being; thankful for, and pleased with my present state of existence, yet exulting in the hope of quitting it for endless glory and happiness. O! Sir, tell the unthinking mortals, who will not take the pains of inquiring into thofe truths which moft concern them, and who are led by fashion, and the pride of human reafon, into a contempt for the Sacred Oracles of God; tell them these amazing effects of the power of Christianity: tell them this truth which experience has taught me, that, " Though Vice is con“stantly attended by misery, Virtue itself cannot con"fer happiness in this world, except it is animated "with the hopes of eternal blifs in the world to -" come." I am, &c. FIDELIA." No. No. LXXX. Saturday, Auguft 11. 1753. Non defunt crafi quidam, qui fiudicfos ab hujufmodi libris deterreant, ceu poeticis, ut vocant, & ad morum integritatem officientibus. Ego vero dignos cenfeo quos et omnibus in ludis prælegant adolofcentiæ literatores, & fibi legant relegantque fenes. ERASMUS. There are not wanting perfons fo dull and infenfible, as to deter ftudents from reading books of this kind, which, they fay, are poctical, and pernicious to the purity of morals: but I am of opinion, that they are not only worthy to be read by the inftructors of youth in their schools, but that the old and experienced should again and again perufe them. GREATNESS, novelty, and beauty, are usually and juftly reckoned the three principal fources of the pleasures that strike the imagination. If the Iliad be allowed to abound in objects that may be referred to the first VOL. III. ...fpecies, Ꭰ MARILLAC COLLEGE LIBRARY 3987 fpecies, yet the Odyffey may boast a greater number of images that are beautiful and uncommon. The vast variety of fcenes perpetually shifting before us, the train of unexpected events, and the many fudden turns of fortune in this diverfified poem, muft more deeply engage the reader, and keep his attention more alive and active, than the martial uniformity of the Iliad. The continual glare of a fingle colour that unchangeably predominates throughout a whole piece, is apt to dazzle and disgust the eye of the beholder. I will not, indeed, presume to fay with Voltaire, that among the greatest admirers of antiquity, there is fcarce one to be found, who could ever read the Iliad with that eagernels and rapture which a woman feels when the perufes the novel of Zayde, but will however venture to affirm, that the fpeciofa miracula of the Odyffey are better calculated to excite our curiofity and wonder, and to allure us forward with unextinguished impa tience to the catastrophe, than the perpetual tumult and terror that reign through the Iliad. The boundless exuberance of his imagination, his unwearied spirit and fire, axάurg, has enabled Homer to diverfify the defcriptions of his battles with many circumstances of great variety: fometimes by Tpecifying the different characters, ages, profeffions, or nations of his dying heroes; fometimes by defcribing different kinds of wounds and deaths; and fometimes by tender and pathetic ftrokes, which remind the reader of the aged parent who is fondly expecting the return of his fon juft murdered, of the defolate condition of the widows who will now be enflaved, and of the children that will be dashed against the ftones. But notwithstanding this delicate art and address in the the poet, the fubject remains the fame; and from this famenefs, it will, I fear, grow tedious and infipid to impartial readers: thefe fmall modifications and adjuncts are not sufficiently efficacious to give the grace of novelty to repetition, and to make tautology de lightful the battles are indeed nobly and variously painted, yet fill they are only battles. But when we accompany Ulyffes through the manifold perils he underwent by fea and land, and visit with him the ftrange nations to which the anger of Neptune has driven him, all whofe manners and cuftoms are defcribed in the moft lively and picturefque terms; when we furvey the wondrous monsters he encountered and efcaped, Antiphaten, Scyltamque, & cum Cyclope Charibdin; Antiphates his hideous feaft devour, Charybdis bark, and Polyphemus roar; FRANCIS. when we fee him refufe the charms of Calypfo, and the cup of Circe; when we defcend with him into hell, and hear him converfe with all the glorious heroes. that affifted at the Trojan war; when, after ftruggling with ten thoufand difficulties unforeseen and almoft unfurmountable, he is at laft reftored to the peaceable poffeffion of his kingdom and his queen; when fuch objects as thefe are difplayed, fo'new and fo interesting; when all the defcriptions, incidents, fcenes, and perfons differ fo widely from each other, then it is that poetry becomes" a perpetual feaft of nectared sweets," and a feast of fuch an exalted nature, as to produce neither fatiety nor difguft. But befides its variety, the Ody ffey is the most amufing and entertaining of all other poems, on account of the pictures it preferves to us of ancient manners, cuftoms, laws, and politics, and of the domestic life of the heroic ages. The more any nation becomes polished, the more the genuine feelings of nature are difguifed, and their manners are confequently lefs adapted to bear a faithful description. Good-breeding is founded on the diffimulation or fuppreffion of such fentiments as may probably provoke or offend those with whom we converfe. The little forms and ceremonies which have been introduced into civil life by the moderns, are not fuited to the dignity and fimplicity of the Epic Mufe. The coronation feast of an European monarch would not fhine half fo much in poetry, as the fimple fupper prepared for Ulyffes at the Phæacian court; the gardens of Alcinous are much. fitter for defcription than those of Versailles; and Nauficaa, defcending to the river to wash her garments, and dancing afterwards upon the banks with her fellow virgins, like Diana amidst her nymphs, Γεια δ' αρίγνωτη πέλεται, καλαι δέ τε πασαι, Though all are fair, the fhines above the rest, is a far more graceful figure, than the most glittering lady in the drawing-room, with a complexion plaiftered to repair the vigils of cards, and a fhape violated by a ftiff brocade, and an immeafurable hoop. The compliment alfo which Ulyffes pays to this innocent unadorned beauty, efpecially when he compares her to a young palm-tree of Delos, contains more gallantry and |