Tels ne parurent point aux rives du Scamandre, Combattoient en défordre & marchoient au hazard. Are the battles, however, which are defcribed by the French Poet, diverfified like thofe of the Greek? Are his heroes equally interefting? The fingle combats of the chiefs, the long converfations held with the dying, the unexpected rencounters we meet with; all betray the imperfection of the military art; but furnish the Poet with the means of making us acquainted with his heroes, and interesting us in their good or ill fortune. At prefent armies are vaft machines animated by the breath of their General. The mufe denies her affiftance in the defcription of their evolutions: fhe is afraid to penetrate the clouds of powder and smoke, that conceal from her fight alike the coward and the brave, the private centinel and the commander in chief. XII. The ancient republics of Greece were igno. In govern rant of the first principles of good policy. The ment. people met in tumultuous affemblies rather to determine than to deliberate. Their factions were impetuous and lasting; their infurrections frequent and terrible; their most peaceful hours full of distrust, envy and confufion": The citizens were indeed unhappy; but their writers, whofe imaginations were warmed by fuch dreadful objects, defcribed them naturally as they were felt. A peaceable adminiftration of the laws; thofe falutary inftitutions, which projected in the cabinet of a Sovereign or his In religion. The means council, diffuse happiness over a whole nation, excite only the Poet's admiration, the coldeft of all the paffions. XIII. The ancient mythology, which attributed life and intelligence to all nature, extended its influence to the pen of the Poet. Infpired by the muse, he fung the attributes, the adventures and misfortunes of his fabulous deities. That Infinite Being, which religion and philofophy have made known to is above fuch defcription: the fublimeft flights become puerile on fuch a fubject. The almighty Fiat of Mofes ftrikes us with admiration"; but reason cannot comprehend, nor imagination defcribe, the operations of a deity, at whofe command alone millions of worlds are made to tremble: nor can we read withany fatisfactory pleasure of the devil, in Milton, warring for two whole days in heaven against the armies of the Omnipotent 23 The ancients knew their advantages, and profited by them accordingly. Of this the mafterly perfor mances we still admire are the best proofs. XIV. But we, who are placed in another clime, of perceiving and born in another age, are neceffarily at a loss to their beauties fee thofe beauties, for want of being able to place ourfelves in the fame point of view with the Greeks and Romans A circumftantial knowledge of their fituation and manners can only enable us to do this. The fuperficial ideas, the poor information we glean from a commentary, affift us only to feize the more palpable and apparent beauties: all the graces, all the delicacies of their writings efcape us; and we are apt to abuse their contemporaries for want of taste, in lavishing such encomiums on those merits we are too ignorant to difcover. An acquaintance with antiquity is the only true comment on the writings of the ancients: but what is ftill more neceffary, is a certain turn of mind, which is generally the result of it; a fentiment not only making things known, but familiarizing them to our ideas, and inducing us to regard them with the eyes of the ancients. The famous example of Perrault may ferve to illuftrate my meaning. The rudeness of the horoicages fhocked the delicacy of the Parifian." It was in vain that Boileau remonftrated to him, that Homer defigned and ought to defcribe Greeks and not Frenchmen: his judgment was convinced it was right, but he could not be perfuaded to be pleased. A fmall portion of antique tafte, ifI may fo call it, would have done more than all the reafonings of his antagonist. Artificial of fame. XV. I have faid that the Poets were in the right to make use of artificial images; but I know not whether images at the tribunal of fame it will be allowed me. We depend on love are all fond of reputation; but nothing is more different than the nature and degree of our paffion for fame. Every man has different notions in his defire of reputation. One writer, for inftance, feeks only the praise of his contemporaries. Death puts an end to his hopes and fears of cenfure or applause; he cares not, if in the tomb that enclofes his body be buried alfo his name. Such a man may, without fcruple, employ familiar and temporary images, in writing for those whom only he defires to please. Another, on the contrary, bequeaths his name to latest pofte. rity; and please s himself in thinking that a thousand And on the nature of the fubject. years after his death, the Indian on the banks of the Ganges, and the Laplander on his hills of fnow. will read his works, and envy the happy clime and æra that produced fo extraordinary a genius. Those who are ambitious to please univerfally, muft deduce their images from the common refources of mankind, from the human heart and the reprefentations of nature. Pride only can induce writers to exceed these bounds. They may prefume, indeed, that the occult beauties of their writings will always fecure a family of Burmans, to labor in their explication, and to admire the text the more because they themselves have written the comment. XVI. It is not, however, the character of the author altogether, but that of his work, which influences him in this particular. The fublimer species of Poetry, the epopeia, the tragedy, the ode, feldom employ the fame images as comedy and satire; because the former are chiefly defcriptive of the paffions, and the latter of manners. Horace and Plautus are almost unintelligible to those who have not learnt to live and think as the Romans. The rival of the latter, the elegant Terence, is better understood, because he has facrificed pleafantry to tafte, whereas Plautus has even proftitured decency to mirth. Terence, one is apt to think, imagined he was defcribing the Athenians: his pieces are all over Greek, excepting the language ". Plautus knew that he wrote for the entertainment of the Romans; and therefore with him we find, at Thebes, at Athens, at Calydon, the manners, laws, and even the public buildings, of Rome". 1 tween the infancy and the Romans. XVII. In heroic poefy, although manners be not Contraft bethe principal objects of the piece, they are made ufe of as ornamental in the remote and diftant fhadowings fplendor of of the picture. It is impoffible to comprehend the defign, the art, the circumftantial beauties of Virgil, without a perfect knowledge of the hiftory, the government, and the religion of the Romans; of the geography of ancient Italy; the character of Augustus; and of that particular and fingular relation he bore to the fenate and the people". Nothing could be more striking or interefting to this people, than the contrast between Rome, with its three thousand citi, zens living in hovels thatched with straw,and the fame Rome the metropolis of the universe, whose houses were palaces, whofe citizens Princes, and whofe provinces were extenfive empires. As Florus has remarked this contraft, it is not to be thought Virgil was regardless of it. He has ftruck it off in a most masterly manner. Evander conducts his gueft through that village, where every thing, even its monarch, was all rufticity. He explains its antiquities; while the Poet gives artfully to understand for whom this village, this future capitol, concealed beneath tufts and briars, was referved. How lively and ftri. king a picture! How fpeaking, how expreffive is this to a man verfed in antiquity!. How lifeless and unmeaning to thofe who are no otherwise prepared to read Virgil than by a natural tafte for letters, and a knowlege of the language. XVIII. The better one is acquainted with anti- The address quity; the more one admires the art and addrefs of of Virgil. the Poet. His fubject, it must be confeffed, was |