblitescant, et recipiant aquam, "et ostia aperiant muribus ac formicis." Lib. I. c. li. ** Fatiscere signifies sometimes to chop or cleave; and sometimes likewise to be fatigued, or worn out: in this place it may be understood in its largest sense, in both meanings. VER. 183. "Autoculis capti fodere cubilia talpae." + This was the vulgar opinion. Galen knew otherwise and the microscope has fully discovered it in our times. See Derham's Physico-Theol. p. 92. note (m). VER. 185. -"Populatque ingentem farris acervum 66 *Curculio." * The common people at Lyons use the name of Gourgillon for a small brown fly, in shape like a beetle, which is frequently found in beans: in the other parts of France, they call it Calendre; in English, Weevil.-Pliny calls this creature Gurgulionem, lib. XVIII. c. xxx. Q. If this worm is not so called from its shape being formed like the gullet, which the word signifies in its primary signification?-See the figure of it in Redi, Tab. xv. VER. 193-196. *"Semina vidi equidem multos medicare serentes, "Et nitro prius et nigrâ perfundere amurcâ; "Grandior ut foetus siliquis fallacibus esset, 2 "** Et quamvis igni exiguo properata maderent." *Though Virgil uses the general word Semina, yet by the reasons alleged," Grandior ut foetus," etc., he seems to mean Legumes only; and though Varro, lib. I c. lvii. says, |