140 LITERARY TASTE. 



Homer in his fifth Iliad, in representing Dio- 

 mede under the influence of Pallas, says, 



Fires on his helmet, and his shield around 

 She kindled bright and steady as the star 

 Autumnal, which in ocean newly bath'd 

 Assumes fresh beauty. 



The same allusion also occurs in Horace — - 



Merses profundo, pulchrior eve nit> 



Virgil in his 8th Eneid, says — 



Qtialis ubi oceani perfu us Lucifer unda, 

 Quern Venus ante alios astrorum diligit ignes. 

 E&tulit OS sacrum caelo tenebrasque resolvit. 



Lastly comes Milton, who thus exclaims in his 

 Lycidas :— 



So sinks the day star in the ocean bed, 



And yet anon repairs his drooping head, 



And tricks his beams, and with new-spangled ore 



Flames in the forehead of the morning sky. 



if these extracts shall be considered as fair spe- 

 cimens by which to compare poetic merit, in what 

 an illustrious light does Milton appear ? 



A poet as well as an orator, in order to be truly 

 great, ought to have a fertile imagination, undep 

 the dominion of good taste. Those faults which 

 result from undisciplined genius, are however 

 more tolerable than those whieh spring from steri- 



