Between these two
different
opinions, a true poet
may be allowed to decide.
may be allowed to decide.
Tacitus
Cicero says, woods
and groves, and rivers winding through the meadows, and the refreshing
breeze, with the melody of birds, may have their attraction; but they
rather relax the mind into indolence, than rouse our attention, or
give vigour to our faculties. _Sylvarum amænitas, et præterlabentia
flumina, et inspirantes ramis arborum auræ, volucrumque cantus, et
ipsa late circumspiciendi libertas ad se trahunt; at mihi remittere
potius voluptas ista videtur cogitationem, quam intendere. _ _De Orat. _
lib. ii. This, perhaps, may be true as applied to the public orator,
whose scene of action lay in the forum or the senate. Pliny, on the
other hand, says to his friend Tacitus, there is something in the
solemnity of venerable woods, and the awful silence which prevails in
those places, that strongly disposes us to study and contemplation.
For the future, therefore, whenever you hunt, take along with you your
pen and paper, as well as your basket and bottle; for you will find
the mountains not more inhabited by Diana, than by Minerva. _Jam
undique sylvæ, et solitudo, ipsumque illud silentium, quod venationi
datur, magna cogitationis incitamenta sunt. Proinde, cum, venabere,
licebit, auctore me, ut panarium et lagunculam, sic etiam pugillares
feras. Experiaris non Dianam magis montibus quam Minervam inerrare. _
Lib. i. epist. 6.
Between these two different opinions, a true poet
may be allowed to decide. Horace describes the noise and tumult of a
city life, and then says,
Scriptorum chorus omnis amat nemus, et fugit urbes.
Epist. lib. ii. ep. ii. ver. 77.
Alas! to grottos and to groves we run,
To ease and silence, ev'ry muse's son.
POPE.
[b] The expression in the original is full and expressive, _lucrosæ
hujus et sanguinantis eloquentiæ_; that gainful and blood-thirsty
eloquence. The immoderate wealth acquired by Eprius Marcellus has been
mentioned in this Dialogue, section 8. Pliny gives us an idea of the
vast acquisitions gained by Regulus, the notorious informer. From a
state of indigence, he rose, by a train of villainous actions, to such
immense riches, that he once consulted the omens, to know how soon he
should be worth sixty millions of sesterces, and found them so
favourable, that he had no doubt of being worth double that sum.
and groves, and rivers winding through the meadows, and the refreshing
breeze, with the melody of birds, may have their attraction; but they
rather relax the mind into indolence, than rouse our attention, or
give vigour to our faculties. _Sylvarum amænitas, et præterlabentia
flumina, et inspirantes ramis arborum auræ, volucrumque cantus, et
ipsa late circumspiciendi libertas ad se trahunt; at mihi remittere
potius voluptas ista videtur cogitationem, quam intendere. _ _De Orat. _
lib. ii. This, perhaps, may be true as applied to the public orator,
whose scene of action lay in the forum or the senate. Pliny, on the
other hand, says to his friend Tacitus, there is something in the
solemnity of venerable woods, and the awful silence which prevails in
those places, that strongly disposes us to study and contemplation.
For the future, therefore, whenever you hunt, take along with you your
pen and paper, as well as your basket and bottle; for you will find
the mountains not more inhabited by Diana, than by Minerva. _Jam
undique sylvæ, et solitudo, ipsumque illud silentium, quod venationi
datur, magna cogitationis incitamenta sunt. Proinde, cum, venabere,
licebit, auctore me, ut panarium et lagunculam, sic etiam pugillares
feras. Experiaris non Dianam magis montibus quam Minervam inerrare. _
Lib. i. epist. 6.
Between these two different opinions, a true poet
may be allowed to decide. Horace describes the noise and tumult of a
city life, and then says,
Scriptorum chorus omnis amat nemus, et fugit urbes.
Epist. lib. ii. ep. ii. ver. 77.
Alas! to grottos and to groves we run,
To ease and silence, ev'ry muse's son.
POPE.
[b] The expression in the original is full and expressive, _lucrosæ
hujus et sanguinantis eloquentiæ_; that gainful and blood-thirsty
eloquence. The immoderate wealth acquired by Eprius Marcellus has been
mentioned in this Dialogue, section 8. Pliny gives us an idea of the
vast acquisitions gained by Regulus, the notorious informer. From a
state of indigence, he rose, by a train of villainous actions, to such
immense riches, that he once consulted the omens, to know how soon he
should be worth sixty millions of sesterces, and found them so
favourable, that he had no doubt of being worth double that sum.
