mended. The Extracts in this book are defigned only as fpecimens of that elegant and ufeful work, and for the ufe of Schonboys. It would be unjust, and indeed impracticable, to give any more Extracts, confiftently with the neceffary limits prescribed to this book. § 141. On the Ancient Writers; and on the Labour with which the Ancients compofed. The Ancients (of whom we fpeak) had good natural parts, and applied them right; they underflood their own firength, and were matters of the fubject they undertook; they had a rich genius carefully cultivated; in their writings you have nature without wildnefs, and art without of tentation. For it is vain to talk of nature and genius, without care and diligent application to refine and improve them. The fineft paradife will run wild, and lofe both its pleasure and ufefulness, without a skilful hand conftantly to tend and prune it. Though thefe generous fpirits were infpired with the love of true praife, and had a modeft affurance of their own abilities; yet they were not fo felf-fufficient, as to imagine their first thoughts were above their own review and correction, or their laft above the judgment of their friends. They fubmitted their compofitions to the cenfure of private perions and public affemblies. They reviewed, altered, and polifhed, till they had good hopes they could prefent the world with a finished piece. And fo great and happy was their judgment, that they understood when they had done well, and knew the critical feafon of laying afide the file. For, as those excellent maflers, Pliny and Quinctilian, obferve, there may be an intemperance in correction; when an ingenious man has fuch an excess of modefty and faulty diftruft of himself, that he wears off fone of the neceffary and ornamental parts of his difcourfe, infead of polishing the rough, and taking off the fuperfluous. Thefe immortal wits did not prepofterously refolve first to be authors, and then iramediately fall to writing without ftudy and experience; but took care to furnish themfelves with knowledge by clofe thought, felect converfation, and reading; and to gain all the information and light that was neceffary to qualify them to do juftice to their fubject. Then, after they had begun to write, they did not hurry on their pen with speed and impatience to appear 7 in the view of the world; but they took difcourfe all poffible ftrength and orna time and pains to give every part of their ment, and to make the whole compofition uniform and beautiful. They wifely conf dered, that productions which come before their due time into the world, are feldim perfect or long-lived; and at an author who defigns to write for pofterity, as well as the prefent generation, cannot fudy a work with too deep care and refolute iaduitry. Varus tells us of his incomparab'e friend Virgil, that he composed but very few verfes in a day. That confummate philo fopher, critic, and poet, regarded the va lue, not number of his lines; and never thought too much pains could be bestowed on a poem, that he might reafonably es. pect would be the wonder of all ages, and laft out the whole duration of time. Quinc tilian affures us, that Salluft wrote with abundance of deliberation and prudent caution; and indeed that fully appears from his complete and exquifite writings. Demofthenes laboured night and day, outwatched the poor mechanic in Athens (that was forced to perpetual drudgery to fupport himself and his family) till he had ac quired fuch a mattery in his noble profeífion, fuch a rational and over-ruling vehe mence, fuch a perfect habit of nervous and convincing eloquence, as enabled him to defy the ftrongeft oppofition, and to tri umph over envy and time. Plato, when he was eighty years old, was bufily employed in the review and amendment of his divine dialogues: and fome people are fevere upon Cicero, that in imitation of Plato, he was fo fcrupulous whether he ought to write ad Piraa or in Piraa, Piraum, or in Piræum, that now in the fixtieth year of his age, in the fury of the civil wars, when he knew not how to difpofe of his family, and fearce expected fafety, he earnestly intreated his noble and learned friend Atticus to refolve that diffculty, and eafe him of the perplexity which it created him. Whatever raillery or re flection fome humourfome wits may make upon that great man's exactness and nicety in that refpect, and at fuch a time; 'tis a plain proof of his wonderful care and dili gence in his compofition, and the trict regard he had to the purity and propriety of his language. The ancients fo accurately underflood, and fo indefatigably ftudied their fubject, that they fearce ever fail fail to finish and adorn every part with notions of God and religion, by taking his ftrong fenfe, and lively expreffion. Blackwall. $142. On HOMER. "Tis no romantic commendation of Homer, to say, that no man understood perfons and things better than he; or had a deeper infight into the humours and paffions of human nature. He reprefents great things with fuch fublimity, and little ones with fuch propriety, that he always makes the one admirable, and the other pleafant. He is a perfect mafter of all the lofty graces of the figurative ftyle, and all the parity and eafineis of the plain. Strabo, the excellent geographer and historian, affures us, that Homer has defcribed the places and countries of which he gives account, with that accuracy, that no man can imagine who has not feen them; and no man but must admire and be astonished who has. His poems may juftly be compared with that fhield of divine workmanthip fo inimitably reprefented in the eighteenth book of the Iliad. You have there exact images of all the actions of war, and employments of peace; and are entertained with the delightful view of the universe. Homer has all the beauties of every dialect and ftyle fcattered through his writings; he is fcarce inferior to any other poet, in the poet's own way and excellency; but excels all others in force and comprehenfion of genius, elevation of fancy, and immenfe copioufnefs of invention. Such a fovereignty of genius reigns all over his works, that the ancients efteemed and admired him as the great High Priest of nature, who was admitted into her inmoft choir, and acquainted with her moft folemn myfteries. The great men of former ages, with one voice, celebrate the praifes of Homer; and old Zoilus has only a few followers in thefe later times, who detract from him either for want of Greek, or from a fpirit of conceit and contradiction. Thefe gentlemen tell us, that the divine Plato himself banished him out of his commonwealth; which, fay they, must be granted to be a blemish upon the poet's reputation. The reafon why Plato would not let Homer's poems be in the hands of the fubjects of that government, was becaufe he did not efteem ordinary men capable readers of them. They would be apt to pervert his meaning, and have wrong bold and beautiful allegories in too literal a fenfe. Plato frequently declares that he loves and admires him as the best, the most pleafant, and the divineft of all the poets; and ftudioufly imitates his figurative and myftical way of writing. Though he forbad his works to be read in public, yet he would never be without them in his own clofet. Though the philofopher pretends, that for reasons of ftate he must remove him out of his city; yet he declares he would treat him with all poffible refpe& while he ftaid; and difmifs him laden with prefents, and adorned with garlands (as the priests and fupplicants of their gods used to be); by which marks of honour, all people wherever he came might be warned and induced to efteem his perfon facred, and receive him with due veneration. $143. On THEOCRITUS. Ibid. If we mention Theocritus, he will be another bright inftance of the happy abilities and various accomplishments of the ancients. He has writ in feveral forts of poetry, and fucceeded in all. It feems unneceflary to praise the native fimplicity and eafy freedom of his paftorals; when Virgil himself fometimes invokes the mufe of Syracufe; when he imitates him through all his own poems of that kind, and in feveral paffages tranflates him. Quinctilian fays of our Sicilian bard, that he is admirable in his kind; but when he adds, that his mufe is not only fhy of appearing at the bar, but in the city too, 'tis evident this remark must be confined to his paftorals. In feveral of his other poems, he fhews fuch ftrength of reafon and politenefs, as would qualify him to plead among the orators, and make him acceptable in the courts of princes. In his fmaller poems of Cupid flung, Adonis killed by the Boar, &c. you have the vigour and delicacy of Anacreon; in his Hylas, and Combat of Pollux and Amycus, he is much more pathetical, clear and pleafant, than Apollonius on the fame, or any other fubject. In his converfation of Alcmena and Tirefias, of Hercules and the old fervant of Augeas, in Cynicea and Thyonichus, and the women going to the ceremonies of Adonis, there is all the eafiness and engaging familiarity of humour and dialogue, which reign in the Odyfleis; and in Hercules destroying the lion of Nemæa, the fpirit and majefty of the Iliad. The panegyric upon king Ptolemy is juftly ef tecmed teemed an original and model of perfection in that way of writing. Both in that excellent poem, and the noble hymn upon Caftor and Pollux, he has praised his gods and his hero with that delicacy and dexterity of addrefs, with thefe fublime and graceful expreffions of devotion and refpect, that in politenefs, fmoothness of turn, and a refined art of praifing without of fence, or appearance of flattery, he has equalled Callimachus: and in loftinefs and flight of thought, fcarce yields to Pindar or Homer. Blackwall. $144. On HERODOTUS. Herodotus had gained experience by travelling over all his own country, Thrace and Scythia; he travelled likewife to Arabia, Palestine, and Egypt; where he carefully viewed the chief curiofities and most remarkable places, and converfed with the Egyptian prielts, who informed him of their ancient hiftory, and acquainted him with their customs, facred and civil. Indeed he fpeaks of their religious rites with fuch plainnefs and clearnels in fome cafes, and fuch referve and reverence in others, that I am apt to believe he was initiated into their ceremonies, and confecrated a priest of fome of their orders *. poffible) which he could any place in Italy; lays a fiege, draws up an army, with kill and conduct fearce inferior to Cæfar himfelf. Was there as much charm in the con verfation of this extraordinary man, as there is in his writings, the gentleman of Cales would not repent of his long journey, who came from thence only to fee Livy, upon the fame of his incomparable eloquence, and other celebrated abilities; and we have reafon to believe he received fatisfaction, becaufe, after he had feen Livy, and converfed with him, he had no curiofity to fe Rome, to which he was fo near; and which at that time was, for its magnificence and glories, one of the greatest wonders of the whole earth. Thefe two princes of Greek and Roman hiftory tell a flory, and make up a defcrip tion, with inexpreffible grace; and fo de licately mix the great and little circumftances, that there is both the utmost dig. nity and pleasure in it. Ibid. § 146. Much of their Beauty arifes from Variety. The reader is always entertained with an agreeable variety, both of matter and ftyle, in Herodotus and Livy. And indeed Thus, being acquainted with the most every author that expects to pleafe, mut famous countries, and valuable things, and gratify the reader with variety: that is the knowing the most confiderable perfons of univerfal charm, which takes with people the age, he applied himself to write the of all tatles and complexions. "Tis an ap history of the Greeks and Barbarians: and petite planted in us by the Author of os? performed the noble work with that judg-whofe immenfe defires nothing but an is being; and is natural to an human foul, ment, faithfulness, and eloquence, that gained him the approbation and applause of the most auguft affembly in the world at that time, the flower of all Greece, met together at the Olympic games. His hiftory opens to the reader all the antiquities of Greece, and gives light to all her authors. Ibid. $145. On LIVY. We do not find that Livy had travelled much, or been employed in military affairs; yet what he might want in experience, was happily fupplied by wonderful parts and eloquence, by fevere ftudy, and unwearied endeavours after knowledge and information; fo that he defcribes all the countries, towns, feas, and ports, whither the Roman legions and navies came, with near the fame accuracy and perfection (if *See Herodot. Gale's Edition, lib. ii. fect. 3. p. 91. fect. 65. p. 114. fect. 171. p. 156. finite good, and unexhaufted pleasure, c fully gratify. The moft palatable dish be comes naufeous, if it be always fet before a man: the most mufical and harmonice notes, too often and unfeasonably ftruck, grate the ear like the jarring of the mot harth and hateful difcord. Thefe authors, and the rest of their fi rit and elevation, were fenfible of this; and therefore you find a continual change, and judicious variation, in their ftyle and numbers. One paffage appears to be learned, and carefully laboured; an unftudied cafites, and becoming negligence, runs through the next. One fentence turns quick a fhort; and another, immediately following runs into longer measures, and fpreads felf with a fort of elegant and beant luxuriancy. They feldom ufe many perio together, confifting of the fame number f members; nor are the members of their pe of it fet right both the fenfe and the connection, without altering a letter; Tís av & péa DorCov deídor; "Phoebus is an unexhaufted fubject of praife;"-among all his glorious qualifications and exploits, what poet can be fo dull, what wit fo barren, as to want materials for an hymn to his honour?-In the fourth verfe of the eleventh epigram of Theocritus, there wanted a little point in the word praderns, which took off all the fprightlinefs and turn of the thought; which Daniel Heinfius luckily restored, by changing the nom. fing. probárns, into the dat. plur. ὑμνοθέτης. "The friends of Eufthenes the poet, gave him, though a ftranger, an honourable burial in a foreign country; and the poet was extremely beloved by 'em." How flat and infipid! According to the amendment it runs thus: "The acquaintance of Eufthenes buried him honourably, though in a foreign country, and he was extremely beloved by his brother poets themfelves." For a man to be mightily honoured by strangers, and extremely beloved by people of the fame profeffion, who are apt to malign and envy one another, is a very high commendation of his candour, and excellent temper. That very valuable amendment in the fixth line of Horace's preface to his odes, has cleared a difficulty, which none of the critics could handsomely acquit themselves of before the admirable Dr. Bentley; and has refcued the pcet, eminent for the clearnefs of his ftyle, from the imputation of harshness and obfcurity in the very beginning, and first addrefs to his reader; where peculiar care aad accuracy are expected. It would be endlefs to mention the numerous places in the ancients happily restored and illuftrated by that great man; who is not only a found and difcerning critic, but a clean and vigorous writer, excellently skilled in all divine and human literature; to whom all scholars are obliged for his learned performances upon the claffics; and all mankind for his noble and glorious de fence of religion. The learned Meu:fius was ftrangely puzzled with a paffage in Minutius Felix*; and altered the text with fuch intolerable bolduefs, as, if allowed, would foon pervert and destroy all good authors; which the ingenious editor of that father has cleared, by putting the points of diftinction in their proper places. Reges tantum regni fui, per officia miniftrorum, univerfa novêre. Meurfius had difguifed Min. Felix, Camb. edit. by Davis. § 33, p. 163. not. 7. and deformed the paffage thus: Reges fia. tum regni fui per officia miniftrorum diverfa novére. Dr. Bentley has made a certain emendation in Horace's Art of Poetry, only by altering the places of two lines, making that which was the forty-fixth in the com mon books, the forty-fifth in his own beautiful editions. Blackwall $150. On feveral Advantages which the Claffics enjoyed. It was among the advantages which the chief claffics enjoyed, that most of them were placed in profperous and plentiful circumftances of life, raifed above ani ous cares, want, and abject dependante They were perfons of quality and forte courtiers and ftatefmen, great travelle and generals of armies, poffeffed of the higheft dignities and pofts of peace and war. Their riches and plenty furnished them with leifure and means of study; and their employments improved them in knowledge and experience. How lively mut they defcribe thofe countries, and remarkab places, which they had attentively viewed with their own eyes! What faithful and emphatical relations were they enabled to make of thofe councils, in which they pe fided; of those actions in which they wer prefent and commanded! Herodotus, the father of history, befides the advantages of his travels and genera knowledge, was fo confiderable in power and intereft, that he bore a chief par expelling the tyrant Lygdamis, who ufurped upon the liberties of his nati country. Thucydides and Xenophon were of tinguifhed eminence and abilities, both civil and military affairs; were rich a noble; had ftrong parts, and a carefu education in their youth, completed by vere ftudy in their advanced years: fhort, they had all the advantages and complishments both of the retired and tive life. Sophocles bore great offices in Athe led their armies and in ftrength of and noblenefs of thought and exp was not unequal to his colleague Peric who, by his commanding wirdom and quence, influenced all Greece, and wa to thunder and lighten in his harangus, Euripides, famous for the purity of Attic flyle, and his power in moving paffions, especially the fofter ones of g and pity, was invited to, gener! entertained in, the court of Ar and |