480 The billows float in order to the shore,

The wave behind rolls on the wave before;
Till, with the growing ftorm, the deeps arife,
Foam o'er the rocks, and thunder to the fkies,

So to the fight the thick Battalions throng, 485 Shields urg'd on fhields, and men drove men along. Sedate and filent move the num'rous bands;

No found, no whisper, but their Chief's commands,
Those only heard; with awe the reft obey,

As if fome God had snatch'd their voice away.
49° Not fo the Trojans; from their hoft afcends
A gen'ral fhout that all the region rends.

As when the fleecy flocks unnumber'd stand
In wealthy folds, and wait the milker's hand,
The hollow vales inceffant bleating fills,

495 The lambs reply from all the neighb'ring hills:
Such clamours rofe from various nations round
Mix'd was the murmur, and confus'd the found.
Each hoft now joins, and each a God infpires,
These Mars incites, and thofe Minerva fires.

noife and clamour; next they join; the adverfe Gods are let
down among them; the imaginary perfons of Terror, Flight,
Difcord, fucceed to re-inforce them; then all is undistinguish'd
fury, and a confufion of Horrors, only that at different open-
ings we behold the diftin&t deaths of feveral heroes, and then
are involv'd again in the fame confufion.
P 6

Pal:

500 Pale Flight around, and dreadful Terror reign;
And Difcord raging bathes the purple plain:
Difcord! dire fifter of the flaught'ring pow'r,
Small at her birth, but rifing ev'ry hour,

While

.5oz. Difcord! dive fiter, &c] This is the paffage fo highly extoll'd by Longinus, as one of the most signal inftances of the noble fublimity of this author: where it is faid, that the image here drawn of Discord, whose head touch'd the heavens, and whose feet were on earth, may as justly be apply'd to the vast reach and elevation of the genius of Homer. But Monf. Borleau informs us, that neither the quotation nor these words. were in the original of Longinus, but partly inferted by Gabriel de Petra. However the best encomium is, that Virgil has tap ken it word for word, and apply'd it to the person of Fame.

Parva metu primò, mox fefe attollit in auras,
Ingrediturque folo, & caput inter nubila condit,

Ariftides had formerly blamed Homer for admitting Discord
into heaven, and Scaliger takes up the criticism to throw him
below Virgil. Fame (he fays) is properly feign'd to hide her
head in the clouds, because the grounds and authors of ru-
mours are commonly unknown. As if the fame might not
be alledg'd for Homer, fince the grounds and authors of Dif-
cord are often no lefs fecret. Macrobius has put this among
the paffages where he thinks Virgil has fallen fhort in his imi-
tation of Homer, and brings thefe reafons for his opinion:
Homer reprefents Difcord to rife from fmall beginnings, and
afterwards in her encreafe to reach the heavens; Virgil has
faid this of Fame, but not with equal propriety; for the sub-
jects are very different: Difcord, tho' it reaches to wax and
devaftation, is ftill Difcord; nor ceafes to be what it was at
fift: But Fame, when it grows to be univerfal, is Fame no
longer, but becomes knowledge and certainty; for who
calls any thing Fame, which is known from earth to heaven?
Nor has Virgil equall'd the ftrength of Homer's hyperbole,
for one fpeaks of heaven, the other only of the louds.
Grob, Sat. 1, 5. c. 13, Scaliger is very angry at this last period,

Ma

and

While scarce the fkies her horrid head can bound, › She stalks on earth, and fhapes the world around; The nations bleed, where-e'er her steps fhe turns, The groan ftill deepens, and the combate burns.

and by mistake blames Gellius for it, in whom there is no fuch thing. His words are fo infolently dogmatical, that barely to quote them is to answer them, and the only anfwer which fuch a spirit of criticism deserves. Clamani quod Maro de Fama dixit eam inter nubila caput condere, cùm tamen Homerus unde ipfe accepit, in cœlo caput Eridis conftituit. Jam tibi pro me refpondeo. Non fum imitatus, nolo imitari: non placet,, non eft verum, Contentionem ponere caput in cœlo. Ridiculum eft, fatuum eft, Homericum eft, Graculum eft. Poet. 1. 5. c. 3.

This fine verfe was alfo criticis'd by Monf. Perault, who accufes it as a forc'd and extravagant hyperbole. M. Boileau anfwers, That hyperboles as ftrong are daily used even in common difcourfe, and that nothing is in effect more strictly true than that Difcord reigns over all the earth, and in heaven itself; that is to fay, among the Gods of Homer. It is not (continues this excellent critick) the defcription of a giant, as this cenfor would pretend, but a juft allegory; and as he makes. Difcord an allegorical perfon, fhe may be of what fize he pleafes without fhocking us; fince it is what we regard only as an idea and creature of the fancy, and not as a material fubftance that has any being in nature. The expreffion in the Palm, that the impious man is lifted up as a cedar of Libanus, does by no means imply that the impious man was a giant as tall as a cedar. Thus far Boileau; and upon the whole we may obferve, that it feems not only the fate of great genius's to have met with the most malignant criticks, but of the fineft and nobleft paffages in them to have been particular y pitch'd upon for impertinent criticisms. Thele are the divine boldneffes, which in their very nature provoke ignorance and short fightedness to fhew themselves; and which whoever is capable of attaining, muft alfo certainly know, that they will be attack'd by such, as cannot reach them.

Now

Now fhield with shield, with helmet helmet clos'd,
To armour armour, lance to lance oppos'd,
10 Hoft against hoft with fhadowy fquadrons drew,
The founding darts in iron tempefts flew,
Victors and vanquish'd join promifcuous cries,
And fhrilling shouts and dying groans arise;
With ftreaming blood the flipp'ry fields are dy'd,
515 And flaughter'd heroes fwell the dreadful tide.

As torrents roll, encreas'd by num'rous rills,
With rage impetuous down their echoing hills;

.508. Now shield with fhield, &c.] The verses which follow in the original are perhaps excell'd by none in Homer; and that he had himself a particular fondnefs for them, may be imagin'd from his inferting them again in the fame words in the eighth book. They are very happily imitated by Sta tius, lib. 7.

Jam clypeus clypeis, umbone repellitur ambo

Enfe minax enfis, pede pes, & cufpide cuspis, &c.

.516. As torrents roll.] This comparison of rivers meeting and roaring, with two armies mingling in batttel, is an image of that noblenefs, which (to fay no more) was worthy the invention of Homer, and the imitation of Virgil.

Aut ubi decurfu rapido de montibus altis,

Dant fonitum fpumofi omnes, & in aquora currunt,
Quifque fuum populatus iter; •Stupet infcius alto
Accipiens fonitum faxi de vertice paftor.

The word populatus here has a beauty which one must be in-
fenfible not to obferve. Scaliger prefers Virgil's, and Macro-
bius Homer's, without any reafons on either fide, but only one
critick's pofitive words against another's, The reader may
judge between them,

Rush

Rush to the vales, and pour'd along the plain,
Roar thro' a thousand chanels to the main;
o The diftant fhepherd trembling hears the found:
So mix both hofts, and fo their cries rebound.
The bold Antilochus the flaughter led,
The first who ftrook a valiant Trojan dead:
At great Echepolus the lance arrives,

5 Raz'd his high creft, and thro' his helmet drives;
Warm'd in the brain the brazen weapon lies,
And fhades eternal fettle o'er his eyes.

So finks a tow'r, that long affaults had stood
Of force and fire; its walls besmear'd with blood.
O Him, the bold* Leader of th' Abantian throng
Seiz'd to defpoil, and dragg'd the corps along:
But while he ftrove to tug th' inferted dart,
Agenor's jav'lin reach'd the heroe's heart.

His flank, unguarded by his ample fhield,

5 Admits the lance: He falls, and spurns the field; The nerves unbrac'd fupport his limbs no more; The foul comes floating in a tide of gore.

.522. The bold Antilochus.] Antilochus the fon of Neftor is the first who begins the engagement. It feems as if the old heroe having done the greateft fervice he was capable of at his years, in difpofing the troops in the best order (as we have feen before) had taken care to fet his fon at the head of them, to give him the glory of beginning the battel.

Trojans

* Elphenor.