Wr, Rebinfan on the Communiion of Saints... Similes. 
thetrie faith and fear of God, and now | 
enjoy the prefence of the Father, and fol- 
low the lamb “whitherfoever he soeth. 
And thus I believe the communion of - 
faritS ms. OY "Tam, Sir, “your's, &c. 
“Ravenftone-dale. ~~ J. RoBINSON. 
(=- < whe 8 . . a | J 
For the Monthly Magazine. | 
-SIMILES OF Homer, VIRGIL, AND 
MILTON, (CONTINUED, ie 
From Wild Beafls. 
: A Moft fpirited reprefentation of a 
Lion tearing his prey, 1s exhibited 
by Homer in the following fimile. 
As when: the mountzim lion, fierce in 
ftrength, 
Amid the grazing herd the faireft head 
Sele&ts his prey; he firft the finewy neck 
Breaks with ftrong teeth; then tearing wide 
his wor 
Drinks down the blood, and all the entrails 
quafts ; 
And though the baying dogs and herdfmen 
round 
At diftance clamour loud, dares none advanice, 
And brave the fight, pale fear fo chills their 
T“breatts 5 
Thus ’mid the Trojan bands no heart fuftain’d 
Soha meet SeeTIES glorying in his might. 
“. Th RUN. OT. 
The vefemblance is the more exact, as 
Menelaus employs himfelf in ftripping 
the armour of Euphorbus, after-he had 
killed bins. 
The joy with which the fame hero is 
infpired, when he behelds Paris coming 
‘to meet him,’ is exprefled in a fimile 
nearly of the fame kind, 
So joys the lion when a mi: ghty prey 
Hung’ red he feizes, or the horned ftag; 
Or thazey goat: with greedy hafte ae ceases 
He gorges, though around the adtive hounds 
And mettled youth attack. Ih ii. 23. 
The latter part of this. defeription an- 
-ticipates, as it were, the event, which 
is only expe&ted in the real aétion. al 
gil, :as dial, appies the fimile more 
correctly in Higsimibition (of if The 
fubject 1s Mezentius. rufhing upon. and 
killing the youthful warrior, ‘Acron, dif 
tin guithed by his gay ornaments. 
Impattus ftabula alta leo.ceu fxpe perz- 
Mis §rarisy L 
(Suadet enim vefana fames )}. fi forte fugatem 
@Conipexit capream, aut furgentem/in .cornua 
, cervum, 
Gaudet hians immanc, 
a" heret 
PP er 
tes See Pearfon on the Cree d, p.34 
ergr Ne 
comafque arrexit, && 


9: edit. 
187 
Vifceribus fuper incumbens : dae PPS: 
eaheter 
see cruor. Tete 
when a Hon, that, with hunger.bold, 
pst grimly round he fences of the fold, — 
‘Spies a tall goat, the chief of all the train, 
Or beamy ftag, high ftalking o’er the plain 5 
His horrid mane he rears, he runs, ‘he flies; 
- Expands his.jaws, and darts upon the prize 3 ~ 
The prize he rends with a tremendous roar, 
_ And, growling, rages in a foam of gore. 
Pitt. 
‘There feems to be an-impropriety in 
reprefenting the Lion as wandering about 
the fialls or folds, when he meets with the 
flag or roebuck, (for caprea is ees. 
rendered goat) which até inhabitants of 
the foreft: >in other refpects, the deicrip- 
tion is highly fpirited; in particular, 
the epithet g given to the fac << furgentem 
in COYRUG,”” x rifing in antler nS, is very 
poetical. ‘The word beamy, borrowed 
hy this tr anflator, from’ Dryden, ex- 
preffes the fame image, though lefs for- 
cibly:-that of bigh-flalking is : foreign to 
the purpole ; and the whole of the tranf- 
lation is much teo diffufe. 
I fhail add one more paffage relative 
to this animal, in which a ft king: and 
characteriftic circumftance is introduced. 
The’ ttern refolution of ‘Ajax proteftinge 
the dead body of Patroelus, is expreffed 
in the following image: 
He toad, as broods. a lien o’er his yonng, 
Whom thro’ the foreft.as his whelps he leads 
The hunters meet’: he grimly glares around, 
‘And all his angry brow in folds defcends 
Torveil his eyes. I. sya 1 
It is impoflible to ctoubt that fuch : 2 
picture was taken from the life. 

The Leopard or Panther is once alone 
introduced by Homer as an object of 
comparifon, nor can it be ee that the 
picture drawn is remarkably charache- 
riftic of the animal, though neither can 
it be blamed as ane 
As the pard fprings forth 
To meet the ly from.her gloomy dain 
S = Es) 
Nor hearing louithe.hounds, fears or retires, 
But whether from ater or mith at han 
He pierce her firft, altho’ tvansfixt, the fehe 
Stil tries, and combats defp’rate tii] i 
So brave Antenor’s fon fled not, or fhrank, 
Till he had proved Achilles. 
Jl. xxi. 
The application of the fimule is void 
of all peciliar 4 tor Agenor 
only flops in flight, hurls a fingle Sis aii 
and-ts thatched away, unwounded, by 
Apolic: 
{1 £ 
te Aa 
$73- Cozvper. 
ONS Pe 
D4 ropriety; 
2 aie) 
eee. 
oes 
