Chapter VI

STRUCTURE AND COMPOSITION OF THE POEM IN RELATION TO
THE POEM OF LUCRETIUS.
I. Personal affinities and contrast between Lucretius 199-204
and Virgil
Influence of Lucretius on the ideas, method, and style 199
of the Georgics
Virgil’s recognition of his relation to Lucretius 200
Identity of feeling in the two poets 201
Difference in position and sympathies 202
Difference between the philosophic poet and poetic artist 203
II. The Lucretian idea of Nature in the Georgics 204-214
Nature more fully revealed in Lucretius than in 204
earlier poetry
Idea of the struggle of man with Nature in Lucretius 205
Lesson drawn by him from this idea 207
Presence of the same idea in other Roman writers 207
Virgil’s sense of the life of Nature derived from 208
Lucretius
Idea of the struggle with Nature as ordained by 209
Providence
Prominence thus given to the duty of labour 211
Lesson inculcated in the Georgics 212
Scientific beliefs of Lucretius as adopted or rejected 213
by Virgil
III. Dedications and Invocations in the two Poems 214-228
Lucretius Virgil’s chief model in technical execution 214
Address to Maecenas compared with address to Memmius 215
Eulogy of Caesar compared with eulogy of Epicurus 216
Meaning of their Invocation of Supernatural aid 217
Varieties of religious feeling and belief in the 218
Augustan Age
Rustic Paganism of Italy 218
Religious conceptions embodied in Greek art 219
Religious elements in Greek speculative philosophy 221
National religion of Rome 222
Meaning of the Invocation of Caesar 224
Union of various modes of religious belief in the 225
Invocation
Proems to the other Books of the Georgics 227
IV. Comparison of Virgil with Lucretius in didactic 229-244
exposition and illustration
Method of science in Lucretius, of art in Virgil 229
Greater selection and elimination of materials in Virgil 230
Illustration of Virgil’s subject from his sense of beauty 231
---- from his sense of the life of Nature 232
---- from his sympathy with the life of animals 233
---- from his conception of human energy in conflict 234
with Nature
---- from literary and mythological associations 235
---- from astronomy, antiquity, religious usages 239
Inferiority of Virgil to Lucretius in the use of 240
imaginative analogies
More uniform excellence in diction and rhythm 241
Virgil more of a conscious artist 242
V. The Episodes in the Georgics 244-260
Purpose of the episodes in Lucretius and in the Georgics 244
The minor episodes in the Georgics 245
Episodes at the end of Books iii. and iv. 248
Episode of the omens accompanying the death of Julius 252
Caesar
Episode of the Glory of Italy 255
Episode at the end of Book ii. 256

CHAPTER VII.
THE GEORGICS A POEM REPRESENTATIVE OF ITALY 261-279
The Georgics an original work of Latin genius 261
Technical value of the poem as an exposition of 263
Italian husbandry
Relation of the illustrative matter to the cultivated 266
Italian mind
Feeling of the dignity of labour an Italian sentiment 267
Italian feeling and representation of Nature 268
Italian character of the religious sentiment of the poem 272
" " of its ethical and political sentiment 273
" " of its artistic execution 276