His radiant arms preferv'd from hoftile spoil, The mountain nymphs the rural tomb adorn'd, By the fame arm my sev'n brave brothers fell, 535 540 V. 528. His arms prefera'd from hoftile fpoil.] This circumstance of Aetion's being burned with his arms, will not appear trivial in this relation, when we reflect with what eager paffion these ancient heroes fought to spoil and carry off the armour of a vanquished enemy; and therefore this action of Achilles is mentioned as an inftance of uncommon favour and generofity. Thus Æneas in Virgil having flain Laufus, and being moved with compaffion for this unhappy youth, gives him a promise of the like favour. Arma, quibus lætatus, babe tua : teque parentum V. 532. Jove's fylvan daughters bade their elms beflow A barren fhade, &c.] It was the custom to plant about tombs only fuch trees as elms, alders, &c. that bear no fruit, as being most suitable to the dead. This paffage alludes to that piece of antiquity. When To bear the victor's hard commands, or bring Prefs'd with a load of monumental clay ! 585 599 595 The V. 583. Hyperia's spring.] Drawing water was the office of the meanest flaves. This appears by the holy fcripture, where the Gibeo nites who had deceiv'd Joshua are made flaves, and fubjected to draw water. Joshua pronounces the curfe against them in these words: Now therefore ye are curfed, and there shall none of you be freed from bring bondmen, and bewers of wood, and drawers of water. Joshua, 9. v. 23. Dacier. cb. V. 595. Stretch'd bis fond arms.] There never was a finer piece of painting than this. Hector extends his arms to embrace his child; the child affrighted at the glittering of his helmet and the shaking of the plume, fhrinks backward to the breaft of his nurfe; Hector unbraces his helmet, lays it on the ground, takes the infant in his arms, lifts him towards heaven, and offers a prayer for him to the Gods; then returns him to the mother Andromache, who receives him with a smile of pleasure, but at the fame inftant the fears for her husband make her burst into tears. All thefe are but fmall circumftances, but fo artfully chofen, that every reader immediately feels the force of them, and reprefents the whole in the utmost liveliness to his imagination. This alone might be a confutation of that The babe clung crying to his nurse's breast, Scar'd at the dazling helm, and nodding creft. And plac'd the beaming helmet on the ground. O thou, whofe glory fills th' æthereal throne, 600 605 Grant that falfe criticifm fome have fallen into, who affirm that a poet ought only to collect the great and noble particulars in his paintings. But it is in the images of things as in the characters of perfons; where a fmall action, or even a fmall circumftance of an action, lets us more into the knowledge and comprehenfion of them, than the material and principal parts themselves. As we find this in a history, fo we do in a picture, where femetimes a fmall motion or turn of a finger will exprefs the character and action of the figure more than all the other parts of the defign. Longinus indeed blames - an author's infifting too much on trivial circumstances; but in the fame place extols Homer as "the poet who beft knew how to make "ufe of important and beautiful circumftances, and to avoid the "mean and fuperfluous ones." There is a vaft difference betwixt a fmall circumftance and a trivial one, and the smallest become important if they are well chofen, and not confused. V. 604. Hector's prayer for bis fon.] It may be afk'd how Hector's prayer, that his fon might protect the Trojans, could be confiftent with what he had faid just before, that he certainly knew Troy and his parents would perifh. We ought to reflect that this is only a prayer: Hector in the excess of a tender emotion for his fon, intreats the Gods to preferve Troy, and permit Aftyanax to rule there. It is at all times allowable to befeech heaven to appeafe its anger, and change its decrees; and we are taught that prayers can alter deftiny. Dacier. Befides, it cannot be inferr'd from hence, that Hector had any divine foreknowledge of his own fate, and the approaching ruin of his country; fince in many following paffages we find him pof Grant him, like me, to purchase just renown, Whole hosts may hail him with deserv'd acclaim, 610 615 fefs'd with strong hopes and firm assurances to raise the ficge, by the fight or deftruction of the Greeks. So that these forebodings of his fate were only the apprehenfions and mifgivings of a foul dejected with forrow and compaffion, by confidering the great dangers to which he faw all that was dear to him expos'd. V. 613. Tranfcends bis father's fame.] The commendation Hertor here gives himself, is not only agreeable to the openness of a brave man, but very becoming on fuch a folemn occafion; and a natural effect from the teftimony of his own heart to his honour; at this time especially, when he knew not but he was speaking his laft words. Virgil has not scrupled it, in what he makes Æneas fay to Afcanius at his parting for the battel. Et pater Æneas & avunculus excitet Hector, Difce puer virtutem ex me, verumque laborem, Fortunam ex aliis. Æn. 12. I believe he had this of Homer in his eye, tho' the pathetical mention of Fortune in the laft line feems an imitation of that prayer of Sopbocas, copied alfo from hence, where Ajax wishes his fon may be like bim in all things but in bis misfortunes. V. 615. His mother's confcious heart.] Tho' the chief beauty of this prayer confifts in the paternal piety fhewn by Hector, yet it wants not a fine ftroke at the end, to continue him in the character of a tender lover of his wife, when he makes one of the motives of his with, to be the joy the fhall receive on hearing her fon applauded. He He fpoke, and fondly gazing on her charms, Andromache! my foul's far better part, 620 Why with untimely forrows heaves thy heart? 625 'Till fate condemns me to the filent tomb. Fix'd is the term to all the race of earth, 630 635 V. 628. Fix'd is the term.] The reason which Hector here urges to allay the affliction of his wife, is grounded on a very ancient and common opinion, that the fatal period of life is appointed to all men at the time of their birth; which, as, no precaution can avoid, fo no danger can haften. This fentiment is as proper to give comfort to the diftrefs'd, as to infpire courage to the desponding; fince nothing is fo fit to quiet and ftrengthen our minds in times of difficulty, as a firm affurance that our lives are expofed to no real hazards, in the greatest appearances of danger, Where |