I will pass by many less material objections for want of room to
answer them. What follows next is of great importance, if the
critics can make out their charge, for it is levelled at the manners
which our poet gives his hero, and which are the same which were
eminently seen in his Augustus. Those manners were piety to the
gods and a dutiful affection to his father, love to his relations,
care of his people, courage and conduct in the wars, gratitude to
those who had obliged him, and justice in general to mankind.
Piety, as your lordship sees, takes place of all as the chief part
of his character; and the word in Latin is more full than it can
possibly be expressed in any modern language, for there it
comprehends not only devotion to the gods, but filial love and
tender affection to relations of all sorts. As instances of this
the deities of Troy and his own Penates are made the companions of
his flight; they appear to him in his voyage and advise him, and at
last he replaces them in Italy, their native country.
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