ter; as is the noble difdain of life expreffed by the two laft words; Ridens moriar. To this brave and valiant people is mankind indebted for one of the most useful deliverances it ever received; I mean, the destruction of the univerfal empire of Rome. The great prerogative of Scandinavia, and which ought to place the nations which inhabit it, above all the people of the world, is, that this country has been the resource of the liberty of Europe; that is to fay, of almost all the liberty that is to be found among men. Jornandes the Goth, has called the North of Europe the magazine or work-fhop of human kind : I fhould rather call it the magazine of those inftruments which broke in pieces the chains, which were forged in the South. There thofe heroic nations were formed, who iffued from their country, to destroy the tyrants and flaves of the earth, and to teach men that nature having made them equal, reafon could not make them dependent, but only for the fake of their own happiness *. * See L'Efprit de Loix, liv. XIV. and liv. XVII. LIBERTY LIBERTY and courage are the offspring of the northern, and luxury and learning of the fouthern nations. 10. But in the centre of the hallow'd choir, Six pompous columns o'er the rest aspire; THE fix perfons POPE thought proper to felect, as worthy to be placed on these pillars as the highest feats of honour, are HOMER, VIRGIL, PINDAR, HORACE, ARISTOTLE, TULLY. It is obfervable, that our author has omitted the great dramatic poets of Greece. Sophocles and Euripides deserved certainly an honourable niche in the Temple of FAME, in preference to Pindar and Horace. But the truth is, it was not fashionable in POPE'S * Ver. 178. Chaucer has mentioned Statius in this place, in a manner that fuits his character. Upon an iron pillar strong, That painted was all endilong, time, time, nor among his acquaintance, attentively to study these poets. By a ftrange fatality they have not in this kingdom, obtained the rank they deserve amongst claffic writers. We have numberlefs treatifes on Horace and Virgil, for inftance, who in their different kinds do not surpass the authors in question; whilst hardly a critic among us, has profeffedly pointed out their excellencies. Even real scholars think it sufficient to be acquainted and touched with the beauties of Homer, Hefiod, and Callimachus, without proceeding to enquire, What the lofty grave tragedians taught, In chorus or iambic, teachers best Of moral prudence, with delight receiv'd I own, I have fome particular reasons for thinking that our author was not very conversant, in this fort of compofition, having no inclination to the drama. In a note on the third book of his Homer, where Helen points out to Priam the names and characters of the • Paradife Regained, b. IV. ver. 264. Grecian Grecian leaders from the walls of Troy, he observes, that several great poets have been engaged by the beauty of this paffage, to an imitation of it. But who are the poets he enumerates on this occafion? Only Statius and Taffo; the former of whom in his feventh book, and the latter in his third, fhews the forces and the commanders that invested the cities, of Thebes, and Jerufalem. * Not a fyllable is mentioned of that capital scene in the Phæniffe of Euripides, from the hundred and twentieth, to the two hundredth line, where the old man ftanding with Antigone on the walls of Thebes, marks out to her the various figures, habits, armour, In the dedication to the mifcellanies he fo much ftudied and admired, he had read the following ftrange words of his mafter Dryden, addreffed to lord Radcliffe. "Though you have read the best authors in their own languages, and perfectly distinguish of their feveral merits, and in general prefer them to the Moderns, yet I know you judge FOR the English tragedies AGAINST the Greek and Latin, as well as against the French, Italian, and Spanish of thefe latter ages. Indeed there is a vast difference betwixt arguing like Perault in behalf of the French poets against Homer and Virgil, and betwixt giving the English poets their undoubted due of excelling Efchylus, Euripides, and Sophocles." Mifcell. III. part, Lond. 1693. and and qualifications of each different warriour, II. High on the firft the mighty Homer shone; Father of verfe! in holy fillets dreft, His filver beard wav'd gently o'er his breast; A STRIKING and venerable portrait! The divine old man is represented here with suitable * Among the reft, Euripides makes Antigone enquire, which among the warriors is her brother Polynices; this is one of those delicate and tender ftrokes of nature, for which this feeling tragedian is fo justly admired. When she discovers him the breaks out thus, Στροφη ί. Ανεμωκεος είθε δρομον νεφέλας Περι δ' ωλενας δερα φίλτατα Βαλλοιμι, χρόνω φυγαδα μελιον. She ftops a little, gazes earnestly upon him, and exclaims with admiration at the splendor of his arms: Ως όπλοισι κρυσεοισιν ευπρεπής, γερον, Εωαις όμοια φλεγέθων ↑ Ver. 187. Βολαις αελικ Ver. 166. dignity |