XLII. region within which we look for every thing that is LE C T. fublime in description, tender in fentiment, and bold and lively in expreffion; and, therefore, though an Author's plan fhould be faultlefs, and his story ever fo well conducted, yet if he be feeble, or flat in Style, deftitute of affecting fcenes, and deficient in poetical colouring, he can have no fuccefs. The ornaments which Epic Poetry admits, muft all be of the grave and chafte kind. Nothing that is loose, ludicrous, or affected, finds any place there. All the objects which it prefents ought to be either great, or tender, or pleasing. Defcriptions of disgusting or fhocking objects fhould as much as poffible be avoided; and therefore the fable of the Harpies, in the third book of the Æneid, and the allegory of Sin and Death, in the fecond book of Paradise Loft, had been better omitted in thefe celebrated Poems. P LECTURE XLIII. LE CT. HOMER'S ILIAD AND ODYSSEY A$ ENEID. s the Epic Poem is univerfally allowed to poffefs the highest rank among Poetical Works, it merits a particular difcuffion. Having treated of the nature of this Compofition, and the principal rules relating to it, I proceed to make fome obfervations on the moft diftinguished Epic Poems, Antient and Modern. HOMER claims, on every account, our first attention, as the Father not only of Epic Poetry, but, in fome measure, of Poetry in general. Whoever fits down to read Homer, must confider that he is going to read the most antient book in the world, next to the Bible. Without making this reflection, he cannot enter into the fpirit, nor relish the Compofition of the author. He is not to look for the correctnefs, and elegance, of the Auguftan Age. He muft diveft himself of our modern ideas of dignity and refinement, and tranfport his imagination almost three thousand years back XLIII. back in the history of mankind. What he is to LECT. expect, is a picture of the antient world. He muft reckon upon finding characters and manners, that retain a confiderable tincture of the favage ftate; moral ideas, as yet imperfectly formed; and the appetites and paffions of men brought under none of those restraints, to which in a more advanced state of Society, they are accustomed; but bodily ftrength, prized as one of the chief heroic endowments; the preparing of a meal, and the appeasing of hunger, described as very interefting objects; and the heroes boafting of themfelves openly, fcolding one another outrageously, and glorying, as we fhould now think very indecently, over their fallen enemies. THE opening of the Iliad poffeffes none of that fort of dignity, which a modern looks for in a great Epic Poem. It turns on no higher subject, than the quarrel of two Chieftains about a female flave. The Prieft of Apollo befeeches Agamemnon to restore his daughter, who, in the plunder of a city, had fallen to Agamemnon's fhare of booty. He refufes. Apollo, at the prayer of his Prieft, fends a plague into the Grecian camp. The Augur, when confulted, declares, that there is no way of appeafing Apollo, but by restoring the daughter of his Prieft. Agamemnon is enraged at the Augur; profeffes that he likes this flave better than his wife Clytemneftra; but fince he muft reftore her in order to fave the army, infifts XLIII. LECT. infifts to have another in her place; and pitches upon Brifeis, the flave of Achilles. Achilles, as was to be expected, kindles into rage at this demand; reproaches him for his rapacity and infolence, and, after giving him many hard names, folemnly fwears, that, if he is to be thus treated by the General, he will withdraw his troops, and affift the Grecians no more against the Trojans. He withdraws accordingly. His mother, the Goddefs Thetis, interefts Jupiter in his caufe; who, to revenge the wrong which Achilles had fuffered, takes part against the Greeks, and fuffers them to fall into great and long diftrefs; until Achilles is pacified, and reconciliation brought about between him and Agamemnon. SUCH is the bafis of the whole action of the Iliad. Hence rife all thofe " fpeciofa miracula," as Horace terms them, which fill that extraordinary Poem; and which have had the power of interesting almost all the nations of Europe during every age, fince the days of Homer. The general admiration commanded by a poetical plan, so very fo different from what any one would have formed in our times, ought not, upon reflection, to be matter of furprise. For, befides that a fertile genius can enrich and beautify any subject on which it is employed, it is to be observed, that antient manners, how much foever they contradict our present notions of dignity and refinement, afford, nevertheless, materials for Poetry, fuperior, in fome refpects, . They XLIII. respects, to those which are furnished by a more L E C T. polished state of Society. They discover human nature more open and undisguised, without any of thofe ftudied forms of behaviour which now conceal men from one another. They give free scope to the strongest and most impetuous emotions of the mind, which make a better figure in defcription, than calm and temperate feelings. shew us our native prejudices, appetites, and defires, exerting themselves without controul. From this state of manners, joined with the advantage of that strong and expreffive Style, which, as I formerly obferved, commonly distinguishes the Compofitions of early ages, we have ground to look for more of the boldnefs, ease, and freedom of native genius, in Compofitions of fuch a period, than in those of more civilized times. And, accordingly, the two great characters of the Homeric Poetry are, Fire and Simplicity. Let us now proceed to make fome more particular obfervations on the Iliad, under the three heads of the Subject and Action, the Characters, and Narration of the Poet. So THE Subject of the Iliad must unquestionably be admitted to be, in the main, happily chofen. In the days of Homer, no object could be more fplendid and dignified than the Trojan war. great a confederacy of the Grecian States, under one leader; and the ten years fiege which they carried on against Troy, must have spread far abroad the renown of many military exploits, and interested |