own life, that Macer, Horace, Tibullus, Propertius, and many others of them, were his familiar friends, and that some of them communicated their writings to him; but that he had only seen Virgil.

If the imitation of nature be the business of a Poet, I know no author, who can justly be compared with ours, especially in the defcription of the paffions. And, to prove this, I fhall need no other judges than the generality of his readers; for all paffions being inborn with us, we are almoft equally judges, when we are concerned in the representation of them. Now I will appeal to any man, who has read this Poet, whether he finds not the natural emotion of the fame paffion in himself, which the Poet defcribes in his feigned perfons? His thoughts, which are the pictures and refults of those paffions, are generally fuch as naturally arise from those disorderly motions of our fpirits. Yet, not to speak too partially in his behalf, I will confefs, that the copiousness of his wit was such, that he often writ too pointedly for his fubject, and made his perfons speak more eloquently than the violence of their paffion would admit; fo that he is frequently witty out of feafon; leaving the imitation of nature, and the cooler dictates of his judgment, for the falfe applause of fancy. Yet he feems to have found out this imperfection in his riper age: for why elfe fhould he complain, that his Metamorphofes was left unfinished? Nothing fure can be added to the wit of that Poem, or of the reft: but many things ought to have been retrenched; which I suppose would have been the business of his

if his misfortunes had not come too faft upon age, him. But take him uncorrected, as he is tranfmitted to us, and it must be acknowledged, in fpite of his Dutch friends, the commentators, even of Julius Scaliger himself, that Seneca's cenfure will stand good against him;

Nefcivit quod bene ceffit relinquere ;

he never knew how to give over, when he had done well, but continually varying the fame fenfe an hundred ways, and taking up in another place, what he had more than enough inculcated before, he fometimes cloys his readers instead of fatisfying them; and gives occafion to his tranflators, who dare not cover him, to blush at the nakedness of their father. This then is the allay of Ovid's writings, which is fufficiently recompenfed by his other excellencies: nay, this very fault is not without its beauties; for the most severe cenfor cannot but be pleafed with the prodigality of his wit, though at the fame time he could have wifhed that the mafter of it had been a better manager. Every thing which he does becomes him; and, if fometimes he appears too gay, yet there is a fecret gracefulness of youth, which accompanies his writings, though the staidness and fobriety of age be wanting. In the most material part, which is the conduct, it is certain that he seldom has miscarried; for if his Elegies be compared with those of Tibullus and Propertius, his contemporaries, it will be found, that those poets feldom defigned before they writ;

and though the language of Tibullus be more polifhed, and the learning of Propertius, especially in his fourth book, more fet out to oftentation; yet their common practice was to look no further before them than the next line; whence it will inevitably follow, that they can drive to no certain point, but ramble from one fubject to another, and conclude with fomewhat, which is not of a piece with their beginning:

Purpureus, latè qui splendeat, unus & alter
Affuitur pannus,

as Horace fays: though the verses are golden, they
are but patched into the garment. But our Poet
has always the goal in his eye, which directs him in
his race fome beautiful defign, which he first esta-
blishes, and then contrives the means, which will na-
turally conduct him to his end. This will be evi-
dent to judicious readers in his Epiftles, of which
somewhat, at least in general, will be expected.
The title of them in our late editions is Epiftolæ
Heroidum, the Letters of the Heroines. But Hein-
fius has judged more truly, that the infcription of
our author was barely, Epiftles; which he concludes
from his cited verses, where Ovid afferts this work as
his own invention, and not borrowed from the Greeks,
whom (as the masters of their learning) the Romans
ufually did imitate. But it appears not from their
writings, that any of the Grecians ever touched upon
this way, which our Poet therefore juftly has vindi-
cated to himself. I quarrel not at the word He-

roidum, because it is used by Ovid in his Art of Love :

Jupiter ad veteres fupplex Heroidas ibat.

But, fure, he could not be guilty of fuch an overfight, to call his work by the name of Heroines, when there are divers men, or heroes, as, namely, Paris, Leander, and Acontius, joined in it. Except Sabinus, who writ fome anfwers to Ovid's Letters,

(Quam celer è toto rediit meus orbe Sabinus)

I remember not any of the Romans, who have treated on this fubject, fave only Propertius, and that but once, in his Epiftle of Arethufa to Lycotas, which is written fo near the style of Ovid, that it seems to be but an imitation; and therefore ought not to defraud our Poet of the glory of his invention.

Concerning the Epiftles, I fhall content myself to obferve these few particulars: first, that they are generally granted to be the most perfect pieces of Ovid, and that the style of them is tenderly paffionate and courtly; two properties well agreeing with the perfons, which were heroines and lovers. Yet, where the characters were lower, as in Enone and Hero, he has kept close to nature, in drawing his images after a country life, though, perhaps, he has romanized his Grecian dames too much, and made them fpeak, fometimes, as if they had been born in the city of Rome, and under the empire of Auguftus. There feems to be no great variety in the particular

fubjects which he has chosen; most of the Epiftles being written from ladies, who were forfaken by their lovers: which is the reason that many of the fame thoughts come back upon us in divers letters; but of the general character of women, which is modefty, he has taken a moft becoming care; for his amorous expreffions go no further than virtue may allow, and therefore may be read, as he intended them, by matrons without a blush.

Thus much concerning the Poet: it remains that I should say somewhat of poetical translations in general, and give my opinion (with fubmiffion to better judgments) which way of verfion feems to be the moft proper.

All translation, I fuppofe, may be reduced to these three heads:

Firft, that of Metaphrafe, or turning an author word by word, and line by line, from one language into another. Thus, or near this manner, was Horace his Art of Poetry tranflated by Ben Jonfon. The fecond way is that of Paraphrafe, or translation with latitude, where the author is kept in view by the tranflator, fo as never to be loft, but his words are not fo ftrictly followed as his fenfe; and that too is admitted to be amplified, but not altered. Such is Mr. Waller's tranflation of Virgil's Fourth Æneid. The third way is that of imitation, where the translator (if now he has not loft that name) affumes the liberty, not only to vary from the words and fenfe, but to forfake them both as he fees occafion; and taking only fome general hints from the original, to