THERE is fomething in the mind of man, which goes beyond bare curiosity, and even carries us on to a fhadow of friendship with those great geniuses whom we have known to excel in former ages. Nor will it appear lefs to any one, who confiders how much it partakes of the nature of friendship; how it compounds itself of an admiration, raised by what we meet with concerning them; a tendency to be farther acquainted with them,

by getting every circumftance of their lives; a kind of complacency in their company, when we retire to enjoy what they have left; an union with them in those sentiments they approve; and an endeavour to defend them when we think they are injuriously attacked, or * even fometimes with too partial an affection.

THERE is alfo in mankind a fpirit of envy or oppofition, which makes them uneafy to fee others of the same species feated far above them in a fort of perfection. And this, at least, so far as regards the fame of writers † has not always been known to die with a man, but to pursue his remains with idle traditions, and weak conjectures; fo that his name, which is not to be forgotten, fhall be preferved only to be stained and blotted. The controverfy, which was carried on between the author and his enemies, while he was living, shall still be kept on foot; not entirely upon his own account, but on theirs who live after him; fome being fond to praise extravagantly, and others as rafhly eager to contradict his

* This use of or is very peculiar, correfpondent to it's redundancy in the phrafe or e'er; when modern writers omit it. Editor.

In the first edition :-" fo far as we speak of the fame of "writers, has not always been known to die with a man entirely, " but-."

admirers.

This proceeding, on both fides, gives us an image of the first descriptions of war, fuch as the Iliad affords; where a hero disputes the field with an army 'til it is his time to die, and then the battle, which we expected to fall of courfe, is renewed about the body; his friends contending that they may embalm and honour it, his enemies that they may caft it to the dogs and vultures *.

THERE are yet others of a low kind of taste, who, without any malignity to the character of a great author, leffen the dignity of their fubject by infifting too meanly upon little particularities. They imagine it the part of an hiftorian to omit nothing they meet with, concerning him; and gather every thing without any distinction †, to the prejudice or neglect of the more noble parts of his character: like those trifling painters, or sculptors, who bestow infinite pains and patience upon the most infignificant parts of a figure ‡, till

*This illuftration from his author is extremely apt and inge

nious.

66

In the first edition :- concerning him whom they write upon, gather every thing wherein he is named, without any "diftinction-.”

As the artist in Horace,

unus et ungues

Exprimet, et molles imitabitur ære capillos.

they fink the grandeur of the whole, by finishing every thing with the neatest want of judg

ment.

BESIDES thefe, there is a fourth fort of men, who pretend to diveft themselves of partiality * on both fides, and to get above that imperfect idea of their fubject, which little writers fall into; who propose to themfelves a calm fearch after truth, and a rational adherence to probability in their historical collections: who neither wifh to be led into the fables of fuperftition †, nor are willing to fupport the injustice of a malignant criticism ; but, endeavouring to fteer in a middle way, have obtained a character of failing least in the choice of materials for hiftory, though drawn from the darkeft ages.

BEING therefore to write fomething concerning a Life, which there is little prospect

And our poet's practical application to painting in his youth, under the tuition of Mr. Jervas, has given rife to his frequent illuftrations and comparisons from that art. Editor.

* In the first edition :-" of impetuous emotions on both fides."

In the firft edition he wrote poetry for fuperftition, and falfehoods for injuftice: and has given perfpicuity to the conclufion of the paragraph, originally written thus :-" for hiftory, even from "the darkeft ages."

of our knowing, after it has been the fruitless enquiry of fo many ages *, and which has however been thus differently treated by hiftorians, I fhall endeavour to speak of it not as a certainty, but as the tradition, opinion, or collection of authors, who have been supposed to write of Homer in these four preceding methods; to which we alfo fhall add fome farther conjectures of our own. After his life has been thus rather invented than written, I fhall confider him hiftorically as an author, with regard to those works which he has left behind him in doing which, we may trace the degrees of efteem they have obtained in different periods of time, and regulate our present opinion of them, by a view of that age in which they were writ †.

I.

Stories of Homer, which are the effects of ex

travagant admi

ration.

I. If we take a view of Homer in those fabulous traditions which the admiration of the ancient heathens has occafioned, we find them running to fuperftition, and mul

* It may be collected from Herodotus, ii. 53. that even this hiftorian was not clear within a century as to the precife time, in which Homer lived, nor as to the comparative antiquity of him and Hefiod. Editor.

+ Writ. This participle was better given at length written in the first edition; but our author's uncertainty, with refpect to the