The Third Book of the
GEORGICS.
The ARGUMENT.
This Book begins with an Invocation of some Rural Deities, and a Compliment to Augustus: After which Virgil directs himself to Mecænas, and enters on his Subject. He lays down Rules for the Breeding and Management of Horses, Oxen, Sheep, Goats, and Dogs: and interweaves several pleasant Descriptions of a Chariot-Race, of the Battel of the Bulls, of the Force of Love, and of the Scythian Winter. In the latter part of the Book he relates the Diseases incident to Cattle; and ends with the Description of a fatal Murrain that formerly rag'd among the Alps.
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HY Fields, propitious Pales, I reherse;
And sing thy Pastures in no vulgar Verse,
Amphrysian Shepherd; the Lycæan Woods;
Arcadia's flow'ry Plains, and pleasing Floods.
All other Themes, that careless Minds invite,5
Are worn with use; unworthy me to write.
Busiri's Altars, and the dire Decrees
Of hard Euristheus, ev'ry Reader sees:
