97-1] —s«Similes of Hamer, Virgil, and Milton. 114 
caufe of their poverty, and execrate him 
as the author of it. 
Mr. Editor, in my next epiftle, I thall 
offer you fome hints, with refpeét to the 
mode in which I think the poor and 
the helplefs ought to be treated. I fhall 
not attempt, however, to follow the mi- 
nifter in his exalted flights of benevo- 
lence ; to annihilate poverty, by diftri- 
buting tothe poor the property of the 
rich. I think it poflible, by cherifhing a 
{pirit of independence, to make a man 
afhamed of depending on the bounty of 
another ; by inculcating habits of pru- 
dence and eeconomy, to make it unne- 
eeffary, that he fhould be fo, and that 
thofe who really cannot fupport them- 
felves individually, may be enabled to 
fupport each other, by being diftributed 
into proper communities. 
_ London, Feb. 6, 1797- Av 

For the Monthly Magazine. 
SIMILES OF Homer, VIRGIL, AND 
MILTON (CONTINUED). 
THE SEA, SHIPS SAILING, &c. 
Ah MONG the fublime objeéts of na- 
ture, none is more ftriking than that 
vat expanfe of water which forms the 
fea; and which, from the variety of 
appearances that it is capable of affum- 
ing, affords a fertile ftore of images to 
the poetical obferver. The greater part 
of thefe are of the grand and terrific 
kind, and Homer, whofe genius, and 
fubjeét led him to the peculiar contem- 
plation of fuch fcenes in nature, has 
drawn copioufly from this fource. He 
feems frequently, like his aged Chryfes, 
to have walked mufing on the fhore of 
the refounding maia, attentive to all its 
changes, and fixing their feveral forms. 
upon his imagination, for the various 
purpofes of defcription and comparifon. 
dt is juftly remarked by Pope, in a note 
on one of thefe paflages, that, in order 
properly to judge of the beauty of fuch 
refemblances, it is neceffary for the rea- 
der to have been an obferver of the 
things themfelves. How far he himfelf 
was thus qualified, may occafionally be 
confidered hereafter; but the remark is 
certainly true; and in proportion as 
any one is able to compare Homer’s de- 
fcriptions with nature itfelf, as well in 
the fimiles derived from this fource, as. 
in all the others, he will the better un- 
derftand their application, and recognize 
their accuracy. 
inthe fimiles which I fhall. Grf& ad- 
duce, the principal circumftances which 
the fea-pieces are brought to illuftrate, 
are motion and number. 
When Agamemnon, in a fpeech to 
the aflembled Greeks, makes a feigned 
propofal for their return; its effect on 
the populace is thus deferibed : 
So moved th’ affembly, as the length’ning 
waves tet 
Roll on th? Icarian:fea, before the breath 
Of Eurus and of Netus, rufhin ‘down 
From clouds of father Jove. It.ii. 144. 
The armies of Greece and Troy, feat 
ed apart on the plain, in filence, in or- 
der to hear Heétor’s challenge to fingle 
fight, give rife to the following compa- 
rifon : an 
As when the weft wind frefhens, o’er the 
main 
A fhivering horror runs, that blackens round 
The face of Ocean; fo the ranks appear’d 
Of Greeks and Trojans, feated on the plata. 
' IL. viti63. 
The armies feated in ranks, and dr7/f- 
ling, as Homer fays, with helmets, fpears, 
and fhields, which, from the impatience 
natural to the occafion, would exhibit a 
gentle quivering motion, afford a very 
jaft refemblance to the fea, juft curled 
and roughened by a light breeze. But 
that the refemblance farther exten ds.as 
Pope fuppofes, to ‘‘the repofe and awe 
which enfued, when Heétor began to 
{peak,’’ I cannot perceive. There ap- 
pears, therefore, to me, an unhappy in- 
confiftency with the reft of the picture, 
in thofe lines of his tranflation, 
—— the face of Ocean fleeps, 
And a ftill horror faddens al! the deeps. 
The word ‘“ horror,” if meant to 
correfpond with the original Opie, muft 
be underftood in its. proper fignifi- 
cation of /bivering, or trembling, with 
which the epithet “ftill”’ is manifeftly 
incompatible. ‘Che darkuefi, too,- which 
Pope confiders as a leading circumftance, 
is occafioned by the motion, not the repofe, 
of the water. 
Several comparifons have already come 
before us, by which a flu€tuating and 
irrefolute ftate of mind has been repre- 
fented, but in none, perhaps, the image 
is more happily adapted to the fubjeét, 
than in the following, which is intro- 
duced where Neftor is alarmed by the 
view of the extreme danger which urged 
the Greeks, and knows not what coun- 
fel to-give : 
As when the fea in blind commotion heaves 
Kis blackening waves, a prelude of the rage 
Q 2 OF 

SS 
= 
ae 
Sie ae 






