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thinking, that his works were wrought to his own ideas of perfection; when they were fuch as would fatisfy the audience, they fatisfied the writer. It is feldom that authors, though more ftudious of fame than Shakespeare, rife much above the standard of their own age; to add a little to what is beft, will always be fufficient for prefent praife, and those who find themselves exalted into fame, are willing to credit their encomiafts, and to fpare the labour of contending with themfelves.

It does not appear, that Shakespeare thought his works worthy of pofterity, that he levied any ideal tribute upon future times, or had any further profpect, than of prefent popularity and prefent profit. When his plays had been acted, his hope was at an end; he folicited no addition of honour from the reader. He therefore made no fcruple to repeat the fame jefts in many dialogues, or to entangle different plots by the fame knot of perplexity; which may be at leaft forgiven him by thofe who recollect, that of Congreve's four comedies, two are concluded by a marriage in a mask, by a deception, which, perhaps, never happened, and which, whether likely or not, he did not invent.

So careless was this great poet of future fame, that, though he retired to ease and plenty, while he was yet little declined into the vale of years, before he could be difgufted with fatigue, or difabled by infirmity, he made no collection of his works, nor defired to rescue those that had been already published from the depravations that obfcured them, or fecure to the reft a better deftiny, by giving them to the world in their genuine state. Johnjon. 234 POPE's Preface to his HOMER. Homer is univerfally allowed to have had the greatest Invention of any writer whatever. The praife of Judgment Virgil has justly contefted 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 greatest of poets, who moft excelled in that which is the very foundation of poetry. It is the Invention that in different degrees diflinguishes all great geniufes: the utmoft tretch of human ftudy, learning, and induftry, which mafters every thing befides, can never attain to this. It furnishes Art with all her materials, and without it, Judgment itself can at beft but steal wifely: for 4

Art is only like a prudent fteward that lives on managing the riches of Nature. Whatever praifes 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 reafon why common critics are inclined to prefer a judicious and methodical genius to a great and fruitful one is, becaufe they find it easier for themselves to pursue their obfervations through an uniform and bounded walk of art, than to comprehend the vast and various extent of nature.

Our author's work is a wild paradife, where if we cannot fee all the beauties fo diftinctly as in an ordered garden, it is only becaufe the number of them is infinitely greater. It is like a copious nursery, which contains the feeds and first productions of every kind, out of which those who followed him have but felected fome parti. cular plants, each according to his fancy, to cultivate and beautify. If fome things are too luxuriant, it is owing to the richnefs of the foil; and if others are not arrived to perfection or maturity, it is only because they are over-run and oppreft by thofe of a ftronger nature.

It is to the ftrength of this amazing invention we are to attribute that unequalled fire and rapture, which is fo forcible in Homer, that no man of a true poetical fpirit is master of himself while he reads him. What he writes, is of the most 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 was 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 :

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thought, correct elocution, polished numbers, may have been found in a thoufand; but this poetical fire, this " vivida vis animi," in a very few. Even in works where all thofe are imperfect 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 fhining than fierce, but every where equal and constant: in Lucan and Statius, it bursts 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 Shakefpeare, it ftrikes 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 shall here endeavour to fhew, how this vaft Invention exerts itself in a manner fuperior to that of any poet, through all the main conftiturent parts of his work, as it is the great and peculiar characteristic which diftinguishes him from all other authors.

This ftrong and ruling faculty was like a powerful flar, which, in the violence of its courfe, 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 boundless walk for his imagination, and created a world for himfelf 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 fpeak 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 course 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 ftory 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 fubje&t that ever was chofen by any poet. Yet this he has fupplied with a vatter variety of incidents and events, and crowded with a greater number of councils, speeches, battles, and episodes of all kinds, than are to be found even in those poems whose schemes 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. Virgil, for want of fo warm a genius, aided himfelf 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 ufed the fame 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 episode and part of story. 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) deftroys the unity of his action for those of Archemoras. If Ulyffes vifits the fhades, the Æneas 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 score of a quarrel through half the poem, Rinaldo muft abfent 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 observed this clofe imitation of Homer, but where he had not led the way, fupplied the want from other Greek authors. Thus the story 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 thofe of Medea and Jafon in Apollonius, and several 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 fuppofed to have wrapped up in his allegories, what a new and ample scene of wonder may this confideration afford us! how fertile

will that imagination appear, which was able to clothe all the properties 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 commendations have been allowed them on this head, are by no means for their invention in having enlarged his circle, but for their judgment in having contracted it. For when the mode of learning changed in following ages, and science was delivered in a plainer manner; it then became as reasonable in the more modern poets to lay it afide, as it was in Homer to make use of it. And perhaps it was no unhappy circumftance for Virgil, that there was not in his time that demand upon him of fo great an invention, as might be capable of furnishing all thofe allegorical parts of a poem. The marvellous fable includes whatever is supernatural, and especially the machines of the gods. He feems the firft who brought them into a fyftem of machinery for poetry, and fuch a one as makes its greatest importance and dignity. For we find thofe authors who have been offended at the literal notion of the gods, conftantly laying their accufation against Homer as the chief fupport of it. But whatever caufe there might be to blame his machines in a philofophical or religious view, they are fo perfect in the poetic, that mankind have been ever fince contented to follow them: none have been able to enlarge the fphere of poetry beyond the limits he has fet: every attempt of this nature has proved unfuccefsful; and after all the various changes of times and religions, his gods continue to this day the gods of poetry.

We come now to the characters of his perfons; and here we shall find no author has ever drawn fo many, with so visible and furprising a variety, or given us fuch lively and affecting impreffions of them. Every one has fomething fo fingularly his own, that no painter could have diftinguished them more by their features, than the poet has by their manners. Nothing can be more exact than the diftinctions he has observed in the different degrees of virtues and vices. The fingle quality of courage is wonderfully diverfified in the feveral characters of the Iliad. That of Achilles is furious and intractable; that of Diomede forward, yet liftening to advice, and fubject to command: that of Ajax is heavy, and

felf-confiding; of Hector, active and vigi-
lant: the courage of Agamemnon is in-
fpirited by love of empire and ambition;
that of Menelaus mixed with softness and
tenderness for his people: we find in Ido-
meneus a plain direct foldier, in Sarpedon
a gallant and generous one. Nor is this
judicious and aftonishing diverfity to be
found only in the principal quality which
conftitutes the main of each character, but
even in the under-parts of it, to which he
takes care to give a tincture of that prin-
cipal one. For example, the main cha-
racters of Ulyffes and Neftor confist in
wifdom; and they are distinct in this, that
the wifdom of one is artificial and various,
of the other natural, open, and regular. But
they have, befides, characters of courage;
and this quality alfo takes a different turn
in each from the difference of his prudence:
for one in the war depends ftill upon cau-
tion, the other upon experience. It would
be endless to produce inftances of these
kinds.-The characters of Virgil are far
from ftriking us in this open manner; they
lie in a great degree hidden and undistin-
guifhed, and where they are marked most
evidently, affect us not in proportion to
thofe of Homer. His characters of valour
are much alike; even that of Turnus feems
no way peculiar but as it is in a fuperior de-
gree; and we fee nothing that differences
the courage of Mneftheus from that of
Sergefthus, Cloanthus, or the rest. In like
manner it may be remarked of Statius's
heroes, that an air of impetuofity runs
through them all; the fame horrid and fa-
vage courage appears in his Capaneus,
Tydeus, Hippomedon, &c. They have a
parity of character, which makes them
feem brothers of one family. I believe
when the reader is led into this track of
reflection, if he will purfue it through the
epic and tragic writers, he will be con-
vinced how infinitely fuperior in this point
the invention of Homer was to that of all
others.

The fpeeches are to be confidered as they flow from the characters, being perfect or defective as they agree or disagree with the manners of those who utter them. As there is more variety of characters in the Iliad, fo there is of fpeeches, than in any other poem. Every thing in it has manners (as Ariftotle expreffes it) that is, every thing is acted or fpoken. It is hardly credible, in a work of fuch length, how fmall a number of lines are employed in narration. In Virgil the dramatic part is

lefs

lefs in proportion to the narrative; and the fpeeches often confiit of general reflections or thoughts, which might be equally juft in any perfon's mouth upon the fame occafion. As many of his perfons have no apparent characters, fo many of his fpeeches efcape being applied and judged by the rule of propriety. We oftener think of the author himfelf when we read Virgil, than when we are engaged in Homer: all which are the effects of a colder invention, that interefts us lefs in the action defcribed: Homer makes us hearers, and Virgil leaves us readers.

If in the next place we take a view of the fentiments, the fame prefiding faculty is eminent in the fublimity and spirit of his thoughts. Longinus has given his opinion, that it was in this part Homer principally excelled. What were alone fufficient to prove the grandeur and excellence of his fentiments in general, is, that they have fo remarkable a parity with thofe of the fcripture: Duport, in his Gnomologia Homerica, has collected innumerable inftances of this fort. And it is with justice an excellent modern writer allows, that if Virgil has not fo many thoughts that are low and vulgar, he has not fo many that are fublime and noble; and that the Roman author feldom rifes into very aftonishing fentiments, where he is not fired by the Iliad.

If we obferve his defcriptions, images, and fimiles, we fhall find the invention still predominant. To what elfe can we afcribe that vaft comprehenfion of images of every fort, where we fee each circumflance of art, and individual of nature fummoned together, by the extent and fecundity of his imagination; to which all things, in their various views, prefented themfelves in an instant, and had their impreffions taken off to perfection at a heat? Nay, he not only gives us the full profpects of things, but feveral unexpected peculiarities and fide-views, unobferved by any painter, but Homer. Nothing is fo furprising as the defcriptions of his battles, which take up no less than half the Iliad, and are fupplied with fo vait a variety of incidents, that no one bears a likeness to another; fuch different kinds of deaths, that no two heroes are wounded in the fame manner; and fuch a profufion of noble ideas, that every battle rifes above the laft in greatnefs, horror, and confufion. It is certain there is not near that number of images and defcriptions in any epic poet; though every one has affisted himself with a great

quantity out of him: and it is evident of Virgil efpecially, that he has fcarce any comparifons which are not drawn from his matter.

If we defcend from hence to the expreffion, we fee the bright imagination of Homer fhining out in the most enlivened forms of it. We acknowledge him the father of poetical diction, the first who taught that language of the gods to men. His expreffion is like the colouring of fome great masters, which difcovers itfelf to be laid on boldly, and executed with rapidity. It is indeed the ftrongest and moft glowing imaginable, and touched with the greatest fpirit. Aristotle had reason to fay, he was the only poet who had found out living words; there are in him more daring fi gures and metaphors than in any good author whatever. An arrow is impatient to be on the wing, and a weapon thirsts to drink the blood of an enemy, and the like. Yet his expreffion is never too big for the fenfe, but juftly great in proportion to it. It is the fentiment that fwells and fills out the diction, which rifes with it, and forms itself about it: for in the fame degree that a thought is warmer, an expreffion will be brighter; as that is more ftrong, this will become more perfpicuous: like glass in the furnace, which grows to a greater magnitude, and refines to a greater clearnefs, only as the breath within is more powerful, and the heat more intense.

To throw his language more out of profe, Homer feems to have affected the compound epithets. This was a fort of compofition peculiarly proper to poetry, not only as it heightened the diction, but as it affifted and filled the numbers with greater found and pomp, and likewife conduced in fome meafure to thicken the images. On this laft confideration I cannot but attribute these alfo to the fruitfulnefs of his invention, fince (as he has managed them) they are a fort of fupernumerary pictures of the perfons or things to which they are joined. We fee the motion of Hector's plumes in the epithet xogubaix, the landscape of mount Neritus in that of rooiqua, and fo of others; which particular images could not have been infifted upon fo long as to exprefs them in a defcription (though but of a fingle line) without diverting the reader too much from the principal action or figure. As a metaphor is a fhort fimile, one of thefe epithets is a fhort defcription.

Laftly, if we confider his verfification, we fhall be fenfible what a fhare of praife

is due to his invention in that. He was not fatisfied with his language as he found it fettled in any one part of Greece, but fearched through its differing dialects with this particular view, to beautify and perfect his numbers: he confidered thefe as they had a greater mixture of vowels or confonants, and accordingly employed them as the verse required either a greater fmoothnefs or ftrength. What he most affected was the Ionic, which has a peculiar fweetness from its never ufing contractions, and from its cuftom of refolving the diphthongs into two fyllables, so as to make the words open themfelves with a more fpreading and fonorous fluency. With this he mingled the Attic contractions, the broader Doric, and the feebler Eolic, which often rejects its afpirate, or takes off its accent; and compleated this variety by altering fome letters with the licence of poetry. Thus his measures, inftead of being fetters to his fenfe, were always in readiness to run along with the warmth of his rapture, and even to give a farther reprefentation of his motions, in the correfpondence of their founds to what they fignified. Out of all these he has derived that harmony, which makes us confefs he had not only the richest head, but the fineft ear in the world. This is fo great a truth, that whoever will but confult the tune of his verses, even without understanding them (with the fame fort of diligence as we daily fee practifed in the cafe of Italian operas) will find more sweetness, variety, and majefty of found, than in any other language or poetry. The beauty of his numbers is allowed by the critics to be copied but faintly by Virgil himself, though they are fo juft to afcribe it to the nature of the Latin tongue: indeed, the Greek has fome advantages, both from the natural found of its words, and the turn and cadence of its verfe, which agree with the genius of no other language. Virgil was very fenfible of this, and used the utmoft diligence in working up a more intractable language to whatfoever graces it was capable of; and in particular never failed to bring the found of his line to a beautiful agreement with its fenfe. If the Grecian poet has not been fo frequently celebrated on this account as the Roman, the only reafon is, that fewer critics have understood one language than the other. Dionyfius of Halicarnaffus has pointed out many of our author's beauties in this kind, in his treatife

of the Compofition of Words. It fuffices at prefent to obferve of his numbers, that they flow with fo much ease, as to make one imagine Homer had no other care than to tranfcribe as fast as the Mufes dictated: and at the fame time with fo much force and infpiriting vigour, that they awaken and raise us like the found of a trumpet. They roll along as a plentiful river, always in motion, and always full; while we are borne away by a tide of verfe, the most rapid and yet the most fmooth imaginable.

Thus, on whatever fide we contemplate Homer, what principally strikes us is his Invention. It is that which forms the character of each part of his work; and accordingly we find it to have made his fable more extenfive and copious than any other, his manners more lively and strongly marked, his fpeeches more affecting and tranfported, his fentiments more warm and fublime, his images and defcriptions more full and animated, his expreffion more raised and daring, and his numbers more rapid and various. I hope, in what has been faid of Virgil, with regard to any of thefe heads, I have no way derogated from his character. Nothing is more abfurd or endless, than the common method of comparing eminent writers by an oppofition of particular paffages in them, and forming a judgment from thence of their merit upon the whole. We ought to have a certain knowledge of the principal character and diftinguishing excellence of each: it is in that we are to confider him, and in proportion to his degree in that we are to admire him. No author or man ever excelled all the world in more than one faculty; and as Homer has done this in Invention, Virgil has in Judgment. Not that we are to think Homer wanted Judgment, because Virgil had it in a more eminent degree, or that Virgil wanted Invention, becaufe Homer poffeft a larger fhare of it: each of these great authors had more of both than perhaps any man befides, and are only faid to have lefs in comparison with one another. Homer was the greater genius, Virgil the better artift. In one we most admire the man, in the other the work: Homer hurries and tranfports us with a commanding impetuofity, Virgil leads us with an attractive majefty: Homer fcatters with a generous profufion. Virgil beftows with a careful magnificence: Homer, like the Nile, pours out his riches with a boundlefs overflow;

Virgil,

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