78 TABLEAU de la PLAINE de TROTE. 



rivers : and fuch Homer himfelf defcribes, Iliad, VII. 459, &c. 

 Xn. 13—33. 



The transference of Rhoeteum to Cape Berbier is an error not 

 peculiar to Wood : but the Grecian camp derives from thence 

 an extent v^hich again does not accoi'd with Homer's defcrip- 

 tion. The poet is not indeed to be a geographer ; but he muft 

 not feign any thing which contradidls the firft glance at nature, 

 or clafhes with the known accounts of the topography of the 

 country. The epic poet muft reprefent nature as certain leading 

 circumftances require. The main circumilance here is the ge- 

 neral chart of the face of the country, and an eftablifhment of 

 certain principal fpots. As to the reft of the fcene, fancy muft 

 have full play in fuggefting its greatnefs and extent. The epic 

 poet's chief engine is the marvellous. By an accurate determina- 

 tion of every particular, the illufion would quickly vanifli. Much 

 muft appear only in great mafles. Some things muft be and muft 

 remain in obfcurity, that the fancy of the hearers or readers may 

 have room to work, to form to itfelf an idea of greatnefs and 

 power. Homer therefore does not give an accurate determination 

 of the Grecian camp, or of the field of battle. Here the fancy of 

 the reader has room to operate, as that of the poet himfelf has been 

 tngaged in working up every thing into the great and wonder- 

 ful. Every thing appears to him many degrees higher than it 

 is in real nature. Muft he not raife the reader to the fame 

 pitch ? " I fee gods arifing" is the language of the poet ; and 

 when he is read as a poet ought to be, it will be the language 

 of the reader alfo. If we are at any time to figure to ourfelves 

 the Scamander as a tremendous torrent, which, as a god, fights 

 with Achilles, and threatens to bury him in its waves, Ho- 

 mer muft not inform us how diminutive its real fize is. He 

 muft leave us, by alToriation with the greatnefs of the efFe(5l, to 

 give it all the bulk our fancy can grafp. He in no place gives 

 the exa(5l dimenfions of the town and fortrefs of Troy. This is 



quite 



