with me. But the same Style being continu'd thro' the whole, and the same Laws of Versification observ'd, are proofs sufficient, that this is one Man's Work: And your Lordship is too well acquainted with my manner, to doubt that any part of it is anothers.
That your Lordship may see I was in earnest, when I promis'd to hasten to an end, I will not give the Reasons, why I Writ not always in the proper terms of Navigation, Land-Service, or in the Cant of any Profession. I will only say, that Virgil has avoided those proprieties, because he Writ not to Mariners, Souldiers, Astronomers, Gardners, Peasants, &c. but to all in general, and in particular to Men and Ladies of the first Quality; who have been better Bred than to be too nicely knowing in the Terms. In such cases, tis enough for a Poet to write so plainly, that he may be understood by his Readers: To avoid impropriety, and not affect to be thought Learn'd in all things.
I have omitted the Four Preliminary Lines of the First Æneid; because I think them inferiour to any Four others, in the whole Poem; and consequently, believe they are not Virgil's. There is too great a gap betwixt the Adjective vicina in the second Line, and the Substantive Arva in the latter end of the third, which keeps his meaning in obscurity too long: and is contrary to the clearness of his Style.
Ut quamvis avidis
Is too ambitious an Ornament to be his, and
Gratum opus Agricolis,
Are all words unnecessary, and independent of what he had said before.
