ΑΝ ESSAY ΟΝ ΤΗΕ LIFE, WRITINGS and LEARNING O F HOMER. T HERE is fomething in the mind of man, which goes beyond bare curiofity, and even carries us on to a fhadow of friend fhip with thofe great genius's 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 rais'd by what we meet meet with concerning them; a tendency to be farther acquainted with them, by gathering 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 fentiments they approve; and an endeavour to defend them, when we think they are injurioufly attack'd, or even fometimes with too partial an affection. There is alfo in mankind a spirit of envy or oppofition, which makes them uneafy to fee others of the fame fpecies 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 dye with a man, but to purfue his remains with idle traditions, and weak conjectures; fo that his name, which is not to be forgotten, fhall be preferv'd only to be ftain'd and blotted. The controverfy, which was carry'd on between the author and his enemies, while he was living, fhall ftill 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 admirers. This proceeding, on both fides, gives us an image of the first defcriptions of war, fuch as the Iliad affords; where a Heroe difputes the field with an army 'till it is his time to dye, and then the battel, which we expected to fall of course, is renew'd about the body; his friends contending that they may embalm and honour him, his enemies that they may caft it to the dogs and vultures. There are yet others of a low kind of tafte, 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 with out out any diftinction, to the prejudice or neglect of the more noble parts of his character: like thofe trifling painters, or fculptors, who beflow infinite pains and patience upon the most infignificant parts of a figure, 'till they fink the grandeur of the whole, by finishing every thing with the neatest want of judgment. Befides 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 propofe to themfelves a calm fearch after truth, and a rational adherence to probability in their hiftorical collections: Who neither wish to be led into the fables of poetry, nor are willing to fupport the falfehoods of a malignant criticifm; but, endeavouring to steer in a middle way, have obtain'd a character of failing leaft in the choice of materials for history, tho' drawn from the darkest ages. Being therefore to write fomething concerning a Life, which there is little profpect 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 colleAtion of authors, who have been fuppos'd to write of Homer in these four preceding methods, to which we also shall add fome farther conjectures of our own. After his life has been thus rather talk'd of than written, I fhall confider him hiftorically as an author, with regard to thofe works which he has left behind him: In doing which, we may trace the degrees of eftcem they have obtain'd in different periods of time, and regulate our prefent opinion of them, by a view of that age in which they were writ. |