men, and therefore he writ of them; if the world had been better, he would have fhewn it fo; as the matter now ftands, we fee his people with the turn of his age, infatiably thirsting after glory and plunder; for which however he has found them a lawful caufe, and taken care to retard their fuccefs by thofe very faults. In the profecution of the ftory, every part of it has its leffons of morality: There is brotherly love in Agamemnon and Menelaus, friendship in Achilles and Patroclus, and the love of his countrey in Hector. But fince we have spoken of the Iliad as more particular for its politicks, we may confider the Odyssey as its moral is more directly fram'd for ethicks. It carries the Hero through a world of trials both of the dangerous and pleafurable nature. It fhews him first under moft furprizing weights of adverfity, among fhipwrecks and favages; all thefe he is made to pats through, in the methods by which it becomes a man to conquer; a patience in fuffering, and a prefence of mind in every accident. It fhews him again in another view, tempted them with the baits of idle or unlawful pleasures; and then points out the methods of being safe from them. But if in general we confider the care our author has taken to fix his leffons of morality by the proverbs and precepts he delivers, we fhall not wonder if Greece, which afterwards gave the appellation of wife to men who fettled fingle fentences of truth, fhould give him the title of the Father of Virtue, for introducing fuch a number. To be brief, if we take the opinion of Horace, he has propos'd him to us as a master of morality; he lays down the com Qui quid fit pulchrum, quid turpe, quid utile, quid non, Plenius & melius Chryfippo & Crantore dicit. Hor. Ep. 2. b. 1. mon philofophical divifion of good, into pleasant, profitable, and honeft; and then afferts that Homer has more fully and clearly inftructed us in each of them, than the most rigid philofophers. Some indeed have thought, notwithstanding all this, that Homer had only a design to please in his invention; and that others have fince extracted inorals out of his stories (as indeed all ftories are capable of being us'd fo.) But this is an opinion concerning Poetry, which the world has rather degenerated into, than begun with. The traditions of Orpheus's civilizing mankind by hymns on the Gods, with others of the like nature, may fhew there was a better use of the art both known and practis'd. There is alfo a remarkable paffage of this kind in the third book of the Odyfey, that Agamemnon left one of the P Poets of thofe times in his Court when he fail'd for Troy; and that his Queen was preferv'd virtuous by his fongs, 'till Egyfthus was forc'd to expel him in order to debauch her. Here he has hinted what a true poetical fpirit can do, when apply'd to the promotion of virtue; and from this one may judge he could not but defign that himself, which he recommends as the duty and merit of his profeffion. Others fince his time may have feduc'd the art to worle intentions; but they who are offended at the liberties of fome poets, fhould not condemn all in the grofs for trifling or corruption; especially when the evidence runs fo ftrongly for any one, to the contrary. We may in general go on to obferve, that the time when Homer was born did not abound in learning. For where-ever politicks and morality are weak, learning wants its peaceable air to thrive Odyff. 3. . 267. in. He is himself the man from whom we have the first accounts of antiquity, either in its actions or learning; from whom we hear what Egypt or Greece could inform him in, and whatever himself could difcover by the ftrength of nature or induftry. But however, that we may not mistake the Elogies of those ancients who call him the Father of Arts and Sciences, and be surpriz'd to find fo little of them (as they are now in perfection) in his works; we should know that this character is not to be understood at large, as if he had included the full and regular fyftems of every thing: He is to be confider'd profeffedly only in quality of a poet; this was his bufinefs, to which as whatever he knew was to be fubfervient, fo he has not fail'd to introduce thofe ftrokes of knowledge from the whole circle of arts and sciences, which the fubject demanded, either for neceffity or ornament. This will appear on a fair view of him in each of these lights. Before his time there was no histo rian in Greece: He treated hiftorical- Hiftory. ly of paft tranfactions, according as he could be inform'd by tradition, fong, or whatever method there was of preferving their memory. For this we have the confent of antiquity; they have generally more appeal'd to his authority, and more infifted on it, than on the teftimony of any other writer, when they treat of the rites, customs, and manners of the firft times. They have generally believ'd that the acts of Tydeus at Thebes, the fecond fiege of that city, the fettlement of Rhodes, the battel between the Curetes and the Ætolians, the fucceffion of the Kings of Mycena by the fcepter of Agamemnon, the acts of the Greeks at Troy, and many other fuch accounts, are fome of them wholly preferv'd by him, and the rest as faithfully related as by any hiftorian. Nor perhaps was all of his invention E 2 which which feems to be feign'd, but rather frequently the obfcure traces and remains of real perfons and actions; which, as a Strabo obferves, when hiftory was tranfmitted by oral tradition, might be mix'd with fable before it came into the hands of the poet." This happen'd (fays he) to Herodotus, the first professed "hiftorian, who is as fabulous as Homer when he de"fers to the common reports of countries; and it is "not to be imputed to either as a fault, but as a "neceffity of the times." Nay, the very paffages. which caufe us to tax them at this diftance with being fabulous, might be occafion'd by their diligence, and a fear of erring, if they too haftily rejected thofe reports which had pais'd current in the nations they defcrib'd. Geography. Before his time there was no fuch thing as Geography in Greece. For this we have the fuffrage of Strabo, the best of Geographers, who approves the opinion of Hipparchus and other ancients, that Homer was the very author of it; and upon this account begins his treatife of the fcience itfelf, with an encomium on him. As to the general part of it, we find he had a knowledge of the Earth's being furrounded with the Ocean, because he makes the Sun and Stars both to rife and fet in it; and that he knew the use of the Stars is plain from his making $ Ulyffes fail by the obfervation of them. But the inftances oftneft alledg'd upon this point is the fhield of Achilles; where he places the earth encompass'd with the Sea, and gives the Stars the names they are yet known by, as the Hyades, Pleiades, the Bear, and Orion. By the three firft of these he reprefents the conftellations of the 9 Strabo, 1. 1. . 272. Strabo, ibid. initie. s Odyff. 1. s. northern northern region; and in the laft he gives a fingle reprefentative of the fouthern, to which (as it were for a counter-balance) he adds a title of greatneis, Die Neiwr. Then he tells us that the Bear, or Stars of the Arctick Circle, never difappear; as an obfervation which agrees with no other. And if to this we add (what Eratofthenes thought he meant) that the five plates which were fastened on the fhield, divided it by the lines where they met, into the five Zones, it will appear an orignal defign of globes and fpheres. In the particular parts of Geography his knowledge is entirely inconteftable. Strabo refers to him upon all occafions, allowing that he knew the extremes of the Earth, fome of which he names, and others he defcribes by figns, as the Fortunate Ifands. The fame author takes notice of his accounts concerning the feveral foils, plants, animals, and cuftoms; as Egypt's being fertile of medicinal herbs; Libya's fruitfulness, where the Ewes have horns, and yean thrice a year, c. which are knowledges that make Geography more various and profitable. But what all have agreed to celebrate is his defcription of Greece, which had laws made for its prefervation, and contests between governments decided by its authority: Which w Strabo acknowledges to have no epithet, or ornamental expreffion for any place, that is not drawn from its nature, quality, or circumftances; and profeffes (after fo long an interval) to deviate from it only where the countrey had undergone alterations, that caft the description into ob fcurity. In his time Rhetorick was not known; that art took its rife out of poetry, Rhetorisk. which was not till then establish'd. Strabo... Strab. 1. 8. "The E 3 |