Part 2 (1/2)

in a very few Even in works where all those are ilected, this can overpower criticism, and make us admire even while we disapprove

Nay, where this appears, though attended with absurdities, it brightens all the rubbish about it, till we see nothing but its own splendour This fire is discerned in Virgil, but discerned as through a glass, reflected fro than fierce, but everywhere equal and constant: in Lucan and Statius it bursts out in sudden, short, and interrupted flashes: In Milton it glows like a furnace kept up to an uncommon ardour by the force of art: in Shakspeare it strikes before we are aware, like an accidental fire from heaven: but in Homer, and in him only, it burns everywhere clearly and everywhere irresistibly

I shall here endeavour to sho this vast invention exerts itself in a h all the reat and peculiar characteristic which distinguishes hi faculty was like a powerful star, which, in the violence of its course, drew all things within its vortex It seeh to have taken in the whole circle of arts, and the whole compass of nature, to supply his maxims and reflections; all the inward passions and affections of mankind, to furnish his characters: and all the outward for yet an ampler sphere to expatiate in, he opened a new and boundless walk for his iination, and created a world for himself in the invention of fable

That which Aristotle calls ”the soul of poetry,” was first breathed into it by Ho him in his part, as it is naturally the first; and I speak of it both as it n of a poem, and as it is taken for fiction

Fable orical, and the marvellous The probable fable is the recital of such actions as, though they did not happen, yet h they did, beca them Of this sort is the main story of an epic poem, ”The return of Ulysses, the settlement of the Trojans in Italy,” or the like

That of the Iliad is the ”anger of Achilles,” the le subject that ever was chosen by any poet Yet this he has supplied with a vaster variety of incidents and events, and croith a greater number of councils, speeches, battles, and episodes of all kinds, than are to be found even in those poeularity The action is hurried on with the most vehement spirit, and its whole duration eil, for want of so war in a th of tin of both Hoe as his

The other epic poets have used the saenerally carried it so far as to superinduce a multiplicity of fables, destroy the unity of action, and lose their readers in an unreasonable length of tin that they have been unable to add to his invention, but they have followed hiiven a regular catalogue of an army, they all draw up their forces in the sail has the same for Anchises, and Statius (rather than omit them) destroys the unity of his actions for those of Archeil and Scipio of Silius are sent after him If he be detained from his return by the allurements of Calypso, so is aeneas by Dido, and Rinaldo by Armida If Achilles be absent froh half the poe on the like account If he gives his hero a suit of celestial aril has not only observed this close imitation of Homer, but, where he had not led the way, supplied the want fro of Troy, was copied (says Macrobius) almost word for word from Pisander, as the loves of Dido and aeneas are taken from those of Medea and Jason in Apollonius, and several others in the saorical fable--If we reflect upon those innues, those secrets of nature and physical philosophy which Hoories, what a new and ample scene of wonder ination appear, which as able to clothe all the properties of elements, the qualifications of the mind, the virtues and vices, in forreeable to the nature of the things they shadowed! This is a field in which no succeeding poets could dispute with Homer, and whatever commendations have been allowed the enlarged his circle, but for their judg changed in the following ages, and science was delivered in a plainer manner, it then became as reasonable in the more modern poets to lay it aside, as it was in Homer to make use of it And perhaps it was no unhappy circuil, that there was not in his tiht be capable of furnishi+ng all those allegorical parts of a poem

The marvellous fable includes whatever is supernatural, and especially the machines of the Gods If Homer was not the first who introduced the deities (as Herodotus iion of Greece, he seeht them into a systereatest inity: for we find those authors who have been offended at the literal notion of the Gods, constantly laying their accusation against Hoht be to blaious view, they are so perfect in the poetic, that mankind have been ever since contented to follow thee the sphere of poetry beyond the limits he has set: every attempt of this nature has proved unsuccessful; and after all the various changes of tiions, his Gods continue to this day the Gods of poetry

We come now to the characters of his persons; and here we shall find no author has ever drawn so iven us such lively and affecting iularly his own, that no painter could have distinguished them more by their features, than the poet has by theircan be more exact than the distinctions he has observed in the different degrees of virtues and vices The single quality of courage is wonderfully diversified in the several characters of the Iliad That of Achilles is furious and intractable; that of Dio to advice, and subject to co; of Hector, active and vigilant: the courage of Agamemnon is inspirited by love of empire and ambition; that of Menelaus mixed with softness and tenderness for his people: we find in Idoenerous one Nor is this judicious and astonishi+ng diversity to be found only in the principal quality which constitutes 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 Ulysses and Nestor consist in wisdom; and they are distinct in this, that the wisdom of one is artificial and various, of the other natural, open, and regular But they have, besides, characters of courage; and this quality also 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 instances of these kinds

The characters of Virgil are far froree, hidden and undistinguished; and, where they are marked most evidently affect us not in proportion to those of Homer

His characters of valour are much alike; even that of Turnus seeree; and we see nothing that differences the courage of Mnestheus froestus, Cloanthus, or the rest, In like manner it may be remarked of Statius's heroes, that an air of ie courage appears in his Capaneus, Tydeus, Hippomedon, &c They have a parity of character, which makes them seem brothers of one family I believe when the reader is led into this tract of reflection, if he will pursue it through the epic and tragic writers, he will be convinced how infinitely superior, in this point, the invention of Homer was to that of all others

The speeches are to be considered as they flow froree or disagree with the manners, of those who utter them As there is more variety of characters in the Iliad, so there is of speeches, than in any other poe in it hasis acted or spoken It is hardly credible, in a work of such length, how sil the dramatic part is less in proportion to the narrative, and the speeches often consist of general reflections or thoughts, which ht be equally just in any person's mouth upon the same occasion As many of his persons have no apparent characters, so ed by the rule of propriety We oftener think of the author hied in Homer, all which are the effects of a colder invention, that interests us less in the action described Hoil leaves us readers

If, in the next place, we take a view of the senti faculty is einus has given his opinion, that it was in this part Homer principally excelled What were alone sufficient to prove the grandeur and excellence of his sentieneral, is, that they have so remarkable a parity with those of the Scripture Duport, in his Gnoia Homerica, has collected innumerable instances of this sort And it is with justice an excellent hts that are low and vulgar, he has not so many that are sublime and noble; and that the Ro sentiments where he is not fired by the Iliad

If we observe his descriptions, ies, and similes, we shall find the invention still predominant To what else can we ascribe that vast coes of every sort, where we see each circuether by the extent and fecundity of his is, in their various views presented themselves in an instant, and had their impressions taken off to perfection at a heat? Nay, he not only gives us the full prospects of things, but several unexpected peculiarities and side views, unobserved by any painter but Ho as the descriptions of his battles, which take up no less than half the Iliad, and are supplied with so vast a variety of incidents, that no one bears a likeness to another; such different kinds of deaths, that no two heroes are wounded in the same manner, and such a profusion of noble ideas, that every battle rises above the last in greatness, horror, and confusion It is certain there is not near that nuh every one has assisted hireat quantity out of hiil especially, that he has scarce any comparisons which are not drawn from his master

If we descend froination of Ho out in the e hiht that ”language of the Gods” to reat masters, which discovers itself to be laid on boldly, and executed with rapidity

It is, indeed, the strongest and reatest spirit Aristotle had reason to say, he was the only poet who had found out ”living words;” there are in hiood author whatever An arrow is ”i, a weapon ”thirsts” to drink the blood of an ene for the sense, but justly great in proportion to it It is the sentiment that swells and fills out the diction, which rises with it, and forht is war, this will becorows to a greater reater clearness, only as the breath within is more powerful, and the heat e more out of prose, Homer seems to have affected the compound epithets This was a sort of cohtened the diction, but as it assisted and filled the nureater sound and poes On this last consideration I cannot but attribute these also to the fruitfulness of his invention, since (as he has ed them) they are a sort of supernus to which they were joined We see the motion of Hector's plumes in the epithet Korythaiolos, the landscape of Mount Neritus in that of Einosiphyllos, and so of others, which particular i as to express thele line) without diverting the reader too ure As a metaphor is a short simile, one of these epithets is a short description

Lastly, if we consider his versification, we shall be sensible what a share of praise is due to his invention in that also He was not satisfied with his language as he found it settled in any one part of Greece, but searched through its different dialects with this particular view, to beautify and perfect his nureater ly ereater sth What he most affected was the Ionic, which has a peculiar sweetness, fro contractions, and fros into two syllables, so as toand sonorous fluency With this he led the Attic contractions, the broader Doric, and the feebler aeolic, which often rejects its aspirate, or takes off its accent, and co some letters with the licence of poetry Thus hisfetters to his sense, were always in readiness to run along with the warive a further representation of his notions, in the correspondence of their sounds to what they signified Out of all these he has derived that harmony which makes us confess he had not only the richest head, but the finest ear in the world This is so great a truth, that whoever will but consult the tune of his verses, even without understanding theence as we daily see practised in the case of Italian operas), will find more sweetness, variety, and e of poetry The beauty of his numbers is allowed by the critics to be copied but faintly by Virgil hih they are so just as to ascribe it to the nature of the Latin tongue: indeed the Greek has soes both from the natural sound of its words, and the turn and cadence of its verse, which agree with the genius of no other language

Virgil was very sensible of this, and used the ute to whatsoever graces it was capable of, and, in particular, never failed to bring the sound of his line to a beautiful agreement with its sense If the Grecian poet has not been so frequently celebrated on this account as the Roman, the only reason is, that fewer critics have understood one language than the other Dionysius of Halicarnassus has pointed out many of our author's beauties in this kind, in his treatise of the Composition of Words It suffices at present to observe of his nuine Homer had no other care than to transcribe as fast as the Muses dictated, and, at the saour, that they awaken and raise us like the sound of a tru as a plentiful river, always in motion, and always full; while we are borne away by a tide of verse, the inable

Thus on whatever side we contemplate Homer, what principally strikes us is his invention It is that which forly we find it to have made his fable more extensive and copious than any other, his lyand transported, his senties and descriptions , 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 fro isees in theht to have a certain knowledge of the principal character and distinguishi+ng excellence of each: it is in that we are to consider hiree in that we are to admire him No author or man ever excelled all the world in more than one faculty; and as Horee; or that Virgil wanted invention, because Horeat authors had more of both than perhaps any man besides, and are only said to have less in coil the better artist In one we most admire the man, in the other the work

Ho iil leads us with an attractive il bestoith a careful nificence; Homer, like the Nile, pours out his riches with a boundless overflow; Virgil, like a river in its banks, with a gentle and constant stream When we behold their battles, methinks the two poets resemble the heroes they celebrate Homer, boundless and resistless as Achilles, bears all before hiil, cal, like aeneas, appears undisturbed in the midst of the action; disposes all about him, and conquers with tranquillity And e look upon their machines, Ho Olyil, like the sa with the Gods, laying plans for e his whole creation

But after all, it is with great parts, as with great virtues, they naturally border on souish exactly where the virtue ends, or the fault begins As prudence nanireat invention to redundancy or wildness If we look upon Hoainst him to proceed from so noble a cause as the excess of this faculty

A these we may reckon some of his marvellous fictions, upon which soall the bounds of probability Perhaps it antic bodies, which, exerting theht the due proportion of parts, to become miracles in the whole; and, like the old heroes of that lorious and ini horses;” and Virgil his ” blood;” where the latter has not so much as contrived the easy intervention of a deity to save the probability

It is owing to the saht too exuberant and full of circu le circurounded: it runs out into ees, which, however, are so ed as not to overpower the main one His siure has not only its proportion given agreeable to the original, but is also set off with occasional ornaments and prospects The sa a nugested to hies The reader will easily extend this observation to more objections of the sae hienius, than an excess of it, those see defects will be found upon examination to proceed wholly frorosser representations of the Gods; and the vicious and imperfect manners of his heroes; but I enerally carried into extremes, both by the censurers and defenders of Hoe partiality to antiquity, to think with Madame Dacier,(38) ”that those times and manners are so much the more excellent, as they are more contrary to ours” Who can be so prejudiced in their favour as to e and cruelty, joined with the practice of rapine and robbery, reigned through the world: when no reatest princes were put to the sword, and their wives and daughters made slaves and concubines? On the other side, I would not be so delicate as those modern critics, who are shocked at the servile offices and mean eed There is a pleasure in taking a view of that sies: in beholdingtheir flocks, and princesses draater froht to reflect that we are reading the most ancient author in the heathen world; and those who consider hiht, will double their pleasure in the perusal of hi acquainted with nations and people that are now noalmost three thousand years back into the re thes nowhere else to be found, the only true reatest obstacles will vanish; and what usually creates their dislike, will become a satisfaction

This consideration may further serve to answer for the constant use of the sa Phoebus,”