Perhaps the Chiefs, from warlike toils at ease,
For distant Troy refus'd to fail the seas :

Perhaps their swords some nobler quarrel drawe, 310 Alham'd to combate in their fifter's cause.

So spoke the fair, nor knew her brother's doom,
Wrapt in the cold embraces of the tomb;
Adorn'd with honours in their native shore,

Silent they slept, and heard of wars no more. 315 Meantime the heralds, thro' the crowded town,

Bring the rich wine and destin'd vi&tims down.
Idaus' arms the golden goblets preft,
Who thus the venerable King addrest.

Arise, O father of the Trojan ftate !
320 The nations call, thy joyful people wait,

To seal the truce, and end the dire debate,

ह }

V. 309. Perhaps their swords.] This is another Atroke of He. len's concern: The sense of her crime is perpetually affli&ing her, and awakes upon every occasion. The lines that follow, wherein Homer gives us to underftand that Castor and Pollux were now dead, are finely introduc'd, and in the spirit of poetry: the mule is suppos'd to know every thing past and to come, and to see things diftant as well as present.

X. 316. Mean time the beralds, &c.] It may not be unpleasing to the reader to compare the description of the ceremonies of the league in the following pait with that of Virgil in the twelfth book. The preparations, the procession of the Kings, and their congress, are much more folemn and poetical in the latter; the oath and abjurations are equally noble in both.

Paris,

Paris thy son, and Sparta's King advance,
In measur'd lists to toss the weighty lance;

And who his rival shall in arms fubdue, 325 His be the dame, and his the treasure too.

Thus with a lasting league our toils may cease,
And Troy poffess her fertile fields in peace;
So fhall the Greeks review their native shore,

Much fam’d for gen'rous feeds, for beauty more. 330 With grief he heard, and bade the chiefs prepare

To join his milk-white coursers to the car:
He mounts the seat, Antenor at his fide;
The gentle steeds thro' Sc&a's gates they guide:

Next from the car defcending on the plain, 335 Amid the Grecian host and Trojan train

Slow they proceed: The fage Ulysses then
Arofe, and with him rofe the King of Men.
On either side a sacred herald stands,

The wine they mix, and on each monarch's hands 345 Pour the full urn; then draws the Grecian Lord

His cutlace sheath'd befide his pond'rous sword ;
From the sign'd victims crops the curling hair,
The heralds part it, and the Princes share;

Then
. 3.42. The curling hair.] We have here the whole ceremo-
cial of the solemn oath, as it was observ'd anciently by the

nations

N 4

Then loudly thus before th' attentive bands
345 He calls the Gods, and spreads his lifted hands.

O first and greatest pow'r! whom all obey,
Who high on Ida's holy mountain sway,
Eternal Jove! and you bright orb that roll

From east to west, and view from pole to pole! 350 Thou mother Earth! and all ye living floods !

Infernal Furies, and Tartarean Gods,
Who rule the dead, and horrid woes prepare
For perjur’d Kings, and all who fallly swear!

Hear, and be witness. If, by Paris flain, 355 Great Menelaus press the fatal plain;

The Dame and treasures let the Trojan keep,
And Greece returning plow the watry deep.
If by my brother's lance the Trojan bleed;
Be his the wealth and beauteous dame decreed:

nations our author describes. I must take this occasion of remarking that we might spare our felves the trouble of reading most books of Grecian antiquities, only by being well vers’d in Homer. They are generally bare transcriptions of him, but with this unnecessary addition, that after having quoted any thing in verse, they say the same over again in prose. The Antiquitates Homerica of Feithius may serve as an instance of this. What my Lord Bacon observes of authors in general, is particularly applicable to these of Antiquities, that they write for oftentation not for instruction, and that their works are perpetual repetitions.

Th' ap

360 Th' appointed fine let ilion justly pay,

And ev'ry age record the signal day.
This if the Phrygians shall refuse to yield,
Arms must revenge, and Mars decide the field.

With that the Chief the tender victims New,
365 And in the dust their bleeding bodies threw :

*.361. And age to age record the signal day.) *Hte a laro seloos. μετ' ανθρώποισι φίλη). This feems the natural fenfe of the line, and not as Madam Dacier renders it. The tributo fall be paid to the posterity of the Greeks for ever. I think she is single in that explication, the majority of the interpreters taking it to fignify that the victory of the Grecians and this pecuniary acknowledgment should be recorded to all posteriry. If it mens any morethan this, at least it cannot come up to the sense Madam Dacier gives it; for a nation put under perpecual tribute is rather enslaved, than receiv'd to friendlip and alliance, which are the terms of Agamemnon's speech. It seems rather to be a: fine, demanded as a recompence for the expences of the war, which being made over to the Greeks, should remain to their pofierny for ever, that is to say, which they should never he molested for, or which should never be re demanded in any age as a case of injury. The phrase is the same we use at this day, when any purchase or grant is at once made over to a man and bis heirs for ever. With this will agree the Sinoliast's note, which tells us the. mul& was reported to have been half the goods then in the belieg'd city.

*. 364. The chief ine sender vicł ms Rew.] One of the grand objections which the ignorance of some moderns has rais'd against Homer, is what they call a defeat in the manners of hisheroes. They are shock'd to find his Kings employ'd in such offices as Naughtering of beafts, &c. But they forget that facrificing was the most folemn ait of religion, and that Kings of old in most nations were also Chief-priests. This, among other objections of the same kind, the reader may see an{werd in the Preface,

HOWS

The vital spirit iffu'd at the wound,
And left the members quiv’ring on the ground.
From the same urn they drink the mingled wine,

And add libations to the pow'rs divine.
370 While thus their pray’rs united mount the sky;

Hear mighty Jove! and hear ye Gods on high!
And may their blood, who first the league confound
Shed like this wine, diftain the thirsty ground;

May all their conforts serve promiscuous lust, 375

And all their race be scatter'd as the dust!
Thus either hoft their imprecations join'd,
Which Jove refus'd, and mingled with the wind:

The rites now finish's, rev'rend Priam rose,

And thus express'd a heart o'ercharg'd with woes.. 380 Ye Greeks and Trojans, let the chiefs engage,

But spare the weakness of my feeble age:
In yonder walls that object let me shun,
Nor view the danger of so dear a fon.

Whole arms shall conquer, and what Prince shall fall, 385 Heav'n only knows, for heav'n disposes all..

This faid, the hoary King no longer stay'd,
But on his car the slaughter'd victims laid;
Then seiz'd the reins his gentle steeds to guide,
And drove to Troy, Antenor at his fide,

Bold