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POSTSCRIPT

TO THE

ODYSSEY.

It was thought improper to omit this Poftfcript to the Odyssey, as it is apparently one of our Author's moft elegant and finished compofitions in profe. It were to be wished he had enlarged on the fubject; for a Critical Treatife on the Nature and Conduct of the Odyffey, is as yet wanting in our language; the Difcourfe prefixed to Pope's Tranflation, by Broome, being but a meagre and defective Extract from Boffu. More than forty years ago, three Effays were printed in the third volume of the Adventurer, on the excellence of the Odyssey. They were defigned to fhew this excellence in the manner of conducting the fable, which is of the complex kind; in the extensive utility of its moral; in the vaft and entertaining variety of fcenes, objects, and events, which it contains; in the strokes of nature, and pathos; in the true and accurate delineation of ancient manners, customs, and habits; and the lively pictures of civil and domestic life, more calculated to keep our attention alive and active, than the martial uniformity of the Iliad; and in its exhibiting the moft perfect pattern of a legitimate Epopée. But the Author of these Effays confined himfelf to too short a compass for a subject of fuch utility and importance; and may perhaps, in fome future day, lengthen them into a more formal Treatise. WARTON.

These Effays were written by the late Editor of this work. Perhaps in formal treatises the work he mentions, would have been lefs pleasing, than it is in the Effays. But the subject is deserving critical investigation, and the causes of the poetical excellence of the Odyffey are accurately enumerated by Dr. Warton.

POSTSCRIPT

TO THE

ODYSSEY.

I

CANNOT difmifs this Work without a few obfer. vations on the true Character and Style of it. Whoever reads the Odyssey with an eye to the Iliad, expecting to find it of the fame character, or of the fame fort of spirit, will be grievoufly deceived, and err against the first principle of Criticism, which is to confider the nature of the piece, and the intent of its Author. The Odyffey is a moral and political work, inftructive to all degrees of men, and filled with images, examples and precepts, of civil and domeftic life. Homer is here a perfon

Qui didicit, patria quid debeat, et quid amicis,
Quo fit amore parens, quo frater amandus, & hofpes:
Qui quid fit pulcrum, quid turpe, quid utile, quid non,
Plenius & melius Chryfippo & Crantore dicit.

The Odyffey is the reverse of the Iliad, in Moral, Subject, Manner, and Style; to which it has no fort of relation, but as the ftory happens to follow in

order

order of time, and as fome of the fame perfonis are actors in it. Yet from this incidental connection many have been misled to regard it as a continuation or second part, and thence to expect a parity of character inconfiftent with its nature.

It is no wonder that the common reader fhould fall into this mistake, when fo great a Critic as Longinus feems not wholly free from it. Although what he has faid has been generally understood to import a feverer cenfure of the Odyffey than it really does, if we confider the occafion on which it is introduced, and the circumftances to which it is confined.

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"The Odyffey (fays he) is an instance, how na"tural it is to a great Genius, when it begins to grow old and decline, to delight itself in Narra❝tions and Fables. For, that Homer compofed the Odyffey after the Iliad, many proofs may be given, &c. From hence in my judgment it proceeds, "that as the Iliad was written while his Spirit was "in its greatest vigour, the whole structure of that "work is dramatic and full of action; whereas the

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greater part of the Odyffey is employed in Narration, which is the tafte of Old Age: fo that in this "latter piece we may compare him to the fetting "fun, which has ftill the fame greatnefs but not the "fame ardor or force. He fpeaks not in the fame "ftrain; we see no more that Sublime of the Iliad "which marches on with a conftant pace, without "ever being stopped, or retarded there appears no

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"more that hurry and that strong tide of motions and "paffions, pouring one after another; there is no "more the fame fury, or the fame volubility of dic

tion, fo fuitable to action, and all along drawing "in fuch innumerable images of nature. But Ho

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mer, like the Ocean, is always great, even when "he ebbs and retires; even when he is loweft and ❝lofes himself moft in Narrations and incredible "Fictions: as inftances of this, we cannot forget the "defcriptions of tempefts, the adventures of Ulyffes "with the Cyclops, and many others. But though “all this be Age, it is the Age of Homer-And it be faid for the credit of these fictions, that "they are beautiful Dreams, or if you will, the Dreams

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of Jupiter himself. I spoke of the Odyssey only to "fhow, that the greatest Poets when their genius "wants ftrength and warmth for the Pathetic, for "the most part employ themselves in painting the "Manners. This Homer has done in characterising "the Suitors, and defcribing their way of life; "which is properly a branch of Comedy, whofe "peculiar business it is to represent the manners of 66 men."

We must first observe *, it is the Sublime of which Longinus is writing: that, and not the nature of Ho mer's Poem, is his fubject. After having highly extolled the fublimity and fire of the Iliad, he juftly ob

• These obfervations are very just and excellent.

VOL. IV.

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ferves

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