This was abundantly performed by _Virgil_; whose _Æneis_ is therefore only not perfect, because it did not receive his last Hand. Tho', even as it now is, it comes the nearest to Perfection of any Heroic Poem; and indeed of any Poem whatsoever, except another of his Own: I mean his _Georgicks_; which I look upon to be the most Consummate of all human Compositions: It's Author for Genius and Judgment, for Nature and Art, joined together, and taken one with another, being the greatest, and best of all human Writers. How little Truth soever there may be in the Prodigies which are said to have attended his Birth; certain it is, that a Prodigy was then born; for He himself was such: And when God made That Man, He seems to have design'd to shew the World how far the Powers of mere human Nature can go, and how much they are capable of performing. The Bent of his Mind was turned to Thought, and Learning in general; and to Poetry, and Philosophy in particular. Which we are assured of not only from the Spirit and Genius of his Works; but from the express Account which he gives of himself, in Those sweet Lines of the second _Georgick_: _Me vero primum dulces ante omnia Musæ (Quarum sacra fero, ingenti perculsus amore) Accipiant, cœlique vias, & sydera monstrent. Defectus solis varios, lunæque labores; Unde tremor Terris, quâ vi maria alta tumescant Objicibus ruptis, rursusque in seipsa residant. Quid tantum oceano properent se tingere soles Hyberni, vel quæ tardis mora noctibus obstet._ It is true, he here only tells us of his Inclination to Natural Philosophy; but then he tells it us in Poetry: As few Things are more nearly related. For his Temper, and Constitution; if We will believe Mr. _Dryden_[5], it was Phlegmatick, and Melancholick: As _Homer_'s was Sanguine, and Cholerick, and This, he says, is the Reason of the different Spirit, which appears in the Writings of those two great Authors. I make no doubt, but that _Virgil_, in his _natural Disposition, as a Man_, was rather Melancholick; as, I believe, most learned, and contemplative Men ever were, and ever will be. And therefore how does he breath the very Soul of a Poet, and of a Philosopher; when in the Verses immediately following Those above-cited, he thus expresses the Thoughtfulness of both those Tempers, as well as the peculiar Modesty of his Own! _Sin has nè possim naturæ accedere partes Frigidus obstiterit circum præcordia sanguis; Rura mihi, & rigui placeant in vallibus amnes, Flumina amem, silvasque inglorius.----_