428 
yw 
and animated. The fimile itfelf is a very 
happy one, and clofely imitative of the 
real fcene. 
The figure of a rock affailed by the 
waves, has furnifhed Homer with a no- 
ble and expreffive image of patlive va- 
lour : 
As on the heary main a folid rock, 
Abrupt and huge, abidesthe furious blaft 
Cf wh filing winds, and all the {welling waves 
‘Phat burft upon its fides; thus firmly fix’d, 
The Greeks, undaunted, wait the coming foe. 
y IL. xv. 618. 
VirGit has copied this defcription, 
with improvements ; and has applied 
the fimile to a different kind of fortitude, 
that of king Larinus refifting the 
“ avium ardor pravasucentium,’ a popular 
clamour urging him to what he difap- 
proved : 
He, velut pelagi rupes immota, refiftit ; 
Ut pelagi rupes, magno veniente fragore 
Quz fefe, multis circum latrantibus undis, 
Mole tenet; fcopuli necquicquam & {pumea 
circum 
Saxa fremunt, laterique illifa refunditur alga. 
. ZEN. vil. 586. 
But like a rock unmov’d, a rock that braves 
The raging tempeft and the rifing waves, 
Prop’d on himfelf he ftands ;_his folid fides 
Wath off the fea-weeds, and the founding tides : 
So ftood the pious prince, unmov’d. DryDEn. 
The crafh of the fea, the barking 
waves, the foamy rocks, and the da/hed 
fea-weed, are circumftances finely feleét- 
ed by the Latin poet, and but inade- 
quately rendered by the tranflator ; who, 
however, has done juftice to the expref- 
fion, fefe mole tenet, “ Prop’d on himfelf 
he/ftands.””’ 
The fame fimile is applied by Vir- 
GtL to Mezentius, when afiailed by a 
hoft of enemies (ALN. x. 693) but as the 
de{cription is given in more general lan- 
guage, and without any mew circum- 
ftances, J fhall not tranfcribe it. 
We have as yet had nothing in thefe 
poetical fea-pieces but what nature her- 
felf has given to vary and adorn them. 
In the paffages which follow, maz and 
human art have a fhare, and add life 
and intereft to the fcene. 
‘There is no part in Homer laboured 
with more fublimity, than where Hector, 
infpired by Jupiter, leads the attack on 
the-Grecian fhips. In:a crowd of noble 
images and fimiles, the following ap- 
pears with diftinguifhed luftre : 
He ruth’d upon them, as the furious wave, 
Swoln by the cloud-borne tempeit, falls amain 
On fome fwift fhip, and hides it all in foam : 
Amid the fhrouds the roaring blaits refound ; 
And the poor failors view, with trembling 
hearts, 
The neat approach ef death, TL, xv, 624, 
Simsles of Homer, Ge: 
- he could not im 
{ June, 
This is a fine example of a pidture 
boldly fketched by a few well-chofen 
ftrokes; the effect of which is more: 
powerful than that of a more highly- 
finifhed piece, gn which the attention is 
divided by a number of ftudied parts.— 
The application, asa fimile, is not clofe, 
indeed, but fufficiently apt for the pur- 
pofe. 
The joy of the Trojan army, at the 
return of Heétor from his vifit to the 
city, together with Paris, is exprefled 
by an image from a fimilar fource. 
As when from Jove a fav’ring gale defcends 
To longing tailors, who, with polifh’d oars, 
Long time have {wept the main, till fpent with 
toil 
Their limbs are flacken’d: thus the pair 2p- 
pear’d ahi 
To withing Trojans. TL. vii. 47 
It may feem extraordinary, that Mix- 
TON has not yet been introduced, as mak- 
ing ule of a ftore of imagery, apparentl > 
fo well fuited to his genius. But where 
ove, he fcorned to bor- 
row ; and HoMER and VIRGIL had anti- 
cipated him in ali \he moft firiking phe- 
nomena relative to the fea, afforded by 
nature. The improvements of art, how- 
ever, greater, perhaps, in maritime af- 
fairs, than in any other department, af- 
forded him a fource of novelty, which 
he has not negleéted. Thus, Satan fy- 
ing through hell, upon his exploratory 
voyage, fuggefts the following compa- 
rifon : a3 
As when far off at feaa fleet defcry’d, 
Hangs in the clouds, by equinoctial winds 
Clofe failing from Bengala, or the ifles 
Of Ternate or Tidore, whence merchants bring 
Their fpicy drugs; they on the trading flood, 
Through the wide Ethiopian to the Cape 
Ply ftemming nightly t?ward the pole: fo 
feem’d 
Far off the flying fiend. Par. L. i: 636. 
This fimile is purely of the ornamental 
kind, for it has too little affinity with 
the fubject of comparifon to enforce er 
illuftrate it. Nay, the ideas it excites 
are rather of an oppofite nature, and 
too gay and pleafing to correfpend well 
with the gloomy being and his dark pur- 
pofe, which the poet is then defcribing. 
However, the intrinfic merit of the pic- 
ture may apologize for fucha defect... 
In another paflage of the fame poet, 
where failing is alfo introduced in @ 
fimile, it js entirely a foreign and orna- 
mental part of the piece, and has ne 
counterpart in the narration: 
As when to them who fail 
Beyond the Cape of Hope, and now are paft 
Mozambic, off at fea north-eaft winds blow 
Sabean odours from the {picy fhore : 
Or Araby the ble&; with fuch. delay 

Weil 
