the work. Homer hurries and tranfports us with a commanding impetuofity, Virgil leads. us with an attractive majesty: Homer scatters with a generous profusion, Virgil bestows with a careful magnificence: Homer, like the Nile, pours out his riches with a boundless overflow*; Virgil, like a river in its banks, with a gentle and conftant ftream. When we behold their battles, methinks the two Poets resemble the Heroes they celebrate: Homer, boundless and irrefiftible as Achilles, bears all before him, and fhines more and more as the tumult increasest; Virgil, calmly daring like * He gave, in the first edition, "With a fudden overflow:" which fuited Homer as well, but not the Nile; and was therefore judiciously fupplanted for the prefent reading. Editor. + Our poet had in view at this place what his author fays of Diomed in the beginning of the fifth Iliad: Δαιε οἱ εκ κορυθΘ τε και ασπιδος ακάματον πυρ: or rather a paffage in Virgil, where that masterly artificer from this fpark of his preceptor has kindled as grand a blaze of fublimity, as the breath of poetical inspiration ever raised, fince the nativity of Genius : Ipfe inter primos præftanti corpore Turnus Vertitur arma tenens, et toto vertice fupra eft: Æneas, appears undisturbed in the midst of the action; disposes all about him *, and conquers with tranquillity. And when we look upon their machines, Homer feems like his own Jupiter in his terrors, fhaking Olympus, fcattering the lightnings, and firing the Heavens; Virgil, like the fame power in his benevolence, counselling with the Gods, laying plans for There is not, perhaps, such a daring imagination in all Homer. Milton, however, in a strong, but just and meritorious, confidence of his own powers, ventured on the conteft, (" like a young war"riour with one of established reputation," as Longinus expreffes himfelf on Plato's competition for the palm of eloquence with Homer) and who fhall pronounce the Victor? Sat HORROUR plum'd! on his creft Par. Loft, iv. 988. For the gratification of the English reader, I fhall be prefumptuous enough to offer my own tranflation of Virgil's verfes; as Dryden feems feeble, and Pitt diffufe: In fize and grace o'er all the Martial train, Fell and more fell her ire, fierce and more fierce the blaze! * Addifon's celebrated fimile in his Campaign, too well known to need quotation, was probably present to our author's recollection at this place. empires, and regularly ordering his whole creation *. BUT after all, it is with great parts, as with great virtues, they naturally border on fome * This contraft of Homer and Virgil by our poet, that of Demofthenes and Cicero by Quintilian, and that of Dryden and Pope (conftructed on those of his predeceffors) by Dr. Johnson, particularly the latter, in fertility of thought, elegance of figure, energetic pregnancy of expreffion, and juftness of application, may be ranked, in my opinion, among the nobleft and moft vigorous efforts of critical ingenuity. The comparison, which Homer applies to Diomed, may be transferred with accurate appropriation to himself; Iliad v. 113: Rapt through the ranks, he thunders o'er the plain; Thus from high hills the torrent, fwift and ftrong, And flatted vineyards, one fad waste appear! which, with trivial alterations, is our poet's fublime verfion of the paffage. Virgil may be fitly compared to his own Venus: his poetry is the fplendour, the fragrance, the magnificence, and the ftateliness, of a Divinity: rofeâ cervice refulfit, Ambrofiæque comæ divinum vertice odorem Et vera inceffu patuit Dea. imperfection*; and it is often hard to distinguish exactly where the virtue ends, or the fault begins. As prudence may fometimes fink to fufpicion, so may a great judgment decline to coldness; and as magnanimity may run up to profufion or extravagance, fo may a great invention to redundancy or wildness. If we look upon Homer in this view, we fhall perceive the chief objections against him to proceed from fo noble a caufe as the excefs of this faculty. AMONG these we may reckon fome of his marvellous fictions, upon which fo much criticifm has been spent, as furpaffing all the bounds of probability. Perhaps it may be with great and fuperior fouls, as with gigantick bodies, which exerting themselves with unusual strength, exceed what is commonly thought the due proportion of parts, to become miracles in the whole; and like the old heroes *Hence that remark of Horace, epist. i. 6. 15: Infani fapiens nomen ferat, æquus iniqui, Ultrà quàm fatis eft virtutem fi petat ipfam. But the maxim of both poets, I apprehend, to be fallacious, and grounded on a mifufe of terms. Editor. of that make, commit fomething near extravagance, amidst a series of glorious and inimitable performances. Thus Homer has his Speaking borfes, and Virgil his myrtles diftilling blood, where the latter has not fo much as contrived the easy intervention of a Deity to fave the probability. It is owing to the same vast invention, that his Similes have been thought too exuberant and full of circumstances. The force of this faculty is feen in nothing more, than in its inability to confine itself to that single circumftance upon which the comparifon is grounded: it runs out into embellishments of additional images, which however are fo managed as not to overpower the main one. His fimiles are like pictures, where the principal figure has not only its proportion given agreeable to the original, but is also set off with occafional ornaments and prospects. The fame will account for his manner of heaping a number of comparisons together in one breath, when his fancy suggested to him at once fo many various and correfpondent images. The reader will easily |