rived from the fame animal. But is it not more reafonable (according to their own notion) to compare the fame man always to the fame animal, than to fee. him fometimes a fun, fometimes a tree, and fome-. times a river? Tho' Homer fpeaks of the fame crea-. ture, he fo diverfifies the circumstances and accidents. of the comparisons, that they always appear quite different. And to fay truth, it is not fo much the animal or the thing, as the action or pofture of them, that employs our imagination: Two different animals in the fame action are more like to each other, than one and the fame animal is to himself in two different actions. And those who in reading Homer, are shock'd that 'tis always a lion, may as well be angry that 'tis always a man..

What may feem more exceptionable is his inferting the fame comparisons in the fame words at length: upon different occafions, by which management he makes one fingle image afford. many ornaments to feveral parts of the Poem. But may not. one say, Homer is in this like a fkilful improver, who places a beautiful ftatue in a well-difpofed garden fo as to anfwer several viftas, and by that artifice one fingle fi-, gure feems multiply'd into as many objects as there are openings from whence it may be view'd?

What farther relieves and foftens thefe defcriptions> of battels, is the Poet's wonderful art of introducing many pathetick circumstances about the deaths of the Heroes, which raise a different movement in the mind from what thofe images naturally infpire, I mean compaffion and pity; when he caufes us to look back upon the loft riches, poffeffions, and hopes of those who die: When he tranfports us to their native countries and paternal feats, to fee the griefs of their aged fathers, the despair and tears of their widows, or the abandon'd condition of their orphans. Thus when Protefilaus falls, we are made to reflect,

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on the lofty Palaces he left half finish'd; when the fons of Phanops are killed, we behold the mortifying diftrefs of their wealthy father, who faw his eftate divided before his eyes, and taken in trust for strangers. When Axylus dies, we are taught to compaffionate the hard fate of that generous and hofpitable man, whofe houfe was the houfe of all men, and who deferv'd that glorious elogy of The friend of human-kind.

It is worth taking notice too, what use Homer every where makes of each little accident or circumftance that can naturally happen in a battel, thereby to caft a variety over his action; as well as of every turn of mind or emotion a Hero can poffibly feel, fuch as refentment, revenge, concern, confufion, &c. The former of these makes his work refemble a large history-piece, where even the leaft important figures and actions have yet fome convenient place or cormer to be fhewn in; and the latter gives it all the advantages of tragedy, in thofe various turns of paffion that animate the fpeeches of his Heroes, and render bis whole Poem the most Dramatick of any Epick whatsoever.

It must alfo be obferv'd that the conftant machines of the Gods conduce very greatly to vary thefe long battels, by a continual change of the fcene from earth to heaven. Homer perceiv'd them too neceffary for this purpose to abftain from the ufe of them, even after Jupiter had enjoin'd the Deities not to act on either fide. It is remarkable how many methods he has found to draw them into every book; where if they dare not affift the warriors, at least they are very helpful to the poet..

But there is nothing that more contributes to the variety, furprize, and Eclat of Homer's battels, or is more perfectly admirable in itself, than that: artful manner of taking meafure, or (as one may fay) ga

ging his Heroes by each other, and thereby elevating the character of one perfon, by the oppofition of it to that of fome other whom he is made to excell. So that he many times defcribes one, only to image another, and raises one only to raise another. I cannot better exemplify this remark, than by giving an inftance in the character of Diomed that lies before me. Let us obferve by what a scale of oppofitions he elevates this Hero, in the fifth book, firft to excell all human valour, and after to rival the Gods themfelves. He diftinguishes him firft from the Grecian Captains in general, each of whom he reprefents conquering a fingle Trojan, while Diomed conftantly encounters two at once; and while they are engag'd each in his distinct poft, he only is drawn fighting in every quarter, and flaughtering on every fide. Next he oppofes him to Pandarus, next to Æneas, and then to Hector. So of the Gods, he fhews him first against Venus, then Apollo, then Mars, and laftly in the eighth book against Jupiter himself in the midst of his thunders. The fame conduct is obfervable more or lefs in regard to every perfonage of his work.

This fubordination of the Heroes is one of the caufes that make each of his battels rife above the other in greatnefs, terror, and importance, to the end of the Poem. If Diomed has perform'd all these wonders in the first combates, it is but to raise Hector, at whofe appearance he begins to fear. If in the next battels Hector triumphs not only over Diomed, but over Ajax and Patroclus, fets fire to the fleet, wins the armour of Achilles, and fingly eclipfes all the Heroes; in the midft of all his glory, Achilles appears, Hector flies, and is flain.

The manner in which his Gods are made to act, no less advances the gradation we are fpeaking of. In the first battels they are feen only in fhort and feparate excurfions: Venus affifts Paris, Minerva Dio

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med, or Mars Hector. In the next a clear stage is left for Jupiter, to difplay his omnipotence, and turn the fate of armies alone. In the laft, all the powers of heaven are engag'd and banded into regular parties, Gods encountring Gods, Jove encouraging them with his thunders, Neptune raifing his tempefts, heaven flaming, earth trembling, and Pluto himself starting from the throne of hell.

II. I am now to take notice of fome customs of antiquity relating to the arms and art military of those times, which are proper to be known, in order to form a right notion of our Author's descriptions of

war.

That Homer copied the manners and customs of the age he writ of, rather than of that he lived in, has been obferved in fome inftances. As that he no where reprefents cavalry or trumpets to have been used in the Trojan wars, tho' they apparently were in his own time. It is not therefore impoffible but there may be found in his works fome deficiencies in the art of war, which are not to be imputed to his ignorance, but to his judgment.

Horfes had not been brought into Greece long before the fiege of Troy. They were originally Eastern animals, and if we find at that very period fo great a number of them reckon'd up in the wars of the Ifraelites, it is the lefs a wonder, confidering they came from Afia. The practice of riding them was fo little known in Greece a few years before, that they look'd upon the Centaurs who firft used it, as monfters compounded of men and horfes. Neftor in the firft Iliad fays he had feen thefe Centaurs in his youth, and Polypoetes in the fecond is faid to have been born on the day that his father expelled them from Pelion to the defarts of Ethica. They had no other use of horses than to draw their chariots in battel, fo that when

ever Homer speaks of fighting from an horse, taming an horfe, or the like, it is conttantly to be understood of fighting from a chariot, or taming horses to that fervice. This (as we have faid) was a piece of Decorum in the Poet; for in his own time they were arrived to fuch a perfection in horfemanship, that in the fifteenth Iliad, y. 822. we have a fimile taken from an extraordinary feat of activity, where one man manages four horfes at once, and leaps from the back of one to another at full speed.

If we confider in what high efteem among warriors these noble animals must have been at their firft.coming into Greece, we fhall the lefs wonder at the frequent occafions Homer has taken to describe and celebrate them. It is not fo ftrange to find them fet almoft upon a level with men, at the time when a horfe in the prizes was of equal value with a captive.

The chariots were in all probability very low. For we frequently find in the Iliad, that a perfon who ftands erect on a chariot is killed (and fometimes by a ftroke on the head) by a foot-foldier with a fword. This may farther appear from the eafe and readiness with which they alight or mount on every occafion, to facilitate which, the chariots were made open behind. That the wheels were but fmall, may be guefs'd from a custom they had of taking them off and fetting them on, as they were laid by, or made ufe of. Hebe in the fifth book puts on the wheels of Juno's cha riot, when the calls for it in hafte: And it seems to be with allufion to the fame practice that it is faid in Exodous, chap. 14. The Lord took off their chariot wheels, fo that they drove them heavily. The fides were alfo low; for whoever is killed in his chariot throughout the poem, conftantly falls to the ground, as having nothing to fupport him. That the whole machine was very fmall and light, is evident from a paffage in the tenth Iliad, where Diomed debates