"Tityre, tu patulae, recubans sub tegmine fagi, Sylvestrem tenui musam meditaris avena; Nos patriae fines et dulcia linquimus arva. Nos patriam fugimus: tu, Tityre, lentus in umbra, Formosam resonare doces Amaryllida sylvas." Virgil, it has been said, was so strongly impressed with the inferiority of the _AEneid_ to what he conceived epic poetry should be, that he desired that poem to be thrown into the flames after his death; yet though deficient in the principal requisites of an epic poem, so far as the structure of the story and the delineation of the characters are concerned, what exquisite beauties does it contain--what an assemblage of lovely images has it brought together--what an irreparable loss would its destruction have been to all future generations of men! Not all the genius of subsequent ages could have supplied its place. There are beauties in the _AEneid_, which neither Thomson in descriptive, nor Racine in dramatic poetry, have been able to rival. If Homer excels all subsequent writers in conception of character, vigour of imagination, and graphic delineation, Virgil is not less unrivalled in delicacy of sentiment, tenderness of feeling, and beauty of expression. There are many more striking scenes in the _Iliad_, more animating events, more awful apparitions; but in the _AEneid_, passages of extraordinary beauty are much more numerous. What is present to the imagination when we rise from the former, is the extraordinary series of brilliant or majestic images which it has presented; what is engraven on the memory when we conclude the latter, is the charming series of beautiful passages which it contains. There are many more events to recollect in the Grecian, but more lines to remember in the Roman poet. To the _Iliad_, subsequent ages have turned with one accord for images of heroism, traits of nature, grandeur of character. To the _AEneid_, subsequent times will ever have recourse for touches of pathos, expressions of tenderness, felicity of language. Flaxman drew his conception of heroic sculpture from the heroes of the _Iliad_: Racine borrowed his heart-rending pathetic from the sorrows of Dido. Homer struck out his conceptions with the bold hand, and in the gigantic proportions, of Michael Angelo's frescoes; Virgil finished his pictures with the exquisite grace of Raphael's Madonnas.