because the thought is too near the other.

of the Cyclades is a very pretty one;

-Quos altum texerat æquor

Exiftunt montes, et fparfas Cycladas augent.

The image

but to tell us that the Swans grew warm in Cayfier,

-Medio volucres caluere Cäystro,

and that the Dolphins durft not leap,

Ne fe fuper æquora curvi

Tollere confuetas audent Delphines in auras,

is intolerably trivial on so great a subject as the burning of the world.

P. 160. 1. 15. The Earth at length, &c.] We have here a fpeech of the Earth, which will doubtless feem very unnatural to an English reader. It is I believe the boideft Profopopaia of any in the old Poets; or if it were never fo natural, I cannot but think the fpeaks too much in any reafon for one in her condition.

On EUROPA's Rape, page 188.

P. 189. 1. 3. The dignity of empire, &c.] This ftory is prettily told, and very well brought in by those two ferious lines,

Non bene conveniunt, nec in unâ fede morantur,
Majeftas et Amor. Sceptri gravitate relictâ, &c.

without which the whole fable would have appear'd very prophane.

P. 190.

P. 190. 1. 17. The frighted Nymph looks, &c.] This
confternation and behaviour of Europa

Elufam defignat imagine tauri

Europen: verum taurum, freta vera putaras.
Ipfa videbatur terras fpectare relictas,
Et comites clamare fuos, tactumque vereri
Affilientis aquæ, timidafque reducere plantas,

it is better described in Arachne's picture in the fixth
Book, than it is here; and in the beginning of Tatius
his Clitophon and Leucippe, than in either place. It is in-
deed ufual among the Latin Poets (who had more art
and reflexion than the Grecian) to take hold of all op-
portunities to defcribe the picture of any place or
action, which they generally do better than they could
the place or action itself; because in the defcription of
a picture you have a double fubject before you, either to
describe.the picture itself, or what is represented in it.

On the Stories in the Third Book, page 192.

FA B. I.

There is fo great a variety in the arguments of the Me
tamorphofes, that he who would treat of them rightly,
ought to be a mafter of all ftyles, and every different way
of writing. Ovid indeed fhows himself most in a fami-
liar ftory, where the chief grace is to be eafy and na-
tural;
but wants neither ftrength of thought nor expref-
fion, when he endeavours after it, in the more fublime
and manly fubjects of his poem. In the present fable the
Serpent is terribly defcribed, and his behaviour very
well imagined, the actions of both parties in the encoun-
ter are natural, and the language that reprefents them
more ftrong and masculine than what we usually meet

with in this Poet: if there be any faults in the narration, they are thefe, perhaps, which follow.

P. 194. 1. penult. Spire above Spire, &c.] Ovid, to make his Serpent more terrible, and to raise the character of his champion, has given too great a loose to his imagination, and exceeded all the bounds of probability. He tells us, that when he rais'd up but half his body he o'erlooked a tall forest of Oaks, and that his whole body was as large as that of the Serpent in the fkies. None but a madman would have attacked fuch a monster as this is described to be; nor can we have any notion of a mortal's ftanding against him. Virgil is not ashamed of making Æneas fly and tremble at the fight of â far lefs formidable foe, where he gives us the description of Polyphemus, in the third book; he knew very well that a monster was not a proper enemy for his hero to encounter: But we fhould certainly have feen Cadmus hewing down the Cyclops, had he fallen in Ovid's way: or if Statius's little Tydeus had been thrown on Sicily, it is probable he would not have spared one of the whole brotherhood.

Phænicas, five illi tela parabant,

Sive fugam, five ipfe timor prohibebat utrumque,
Occupat:

P. 195.

1.6. In vain the Tyrians, &c.] The Poet could not keep up his narration all along, in the grandeur and magnificence of an heroic ftyle: He has here funk into the flatnefs of profe, where he tells us the behaviour of the Tyrians at the fight of the Serpent:

-Tegimen direpta Leoni

Pellis erat; telum fplendenti Lancea ferro,

Et Jaculum; teloque animus præftantior omni.

And

And in a few lines after lets drop the majefty of his verse, for the fake of one of his little turns. How does he languish in that which feems a labour'd line! Triftia fanguinea lambentem vulnera lingua. And what pains does he take to exprefs the Serpent's breaking the force of the ftroke, by fhrinking back from it!

Sed leve vulnus erat, quia fe retrahebat ab itu,
Lafaque colla dabat retrò, plagamque federe
Cedendo fecit, nec longiùs ire finebat.

P. 198.1. 8. And flings the future, &c.] The Defcription of the men rifing out of the ground is as beautiful a paffage as any in Ovid: It ftrikes the imagination very ftrongly; we fee their motion in the first part of it, and their multitude in the Meffis virorum at last.

Ibid. 1. 13. The breathing harvest, &c.] Meffis clypeata virorum. The beauty in these words would have been greater, had only Meffis virorum been expreffed without clypeata; for the reader's mind would have been delighted with two fuch different Ideas compounded toge ther, but can scarce attend to fuch a complete image as is made out of all Three.

This way of mixing two different Ideas together in one image, as it is a great furprife to the reader, is a great beauty in poetry, if there be fufficient ground for it in the nature of the thing that is defcribed. The Latin Poets are very full of it, especially the worst of them, for the more correct use it but fparingly, as indeed the nature of things will feldom afford a juft occafion for it. When any thing we describe has accidentally in it fome quality that feems repugnant to its nature, or is very extraordinary and un. common in things of that fpecies, fuch a compounded image as we are now speaking of is made, by turning

this quality into an epithet of what we defcribe. Thus Claudian, having got a hollow ball of Crystal with water in the midst of it for his fubject, takes the advantage of confidering the Cryftal as hard, ftony, precious Water, and the Water as foft, fluid, imperfect Crystal; and thus fports off above a dozen Epigrams, in fetting his Words and Ideas at variance among one another. He has a great many beauties of this nature in him, but he gives himself up fo much to this way of writing, that a man may eafily know where to meet with them when he sees his fubject, and often strains fo hard for them that he many times makes his descriptions bombastic and unnatural. What work would he have made with Virgil's Golden Bough, had he been to defcribe it? We should certainly have feen the yellow Bark, golden fprouts, radiant Leaves, blooming Metal, branching Gold, and all the Quarrels that could have been raised between words of fuch different natures : When we fee Virgil contented with his Auri frondentis ; and what is the fame, though much finer expreffed, Frondefcit virga Metallo. This compofition of different Ideas is often met with in a whole fentence, where circumstances are happily reconciled that seem wholly foreign to each other; and is often found among the Latin Poets, (for the Greeks wanted Art for it) in their defcriptions of Pictures, Images, Dreams, Apparitions, Metamorphofes, and the like; where they bring together two fuch thwarting Ideas, by making one part of their descriptions relate to the representation, and the other to the thing that is reprefented. Of this nature is that verfe, which, perhaps, is the Wittieft in Virgil; Attollens humeris Famamque et Fata nepotum, En. 8. where he describes Æneas carrying on his Shoulders the Reputation and Fortunes of his Pofterity; which, tho' very odd and furprifing, is plainly made out, when we confider how these disagreeing Ideas are reconciled, and VOL. I. N

his