altering fome letters with the licence of poetry. Thus his measures, instead of being fetters to his fenfe, were always in readinefs to run along with the warmth of his rapture, and even to give a farther representation 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 finest ear in the world. This is fo great a truth, that whoever will but confult the tune of his verses, even without understanding them (with the fame fort of diligence as we daily fee practifed in the cafe of Italian Operas) will find more sweetness, variety, and majefty of found, than in any other language or poetry. The beauty of his numbers is allowed by the criticks to be copied but faintly by Virgil himself, though they are so just to ascribe 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 whatsoever 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 criticks have understood one language than the other. Dionyfius of Halicarnaffus has pointed out many of our Author's beauties in this kind, in his treatise of the Compofition of Words. It 3 fuffice fue their observations through an uniform and bounded walk of Art, than to comprehend the vast and various extent of Nature. Our author's work is a wild paradife, where if we cannot fee all the beauties fo diftinctly as in an ordered garden, it is only because the number of them is infinitely greater. It is like a copious nursery, which contains the feeds and first productions of every kind, out of which those who followed him have but felected fome particular plants, each according to his fancy, to cultivate and beautify. If fome things are too luxuriant, 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 those of a stronger nature. It is to the strength of this amazing invention we are to attribute that unequalled fire and rapture, which is fo forcible in Homer, that no man of a true poetical fpirit is mafter of himself while he reads him. What he writes, is of the most animated nature imaginable; every thing moves, every thing lives, and is put in action. If a council be called, or a battle fought, you are not coldly informed of what was faid or done as from a third perfon; the reader is hurried out of himfelf by the force of the Poet's imagination, and turns in one place to a hearer, in another to a spectator. The courfe of his verfes resembles that of the army he defcribes, او Οἱ δ ̓ ἄρ ̓ ἴσαν, ὡσεί τε πυρὶ χθὼν πᾶσα νέμοιο. "They pour along like a fire that fweeps the whol eart "earth before it." It is however remarkable that his fancy, which is every where vigorous, is not discovered immediately at the beginning of his poem in its fullest fplendor: it grows in the progress both upon himself and others, and becomes on fire, like a chariot-wheel, by it own rapidity. Exact difpofition, just thought, correct elocution, polished numbers, may have been found in a thousand; but this poetical fire, this “ vivida vis animi,” in a very few. Even in works where all thofe are imperfect or neglected, this can overpower criticism, and make us admire even while we difapprove. Nay, where this appears, though attended with abfurdities, it brightens all the rubbish about it, till we fee nothing but its own fplendor. This fire is difcerned in Virgil, but difcerned as through a glass, reflected from Homer, more fhining than fierce, but every where equal and conftant: in Lucan and Statius, it burfts out in fudden, fhort, and interrupted flashes: in Milton it glows like a furnace kept up to an uncommon ardor by the force of art: in Shakespeare, it ftrikes before we are aware, like an accidental fire from heaven: but in Homer, and in him only, it burns every where clearly, and every where irrefiftibly. I fhall here endeavour to fhew, how this vaft Invention exerts itself in a manner fuperior to that of any poet, through all the main conftituent parts of his work, as it is the great and peculiar characteristic which diftinguishes him from all other authors. This ftrong and ruling faculty was like a powerful star, which, in the violence of its course, drew all things loves of Dido and Æneas are taken from thofe of Medea and Jason in Apollonius, and several others in the fame manner. To proceed to the Allegorical Fable: if we reflect upon thofe innumerable knowledges, thofe fecrets of nature and physical philofophy, which Homer is generally fuppofed to have wrapped up in his Allegories, what a new and ample scene of wonder may this confideration afford us! how fertile will that imagination appear, which was able to clothe all the properties of elements, the qualifications of the mind, the virtues and vices, in forms and perfons; and to introduce them into 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 fcience 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 so great an invention, as might be capable of furnishing all thofe allegorical parts of a poem. The Marvellous Fable includes whatever is supernatural, and especially the machines of the Gods. He feems the first who brought them into a system of machinery for poetry, and fuch a one as makes its greateЯ importance and dignity. For we find thofe authors who have been offended at the literal notion of the Gods, constantly laying their accusation against Homer as the chief fupport of it. But whatever cause there might be to blame his machines in a philofophical or religious view, they are fo perfect in the poetic, that mankind 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 unfuccefsful; and after all the various changes of times and religions, his Gods continue to this day the Gods of poetry. We come now to the characters of his perfons; and here we shall find no author has ever drawn fo many, with fo vifible and furprizing 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 distinguished them more by their features, than the poet has by their manners. Nothing can be more exact than the diftinctions he has obferved in the different degrees of virtues and vices. The fingle quality of courage is wonderfully diversified in the feveral characters of the Iliad. That of Achilles is furious and intractable; that of Diomede forward, yet liftening 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 softness and tenderness for his people: we find in Idomeneus a plain direct foldier, in Sarpedon |