Page:Virgil's Pastorals, Georgics and Aeneis - Dryden (1709) - volume 1.pdf/284

Th' Inhabitants themselves, their Country grace;
Hence rose the Marsian and Sabellian Race: 230
Strong limb'd and stout, and to the Wars inclin'd,
And hard Ligurians, a laborious Kind.
And Volscians arm'd with Iron-headed Darts.
Besides an Off-spring of undaunted Hearts,
The Decij, Marij, great Camillus came 235
From hence, and greater Scipio's double Name:
And mighty Cæsar, whose victorious Arms,
To farthest Asia, carry fierce Alarms:
Avert unwarlike Indians from his Rome;
Triumph abroad, secure our Peace at home. 240
Hail, sweet Saturnian Soil! of fruitful Grain
Great Parent, greater of Illustrious Men.
For thee my tuneful Accents will I raise,
And treat of Arts disclos'd in Ancient Days:
Once more unlock for thee the sacred Spring, 245
And old Ascræan Verse in Roman Cities sing.
The Nature of their sev'ral Soils now see,
Their Strength, their Colour, their Fertility:
And first for Heath, and barren hilly Ground,
Where meagre Clay and flinty Stones abound; 250
Where the poor Soil all Succour seems to want,
Yet this suffices the Palladian Plant.
Undoubted Signs of such a Soil are found,$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$
For here wild Olive-shoots o'erspread the ground,
And heaps of Berries strew the Fields around. 255