where all thofe are imperfect or neglected, this can over-power 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 fhining than fierce, but every where equal and conftant: in Lucan and Statius, it bursts out in fudden, short, and interrupted flashes in Milton * it glows like a fur

nace

Of all paffages in our Author's Works, I moft with he had never written this taftelefs and unjuft comparison But indeed he never speaks of our divine Bard, con amore. This has lately been done by Mr. Hayley, in his curious and animated Life of Milton. I do not honour Sir John Denham fo much for his writing Cooper's Hill, as I do for being the very firft perfon that spoke highly of Paradife Loft; who coming one day into the House of Commons with a proof fheet of this Poem, wet from the prefs and being asked what paper he held in his hand, replied, “It was part of the nobleft poem that was ever written in any language, or in any age.'

"Milton," fays Warburton, with his ufual love of bringing every thing into fyftem, "found Homer poffeffed of the province of Morality; Virgil of Politics; and nothing left for him, but that of Religion. This he feized, as afpiring to fhare with them in the government of the poetic world; and by means of the fuperior dignity of his fubject, hath gotten to the head of that triumvirate, which took fo many ages in forming. These are the three fpecies of the Epic Poem; for its largeft fphere is human action, which can be considered but in a MORAL, POLITICAL, OF RELIGIOUS View; and thefe the three makers; for each of their poems was ftruck at a heat, and came to perfection from its first effay. Here then the grand fcene was closed, and all farther improvements of the Epic at an end." A cruel fentence indeed, and a very severe statute of

Limitation £

nace kept up to an uncommon ardor by the force of art: in Shakespeare, 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.

I 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,

*

Limitation! enough, if it had any foundation, to destroy every future attempt of any exalted genius that might arife. But, in truth, the affertion is totally groundless and chimerical. Each of the three poets might change the stations here affigned to them. Homer might affume to himself the province of politics; Virgil of morality; and Milton of both; who is also a strong proof that human action is not the largest sphere of Epic Poetry. But of all Dr. Warburton's forced and fanciful interpretations, next to his extraordinary interpretation of the Sixth Book of the Eneid, is the fuppofition that Virgil, by the episode of Nifus and Euryalus, meant to recommend the Grecian inftitution of the Band of Lovers and Friends that fought at each other's fides: and, also, that by the behaviour and death of Amata, and her celebration of the Bacchic Rites in the Seventh Book, Virgil meant to proscribe and expose the abominable abuses that had crept into the myfteries. I lament that Mr. Gibbon, in his able confutation of the notion of Auguftus's Initiation, has not touched on this topic. WARTON.

* Convinced that this Tranflation is the moft fpirited and the beft ever given of any ancient Poet, and moft fuited to modern times and readers; yet I have always been of opinion, that Pope would have made it ftill more excellent, and would have profited much, if he could have feen Blackwell's Enquiry into the Life and Writings of Homer; a work, though written indeed with fome affetation of ftyle, that abounds in curious researches and obfervations, and places Homer in a new light; by endeavouring to fhew how it has happened that no poet has ever equalled him for upwards of two thousand years; namely, by the united influence of the happieft climate; the most natural manners to paint; the boldest lan

VOL. IV.

DD

guage

work, as it is the great and peculiar characteristic which distinguishes 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 feemed 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 fphere to expatiate in, he opened a new and boundless walk for his imagination, and created a world for himself in the invention of Fable. That which Ariftotle calls the Soul of Poetry, was first breathed into it by Homer. I fhall begin with confidering him in this part, as it is naturally. the first, and I speak of it both as it means the defign of a 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

guage to ufe; the most expreffive religion; and the richest subjec to work upon. Nature, after all, is the fureft rule, and real characters the best ground of fiction. The paffions of the human mind, if truly awaked, and kept up by objects fitted to them, dictate a language peculiar to themselves. Homer has copied it, and done juftice to nature. We fee her image in his draft; and this Work is the great Drama of Life, acted in our view. A moft ingenious theory, if not solid, in every respect, WARTON.

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, the return of Ulyffes, the fettlement of the Trojans in Italy, or the like. That of the Iliad is the anger of Achilles, the most short and fingle fubject that was ever chofen by any Poet. Yet this he has fupplied with a vaster variety of incidents and events, and crowded with a greater number of councils, fpeeches, battles, and episodes of all kinds, than are to be found even in thofe poems whofe fchemes are of the utmost latitude and irregularity. The action is hurried on with the most vehement spirit, and its whole duration employs not fo much as fifty days. days. Virgil, for want of so warm a genius, aided himself by taking in a more extensive subject, 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 same practice, but generally carried it fo far as to fuperinduce a multiplicity of fables, deftroy 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 epifode 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 Anchises, and Statius (rather than omit them) destroys the unity of his action for thofe of Archemorus.

If Ulyffes vifit the fhades, the Eneas of Virgil and Scipio of Silius are fent after him. If he be detained from his return by the allurements of Calypfo, fo is Æneas by Dido, and Rinaldo by Armida. If Achilles be abfent from the army on the fcore of a quarrel through half the poem, Rinaldo must absent himself just 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 obferved this close imitation of Homer, but where he had not led the way, supplied the want from other Greek authors. Thus the story of Sinon and the taking of Troy was copied (fays Macrobius) almost word for word from Pifander, as the loves of Dido and Æneas are taken from thofe of Medea and Jafon 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 physical philofophy, which Homer is generally supposed to have wrapped up in his allegories, what a new and ample fcene of wonder may this confideration afford us? How fertile will that imagination which was able to clothe all the properappear, ties of elements, the qualifications of the mind, the virtues and vices, in forms and perfons; and to introduce them into actions agreeable to the nature of the things they fhadowed? This is a field in which no fucceeding poets could difpute with Homer; and whatever