Virgil + 

Virgil, called also by his surname, Maro, from whose poem of the Aeneid we have taken the story of Aeneas, was one of the great poets who made the reign of the Roman emperor Augustus so celebrated, under the name of the Augustan age. Virgil was born in Mantua in the year 70 BC. His great poem is ranked next to those of Homer, in the highest class of poetical composition, the Epic. Virgil is far inferior to Homer in originality and invention, but superior to him in correctness and elegance. To critics of English lineage Milton alone of modern poets seems worthy to be classed with these illustrious ancients. His poem of Paradise Lost, from which we have borrowed so many illustrations, is in many respects equal, in some superior, to either of the great works of antiquity. The following epigram of Dryden characterizes the three poets with as much truth as it is usual to find in such pointed criticism: + 

“Three poets in three different ages born, + 

Greece, Italy, and England did adorn. + 

The first in loftiness of soul surpassed, + 

The next in majesty, in both the last. + 

The force of nature could no further go; + 

To make a third she joined the other two.” + 

From Cowper’s Table Talk: + 

“Ages elapsed ere Homer’s lamp appeared, + 

And ages ere the Mantuan swan was heard. + 

To carry nature lengths unknown before, + 

To give a Milton birth, asked ages more. + 

Thus genius rose and set at ordered times, + 

And shot a dayspring into distant climes, + 

Ennobling every region that he chose; + 

He sunk in Greece, in Italy he rose, + 

And, tedious years of Gothic darkness past, + 

Emerged all splendor in our isle at last. + 

Thus lovely Halcyons dive into the main, + 

Then show far off their shining plumes again.” + 