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This was a fort of compofition peculiarly proper to pyetry, not only as it heighten'd the diction, but as it affifted and filled the numbers with greater found and pomp, and likewife 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 fee the motion of Hector's plumes in the epithet Kogutaích, the landscape of mount Neritus in that of Eivoriqua, and so of others, which particular images could not have been infifted upon fo long as to express them in a description (tho' but of a fingle 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 short description.

Laftly, if we confider his verfification, we shall be fenfible what a fhare of praise is due to his invention in that. He was not fatisfy'd with his language as he found it settled in any one part of Greece, but fearch'd thro' its differing dialects with this particular view, to beautify and perfect his numbers: He confidered thefe 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 Ionic, which has a peculiar fweetnefs from its never ufing contractions, and from

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its custom of refolving the dipthongs into two fyllables: so as to make the words open themselves with a more spreading and fonorous fluency. With this he mingled the Attic contractions, the broader Doric, and the feebler Æolic, which often rejects its afpirate, or takes off its accent; and compleated this variety by altering fome letters with the licence of poetry. Thus his measures, instead of being fetters to his fenfe, were always in readiness to run along with the warmth of his rapture, and even to give a further representation of his notions, in the correspondence of their founds to what they fignified. Out of all these he has derived that harmony, which makes us confefs he had not only the richest head, but the finest ear in the world. This is fo great a truth, that whoever will but confult the tune of his verses, even without underftanding them (with the fame fort of diligence as we daily fee practised in the cafe of Italian Operas) will find more fweetness, variety, and majefty of found, than in any other language or poetry. The beauty of his numbers is allowed by the criticks to be copied but faintly by Virgil himself, though they are so just to afcribe it to the nature of the Latin tongue: Indeed the Greek has fome advantages both from the natural found of its words, and the turn and cadence of its verfe, which agree with the genius of no other language. Virgil was very fenfible of this, and used the utmoft diligence in working up a more intractable language to

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whatsoever graces it was capable of; and in particular never failed to bring the found of his line to a beautiful agreement with its fenfe. If the Grecian poet has not been fo frequently celebrated on this account as the Roman, the only reason is, that fewer criticks have understood one language than the other. Dionyfius of Halicarnaffus has pointed out many of our author's beauties in this kind, in his treatife of the Compofition of Words, and others will be taken notice of in the courfe of my Notes. It fuffices at present to obferve of his numbers, that they flow with fo much ease, as to make one imagine Homer had no other care than to transcribe as faft as the Mufes dictated; and at the fame time with fo much force and infpiriting vigour, that they awaken and raife us like the found of a trumpet. They roll along as a plentiful river, always in motion, and always full; while we are borne away by a tide of verse, the most rapid, and yet the most smooth imaginable.

Thus on whatever fide we contemplate Homer, what principally ftrikes us is his invention. It is that which forms the character of each part of his work; and accordingly we find it to have made his fable more extenfive and copicus than any other, his manners more lively and strongly marked, his fpeeches more affecting and tranfported, his fentiments more warm and fublime, his images and defcriptions more full and animated, his expreffion

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more rais'd and daring, and his numbers more rapid and various. I hope, in what has been said of Virgil, with regard to any of these heads, I have no way derogated from his character. Nothing is more abfurd or endless, than the common method of comparing eminent writers by an oppofition of particular paffages in them, and forming a judgment from thence of their merit upon the whole. We ought to have a certain knowledge of the principal character and diftinguishing excellence of each: It is in that we are to confider him, and in proportion to his degree in that we are to admire him. No author or man ever excelled all the world in more than one faculty; and as Homer has done this in invention, Virgil has in judgment. Not that we are to think Homer wanted judgment, because Virgil had it in a more eminent degree; or that Virgil wanted invention, becaufe Homer poffeft a larger fhare of it: Each of these great authors had more of both than perhaps any man befides, and are only faid to have lefs in comparison with one another. Homer was the greater genius, Virgil the better artift. In one we moft admire the man, in the other the work. Homer hurries and tranfports us with a commanding impetuofity. Virgil leads us with an attractive majefty: Homer scatters with a generous profusion, Virgil beftows with a careful magnificence: Homer, like the Nile, pours out his riches with a boundlefs overflow; Virgil, like a river in its banks, with

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a gentle and constant stream. When we behold their battles, methinks the two Poets refemble the Heroes they celebrate: Homer, boundless and irrefiftible as Achilles, bears all before him, and fhines more and more as the tumult increases; Virgil, calmly daring like Æneas, appears undisturbed in the midst of the action; difpofes all about him, and conquers with tranquillity. And when we look upon their machines, Homer feems like his own Jupiter in his terrors, fhaking Olympus, fcattering the lightnings, and firing the Heavens; Virgil, like the fame power in his benevolence, counselling with the Gods, laying plans for empires, and regularly ordering his whole creation.

But after all, it is with great parts as with great virtues, they naturally border on fome imperfection; and it is often hard to diftinguish exactly where the virtue ends, or the fault begins. As prudence may sometimes fink to suspicion, so may a great judgment decline to coldness; and as magnanimity may run up to profufion or extravagance,

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may a great invention to redundancy or wildness. If we look upon Homer in this view, we shall perceive the chief objections against him to pròceed from fo noble a caufe as the excefs of this faculty.

Among these we may reckon some of his marvellous fictions, upon which fo much criticism has been spent, as furpaffing all the bounds of probability. Perhaps it may be with great and fuperior

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