"The oratorial elocution (fays × Strabo) is but an "imitation of the poetical; this appear'd firft and " was approv'd: They who imitated it, took off the "measures, but ftill preferv'd all the other parts of "poetry in their writings: fuch were Cadmus the Milefian, Pherecydes, and Hecat aus. Then their "followers took fomething more from what was "left, and at laft elocution defcended into the profe "which is now among us." But if Rhetorick is owing to poetry, the obligation is ftill more due to Homer. He (as y Quintilian tells us) gave both the pattern and rife to all the parts of it. "Hic om "nibus eloquentia partibus exemplum & ortum dedit : "Hunc nemo in magnis rebus fublimitate, in parvis pro"prietate, fuperavit. Idem latus & preffus, jucundus 46 gravis, tum copiâ tum brevitate admirabilis, nec "poetica modò fed oratoriâ virtute eminentiffimus.” From him therefore they who fettled the art found it proper to deduce the rules, which was easily done, when they had divided their obfervations into the kinds and the ornaments of elocution. For the kinds, the anciens (fays A. Gell.) fettled them according to the three which they obferve in his princi"pal fpeakers; his Ulyffes, who is magnificent and flowing; his Menelaus, who is fhort and close; "and his Neftor, who is moderate and dispaffion'd, "and has a kind of middle eloquence participating "of both the former." And for the ornaments, a 4riftoile, the great mafter of the Rhetoricians, fhews what deference is paid to Homer, when he orders the orator to lay down his heads, and exprefs both the manners and affections of his work, with an imitation of that diction, and thofe figures, which the di * Strabo, l. 1. 1.7. cap. 14. Y Quintil. /. 1o. cap. I. z Aulus Gell. vine A vine Homer excell'd in. This is the conftant language of those who fucceeded him, and the opinion fo far prevail'd as to make b Quintilian obferve, that they who have written concerning the art of fpeaking, take from Homer moft of the inftances of their fimilitudes, amplifications, examples, digreffions, and arguments. Natural Philofo phy. As to natural philofophy, the age was not arriv'd in which it flourish'd; however fome of its notions may be trac'd in him. As when he fays that the fountains and rivers come from the ocean, he holds a circulation of fluids in the earth. But as this is a branch of learning which does not lie much in the way of a Poet who speaks of Heroes and wars; the defire to prove his knowledge this way, has only run e Politian and others into trifling inferences; as when they would have it that he understood the fecrets of Philofophy,because he mentions fun, rain, wind and thunder. The moft probable way of making out his knowledge in this kind, is by fuppofing he couch'd it in allegories; and that he fometimes us'd the names of the Gods as his Terms for the Elements, as the Chymifts now use them for Metals. But in applying this to him we must tread very carefully; not fearching for allegory too induftriously, where the paffage may inftruct by example; and endeavouring rather to find the fable an ornament to what is eafily known, than to make it a cover to curious and unknown problems. As for Medicine, fomething of it must have been understood in that age; though it was fo far from per Phyfick fection, that (according to a Celfus) what concern'd Quintil. 4. to. • Politian. Prafatio in Hom. E 4 Diet Diet was invented long after by Hippocrates. The accidents of life make the fearch after remedies too indifpenfable a duty to be neglected at any time. Ac cordingly he tells us, that the Egyptians who had many medicinal plants in their countrey, were all Phyficians: and perhaps he might have learnt his own fkill from his acquaintance with that nation. The flate of war which Greece had liv'd in, requir'd a knowledge in the healing of wounds: and this might make him breed his princes, Achilles, Patroclus, Podalirius, and Machaon, to the fcience. What Homer thus attributes to others, he knew himfelf, and he has given us reafon to believe, not flightly. For if we confider. his infight into the ftructure of the human body, it is fo nice, that he has been judg'd by fome to have wounded his Heroes with too much fcience: or if we obferve his cure of wounds, which are the accidents proper to an Epic poem, we find him directing the chirurgical operation, fometimes infufing flenitives, and at other times bitter powders, when the effution of blood requir'd aftringent qualities. Statuary. For Statuary, it appears by the accounts of Egypt and the Palladium, that there was enough of it very early in the world for thofe images which were requir'd in the worfhip of their Gods; but there are none mention'd as valuable in Greece fo early, nor was the art eflablifh'd on its rules before Hosner. He found it agreeable to the worship in ufe, and neceffary for his machinery, that his Gods fhould be cloath'd in bodies: Wherefore he took care to give them fuch as carry'd the utmoft perfection of the human form; and diftinguish'd them from each other even in this fuperior beauty, with fuch marks as were Odyff. . . 231. 11. 4. . 218. and II. 11. in fine. agree 66 66 agreeable to each of the Deities. "This, fays & Strabo, awaken'd the conceptions of the most eminent "ftatuaries, while they ftrove to keep up the grandeur "of that idea, which Homer had imprefs'd upon their imagination; as we read of Phidias concerning the "ftatue of Jupiter." And becaufe they copy'd their Gods from him in their bett performances, his defcriptions became the characters which were afterwards purfu'd in all works of a good tafte. Hence came the common faying of the ancients, "either Homer was the only man who had feen the "forms of the Gods, or the only one who had fhewn "them to men;" a paffage which Madam Dacier wrefts to prove the truth of his theology, different from Strabo's acceptation of it. "That There are, befides what we have spoken of, other fciences pretended to be found in him. Thus Macrobius difcovers that the chain with which i Jupiter fays he could lift the world, is a metaphyfical notion, that means a connexion of all things from the fupreme being to the meanest part of the creation. Others, to prove him fkilful in judicial Airology, bring a quotation concerning the births of k 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 vers'd in Magick, from his stories concerning Circe. Thefe and many of the like nature are interpretations ftrain'd or trifling, fuch as Homer does not want for a proof of his learning, and by which we contribute nothing to raise his character, while we facrifice our judgment to him in the eyes of others. 1 Strabo, l. 8. Dacier, Preface to Homer. 11. 8. . 19. Vid. Macrob. de jornn, Scip, l. I. c. 14. 1. 18. .252. 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 fhining beyond those who have had the advantage of more learned ages; leaving behind him a work not only adorn'd with all the knowledge of his own time, but in which he has before-hand broken up the fountains of feveral fciences which were brought nearer to perfection by pofterity: A work which fhall always ftand at the top of the fublime character, to be gaz'd at by readers with an admiration of its perfection, and by writers with a despair that it should ever be emulated with fuccefs. THE |