Both armies ftart, and trembling gaze around; Pregnant with plagues, and fhedding feeds of death, Choak the parch'd earth, and blacken all the skies; Can Jove, fupine, flagitious facts furvey, And brook the furies of this daring day? For mortal men celestial pow'rs engage, 1060 1065 1070 with those who are flaves to common opinion, to overlook or praife the fame things in one, that they blame in another. They think to depreciate Homer in extolling the judgment of Virgil, who never showed it more than when he followed him in thefe boldnesses. And indeed they who would take boldness from poetry, must leave dulnefs in the room of it. V. 1058. As vapours blown, &c.] Mars after a fharp engagement, amidst the rout of the Trojans, wrapt in a whirlwind of duft, which was raised by fo many thoufand combatants, flies towards Olympus. Homer compares him in this eftate, to thofe black clouds which during a scorching fouthern wind in the dog-days, are fometimes born towards Heaven; for the wind, at that time gathering the duft together, forms a dark cloud of it. The heat of the fight, the precipitation of the Trojans, together with the clouds of duft that flew above the army, and took Mars from the fight of his enemy, supplied Homer with this noble image. Dacier. From From thee, O father! all these ills we bear, And thy fell daughter with the fhield and fpear: Pernicious, wild, regardless of the right. 1075 All heav'n befide reveres thy fov'reign sway, Well may we deem the wond'rous birth thy own. 1080 Against th' Immortals lifts his raging hand: The heav'nly Venus first his fury found, Me next encount'ring, me he dar'd to wound; 1085 Vanquish'd I fled: Ev'n I the God of fight, V. 1074. Thou gav'ft that fury to the realms of light, Pernicious, wild, &c.] It is very artful in Homer, to make Mars accufe Minerva of all thofe faults and enormities he was himself fo eminently guilty of. Thofe people who are the most unjust and violent, accufe others, even the best, of the fame crimes: Every irrational man is a diftorted rule, tries every thing by that wrong measure, and forms his judgment accordingly. Euftathius. V. 1091. Condemn'd to pain, tho' fated not to die.] Thofe are miftaken who imagine our author reprefents his Gods as mortal. He Him thus upbraiding, with a wrathful look 1095 Of all the Gods who tread the fpangled skies, Thou most unjust, moft odious in our eyes! The wafte of flaughter, and the rage of fight. He only reprefents the inferior or corporeal Deities as capable of pains and punishments, during the will of Jupiter, which is not inconfiftent with true theology. If Mars is faid in Dine's fpeech to Venus to have been near perifhing by Ots and Ephialtes, it means no more than lafting mifery, fuch as Jupiter threatens him with when he fpeaks of precipitating him into Tartarus. Homer takes care to tell us both of this God and of Pluto, when Paon cured them, that they were not mortal. Οὐ μὲν γάρ τι καλαθνητὸς γ ̓ ἐτέτυκτο. V. 1096. Of all the Gods- Thou most unjust, most odious, &c.] Jupiter's reprimand of Mars is worthy the juftice and goodness of the great Governor of the world, and feems to be no more than was neceffary in this place. Homer here admirably diftinguishes between Minerva and Mars, that is to fay, between Wisdom and ungoverned Fury; the former is produced from Jupiter without a mother, to fhow that it proceeds from God alone; (and Homer's alluding to that fable in the preceding fpeech shows that he was not unacquainted with this opinion.) The latter is born of Jupiter and Juno, because, as Plato explains it, whatever is created by the miniftry of fecond caufes, and the concurrence of matter, partakes of that original fpirit of divifion which reigned in the chaos, and is of a corrupt and rebellious nature. The reader will find this allegory pursued with great beauty in these two speeches; especially where Jupiter concludes with faying he will not deftroy Mars, because he comes from himfelf; God will not annihilate Paffion, which he created to be of ufe to Reafon: "Wisdom (fays Euftathius upon this place) has occafion "for paffion, in the fame manner as Princes have need of guards. "Therefore reafon and wisdom correct and keep paffion in fubjec"tion, but do not intirely deftroy and ruin it." No No bound, no law thy fiery temper quells, In vain our threats, in vain our pow'r we use; Yet long th' inflicted pangs thou shalt not mourn, Sprung fince thou art from Jove, and heav'nly born. 1105 Thus he who shakes Olympus with his nod; V. 1101. And all thy mother in thy foul rebels, &c.] Jupiter says of Juno, that he has a temper which is infupportable, and knows not bow to fubmit, tho' be is perpetually cbaftifing her with his reproofs. Homer fays no more than this, but M. Dacier adds, Si je ne la retenois par la feverité des mes loix, il n'eft rien qu'elle ne bouleverfaft dans l'Olympe & fous l'Olympe. Upon which he makes a remark to this effect, That if it were not for the laws of providence, the whole world "would be nothing but confufion." This practice of refining and adding to Homer's thought in the text, and then applauding the author for it in the notes, is pretty ufual with the more florid modern tranflators. In the third Iliad, in Helen's fpeech to Priam, v. 175. the wishes fhe had rather dy'd than followed Paris to Troy. To this is added in the French, Mais je n'eus ni affez de courage ni affez de vertu, for which there is not the leaft hint in Homer. I mention this particular inftance in pure juftice, because in the treatife de la corruption du gout exam. de Liv. 3. the triumphs over M. de la Motte, as if he had omitted the fenfe and moral of Homer in that place, when in.truth he only left out her own interpolation. As As when the fig's preft juice, infus'd in cream, Such, and fo foon, th' ætherial texture join'd. 1115 Cleans'd from the duft and gore, fair Hebè dreft His mighty limbs in an immortal vest. Glorious he fate, in majesty restor'd, Fast by the throne of heav'n's fuperior Lord. Their task perform'd, and mix among the Gods. 1120 V 1112. As when the fig's preft juice, &c.] The fudden operation of the remedy adminiftred by Paon, is wel! expreffed by this fimilitude. It is neceffary juft to take notice, that they anciently made ufe of the juice or fap of a fig for runnet, to caufe their milk to coagulate. It may not be amifs to obferve, that Homer is not very delicate in the choice of his allufions. He often borrowed his fimiles from low life, and provided they illustrated his thoughts in a just and lively manner, it was all he had regard to. The allegory of this whole book lies fo open, is carried on with fuch clofenefs, and wound up with fo much fullness and ftrength, that it is a wonder how it could enter into the imagination of any critick, that these actions of Diomed were only a daring and extravagant fiction in Homer, as if he affected the marvellous at any rate. The great moral of it is, that a brave man should not contend against Heaven, but refift only Venus and Mars, Incontinence and ungoverned Fury. Diomed is propofed as an example of a great and enterprizing nature, which would perpetually be venturing too far, and committing extravagancies or impieties, did it not fuffer itself to be checked and guided by Minerva or Prudence: For it is this Wifdom (as we are told in the very first lines of the book) that raises a Hero above all others. Nothing is more obfervable than the particular care Homer has taken to fhew he defigned this moral. He never omits any occafion throughout the book, to put it in exprefs terms into the mouths of the Gods, or perfons of the greatest weight. Minerva, at the beginning of the battel, is made to give this precept to |