and illuftrate the Roman. Learning came late to Rome, and all the Latin writers follow the plans that were laid out before them by the great mafters of Greece. They every where imitate the Greeks, and in many places tranflate 'em. Conpare 'em together, and they will be a comment to one another; you will by this mcans be enabled to pass a more certain judgment upon the humour and idiom of both languages; and both the pleasure and advantage of your reading will be double. Black-wall. § 163. The Greek and Latin Writers to be compared. By a careful comparison of the Greek and Latin writers, you will fee how judicioufly the latter imitated the former; and will your felf be qualified, with greater pleafure and fuccefs, to read and initate both. By obferving what advantages Virgil has made of Homer in his Eneid, and of Theocritus in his Paftorals; how cleanly Horace has applied feveral places, out of Anacreon. and other lyrics, to his own purpose; you will learn to collect precious ftores out of the Ancients; to transfuse their spirits into your language with as little lofs as poflible; and to borrow with fo much modefty and difcretion, as to make their riches your own, without the fcandal of unfair dealing. It will be convenient and pleasant to compare authors together, that were countrymen and fellow-citizens; as Euripides, Thucydides, and Xenophon: that were contemporaries; as Theocritus and Callimachus that writ in the fame dialect; as Anacreon and Herodotus, in the Ionic; Theocritus, Pindar, and Callimachus, upon Ceres and the Bath of Pallas, in the Doric: that writ upon the fame fubje&t ; as Apollonius, Valerius Flaccus, and Theocritus, on the combat of Pollux and Amycus, and the death of Hylas. Sallust's polite and curious hiftory of Cataline's confpiracy, and Tully's four glorious orations upon the fame fubject, are the brighteft com : mentaries each other. The hiftorian By comparing authors after this method, what feems difficult in one will be easy in another; what one expreffes fhort, another will enlarge upon; and if fome of them do not furnish us with all the variety of the dialect and idioms of the language, the reft will fupply thofe defects. It will likewife be necefiary for the young scholar diligently to remark and commit to memory the religious and civil cultoms of the Ancients: an accurate knowledge of them will make him capable to difcern and relifh the propriety of an author's words, and the elegance and graces of his allufions. When St. Paul fpeaks of his fpeedy approaching martyrdom, he uses this expref fon, Εγὼ γὰρ ἤδη σπενδομαι*; which is an allufion to that univerfal custom of the world, of pouring wine or oil on the head of the victim immediately before it was flain. The apostle's emphatical word fignifies--wine is juft now pouring on my head, I am just going to be facrificed to Pagan rage and fuperftition. That paffage of St. Paul," For I think that God hath "fet forth us the apoftles laft, as it were te appointed to death: for we are made a fpectacle unto the world, and to angels, "and to men f;" is all expreffed in Agoniftical terms, and cannot be understood, without taking the allufion that it manifeftly bears to the Roman gladiators, which came laft upon the stage at noon, and were marked out for certain flaughter and deftruction; being naked, with a fword in one hand, and tearing one another in pieces with the other; whereas, thofe who fought the wild beafts in the morning were allowed weapons offenfive and defenfive, and had a chance to come off with life. The moft ancient way of giving fentence among the Greeks, and particularly the Athenians, was by black and white pebbles, called . Thofe judges who put the black ones into an urn, paffed fentence of condemnation upon the perfon tried; and those who put in the white, acquitted and faved. Hence we may learn the fignificancy and beauty of our Saviour's words in St John, "to him that overcometh I will give a "white ftone ." I, who am the only judge of the whole world, will pass the fentence of abfolution upon my faithful fervants, and the champions of my cross; and crown them with the ineftimable rewards of immortality and glory. There are innumerable places, both in the Sacred Claffics and the others, which are not to * 2 Tim. iv. 16, † 1 Cor. iv. 9. Rev. ii. be be understood without a competent knowledge of antiquities. I call the writers of the New Teftament the Sacred Claffics; and fhall, in a proper place, endeavour fully to prove, that they deferve the higheft character for the purity of their language, as well as the vigour of their fenfc, against the ignorance of fome, and the infolence of others, who have fallen very rudely upon them with respect to their ftyle. Every fcholar, and every Chriftian, is obliged to the utmost of his abilities, to defend those venerable authors against all exceptions, that may in any respect tend to diminish their value. I cannot but be of the opinion of those gentlemen, who think there is propriety in the expreffion, as well as fublimity in the fentiments of the New Teftament; and efteem that man as bad a critic, who undervalues its language, as he is a Chriftian, who denies its doctrines. Black-wall. § 164. On the Study of the New Tefta ment. The claffic scholar must by no means be fo much wanting to his own duty, pleafure and improvement, as to neglect the study of the New Teftament, but must be perpetually conversant in those inestimable writings, which have all the treasures of divine wisdom, and the words of eternal life in them. The best way will be to make them the first and last of all your studies, to open and close the day with that facred book, wherein you have a faithful and most entertaining hiftory of that bleffed and miraculous work of the redemption of the world; and fure directions how to qualify and intitle yourself for the great falvation purchafed by Jefus. This exercife wili compofe your thoughts into the sweetest ferenity and chearfulnefs; and happily confecrate all your time and ftudies to God. After you have read the Greek Teftament once over with care and deliberation, I humbly recommend to your frequent and attentive perufal, thefe following chapters: St. Matthew 5. 6. 7. 25. 26. 27. 28. St. Mark 1. 13.--St. Luke 2. 9. 15. 16. 23. 24- -St. John 1. 11. 14. 15. 16. 17. 19. 20. Acts 26. 27.-Romans 2. 8. 12..——1. Cor. 3. 9. 13. 15.— -2 Cor. 4. 6. 11.Ephef. 4. 5. 6.--Philipp. 1.2. 3.- -Coloff. 1. 3.1 Theff. 2. 5.1 Tim. 1. 6.--2 Tim. 2. 3. Philemon.- -Heb. 1. 4. 6. 11. 12.-1 St. Peter all. 2 St. Peter all.--St. Jude. - In this collection you will find the Book of God, written by the evangelifts, and apoftles, comprised in a moft admirable and comprehenfive epitome. A true critic will discover numerous inftances of every ftyle in perfection; every grace and ornament of speech more chafte and beautiful than the most admired and shining paffages of the fecular writers. In particular, the defcription of God, and the future ftate of heavenly glory, in St. Paul and St. Peter, St. James and, St. John, as far tranfcend the defcriptions of Jupiter and Olympus, which Homer, and Pindar, and Virgil, give us, as the thunder and lightning of the heavens do the rattling and flashes of a Salmoneus: or the eternal Jehovah is fuperior to the Pagan deities. In all the New Teftament, especially thefe felect paffages, God delivers to mankind laws of mercy, myfteries of wildom, and rules of happinefs, which fools and madmen ftupidly neglect, or impiously scorn; while all the best and brightest beings in the univerfe regard them with facred attention, and contemplate them with wonder and tranfporting delight. Thefe ftudies, with a fuitable Chriftian practice (which they fo loudly call for, and fo pathetically prefs) will raife you above all vexatious fears, and deluding hopes; and keep you from putting an undue value upon either the eloquence or enjoyments of this world. Ibid. § 165. The old Critics to be ftudied. That we may ftill qualify ourfelves the better to read and relish the Claffics, we must feriously study the old Greek and Latin critics. Of the firft are Ariftotle, Dionyfius Longinus, and Dionyfius of Halicarnaffus: of the latter are Tully, Horace, and Quinctilian. Thefe are excellent authors, which lead their readers to the fountain-head of true fenfe and fublimity; teach them the firft and infallible principles of convincing and moving eloquence; and reveal all the mystery and delicacy of good writing. While they judiciously dif cover the excellencies of other authors, they fuccefsfully fhew their own; and are glorious examples of that fublime they praife. They take off the general distastefulness of precepts; and rules, by their dextrous management, have beauty as well as ufefulness. They were, what every true critic muft be, perfons of great reading Hh.4 and and happy memory, of a piercing faga Times over. I cannot but here repeat what I faid before, of the advantage of reading the best authors feveral times over. There muft needs be pleasure and improvement in a repetition of fuch writers as have fresh beauties in every section, and new wonders arifing in every new page. One fuperficial reading exhaufts the fmall ftores of a fuperficial writer, but the genuine Ancients, and those who write with their fpirit and after their pattern, are deep and full. An ill written loofe book is like a formal common-place fop, who has a fet of phrases and stories, which in a converfation or two are all run over; the man quickly impoverishes himself, and in a few hours becomes perfectly dry and infipid. But the old Claffics, and their genuine followers among the moderns, are like a rich natural genius, who has an unfailing fupply of good fenfe on all occafions; and gratifies his company with a perpetual and charming variety. lbid. § 167. The Rife and Progress of Philofophical Criticum. city and elegant tafte. They praife with- § 166. The beft Authors to be read feveral out flattery or partial favour; and cenfure without pride or envy. We fhall still have a completer notion of the perfections and beauties of the ancients, if we read the choiceft authors in our own tongue, and fome of the best writers of our neighbour nations, who always have the Ancients in view, and write with their spirit and judgment. We have a glorious fet of poets, of whom I fhall only mention a few, which are the chief; Spenfer, Shakespeare, Milton, Waller, Denham, Cowley, Dryden, Prior, Addifon, Pope; who are infpired with the true fpirit of their predeceffors of Greece and Rome; and by whofe immortal works the reputation of the English poetry is raifed much above that of any language in Europe. Then we have profe writers of all profeffions and degrees, and upon a great variety of fubjects, true admirers and great mafters of the old Claffics and Critics; who obferve their rules, and write after their models. We have Raleigh, Clarendon, Temple, Taylor, Tillotfon, Sharp, Sprat, South-with a great many others, both dead and living, that I have not time to name, though I efteem them not inferior to the illuftrious few I have mentioned; who are in high esteem with all readers of tafte and diftinction, and will be long quoted as bright examples of good fenfe and fine writing. Horace and Ariftctle will be read with greater delight and improvement, if we join with them, the Duke of Buckingham's Effay on Poetry, Rofcommon's Tranflation of Horace's Art of Poetry, and Effay on Tranflated Verfe, Mr. Pope's Eflay on Criticism, and Difcourfes before Homer, Dryden's Critical Prefaces and Difcourtes, all the Spectators that treat upon Claffical Learning, particularly the juftly admired and celebrated critique upon Milton's Paradife Loft, Dacier upon Ariftotie's Poetics, Boffu on Epic Poetry, Boileau's Art of Poetry, and Reflections on Longinus, Dr. Felton's Differtation on the Claffics, and Mr. Trapp's Poetical Prelections. Thefe gentlemen make a true judgment and ufe of the Ancients: they esteem it a reputation to own they admire them, and borrow from them; and make a grateful return, by doing honour to their memories, and defending them against the attacks of fome over-forward wits, who furiously envy their fame, and infinitely fall fhort of their merit, Blackwall, Ancient Greece, in its happy days, was the feat of Liberty, of Sciences, and of Arts. In this fair region, fertile of wit, the Epic writers came firft; then the Lyric; then the Tragic; and, lallly, the Hiftorians, the Comic Writers, and the Orators, each in their turns delighting whole multitudes, and commanding the attention and admiration of all. Now, when wife and thinking men, the fubtil investigators of principles and caufes, obferved the wonderful effect of thefe works upon the human mind, they were prompted to enquire whence this fhould proceed; for that it fhould happen merely from Chance, they could not well believe. Here therefore we have the rife and'origin of Criticiim, which in its beginning was "a deep and philofophical fearch into "the primary laws and elements of good "writing, as far as they could be collect"ed from the most approved perform"ances." In this contemplation of authors, the firft critics not only attended to the powers and different fpecies of words; the force of numerous compofition, whether in profe or verfe; the aptitude of its various kinds to different subjects; but sy farther con fidered fidered that, which is the bafis of all, that is to fay, in other words, the meaning of the fenfe. This led them at once into the most curious of fubjects; the nature of man in general; the different characters of men, as they differ in rank or age; their reafon and their paffions; how the one was to be perfuaded, the others to be raised or calmed; the places or repofitories to which we may recur, when we want proper matter for any of these purposes. Befides all this, they ftudied fentiments and manners; what conftitutes a work; what, a whole and parts; what, the effence of probable, and even of natural fiction, as contributing to conftitute a juft dramatic fable. Harris. § 168. PLATO, ARISTOTLE, THEOPHRASTUS, and other GREEK Authors of Philofophical Criticism. Much of this kind may be found in different parts of Plato. But Ariftotle, his difciple, who may be called the fyftematizer of his master's doctrines, has, in his two treatises of poetry and rhetoric, with fuch wonderful penetration developed every part of the fubject, that he may be justly called the Father of Criticifm, both from the age when he lived, and from his truly tranfcendent genius. The criticism which this capital writer taught, has fo intimate a correfpondence and alliance with philofophy, that we can call it by no other name, than that of Philofophical Criticifm. To Ariftotle fucceeded his difciple Thcophraftus, who followed his after's example in the study of criticifm, as may be feen in the catalogue of his writings, preferved by Diogenes Laertius. But all the critical works of Theophraftus, as well as of many others, are now loft. The principal authors of the kind now remaining in Greek are Demetrius of Phalera, Dionyfius of Halicarnaflus, Dionyfius Longinus, together with Hermogenes, Aphthonius, and a few others. Of these the most masterly feems to be Demetrius, who was the earliest, and who appears to follow the precepts, and even the text of Ariftotle, with far greater attention than any of the reft. His examples, it must be confeffed, are fometimes obfcure, but this we rather impute to the deftructive hand of time, which has prevented us from feeing many of the original authors, Dionyfius of Halicarnaffus, the next in order, may be faid to have written with judgment upon the force of numerous compofition, not to mention other tracts on the fubject of oratory, and those alfo critical as well as hiftorical. Longinus, who was in time far later than thefe, feems principally to have had in view the paffions and the imagination, in the treating of which he has acquired a just applause, and expreffed himself with a dignity fuitable to the fubject. The reft of the Greek critics, though they have faid many useful things, have yet fo minutely multiplied the rules of art, and fo much confined themselves to the oratory of the tribunal, that they appear of no great fervice, as to good writing in general. Ibid. $169. Philofophical Critics among the ROMANS. Among the Romans, the first critic of note was Cicero; who, though far below Ariftotle in depth of philofophy, may be faid, like him, to have exceeded all his countrymen. As his celebrated treatise concerning the Orator is written in dialogue, where the speakers introduced are the greatest men of his nation, we have incidentally an elegant fample of those manners, and that politenefs, which were peculiar to the leading characters during the Roman commonwealth. There we may fee the behaviour of free and accomplished men, before a baser addrefs had fet that ftandard, which has been too often taken for good breeding ever fince. Next to Cicero came Horace; who often, in other parts of his writings, acts the critic and fcholar, but whofe Art of Poctry is a standard of its kind, and too well known to need any encomium. After Horace arose Quinctilian, Cicero's admirer and follower, who appears, by his works, not only learned and ingenious, but, what is ftill more, an honeft and a worthy man. He likewife dwells too much upon the oratory of the tribunal, a fact no way furprizing, when we confider the age in which he lived: an age when tyrannic government being the fashion of the times, that nobler fpecies of eloquence, I mean the popular and deliberative, was, with all things truly liberal, degenerated and funk. The later Latin rhetoricians there is no need to mention, as they little help to illuftrate the fubject in hand. I would only repeat, that the fpecies of criticism here mentioned, mentioned, as far at least as handled by the more able masters, is that which we have denominated Criticism Philofophical, Harris. $170. Concerning the Progrefs of Criticifm in its fecond Species, the HiftoricalGREEK and ROMAN Critics, by whom this Species of Criticism was cultivated. As to the Criticism already treated, we find it not confined to any one particular author, but containing general rules of art, either for judging or writing, confirmed by the example not of one author, but of many. But we know from experience, that, in process of time, languages, cuftoms, manners, laws, governments, and religions, infenfibly change. The Macedonian tyranny, after the fatal battle of Cheronea, wrought much of this kind in Greece: and the Roman tyranny, after the fatal battles of Pharfalia and Philippi, carried it throughout the known world. Hence, therefore, of things obfolete the names became obfolete alfo; and authors, who in their own age were intelligible and eafy, in after days grew difficult and obfcure. Here then we behold the rise of a fecond race of critics, the tribe of fcholiafts, commentators, and explainers. Thefe naturally attached themfelves to particular authors. Ariftarchus, Didymus, Euftathius, and many others, beftowed their labours upon Homer; Proclus and Tzetzes upon Hefiod; the fame Proclus and Olympiodorus upon Plato; Simplicius, Ammonius, and Philoponus, upon Ariftotle; Ulpian upon Demofthenes; Macrobius and Afconius upon Cicero; Calliergus upon Theocritus; Donatus upon Terence; Servius upon Virgil; Acro and Porphyrio upon Horace; and fo with refpect to others, as well philofophers as poets and orators. To thefe fcholiafts may be added the feveral compofers of Lexicons; fuch as Hefychius, Philoxenus, Suidas, &c. alfo the writers upon Grammar, fuch as Apollonius, Prifcian, Sofipater, Charifius, &c. Now all these pains-taking men, confidered together, may be faid to have completed another fpecies of criticism, a fpecies which, in diftinction to the former, we call Criticism Hiftorical. And thus things continued, though in a declining way, till, after many a fevere and unfuccefsful plunge, the Roman empire funk through the weft of Europe. Latin then foon loft its purity; Greek they hardly knew; Claffics, and their Scho liafts, were no longer studied; and an age fucceeded of legends and crufades. Ibid. § 171. Moderns eminent in the two Species of Criticifm before mentioned, the Philofophical and the Hiftorical-the laft Sort of Critics more numerous-thofe, mentioned in this Section, confined to the GREEK and LATIN Languages. At length, after a long and barbarous period, when the shades of monkery began to retire, and the light of humanity once again to dawn, the arts alfo of criticism infenfibly revived. 'Tis true, indeed, the authors of the philofophical fort (I mean that which refpects the causes and principles of good writing in general) were not many in number. However, of this rank, among the Italians, were Vida, and the elder Scaliger; among the French were Rapin, Bouhours, Boileau, together with Boflu, the moft methodic and accurate of them all. In our own country, our nobility may be faid to have distinguifhed themselves; Lord Rofcommon, in his Effay upon tranflated Verfe; the Duke of Buckingham, in his Effay on Poetry; and Lord Shaftsbury, in his treatise called Advice to an Author: to whom may be added, our late admired genius, Pope, in his truly elegant poem, the Effay upon Criticifm. The Difcourfes of Sir Joshua Reynolds upon painting have, after a philofophical manner, investigated the principles of an art, which no one in practice has better verified than himself. We have mentioned thefe difcourfes, not only from their merit, but as they incidentally teach us, that to write well upon a liberal art, we muft write philofophically -that all the liberal arts in their principles are congenial-and that these principles, when traced to their common fource, are found all to terminate in the first philofophy. But to purfue our fubject-However fmall among moderns may be the number of thefe Philofophical Critics, the writers of hiftorical or explanatory criticism have been in a manner innumerable. To name, out of many, only a few-of Italy were Beroaldus, Ficinus, Victorius, and Robertellus; of the Higher and Lower Germany were Erafmus, Sylburgius, Le Clerc, and Fabricius; of France were Lambin, DuVall, Harduin, Capperonerius; of England were Stanley (editor of Æfchylus) Gataker, |