It proceeds, I suppose, from the same reason, that having written the Iliad in the youth and vigour of his genius, he has furnished it with continued scenes of action and combat ; whereas the greatest part of the Odyssey is spent in narration, the delight of old age. 12 So that, in the Odyssey, Homer may with justice 12 Never did any criticism equal, much less exceed, this of Longinus in Sublimity. He gives his opinion, that Homer's Odyssey, being the work of his old age, and written in the decline of his life, and in every respect equal to the Iliad, except in violence and impetuosity, may be resembled to the setting-sun, whose grandeur continues the same, though its rays retain not the same fervent heat. Let us here take a view of Longinus, whilst he points out the beauties of the best writers, and at the same time his own. Equal himself to the most celebrated authors, he gives them the eulogies due to their merit. He not only judges his predecessors by the true laws and standard of good writing, but leaves posterity in himself a model and pattern of genius and judgment. DR. PEARCE. This fine comparison of Homer to the Sun, is certainly an honour to Poet and Critic. It is a fine re semblance, great, beautiful, and just. He describes Homer in the same elevation of thought, as Homer himself would have set off his heroes. Fine genius will shew its spirit, and in every age and clinate display its natural inherent vigour. This remark will, I hope, be a proper introduction to the following lines of Milton, where Grandeur, impaired and in decay, is described by an justice be resembled to the setting sun, whose grandeur still remains, without the meridian an allusion to the Sun in eclipse, by which our ideas are wonderfully raised to a conception of what it was in all its glory. he, above the rest In shape and gesture proudly eminent, That horrible grandeur in which Milton arrays his devils throughout his poem, is an honourable proof of the stretch of his invention, and the solidity of his judgment. Tasso, in his 4th Canto, has opened a counsel of devils, but his description of them is frivolous and puerile, savouring too much of old women's tales, and the fantastic dreams of ignorance. He makes some of them walk upon the feet of beasts, and dresses out their resemblance of a human head with twisting serpents instead of hair, horns sprout upon their foreheads, and after them they drag an immense length of tail. It is true, when he makes his Pluto speak (for he has made use of the old poetical names), he supports his character with a deal of spirit, and puts such words and sentiments into his mouth as are properly diabolical. His devil talks somewhat like Milton's, but looks not with half that horrible pomp, that height of obscured glory. heat 1 rent. heat of his beams. The style is not so grand and majestic as that of the Iliad; the Sublimity not continued with so much spirit, nor so uniformly noble; the tides of passion flow not along with so much profusion, nor do they hurry away the reader in so rapid a curThere is not the same volubility and quick variation of the phrase; nor is the work embellished with so many strong and expressive images. Yet, like the ocean, whose very shores, when deserted by the tide, mark out how wide it sometimes flows, so Homer's genius, when ebbing into all those fabulous and incredible ramblings of Ulysses, shews plainly how sublime it once had been. Not that I am forgetful of those storms, which are described in so terrible a manner in several parts of the Odyssey; of Ulysses's adventures with the Cyclop, and some other instances of the true Sublime. No; I am speaking indeed of old age, but it is the old age of Homer. However, it is evident, from the whole series of the Odyssey, that there is far more narration in it than action. I have digressed thus far merely for the sake of shewing, that, in the decline of their vigour, the greatest geniuses are apt to turn aside unto trifles. Those stories of shutting up the winds in a bag; of the men in Circe's island metamorphosed into swine, whom 13 Zoilus calls, little squeaking pigs; of Jupiter's being nursed by the doves like one of their young; of Ulysses in a wreck, when he took no sustenance for ten days; and those incredible absurdities concerning the death of the suitors: all these are undeniable instances of this in the Odyssey. 14 Dreams indeed they are, but such as even Jove might dream. Accept, my friend, in further excuse of this digression, my desire of convincing you, 13 Zoilus.] The most infamous name of a certain author of Thracian extraction, who wrote a treatise against the Iliad and Odyssey of Homer, and entitled it, Homer's Reprimand: which so exasperated the people of that age that they put the author to death, and sacrificed him as it were to the injured genius of Homer. His enterprise was certainly too daring, his punishment undoubtedly too severe. DR. PEARCE. 14 After Longinus had thus summed up the imperfections of Homer, one might imagine, from the usual bitterness of critics, that a heavy censure would immediately follow. But the true Critic knows how to pardon, to excuse, and to extenuate. Such conduct is uncommon, but just. We see by it at once the worth of the author, and the candour of the judge. With persons of so generous a bent, his Translator has fared as well as Homer. Mr. Pope's "faults (in that performance) 66 are the faults of a man, but his beauties are the beau❝ties of an angel.' ESSAY ON THE ODYSSEY. that that a decrease of the Pathetic in great orators and poets often ends in the 15 moral kind 15 The word moral does not fully give the idea of the original words, but our language will not furnish any other that comes so near it. The meaning of the passage is, that great authors, in the youth and fire of their genius, abound chiefly in such passions as are strong and vehement; but in their old age and decline, they betake themselves to such as are mild, peaceable, and sedate. At first they endeavour to move, to warm, to transport; but afterwards to amuse, delight, and persuade. In youth, they strike at the imagination; in age, they speak more to our reason. For though the passions are the same in their nature, yet, at different ages, they differ in degree. Love, for instance, is a violent, hot, and impetuous passion; Esteem is a sedate, and cool, and peaceable affection of the mind. The youthful fits and transports of the former, in progress of time, subside and settle in the latter. So a Storm is different from a Gale, though both are wind. Hence it is, that bold scenes of action, dreadful alarms, affecting images of terror, and such violent turns of passion, as require a stretch of fancy to express or to conceive, employ the vigour and maturity of youth, in which consists the nature of the Pathetic; but amusing narrations, calm descriptions, delightful landskips, and more even and peaceable affections, are agreeable in the ebb of life, and therefore more frequently attempted, and more successfully expressed by a declining genius. This is the moral kind of writing here mentioned, and by these particulars is Homer's Odyssey distinguished from his Iliad. The Taos and os so frequently used, and so important in the Greek critics, are fully explained by Quinctilian,in the sixth book of his Institut. Orat. |
