I was always expecting, during that discussion about the Clitumnus, that you would have brought in Virgil. NORTH. Ay, Maro--in description--is superior to them all--in the Æneid as well as in the Georgics. But we have no time to speak of his Pictures now--only just let me ask you--Do you remember what Payne Knight says of Æneas? SEWARD. No, for I never read it. NORTH. Payne Knight, in his _Analytical Inquiry into the Principles of Taste_--a work of high authority in his own day, and containing many truths vigorously expounded, though characterised throughout by arrogance and presumption--speaks of that "selfish coldness with which the Æneas of Virgil treats the unfortunate princess, _whose affections he had seduced_," and adds, that "Every modern reader of the Æneid finds that the Episode of Dido, though in itself the most exquisite piece of composition existing, weakens extremely the subsequent interest of the Poem, it being impossible to sympathise either cordially or kindly with the fortunes or exertions of a hero who sneaks away from his high-minded and much-injured benefactress in a manner so base and unmanly. When, too, we find him soon after imitating all the atrocities, and surpassing the utmost arrogance, of the furious and vindictive Achilles, without displaying any of his generosity, pride, or energy, he becomes at once mean and odious, and only excites scorn and indignation; especially when, at the conclusion, he presents to Lavinia a hand stained with the blood of her favoured lover, whom he had stabbed while begging for quarter, and after being rendered incapable of resistance." Is not this, Seward, much too strong? SEWARD. I think, sir, it is not only much too strong, but outrageous; and that we are bound, in justice to Virgil, to have clearly before our mind his own Idea of his Hero. TALBOYS. To try that Æneas by the rules of poetry and of morality; and if we find his character such as neither our imagination nor our moral sense will suffer us to regard with favour--to admire either in Hero or Man--then to throw the Æneid aside. BULLER. And take up his Georgics. TALBOYS. To love Virgil we need not forget Homer--but to sympathise with Æneas, our imagination must not be filled with Achilles. SEWARD Troy is dust--the Son of Thetis dead. Let us go with the Fugitives and their Leader. TALBOYS. Let us believe from the first that they seek a Destined Seat--under One Man, who knows his mission, and is worthy to fulfil it. Has Virgil so sustained the character of that Man--of that Hero? Or has he, from ineptitude, and unequal to so great a subject--let him sink below our nobler sympathies--nay, unconscious of failure of his purpose, as Payne Knight says, accommodated him to our contempt? SEWARD.