"
And as Virgil in his fourth Georgic of the bees, perpetually raises
the lowness of his subject by the loftiness of his words, and
ennobles it by comparisons drawn from empires and from monarchs -
"Admiranda tibi levium spectacula rerum,
Magnanimosque duces, totiusque ordine gentis
Mores et studia, et populos, et praelia dicam;"
and again -
"At genus immortale manet, multosque per annos
Stat fortuna domus, et avi numerantur avorum;"
we see Boileau pursuing him in the same flights, and scarcely
yielding to his master. This I think, my lord, to be the most
beautiful and most noble kind of satire. Here is the majesty of the
heroic finely mixed with the venom of the other, and raising the
delight, which otherwise would be flat and vulgar, by the sublimity
of the expression. I could say somewhat more of the delicacy of
this and some other of his satires, but it might turn to his
prejudice if it were carried back to France.
I have given your lordship but this bare hint--in what verse and in
what manner this sort of satire may be best managed.
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