POSTSCRIPT ΤΟ THE ODYSSEY. I CANNOT dismiss this work without a few observations on the true character and style of it. Whoever reads the Odyssey with an eye to the Iliad, expecting to find it of the same character, or of the same sort of spirit, will be grievously deceived, and err against the first principle of criticism, which is to consider the nature of the piece, and the intent of its author. The Odyssey is a moral and political work, instructive to all degrees of men, and filled with images, examples and precepts, of civil and domestic life. Homer is here a person Qui didicit, patriæ quid debeat, et quid amicis, Quo fit amore parens, quo frater amandus, & hospes : The Odyssey is the reverse of the Iliad, in Moral, Subject, Manner, and Style; to which it has no sort of relation, but as the story happens to follow in order of time, and as some of the same persons are actors in it. Yet from this incidental connection many have been misled to regard it as a continuation or second part, and thence to expect a parity of character inconsistent with its nature. It is no wonder that the common reader should fall into this mistake, when so great a critic as Longinus seems not wholly free from it. Although what he has said has been generally understood to import a severer censure of the Odyssey than it really does, if we consider the occasion on which it is introduced, and the circumstances to which it is confined. 66 "The Odyssey (says he) is an instance, how na"tural it is to a great genius, when it begins to grow “old and decline, to delight itself in Narrations and "Fables. For, that Homer composed the Odyssey “after the Iliad, many proofs may be given, &c. "From hence in my judgment it proceeds, that as the “Iliad was written while his Spirit was in its greatest vigour, the whole structure of that work is dramatic "and full of action; whereas the greater part of the "Odyssey is employed in narration, which is the taste "of Old Age: so that in this latter piece we may "compare him to the setting sun, which has still the "same greatness but not the same ardor or force. "He speaks not in the same strain; we see no more "that Sublime of the Iliad which marches on with a “constant pace, without ever being stopped, or re"tarded there appears no more that hurry and that 66 strong tide of motions and passions, pouring one "after another; there is no more the same fury, or "the same volubility of diction, so suitable to action, "and all along drawing in such innumerable images ❝of nature. But Homer, like the ocean, is always great, even when he ebbs and retires; even when "he is lowest and loses himself most in narrations and "incredible fictions: as instances of this, we cannot "forget the descriptions of tempests, the adventures 66 of Ulysses with the Cyclops, and many others. "But though all this be Age, it is the Age of Homer And it may be said for the credit of these "fictions, that they are beautiful Dreams, or if you " will, the Dreams of Jupiter himself. I spoke of "the Odyssey only to shew, that the greatest poets when their genius wants strength and warmth for "the Pathetic, for the most part employ themselves "in painting the Manners. This Homer has done "in characterizing the suitors, and describing their "way of life; which is properly a branch of Comedy, "whose peculiar business it is to represent the man"ners of men." We must first observe, it is the Sublime of which Longinus is writing: that, and not the nature of Homer's poem, is his subject. After having highly extolled the sublimity and fire of the Iliad, he justly observes the Odyssey to have less of those qualities, and to turn more on the side of moral, and reflections on human life. Nor is it his business here to determine, whether the elevated spirit of the one, or the just moral of the other, be the greater excellence in itself. Secondly, that fire and fury of which he is speak ing, cannot well be meant of the general spirit and inspiration which is to run through a whole epic poem, but of that particular warmth and impetuosity necessary in some parts, to image or represent actions or passions, of haste, tumult, and violence. It is on occasion of citing some such particular passages in Homer, that Longinus breaks into this reflection; which seems to determine his meaning chiefly to that sense. Upon the whole, he affirms the Odyssey to have less sublimity and fire than the Iliad, but he does not say it wants the sublime or wants fire. He affirms it to be narrative, but not that the narration is defective. He affirms it to abound in fictions, not that those fictions are ill invented, or ill executed. He affirms it to be nice and particular in painting the manners, but not that those manners are ill painted. If Homer has fully in these points accomplished his own design, and done all that the nature of his poem demanded or allowed, it still remains perfect in its kind, and as much a master-piece as the Iliad. |