most noble purposes! The epic poem is confessedly the highest style of poetry. Its foundation is true history; but it is permitted to use every privilege of the drama in harmony with truth and probability.

I would illustrate my inferences from these observations on Homer, by supposing that I had the presumption to choose a subject for an epic poem, and to apply the method of Homer in the treatment.

My subject would undoubtedly be, The generosity of Camillus, and the benefits which he thereby conferred on the Romans in delivering Rome from the Gauls.

This subject would afford a most magnificent and useful lesson, both religious and moral.

Here would be no want of competition among heroes; Manlius should be brought forward as the

Unus Achille Ajax, vix et Achille minor.

Suspense, and surprise and climax, belong inherently to the subject.

Had Virgil selected this subject, with his superior information respecting it, and the accession of interest belonging to a Roman subject, it appears to myself that he would have rivalled Homer. The very circumstance that Camillus was the most religious of the Romans, would have naturally introduced that highest elevation and sublimity of poetry, which is confined to the most sublime of topics, and the absence of which has frequently degraded our modern poets.

The brevity of the action also would have given space to represent the persons of the drama in a proportion adequate to the excitement of interest and gratification of curiosity.

The conduct and progress of the drama would have been entirely natural, and would have required such a poetical amplification as may be compared to the enlarged and distinct view of an object, which after having contemplated in miniature at a distance, we view in its full proportions close at hand.

The chief error to be avoided would be that which is seldom thought of, but which is the bane of any story, viz. the anticipation by the slightest hint of the result.

It would likewise be my endeavor, while I varied my style according to the immediate subject, to rise like Homer, and ex fumo dare lucem, when the occasion required. For if ever any author had the ability to strike the thunder-stop of the harp, to

Break the bonds of sleep asunder,
And rouse us like a rattling peal of thunder,
VOL. XXXIV.

Cl. Jl. NO. LXVII. E

it was the primitive bard of Greece. Among our English poets, Milton is the model for variety and majesty of cadence; but he has nothing that comes up to

Δεινήν τε βροντήν, ὅτε σμερδαλέως σμαραγήσῃ.

Would we then raise the purposes and tone of English poetry, I would recommend to read Homer again and again.

Nocturna versate manu, versate diurnâ.

I would further suggest that it might be very interesting and
instructive to compare poets in their descriptions of such sub-
jects as are common to them, and in which at the same time
they purposely display the brilliancy of their genius. I select,
by way of example, the subject of Night; and I cannot but
imagine that all persons of taste would receive more pleasure
from comparing a collection of such descriptions, than from the
Rejected Addresses, which I consider as a cynical scheme for
satirizing most unjustly our modern poets.
The subject
being ludicrous, the more noble the style in which it is treated,
the more ludicrous the effect. Such a work would have been
more worthy of the contemptible Aristophanes, than of a man
capable of estimating and honoring the Muses. I select as
Homer's description of Night the following sweet passage
from the close of the Sth book :-

Οἱ δὲ, μέγα φρονέοντες, ἐπὶ πτολέμοιο γεφύρη,
Ελατο παννύχιοι πυρὰ δέ σφισι καίετο πολλά.
Ως δ ̓ ὅτ ̓ ἐν οὐρανῷ ἄστρα φαεινὴν ἀμφὶ σελήνην
Φαίνετ' ἀριπρεπέα, ὅτε τ ̓ ἔπλετο νήνεμος αἰθής,
Εκ τ ̓ ἔφανον πᾶσαι σκοπιαὶ, καὶ πρώονες ἄκροι,
Καὶ νάπαι· οὐρανόθεν δ ̓ ἄρ ̓ ὑπεῤῥάγη ἄσπετος αἰθὴρ,
Πάντα δέ τ ̓ εἴδεται ἄστρα· γέγηθε δέ τε φρένα ποιμήν.
The passage I select from Virgil is:

Nox erat, et placidum carpebant fessa soporem
Corpora per terras, silvæque et sæva quierant
Equora quum medio volvuntur sidera lapsu,
Quum tacet omnis ager, pecudes, pictæque volucres,
Quæque lacus late liquidos, quæque aspera dumis
Rura tenent, somno positæ sub nocte silenti.
Lenibant curas et corda oblita laborum.

Eneid. lib. IV. lin. 522.

And from Milton's Paradise Lost, book v. 38.

Why sleep'st thou, Eve? Now is the pleasant time,
The cool, the silent, save where silence yields
To the night-warbling bird, that, now awake,
Tunes sweetest his love-labor'd song; now reigns
Full-orb'd the moon, and with more pleasing light

Shadowy sets off the face of things; in vain
If none regard: Heav'n wakes with all her eyes
Whom to behold but thee, Nature's desire?
And from Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice :-
How sweet the moon-light sleeps upon this bank!
Here will we sit, and let the sounds of music
Creep in our ears; soft stilness and the night
Become the touches of sweet harmony.
Sit, Jessica: Look how the floor of heaven
Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold:
There's not the smallest orb, which thou behold'st,
But in his motion like an angel sings,

Still quiring to the young-eye'd cherubins:

Such harmony is in immortal souls;

But, whilst this muddy vesture of decay

Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it. And from Southey's Thalaba:

How beautiful is night!

A dewy freshness fills the silent air;

No mist obscures, nor cloud, nor speck, nor stain
Breaks the serene of heaven :

In full-orb'd glory yonder moon divine
Rolls through the dark blue depths.
Beneath her steady ray

The desert circle spreads,

Like the round ocean, girdled with the sky.
How beautiful is night!

And from Gray :

The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea,
The plowman homeward plods his weary way,
And leaves the world to darkness and to me.
Now fades the glimmering landscape on the sight,
And all the air a solemn stilness holds,
Save where the beetle wheels his drony flight,
And drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds;
Save that, from yonder ivy-mantled tower,
The moping owl doth to the moon complain
Of such as wand'ring near her secret bow'r
Molest her ancient solitary reign.

The above are a few specimens from the great poets of their treatment of a common subject; and many more might be added on the same delightful theme, and other common subjects found and collated in the same way. But this not for the

purpose of invidious comparison. A strong appetite is not nice; neither is lively taste invidious and cynical. And yet we may compare, in order that we may judge and gain instruction. Instruction is the end of such comparison.

I fancy then that I discern in Homer's thoughts, metre, and expressions, a perfect mirror of the gradual brightening of the starry heavens, and as it were the curtain of the infinite expanse of the planets, the stars and the constellations uplifted, and contemplated through the calm and transparent ether of the mountain summit.

This is drawing from nature; and the man that shall come up to this specimen from Homer,

erit mihi magnus Apollo.

But this is only a sample of Homer's skill as a painter of nature, copying with the pencil both of reflection and of expression. (See Longinus on the Sublime.)

I would lastly observe that there sometimes prevails a prejudice against the practice of forming our taste upon the great models of antiquity, or any other models approved by general consent. This prejudice arises from various causes; as sometimes from idleness; sometimes from confidence in unaided talents; sometimes from a fancy that the most approved writers have rejected models, which is a great mistake; sometimes from the fear of being considered as plagiarists; sometimes from too great hurry and eagerness to be delivered of their brats, as Aristotle calls them; so that they conclude that Horace must have intended nine months rather than nine years as the proper time for the gestation of an epic poem. And in this prejudice they are too often flattered by the taste of the times, which is not so nice about quality as anxious for quantity; nor looking for that which may stand examination and be worthy of re-perusal, so much as for what will amuse for the moment and give no trouble to the superior faculties. Besides, no person can now be considered as any thing better than a pedant who has not skimmed a thousand volumes annually, enough to addle and hash the brains of a philosopher. But let triflers trifle: what I was going to observe by way of conclusion is, that if we would excel and live as poets, we must do as painters and musicians do, we must ascertain the best models, and study the whole and each part of their compositions; or, like the architect and the medical practitioner, learn part of our profession from the formation and adapting of stones to the composition of the cathedral, and from the compounding of medicines to the entire theory of life and health and their preservatives;

ร

and when we shall have reached the summit of what others can teach us in our chosen line, then if we can, but not till then, endeavor to surpass them. And if we do no more than so imitate them as to surpass them, we make their excellencies

our own.

J. M. B.

VITA S. ANTONII, ATHANASIO AUC

TORE.

IN bibliotheca Universitatis litterarum Jenensi aliud mihi nuper quærenti exemplar Vita S. Antonii Eremitæ ab Athanasio conscriptæ Hoeschelianum (Augustæ Vindelicorum a, 1611. 4to.) se obtulit, cujus margini quas trinis locis adscriptas reperiebam varias lectiones, si accurate describerem, cum propter eximiam earum indolem, tum quod ex fonte promanarint, e quo haurire adhuc non contigit, opus haud inutile suscipere mihi visus sum. Scilicet docta manus Jenensis, aut quisquis fuit hujus annotationis auctor, cui illas notas marginales debemus, distincte p. 85. allevit, lectiones quibus margo repleatur, ex " Georgii Hamartoli Chronico Msto in Justiniano" depromi. De quo Georgio monacho, qui ex modestia Hamartoli sive Peccatoris cognomen sibi assumpsit, ejusque Chronico, quod lucem nondum integrum vidit, multus est Fabricius Bibliotheca Græca, atque qui eam copiosiorem reddidit, Harlesius tom. vii. p. 463. seq. Verum spei dulcissimæ, quam Hasius Præfatione ad Jo. Laurentium

1 De auctoritate hujus vitæ A. Th. Hoffmannus, Professor Theologiæ venerandus a me consultus, hæc mecum communicavit: "Vitam Antonii ab Athanasio Alexandrino scriptam esse docent Gregorius Nazianzenus, (Orat. 21. in laudem magni Athanasii, ed. Colon. 1690. p. 376.) Hieronymus, (Catalog, Scriptor. Ecclesiast. c. 81, ed. Francof. ad M. 1684. T. i. p. 190.) et Socrates (Hist. Eccles. i. 21. cll. Hist. Eccles. auct. Ruffin. Aquileiens. ed. Bas. 1523. p. 224.); quam vero Heschelius primus seorsim Græce edidit vitam St. Antonii, post operibus Athanasii in edit. Benedict. Græce et Latine adjectam, (ed. Bened. Paris. 1698. tom. ii. p. 793. sq.) aut alius esse auctoris aut certe plurimis inquinatam interpolationibus, Cavius (Script. Eccles. Hist. Liter. p. 104.) aliique præcipue propterea arbitrati sunt, quod in ea permulta nugatoria ac tanto viro indigna invenirent. Hoc autem argumentum quam imbecillum sit, non est quod demonstretur."