Reynaldo courage; but he himself, as well as others, cut Æneas in pieces, making him civil, popular, eloquent, politic, religious, valiant, without any predominant leading action or principle; which piety certainly is not: For a man may profeffedly be very pious and religious, and at the fame time sluggish, dastardly, zealous without knowledge, impolitic, and inglorious, by failing and withdrawing in the day of trial; but courage founded upon real piety, that is, a firm faith and trust in God, will stand, like a houfe built upon a rock, unshaken in adverse weather, when the winds blow, the floods arife, and beat vehemently upon it, or to make use of Virgil's fimile, Book IV. 441. where he likens the refolution of Æneas not yielding to the intreaties of Dido to a sturdy oak, refifting the winds.

By what did Æneas attract the admiration and love of Dido, but by his forti pectore et armis? This fhe herself confeffed, En. IV. II. to her fifter, with this obfervation, degeneres animos timor arguit.

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The hero indeed, all take for granted, is Æneas, notwithstanding his name doth not occur till the ninety-fixth line; fo that for any thing, which positively appears, both the action and hero of the Æneid remains to be gueffed at, or at least not to be known, but by reading a great part, or the whole of the poem.

Might I be allowed to guess, as well as others, I would tranflate arma courage, or personal valour, and fay, that this is the action, which the Sibyl impreffed upon his mind, when the bid him-tu ne cede malis, fed contra audentior ito, as the Lord did Joshua, "Be strong and of a good courage."

Thus we have in Homer, Virgil and Milton, a certain, fimple, leading action : in Homer the action is a vice to be corrected, and in Milton; but in Virgil it is a virtue to be rewarded.

Homer traces the paffion of anger through all its various degrees, motives and shapes, virtuous and vicious, particularly with the ill effects of pride, infolence, rashness, revenge, tyranny and cruelty, defignedly and principally

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principally in the perfon of Achilles, and accidentally in other Grecian and Trojan generals, terminating fatally in the death of Hector, and in unhappiness to Achilles for the lofs of his friend Patroclus, as will be seen in our perusal of the poem. Virgil on the contrary describes the excellency of courage, both kinds of it, that which is commonly called bravery and selfconfident boldness, owing mostly to ignorance, as well as to the temper and conftitution of the body, and that other less oftentatious and more rarely found, of the mind, that is to fay, an humble refolution, a calm, fteady perfeverance, called fortitude and magnanimity, which arises from reflexion and virtuous habits, especially those of temperance, prudence, juftice, mercy and piety, joined with activity, difcretion, decency and dignity of behaviour; or as Cicero de Officiis, Book II. S. 10. the latter end, and beginning of S. 11, calls

animi defpicientia, that fpecies of high mindedness, which enables a man to enjoy the good things of this life with moderation, and to face its evils without fear.

This is the comprehensive virtue, which fhines forth in the perfon of Æneas and his companions, overcoming the oppofite vices in the characters of his enemies, and ending happily with the settlement of himself and posterity in the kingdom of Italy.

Hence it is easy to imagine that the Iliad must address itself anxiously, to the hurrying and bustling paffions of surprise and terror, but the Æneid principally to the soft, quiet, and more pleafing ideas of generofity, friendship, and good policy.

Milton more bustling, and even more plea ing than Homer and Virgil, paints original fin and all its evil confequences, affecting the mind of the offenders and readers, at firft and for fome time, with seriousness, forrow, and felf condemnation, with indignation and hatred against the feducer, and with fear of punishment from the Creator, but in the conclufion with the most melting and joyous fenfations of faith, hope, gratitude, praise and love, on the affurance of pardon, and of a happy deliverance by a promised Redeemer.

It has been objected to Milton, that the Paradife Loft is unsuccessful and without a hero, unless the Devil be confidered as fuch; and Addifon too easily admitting the objection of Dryden, thrown out at random, or, "ventured without much confideration," in his tedious dedication of the Æneis, full of words, witticism and flattery, like a large field planted with shewy, useless trees, fhrubs and flowers, but barren of corn, the vine or olive, good fenfe and true criticism, would obviate it by supposing Paradife Loft not to be an heroic, but a mere narrative or hiftorical poem; and that he, who looks for a hero in it, fearches for that which Milton never intended.

The objection feems to be the play of an adventurous and libertine imagination; for had it been the refult of ferious deliberation, one would wonder how it could be made to the poem of Milton, and not alfo to that of Homer, who is equally, if not more liable, to the fame objection.

Homer mentions exprefsly the hero, namely, Achilles, and the action, namely,

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