dignity. In the Anthologia, is a description of a statue of Homer, which from its antiquity, and the minute enumeration of the features and attitudes of the figure, is curious and entertaining. Πατηρ δεμος, ισοθεος φως, Ιτατο θειος Όμηρος, εἴκτο μεν ανδρι νοησαι 12. The wars of Troy were round the pillar feen: Bold was the work, and prov'd the master's fire +. THE poems of Homer afford a marvellous variety of subjects proper for history and painting. A very ingenious French nobleman, the count de Caylus, has lately printed a valuable treatise, entituled," Tableaux tires de L'Iliade, et de L'Odyffe d'Homere,” in • Antholog. ad calcem Callimachi Edit. Lond. 1741. pag. 88 + Ver. 188. Vol. II. F which which he has exhibited the whole feries of events contained in these poems, arranged in their proper order; has defigned each piece, and difpofed each figure, with much taste and judgement. He feems juftly to wonder, that artifts have fo feldom had recourfe to this great storehouse of beautiful and noble images, fo proper for the employment of their pencils, and delivered with fo much force and distinctness, that the painter has nothing to do, but to fubftitute his colours for the words of Homer. He complains that a Raphael, and a Julio Romano fhould copy the crude and unnatural conceptions of Ovid's metamorphofes, and Apuleius's afs: and that some of their facred subjects were ill chofen. Among the few who borrowed their fubjects from Homer, he mentions Bouchardon with the honour he deferves; and relates the following anecdote. "This great artist having lately read Homer in an old and deteftable French tranflation, came one day to me, his eyes fparkling with fire, and faid, Depuis que j'ai lu ce livre, les hommes 'ont quinze pieds, & la Nature s'eft accrue pour moi.—” Since I have read this book, men feem to be fifteen feet high, and all nature is enlarged in my fight *." 13. A ftrong expreffion most he seem'd t'affect, And here and there difclos'd a brave Neglect. In the fublime, as in great affluence of fortune, fome minute articles will unavoidably efcape obfervation. But it is almont impoffible for a low and groveling Genius to be guilty of error, fince he never endangers himfelf by foaring on high, or aiming at eminence; but still goes on in the fame uniform, secure track, whilst its very height and grandeur expofes the fublime to fudden falls. " Ουδεν ητίον οιμαι τας μείζονας αρετας, ει και μη εν πασι διεμαλίζοιεν, την πρωτειο ψηφον μαλλον αει φερεσθαι, και ει μη δι ἑνος ετερς, της μεγαλοφροσυνης αυτής ένεκα This noble fentiment of Longinus, is a fufficient answer to an outrageous paradox lately Pag. 227. σε + Longinus, SecT. 33. Edit. Tollii, pag. 184. advanced by Voltaire, in direct contradiction to his former critical opinions; and which is here fet down, for the entertainment of the reader. "If we would weigh, without prejudice, the Odyssey of Homer with the Orlando of Ariofto, the Italian must gain the preference in all refpects. Both of them are chargeable with the fame fault, namely, an intemperance and luxuriance of imagination, and a romantic fondness of the marvellous, But Ariosto has compensated this fault by allegories fo true, by touches of fatire fo delicate, by fo profound a knowledge of the hu'man heart, by the graces of the comic, which perpetually fucceed the strokes of the terrible, in fhort, by fuch innumerable beauties of every kind, that he has found out the fecret of making an agreeable monfter *. Let every However M. de Voltaire might laugh at the quoting to him a father of the church, yet the following fenfible observa¬ tion on Homer, might be worth his confideration. Όμερος di μέσος και ύδατος, και πρώτος παντι παιδί, και ανδρι και γέροντι, τοσουτον αφ' αυλου διδες ὅσον εκαςος δυναται λαβειν. reader ask himself what he would think, if he should read for the first time, the Odyffey, and Taffo's poem, poem, without knowing the names of their authors, and the times when their works were compofed, and determine of them merely by the degree of pleasure they each of them excited; would he not give the entire preference to Taffo? Would he not find in the Italian more conduct and œconomy; more interesting circumftances; more variety and exactness; more graces and embellishments; and more of that softness which eases, relieves, and adds a luftre to, the fublime? I question whether they will even even bear a comparison a few ages hence*". 14. A golden column next in fight appear'd, On which a shrine of pureft gold is rear'd; Collection complette des Œuvres de Mr. de Voltaire. Tom, XIII. a Geneve, pag. 46. + Ver. 196. * IL |