PREFACE.

tor. The course of his verses refembles that of

Οἱ δ ̓ ἄρ ̓ ἴσαν, ὡσεί τε πυρὶ χέων πᾶσα νέα

μαστο,

"They pour along like a fire that sweeps the "whole earth before it." It is however remark

HOMER is univerfally allowed to have had the greatest invention of any writer whatever. The the army he describes, praife of judgment Virgil has justly contefted with him, and others may have their pretentions as to particular excellencies; but his invention remains yet unrivalled. Nor is it a wonder if he has ever been acknowledged the greatest of poets, who most excelled in that which is the very foundation of poetry. It is the invention that in dif-able that his fancy, which is every where vigoferent degrees distinguishes all great geniufes; the rous, is not difcovered immediately at the beginutmoft ftretch of human study, learning, and induf-ning of his poem in its fulleft fplendour: it grows in the progrefs both upon himself and others, and try, which masters every thing befides, can never becomes on fire, like a chariot-wheel, by its own attain to this. It furnishes art with all her materials, and without it, judgment itself can at beft but rapidity. Exact difpofition, just thought, correct steal wifely; for art is only like a prudent steward elocution, polished numbers, may have been found that lives on managing the riches of nature. in a thousand; but this poetical fire, this "vivi"da vis animi," in a very few. Even in works Whatever praises may be given to works of judg ment, there is not even a fingle beauty in them where all thofe are imperfect or neglected, this can overpower criticism, and make us admire to which the invention must not contribute: as in the moft regular gardens, art can only reduce even while we difapprove. Nay, where this apthe beauties of nature to more regularity, and pears, though attended with abfurdities, it brightens all the rubbish about it, till we fee nothing fuch a figure, which the common eye may better take in, and is therefore more entertained with. but its own fplendour. This fire is difcerned in And perhaps the reason why common critics are Virgil, but difcerned as through a glass, reflected inclined to prefer a judicious and methodical ge- from Homer, more shining than fierce, but every nius to a great and fruitful one, is, because they where equal and conftant; in Lucan and Statius, find it easier for themselves to purfue their obfer-it bursts out in fudden, fhort, and interrupted vations through an uniform and bounded walk of flashes: in Milton it glows like a furnace kept art, than to comprehend the vatt and various ex-up to an uncommon ardour by the force of art: in Shakspeare it ftrikes before we are aware tent of nature. Our author's work is a wild paradife, where if like an accidental fire from heaven; but in Howe cannot fee all the beauties fo diftinctly as inmer, and in him only, it burns every where clearan ordered garden, it is only because the number ly, and every where irrefiftibly. I fhall here endeavour to show, how this vast of them is infinitely greater. It is like a copious nursery, which contains the feeds and firft pro-invention exerts itself in a manner fuperior to that ductions of every kind, out of which thofe who followed him have but selected fome particular plants, each according to his fancy, to cultivate and beautify. If fome things are too luxuriant, it is owing to the richness of the foil; and if others are not arrived to perfection or maturity, it is only because they are over-run and oppreft by those of a stronger nature.

of any poet, through all the main conftituent parts of his work, as it is the great and peculiar characteristic which diftinguishes him from all other authors.

This ftrong and ruling. faculty was likewife a powerful ftar, which, in the violence of its course, drew all things within its vortex. It feeined not enough to have taken in the whole circle of arts, It is to the strength of this amazing invention and the whole compais of nature, to fupply his we are to attribute that unequalled fire and rap-maxims and reflections; all the inward pailions and affections of mankind, to furnifh his characture, which is fo forcible in Homer, that no man ters; and all the outward forms and images of of a true poetical spirit is mafter of himself when he reads him. What he writes is of the most ani- things, for his defcriptions; but, wanting yet an mating nature imaginable; every thing moves, ampler fphere to expatiate in, he opened a new and boundless walk for his imagination, and creevery thing lives, and is put in action. If a council be called, or a battle fought, you are not cold-ated a world for himself in the invention of fable. That which Ariftotle calls the "Soul of Poetry," ly informed of what was faid or done as from a was firft breathed into it by Homer. I hall bethird perfon; the reader is hurried out of himself by the force of the poet's imagination, and turns gin with confidering him in this part, as it is naa ij in one place to a hearer, in another to a fpecta-turally the firft; and I speak of it both as it means

the defign of a poem, and as it is taken for fiction.

actions agreeable to the nature of the things they fhadowed! This is a 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 hav

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 reasonable 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 circumstance 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 their accufation against Homer as the chief fupthe literal notion of the gods, conftantly laying port of it. But whatever cause there might be to blame his machines in a philofophical or religious kind have been ever fince contented to follow view, they are fo perfect in the poetic, that manthem: none have been able to enlarge the sphere tempt of this nature has proved unsuccessful; and of poetry beyond the limits he has fet: every atafter all the various changes of times and religions, his gods continue to this day the gods of poetry.

Fable may be divided into the probable, the allegorical, and the marvellous. The probable fable is the recital of fuch actions as though they did not happen, yet might, in the common courfeing enlarged his circle, but for their judgment in of nature or of fuch as, though they did, become fables by the additional episodes and manner of telling them. Of this fort is the main fto ry of an epic poem, the return of Ulyffes, the fettlement of the Trojans in Italy, or the like. That of the Iliad is the anger of Achilles, the moft fhort and fingle fubject that ever was chofen by any poet. Yet this he has fupplied with a vafter variety of incidents and events, and crowded with a greater number of councils, fpeeches, battles, and episodes of all kinds, than are to be found even in those poems whose schemes are of the utmost latitude and irregularity. The action is hurried on with the most vehement fpirit, and its whole duration employs not fo much as fifty days. Virgil, for want of fo warm a genius, aided himself by taking in a more extenfive fubject, as well as a greater length of time, and contracting the defign of both Homer's poems into one, which is yet but a fourth part as large as his. The other epic poets have used the fame practice, but generally carried it so far as to fuperinduce a multiplicity of fables, deftroy the unity of action, and lose their readers in an unreasonable length of time. Nor is it only in the main defign that they have been unable to add to his invention, but they have followed him in every episode and part of story. If he has given a regular catalogue of an army, they all draw up their forces in the fame order. If he has funeral games for Patroclus, Virgil has the fame for Anchifes; and Statius (rather than omit them) deftroys the unity of his action for those of Archemoras. If Ulyffes visits the fhades, the Æneas of Virgil, and Scipio of Silius, are fent after him. If he be detained from his return by the allurements of Calypfo, fo is Æneas by Dido, and Rinaldo by Armida. If Achilles be abfent from the army on the fcore of a quarrel through half the poem, Rinaldo muft abfent himself just as long on the like account. If he gives his hero a fuit of celestial armour, Virgil and Taffo make the fame prefent to theirs. Virgil has not only obferved this clofe imitation of Homer, but, where he had not led the way, fupplied the want from other Greek authors. Thus the story of Simon, and the taking of Troy was copied (fays Macrobius) almoft word for word from Pifander, as the loves of Dido and Eneas are taken from those of Medea and Jafon in. pollonius, and feveral others in the fame

manner.

We come now to the characters of his perfons; and here we fhall find no author has ever drawn fo many, with fo vifible and furprising 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 diftinguished them more by their features, than the poet has by their, manners. Nothing can be more exact than the diftinctions he has obferved in the different degrees of virtues and vices. The fingle qua, lity of courage is wonderfully diverfified in the feveral characters of the Iliad. That of Achilles is furious and intractable; that of Diomede forward, yet listening to advice, and fubject to command; that of Ajax is heavy, and felf-confiding: of Hector, active and vigilant; the courage of Agamemnon is infpirited by love of empire and ambition; that of Menelaus mixed with softness and tenderness for his people: we find in Idomencus 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 character, but even in the under parts of it. to which he takes care to give a tincture of that principal one. For example, the main characters of Ulyffes and Neftor conft in wifdom; and they are diftinct in this, that the wifdom of one is artificial lar. But they have, befides, characters of conand various, of the other natural, open and regu

To proceed to the allegorical fable: if we reflect upon thofe innumerable knowledges, thofe fecrets of nature and physical philofophy, which Homer is generally fuppofed to have wrapped up in his alleries, what a new and ample scene of wonder may this confideration afford us! how ferrage; and this quality alfo takes a different turn tile will that imagination appear, which was able one in the war depends ftill upon caution, the in each from the difference of his prudence; for to clothe all the properties of elements, the lifications of the mind, the virtues and vices, in produce inftances of these kinds. The characters upon experience. It would be endless to forms and perfons; and to introduce them into of Virgil are far from striking us in this open man

qua

other