140 LITERARY TASTE. 



Homer in his fifth Iliad, in representing Di«- 

 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 — 



Qualis ubi oceani perfu us Lucifer unda, 

 Quern Venus ante alios astrorum diligit ig-nes. 

 Extulit OS sacrum caelo tenebrasque resoivit. 



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, under 

 the dominion of good taste. Those faults which 

 result from undisciplined genius, are however 

 more tolerable thao those which spring from steri- 



