But to return from my long rambling; I say that Virgil having
maturely weighed the condition of the times in which he lived; that
an entire liberty was not to be retrieved; that the present
settlement had the prospect of a long continuance in the same family
or those adopted into it; that he held his paternal estate from the
bounty of the conqueror, by whom he was likewise enriched, esteemed,
and cherished; that this conqueror, though of a bad kind, was the
very best of it; that the arts of peace flourished under him; that
all men might be happy if they would be quiet; that now he was in
possession of the whole, yet he shared a great part of his authority
with the senate; that he would be chosen into the ancient offices of
the commonwealth, and ruled by the power which he derived from them,
and prorogued his government from time to time, still, as it were,
threatening to dismiss himself from public cares, which he exercised
more for the common good than for any delight he took in greatness--
these things, I say, being considered by the poet, he concluded it
to be the interest of his country to be so governed, to infuse an
awful respect into the people towards such a prince, by that respect
to confirm their obedience to him, and by that obedience to make
them happy.
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