230 
The imagery of Homer is, in general, 
grand, awiul, and beautiful. Tt may 
perhaps be urged, that the fimilies occur 
too often, and fometimes interrupt the 
courfe of his narration. He was fo na- 
turally poetical, that he faw ail the fen- 
timeuts and actions of men through the 
mirror of fome correfponding image. 
His mind, teeming with poetical aliu- 
flons, pofletied a greater elevation than. 
delicacy, and was more capable of abun- 
dance than choice. He is fo prolific in. 
images, that he may be faid to have fup- 
plied every poet who has fuccecded him. 
We has more daring figures, aud more 
ftriking metaphors, than any other. But 
it is wonderfal with what propriety his 
expreflions ave always fuited to his ideas. 
They are never too big for the fenfe, 
but are great in proportion to the gran-’ 
deur of the fentiment. It is the fenti- 
ment that fwells the diétion, which rifes 
with it im exaét proportion. Such are 
the arrow, unpatient to be on the wing, a 
weapon thirfiimng to drink the blood of 
the enemy. Thefe are what Ariftotle 
jujily calls ving words. The moit beau- 
tiful figures are what we have already 
mentioned ; 
pared to the moon and ftars by night; 
Paris going to battle, to the war-horle 
prancing to the river; the comparifon 
of Achilles, in the 22d ‘book, to the dog- 
ftar ; and above all, the following beau- 
titul Smile on the death of Euphorbus, 
Ousy De tpepes epvog avn egiSnaes ehaing 
Xapw ev o1TGArw, BH aAIG avaleceuyey Ldwe, » 
Kaas: tThAdsdadv, ro de ve mvosas Soverce 
T12vT 407 ZVefAo, Kas TE Bover avGsi Aguxe’ 
En9ay DS elamiung avereosy, cov AaiAawiTOAAI, 
Bobpy s'elecoele, xas ekeravue ext yan. 
TaDE ET, Te Se 
As the young olive, in fome fylvan fcene,° 
Crown’d by frefh fountains with eternal green, 
Lifts the gay head in fnowy flowrets fair, | 
And plays and dances to the gentle air: 
When lof a whirlwind from high heaven in- 
' -vades 
The tender plant, and’withers all its fhades: 
It lies uprooted from its genial bed, 
A lovely ruin, now deiaced-and dead. 
It is impoffible to fclect a tiner image 
from nature to reprefent the untimel 
death of a young warrior; celebrated for 
his beauty. Though Pope has-in a great 
meature preferved | the delic: icy and beau- 
ty of the original in his tranilation of 
-the above padiace , he has omitted the 
fine circumitance of a mau rear bg the 
wide-fpread: ng olive with care in a foli- 
tary field, a circumfance which renders 
Lyceum of Ancient Literature. 
the fires in the camp com- . 
—No. ZV. 
the image exquifitely tender, and gives 
ita peculiar propriety. 
It is alfo in fentiment that Homer has 
principally exceiled. This remark, ori- 
ginally made by Longinus, is verified by 
@ variety of paflages. in the Iliad. An 
example of fublimity of fentiment oc- 
eurs in the 17th book, in the abrupt and 
ftriking prayer of Ajax, when the Gre- 
clan army is enveleped in fudden and 
impenetrable darknefs : 
[April ; - 
Zev Tavep, aAAS CU eUcal UT nEpoS vial Axa, 
Tloincoy SasOenv, dog FopIarpoicw wecta 
Ev ds ates nas checcoy, Exes vy Tob coed UT ag. 
L. 645. 
-Lord of earth and dir, 
O King! O father! hear my humble prayer 5 
Difpel this cloud, the light of heaven re- 
ftore 3 
Give me to fee, and Ajax afks no more. 
If we muft perifh, we thy will obey 5 
But let us perith in the face of day. 
This paffage, thus unneceffarily am- 
plified by Pope, has been more briefly 
and more energetically rendered by Bui- 
leau. 
Grand Dieu! chaffe la nuit qui nous couvre 
les yeux, 
Et combats contre nous a la clarté des cieux, 
We have another-inttance of fublimity 
of fentiment in>the beginning of the 
8th book, in the fpeech of Jupiter to the 
inferior deities. ‘The patlage is too long 
for tranicription; but the réader is atto- 
nifhed at the awtul denunciations againtt 
the offenders, and the bold defiance 
which he gives to the power of all the 
gods combined agaift him. The ‘idea 
contained in the two tollowing lines, is 
one of the crandcit that can be) pretentea 
to the human lipagination: 
AAA ote On was eyo Stig eGerores EeuTe 
AUTN HEY yain egurain’, auTy TE baracen, 
If I but ftretch this hand, 
I keawe the gods, the ocean, and the land. 
It bears a ftrong refemblance to the re- 
prefenighon. which is given us in the 
Sucred Writings of the power of Jehov ah, 
when he ‘is faid “+o weigh the hills in 
fvales, and the mountains in a balance, 
and to take up the ifles as a very little 
thing.” There is a remarkable parity 
between -pafiages in Homer, and thote 
in the Senptures; and Duport, in his 
Gnomologia Homerica, has colleéted in- 
numerable initances ag this fort. Ac- 
cording to Gale, Homer: took many of 
his fictions from fume real Seripture tra- 
ditions, which he gathered up whilft he 
was 
