and phyfical philofophy, which Homer is generally fupposed to have wrapp'd up in his allegories, what a new and ample scene of wonder may this confideration afford us! How fertile will that imagination appear, which was able to clothe all the properties of elements, the qualifications of the mind, the virtues and vices, in forms and perfons; and to introduce them into actions agreeable to the nature of the things they fhadowed ? This is the field in which no fucceeding poets could difpute with Homer; and whatever commendations have been allowed them on this head, are by no means for their invention in having enlarged his circle, but for their Judgment in having contracted it. For when the mode of learning changed in following ages, and science was delivered in a plainer manner; it then became as reaforable in the more modern poets to lay it afide, as it was in Homer to make use of it. And perhaps it was no unhappy circumftance for Virgil, that there was not in his time that demand upon him of fo great an invention, as might be capable of furnishing all thofe allegorical parts of a poem. The marvellous fable includes whatever is fupernatural, and especially the machines of the Gods. He feems the first who brought them into a fyftem of machinery for poetry, and fuch a one as makes its greatest importance and dignity. For we find thofe authors who have been offended at the literal notion of the Gods, constanty laying their accufation against Homer as the chief fupport of it. But whatever cause there might be to blame Iris machines, in a philofophical or religious view, they are fo perfect in the poetic, that mankind have been ever fince contented to follow them: None have been able to enlarge the sphere of poetry beyond the limits he has fet Every attempt of this nature has proved unfuccefsful; and after all the various changes of times and religions, his Gods continue to this day the Gods of Poetry. We come now to the characters of his perfons: And here we shall find no author has ever drawn fo many, with fo vifible visible and surprising a variety, or given us fuch lively and affecting impreffions of them. Every one has fomething fo fingularly his own, that no painter could have distinguished them more by their features, than the Poet has by their manners. Nothing can be more exact than the distinctions he has observed in the different degrees of virtues and vices. The fingle quality of courage is wonderfully diversified in the feveral characters of the Iliad. That of Achilles is furious and intractable; that of Diomede forward, yet liftening to advice and fubject to command: That of Ajax is heavy and felf confiding; of Hector active and vigilant: The courage of Agamemnon is inspirited by love of empire and ambition; that of Menelaus mixed with foftnefs and tendernefs for his people: We find in Idomeneus a plain direct foldier, in Sarpedon a gallant and generous one. Nor is this judicious and aftonishing diverfity to be found only in the principal quality which conftitutes the main of each cha racter, but even in the underparts of it, to which he takes care to give a tincture of that principal one. For example, the main characters of Ulyffes and Neftor confist in wisdom; and they are distinct in this, that the wifdom of one is artificial and various, of the other, natural, open, and regular. But they have, befides, characters of courage; and this quality alfo takes a different turn in each from the difference of his prudence for one in the war depends ftill upon caution, the other upon experience. It would be endless to produce inftances of these kinds. The characters of Virgil are far from striking us in this open mannea; they lie in a great degree hidden and undistinguished, and where they are marked most evidently, affect us not in proportion to thofe of Homer. His characters of valour are much alike; even that of Turnus seems no way peculiar, but as it is in a fuperior degree; and we fee nothing that differences the courage of Mneftheus from that of Sergeftus, Cloanthus, or the reft. In like manner it may be remark'd of Statius's heroes, that an air of impetuoVOL, III. K k : fity fity runs through them all; the fame horrid and favage courage appears in his Capaneus, Tydeus, Hippomedon, etc. They have a parity of character, which makes them feem brothers of one family. I believe when the reader is led into this track of reflection, if he will purfue it thro' the Epic and Tragic writers, he will be convinced how infinitely fuperior in this point the invention of Homer was to that of all others. The fpeeches are to be confidered as they flow from the characters, being perfect or defective as they agree or disagree with the manners of those who utter them. As there is more variety of characters in the Iliad, fo there is of fpeeches, than in any other poem. Every thing in it has manners (as Ariftotle expreffes it) that is, every thing is acted or spoken. It is hardly credible in a work of fuch length, how small a number of lines are employed in narration. In Virgil the dramatic part is lefs in proportion to the narrative; and the speeches often confift of general reflections or thoughts, which might be equally just in any person's mouth upon the fame occafion. As many of his perfons have no apparent characters, fo many of his fpeeches efcape being applied and judged by the rule of propriety. We oftener think of the author himfelf when we read Virgil, than when we are engaged in Homer: All which are the effects of a colder invention, that interefts us lefs in the action described: Homer makes us hearers, and Virgil leaves us readers. If in the next place we take a view of the fentiments, the fame prefiding faculty is eminent in the fublimity and spirit of his thoughts. Longinus has given his opinion, that it was in this part Homer principally excelled. What were alone fufficient to prove the grandeur and excellence of his fentiments in general, is, that they have fo remarkable a parity with those of the Scripture: Duport, in his Guomologia Homerica, has collected innumerable inftances of this fort. And it is with juftice an excellent modern writer allows, that if Virgil has not fo many thoughts that are low and vulgar, he has not fo many many that are fublime and noble; and that the Roman author seldom rifes into very aftonishing fentiments where he is not fired by the Iliad. If we obferve his defcriptions, images and fimiles, we shall find the invention ftill predominant. To what elfe can we afcribe that vaft comprehenfion of images of every fort, where we fee each circumstance of art, and individual of nature summoned together, by the extent and fecundity of his imagination; to which all things, in their various views, prefented themselves in an inftant, and had their impreffions taken off to perfection at a heat? Nay, he not only gives us the full prospects of things, but several unexpected peculiarities and fide-views, unobferved by any painter but Homer. Nothing is fo surprizing as the descriptions of his battles, which take up no less than half the Iliad, and are fupplied with so vaft a variety of incidents, that no one bears a likeness to another; fuch different kinds of deaths, that no two heroes are wounded in the fame manner: and fuch a profufion of noble ideas, that every battle rifes above the last in greatnefs, horror, and confufion. It is certain there is not near that number of images and descriptions in any Epic Poet; though every one has affifted himself with a great quantity out of him: And it is evident of Virgil, especially, that he has scarce any comparisons which are not drawn from his master. If we defcend from hence to the expreffion, we see the - bright imagination of Homer fhining out in the most enlivened forms of it. We acknowledge him the father of poetical diction, the firft who taught that language of the Gods to men: "His expreffion is like the colouring of fome great mafters, which difcovers itself to be laid on boldly, and executed with rapidity. It is indeed the ftrongest and most glowing imaginable, and touched with the greatest spirit. Ariftotle had reason to say, He was the only poet who had found out living words; there are in him more daring figures and metaphors, than in any good author whatever. An arrow is impatient to be Kk 2 on the wing, a weapon thirts to drink the blood of an enemy, and the like. Yet his expreffion is never too big for the sense, but justly great in proportion to it. 'Tis the fentiment that fwells and fills out the diction, which rifes with it, and forms itself about it: And in the fame degree that a thought is warmer, an expreffion will be brighter; as that is more ftrong, this will become more perfpicuous: like glafs in the furnace, which grows to a greater magnitude and refines to a greater clearness, only as the breath within is more powerful, and the heat more intenfe. To throw his language more out of profe, Homer. feems to have affected the compound epithets. This was a fort of compofition peculiarly proper to poetry, not only as it heighten'd the diction, but as it affifted and filled the numbers with greater found and pomp, and likewise conduced in fome measure to thicken the images. On this laft confideration I cannot but attribute these alfo to the fruitfulness of his invention, fince (as he has managed them) they are a fort of fupernumerary pictures of the perfons or things to which they are joined. We see the motion of Hector's plumes in the epithet Kogulaloλos, the landscape of mount Neritus in that of Eiropuλños, and so of others, which particular images could not have been infifted upon fo long as to exprefs them in a defcription (tho' but of a single line) without diverting the reader too much from the principal action or figure. As a metaphor is a fhort fimile, one of these epithets is a fhort defcription. Lastly, if we confider his verfification, we shall be fenfible what a share of praise is due to his invention in that. He was not fatisfied with his language as he found it fettled in any one part of Greece, but fearch'd thro' its different dialects with this particular view, to beautify and perfect his numbers: he. confidered these as they had a greater mixture of vowels or confonants, and accordingly employed them as the verfe required either a greater smoothness or strength. What he most affected was the |