perfection of the human form; and diftinguished them from each other even in this fuperior beauty, with fuch marks as were agreeable to each of the Deities. "This, fays f Strabo, awakened the conceptions of the moft "eminent ftatuaries, while they ftrove to keep up the "grandeur of that idea, which Homer had impreffed upon the imagination, as we read of Phidias con"cerning their ftatue of Jupiter." And because they copy'd their Gods from him in their best performances, his descriptions became the characters which were afterwards purfued in all works of good tafte. Hence came the common faying of the ancients, "That either Homer was the only man who had feen the forms of the “Gods, or the only one who had shewn them to men;" a paffage which & Madam Dacier wrefts to prove the truth of his theology, different from Strabo's accepta 46 tion of it. There are, befides what we have spoken of, other sciences pretended to be found in him. Thus Macrobius difcovers that the chain with which Jupiter fays he could lift the world, is a metaphyfical notion, that means a connexion of all things from the fupreme being to the meaneft part of the creation. Others, to prove him skilful in judicial Aftrology, bring a quotation concerning the births of i Hector and Polydamas on the fame night; who were nevertheless of different qualifications, one excelling in war, and the other in eloquence: Others again will have him to be verfed in Magick, from his stories concerning Circe. These and many of the like nature are interpretations ftrained or trifling, fuch as are not wanted for a proof of Homer's learning, and by which we contribute nothing to raise f Strabo, 7. 8. Dacier, Preface to Homer. Il. 8. v. 19. Vid. Macrob. de fomn. Scip. l. 1. c. 14. ! II. 18. v. 252. his his character, while we facrifice our judgment in the eyes of others. It is fufficient to have gone thus far, in fhewing he was the father of learning, a foul capable of ranging over the whole creation with an intellectual view, fhining alone in an age of obfcurity, and shining beyond thofe who have had the advantage of more learned ages; leaving behind him a work not only adorned with all the knowledge of his own time, but in which he has beforehand broken up the fountains of several fciences which were brought nearer to perfection by pofterity: A work which fhall always ftand at the top of the fublime character, to be gazed at by readers with an admiration of its perfection, and by writers with a despair that it should ever be emulated with fuccefs. THE |