Besides the length of time which has elapsed since the production of Dryden's translation, you will recollect with a sigh, as I do, his own expression: "What Virgil wrote in the vigor of age, in plenty and at ease, I have undertaken to translate," says Dryden, "in my declining years, struggling with want, oppressed with sickness, curbed in my genius, liable to be misunderstood in all I write.--What I now offer is the wretched remainder of a sickly age, worn out by study and oppressed by Fortune"! It might not therefore be deemed sufficient to compare a work, produced under such disadvantages, in the seventeenth century, (notwithstanding the extraordinary powers of its author) with what is now becoming the admiration of the nineteenth. Much less, sir, will it be just or candid to suppose me capable of publishing my feeble attempt with any view of comparison as to the merit of the performance.--Should it be asked, what then could have been my inducement?--First, if I am fortunate enough to excite others more capable than myself to try again the comparative force of English language in a new translation, as you have just shown how much can be done in French, I shall have obtained the utmost bounds of my ambition. Secondly, I am happy to acknowledge the pleasure which I felt an employing some long moments of leisure, on a subject wherein your genius had taken such delight: I hove chosen the fourth book as that which I have had the good fortune of hearing in your own verses, with all the charms of your own recitation; and have pursued this occupation. Non ita certandi cupidus, quam propter amorem Quod te imitari aveo---- I have the honor to be with great respect, Your most obedient humble servant, P. L. PREFACE.