The Roman Poets of the Augustan Age: Virgil Part 14

Si non fecundas _vertentes_ vomere glebas _Terraique solum subigentes_ cimus ad ortus, _Sponte sua nequeant liquidas_ existere in auras.

Et tamen interdum _magno quaesita labore_ c.u.m iam per terras frondent atque omnia florent, Ant nimiis torret fervoribus aetherius sol Aut subiti perimunt imbris gelidaeque pruinae, Flabraque ventorum violento turbine vexant(313).

How deeply the thought expressed in these lines-the thought of the hard struggle which man is forced to carry on with an unsympathetic Power-sank into the mind of Virgil, is evident from the various pa.s.sages in the Georgics in which the phraseology as well as the idea expressed by Lucretius is reproduced. These lines in which the struggle between the 'vis humana' impersonated in the husbandman, and the resistance offered by Nature to his energetic labours, is vividly described, suggest whatever there is of speculative thought in the Georgics. And though it would be misleading to speak of that poem as, in any sense, a philosophical poem, yet, as in all other great works of genius, some theory of life-of man's relation to his circ.u.mstances and of his place, either in a spiritual or natural dispensation-pervades and gives its highest meaning to the didactic exposition.

Lucretius further regards this state of things, so far from being remediable by man, as necessarily becoming worse. Each new generation of husbandmen and vinedressers finds its burden heavier:-

Iamque caput qua.s.sans grandis suspirat arator Crebrius, inca.s.sum manuum cecidisse labores(314), etc.

The earth which, under the genial influence of sun and rain, produced fair crops without the labour of the ploughman and vinedresser(315), can now scarcely produce its fruits in sufficient quant.i.ty, though the strength of men and oxen is worn out by labouring on it(316). The cause of this decay in productiveness he attributes to the waste or dissipation of the elemental matter of our world, which has become much greater and more rapid than the supply of new materials. 'In the long warfare waged from infinite time'-

Ex infinito contractum tempore bellum-

the destructive forces are gaining the superiority over the restorative forces of Nature; and this process is hastening on the advent of that 'single day' which will overwhelm in ruin the whole framework of earth, sea, and sky(317).

What then under these irremediable conditions is it best for man to do?

Lucretius has no other answer to give him than to study the laws of Nature, so as to understand his position, and thus to limit his wants and reconcile himself to what he cannot alter. Yet in other pa.s.sages of the poem, which Virgil also remembered(318), he did recognise the fact that human skill and the knowledge acquired by observation had done much to enrich and beautify the earth:-

Inde aliam atque aliam culturam dulcis agelli Temptabant, fructusque feros mansuescere terram Cernebant indulgendo blandeque colendo(319).

But he seems to have no idea of further progress. Though he contemplates with imaginative sympathy the trials of the 'grandis arator' and the 'vetulae vitis sator,' he has no guidance to offer them. The lessons taught by Lucretius are not those of active energy, applicable to every condition of life, but the lessons of a resigned quietism and a contemplative energy, adapted only to men of leisure, enjoying ample resources for the gratification of their intellectual tastes.

That this opinion of the decay in the natural productiveness of the earth made a strong impression on the Roman mind may be inferred from the fact that Columella opens his treatise by arguing against it. And that the idea of the struggle with Nature was one familiar to the prose writers on such subjects appears from an expression in the first book of the same writer: 'that the land ought to be weaker than the husbandman, since he has to struggle with it.' Cicero too puts into Cato's mouth(320) the sentiment that the earth, if rightly dealt with, never refuses the 'imperium' of man. And this too is Virgil's doctrine: and it was to give that guidance which Lucretius, though he discerned the evil, did not supply, that the didactic directions of the Georgics were given.

The Lucretian idea of Nature, both in its philosophical and poetical significance, runs through the Georgics; but it is modified by other considerations, and it is rather latent than prominent in the poetry and in the practical teaching of the poem. The mind of Virgil is not possessed, as the mind of Lucretius was possessed, by the thought of the immensity of her sphere and the universality of her presence. He sees her presence in the familiar scenes and objects around him. The idea adds variety, grace, and liveliness to his description of every detail of rural industry. A sense of the ministering agency of Nature is a more pervading element in his poetry than that of her power and majesty. Objects are still regarded by him as separate and individual. The conceptions of Nature which created mythology contend in his mind with the half-apprehended conceptions of universal law and of the interdependence of phenomena on one another. Thus the poetical element in his descriptions of the life of plants and trees, or of the forces of flood and storm, does not spring from such deep sources in the imagination as the same element in the descriptions of the older poet. But neither is it limited to the perception of the 'outward shows' of things which gratify the eye, or the sounds which delight the ear. Even in the Eclogues the intuition into Nature is deeper than that. The study of Lucretius has enriched the Georgics with the most pervading charm of the poem-the sense of a secret, unceasing, tranquil power (like that ascribed by Wordsworth to May-

Thy help is with the weed that creeps Along the barest ground, etc.),

communicating to outward things the grace and tenderness of human sentiment, the variety and vivacity of human energy.

But the Lucretian conception of Nature in its relation to human wants has been greatly modified by the religious tendency of Virgil's thought, his respect for traditional opinion, his sense of man's dependence on a higher Spiritual Power. Nature he regards as no more independent in her sphere than man is in his. The laws and conditions imposed on her have been appointed with reference to the relation in which she stands to man. Where these conditions are unfavourable, they have been appointed to quicken man's faculties and force him into the ways of industry. Lucretius dwells on the fact that two-thirds of our globe are unsuited for human habitation, as disproving the opinion of a Divine creation of the world for the benefit of man(321): Virgil dwells on the fact that two temperate regions have been a.s.signed to weak mortals as a proof of Divine beneficence(322). Virgil also accepts the idea that the earth once was more productive than it is(323), but he accepts it in the spirit of Hesiod rather than of Lucretius. In the Golden Age, under Saturn, the earth bore all things spontaneously. It was Jove-or Providence-who imposed on man, and continues to impose on him, the necessity of labouring for his subsistence; and this he did, not, as Hesiod believed, in anger at the deceit of Prometheus, but as a discipline and incentive to exertion. The poetical references to the Saturnian Age and the subsequent reign of Jove need not imply a literal belief in the fables of mythology, any more than the allusion at Georg. i. 62 to the fable of Pyrrha and Deucalion implies the literal acceptance of the explanation there given of the existence of the present race of men. But as that allusion seems meant to convey the belief in a Divine creative act, so the former allusion seems to convey a belief in a Divine moral dispensation. The idea of Providential guidance, of a Supreme Father, wielding the forces of Nature, shaping the destinies of man, acting for the most part by regular processes in order that man may learn to understand his ways(324), but making his personal agency more manifest from time to time, as after the death of Caesar, by signs and wonders interrupting the order of Nature, supersedes or largely modifies the conception of natural law. The other powers of the Greek Olympus and of the Roman Pantheon are no longer, as the former are in the Iliad, at war with one another, but all work in harmony with the Supreme Will. Like the fables just referred to, the names of these deities seem to be introduced symbolically, to signify the different modes of activity of the one Supreme Spiritual Power, and the different forms under which he is to be reverenced.

The speculative idea of the Georgics is thus rather a theological than a philosophical idea. The ultimate fact which Virgil endeavours to set forth and justify is the relation of man to Nature, under a Divine dispensation.

He too, as well as Lucretius, recognises the tendency of all things to degenerate; but this tendency he attributes, not to natural loss of force, but to the fiat of Omnipotence-

sic omnia fatis In peius ruere.

He too recognises the liability to failure and loss from causes over which man has no direct control,-the violence of storms, the inclemency of seasons, etc.,-as well as from others which he is able to provide against by constant vigilance. What resource has he against these untoward conditions? First he is bound to watch the signs of impending change which Providence has appointed, so as to leave as little as possible at the mercy of the elements. Next he has the resource of prayer, and the power of propitiating Heaven by customary rites and sacrifices, and by a life of piety and innocence. The ethical precepts of the poem, as is said by a distinguished French writer, may be summed up in the medieval maxim, 'Laborare est orare(325).'

To inculcate the necessity of a constant struggle with the reluctant forces of Nature, and to show how this struggle may be successfully conducted by incessant labour, vigilance, propitiation of the Supreme Will by prayer and piety, thus appears to be the main ethical teaching of the Georgics. And this statement of Virgil's aim is not inconsistent with the interpretation of his meaning, first suggested by Mr. Merivale, and accepted and admirably ill.u.s.trated by Conington. But the phrase 'glorification of labour' suggests modern rather than ancient a.s.sociations. Labour is not glorified as an end in itself; it is inculcated as a duty, as the condition appointed by Providence for attaining the peace, abundance, happiness, and worth of the life of the fields. As of old

??? ??et?? ?d??ta ?e?? p??p?????e? ????a?,

so now they make the sweat of man's brow the means through which the 'divini gloria ruris' can be realised. By the labour spent in drawing into actual existence the glory and beauty of the land man best fulfils his duty and secures his happiness. There is no truer source for him of material and moral good, of simple pleasures, of contemplative delight.

Yet if we wish rightly to appreciate the purely didactic parts of the poem, it is impossible, as has been fully shown by Conington in his General Introduction to the Georgics, to overrate the stress which Virgil puts on the ceaseless industry, foresight, vigilance, and actual force(326) which must be put forth by the husbandman, as the condition of success in the struggle in which he is engaged. The very style of the Georgics bears the impress of this predominant idea. It is this idea which seems to give Roman strength to the workmanship of the poem; as it is the sense of the rich and tender life of Nature which gives to it the softness of Italian sentiment, so marvellously blended with that Roman strength.

The imperial tone of conquest and command and civilising influence makes itself heard in such lines as these:-

Exercetque frequens tellurem atque imperat arvis.

Tum denique dura Exerce imperia et ramos compesce fluentes.

In quasc.u.mque voces artes haud tarda sequentur(327).

This idea of the need of a struggle with Nature, latent under all the special precepts of the Georgics, is thus seen to arise out of the philosophical thought of Lucretius. But the lesson inculcated by Virgil is directly opposite to that state of quietism and pure contemplation in which Lucretius finds the ideal of human life. Virgil's teaching is that best adapted to the strenuous temperament of his countrymen and to the general condition of men in all times. And it will be found that this idea of a hard struggle, ordained by Supreme Power, against adverse circ.u.mstances, in which man receives Divine guidance by prayer and patient interpretation of the will of Heaven, and through which he attains to a state of final rest, runs through the Aeneid as well as the Georgics.

Virgil reaches a practical result opposed to that which Lucretius reaches, by subordinating the Lucretian conception of man's relation to Nature to the Platonic belief in the supremacy of a Spiritual Will and in the moral dispensation under which man is placed. It is this belief which appears to underlie Virgil's acceptance of the religious traditions of antiquity, which might have been expected to have received, for all educated minds, their death-blow at the hands of Lucretius.

The science of Lucretius, as distinct from his philosophy of Nature and human life, is also partly accepted by Virgil, and partly rejected in favour of the tenets of an opposite school. In such pa.s.sages as i. 8990,

Seu pluris calor ille vias et caeca relaxat Spiramenta, novas veniat qua sucus in herbas(328), etc.,

i. 415423,

Haud equidem credo, etc.,

iii. 242,

Omne adeo genus in terris hominumque ferarumque, etc.,

we recognise the Lucretian explanation of the const.i.tution of the earth, of the material elements of the mind, of the physical influence of love.

Other pa.s.sages again, such as i. 247, etc.,

Illic ut perhibent aut intempesta silet nox,

and iv. 219227,

His quidam signis, etc.,

are in harmony with the Stoical doctrines and in direct opposition to the Epicurean science. Some of these apparent inconsistencies of opinion may be explained on the supposition that Virgil changed his allegiance from one school to another during the composition of the Georgics. But probably the truer explanation is that he was

Nullius addictus iurare in verba magistri(329),

and that he accepted certain results of science which impressed his imagination, without caring for their consistency with others which he equally accepts. There is a constant tendency in him to allow his belief in the miraculous to interfere with his belief in natural law; as for instance in the account he gives of the birth of bees (iv. 200), and again of their spontaneous generation from the blood of slain bullocks (iv.

285). He has not the firm faith in natural agency which Lucretius had.

Phenomena are still regarded by him as isolated, not interdependent. The ordinary course of Nature he supposes to be interrupted by marvels and portents. The signs of coming things are represented, not as Lucretius would have represented them, as natural antecedents or concomitants of the things portended, but as arbitrary indications appointed for the guidance of man.

III.

For the technical execution of his poem Virgil could gain little help from his Greek models. The ma.s.s of materials which he had to reduce to order was much larger and more miscellaneous than the special topics selected for their art by the Alexandrians. The subject treated in the Georgics would have afforded scope for several poems treated on the principle on which Aratus and Nicander treated their subjects; and not only was the ma.s.s of materials larger and more varied, but the whole purpose of the Georgics was more complex. Virgil's artistic aim was not only to combine into one work the topics which he treats successively in the four books of the Georgics, but to interweave with them the poetry of personal and national feeling, of speculative ideas, of ethical and religious teaching, of science, of the living world of Nature. In Lucretius, on the other hand, he found an example of the systematic treatment of a vaster range of topics,-a range so vast, indeed, that the princ.i.p.al topics of Virgil's art enter as subsidiary elements into one part of his representation.

Lucretius too had shown how to combine with the systematic exposition of his abstract theme a strong personal interest and a strong ethical purpose. He had shown how, out of the treatment of this abstract theme, opportunities naturally arose for uttering the poetry and pathos of human life, and for delineating in all its beauty and majesty the outward face and revealing the inner secret of Nature. He thus supplied the general plan which Virgil might follow, with modifications suited to his narrower range of subject and his more purely didactic office. We see how Virgil adopts this plan, modified to suit his own ideas, in the personal dedication; in the Invocation and short introduction to his various books; in his manner of arranging, connecting, and ill.u.s.trating the successive stages of his exposition; and, lastly, in the use which he makes of episodes, chiefly at the end of various books, with the view of enabling his readers to feel the intimate connexion of his subject with the most valued interests of life,-with religion and morality, with family affection, with peace, prosperity, and national greatness.

The first parallel to be noticed, in the comparison between the two poems, is in the personal address. Maecenas stands in the same relation to the Georgics as Memmius does to the 'De Rerum Natura.' But as Memmius in the body of the poem is often merged in the ideal philosophical student, so Virgil, after the lines of compliment at the opening of his various books, for the most part directs his instructions to some imaginary husbandman.

In the tones in which Memmius and Maecenas are respectively addressed there may be an equal sincerity of feeling. But a difference in the relation in which the poets stand to those whom they address makes itself felt in the contrast between such lines as these,

Sed tua me virtus tamen et sperata voluptas Suavis amicitiae,

and

O decus, O famae merito pars maxima nostrae(330).