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caufes of the great reputation of the Iliad, they found it upon the ignorance of his times, and the prejudice of thofe that followed: And in pursuance of this principle, they make those accidents (fuch as the contention of the cities, &c.) to be the causes of his fame, which were in reality the confequences of his merit. The fame might as well be faid of Virgil, or any great author, whose general character will infallibly raile many cafual additions to their reputation. This is the method of Monf. de la morte; who yet confefles upon the whole, that in whatever age Homer had liv'd, he must have been the greatest Poet of his nation, and that he may be faid in this sense to be the master even of those who surpass'd him.

In all these objections we tee nothing that contradicts his title to the honour of the chief Invention ; and as long as this (which is indeed the characteristic of Poetry it felf) remains unequal'd by his followers, he ftill continues fuperior to them. A cooler judgment may commit fewer faults, and be more approv❜d in the eyes of one fort of Criticks: but that warmth of fancy will carry the loudest and most universal applaufes, which holds the heart of a reader under the ftrongest enchantment. Homer not only appears the Inventor of poetry, but excels all the inventors of other arts in this, that he has swallow'd up the honour of those who fucceeded him. What he has done admitted no increase, it only left room for contraction or regulation. He fhew'd all the ftretch of fancy at once; and if he has fail'd in fome of his flights, it was but because he attempted every thing. A work of this kind seems like a mighty Tree which rifes from the moft vigorous feed, is improv'd with industry, flourishes, and produces the finest fruit; nature and art confpire to raise it; pleasure and profit join to make it valuable: and they who find the jufteft faults, have only faid, that a few branches (which

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run luxuriant thro' a richness of nature) might be lopp'd into form to give it a more regular appearance.

Having now spoken of the beauties and defects of the original, it remains to treat of the tranflation, with the fame view to the chief characteristic. As far as that is feen in the main parts of the poem, fuch as the fable, manners, and fentiments, no tranflator can prejudice it but by wilful omiffions or contractions. As it alfo breaks out in every particular image, defcription, and fimile; whoever leffens or too much foftens thofe, takes off from this chief character.. It is the first grand duty of an interpreter to give his author entire and unmaim'd; and for the relt, the diction and verfification only are his proper province; fince these must be his own, but the others he is to take as he finds them.

It should then be confider'd what methods may af ford fome equivalent in our language for the graces of these in the Greek. It is certain no literal tranflation can be just to an excellent original in a fuperior language: but it is a great miftake to imagine (as many have done) that a rafh paraphrafe can make amends for this general defect; which is no less in danger to lose the spirit of an ancient, by deviating into the modern manners of expreffion. If there be fometime a darknefs, there is often a light in antiquity, which nothing better preferves than a verfion almoft literal. I know no liberties one ought to take, but those which are neceffary for transfufing the fpirit of the original, and fupporting the poetical ftyle of the tranflation: and I will venture to fay, there have not been more men mifled in former times by a fervile dull adherence to the letter, than have been deluded in ours by a chimerical infolent hope of raifing and improving their author. It is not to be doubted that the fire of the poem is what a tranflator

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fhould principally regard, as it is most likely to expire in his managing: However it is his fafest way to be content with preferving this to his utmost in the whole, without endeavouring to be more than he finds his author is, in any particular place. 'Tis a great fecret in writing to know when to be plain, and when poetical and figurative; and it is what Homer will teach us, if we will but follow modeftly in his footsteps. Where his diction is bold and lofty, let us raife ours as high as we can; but where his is plain and humble, we ought not to be deterr'd from imitating him by the fear of incurring the cenfure of a mere English Critick. Nothing that belongs to Homer feems to have been more commonly mistaken than the just pitch of his style: Some of his tranflators having fwell'd into fuftian in a proud confidence of the fublime; others funk into flatnefs in a cold and timorous notion of fimplicity. Methinks I fee thefe different followers of Homer, fome fweating and straining after him by violent leaps and bounds (the certain figns of false mettle) others flowly and fervilely creeping in his train, while the Poet himself is all the time proceeding with an unaffected and equal majesty before them. However of the two extremes one could fooner pardon frenzy than frigidity: No author is to be envy'd for fuch commendations as he may gain by that character of ftyle, which his friends muft agree together to call fimplicity, and the reft of the world will call dulness. There is a graceful and dignify'd fimplicity, as well as a bald and fordid one, which differ as much from each other as the air of a plain man from that of a floven: 'Tis one thing to be tricked up, and another not to be drefs'd at all. Simplicity is the mean between oftentation and rufticity.

This pure and noble fimplicity is no where in fuch perfection as in the fcripture and our author. One may affirm with all refpect to the inspired writings,

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that the divine Spirit made use of no other words but what were intelligible and common to men at that time, and in that part of the world; and as Homer is the author nearest to thofe, his ftyle muft of course bear a greater refemblance to the facred books than that of any other writer. This confideration (together with what has been obferv'd of the parity of fome of his thoughts) may methinks induce a tranflator on the one hand to give into feveral of thofe general phrafes and manners of expreffion, which have attain'd a veneration even in our language from being used in the Old Teftament; as on the other, to avoid those which have been appropriated to the Divinity, and in a manner confign'd to mystery and religion.

For a farther prefervation of this air of fimplicity, a particular care fhould be taken to exprefs with all plainnefs thofe moral fentences and proverbial fpeeches which are fo numerous in this Poet. They have fomething venerable, and as I may fay oracular, in that unadorn'd gravity and shortnefs with which they are deliver'd: a grace which would be utterly loft by endeavouring to give them what we call a more ingenious (that is a more modern) turn in the paraphrafe.

Perhaps the mixture of fome Gracisms and old words after the manner of Milton, if done without too much affectation, might not have an ill effect in a verfion of this particular work, which moft of any other feems to require a venerable antique caft. But certainly the use of modern terms of war and government, fuch as platoon, campagne, junto, or the like (into which fome of his tranflators have fallen) cannot be allowable; thofe only excepted, without which it is impoffible to treat the fubjects in any living language.

There are two peculiarities in Homer's diction which are a fort of marks or moles, by which every common eye diftinguishes him at firft fight: Those who are not his greatest admirers look upon them as defects, and

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those who are, feem pleased with them as beauties. I peak of his compound epithets and of his repetitions. Many of the former cannot be done literally into English without deftroying the purity of our language. I believe fuch fhould be retain'd as flide eafily of themfelves into an English-compound, without violence to the ear or to the receiv'd rules of compofition; as well as those which have receiv'd a fanction from the authority of our beft poets, and are become familiar thro' their ufe of them; fuch as the cloud-compelling Jove, c. As for the reft, whenever any can be as fully and fignificantly expreft in a fingle word as in a compounded one, the courfe to be taken is obvious.

Some that cannot be fo turn'd as to preserve their full image by one or two words, may have jufticę done them by circumlocution; as the epithet eivori

A to a mountain, would appear little or ridicu lous tranflated literally leaf-fhaking, but affords a majestic idea in the periphrafis: The lofty mountain shakes his waving woods. Others that admit of differing fignifications, may receive an advantage by a judicious variation according to the occafions on which they are introduc'd. For example, the epithet of Apollo, Expón, or far-fhooting, is capable of two explications; one literal in refpect of the darts and bow, the enfigns of that God; the other allegorical with regard to the rays of the fun: Therefore in fuch places where Apollo is reprefented as a God in perfon, I would ufe the former interpretation, and where the effects of the fun are defcrib'd, I would make choice of the latter. Upon the whole, it will be neceffary to avoid that perpetual repetition of the fame epithets which we find in Homer, and which, tho' it might be accommodated (as has been already fhewn) to the ear of thofe times, is by no means fo to ours: But one may wait for opportunities of placing them, where they derive an additional beauty from the occafions

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