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Edward the Black Prince in Cypress.

A Laurustine Bear in Blossom, with a Juniper Hunter in Berries.

A pair of Giants, ftunted, to be fold cheap.

A Queen Elizabeth in Phyllirea, a little inclining to the green sickness, but of full growth.

Another Queen Elizabeth in Myrtle, which was very forward, but miscarried by being too near a Savine.

An old Maid of honour in Wormwood.

A topping Ben. Johnson in Laurel.

Divers eminent modern Poets in Bays, fomewhat blighted, to be disposed of a pennyworth.

A quick-fet Hog fhot up into a Porcupine, by being forgot a week in rainy weather.

A Lavender Pig, with Sage growing in his belly.
A pair of Maidenheads in Firr, in great forwardness.

He also cutteth family pieces of men, women, and children, fo that any gentleman may have his lady's effigies in Myrtle, or his own in Horn-beam.

Thy Wife fhall be as the fruitful Vine, and thy Chil dren as Olive-branches round thy table.

PREFACE

то

HOMER'S ILIAD.

H

OMER is univerfally allowed to have had

the greatest Invention of any writer whatever. The praife of Judgment Virgil has juftly contefted with him, and others may have their pretenfions as to particular excellencies; but his Invention remains yet unrivall'd. Nor is it a wonder if he has ever been acknowledged the greateft of poets, who most excelled in that which is the very foundation of poetry. It is the invention that in different degrees diitinguishes all great Genius's: The utmost firetch of human ftudy, learning, and induftry, which master every thing befides, can never attain to this. It furnishes Art with all her materials, and without it, Judgment itfelf can at best but feal wifely: For Art is only like a prudent fteward that lives on managing the riches of Nature. Whatever praises may be given to works of Judgment, there is not even a fin

gle beauty in them, to which the Invention must not contribute. As in the moft regular gardens, Art can only reduce the beauties of Nature to more regularity, and fuch a figure, which the common eye may better take in, and is therefore more entertained with. And perhaps the reason why common Critics are inclined to prefer a judicious and methodical genius to a great and fruitful one, is, because they find it easier for themselves to purfue their obfervations through an uniform and bounded walk of Art, than to comprehend the vast and various extent of Na

ture.

Our author's work is a wild paradife, where if we cannot fee all the beauties fo diftinctly as in an ordered garden. it is only becaufe the number of them is infinitely greater. 'Tis like a copious nurfery which contains the feeds and first productions of every kind, out of which those who followed him have but felected fome particular plants, each according to his fancy, to cultivate and beautify. If fome things are too luxuriant, it is owing to the richnefs of the foil; and if others are not arrived to perfection or maturity, it is only because they are overrun and oppreft by those of a stronger nature.

It is to the ftrength of this amazing invention we are to attribute that unequall'd fire and rapture,which is fo forcible in Homer, that no man of a true poetical spirit is mafter of himself while he reads him.

What he writes, is of the most animated nature imaginable; every thing moves, every thing lives, and is put in action. If a council be called, or a battle fought, you are not coldly informed of what was faid or done as from a third person; the reader is hurried out of himself by the force of the Poet's imagination, and turns in one place to a hearer, in another to a fpectator. The courfe of his verses resembles that of the army he defcribes,

Οἱ δ' αξ ἴσαν, ὡσεί τε πυρὶ χθὼν πᾶσα νέμοιο

They pour along like a fire that freeps the whole earth before it. "Tis however remarkable that his fancy, which is every where vigorous, is not discovered immediately at the beginning of his poem in its fullest fplendor: It grows in the progrefs both upon himfelf and others, and becomes on fire like a chariotwheel, by its own rapidity. Exact difpofition, juft thought, correct elocution, polished numbers, may have been found in a thousand; but this poetical fire, this Vivida vis animi, in a very few. Even in works where all thofe are imperfect or neglected, this can over-power criticism, and make us admire even while we difapprove. Nay, where this appears, though attended with abfurdities, it brightens all the rubbish about it, till we fee nothing but its own fplendor. This Fire is difcerned in Virgil, but dif

cerned as through a glass, reflected from Homer, more fhining than fierce, but every where equal and conftant: In Lucan and Statius, it burfts out in fudden, fhort, and interrupted flashes: In Milton it glows like a furnace kept up to an uncommon ardor by the force of art: In Shakespear, it ftrikes before we are aware, like an accidental fire from heaven: But in Homer and in him only, it burns every where clearly, and every where irresistibly.

I fhall here endeavour to fhow, how this vaft Invention exerts itself in a manner fuperior to that of any poet, through all the main constituent parts of his work, as it is the great and peculiar characteristic which distinguishes him from all other authors.

This strong and ruling faculty was like a powerful ftar, which in the violence of its course, drew all things within its vortex. It feemed not enough to have taken in the whole circle of arts, and the whole compafs of nature to fupply his maxims and reflections; all the inward paffions and affections of mankind, to furnish his characters; and all the outward forms and images of things for his defcriptions; but wanting yet an ampler fphere to expatiate in, he opened a new and boundlefs walk for his imagination, and created a world for himself in the invention of Fable. That which Ariftotle calls the Soul of poetry, was firft breathed into it by Homer. I fhall begin with confidering him in this part, as it is naturally

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