in the imagery of Ever-greens. I proceed to his catalogue. Adam and Eve in Yew; Adam, a little shattered by the fall of the Tree of Knowledge in the great ftorm; Eve and the Serpent very flourishing. Noah's ark in Holly, the ribs a little damaged for wan't of water. The Tower of Bable, not yet finished. St. George in Box; his arm scarce long enough, but will be in a condition to ftick the Dragon by next April. A green Dragon of the fame, with a tail of Ground-Ivy for the prefent. N. B. Those two not to be fold feparately. Edward the Black Prince in Cypress. A Lauruftine Bear in Bloffom, 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-fickness, 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 Johnfon in Laurel. Divers eminent modern Poets in Bays, fomewhat blighted; to be difpofed 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. He also cutteth family-pieces of men, women, and children, so that any gentleman may have his lady's effigy in Myrtle, or his own in Horn-beam. Thy Wife fhall be as the fruitful Vine, and thy Children as Olive branches round thy table. PREFACE то HOME R's ILIA D. HOMER is univerfally allowed to have had the greatest Invention of any writer whatever. The praife of Judgument Virgil has justly contested with him, and others may have their pretenfions as to particular excellencies; but his Invention remains yet unrivalled. Nor is it a wonder if he has ever been acknowledged the greatcft of poets, who moft excelled in that which is the very foundation of poetry. It is the invention that in different degrees diftinguishes all great Geniuses : The utmoft ftretch of human ftudy, learning, and industry, which mafter every thing befides, can never attain to this. It furnishes Art with all her materials, and without it, Judgment itfelf can at beft but fteal wifely: for Art is only like a prudent steward that lives on managing the riches of Nature. Whatever praises may be given to works of Judgment, there is not even a fingle 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 pursue their obfervations through an uniform and bounded walk of Art, than to comprehend the vaft 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, garden, it is only because the number of them is infinitely greater. 'Tis like a copious nursery which contains the feeds and firft 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 richness of the foil; and if others are not arrived to perfection or maturity, it is only because they are overrun and oppreffed by thofe of a stronger Nature. It is to the ftrength of this amazing invention we are to attribute that unequalled fire and rapture, which is so forcible in Homer, that no man of a true poetical spirit is mafter of himfelf while he reads him. What he writes, is of the moft 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 is faid or done, as from a third perfon; 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 spectator. The courfe of his verfes refembles that of the army he describes, Οἱ δ' αἱ ἴσαν, ὡσεί τε πυρὶ χθὼν πάσαν μαλα They pour along like a fire that fweeps the whole earth before it. 'Tis however remarkable that his fancy, which is everywhere vigorous, is not discovered immediately at the beginning of his poem in its fulleft fplendor: It grows in the progress both upon himself and others, and becomes on fire like a chariot-wheel, 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 imperfe& or neglected, this can overpower 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 difcerned as through a glass reflected from Homer, more shining than fierce, but every where 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 strikes 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. 1 fhall here endeavour to fhow, how this vaft Invention exerts itself in a manner fuperior to that of any poet, through all the main conftituent parts of his work, as it is the great and peculiar characteristick which diftinguishes him from all other authors. This ftrong and ruling faculty was like a powerful ftar, which, in the violence of its course, drew all things within its vortex. It seemed not enough to have taken in the whole circle of arts, and the whole compass 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 sphere 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 the firft, and I fpeak of it both as it means the defign of the poem, and as it is taken for fiction. 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 courfe 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 story of an Epic poem,t he 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 subject that ever was chosen by any Poet. Yet this he has fupplied with a vafter variety of incidents and events, and croud ed ed with a greater number of councils, fpeeches, battles, e and episodes of all kinds, than are to be found even in those poems whose schemes are of the utmoft 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 fo far as to fuperinduce a multiplicity of fables, de-. ftroy the unity of action, and lofe 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 ftory. 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) destroys the unity of his action for those of Archemorus. If Ulyffes vifit the shades, the Æneas of Virgil and Scipio of Silius are fent after him. If he be detained from his return by the allurements of Calypfo, so is Æneas by Dido, and Rinaldo by Armida. If Achilles be absent from the army on the score of a quarrel through half the poem, Rinaldo muft abfent himself juft as long on the like account. If he gives his hero a fuit of celeftial armour, Virgil and Taffo make the fame prefent to theirs. Virgil has not only observed this close imitation of Homer, but where he had not led the way, fupplied the want from other Greek authors. Thus the ftory of Sinon, and the taking of Troy, was copied (fays Macrobius) almoft word for word from Pifander, as the Loves of Dido and Æneas are taken from those of Medea and Jason in Apollonius, and feveral others in the fame manner. To proceed to the allegorical fable: If we reflect upon those innumerable knowledges, thofe fecrets of nature and |