text: " Virgil it has been said was so strongly impressed with the inferiority of the _AEneid_ to what he conceived epic poetry should be that he desired that poem to be thrown into the flames after his death; yet though deficient in the principal requisites of an epic poem so far as the structure of the story and the delineation of the characters are concerned what exquisite beauties does it contain--what an assemblage of lovely images has it brought together--what an irreparable loss would its destruction have been to all future generations of men! Not all the genius of subsequent ages could have supplied its place