its crowd of iflands: he could reprefent the numbers of an army, by thofe flocks of m fwans he had seen on the banks of the Cayfter; or being to defcribe that heat of battel with which Achilles drove the Trojans into the river, n he could illuftrate it with an allusion from Cyrene or Cyprus, where, when the inhabitants burn'd their fields, the grafs-hoppers fled before the fire to perish in the Ocean. His fancy being fully replenish'd, might fupply him with every proper occafional image; and his foul after having enlarg'd itfelf, and taken in an extenfive variety of the creation, might be equal to the task of an Iliad and an Odyssey.

His old age and
Death.

In his old age, he fell blind, and fettled at Chios, as he fays in the Hymn to Apollo, (which as is before obferv'd, is acknowledg'd for his by Thucydides, and might occafion both Simonides and Theocritus to call him a Chian) • Strabo relates, That Lycurgus the great legiflator of Sparta, was reported to have gone to Chios to have a conference with Homer, after he had study'd the laws of Crete and Egypt, in order to form his conftitutions. If this be true, how much a nobler representation does it give of him, and indeed more agreeable to what we conceive of this mighty genius, than those spurious accounts, which keep him down among the meanest of mankind? What an idea could we frame to our felves, of a converfation held between two perfons fo confiderable; a philofopher confcious of the force of poetry, and a poet knowing in the depths of philofophy; both their fouls improv'd with learning, both eminently rais'd above little defigns or the meaner kind of intereft, and meeting together to confult the good of mankind?

Iliad. 2. .461. 11. 21. . 12 Strabo, 1, 10.

But in this I have only indulg'd a thought which is not to be infifted upon; the evidence of history rather tends to prove that Lycurgus brought his works from Afia after his death: which P Proclus imagines to have happen'd at a great old age, on account of his vaft extent of learning, for which a fhort life could never fuffice.

His Character and Manners.

If we would now make a conje&ture concerning the genius and temper of this great man; perhaps his works, which would not furnifh us with facts for his life, will be more reasonably made use of to give us a picture of his mind: To this end therefore, we may fuffer the very name and notion of a book to vanish for a while, and look upon what is left us as a converfation, in order to gain an acquaintance with Homer. Perhaps the general air of his works will be come the general character of his genius; and the particular observations give fome light to the particular turns of his temper. His comprehensive knowledge fhews that his foul was not form'd like a narrow chanel for a single stream, but as an expanfe which might receive an ocean into its bofom; that he had the strongest defire of improvement, and an unbounded curiofity, which made its advantage of every tranfient circumftance, or obvious accident. His folid and fententious manner may make us admire him for a man of judgment: one who, in the darkest ages,could enter far into a difquifition of human nature; who, notwithstanding all the changes which governments, manners, rites, and even the notions of virtue, have undergone, could still abound with fo many maxims correfpondent to truth, and notions applicable to fo many fciences. The fire, which is

a Procl, vitâ Hom

fo obfervable in his Poem, may make us naturally conjecture him to have been of a warm temper, and lively behaviour; and the pleasurable air which every where overfpreads it, may give us reafon to think, that fire of imagination was temper'd with sweetness and affability. If we farther obferve the particulars he treats of, and imagine that he laid a ftrefs upon the fentiments he delivers, pursuant to his real opinions; we fhall take him to be of a religious fpirit, by his inculcating in almost every page the worship of the Gods. We fhall imagine him to be a generous lover of his countrey, from his care to extol it every where; which is carry'd to fuch a height, as to make a Plutarch obferve, That though many of the Barbarians are made prifoners or fuppliants, yet neither of thefe difgraceful accidents (which are common to all nations in war) ever happens to one Greek throughout his works. We fhall take him to be a compaffionate lover of mankind, from his numberlefs praises of hofpitality and charity; (if indeed we are not to account for 'em, as the common writers of his life imagine, from his owing his fupport to thefe virtues.) It might feem from his love of ftories, with his manner of telling them fometimes, that he gave his own picture when he painted his Neftor, and, as wife as he was, was no enemy to talking. One would think from his praises of wine, his copious goblets, and pleafing descriptions of banquets, that he was addicted to a chearful, fociable life, which Horace takes notice of as a kind of tradition;

And that he was not (as may be guefs'd of Virgil from his works) averfe to the female fex, will appear from his care to paint them amiably upon all occafions: His Andromache and Penelope are in each of his Poems moft fhining characters of conjugal affection; even his Helena herself is drawn with all the foftnings imaginable; his fouldiers are exhorted to combat with the hopes of women; his commanders are furnifh'd with fair flaves in their tents, nor is the venerable Neftor without a miftrefs.

It is true, that in this way of turning a book into a man, this reasoning from his works to himself, we can at beft but hit off a few out-lines of a character: wherefore I fhall carry it no farther, but conclude with one difcovery which we may make from his filence; a difcovery extremely proper to be made in this manner, which is, That he was of a very modeft temper. There is in all other Poets a custom of fpeaking of themselves, and a vanity of promifing eternity to their writings: in both which Homer, who has the best title to fpeak out, is altogether filent. As to the last of them, the world has made him ample recompence; it has given him that eternity he would not promife himself: But whatever endeavours have been offer'd in refpect of the former, we find our felves ftill under an irreparable lofs. That which others have faid of him has amounted to no more than conjecture; that which I have faid is no farther to be infifted on: I have us'd the liberty which is indulg'd me by precedent, to give my own opinions among the accounts of others, and the world may be pleas'd to receive them as fo many willing endeavours to gratify its curiofity.

Catalogue of his Works.

The only inconteftable works which Homer has left behind him are the Iliad and Odysey: The Batrachomyomachia

5

ΟΙ

or Battle of the frogs and mice, has been difputed, but is however allow'd for his by many authors: amongst whom Statius has reckon'd it like the Culex of Virgil, a trial of his force before his greater performances. It is indeed a beautiful piece of raillery, in which a great writer might delight to unbend himself; an inftance of that agreeable trifling, which has been at fome time or other indulg'd by the finest genius's, and the off-spring of that amufing and chearful humour, which generally accompanies the character of a. rich imagination, like a vein of Mercury running mingled with a mine of Gold.

t

The Hymns have been doubted alfo, and attributed by the Scholiafts to Cynathus the Rhapsodift; but neither s Thucydides, Lucian, nor " Paufanias, have fcrupled to cite them as genuine. We have the authority of the two former for that to Apollo, tho' it be observ'd that the word Nou is found in it, which the book de Poefi Homerica (afcrib'd to Plutarch) tells us, was not in ufe in Homer's time. We have also an authority of the last for a w Hymn to Ceres, of which he has given us a fragment. That to Mars is objected against for mentioning Tugar, and that which is the first to Minerva, for using Tux, both of them being (according to the author of the treatise before mention'd) words of a later invention. The Hymn to Venus has many of its lines copy'd by Virgil, in the interview between Æneas and that Goddess, in the first Æneid. But whether thefe Hyms are Homer's, or not, they are always judg'dto be near as ancient, if not of the fame age with him.

The Epigrams are extracted out of the life, faid to