128 On the Machhery of flic 



duct of men, when committed to the influence 

 of the same indignant and conflicting passions. 

 How truly vulgar is the abusive tongue of 

 Juno! How little superior to the impotent 

 rage and gross language of a Billingsgate fish- 

 woman ! ^ Nor less does ' Venus descend in 

 her replies from the character of the Queen of 

 Love^and Grade and Smiles. If they be beings 

 above the walk of men, they ought, even in 

 their passions and vices, to be clothed with a 

 dignity superior to human actors -, but even 

 human nature blushes for them. And are 

 such exhibitions fitted to exalt the imagination, 

 to stir one great and generous emotion of the 

 soul ? How pitiful is the blubbering of Mars, 

 when like a child, whose finger a pin had 

 scratched, he comes whimpering into the pre- 

 sence of his papa, Jupiter, and complains, that 

 the man Diomed had disgraced him in the 

 field, and shed his divine Ichor on the Phrygian 

 plain. The limping gait of Vulcan, and his 

 form and dress and manners adapted to his 

 profession, or the scurrilous wit and jests of 

 Momus, such as of a court fool in the palace of 

 a feudal monarch, present a buflfoonery, w^hich 

 would disgrace the banquet of men, but must - 

 sink the character of gods during their con- 

 vivial intercourse into absolute contempt. Are 

 such the images, which the epic muse can 



