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PREFACE.

Οἱ δ' ἄς ἔσαν, ὡσεί τε πυρὶ χέων πᾶσα να

мото,

"They pour along like a fire that fweeps the whole earth before it." It is however remark

HOMER is univerfally allowed to have had the tor. The course of his verfes refembles that of greatest invention of any writer whatever. The the army he defcribes, praile of judgment Virgil has justly contefted with him, and others may have their pretenfions as to particular excellencies; but his invention remains yet unrivalled. Nor is it a wonder if he has ever been acknowledged the greatest of poets, who most excelled in that which is the very foundation of poetry. It is the invention that in dif-able that his fancy, which is every where vigoferent degrees diftinguishes all great geniufes: the rous, is not difcovered immediately at the beginutmoft stretch of human study, learning, and induf-ning of his poem in its fullett fplendour: it grows try, which mafters every thing befides, can never in the progress both upon himself and others, and attain to this. It furnishes art with all her mate- becomes on fire, like a chariot-wheel, by its own rials, and without it, judgment itself can at best but rapidity. Exact difpofition, juft thought, correct fteal wifely; for art is only like a prudent steward elocution, polished numbers, may have been found that lives on managing the riches of nature.in a thousand; but this poetical fire, this “viviWhatever praises may be given to works of judg-" da vis animi," in a very few. Even in works ment, there is not even a fingle beauty in them where all thofe are imperfect or neglected, this to which the invention must not contribute: as can overpower criticifin, and make us admire in the most regular gardens, art can only reduce even while we difapprove. Nay, where this apthe beauties of nature to more regularity, and pears, though attended with abiurdities, it brightfuch a figure, which the common eye may better ens all the rubbish about it, till we fee nothing take in, and is therefore more entertained with.but its own fplendour. This fire is difcerned in And perhaps the reason why common critics are Virgil, but difcerned as through a glais, reflected inclined to prefer a judicious and methodical ge- from Homer, more flining than fierce, but every nius to a great and fruitful one, is, because they where equal and constant; in Lucan and Statius, And it easier for themselves to pursue their obfer- it burfts out in fudden, fhort, and intermined vations through an uniform and bounded walk of flashes: in Milton it glows like a furnace kept art, than to comprehend the vast and various ex- up to an uncommon ardour by the force of art: tent of nature. in Shakspeare it ftrikes before we are aware Our author's work is a wild paradife, where if like an accidental fire from heaven; but in Howe cannot fee all the beauties fo diftinctly as inmer, and in him only, it burns every where clearan ordered garden, it is only because the number ly, and every where irresistibly. of them is infinitely greater. It is like a copious I fhall here endeavour to show, how this vaft nurfery, which contains the feed and firft pro-invention exerts itself in a manner fuperior to that ductions of every kind, cut of which thofe who of any poet, through all the main contituent followed him have but felected fome particular parts of his work, as it is the great and peculiar plants, each according to his fancy, to cultivate characteristic which diftinguithes him from all and beautify. If fome things are too luxuriant, other authors. it is owing to the richness of the foil; and if others are not arrived to perfection or maturity, it is only because they are over-run and oppreft by thofe of a stronger nature.

This ftrong and ruling faculty was likewife a powerful ftar, which, in the violence of its course, drew all things within its vortex. It feemed not enough to have taken in the whole circle of arts, It is to the strength of this amazing invention and the whole compafs of nature, to fupply his we are to tribute that unequalled fire and rap-maxims and reflections; all the inward paions ture, which is fo forcible in Homer, that no man and affections of mankind, to furnish his characof a true poctical spirit is mafter of himfeif when ters; and all the outward forms and images of he reads him. What he writes is of the moft ani- things, for his defcriptions; but, wanting yet an mating nature imaginable; every thing moves,ampler fphere to expatiate in, he opened a new every thing lives, and is put in action. If a coun- and boundless walk for his imagination, and crecil be called, or a battle fought, you are not cold-ated a world for himself in the invention of fable. ly informed of what was faid or done as from a third períon; the reader is hurried out of himself by the force of the poet's imagination, and turns in one place to a hearer, in another to a specta

That which Ariftotle calls the "Soul of Poetry,” was first breathed into it by Homer. I thall begin with confidering him in this part, as it is naturally the firft; and I speak of it both as it means

the defign of a poem, and as it is taken for fiction.

:

actions agreeable to the nature of the things they. fhadowed! This is a field in which no fucceeding poets could difpute with Homer; and whatever commendations have been allowed them on this head, are by no means for their invention in having enlarged his circle, but for their judgment in having contracted it. For when the mode of learning changed in following ages, and science was delivered in a plainer manner; it then became as reasonable in the more modern poets to lay it afide, as it was in Homer to make use of it. And perhaps it was no unhappy circumftance for Virgil, that there was not in his time that demand upon him of fo great an invention, as might be capable of furnishing all those allegorical parts of

a poem.

view, they are fo perfect in the poetic, that manblame his machines in a philofophical or religions kind have been ever fince contented to follow them: none have been able to enlarge the fphere of poetry beyond the limits he has fet; every attempt of this nature has proved unsuccessful; and after all the various changes of times and religions, his gods continue to this day the gods of poetry.

Fable may be divided into the probable, the allegorical, and the marvellous. The probable fable is the recital of fuch actions as though they did not happen, yet might, in the common courfe of nature or of such as, though they did, become fables by the additional episodes and manner of telling them. Of this fort is the main story of an epic poem, the return of Ulyffes, the fettlement of the Trojans in Italy, or the like. That of the Iliad is the anger of Achilles, the moft short and single fubject that ever was chofen by any poet. Yet this he has supplied with a vafter variety of incidents and events, and crowded with a greater number of councils, fpeeches, battles, and epifodes of all kinds, than are to be The marvellous fable includes whatever is fufound even in those poems whofe fchemes are of pernatural, and efpecially the machines of the the utmost latitude and irregularity. The action gods. He feems the firft who brought them into is hurried on with the moft vehement fpirit, and a fyftem of machinery for poetry, and fuch a one its whole duration employs not fo much as fifty as makes its greatest importance and dignity. For days. Virgil, for want of fo warm a genius, aidwe find those authors who have been offended at ed himself by taking in a more extenfive fubject, their accufation against Homer as the chief fupthe literal notion of the gods, conftantly laying as well as a greater length of time, and contract-port of it. But whatever caufe there might be to ing the defign of both Homer's poems into one, which is yet but a fourth part as large as his. The other epic poets have used the fame practice, but generally carried it fo far as to fuperinduce a multiplicity of fables, deftroy the unity of action, and lofe their readers in an unreasonable length of time. Nor is it only in the main defign that they have been unable to add to his invention, but they have followed him in every episode and part of story. If he has given a regular catalogue of an army, they all draw up their forces in the fame order. If he has funeral games for Patroclus, V.rgil has the fame for Anchifes; and Statius (rather than omit them) deftroys the unity of his action for those of Archemoras. If Ulyffes vifits the fhades, the Aneas of Virgil, and Scipio of Silius, are fent after him. If he be detained from his return by the allurements of Calypfo, fo is Æneas by Dido, and Rinaldo by Armida. If Achilles be abfent from the army on the fcore of quarrel through half the poem, Rinaldo muft abfent himself just as long on the like account. If he gives his hero a fuit of celeftial armour, Virgil and Taffo make the fame prefent to theirs. Virgil has not only obferved this clofe imitation of Homer, but, where he had not led the way, fupplied the want from other Greek authors. Thus the ftory of Simon, and the taking of Troy was copied (fays Macrobius) almoft word for word from Pifander, as the loves of Dido and Æneas are taken from thofe of Medea and Jafon in pollonius, and feveral others in the fame

manner.

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We come now to the characters of his perfons; and here we fhall find no author has ever drawn fo many, with fo vifible and furprising a variety, or given us fuch lively and affecting impreffions of them. Every one has fomething fo fingularly his own, that no painter could have diftinguished them more by their features, than the poet has by their manners. Nothing can be more exact than the distinctions he has obferved in the different degrees of virtues and vices. The fingle quality of courage is wonderfully diverfified in the feveral characters of the Iliad. That of Achilles is furious and intractable; that of Diomede forward, yet listening to advice, and fubject to command; that of Ajax is heavy, and felf-confiding: of Hector, active and vigilant; the courage of Agamemnon is infpirited by love of empire and ambition; that of Menelaus mixed with foftnefs and tendernefs for his people: we find in Idomeneus a plain direct foldier, in Sarpedon a gallant and generous one. Nor is this judicious and aftonishing diverfity to be found only in the principal quality which conftitutes the main of each character, but even in the under parts of it, to which he takes care to give a tincture of that principal one. For example, the main characters of Ulyffes and Neftor confift in wifdom; and they are diftinct in this, that the wifdom of one is artificial lar. But they have, befides, characters of couand various, of the other natural, open and regurage; and this quality alfo takes a different turn in each from the difference of his prudence; for one in the way depends ftill upon caution, the other upon experience. It would be endless to produce inftances of thefe kinds. The characters of Virgil are far from ftriking us in this open man

ner; they lie in a great degree hidden and undifinguished, and where they are marked most evidently, affect us not in proportion to those of Homer. His characters of valour are much alike; even that of Turnus feems no way peculiar but as it is in a fuperior degree; and we fee nothing that .differences the courage of Mneftheus from that of Sergelthus, Cloanthus, or the reft. In like manner, it may be remarked of Satius's heroes, that an air of impetuofity runs through them all; the fame horrid and favage courage appears in his Capaneus, Tydeus, Hippomedon, &c. They have a parity of character, which makes them feem brothers of one family. I believe when the reader is led into this track of reflection, if he will purfue it through the epic and tragic writers, he will be convinced how infinitely fuperior in this point the invention of Homer was to that of all others.

The fpeeches are to be confidered as they flow from the characters, being perfect or defective as they agree or disagree with the manners of thofe who utter them. As there is more variety of characters in the Iliad, fo there is of fpeeches, than in any other poem. Every thing in it has manners (as Ariftotle expreffes it) that is, every thing is acted or fpoken. It is hardly credible in a work of fuch length, how finall a number of lines are employed in narration. In Virgil the dramatic part is lefs in proportion to the narrative; and the fpeeches often confift of general reflections or thoughts, which might be equally juft | in any perfon's mouth upon the fame occafion. As many of his perfons have apparent characters, fo many of his fpeeches efcape being applied and judged by the rule of propriety. We oftener think of the author himfelf when we read Virgil, than when we are engaged in Homer: all which are the effects of a colder invention, that interefts us lefs in the aion described: Homcr makes us hearers, and Virgil leaves us readers.

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Nothing is fo furprifing as the deferiptions of Lis battles, which take up no lefs than half the fliad, and are fupplied with so vaft a variety of incidents, that no one bears a likenefs to another; fuch different kinds of deaths, that no two heroes are wounded in the fame manner; and fuch a profufion of noble ideas, that every battle rifes above the last in greatness, horror, and confufion. It is certain there is not near that number of images and defcriptions in any epic poet; though every one has affifted h mfelf with a great quantity out of him and it is evident of Virgil efpecially, that he has fcarce any comparisons which are not drawn from his mafter.

If we defcend from hence to the expreffion, we fee the bright imagination of Hemer shining out in the moit enlivened forms of it. We acknow ledge him the father of poctical di&ion, the firft who taught that language of the gods to men. His expreffion is like the colouring of fome great mafters, which difcovers itfelf to be laid on boldly, and executed with rapidity. It is indeed the ftrongest and most glowing imaginable, and touched with the greateft fpirit. Ariftotle had reafon to fay, He was the only poet who had found out living words; there are in him more daring figures and metaphors than in any good author whatever. An arrow is impatient to be on the wing, and a weapon thirfs to drink the blood of an enemy, and the like; yet his expreffion is never too big for the fenfe, but justly great in proportion to it. It is the fentiment that fwells and fills out the diction, which rifes from it, and forms itfelf about it: for in the fame degree that a thought is warmer, an expreffion will be brighter; as that is more ftrong, this will become more perfpicuous: like glafs in the furnace, which grows to a greater magnitude, and refines to a greater clearnofs, only as the breath within is more powerful, and the heat more intenfe.

If, in the next place, we take a view of the fenti- To throw his language more out of profe, Homents, the fame prefiding faculty is eminent in mer feems to have affected the compound epithets. the fublimity and fpirit of his thoughts. Lon-This was a fort of compofition peculiarly proper gines has given his opinion, that it was in this part Homer principally excelled. What were alone fufficient to prove the grandeur and excellence of his fentiments in general, is, that they have fo remarkable a parity with thofe of the fcriptare; Duport, in his Gnomologia Homerica, has collected innumerable instances of this fort. And it is with juftice an excellent modern writer allows, that if Virgil has not fo many thoughts that are low and vulgar, he has not fo many that are fublime and noble; and that the Roman author seldom rifes into very aftonishing fentiments, where he is not fired by the Iliad.

If we obferve his deferiptions, images, and fmiles, we fhall find the invention ftill predomir. To what else can we afcribe that vaft comPrebon of images of every fort, where we fec each circumftance of art, and individual of nature farmored together by the extent and fecundity of bis imagination; to which all things in their variens views prefented themselves in an inftant, and had their impreffions taken off to perfection at a hear? Nay, he not only gives us the full profpects of things, but feveral unexpected peculiarities and ide-views, unobferved by any painter but Homer.

to poetry, not only as it heightened the diction, but as it aflifted and filled the numbers with greater found and pomp, and likewife conduced in fonte meafure to thicken the images. On this laft confideration I cannot but attribute these alfo to the fruitfulness of his invention, fince (as he has managed them) they are a fort of fupernumerary pictures of the perfons or things to which they are joined. We fee the motions of Hector's plumes in the epithet apulaiskos, the landscape of Mount Neritus in that of εινοσίφυλλον, and to of others; which particular images could not have been infifted upon fo long as to exprefs them in a defcription (though but of a fingle line) without diverting the reader too much from the principal action or figure. As a metaphor is a fhort fimile, one of thefe epithets is a thort defcription.

Laftly, if we confider his verfification, we fhall be fenfible what a fhare of praife is due to his invention in that. He was not fatisfied with his language as he found it fettled in any one part of Greece, but fearched through its differing dialects with this particular view, to beautify and perfect his numbers: he confidered thefe as they had a great mixture of vowels and confonants, and ac

cordingly employed them as the verfe required either a greater fmoothnefs or ftrength. What he most affected was the lonic, which has a peculiar fweetnefs from its never ufing contractions, and from its cuftom of refolving the diphthongs into two fyllables; fo as to make the words open themfelves with a more fpreading and fonorous fluency. With this he mingled the Attic contractions, the broader Doric, and the feebler Eolic, which often rejects its afpirate, or takes off its accent; and completed this variety by altering fome letters with the licence of poetry. Thus his meafures, inftead of being fetters to his fenfe, were always in readiness to run along with the warmth of his rapture, and even to give a farther reprefentation of his notions, in the correfpondence of their founds to what they fignified. Out of all thefe he has derived that harmony, which makes us confefs he had not only the richest head, but the fineft ear in the world. This is fo great a truth, that whoever will but confult the tune of his verfes, even without understanding them (with the fame fort of diligence as we daily fee practifed in the cafe of Italian operas) will find more fweetnefs, variety, and majefty of found, than in any other language or poetry. The beauty of his numbers is allowed by the critics to be copied but faintly by Virgil hinfelf, though they are fo juft to afcribe it to the nature of the Latin tongue: indeed, the Greek has fome advantages both from the natural found of its words, and the turn and cadence of its verfe, which agree with the genius, of no other language: Virgil was very fenfible of this, and used the utmost diligence in working up a more intractable language to whatfoever graces it was capable of; and in particular never failed to bring the found of his line to a beautiful agreement with its fenfe. If the Grecian poet has not been fo frequently celebrated on this account as the Roman, the only reafon is that fewer critics have understood one language than the other. Dionyfius of Halicarnaffus has pointed out many of our author's beauties in this kind, in his treatife of the Compofition of Words. It fuffices at prefent to obferve of his numbers, that they flow with fo much cafe, as to make one imagine Homer had no other care than to tranfcribe as faft as the mufes dictated: and at the fame time with fo much force and infpired vigour, that they awaken and raife us like the found of a trumpet. They Toli along as a plentiful river, always in motion, an 1 always full: while we are borne away by a tide of verfe, the moft rapid, and yet the mot fmooth imaginable.

Thus, on whatever fide we contemplate Homer, what principally ftrikes us is his invention. It is that which forms the charader of each part of his work; and accordingly we find it to have made his fable more extenfive and copious than any other, his manners more lively and ftrongly marked, his fpeeches more affecting and tranfported, his fentiments more warm and fublime; his images and defcriptions are full and animated, his expreflion more raifed and daring, and his numbers more rapid and various. I hope in what has been faid of Virgil, with regard to any of thefe heads, I have no ways derogated from his character. Nothing is more abfurd or endless, than

the common method of comparing eminent writers by an oppofition of particular paffages in them, and forming a judgment from thence of their merit upon the whole. We ought to have a certain knowledge of the principal character and diftinguished excellence of each: it is in that we are to confider him, and in proportion to his degrec in that we are to admire him. No author or man ever excelled all the world in more than one faculty; and as Homer has done this in invention, Virgil has in judgment. Not that we are to think Homer wanted judgment, becaufe Virgil had it in a more eminent degree; or that Virgil wanted invention, becaufe Homer poffeffed a larger fhare of it: each of thefe great authors had more of both than perhaps any man befides, and are only faid to have lefs in comparifon with one another. Homer was the greater genius, Virgil the better artift. In one we moft admire the man, in the other the work: Homer hurries and tranfports us with a commanding impetuofity, Virgil leads us with an attractive majefty: Homer scatters with a generous profufion, Virgil beftows with a careful magnificence: Homer, like the Nile, Pours out his riches with a boundlefs overflow; Virgil like a river in its banks, with a gentle and conftant fream. When we behold their battles, methinks the two poets refemble the heroes they celebrate: Homer, boundlefs and irrefiflible as Achilles, bears all before him, and fhines more and more as the tumult increafes; Virgil, calmly daring like Ancas, appears undisturbed in the midst of the action; difpofes all about him, and conquers with tranquillity. And when we look upon their machines, Homer feems like his own Jupiter in his terrors, fhaking Olympus, fcattering the lightnings, and firing the heavens; Virgil, like the fame power in his benevolence, counfelling with the gods, laying plans for empires, and regularly ordering his whole creation.

But, after all, it is with great parts, as with great virtues; they naturally border on fome imperfection; and it is often hard to distinguish exactly where the virtue ends, or the fault begins. As prudence may fometimes fink to fufpicion, fo may a great judgment decline to coldnefs; and as magnaninity may run up to profufion or extravagance, fo may a great invention to redundancy or wildnefs. If we look upon Homer in this view, we fhall perceive the chief objections against him to proceed from fo noble a caufe as the excefs of this faculty.

Among thefe we reckon fome of his marvellous fictions, upon which fo much criticifm has been fpert, as furpaffing all the bounds of probability. Perhaps it may be with great and fuperior fouls, as with gigantic bodies, which exerting themfelves with unusual ftrength, exceed what is commonly thought the due proportion of parts, to become miracles in the whole; and like the old heroes of that make, commit fomething near extravagance, amid a feries of glories and inimitable perform a.es. Thus Homer has his fpeaking horfes, and Virgil his myrtles diftilling blood, where the lat ter has not fo much as contrived the eafy intervention of a deity to fave the probability.

It is owing to the fame vaft invention, that his fimiles have been thought too exuberant and full

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