of him. But as the hinder feet of the horse ftuck "to the mountain, while the body reared up in the "air, the poet with great difficulty kept himself from "fliding off, infomuch that the fpectators often gave "him for gone, and cried out now and then, he was "tumbling." Thus Strada. I shall fum up all I have time to fay of Lucan, with another character, as it is given by one of the most polite men of the age he lived in, and who under the protection of the fame Pope Leo X. was one of the first restorers of learning in the latter end of the fifteenth and the beginning of the fixteenth century I mean, Johannes Sulpitius Verulanus, who, with th affiftance of Beroaldus, Badins, and fome others of the first form in the republic of letters, published. Lucan with notes at Rome in the year 1514, being the firft impreffion, if I mistake not, that ever was made of him. Poetry and Painting, with the knowledge of the Greek and Latin tongues, rose about that time to a prodigious height in a fmall compafs of years; and whatever we may think to the contrary, they have declined ever fince. Verulanus, in his dedication to Cardinal Palavicini, prefixed to that edition, has not only given us a delicate fententious criticism on his Pharfalia, but a beautiful judicious comparison between him and Virgil, and that in a file which in my opinion comes but little short of Salluft, or the writers of the Auguftine age. It is to the following purpose. I come now to the author I have commented upon, fays Sulpitius Verulanus, and fhall endeavour to de feribe him, as well as obferve in what he differs from that great poet. Virgil. Lucan, in the opinion of Fabius, is no less a pattern for orators than for poets; and always adhering frictly to truth, he feems to have as fair a pretence to the character of an historian; for he equally performs each of thefe offices. His expreffion is bold and lively; his fentiments are clear, bis fictions within compafs of probability, and his digreffions proper his orations artful, correct, manly, and full of matter. In the other parts of his work, he is grave, fluent, copious, and elegant; abounding with great variety, and wonderful erudition. And in unriddling the intricacy of contrivances, defigns and actions, his file is fo mafterly, that you rather feem to fee, than read of those transactions. But as for enterprizes and battles, you imagine them not related, but acted: towns alarmed, armies engaged, the eagerness and terror of the feveral foldiers, feem prefent to your view, As our author is frequent and fertile in descriptions; and none more skilful in difcovering the fecret fprings of action, and their rife in human paffions as he is an acute fearcher into the manners of men, and most dextrous in applying all forts of learning to his fubject: What other cofmographer, aftrologer, philofopher or mathematician do we ftand in need of, while we read him? Who has more judicously handled, or treated with more delicacy, whatever topics his fancy has led him to, or have cafually fallen in his way? Maro is, without doubt, a great poet; fo is Lucan. In fo apparent an equality, : it is hard to decide which excels: For both have juftly obtained the highest commendations. Maro is rich and magnificent; Lucan fumptuous and fplendid The first is difcreet, inventive, and fublime; the latter free, harmonious, and full of fpirit. Virgil feems to move with the devout folemnity of a reverend prelate: Lucan to march with the noble haughtiness of a victorious general. One owes moft to labour and application; the other to nature and practice: one lulls the foul with the sweetness and music of his verse, the other raises it by his fire and rapture. Virgil is fedate, happy in his conceptions, free from faults; Lucan quick, various and florid: He feems to fight with ftronger weapons, This with more. The firft furpaffes all in folid strength; the latter excels in vigour and poignancy. You would think that the one founds rather a larger and deeper toned trumpet; the other a lefs indeed, but clearer. In fhort, fo great is the affinity, and the ftruggle for precedence between them, that though nobody be allowed to come up to that Divinity in Maro; yet had He not been possessed of the chief feat on Parnaffus, our author's claim to it had been indisputable. Feb. 26, 1718 19. LUCAN'S LUCAN'S PHARSALIA. BOOK I. THE ARGUMENT. In the First Book, after a propofition of his fubject, a fhort view of the ruins occafioned by the civil wars in Italy, and a compliment to Nero, Lucan gives the principal causes of the Civil War, together with the characters of Cæfar and Pompey: after that, the ftory properly begins with Cæfar's paffing the Rubicon, which was the bound of his province towards Rome, and his march to Ariminum. Thither the Tribunes and Curio, who had been driven out of the city by the oppofite party, come to him, and demand his protection. Then follows his fpeech to his army, and a particular mention of the feveral parts of Gaul from which his troops were drawn together to his affiftance. From Cæfar, the poet turns to defcribe the general confternation at Rome, and the flight of great part of the fenate and people at the news of his march. From hence he takes occafion to relate the foregoing prodigies, which were partly an occafion of thofe panic terrors, and likewife the ceremonies that were used by the priests for purifying the city, and averting the anger of the gods; and then ends this Book with the infpiration and prophecy of a Roman matron, in which the enumerates the principal events which were to happen in the courfe of the Civil War. MATHIAN plains with flaughter cover'd o'er, EMAT rage u plows we civil wars before, Eftablish'd violence, and lawless might, A race A race renown'd, the world's victorious lords, Turn'd on themselves with their own hoftile fwords; 5 ΤΟ 15 20 What tracts of land, what realms unknown before, 25 Where fwift Araxes rolls his rapid tide: 30 Where |