Dam. And the same Alci. medon has made two cups for me,

66

quibus Eudoxus, Platonis audiItor, in astrologia, judicio doctis"simorum hominum, facile princeps, sic opinatur, id quod scrip"tum reliquit, Chaldæis in præ"dictione, et in notatione cujusque "vitæ ex natali die, minime esse "credendum." Thus Eudoxus may possibly be the person intended; though it is much to be doubted, because we do not hear that he ever wrote concerning agriculture. Hesiod seems to have a much better claim to the honour of being engraven on our cup. He was born at Ascra in Boeotia, and is thought by some to have been older than Homer; others make him his contemporary; and others place him after the age of that great poet. But, if we may believe himself, he was at least contemporary with Homer; for he has told us, that he lived in the age succeeding the heroes who warred at Troy, and at the same time measures an age by the life of man. His poem concerning the times and seasons for agriculture is sufficiently known; and Pliny tells us, that he was the first who wrote on that subject; "Hesiodus, qui princeps omnium "de agricultura præcepit." Our poet also himself professes to write in imitation of this author;

Ascræumque cano Romana per oppida

carmen.

Anaximander, according to Diogenes Laërtius, was a philosopher of Miletus, and flourished under Polycrates, the tyrant of Samos. He was the first inventor of the sundial, and geographical maps, and constructed a sphere. But it does not appear that he wrote any thing for the service of husbandmen. Ar

chimedes was a famous mathematician of Syracuse, a relation and friend of Hiero, king of that city. He has been celebrated by all historians, for the wonderful effect of his engines in defending that town against the Romans. Marcellus, who laid close siege to the place, caused some of the gallies to be fastened together, and towers to be erected on them, to drive the defendants from the wall. Against these Archimedes contrived engines, which threw heavy stones and great pieces of timber upon those which lay at a distance, by which means some of the gallies were broken in pieces. As for those which lay nearer, some were taken hold of by great grappling-irons, which lifted them up, shook out the men, and then threw them down again into the water: others were lifted up into the air, and dashed to pieces against the walls, or thrown upon the rocks.

In like manner was the army overwhelmed with showers of stones and timber; so that Marcellus was forced to lay aside the assault, but after some time the city was taken by surprise, and Archimedes was killed by a soldier, who did not know him, to the great grief of the Roman general, who made use of all possible means to preserve him. He is said also to have contrived a glass sphere, wherein the motions of the heavenly bodies were shewn. Claudian has celebrated it in the following epigram;

Jupiter in parvo cum cerneret æthera vitro,

Risit, et ad superos talia dicta dedit Huccine mortalis progressa potentia curæ ?

Jam meus in fragili luditur orbe labor.

soft acanthus,

Gaudet, et humana sidera mente regit. Quid falso insontem tonitru Salmonea miror?

Emula naturæ parva reperta manus. When in a glass's narrow space confin'd Jove saw the fabric of th' Almighty mind, He smil'd, and said, Can mortal's art alone Our heav'nly labours mimic with their Own?

The Syracusian's brittle world contains Th' eternal law, which through all nature reigns.

Fram'd by his art see stars unnumber'd burn,

And in their courses rolling orbs return. His sun through various signs describes the year,

And ev'ry month his mimic moons appear.

Our rival's laws his little planets bind,
And rule their motions with a human
mind,

Salmoneus could our thunder imitate,
But Archimedes can a world create.

We may observe from what has been said concerning the most justly celebrated mathematician, and from the whole tenor of his writings, that his genius led him almost entirely to mechanics. I do not remember the least hint in any author, of his having applied his knowledge in astronomy to agriculture. Therefore I cannot think his being the friend or disciple of Conon, is a sufficient reason to suppose him to be the person intended. It seems more probable, that those are in the right, who assign the place to Aratus. He was born at Soli or Solæ, a city in Cilicia, and flourished in the reign of Ptolemy Phi

ladelphus, king of Egypt, and Antigonus Gonatas, king of Macedon. He was pursuing his studies at Athens, when Antigonus sent for him. He was present at the marriage of that monarch, with Phila the daughter of Antipater, was much esteemed by them, and lived at their court till the time of his death. His Φαινομένα, a poem, which is still extant, has been famous through all ages. We may conclude, that it was of great authority among the Greeks, from St. Paul's quoting part of a verse from this poem, in his oration to the Athenians;

Τοῦ γὰρ καὶ γένος ἐσμέν.

For we are also his offspring.

Cicero indeed seems to say, in his first book de Oratore, that Aratus was ignorant in astronomy; but at the same time he allows, that he treated of that subject excellently in verse; "Si constat inter doctos, "hominem ignarum astrologia, or"natissimis atque optimis versibus, "Aratum de cælo stellisque dixisse." Nay he himself translated Aratus into Latin verse. He was translated also into Latin by Germanicus Cæsar, and Avienus, and the number of his scholiasts and commentators is very great. Even Virgil himself has translated several lines from this Greek poet, and inserted them in his Georgicks, as may be seen in the notes on that part of our author's works. Now, as Aratus has described the several constellations in his poem, with the prognostics of the weather, he answers exactly to the character, which the shepherd gives of the philosopher, whose name he had forgotten. As he was an author admired by the greatest per

and placed Orpheus in the

lowing him.

sons, and as he was thought worthy of imitation by our poet himself, it is most probable, that he was the person intended in the passage now under consideration.

41. Radio.] The radius is a staff or rod, used by the ancient mathematicians in describing the various parts of the heavens and earth, and in drawing figures in sand. It is mentioned again in the sixth Eneid, in that beautiful passage, where the poet speaks of the arts in which other nations excel the Romans;

Excudent alii spirantia mollius æra,
Credo equidem: vivos ducent de mar
more vultus;

Orabunt causas melius; cælique meatus
Describent radio, et surgentia sidera dicent.

Totum .... orbem.] He means the whole system of heavenly bodies. Aratus has particularly described the several constellations.

42. Tempora quæ messor, &c.] Aratus is very particular in describing the seasons, and signs of the weather.

43. Nec dum illis, &c.] The commendation of a cup, drawn from its having never been used, is to be found in the sixteenth Iliad;

Ἔνθα δὲ οἱ δέπας ἔσκε τετυγμένον οὐδὲ τὶς ἄλλος

Οὐτ ̓ ἀνδρῶν πίνεσκεν ἀπ' αὐτοῦ αἴθοπα οἶνον.

From thence he took a bowl of antique

POPE.

moetas, unwilling to allow any superiority to his adversary, or to give him any opportunity of evading the contest, accepts his offer, and agrees to stake two other cups, made by the same workman, which he describes with equal beauty; but insists upon it, that they are not equal in value to the heifer, which he had offered at first.

Idem Alcimedon duo pocula fecit.] Here Damotas preserves his equality: he offers two cups, as well as Menalcas; and they are both made by the hand of the same famous workman.

45. Et molli circum, &c.] Thus also Theocritus,

Παντᾶ δ ̓ ἀμφὶ δέπας περιπέπταται ὑγρὸς ἄκανθος.

Molli... acantho.] The acanthus is spoken of at large, in the note on ver. 123. of the third Georgick. But it may not be amiss to say something in this place, concerning the epithet vygos, which Theocritus bestows on the acanthus, and Virgil renders mollis. It properly signifies moist or liquid, which cannot be the sense in this place: but it is also used figuratively by the Greeks, to express soft or bending, in which sense the yes of Theocritus, and the mollis of Virgil is here to be understood. The younger Pliny, in the description of his garden, has an expression very much to this purpose; "Acanthus in plano mollis, et, pene "dixerim, liquidus." And a little

"Post has acanthus "hinc inde lubricus et flexuosus."

κεῖται

Ἄχραντον.

Greeks and Romans were inclinable to use fluid, soft, and bending, in the

same sense.

46. Orphea.] See the note on ver. 454. of the fourth Georgick.

Fierce tygers couch'd around, and loll'd their fawning tongues.

Thus also Horace;

DRYDEN.

O'er Helicon's resounding grove,
O'er Pindus, or cold Hamus' hill;
Whence list'ning woods did gladly move
And throng'd to hear sweet Orpheus'
wond'rous quill.

He, by his mother's art, could bind
The headlong fury of the floods;
Allay rough storms, appease the wind,
And loose from their fix'd roots the danc-
ing woods.
CREECH.

Ovid enumerates the several trees, which being moved by the music of Orpheus, came and formed a shady grove about that divine musician.

Collis erat, collumque super planissima campi

Area quam viridem faciebant graminis herbæ.

Umbra loco deerat. Qua postquam parte resedit

Nor have I yet put my lips to them, but keep them laid up.

Diis genitus vates, et fila sonantia movit; Umbra loco venit. Non Chaonis abfuit arbos,

Non nemus Heliadum, non frondibus esculus altis,

Nec tiliæ molles, nec fagus, et innuba Laurus.

Et Coryli fragiles, et fraxinus utilis hastis, Enodisque abies, curvataque glandibus

ilex,

Et platanus genialis, acerque coloribus impar,

Amnicolæque simul salices, et aquatica lotos,

Perpetuoque virens buxus, tenuesque myricæ,

Et bicolor myrtus, et baccis cærula tinus:

Vos quoque flexipedes hederæ venistis,

et una

Pampineæ vites, et amictæ vitibus ulmi: Ornique, et piceæ, pomoque onerata ru

benti

Arbutus, et lentæ victoris præmia palmæ : Et succincta comas, hirsutaque vertice pinus;

Grata Deum matri.

Adfuit huic turbæ metas imitata cupressus.

A hill there was; a plaine upon that hill; Which in a flowrie mantle flourisht still: Yet wanted shade. Which, when the God's descent

Sate downe, and toucht his well tun'd instrument,

A shade receiv'd. Nor trees of Chaony, The poplar, various oaks that pierce the sky,

Soft linden, smooth-rinde beech, unmarried bayes,

The brittle hasel, ash, whose speares we prayse,

Unknottie firre, the solace shading planes, Rough chesnuts, maple flect with different granes,

Streame-bordering willow, lotus loving lakes,

Tough boxe whom never sappie spring for

sakes;

The slender tamarisk, with trees that beare, A purple figge, nor myrtles absent were. The wanton ivy wreath'd in amorous twines,

Vines bearing grapes, and elmes supporting vines,

Straight service trees, trees dropping pitch, fruit red

cups are of small value.

Men. You shall not get off to-day: I will engage with you on your own terms. Do but let him be judge, who is coming along; oh! it is Palæmon.

To rapture, 'till the savage clamour
drown'd

Both harp and voice; nor could the
muse defend
Her son.

Heinsius found sequaces instead of sequentes, in one of his manuscripts; but sequentes is certainly better, which represents the trees in the very action of following Orpheus.

47. Necdum illis, &c.] Here Damotas repeats the very words of Menalcas, that he may not allow him any superiority.

48. Si ad vitulam species, &c.] In this line Damotas answers that of Menalcas,

Verum id quod multo tute ipse fatebere majus.

Menalcas had affirmed that his cups were of far greater value, than the cow which his adversary had offered. Here Damotas answers, that he would stake two cups, in no degree inferior to his; but at the same time declares, that they are far inferior in value to the cow, which he offered at first.

Spectes..

laudes.] Pierius found spectas and laudas, in the Lombard manuscript, and spectas in the Medicean.

49. Nunquam hodie effugies, &c.] Damotas had first provoked Menalcas to a trial of skill: but now Menalcas challenges him; and that he may not get off, accepts of the wager, on his own terms; appeals to a neighbour, who happened to pass by, and proposes him for judge of the controversy between them.

We must observe, that Damætas had closed his speech with a contempt of the cups which Menalcas had offered, affirming, that they were by no means to be put in competition with a good cow. Menalcas answers briskly, that this shall not serve him for an excuse; though his father, and particularly his stepmother, would require an

for

exact account of all the cattle from his hands; yet he was so sure of victory, that he would venture a good cow, that Damotas might have no pretence to decline the controversy, or to say that the prize was not worth contending for.

Veniam quocunque vocaris.] La Cerda interprets this ad quemcunque vel locum, vel judicem, vel conditionem. I take the meaning of it to be, I will engage with you on your own terms; that is, I am so sure of victory, that I will venture to stake a cow, that you may have no excuse. Lacon,

50. Audiat hæc tantum.] in the fifth Idyllium of Theocritus, wishes for a friend to come and judge between him and his antagonist;