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for not doing what he never defigned; as because Achilles is not as good and perfect a prince as Æneas, when the very moral of his poem required a contrary character: It is thus that Rapin judges in his comparison of Homer and Virgil. Others felect thofe particular paffages of Homer, which are not fo laboured as fome that Virgil drew out of them: This is the whole management of Scaliger in his Poetice. Others quarrel with what they take for low and mean expreffions, fometimes thro' a falfe delicacy and refinement, oftner from an ignorance of the graces of the original; and then triumph in the aukwardness of their own tranflations: This is the conduct of Perault in his Parallels. Laftly, there are others, who, pretending to a fairer proceeding, diftinguish between the perfonal merit of Homer, and that of his work; but when they come to affign the causes 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 purfuance of this principle, they make those accidents (fuch as the contention of the cities, etc.) to be the caufes 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, whofe general character will infallibly raife many cafual additions to their reputation. This is the method of Monf. de la Motte; who yet confeffes upon the whole, that in whatever age Homer had lived, he must have been the greatest poet of his nation, and that he may be faid in this fenfe to be the mafter even of thofe who furpafs'd him.

In all these objections we fee nothing that contradicts his title to the honour of the chief Invention; and as long as this (which is indeed the characteristic of Poetry itself) remains unequal'd by his followers, he ftill continues fuperior to them.

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A cooler judgment may commit fewer faults, and be more approved in the eyes of one fort of Criticks: but that warmth of fancy will carry the loudest and most univerfal applaufes, which holds the heart of a reader under the ftrongest enchantment. Homer not only appears the Inventor of poetry, but excells 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 increafe, it only left room for contraction or regulation. He fhewed all the ftretch of fancy at once; and if he has failed in fome of his flights, it was but because he attempted every thing. A work of this kind feems like a mighty Tree which rises from the most vigorous feed, is improved with industry, flourishes, and produces the finest fruit; nature and art confpire to raife it; pleasure and profit join to make it valuable: and they who find the jufteft faults, have only faid, that a few branches (which run luxuriant thro' a richness of nature) might be lopp'd into form to give it a more regu lar appearance.

Having now spoken of the beauties and defects of the original, it remains to treat of the translation, with the fame view to the chief characteristic. As far as that is seen 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 those, 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 reft, the diction and verfification only are his proper province; fince thefe must be his own, but the others he is to take as he finds them.

It fhould then be confider'd what methods may afford fome equivalent in our language for the graces of thefe in the Greek. It is certain no litefal tranflation can be just to an excellent original in a fuperior language: but it is a great mistake to imagine (as many have done) that a rash paraphrase can make amends for this general defect ; which is no lefs in danger to lofe the fpirit of an ancient, by deviating into the modern manners of expreffion. If there be fometimes 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 neceflary 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 misled 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 fhould principally regard, as it is moft likely to expire in his managing: However, it is his fafeft way to be content with preferving this to his utmoft 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 miftaken than the juft pitch of his ftyle: Some of his tranflators having fwelled fato fuftian in a proud confidence of the fublime; others

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others funk into flatnefs in a cold and timorous notion of fimplicity. Methinks I fee thefe different followers of Homer, fome fweating and ftraining after him by violent leaps and bounds (the certain figns of falfe mettle) others flowly and fervilely creeping in his train, while the Poet himself is all the time proceeding with an unaffected and equal majefty before them. However, of the two extreams one could fooner pardon frenzy than frigidity: No author is to be envied for fuch commendations as he may gain by that character of style, which his friends muft agree together to call fimplicity, and the reft of the world will call dulnefs. 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 dreffed at all. Simplicity is the mean between oftentation and rufticity.

- This pure and noble fimplicity is no where in fuch perfection as in the Scripture and our Author, One may affirm, with all refpect to the inspired writings, that the divine Spirit made ufe of nơ 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 courfe bear a greater refemblance to the facred books than that of any other writer. This confideration (together with what has been obferved of the parity of fome of his thoughts) may methinks induce a tranflator on the one hand, to give into several of thofe general phrafes and manners of expreffion, which have atain'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,

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For a further prefervation of this air of fimplicity, a particular care fhould be taken to exprefs with all plainness those moral sentences and proverbial fpeeches which are so numerous in this Poet. They have fomething venerable, and as I may fay oracular, in that unadorn'd gravity and shortness with which they are delivered: 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 paraphrase.

Perhaps the mixture of fome Grecifms and old words after the manner of Milton, if done without too much affectation, might not have an ill effect in a version of this particular work, which most of any other feems to require a venerable antique cast. 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; those only excepted, without which it is impoffible to treat the subjects 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 distinguishes him at first fight: Thofe who are not his greatest admirers look upon them as defects; and those who are, feem pleased with them as beauties. I fpeak of his compound epithets, and of his repetitions. Many of the former cannot be done literally into English without destroying the purity of our language. I believe fuch fhould be retained as flide easily of themselves into an English compound, without violence to the ear or to the received rules of compofition; as well as those which have received a sanction from the authority of our beft Poets, and are become familiar thro' their use of them; such as the cloud-compelling Jove, etc. As for the reft, whenever any can be as fully and fignificantly expreft in a single

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