?53 MEMOIRS OF 



mony of numbers. In a few ftriking paf- 

 fages Cowper may be the nobler, but his 

 mufe is for ever vifibly and awkwardly 

 ftruggling for literality, where he fliould 

 have remembered the painter's adage, " It 

 " is better to fin againft truth than 

 * ( beauty," fo long as the fenfe is not per- 

 verted, and nature is not outraged by in- 

 appropriate epithets, which muft always 

 injure the diftinftnefs of imagery and 

 landfcape. 



If, in the preceding inftance, Cowper's 

 moon-light is chafter than Pope's, fee how 

 much more grandly the rhyme tranflation, 

 gives the remaining lines of that clofing 

 paffage. 



So numerous feemM thofe fires, the bank between 

 Of Zanthus, blazing, and the fleet of Greece, 

 la profpecl all of Troy; a thoufand fires 

 Each watch'd by fifty warriors, feated near. 

 The ileeds befide the chariot Hood, their corn 

 Chewing, and waiting till the golden-thron'4 

 Aurora ihould reftore the light of day. 



COWPER'S HOMER, Firfl Edition, 



Nothing 



