CHAPTER VI.

STRUCTURE AND COMPOSITION OF THE POEM IN RELATION TO THE POEM OF LUCRETIUS. I. Personal affinities and contrast between Lucretius 199-204 and Virgil Influence of Lucretius on the ideas, method, and style 199 of the Georgics Virgil’s recognition of his relation to Lucretius 200 Identity of feeling in the two poets 201 Difference in position and sympathies 202 Difference between the philosophic poet and poetic artist 203 II. The Lucretian idea of Nature in the Georgics 204-214 Nature more fully revealed in Lucretius than in 204 earlier poetry Idea of the struggle of man with Nature in Lucretius 205 Lesson drawn by him from this idea 207 Presence of the same idea in other Roman writers 207 Virgil’s sense of the life of Nature derived from 208 Lucretius Idea of the struggle with Nature as ordained by 209 Providence Prominence thus given to the duty of labour 211 Lesson inculcated in the Georgics 212 Scientific beliefs of Lucretius as adopted or rejected 213 by Virgil III. Dedications and Invocations in the two Poems 214-228 Lucretius Virgil’s chief model in technical execution 214 Address to Maecenas compared with address to Memmius 215 Eulogy of Caesar compared with eulogy of Epicurus 216 Meaning of their Invocation of Supernatural aid 217 Varieties of religious feeling and belief in the 218 Augustan Age Rustic Paganism of Italy 218 Religious conceptions embodied in Greek art 219 Religious elements in Greek speculative philosophy 221 National religion of Rome 222 Meaning of the Invocation of Caesar 224 Union of various modes of religious belief in the 225 Invocation Proems to the other Books of the Georgics 227 IV. Comparison of Virgil with Lucretius in didactic 229-244 exposition and illustration Method of science in Lucretius, of art in Virgil 229 Greater selection and elimination of materials in Virgil 230 Illustration of Virgil’s subject from his sense of beauty 231 ---- from his sense of the life of Nature 232 ---- from his sympathy with the life of animals 233 ---- from his conception of human energy in conflict 234 with Nature ---- from literary and mythological associations 235 ---- from astronomy, antiquity, religious usages 239 Inferiority of Virgil to Lucretius in the use of 240 imaginative analogies More uniform excellence in diction and rhythm 241 Virgil more of a conscious artist 242 V. The Episodes in the Georgics 244-260 Purpose of the episodes in Lucretius and in the Georgics 244 The minor episodes in the Georgics 245 Episodes at the end of Books iii. and iv. 248 Episode of the omens accompanying the death of Julius 252 Caesar Episode of the Glory of Italy 255 Episode at the end of Book ii. 256