HARMONIES OF VERSE AND LIFE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21054, 17 June 1930, Page 7

HARMONIES OF VERSE AND LIFE.

WORK AND INFLUENCE OF VERG|L.

LECTURE BY DR R. LAWSON,

■ \ ergil. ‘ star that wildest yet this phantom shore/’ poet of the Roman people, and constant delight of untold succeeding generations, was the subject of Dr Lawsou s address to the Classical Association ju the-Museum last evening. The extraordinary genius of the man, the entire absence of national limits in the appeal he makes to the world, the everlasting nature of his vogue, the jouickeiuug of appifeciation of his writings, and the marvellous creations themselves —all these points were dealt with by the lecturer after the manner of one who has unquestionably found Vergil and has decided to enjoy him. The wealth of quotation which the lecture embodied was one of its delights, and_ in the frank discussion of the poet’s varied works there was much to interest both the keen student and the discerning reader. The Rev. Principal J. Dickie, D.D., occupied the chair. Professor Lawson said that there was no part of his extra-mural activities, which appealed to him more than lecturing to the .Classical Association; for the classics were the repositories of the knowledge and ideas that formed the fabric of civilisation. This applied in. a special sense to \ ergil,—poet of the Imperium Romanum, seer of the Middle Ages both for pagan and Christian, and a poet of dearest intimacy for students from the day of hisdeath two thousand years ago up till today. The persistent fame of the great poets was a symbol of the immortality of the' soul, yergil, as Tennyson apostrophised him, is a “ light among the vanished ages, star that gildest yet this phantom shore.’ From the -Roman poet Western Europe,—and hence all civilisation —had received and transmitted through its schools to its. citizens the grave and lofty ideals, of ancient Rome, expounded in the stateliest measure ever moulded by the lips of iaan. There had been handed ’on front the heroic past the lamp of life burning steadily with the clear light of duty, devotion, and nobility of heart. The stream of that inspiration had never ■failed—never could fail as long % as men appreciated mighty harmonies, of verse and life.

There were probably more readers of Vergil to-day than ever- before. What a striking attestation of his spell over man there was in the great expedition of scholars from America this year to classic lands to celebrate the himillenium Ver-, gilianum,—the 2000th annivdtiary .of his birth. One poet offered us a picture not only of the Roman “gtavitas” and the national virtues - embodied in his hero Aeneas, but also, interpreted throughout his works, like, the solemn .undertones of rich world-music, those reflections upon fate and chance and change in human life which are the delight of everyone who can understand them. They'throng upon the mind in , all crises that bring up the evaluation of life. The .still, sad music of humanity breaks through his heroic strain again and again. “'Not-ignorant of ills, the wretched I can succour ’'; “ Tears to human suffering are due and mortal, hopes defeated and o’erthrown ’’“he thought to win the prize of life, unknowing of fates “ the gods thought otherwise.”

As a seer he attained his greatest influence in the Middle Ages;- his works were commonly consulted by those seeking 1 guidance in a difficulty. The practice was to open his volume at random and accept the omen of the first verses that met the eye. The most famous of the Vergilian Lots, or Sortes Vergilianse, was that which befell the ill-fated Charles. I when he opened Vergil in the Bodleian Library at Oxford; there was Ibis fall declared in the curse Dido had invoked upon Aeneas:—“Let him' be broken in war by. the arms of a violent people, an exile from his realm, torn from the embrace of his son,.he shall implore help, and see his people suffering unmerited death. When he shall give himself up under conditions of a cruel peace, never shall he enjoy his kingdom nor the wished-for light of life; but let him fall before his day, and lie unburied on the open sand”. The seer-Hke_ quality was, however, not one of prediction, but of interpretation. Vergil had not . the spiritual intensity of Dante, the gigantic Iqftiness of Milton, who passed/the flaming bounds of space and time, the' humour and humanity of Homer, nor the Varied moods ! and lyric plangency of Goethe; but he excelled.them all in steady, solid dignity, irresistible as the Roman- legion on the march. The seer quality is in the Eclogues, the Georgies, and tlie Aeneid, _ In the first it rises from the idyllic life of shepherds, piping their ditties beside cool streams, and shady grottoes, to its idealisation of a Messianic age just then beginning when cruelty and war should depart and “the world's great age begin anew, the golden years return.” Dr Lawson then gave -a criticism of tins tamous Messianic Eclogue. In the Georgies, the seer glorified work; called Homans from internecine strife, from the mad pursuit of gold and pleasure to the simple hardy life of toil qnd honour, and he the young Augustus as r 6 deity of Rome, most glorious ot all things. The Aeneid was dealt with at . some length, particularly book VI,. in which Aeneas goes to the underworld. He hears from Anchises the doctrine of : the apima mundi, the soul of the worldhe .sees the.evil flung to torture, and the happy spirits in sweet converse on the iUysian plains. There was the great charge given him:— , i

Others, no doubt from breathing bronze shall draw More softness, and a living face deI vise From .marble, plead their causes at the law More, deftly, trace the motions of the skies With learned rod, and tell the stars that rise. Thou, Eoman, rulej and o'er the world proclaim . ' \ The ways of peace. Be these thy • victories. To spare the vanquished and the 'proud to tame. These are imperial arts and worthy of thy name. . The lecturer here brought out the importance of a definite national belief and ideal as expressed in these lines and 7n Milton and Bismarck. sympathy with dumb animals i\as then dealt with, with its , haunting echoes eoundmg the sad song of humaS iito. in the course of his lecture Dr Lawson outlined \ ergil’s influence on the schools of Gaul from 50-400 a.d.: gave \ ergthan quotations from Christian toxnbstones, recited the verse of a Latin hymn demoting St. Paul at Vergil’s tomb, and showed how Vergil was thus a bridge between pagan and Christian. If was a strange fate, to be condemned as a pagan to be revered as, a, saint. The lecture abounded in quotations, and made dear why Bridges Testament of Beauty” had it eX^raC * r ° m Georgies prefixed to The chairman proposed a very hearty \ote of thauks to the speaker for the absorbing address he had delivered, the motion being earned by acclamation.