118 
Of whiftling winds 5 as yet to neither fide 
The billows roll, till from above defcends 
The leading gale : fo wavering doubts divide 
The fenior’s foul. al bea" ch As Lon 
The fiate of the fea here defcribed, is 
not properly a calm, but a fwell without 
wind, wlually reckoned the forerunner 
of a-ftorm. Pope is here again.unfortu- 
nate in his firft line: 
As when old Ocean’s filent furface fleeps ; 
For how his confiftent with any mo- 
tion at all? and yet ,it is upon motion, 
that the application of the fimike de- 
pends. 
A ftate of the mind fomewhat fimilar 
to the preceding, but differing in this, 
that the irrefolution proceeds from the 
firong aétion of two oppofite impulfes, 
is reprefented by a new image, drawn 
from the fame fource : 
As when two winds the fifhy main -affail, 
Boreas and Zephyr, rufhing fudden down 
From Thracian hills; in heaps the black 
waves rife, 
And hurl the fea-wrack from the-briny deep: 
So varying doubt diftraéts the Grecian breafts. 
| Tt. 0x. Ay 
This doubt, according to the com- 
mentators, was whether they fhould flay 
or return; andtherefore, very well cor- 
refponds to the aftion of the. two oppo- 
fite winds. J am lefs fatisfied, however, 
with the Propriety of defcription in this, 
and various other paffages of Homer, 
el ‘his ores where cifferent and 
cppofite-winds are made to blow at the 
ue hime Wiiat “mya ieayiice | that 
with which Homer was converiant, nar- 
row, bounded by mountains,-and inter- 
{perte 1 with iflands, fudden cutis thould 
_arife from various quarters, and occa- 
fionally. meet, and contend with” each 
“other, is hi: ahly prob able; but a fteady 
and durable oppoiition of winds on the 
fame {por, is, I think, a phenomenon 
{carcely conformable to nature. ‘The 
artificial brewing of a tempeft, by fet- 
ting the four winds ie B ufle with each 
other, though an expecient practiled by 
fome poets of high ae is furely 
ridiculous and extravagant. ‘This re- 
mark might have been applied to fome 
of the former quotations, under the head 
of ficorm and tempeft. 
The found of the waves, and the wio- 
lence of their affault, are circumfances 
added to their mobility and frequexcy, in 
the fubfequent pafflages. The peculiar 
excellence, of the Greck~ language, in 
exprefling adfion by words which are 
an echo to the fenfe, fhould be remark-~ 
ed, before an idea of fome of Homer’s 
Similes of Homer, V irgil, and Milton. 
[Feb. 
fineft lines is attempt ed to be given by 
an inadequate tranflation. 
When the Grecian army is called 
back to the affembly, after being difmiff- 
ed by eevee as their return is 
thus defcribed: * 
Once more affembling from the fhips and tents, 
With fhouts they rufh to council; like the roar 
OF echoing Ocean, when its iwel ling waves 
Dain on th’ extended (hore, and boils the maift. 
IL. ii. 207. 
The advance of the Greeks to the firft 
ya gives occafion to the following 
fimile 
As on the founding fhore ite ocean waves 
Beat frequent, gently urg’d by Zephyrs 
breath ; 
Firft on the ain they rife, then ich rol!’d, 
Burit thundiring on the beach, and felling 
high 
Around the meet points in ridges heave, 
And dafh the briny Fouine : thus clofely throng’d, 
The Pan {quadrons ceatelefs mov’d to war. 
It. iv. 422. 
Thi isis a very exact picture, not of a 
é growing frorm, as Pope underftands 
it, but of a gentle breeze, raifing waves 
in the fea, which gather as they roll on- 
wards, and at length break with vio- 
lence on the fhore. Its applicatiom to 
bodies of me en, at firft advancing lei- 
furely and at intervals, them clofing and 
quickening ¢ their march, as they ap- 
proach the enemy, and at. lait burfting 
upon the foe, with a furious thock, is 
periectly happy, and. requires no. eltici- 
dation to thefe who haye been {pe€tators 
of the natural fcene. 
Virgil has cletely imitated this fea. 
and has clothed it in all its beauty and 
energy of ciction ; but his application of 
it is much lefs exaét than that of the 
Greck poct, fince the force and wioknce 
of the breaking wave is the only eircum- 
fiance’ paralleled by the real objet. He 
1s detcribing the vanquithed fnully after 
having recruited his ftrength in retire- 
ment, returning ona fudden. to the at-: 
tack of his unexpecting rival : 
Pott, ubi colle@tum rebur, virefque refecte, 
Signa movet, precep'que obhitum fe:tur in 
hettem. 
Flutus uti, medio czpit cum albcfeere ponto, 
Longlius ex altoque finum trahit ; utque yolutus 
4 terras, immane fonat per faxa, neque ipfo 
Monte minor procumbit : at'ma BP Se unda 
Vorticibus, nigramque alte fubjear are nam. 
GFEORG. ill. 235. 
Now when his nerves with new-felt fury gluw, 
Headlong he feeks his unexpedcti:.g 
As when anfing bulow by degrees 
Begins to boil amid the whit’ning feas ; 
Loud o’er the rocks then rolls with horridroar, 
And mountain-like burfts on the fubje@ fhores. 
The 
foe: 
