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"autem veris principium non sic observare rusticus debet quemadmodum astrologus, ut expectet certum diem illum qui "veris initium facere dicitur: sed aliquid etiam sumat de parte hyemis, quoniam consumptâ brumâ jam intepescit annus, permittitque clementior dies opera moliri."-Virgil likewise more fully declares this to be his meaning in a few verses after, where he specifies the time for ploughing different sorts of land. Ergo age, terrae

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Pingue solum primis extemplo à mensibus anni."

Ver. 64. etc.

The "primus mensis" was January. So Columella in the same place, "Possit igitur rusticus ab idibus Januariis (ut "principem mensem Romani anni observet) auspicari culturarum "officia."-And again a little after," Ab Idibus Januariis "siccos et pingues agros tempestivum est proscindere; nam et ❝uliginosi et mediocris habitus sub aestate vereve agendi sunt." VER. 47-49.

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"Illa seges demum votis respondit avari

Agricolæ, bis quæ solem, bis frigora * sensit: "Illius immensae ruperunt horrea messes.”

Of this passage Pliny thus says. "Quarto seri sulco Virgilius existimatur voluisse, cum dixit optimam esse sege"tem, quae bis solem, bis frigora sensisset." L. XVIII. c. xx. Columella frequently uses "secundo, tertio, quarto sulco," for so many times ploughing, or turning up the ground; particularly lib. II. c. xiii. he says, Semina, quae quarto sulco "seruntur, in jugeribus viginti quinque desiderant bubulcorum operas cxv. nam proscinditur is agri modus quamvis durissimi quinquaginta operis, iteratur quinque et viginti, tertiatur et "conseritur XL. where manifestly the sowing is the fourth

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Sulcus.

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In Virgil's rule, "Bis quae solem," etc. not only direction is given for ploughing four times, but the reason included for so doing; that both heat and cold mellow the ground. Virgil in other places hints at the same effects of heat and cold.

In the second Georgic, speaking of planting young vines,

he says,

And,

And,

"Excoquere."

"Terram multo ante memento

Ver. 260.

"Ante supinatas aquiloni ostendere glebas."-Ib. 261.

"Optima putri

"Arva solo, id venti curant gelidaeque pruinae, Ib. 263.

Columella expressly ascribes this virtue to the sun and frost. L. V. c. ix. where, giving instruction about planting olives, he says, "Ipsis scrobes praeparantur anno ante; vel, si tempus non "largitur, priusquam deponantur arbores, stramentis incendan"tur scrobes, ut eos ignes putres faciat, quos sol et pruina "facere debuerat."

Varro having given directions, lib. I. c. xxx. for the early plowings in the Spring, that is, in cold weather, tells us, c. xxxv. Quid inter solstitium et caniculam faciendum sit." And expressly orders at that time; " Arationes absolvere; quae eò "fructuosiores fiunt, quo calidiore terrâ aratur."-And then adds, "Cum proscideris offringi oportet, id est, iterare ut fran"gantur glebae." As he had before directed in the very same words for the early plowing; so that he must mean two summer plowings, as well as two winter or spring.

Pliny speaks of deep stiff land at his Tusculanum, which required nine times plowing. Lib. V. epist. vi.

VER. 50-53.

"At prius ignotum ferro quàm ** scindimus aequor, "Ventos et varium coeli praediscere morem "Cura sit, ac patrios cultusque habitusque locorum: "Et quid quaeque ferat regio, et quid quaeque recuset."

*' Varro, lib. I. c. v. treating of the parts of agriculture, says, "Agriculturae quatuor sunt partes summae: è queis prima "cognitio fundi, solum, partesque ejus quales sint. Secunda, 66 quae in eo fundo opus sunt ac debeant esse culturae causâ. "Tertia, quae in eo praedio colendi causâ sint facienda. "Quarta, quo quicquam tempore in eo fundo fieri conveniat." These four heads he subdivides into more. Virgil observes the same method very artfully.

* This was the proper term for breaking up ground, as appears from Varro. Terram cum primùm arant, proscindere "appellant." Lib. I. c. xxix.

*Columella, citing this passage of Virgil, says, "Verissimo "vati velut oraculo crediderimus." Lib. I. c. iv.

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VER. 56-59.

"Nonne vides, croceos ut Tmolus odores,

"India mittit ebur, molles sua *' thura Sabaei ?
"At Chalybes *3 nudi ferrum, virosaque Pontus.
"Castorea **."-

"Sabaei propter maximam fructuum copiam otiosi socordesque vivunt." Strabo, 1. XVI. p. 778.

Pliny gives a long and very particular account of the tree which produces Thus, lib. XII. c. xiv.

**Chalybes nudi," in opposition to the "molles Sabaei." The Vulcans are represented naked by the painters and statuaries, as well as by the poets.

A strong medicine; and, in particular, a strong soporific: so Lucretius;

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Castoreoque gravi mulier sopita recumbit."

Lib. vi. ver. 794.

It is still much used in medicines; and especially in nervous cases and as the Romans had it from Pontus, we now have our best from Muscovy, and the most northern countries.

VER. 63-70.

"Terrae

"Pingue ** solum primis extemplo a mensibus anni
"Fortes invertant tauri: glebasque jacentes
"Pulverulenta coquat maturis * solibus aestas.
"At si non fuerit tellus foecunda, sub ipsum
"Arcturum tenui sat erit suspendere sulco:
"Illic officiant laetis ne frugibus herbae;

"Hic sterilem exiguus ne deserat humor arenam.'

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*Columella giving directions" quo tempore campi arandi "sunt," lays down this rule:-" Colles pinguis soli, peractâ "satione trimestri, mense Martio, si vero tepor coeli, siccitasque "regionis suadebit, Februario statim proscindendi sunt. Deinde "de Aprili medio usque in solstitium iterandi tertiandique." Lib. II. c. iv.-And afterwards at the end of the chapter, gives the same instruction about ploughing poor land, and that for the same reason as Virgil. "Graciles clivi non sunt aestate arandi, sed circa Septembris calendas, quoniam si ante hoc tempus proscinditur effoeta & sine succo humus, aestivo sole peruritur, "nullasque virium reliquias habet. Itaque optimè inter Ca"lendas et Idus Septembris aratur, ac subinde iteratur, ut primis pluviis aequinoctialibus conseri possit."

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*The word Maturus denotes ripeness and perfection, as a man is said to be Maturus when he is come to his full vigour; and so the sun may be very properly said to be, in the midst of Summer, when he goeth forth in his strength. Petronius, who frequently imitates Virgil in his poem on the Civil War, expresses the same thought by a synonymous term, when speaking of the snow on the Alpes not being melted by the greatest heats, he says;

"Mansuescit radiis."

"Non solis adulti

The rendering Maturus by Maturantibus (as Ruaeus dões) quite loses the beauty of this thought.

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*Columella says, "Macerrimi et aridi agri post aestatem, primo Autumno, arandi et subinde conserendi." Lib. XI. c. 2. VER. 71–78.

"Alternis idem tonsas cessare novales,
"Et segnem patiere situ durescere campum.
"Aut ibi flava seres mutato *1 sidere *2 farra;
"Unde prius * laetum siliquâ quassante legumen,
"Aut tenues foetus viciae, tristisque ** lupini
"Sustuleris fragiles calamos, sylvamque sonantem.
"Urit enim lini campum seges, urit avenae:
"Urunt Lethaeo perfusa papavera somno."

*This may possibly mean, "post alterum mensem," ac cording to the manner of cultivating in the Campania of Naples, where they give their land very little rest."-Columella observes; Viciam fabam, et lupinum, novissimis temporibus, post coactos alios fructus tolli posse." Lib. XI. c. ii.—If we understand "mutato sidere," as Ruaeus does ;—" converso anno," then the land must lie fallow for a year, and this rule differs little from the former, "alternis cessare." Whereas Virgil seems to mean that, in case the farmer cannot afford to let his ground lie fallow, then he must sow it with such seed as manures the land; or if he is tempted, or has occasion to sow flax, &c., he must well dung his land; and then concludes, that such change of seed is in some measure equivalent to letting the land rest:

"Sic quoque requiescunt."

and,

The word Sidus cannot properly be applied to the sun, therefore, cannot be used to signify a year. But it means either a sign in the zodiac or some other constellation, and in that sense Virgil often uses it to signify a month or part of the year. As Aen. IV. 309. " Hyberno sidere."-And in the first verse of the Georgics,

"Quo sidere terram vertere."

If it be objected, that a month is too little time from reaping Lupins, etc., to the sowing of corn; we may be justified by the expression, "mutato sidere," to allow near two months (viz.) from the sun's entering one sign to his near leaving the next. And this time may be sufficient, and, I believe, is agreeable to the present practice in Italy, especially near Naples.

**The white wheat is called Carosella." Granum rutilum si, "cum diffissum est, eundem colorem interiorem habet, integrum 66 esse non dubitamus. Quod extrinsecus albidum, intus etiam conspicitur candidum, leve ac vanum intelligi debet. Nec nos tanquam optabilis agricolis fallat siligo (the whiteness of

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"the bran); nam hoc tritici vitium est; et quamvis candore "praestet, pondere tamen vincitur." Col. Lib. II. c. ix. * Columella 66 says, Lupinus maximè ex iis quae seruntur, juvat arvum."-And again; "Sunt etiam qui putent fabam "vice stercoris fungi; quod sic ego interpretor, ut existimem "non sationibus ejus pinguescere humum, sed minus hanc quàm "caetera semina vim terrae consumere. Nam certum habeo "frumentis utiliorem agrum esse, qui nihil, quam qui istam "siliquam proximo anno tulerit." Lib. II. c. x.

Legumen is a general word, but in this place, as is evident from what follows, one kind only is meant, that is, the Faba, as chief of the Legumes. So Pliny:

"Sequitur natura leguminum inter quae maximus honos "fabae." Lib. XVIII. c. xii.-" Laetum," because (as Pliny says in the same place) "faba solum, in quo sata est, laetificat "stercoris vice.". -And that we are to understand the Faba here by Legumen, is clear from another passage in Pliny:

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"Virgilius alternis cessare arva suadet, et hoc, si patiantur ruris spatia, utilissimum proculdubio est. Quod si neget conditio, "far serendum, unde et lupinum, et aut vicia, aut faba sublata "sint, et quae terram faciant laetiorem." Lib. XVIII. c. xxi. -Also in another place: "Segetem stercorant fruges lupinum, "faba, vicia." Lib. XVII. c. ix.

**Lupinum ab omnibus animalibus amaritudine suâ tutum." Plin. Lib. XVIII. c. xiv.

* The Tristis Lupinus is not our Lupin; but that seed, which they lay a-soak so long in water (to get rid of its bitterness,) and even sell it so in the streets in Italy. It is but a very insipid thing, at best. The Faselus of the Romans is our Lupin.

**Lupins were used to be sown (as they are still) for three different purposes, either to ripen for seed; or to feed cattle, when green; or to manure land by ploughing them in before they were ripe. Virgil must necessarily in this place, according to the thread of his discourse, mean the first sort, i. e. Lupins, which grew to be ripe. And therefore the word "sustuleris" is here very expressive; "fragiles calami," and "sylva sonans" denote likewise and enforce this meaning. Varro, Lib. I. c. xxiii. speaks of Lupins sown purposely to manure poor ground. Quaedam etiam serenda, non tam propter praesentem fructum, quam in annum prospicientem, quod ibi subsecta atque relicta "terram faciunt meliorem. Itaque lupinum, cum necdum "siliculam cepit, et nonnunquam fabam, si ad siliquas non ita pervenit, ut fabam legere expediat, si ager macrior est, pro "stercore inarare solent.

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*Our farmers, in many places, use a like term. thing is blighted, they say, It is scorched.

When any

The Poet does not hereby prohibit the sowing of flax and

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