defign to let us know the changes of things. I dare fay that if Ovid had not religiously observed the reports of the ancient Mythologifts, we fhould have feen Phaeton turned into fome creature or other that hates the light of the fun; or perhaps into an eagle that ftill takes pleasure to gaze on it. P. 185. 1. 12. The frighted Nile, &c.] Ovid has made a great many pleafant images towards the latter end of this story. His verfes on the Nile, Nilus in extremum fugit perterritus orbem, are as noble as Virgil could have written; but then he ought not to have mentioned the channel of the fea afterwards, Mare contrahitur, ficcæque eft campus Arenæ, because the thought is too near the other. The image of the Cyclades is a very pretty one; -Ques altum texerat æquor but to tell us that the fwans grew warm in Cayfter, -Medio volucres caluere Cäyftro, and that the Dolphins durft not leap, --Ne fe fuper æquora curvi Tellere confuetas aunt De phizes in auras, is is intolerably trivial on fo great a fubject as the P. 186. 1. 13.] The Earth at length, &c.] We On EUROPA's Rape, page 221. P. 222. 1. 9. The dignity of empire, &c.] This Non bene conveniunt, nec in und fede morantur, without which the whole fable would have ap- P. 224. 1. 7. The frighted nymph looks, &c.] -Elufam defignat imagine tauri Europen: verum taurum, freta vera putaras, it is better defcribed in Arachne's picture in the (who had more art and reflexion than the Grecian) to take hold of all opportunities to defcribe the picture of any place or action, which they generally do better than they could the place or action itself; because in the defcription of a picture you have a double fubject before you, either to describe the picture itself, or what is represented in it. On the Stories in the Third Book, FAB. I. There is so great a variety in the arguments of the Metamorphofes, that he who would treat of them rightly, ought to be a master of all styles, and every different way of writing. Ovid indeed shows himself most in a familiar story, where the chief grace is to be eafy and natural; but wants neither strength of thought nor expreffion, when he endeavours after it, in the more fublime and manly subjects of his poem. In the present fable the ferpent is terribly defcribed, and his behaviour very well imagined, the actions of both parties in the encounter are natural, and the language that represents them more strong and masculine than what we ufually meet with in this poet: If there be any faults in the narration, they are thefe, perhaps, which follow. P. 228. 1. 12. Spire above Spire, &c.] Ovid, to make his ferpent more terrible, and to raise the character of his champion, has given too great a loose to his imagination, and exceeded all the bounds of probability. He tells us, that when he 1 he raised up but half his body he over-looked a tall foreft of oaks, and that his whole body was as large as that of the ferpent in the fkies. None but a madman would have attacked fuch a monster as this is described to be; nor can we have any notion of a mortal's ftanding against him. Virgil is not afhamed of making Eneas y and tremble at the fight of a far lefs formidable foe, where he gives us the description of Polyphemus, in the third book; he knew very well that a monster was not a proper enemy for his hero to encounter: But we should certainly have feen Cadmus hewing down the Cyclops, had he fallen in Ovid's way: Or if Statius's little Tydeus had been thrown on Sicily, it is probable he would not have spared one of the whole brotherhood. Phanicas, five illi tela parabant, Sive fugam, five ipfe timor prohibebat utrumque, Ibid. 1. 19. In vain the Tyrians, &c.] The poet could not keep up his narration all along, in the grandeur and magnificence of an heroic ftyle: He has here funk into the flatness of profe, where he tells us the behaviour of the Tyrians at the fight of the ferpent: Tegimen direpta Leoni Pellis erat; telum fplendenti Lancea ferro, And in a few lines after lets drop the majesty of his verfe, for the fake of one of his little turns. How does he languish in that which feems a laboured line! Triftia fanguineâ lambentem vulnera linguá. lingua. And what pains does he take to exprefs the ferpent's breaking the force of the ftroke, by fhrinking back from it! Sed leve vulnus erat, quia fe retrahebat ab illu, Læfaque colla dabat retrò, plagamque federe Cedendo fecit, nec longiùs ire finebat. P. 232. 1. 14. And flings the future, &c.] The defcription of the men rifing out of the ground is as beautiful a paffage as any in Ovid: It ftrikes the imagination very ftrongly, we fee their motion in the first part of it, and their multitude in the Mellis virorum at laft. Ibid. 1. 19. The breathing harvest, &c.] Mefis clypeata virorum. The beauty in these words would have been greater, had only Meffis virorum been expreffed without clypeata; for the reader's mind would have been delighted with two fuch different ideas compounded together, but can fcarce attend to fuch a complete image as is made out of all three. This way of mixing two different ideas together in one image, as it is a great surprise to the reader, is a great beauty in poetry, if there be fufficient ground for it in the nature of the thing that is defcribed. The Latin poets are very full of it, especially the worst of them, for the more correct use it but fparingly, as indeed the nature of things will feldom afford a juft occafion for it. When any thing we defcribe has accidentally in it fome quality that feems repugnant to its nature, or is very extraordinary and uncommon in things of that fpecies, fuch a compounded image as we are now speaking of is made, by turning |