1796. | 
Achilles, in all his terrors, purfuing the 
Trojans : 
Glitt’ring he fcour’d the plain: as that bright 
ftar, 
Orion’s dog by name, in autumn fhines 
Thro’ the dark night, and fhoots his vivid rays, 
Refulgent ’mid the numerous ftars of heay’n. 
Brighteft he fhines, but baleful is his fway, 
To wretched mortals bearing hot difeafe. 
IL. xxil. 26. 
Virgil, in his application of the fame 
fimile to Afneas, greatly heightens the 
poetical expreffion ; at tae fame time, the 
effect is fomewhat injured by dividing the 
-attention between two objects of fimili- 
tude, a comet, and the dog-ftar : 
Ardet apex capiti, criftif{que ac vertice flamma 
Funditur, & vaitos umbo vomit aureus ignes. 
Non fecus ac liquida fi quando nogéte cometz 
Sanguinei Jugubre rubent; aut Sirius ardor ; 
Ille fitim morbofque ferens mortalibus zgris 
Nafcitur, & !evo contriftat lumine ccelum. 
fEN..X. 278. 
The Latians faw from far, with dazzled eyes, 
The radiant creft that feem’d in flames to rife, 
Aad dart diffufive fires around the field ; 
And the keen glittering of the golden fhield. 
Thus threatening comets, when by night they 
Lraties 
Shoot fanguine ftreams, and fadden all the fkies : 
So Sirius, flathing forth finifter lights, 
Pale human kind with plagues, and with dry 
famine frights. 
DryDEN. 
_ The former part of this defcription is 
imitated from that quoted above of Dio- 
med’s armour, in Homer. In the latter 
part, the expreffion /ugudre rubent, and 
the circumftance of fuddening the fhy with 
malignant light, are ftrokes cf the boldeft 
poetical imagery. 
_ In fublimity of conception, Milton has, 
by copying this fimile, furpaffed both his 
originals ; and, indeed, the fuperior gran- 
deur of his perfonages allowed him, with- 
- out fear of offenfive exaggeration, to em- 
ploy the loftieft images his great mind 
could fuggeft to him. He has judicioufly 
confined his refemblance to the comet : 
On th’ other fide, 
Incens’d with indignation, Satan {tood, 
Unterrified, and like a comet burn’d, 
‘That fires the length of Ophiuchus huge 
TD th’ artic fky, and from his horrid hair 
oaks pettilence and war. 
eee 


Par. L. ii. 708. 
‘What can be imagined more terribly 
fublime, than the figure of the comet fill- 
ing the whole {pace of a vatt conftellation, 
and fhaking plagues from his locks ? 
Similes of Homer, Virgil, and Milton. 
of his angelic heroes. 
(28 
The fancied form of Orion, in the hea 
vens, has afforded Virgil a fimile of ex- 
traordinary grandeur ; but fomewhat hy- 
perbolical and injudicious in its application 
to one who is only a fecond-raté hero in 
his poem: 
At vero ingentem quatiens Mezentius haftam 
Turbidus ingreditur campo: quam magnus Crion, 
Cum pedes incedit medii per maxima Nerei 
Stagna,viam fcindens,humero fupereminet undas. 
HEN. X. 7636 
Once more the proud Mezentius with difdain, 
Brandifh’d his fpear, and ruih’d into the plain ; 
Where tow’ring in the midmoft ranks he ftooc, 
Like tall Orion ftalking o’er the flood ; 
When with his brawny breaft he cuts the waves, 
His fhoulder fcarce the topmoft billow laves. 
DRYDENe 
Milton has again employed a fimile de- 
rived from the celeftial bodies,.as the only - 
objeéts capable of infpiring adequate ideas 
Michael and Satam 
join in conflict, 

fuch as, to fet forth 
Great things by {mall, if, Nature’s concord broke, 
Among the conftellations war were fprung, 
‘Two planets rufhing with afpéct malign 
Of fierceft oppofition im mid fy, 
Should combat, and their jarring fpheres con- 
found. Par. L. vi. 310. 
The meteor commonly called a falling 
ftar, is probably intended by Homer as the 
object of fimilitude to the defcent of Mi- 
nerva: 
As when from Jove a glitt’ring ftar is fent, 
His fign to mariners, or numerous hofts 
In arms; emitting many a fpark it flies; 
Such fhow’d the goddefs as the rufh’d to earth. 
ELV 75. 
This is imitated, and, as ufual, much 
heightened, by Milton, in his defcription 
of Uriel’s defcent : 
Thither came Uriel, gliding thro’ the even 
On a fun-beam, fwift as a fhooting ftar 
In auturnn thwarts the night, when vapours fr’d 
Imprefs the air, and {hows the mariner 
From what point of his compafs to beware 
Impetuous winds. 
Par. L. iv. 555. 
The fame poet ufes the image of a 
meteor in his magnificent defcription of the 
great Satanic ftandard : 
— = forthwith from the glitt’ring flaff unfurl’d 
Th’ imperial enfign, which full high advanc’d 
Shone like a meteor, fireaming to the wind. 
Par. L, i. 535. 
(To be continued.) J. A. 
Por 
