The style of Lucretius is not uniformly harmonious; some of his verses lack polish, and he inclines to antique forms. Yet it is dignified, luminous, and animated; glows with all the poet’s enthusiasm, and is marked by tenderness and pathos. The pictures drawn are so real as to awaken the emotions that would be experienced on beholding the originals. Schlegel gives Lucretius high praise: “As a painter and worshipper of nature, he is the first of all the poets of antiquity.” In the extract given below, the touching description of the cow searching for her calf that has been offered in sacrifice, will show how he dignifies commonplace subjects:— VARIETY IN NATURE. “Thus Nature varies; man, and brutal beast, And herbage gay, and silver fishes mute, And all the tribes of heaven, o’er many a sea, Through many a grove that wing, or urge their song Near many a bank of fountain, lake, or rill, Search where thou wilt, each differs in his kind, In form, in figure differs. Hence alone Knows the fond mother her appropriate young, The appropriate young their mother,’mid the brutes, As clear discerned as man’s sublimer race. Thus oft before the sacred shrine, perfumed With breathing frankincense, the affrighted calf Pours o’er the altar, from his breast profound, The purple flood of life. But wandering wild O’er the green sward, the dam, bereft of hope, Beats with her cloven hoof the indented dale, Each spot exploring, if, perchance, she still May trace her idol; through the umbrageous grove, With well-known voice, she moans; and oft reseeks, Urged by a mother’s love, the accustomed stall. Nor shade for her, nor dew-distended glebe, Nor stream soft gliding down its banks abrupt, Yields aught of solace; nor the carking care Averts, that preys within; nor the gay young Of others soothe her o’er the joyous green: So deep she longs, so lingers for her own. Thus equal known, thus longed for, seek, in turn, The tender heifer, tremulous of voice, And the gay bleating lamb, their horned dams, Lured by the milky fount that nurtures life.” =Catullus= (87-54 B.C.).—Verona in Cisalpine Gaul gave birth to Catullus, the first great Roman lyrist. It was no doubt to avail himself of the superior advantages Rome offered, that while still in the greenness of his youth he exchanged his provincial quarters for the capital. Here we catch occasional glimpses of him—moving among the _élite_ as the equal of men like Nepos, Hortensius, and Cicero; or as the reckless sensualist throwing himself at the feet of some dissolute siren. Upon the notorious “Lesbia,” who stole, our poet sung, “The charms most rare of every fair To frame a perfect whole,”