was not right in Homer, or right only in him. Ought his particular example to make a general law? In that cafe, the fubject of every epic poem ought to be a fiege, and the poem ought to conclude before either the place is taken or the fiege raifed. Poets themfelves afford a convincing proof that they were sensible of following cuftom rather than reafon, by treating those catalogues merely as epifodes,and by introducing into them heroes, who are rarely those of history; and who, after fhining a moment in thofe reviews, totally disappear, in order to make room for characters more effential to the action. An epic poet ftands not in need of fo dull and vulgar an expedient for making the reader acquainted with his true heroes. A critic may condemn thofe poetical catalogues; but woe to the critic, if he is infenfible to all the beauties by which that of Virgil is adorned; the brightness of his coloring, the number and variety of his pictures, and that fweet and well-fuftained harmony, which always charms the ear and the foul. The army of the Tufcans is not inferior to that of Turnus; being alfo compofed of the flower of many warlike nations affembled under the standards of heroes and demigods. But it enjoys over the Rutuli an advantage which it was natural should belong to the allies of Eneas; having juftice and the gods on its fide Every reader, while he detefts the crimes of Mezentius, must applaud the exertions of a free and generous people, who have ventured to dethrone their tyrant, and are eager to punish him. I have always wondered that the courtier of Auguftus fhould have introduced and episode which would have been more properly treated by the friend of Brutus. Every line breathes republican fentiments, the boldeft, and perhaps the most extravagant. Meżentius was the lawful and hereditary fovereign of a country, of which he rendered himself the tyrant. His fubjects hurled him from the throne, and thenceforth regard themselves as free, without once confidering the rights of his unfortunate and virtuous fon. Mezentius finds an asylum among the Rutuli; but his furious fubjects implore the affiftance of their allies. All Etruria in arms determine to tear their king from the hands of his defenders, in order to fubject him to punishment, and this fury of the Tufcans is approved by the gods and the poet : Ergo omnis furiis furrexit Etruria juftis, VIRGIL, Eneid VIII. 494. If I wished to establish it as a general and unlimited principle, that fubjects have a right to punish the crimes of their fovereigns, I would prefer this example, which admits of neither modification nor reftriction. Among the ancients themselves, it appears to me to have been as fingular in theory as the death of Agis was inpractice. Auguftus must have read both with terror; and had Virgil continued to recite the eighth book of the Eneid, I fufpect that he would not have been so well rewarded for the story of Mezentius as he was for the panegyric of Marcellus. My furprise increafes, when I confider that the ftory of Mezentius is entirely Virgil's invention; that it entered not into the general plan of his poem; and that he himself had not thought of it when he com Ba posed his seventh book. It appears that Virgil, after forming a general idea of his defign, trufted to his genius for fupplying him with the means of carrying it into execution; and that entering into the character and fituation of his hero, he prepared for him difficulties to encounter, without knowing exactly how he would furmount them in one word, when he landed Eneas on the banks of the Tiber, that he knew not the whole series of events which fhould lead to the death of Turnus. I fay the whole feries of events; for the part of Mezentius depends on the introduction of Evander and Pallas, and the death of Pallas is intimately connected with that of Turnus. This manner of writing is not deftitute of its advantages. It is applauded in Richardfon, who has only imitated Virgil. The truth and boldnefs by which it is characterized far furpass the timid perplexity of a writer, who, while he forms his plot, is at the fame time confidering how he shall unravel it. Virgil's example is furely more worthy of imitation than that of Chapelain, who wrote the whole of his Pucelle in profe, before he tranflated it into poetry. I am fenfible that had Virgil lived to revife his work, he would have given to it uniformity and unity, and carefully effaced all thofe marks by which an attentive reader may perceive in it detached parts, not originally written the one for the other. Of these take the following examples. 1. Mezentius appears at the head of the warriors who follow Turnus, but appears as a king completely mafter of his dominions. He arrives from the Tyrrhenian coafts with numerous troops, and his fon, the valiant Laufus, follows him with a thousand warriors from the city of Cære. 2. Meffapus, king of the Falifci, is a Tufcan. Fefcen nium, Soracte, the Ciminian forest, are among the most celebrated places of Etruria. This Tuscan prince, would he have forfaken the whole body of his nation united by the crimes of Mezentius? Is it to be expected that he should be found in the camp of the enemy; or that he would have brought, as auxiliaries to Turnus, a people funk in effeminacy, and who knew war only by their deteftation of it? The poet would have colored fo extraordinary a meafure, by affuming for it fome probable motive. Would he have faid that all Etruria was in infurrection against Mezentius? 3. Aventinus, of Mount Aventine, the fon of Hercules, makes a striking figure in the catalogue; but his part is inconfiftent with that of Evander. They reigned at the fame time, and over the fame place. It will be said that one of those princes occupied the Palatine, while the other reigned over the Aventine Mount. This is impoffible; for Evander fhows the Aventine to Eneas, which was a barren rock', fituate in his little kingdom, which had no other boundaries than the Tiber, and the terri tory of the Rutuli. I believe that Virgil would also have corrected fome faults, which it is painful to fee in his enumeration of the Tufcan warriors. He well knew that when a poet speaks of a science, he ought to do it with precifion; and he could not forget that accurate geography is not incompatible with poetry. Of the twelve cities which compofed the confederacy of Etruria, he would have named more than Cære and Clufium, and he would not have dwelt on the crowd of fecondary towns, which could not do otherwife than follow the ftandards of their refpective capitals. 2. He would not have thought that feven or eight beautiful verfes compenfated for introducing the Ligurians, a foreign and hoftile nation, into the civil wars of the Tufcans, which could only be interes, ting to the members of their own confederacy. 3. I fee the camp of the Tufcans on the sea shore near to Care; I fee their veffels, and all the preparations for a diftant expedition. They embark, but it is only for a voyage of thirty miles. They prefer this navigation to an eafy march of two days, which would have brought them to the country of their ally Evander. There they would have passed the Tiber, and found themselves on the frontiers of the Rutuli. 4. This naval expedition affords matter of surprise; but that of the troops of Mantua is totally incredible. Five hundred warriors embarking on the Mincius, could not arrive in the Tuscan fea without making the circumnavigation of the whole Italian coaft. Virgil loved the place of his birth; but he might eafily have discovered the means of bringing its ancient inhabitants to the affiftance of Eneas, with out offending against probability and geography. I N° II. 24th December 1763. LAUSANNE. PROCEED to fay a few words on the catalogue of Silius Italicus. 1. It would ill become me to speak of |