gine by the whole courfe of their parallels, that thefe criticks never fo much as heard of Homer's having written firft; a confideration which whoever compares these two Poets, ought to have always in his eye *. Some accufe him for the fame things which they overlook or praise in the other; as when they prefer the fable and moral of the Æneis to those of the Iliad, for the fame reasons which might set the Odyffes above the Æneis: as that the hero is a wifer man; and the action of the one more beneficial to his country than that of the other: or else they blame him for not doing what he never defigned; as because Achilles is not so good and perfect a

* An obfervation no less obvious than juft; and it is remarkable, that he should not have employed it on the numerous occafions of comparison between paffages of Homer and Virgil, which are fpecified in his notes on the Iliad and Odyffey, where, the fentence is either fufpended, or the preference conceded to the Roman poet. Quintilian was perfectly fenfible of the efficacy of this topic; and, in his customary candour, prefaces his competition of Cicero and Demofthenes with this equitable qualification in behalf of the Græcian orator: Cedendum vero in hoc quidem quod et ille prior fuit, et ex magnâ parte Ciceronem, quantus eft, fecit. "We must yield, "however, in this refpect: Demofthenes was not only prior in "time, but contributed effentially to make Cicero the great man " he was."

prince as Æneas, when the very moral of his poem required a contrary character: it is thus that Rapin judges in his comparison of Homer and Virgil. Others felect those particular paffages of Homer, which are not so laboured as some that Virgil drew out of them: this is the whole management of Scaliger in his Poetices. Others quarrel with what they take for low and mean expreffions, fometimes through a falfe delicacy and refinement, oftner from an ignorance of the graces of the original; and then triumph in the aukwardness of their own tranflations; this is the conduct of Perault in his Parallels. Lastly, there are others, who pretending to a fairer proceeding, distinguish between the personal merit of Homer, and that of his work; but when they come to affign the causes of the great reputation of the Iliad, they found it upon the ignorance of his times, and the prejudice of those that followed: and in pursuance of this principle, they make thofe accidents (fuch as the contention of the cities, &c.) to be the caufes of his fame, which were in reality the confequences of his merit. The fame might as well be said of Virgil, or any great author, whofe general

character will infallibly raise many casual additions to their reputation. This is the method of Monf. de la Motte; who yet confeffes upon the whole, that in whatever age Homer had lived, he must have been the greatest poet of his nation, and that he may be faid in this fenfe* to be the mafter even of those who furpaffed him.

In all these objections we fee nothing that contradicts his title to the honour of the chief Invention; and as long as this (which is indeed the characteristic of Poetry itself) remains unequaled by his followers, he still continues fuperior to them. A cooler judgment may commit fewer faults, and be more approved in the eyes of one fort of Criticks; but that warmth of fancy will carry the loudest and most universal† applauses, which holds the

* That is, "Under the confideration of what he was in his "own age, and what he would have been in any other :" if I rightly difcern our author's meaning through the hazinefs of his expreffion. Editor.

+ In this expreffion, most univerfal, we fee an errour of compofition, extremely frequent in our moft approved modern authors alfo; that of connecting words fignificant of gradation and comparifon with terms by their very nature unfufceptible of aggravation or diminution.

heart of a reader under the strongest enchantment. Homer not only appears the Inventor of poetry, but excels all the inventors of other arts in this, that he has swallowed up the honour of those who fucceeded him. What he has done admitted no increase, it only left room for contraction or regulation. He fhewed all the ftretch of fancy at once; and if he has failed in fome of his flights, it was but because he attempted every thing. A work of this kind feems like a mighty Tree which rifes from the most vigorous feed, is improved with industry, flourishes, and produces the finest fruit; nature and art confpire * to raise it; pleasure and profit join to make it valuable and they who find the juftest faults, have only faid, that a few branches (which run luxuriant through a richness of nature) might be lopped into form to give it a more regular appearance.

HAVING now spoken of the beauties and defects of the original, it remains to treat of the translation, with the fame view to

In the first edition, have confpired, and joined.

the chief characteristic. As far as that is seen in the main parts of the Poem, fuch as the fable, manners, and fentiments, no tranflator can prejudice it but by wilful omiffions or contractions. As it alfo breaks out in every particular image, description and fimile; whoever leffens or too much foftens those, takes off from this chief character. It is the first grand duty of an interpreter to give his author entire and unmaimed; and for the rest, the diction and verfification only are his proper province; fince these must be his own, but the others he is to take as he finds them.

IT should then be confidered what methods may afford fome equivalent in our language for the graces of these in the Greek. It is certain no literal translation can be just to an excellent original in a fuperior language: but it is a great mistake to imagine (as many have done) that a rash paraphrase can make amends for this general defect; which is no less in danger to lose the spirit of an ancient, by deviating into the modern manners of expreffion. If there be sometimes a darkness, there is often a light in antiquity, which nothing better preferves