of the simplicity of the age in which he wrote but they have not been able to prove that any ideas of dignity or importance were, even in those days, affixed to the character of an ass, or the quality of a beef-collop; therefore they were very improper illustrations for any situation, in which a hero ought to be represented. Virgil has degraded the wife of king Latinus by comparing her, when she was actuated by the fury, to a top which the boys lash for diversion. This doubtless is a low image, though in other respects the comparison is not destitute of propriety; but he is much more justly censured for the following simile, which has no sort of reference to the subject. Speaking of Turnus he says, medio dux agmine Turnus Vertitur arma tenens, et toto vertice supra est, But Turnus, chief amidst the warrior train, In armour tow'rs the tallest on the plain. The Ganges thus by seven rich streams supply'd, A mighty mass devolves in silent pride. Thus Nilus pours from his prolific urn, When from the fields o'erflow'd his vagrant streams return. These no doubt are majestic images; but they bear no sort of resemblance to an hero glittering in armour at the head of his forces. Horace has been ridiculed by some shrewd critics for this comparison, which however we think is more defensible than the former. Addressing himself to Munatius Plancus, he says: Albus ut obscuro deterget nubila cælo Molli, Plance, mero. As As Notus often, when the welkin low'rs Sweeps off the clouds, nor teems perpetual show'rs, DUNKIN. 'The analogy, it must be confessed, is not very striking: but nevertheless it is not altogether void of propriety. The Poet reasons thus: as the Southwind though generally attended with rain, is often known to dispel the clouds, and render the weather serene; so do you, though generally on the rack of thought, remember to relax sometimes, and drown your cares in wine. As the South-wind is not always moist, so you ought not always to be dry. A few instances of inaccuracy, or mediocrity, can never derogate from the superlative merit of Homer and Virgil, whose poems are the great magazines, replete with every species of beauty and magnificence, particularly abounding with similes which astonish, delight, and transport the reader. Every simile ought not only to be well adapted to the subject, but also to include every excellence of description, and to be coloured with the warmest tints of Poetry. Nothing can be more happily hit off than the following in the Georgics, to which the Poet compares Orpheus lamenting his lost Eurydice. Qualis populea mærens Philomela sub umbrá So Philomela, from th' umbrageous wood Snatch'd from the nest by some rude ploughman's hand, Here Here we not only find the most scrupulous propriety, and the happiest choice, in comparing the Thracian bard to Philomel the poet of the grove; but also the most beautiful description, containing a fine touch of the pathos, in which last particular indeed Virgil, in our opinion, excels all other poets, whether antient or modern. One would imagine that Nature had exhausted itself, in order to embellish the Poems of Homer, Virgil, and Milton, with similes and metaphors. The first of these very often uses the comparison of the wind, the whirlwind, the hail, the torrent, to express the rapidity of his combatants: but when he comes to describe the velocity of the immortal horses, that drew the chariot of Juno, he raises his ideas to the subject, and, as Longinus observes, measures every leap by the whole breadth of the horizon. Οσσον δ' περοειδὲς ἀνὴς ἴδεν ὀιθαλμοίσιν Ημενος ἐν σκοπιή, λεύσσων ἐπὶ οἴνοπα πόντον, For as a watchman from some rock on high The celerity of this goddess seems to be a favourite idea with the Poet; for in another place he compares it to the thought of a traveller revolving in his mind the different places he had seen, and passing through them in imagination more swift than the lightning flies from East to West. Homer's best similes have been copied by Virgil, and almost every succeeding poet, howsoever they may have varied in the manner of expression. In the third book of the Iliad, Menelaus seeing Paris, is compared to a hungry lion espying a hind or goat: Ωσε λέων ἐχάρη μεγάλῳ ἐπὶ σώματι κύρσας So So joys the lion, if a branching deer The Mantuan bard in the tenth book of the Eneid, applies the same simile to Mezentius, when he beholds Acron in the battle. Impastus stabula alta leo ceu sæpe peragrans Then as a hungry lion, who beholds A gamesome goat who frisks about the folds, The reader will perceive that Virgil has improved the simile in one particular, and in another fallen short of his original. The description of the lion shaking his mane, opening his hideous jaws distained with the blood of his prey, is great and picturesque; but on the other hand, he has omitted the circumstance of devouring it without being inetimidated, or restrained by the dogs and youths 10 that surround him; a circumstance that adds greatby to our idea of his strength, intrepidity, and importance. injuring the greatness of his own conception, is hur ried into excess and extravagance. Quintilian allows the use of Hyperbole, when words are wanting to express any thing in its just strength or due energy: then, he says, it is better to exceed in expression, than fall short of the conception: but he likewise observes, that there is no figure or form of speech so apt to run into fustian. Nec alia magis via in xaxa itur. If the chaste Virgil has thus trespassed upon poetical probability, what can we expect from Lucan but hyperboles even more ridiculously extravagant? He represents the winds in contest, the sea in suspense, doubting to which it shall give way. He affirms that its motion would have been so violent as to produce a second deluge, had not Jupiter kept it under by the clouds; and as to the ship during this dreadful uproar the sails touch the clouds, while the keel strikes the ground. Nubila tanguntur velis, et terra carina. This image of dashing water at the stars, Sir Richard Blackmore has produced in colours truly ridiculous. Describing spouting whales in his Prince Arthur, he makes the following comparison: Like some prodigious water-engine made To play on heav'n, if fire should heav'n invade. The great fault in all these instances is a deviation from propriety, owing to the erroneous judgment of the writer, who, endeavouring to captivate the admiration with novelty, very often shocks the understanding with extravagance. Of this nature is the whole description of the Cyclops, both in the Odys sey of Homer and in the Æneid of Virgil. It must be owned however that the Latin Poet with all his merit is more apt than his great original to dazzle us |