43 



Then, pierced with anguish, and with deep despair. 

 And deeming hfe no longer worth her care. 

 Seeks his fell jaws, and lets the fate that slew 

 The hapless offspring, slay the parent too. 



The description of the war-horse is very noble. The poet is sup- 

 posed to have imitated Job, but I see no such resemblance as will 

 justify the supposition. No heathen poet has equalled the sublimity 

 of Job. The " neck clothed in thunder" is an image of unri- 

 valFed grandeur, nay") nNI^ uz-ia^nn This is but feebly ren- 

 dered by the Septuagint tviiu(r»i rgoc^ri\(u uvrs (po€oi>. Our transla. 

 tipn is much superior, since it preserves the image and the spirit 

 of the original. 



If the testimony of critics be deemed necessary for the confirma- 

 tion of the opinions expressed in this essay, of Oppian's merits as 

 a poet, it may be had in abundance. Almost every distinguished 

 critic and naturalist, since the publication of his poems, have been 

 among his admirers. The scholiasts of Homer, Theocritus, Nican- 

 der, and Lycophron, speak of him with esteem. Tzetzes para- 

 phrased his Halieutics in Greek, and Laurentius Lippus, an Ita- 

 lian, translated them into Latin. An elegant translation into Latin 

 hexameters was made by David Peifer, an illustrious Saxon, in the 

 sixteenth century, and lately published by Schneider. Erasmus, 

 Barthius, Melancthon, Faber, and Sir Thomas Brown, with Ges- 

 ner and Aldrovandus, have given him their meed of praise. But no 

 one of all his eulogists is more warm in his panegyric than J. C. 

 Scaliger. Language seems feeble in expressing his enthusiastic 

 admiration of a poet whom, of all the Greek writers, he considers 

 as the only one worthy to be placed by the side of Virgil. 



g2 



