Fall he that muft, beneath his rival's arms,
And live the reft fecure of future harms.
Two lambs, devoted by your countrey's rite,
To Earth a fable, to the Sun a white,
Prepare ye Trojans! while a third we bring.
Select to Jove, th' inviolable King.

45 Let rev'rend Priam in the truce engage,
And add the fanction of confid❜rate age;
His fons are faithlefs, headlong in debate,
And youth itself an empty wav'ring state.
Cool age advances venerably wise,

150 Turns on all hands its deep-difcerning eyes;
Sees what befell, and what may yet befall,
Concludes from both, and beft provides for all.
The nations hear, with rifing hopes poffeft,
And peaceful profpects dawn in ev'ry breaft..

With

141. Two lambs devoted ] The Trojans (fays the old fcholiaft) were required to facrifice two lambs; one male of a white colour, to the Sun, and one female, and black, to the Earth; as the Sun is father of light, and the Earth the mother and nurse of men. The Greeks were to offer a third to Jupiter, perhaps to Jupiter Xenius, because the Trojans had broken the laws of hofpitality: On which account we find Menelaus afterwards invoking him in the combate with Paris. That thefe were the powers to which they facrific'd, appears by their being attefted by name in the oath, . 346, &c.

. 153. The nations bear, with rifing hopes poffeft.] It feem'd no more than what the reader would reafonably expect, in

155

Within the lines they drew their steeds around,
And from their chariots iffu'd on the ground:
Next all unbuckling the rich mail they wore,
Lay'd their bright arms along the fable fhore.
On either fide the meeting hosts are seen,
160 With lances fix'd, and clofe the space between.
Two heralds now dispatch'd to Troy, invite
The Phrygian Monarch to the peaceful rite;

the narration of this long war, that a period might have been
put to it by the fingle danger of the parties chiefly concern'd,
Paris and Menelaus. Homer has therefore taken care toward
the beginning of his Poem to obviate that objection; and
contriv'd fuch a method to render this combate of no ef-
fect, as fhould naturally make way for all the enfuing bat-
tels, without any future profpect of a determination but by
the fword It is farther worth obferving in what manner he
has improved into Poetry the common hiftory of this action,
if (as one may imagine) it was the fame with that we have
in the fecond book of Dictys Cretenfis. When Paris (fays he)
being wounded by the fear of Menelaus fell to the ground, just as
his adverfary was rushing upon him with his fword, he was shot by
an arow from Pandarus, which prevented his revenge in the mo-
ment he was going to take it. Immediately on the fight of this perfi-
dious action, the Greeks rofe in a tumult; the Trojans rifing at the
fame time, came on, and rescued Paris from his enemy. Homer has
with great art and invention mingled all this with the mar
vellous, and rais'd it in the air of fable. The Goddess of Love
refcues her favourite; Jupiter debates whether or no the war
fhall end by the defeat of Paris; fun is for the continuance
of it; Minerva incites Pandarus to break the truce, who there-
upon fhoots at Menelaus. This heightens the grandeur of the
action, without deftroying the verifimilitude, diversifies the
poem, and exhibits a fine moral, That whatever seems in
the world the effect of common caufes, is really owing to
the decree and difpofition of the Gods,

Talthy

Talthybius haftens to the fleet, to bring

The lamb for Jove, th' inviolable King. 165 Meantime, to beauteous Helen, from the skies. The various Goddess of the rain-bow flies: (Like fair Laodicè in form and face,

The lovelieft Nymph of Priam's royal race) Her in the palace, at her loom fhe found; 170 The golden web her own fad ftory crown'd,

. 165. Mean while to beauteous Helen, &c.] The following part, where we have the first fight of Helena, is what I cannot think inferior to any in the Poem. The reader has naturally an averfion to this pernicious beauty and is apt enough to wonder at the Greeks for endeavouring to recover her at fuch an expence. But her amiable behaviour here, the fecret wishes that arise in favour of her rightful Lord, her tenderness for her parents and relations, the relentings of her foul for the mischiefs her beauty had been the cause of, the confufion the appears in, the veiling her face, and dropping a tear are particulars fo beautifully natural, as to make every reader no less than Menelaus himself, inclin'd to fo give. her at leaft, if not to love her. We are afterwards confirm'd in this partiality by the fentiment of the old counsellors upon the fight of her, which one would think Homer put into their mouths with that very view: We excufe her no more than Priam does himself, and all those who felt the calamities the occafion'd: And this regard for her is heighten'd by all the fays herfelf; in which there is fcarce a word, that is not big with repentance and good nature.

. 170. The golden web her own sad story crown'd.] This is a very agreeable fiction, to reprefent Helena weaving in a large veil, or piece of tapestry, the ftory of the Trojan war. One wou'd think that Homer inherited this veil, and that his Iliad is only an explication of that admirable piece of art. Dacier.

The

The Trojan wars fhe weav'd (herself the prize)
And the dire triumphs of her fatal eyes.

To whom the Goddess of the painted bow;

Approach, and view the wond'rous fcene below!
175 Each hardy Greek, and valiant Trojan Knight,
So dreadful late, and furious for the fight,
Now reft their spears, or lean upon their fhields;
Ceas'd is the war, and filent all the fields.
Paris alone and Sparta's King advance,

180 In fingle fight to tofs the beamy lance;
Each met in arms, the fate of combate tries,
Thy love the motive, and thy charms the prize.
This faid, the many colour'd maid inspires

Her husband's love, and wakes her former fires;
185 Her countrey, parents, all that once were dear,
Rush to her thought, and force a tender tear.
O'er her fair face a fnowy veil fhe threw,
And, foftly fighing, from the loom withdrew..
Her handmaids Clymenè and Æthra wait

190 Her filent footsteps to the Scaan gate.

There fate the Seniors of the Trojan race,
(Old Priam's Chiefs, and moft in Priam's grace)
The King the firft; Thymates at his fide;
Lampus and Clytius, long in council try'd;

Panthus

Panthus, and Hicetäon, once the ftrong;

And next, the wisest of the rev'rend throng,
Antenor grave, and fage Ucalegon,

Lean'd on the walls, and bask'd before the fun.
Chiefs, who no more in bloody fights engage,
› But wife thro' time, and narrative with age,
In fummer-days, like Grafhoppers rejoice,
A bloodless race, that fend a feeble voice.

Thefe,

. 201 Like grafhoppers.] This is one of the juftest and most natural images in the world. tho' there have been criticks of fo little taste as to object to it as a mean one. The garrulity fo common to old men, their delight in affociating with each other, the feeble found of their voices, the pleasure they take in a fun-fhiny day, the effects of decay in their chillness, leannefs, and scarcity of blood, are all circumftances exactly parallel'd in this comparison. To make it yet more proper to the old men of Troy, Euftathius has obferv'd that Homer found a hint for this fimile in the Trojan ftory, where Tithon was feign'd to have been transform'd into a Grafhopper in his old age, perhaps on account of his being fo exhaufted by years as to have nothing left him but voice. Spondanus wonders that Homer should apply to grafhoppers ora regiósorav, a fweet voice, whereas that of thefe animals is harsh and untuneful; and he is contented to come off with a very poor evafion of Homero fingere quidlibet fas fuit. But Hefychius rightly obferves that aegges fignifies años: tener or gracilis, as well as fuavis. The fenfe is certainly much better, and the fimile more truly preferv'd by this interpretation, which is here follow'd in tranflating it feeble. However it may be alledg'd in defence of the common verfions, and of Madam Dacier's (who has turn'd it Har monieuse,) that tho' Virgil gives the Epithet rauca to Cicada, yet the Greek Poets frequently defcribe the grafhopper as a