us a phyfical reason for abftinence at that time; which is, left the melancholy of the mind fhould affect the fruit of the enjoyment. Indeed, the next lines feem to favour this conjecture; and perhaps the poet endeavoured, while he was laying down a religious precept, to ftrengthen it by philofophy. had a, fecret meaning in each of thefe fuperftitious | ftition of the age, though the Scholiaft would give precepts, and that they are not to be took literally, but as fo many allegories. In answer to them, we may as well imagine all the Talmud and Levitical laws to be the fame. They might as well have faid, that the poet would not have us pifs towards the fun for fear w: fhould hurt our eyes. I know not whether these and the following precepts favour most of the age of the poet, or of the poet's old age. Ver. 492. This doubtless is a part of the super Ver. 530. These verses are rejected by Plutarch, whofe authority Proclus makes ule of, as not of our poet. Guietus. BOOK III *. THE ARGUMENT. THE poet here diftinguishes holidays from others, and what are propitious and what not, for different works; and concludes with a fhort recommendation of religion and morality. YOUR fervants to a juft obfervance train Of ev'ry month, the most propitious day, . Nor in the next two days, but one, delay 10 20 From fowing, left your work should prove in vain, Though then the grain may find a barren foil, The day is grateful to the planter's toil. The precepts laid down in this book, concerning the difference of days, from the motion of the moon feem to be founded partly on nature, and partly on the fuperftition of the times in which they were writ. The whole is but a fort of n almanack in verfe, and afford. little room for poetry Our author, I think, bas jumbled bis days too negligently together; which confufion, Valla, in bis tranflation, has prevented, by ranging the days in proper fucceffion; a liberty 1 was fearful to take, as a tranflator, because almost every line must have been tranfpofed from the original di pofition: I have therefore, at the end of the notes, drawn a table of days in their fucceffive order, | Not fo the fixteenth to the planter's care; A day unlucky to the new-born fair, 30 A day propitious to the birth of men : Geld in the eighth the goat, and lowing fteer; You wed, on the fourth day lead home your wife; 60 71 Uninterrupted in the ninth pufue These are the days of which th' observance can O happy mortal happy he, and bless'd, 90 NOTES ON THE THIRD BOOK OF THE WORKS AND DAYS. Ver. 1. That is, teach them how to distinguish lucky days from other It was customary among the Romans to hang up rables, wherein the forturate and unfortunate days were marked, as appears from Petr. nius chap. 30. Le Clerc Ver 3. Jove may be faid to prefide over the Ver. 24. Melancthon and Frifius tell us it is yar naturally, from the motion of the celestial bo-wrong to fow at this time of the lunar month, bede in the heavens, or, religiously, from his divine caufe of the exceffive moisture, which is hurtful to admistration. the corn-feed, and advantageous to plants juft Ver 10 Tzetzes endeavours to account for planted. Apolio being born in the seventh day, by arguments from nature, making him the fame with the fun; which error Valla has run into in his tranflation. The mistake is very plain, if we have recourse to the Theogony; where the poet makes Latona bring forth Apollo, and Artemis or Diana, to Jove, and in the fame poem makes the fun and moon fpring from Thia and Hyperion Hefiod therefore meaned it no otherwife than the birthday of one of their imaginary gods. He tells us alf the first fourth, and twentieth, of every month are bolidays but he gives us no reafon for their bring fo. If a conjecture may be allowed, I think it not unlikely but the first may be the feast of the Dew mecn; which day was always held facred by the Jews in which the people ceafed from bufiBefs. When will the new moon be gone, that we may fell corn," Amos, chap. viii. ver. 5: but Le Ciere will not allow sige nag here to be a festival: yet the fame critic tells us, from Dionyfius Petavius, that the Orientals, as well as the most ancient Greek, went by the lunar month, which they cl. fed with the thirtieth day. Ver. 1. The poet here makes the ant and the fpider ferdible of the days; and indeed Tzetzes is Ver. 54. I tranflate it," the feather'd race that fly," to diftinguish what kind of augury the poet means. Tzetzes tells us, two crows, the halcy on, or king's-fisher, the dark-coloured hern, a single turtle, and a fwallow, &c. are inaufpicious, the peacock, and fuch birds as do no mifch ef, aufpicious. I fuppofe he does not place the turtle as one of the mischievous kind, but would have the misfortune be in seeing but one. Ver. 60. He advises to thresh the corn at the time of the full moon, because the air is drier than at other times; and the corn that is facked, or put up in veffels, while dry, will keep the longer; but if the grain is moist, it will foon grow mouldy and ufelefs. In the preceding book, the poet tells us the proper month to feil wood in, and in this, the proper day of the month. Melanchon and Frifius. Ver. 92. It is worth obferving, that the poet begins and ends his poem with piety towards the gods; the only way to make ourselves acceptable to whom, fays he, is by adhering to religion; and, to ufe the phrafe of Scripture, by "efchewing evil." OBSERVATIONS ON THE ANCIENT GREEK MONTH. I BELIEVE it will be neceffary, for the better understanding the following table, to fet in a clear light the ancient Greek month, as we may realonably conclude it flood in the days of Hefiod, confining ourselves to the last book of his Works and Days. "The middle fixth is unprofitable to plants." That is the fixth day of the middle decade. τη φύλαξη δη θυμω The poet makes the month contain thirty days, which thirty days he divides into three parts: the firft he calls 15, or, in the geni-Tagad asuda Olivorlos Disaμers TE. tive cafe, because of fome other word which is commonly joined requiring it to be of that cafe; the root of which, 15 or 15, fignifies I erect, 1 fet up, I fettle, &c. and Henry Stephens interprets the words is œurva pusvos, ineunte menfe, the entrance of the month, in which sense the poet uses them; which entrance is the first decade, or first ten days. The second he calls stavros, which is from une, I am in the midst, meaning the middle decade of the month. The third part he calls Plaveris, from 40, which is from piw, or pé, I waste away, meaning the decline, or laft decade of the month. Sometimes thefe words are used in the nominative cafe. Before I leave thefe remarks I fhall fhow the manner of expreffion of one day in each decade, Ver. 33 "Keep in your mind to fhun[the fourth of the entrance and end" of the month. That is the fourth of the entrance or first decade, and the fourth of the end or last decade. It is proper to obferve, that thofe days which are blanks, are by our poet called indifferent days, days of no importance, either good or bad. It is likewife remarkable, that he makes fome days both holidays and working days, as the fourth, fourteenth, and twentieth; but, to clear this, Le Clerc tells us, from our learned countryman, Selden, that ngov nag, though literally a holiday, does not always fignify a festival, but often a day propitious to us in our undertakings. A TABLE OF THE ANCIENT GREEK MONTH. AS IN THE LAST BOOK OF THE WORKS AND DAYS OF HESIOD. DECADE I. 1. Day of Decade 1. Holiday. 2. 3. 4. Holiday. Propitious for marriage, and for 5. In which the furies take their round. 7. The birth-day of Apollo. A holiday. 9. Propitious quite through. Happy for the birth of both fexes. A day to plant in. 10. Propitious to the birth of men. DECADE II. 1. Day of Decade II, or 11th of the month. To reap. 2. For women to ply the loom, for the men to sheer the sheep, and geld the mule. 3. A day to plant in, and not to fow. 4. Propitious for the birth of women. Break the mule and the ox. Teach your dog and your fheep to know you. Pierce the cafk. A holiday. SECT. I. A VIEW OF THE WORKS AND DAYS. The Introduction. Now we have gone through the Works and Days, it may poffibly contribute in fome degree to the profit and delight of the reader, to take a view of the poem as we have it delivered down to us. I hall firkt confider it as an ancient piece, and, in that light, enter into the merit and efteem that it reasonably obtained among the ancients: the authors who have been lavish in their commendations of it are many; the greatest of the Roman writers in prafe, Cicero, has more than once expreffed his admiration for the fyftem of morality contained in it; and the deference the greatest Latin poet has paid to it, I fhall show in my comparison of the Works and Days with the Latin Georgic; nor is the encomium paid by Ovid to our poet to be palled over. Vive et Afcreens, dum mutis uva tumebit, While fwelling clusters fhall the vintage ftain, And Justin Martyr, one of the most learned fathers in the Chriftian church, extols the Works and Days of our poet, while he expreffes his diflike to the Theogony. Sect. 2. Of the first book. The reafon why our poet addreffes to Perfes, I have howed in my notes: while he directs himfell to his brother, he inftructs his countrymen. in all that is ufeful to know for the regulating their cunt, both in the bufinefs of agriculture, and in their behaviour to each other. He gives account of the first ages, according to the conmen received notion among the Gentiles. The fory of Pandora has all the embellishments of poetry which we can find in Ovid, with a Carer moral than is generally in the fables of that poet. His fyftem of morality is calculated fo pericly for the good of fociety, that there is fcarcely any precept omitted that could be properly thought of on that occafion. There is not one of the ten commandments of Mofes, which relates to our moral duty to each other, that is not frengly recommended by our poet; nor is it eh, he thinks, to be obfervant of what the dvd government would oblige you to; but to prove yourself a good man, you must have fuch as as no human laws require of you, as thofe temperance, generofity, &c. These rules are laid In bis fecand difcourfe or cobortation to the Greeks. down in a moft proper manner to captivate the reader; here the beauties of poetry and the force of reafon combine to make him in love with morality The poet tells us what effect we are reafonably to expect from fuch virtues and vices as he mentions; which doctrines are not always to be taken in pofitive fenfe. If we should fay a continuance of intemperance in drinking, and of our commerce with women, would carry us early to the grave, it is morally true, according to the natural course of things; but a man of a trong and uncommon conftitution, may wanton through an age of pleasure, and so be an exception to this rule, yet not contradict the moral truth of it. Archbishop Tillo fon has judiciously told us in what fenfe we are to take all doctrines of morality; Ariftotle," fays that great divine," obferv "ed long fince, that moral and proverbial fayings are understood to be true generally, and for the "moft part; and that is all the truth that is to be "expected in them; as when Solomon fays, Train up a child in the way wherein he thail go, and "when he is old he will not depart from it. This "is not to be taken, as if no child that is piously educated, did ever mifcarry afterwards, but that "the good education of children is the best way to make good men." 66 Sec. 3. Of the fecond book, T. The fecond book, which comes next under our view, will appear with more dignity when we confider in what efteem the art of agriculture was held in thofe days in which it was writ: the Georgic did not then concern the ordinary and middling fort of people only, but our poet writ for the inftruction of princes like wife, who thought it no difgrace to till the ground which they perhaps had conquered. Homer makes Laertes not only plant, but dung his own lands; the best employment he could find for his health, and confolation, in the abfence of his fon. The latter part of this book, together with all the third, though too mean for poetry, are not unjustifiable in our author. Had he made thofe religious and fuperftitious precepts one entire fubject of verfe, it would have been a ridiculous fancy, but, as they are only a part, and the fmalleft part, of a regular poem, they are introduced with a laudable intent. After the poet had laid down proper rules for morality,husbandry, navigation, and the vintage, he knew that region towards the gods, and a due obfervance of what was held facred in his age, were yet wanted to complete the work. Thefe were fubjects, he was fenfible, incapable of the embellishments f poetry; but as they were neceffary to his purpose, he would not omit them. Poetry was not then defigned as the empty amusement only of an idle hour, confifting of wanton thoughts, or long and tedious defcriptions of nothing, but, by the force of harmony and good fenfe, to purge the mind of its dregs, to give it a great and virtuous turn of thinking: in fhort, verfe was then but the lure to what was useful; which indeed has been, aud ever will be, the end pursued by all good poets; with this view, Hefiod feems to have writ, and must be allowed, by all true judges, to have wonderfully fucceeded in the age in which he rofe. This advantage more arifes to us from the writings of fo old an author: we are pleased with thofe monuments of antiquity, fuch parts of the ancient Grecian history, as we find in them. Sect. 4. A comparison betwixt Hefiod and Virgil, | quos antè feni, which they had formerly prefented to Hefiod; which part of the compliment to our poet, Dryden has omitted in his translation. To return to the Georgic. Virgil can be faid to imitate Hefiod in his firft and fecond books only: in the first is fcarcely any thing relative to the Georgic itfelf, the hint of which is not taken from the Works and Days; nay more, in fome places, whole lines are paraphrafed, and fome literally tranflated. It must indeed be acknowledged, that lation, what was difficult in the Greek, as where the Latin poet has fometimes explained, in his tranfour poet gives directions for two ploughs: Δοια δε θέθαι αροτρα πονησάμενος κατα οικον by avroyo he means that which grows naturally into the shape of a plough, and by wanrov that made e.always at hand, has this explanation of auroyev: by art. Virgil, in his advice to have two ploughs I shall now endeavour to fhow how far Virgii may properly be faid to imitate our poet in his Georgic, and to point out fome of those paffages in which he has either paraphrafed, or literally tranflated, from the Works and Days. It is plain he was a fincere admirer of our poet, and of this poem in particular, of which he twice makes honourable mention, and where it could be only to express the veneration that he bore to the author. The first is in his third paftoral. In medio duo figna, Conon, et quis fuit alter, And fhow'd the feafons of the fliding year?' In burim, et curvi formam accipit ulmus aratri. DRYDEN. Thus we find him imitating the Greek poet in the moft minute precepts. Hefiod gives directions for making a plough; Virgil does the fame. Even that which has been the subject of ridicule to many critics, viz. " plough and fow naked," is translated in the Georgic; nudus ara, fere nudus. Before I proceed any farther, I fhall endeavour to obviate the objection which has been frequently made againft this precept. Hefiod means to infinuate, that ploughing and fowing are labours which require much induftry and application; and he had doubtless this phyfical reafon for his advice, that where fuch toil is required it is unhealthful, as quantity of clothes as in works of lefs fatigue. well as impoffible, to go through with the fame Virgil doubtlefs faw this reafon, or one of equal force, in this rule, or he would not have tranflated it. In short, we may find him a ftrict follower of our poet in most of the precepts of husbandry in the Works and Days. I fhall give but one inftance more, and that in his fuperftitious ob Notwithstanding the commentators have all -hos tibi dant calamos, en, accipe, mufæ, DRYDEN. The greatest compliment which Virgil thought he could pay his friend and patron, Gallus, was, after all that pompons introduction to the choir of Apollo, to make the mufes prefeat him, from the kands of Linus, with the pipe, or calomos, Aferaa 4 -quintum fugæ; pallidus Orcus, Eumenidefque fatæ, &c. -the fifths be fure to fhur, That gave the furies, and pale Pluto birth. DRYDEN. Manilius, and the second book of the Georgic, in If the judgment I have paffed from the verses of my Difcourfe on the Writings of Hefiod, be allowed to have any force, Virgil has doubtless been as much obliged to our poet in the fecond book of him in his precepts only, but in some of his finest his Georgic, as in the first; nor has he imitated defcriptions, as in the first book defcribing the effects of a storm: |