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 so vifible and furprizing a variety, or given us fuch lively and affecting impreffions of them. Every one has something so 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 quality 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 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 character, 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 confift in wisdom; and they are diftinct in this, that the wifdom of one is arti

ficial 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 still upon caution, the other upon experience. It would be endless to produce inftances of thefe kinds. The characters of Virgil are far from striking us in this open manner; 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 feems 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 remarked of Statius's heroes, that an air of impetuofity runs thro' 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 pursue 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 Speeches are to be confidered as they flow from the characters, being perfect or defective as they agree or disagree with the manners of thofe

who utter them. As there is more variety of characters in the Iliad, fo there is of speeches, than in any other poem. Every thing in it has manners (as Ariftotle exprefles 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 fpeeches often confist of general reflections or thoughts, which might be equally just in any perfon's mouth upon the fame occafion. As many of his perfons have no apparent characters, so many of his fpeeches escape being applied and judged by the rule of propriety. We oftner 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 defcribed: Homer makes us hearers, and Virgil leaves us readers.

If in the next place we take a view of the sentiments, the fame prefiding faculty is eminent in the fublimity and fpirit 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 thofe of the Scripture: Duport, in his Gnomologia Homerica, has collected innumerable inftances of this fort. And it is with justice an excellent modern writer

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allows, that if

Virgil has not fo many thoughts that are low and vulgar, he has not fo many that are fublime and noble; and that the Roman author feldom rifes into very astonishing fentiments where he is not fired by the Iliad.

If we obferve his defcriptions, images, and fimiles, we fhall find the invention still predominant. To what else can we afcribe that vaft comprehenfion of images of every fort, where we fee each circumftance of art, and individual of nature fummoned together, by the extent and fecundity of his imagination; to which all things, in their various views, prefented themselves in an instant, and had their impreffions taken off to perfection at a heat? Nay, he not only gives us the full profpects of things, but several unexpected peculiarities and fide-views, unobserved by any Painter but Homer. Nothing is fo furprizing as the defcriptions of his battles, which take up no lefs than half the Iliad, and are fupplied with fo 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 laft in greatnefs, horror, and confufion. It is certain there is not near that number of images and defcriptions in any Epic Poet; though every one has aflifted himself with a great quantity out of him: And it is evident of Virgil

especially, that he has fcarce any comparisons which are not drawn from his master.

If we defcend from hence to the expreffion, we fee the bright imagination of Homer shining out in the most enlivened forms of it. We acknowledge him the father of poetical diction, the first who taught that language of the Gods to men. His expreffion is like the colouring of fome great masters, which difcovers itself to be laid on boldly, and executed with rapidity. It is indeed the strongest and most glowing imaginable, and touched with the greateft fpirit. Ariftotle had reafon to fay, 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 on the wing, a weapon thirfts to drink the blood of an enemy, and the like. Yet his expreffion is never too big for the fenfe, but juftly 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 strong, this will become more perfpicuous: Like glass 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.