tee Manchefter Board of Health,...Similes of Homer. [ Aug. 
was raging with great violence in many Trees, herds, and fwains, involving in the 
parts of the town, is now nearly at an fweep, as 
end. he overfeers of Manche/ier unani- The mafs flies furious from the acrial fleep 5 
moufly agree that the fever wards are L€ps see mountain’s fide with many 
of univerfal bencfit to the town, and, po ; . 
in confequence, have dire€ted a confider- i yack by fue riba allpnig aa Ergun : 
@ble annual fubfcription to be paid by Pop omatertb amin cc boi Le 
= 2 Pi pie a 
heir treafurer towards their tupport. — Ty comparing thefe two fimiles, Mr. 
inally, it appears from the Poe Pope gives the moft decided preference 
books at the infirmary, that the number ty thar of Homer; and, in his tranfla- 
of patients, with fevers, admitted from tion, he has laboured with his utmoft art 
the fireeis in the neighbourbood of the Houle +, reprefent it with every advantage. 
of Recovery (where the danger of infec- Hig principal reafon for preferring that 
tion from this houfe was principally ap- of the Grecian poet is, that it contains 
prehended) had diminifhed from 400, more points of likenefs; as, firft, the 
389, 267, to 25, in an equal {pace of defcent of ‘Heétor from the Grecian wall, 
time, Thefe authentic facts have opened as well as his rapid motion; and then, 
the eyes of the oppofers of this infiitu- his fydden /fop in front of the clofely- 
tion, fo that many of them have liberally wedged phalanx of the Ajaxes: fo far 
become its patrons, and all public oppo- his obfervations feem juft; ‘but I confels 
fition has ceafed. I cannot enter into what he fuppofes the 
Auguft 10,1797. PHILANTHROPOS- - hos5i-f branch of refemblance, the immo- 
bility of both when fo flopped, ‘ the 

For the Monthly Magazine. enemy being as unable to mave him back, 
SimILEs OF HomMER, VIRGIL, aN» a8 he to get forward: conformably to 
MILTON (CONTINUED). which idea, he fays in his tranflation : 

acne ——So Heétor—their whole force he prov’d, 
FROM, ROCKS ANP MOUN LARS Refiftlefs when he rag’d, and when he ftopt, 
ae noble and ftriking objects unmov'd. : z 
have afforded fewer images of fimili- But I find nothing like this in the 
tude to the epic poets than might have original; for Homer, after making him 
been expeGted. The want of motion was firft ftand firm, reprefents the Greeks as 
probably the caufe of their being found advancing and pufiing -bim from them, 
fo little applicable to the purpofes of when he draws back enraged. 
heroic a€iion; and this idea feems con- Another difference between the two 
firmed by the circumftence that, among poets is apparent ; which is, that Homer, 
the few fimiles from this fource to be met painting, as ufual, after nature, gives no 
with, the greater fhare have motion arti- cireumftance which exceeds the bounds 
ficially, as it were, troduced into them. of jiriét probability ; whereas Virgil falls 
One of thefe only, but that a capital one, into manifeft exaggeration, his rocky 
is from Homer : mats being converted, in its defcent, into 
As when atorrent, fwoln by mighty rains, a mountain, bearing with it not only men 
A rock’s round fragment from its ftony bonds = and herds, but whole woods. . 
Rends on the mountain’s b ow 5 it burfts away The Englifn poct appears with his 
And tena higy bole while beneath IS accuftomed dignity and originality after 
OCKS man theft 4 takine 
The wood rnecines; Alle fveepsalonss ine’ (Soon thenis expanded into. much 
Till at the plain arrivid, no more it rolls, fuperior grandeur. When Satan recoils 
Though launch’d with force: fo Hector, ce h a E Abdi exe cae 
; threat’ning loud rom the itroke o lel, 1f 1s 
Swift to the tents and thips to hew his way, AST one | 
Clofe on the phalanx fopt. “Ju. xiii, 137. Winds underground, or Watch forcing way, 
Hos. tea be Wireilan the fol- Sidelong had pufhed a mountain from his feat 
EDS. 15 VEY ea Half funk with all his pines. Par. L. vi. 195. 
lowing paffage : 



"Ac veluti montis faxum de vertice praceps He is more of a copyift in his imitation 
Cum ruit avulfim vento, feu turbidus imber of one of the moft fublime and highly 
Proluit, aut annis folvit fublapfa vetuftas ; wrovght fimiles in Virgil, where Eneas 
Fertur in abruptum ‘magno mons improbus aétu, moves triumphant to the combat with 
Fxfultatque fola, fylvas, armenta, virofque Turnus : : 
Involvens fecum : disjeta per agmina Turnus Letitia exultans, horrendumque intonat 
Sic urbis ruit ad muros. ~ AEN. xii. 684. ” afmis, } ECs 
As when, by age, or rains, or tempefts, torn, Quantus Athos, aut quantus Eryx, aut ipfe 
A rock from fome high precipice is borne 5 ; conuftis 
Cum 
* 
