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one of his happiest imitators, for he is rather to be called an imitator than a translator: but the English reader will not form a just idea of the merits of Anacreon from those Bacchanalian songs which so frequently appear under the title of Anacreontic. Indeed there is no good translation of Anacreon: neither is it desirable that there should be. Dissolute and unprincipled persons may wish to turn a penny by exciting the libidinous passions, or recommending drunkenness, under the name of Anacreon; but they deserve the contempt of all who regard the happiness of society. The passions and tendencies to voluptuousness and intemperance are sufficiently strong without the stimuli of licentious rhyme.

The passion of love was never more strongly felt or described than by the sensible Sappho. The little Greek ode preserved by Longinus, the metre of which derives its name from her, has been translated by Mr. Philips with all the air of an original. The Latin translation of Catullus appears much inferior to that of our countryman. The Greek indeed is much corrupted, and, as it now stands, is less pleasing than the English. Every one, who on reading it recollects its occasion, must lament that so warm a passion, so feelingly represented, was excited by an improper object. She wrote also a tender hymn to Venus. But her works are hap. pily lost.

Scaliger, whose judgment, though sometimes called in question, ought certainly to have great weight, bestowed very extraordinary praises on the writings of Oppian; a poet who, though he has been compared to Virgil in his Georgics, is only perused by the curious in Grecian literature, and is known only by name to the common reader. The emperor Caracalla, under whom he flourished, is said to have been so charmed with his poems, as to have ordered him a stater for each verse. Modern critics will, however, dare to call in question the taste of Caracalla. The works of Oppian consisted of halieutics, cynogetics, and ixeutics, the latter of which have perished by the injuries of time. He was a grammarian, which, in the idea of the Greeks, meant a professed scholar; and, in every age, the poems of men who professed literature have been less admired than the vigorous and wild productions of uncultivated genius. The former are contented to avoid faults, but

genius labours after beauties only. Apollonius is more correct than Homer, and Jonson than Shakspeare; but Apollonius and Jonson are coldly approved, while Homer and Shakspeare are beheld with astonishment almost equal to idolatry. It should, however, be remarked to the honour of Apollonius, that the judicious Virgil borrowed several of his most celebrated similes from him; and perhaps he is not to be ranked among the poëta minores. Oppian has met with the usual fate of grammarians, and has scarcely been read; but the reader of taste will yet find many passages, which, if they are not sublime, he must confess to be beautiful.

Tryphiodorus has been introduced to the English reader by the excellent translation of the ingenious Mr. Merrick. Homer he certainly imitated, and has succeeded in the imitation. Copies taken by great masters, though inferior in general, yet in some parts commonly rival their original. Tryphiodorus reaches not the sublimer flights of the Mæonian bard, but he sometimes follows his less daring excursions at no distant interval. It is enough to recommend him to general approbation, that with a moderate portion of Homer's fire he has more correctness. He may be read with advantage not only in a poetical, but in an historical view. Where Homer discontinued the thread of his story, Tryphiodorus has taken it up. Indeed this poem is a necessary supplement to the Iliad, without which the reader is left unsatisfied. Tryphiodorus is said to have written another poem, called Odvooɛia Xɛiñoɣрaμμarn, in which he has omitted, through each book, the letter which marked the number of it. Such a kind of composition is trifling and beneath a man of genius; but it must be allowed to be a work of great difficulty, and consequently a proof of great application. Nor ought it to injure the character of Tryphiodorus as a poet, but to be viewed as the wanton production of an ingenious, but ill-employed grammarian. If Homer wrote the Battle of the Frogs and Mice, and Virgil descanted on the Gnat, without losing the dignity of their characters, inferior writers may indulge the inoffensive sallies of whim, without the imputation of folly or puerility.

In the perusal of some of these, and other of the minor poets whose works are extant, the lover of the Grecian muse finds

a pleasing variety, after reading the more sublime and beautiful productions of Homer. But I think it would be, upon the whole, a benefit to literature, if there could be a general clearance of rubbish; and if the minor poets, like the stars at sun-rise, could be made to disappear entirely on the effulgence of a Homer, a Virgil, and a Milton. Life is too short to be consumed in the study of mediocrity. Knox's Essays.

$159. The Classics exhibit a beautiful System of Morals.

Another great advantage of studying the Classics is, that from a few of the best of them may be drawn a good system and beautiful collection of sound morals. There the precepts of a virtuous and happy life are set off in the light and gracefulness of clear and moving expression; and eloquence is meritoriously employed in vindicating and adorning religion. This makes deep impressions on the minds of young gentlemen, and charms them with the love of goodness, so engagingly dressed and so beautifully commended. The Offices, Cato Major, Tusculan Questions, &c. of Tully, want not much of Epictetus and Antonine in morality, and are much superior in language. Pindar writes in an excellent strain of piety as well as poetry; he carefully wipes off all the aspersions that old fables had thrown upon the deities; and never speaks of things or persons sacred, but with the tenderest caution and reverence. He praises virtue and religion with a generous warmth; and speaks of its eternal rewards with a pious assurance. A notable critic has observed, to the perpetual scandal of this poet, that his chief, if not only excellency, lies in his moral sentences. Indeed Pindar is a great master of this excellency, for which all men of sense will admire him; and at the same time be astonished at that man's honesty who slights such an excellency; and that man's understanding, who cannot discover many more excellencies in him. I remember, in one of his Olympic Odes, in a noble confidence of his own genius, and a just contempt of his vile and malicious adversaries, he compares himself to an eagle, and them to crows and indeed he soars far above the reach and out of the view of noisy fluttering cavillers. The famous Greek professor, Duport, has made an entertaining and useful collection of Homer's divine

* Gnomologia Homerica, Cantab. 1660.

and moral sayings, and has with great dexterity compared them with parallel passages out of the inspired writers: by which it appears, that there is no book in the world so like the style of the Holy Bible as Homer. The noble historians abound with moral reflections upon the conduct of human life; and powerfully instruct both by precepts and examples. They paint vice and villany in horrid colours; and employ all their reason and eloquence to pay due honours to virtue, and render undissembled goodness amiable in the eye of mankind. They express a true reverence for the established religion, and a hearty concern for the prosperous state of their native country. Blackwall.

§ 160. On the Morality of JUVENAL. I do not wonder when I hear that some prelates of the church have recommended the serious study of Juvenal's moral parts to their clergy. That manly and vigorous author, so perfect a master in the serious and sublime way of satire, is not unacquainted with any of the excellencies of good writing; but is especially to be admired and valued for his exalted morals. He dissuades from wickedness, and exhorts to goodness, with vehemence of zeal that can scarce be dissembled, and strength of reason that cannot easily be resisted. He does not praise virtue and condemn vice, as one has a favourable, and the other a malignant aspect upon a man's fortune in this world only; but he establishes the unalterable distinctions of good and evil; and builds his doctrine upon the immoveable foundations of God and infinite Providence.

His morals are suited to the nature and dignity of an immortal soul; and, like it, derive their original from heaven.

How sound and serviceable is that wonderful notion in the thirteenth satiret, That an inward inclination to do an ill thing is criminal: that a wicked thought stains the mind with guilt, and exposes the offender to the punishment of Heaven, though it never ripen into action! A suitable practice would effectually crush the serpent's head, and banish a long and black train of mischiefs and miseries out of the world. What a scene of horror does he disclose, when in the same satire‡, he opens to our view the wounds and + V. 208, &c. V. 192, &c. 210, &c.

gashes of a wicked conscience! The guilty reader is not only terrified at dreadful cracks and flashes of the heavens, but looks pale and trembles at the thunder and lightning of the poet's awful verse. The notion of true fortitude cannot be better stated than it is in the eighth satire, where he pressingly exhorts his reader always to prefer his conscience and principles before his life; and not be restrained from doing his duty, or to be awed into a compliance with a villanous proposal, even by the presence and command of a barbarous tyrant, or the nearest prospect of death in all the circumstances of cruelty and terror. Must not a professor of Christianity be ashamed of himself for harbouring uncharitable and bloody resentments in his breast, when he reads and considers that invaluable passage against revenge in the above-mentioned thirteenth satiret? where he argues against that fierce and fatal passion, from the ignorance and littleness of that mind which is possessed with it; from the honour and generosity of passing by and forgiving injuries; from the example of those wise and mild men, Chrysippus and Thales, and especially that of Socrates, that undaunted champion and martyr of natural religion; who was so great a proficient in the best philosophy, that he was assured his malicious prosecutors and murderers could do him no hurt; and had not himself the least inclination or rising wish to do them any; who discoursed with that cheerful gravity, and graceful composure, a few moments before he was going to die, as if he had been going to take possession of a kingdom; and drank off the poisonous bowl, as a potion of Immortality. Blackwall.

§ 161. Directions for reading the Classics. Those excellencies of the Ancients, which I have accounted for, seem to be sufficient to recommend them to the esteem and study of all lovers of good and polite learning: and that the young scholar may study them with suitable success and improvement, a few directions may be proper to be observed; which I shall lay down in this chapter. 'Tis in my opinion a right method to begin with the best and most approved Classics; and to read those authors first, which must often be read over. Besides, that the best authors are easiest to be understood, their noble sense and animated expression will make strong impres

* V. 79-85.

sions upon the young scholar's mind, and train him up to the early love and imitation of their excellencies.

Plautus, Catullus, Terence, Virgil, Horace, Ovid, Juvenal, Tibullus, Propertius, cannot be studied too much, or gone over too often. One reading may suffice for Lucan, Statius, Valerius Flaccus, Silius Italicus, Claudian; though there will be frequent occasions to consult some of their particular passages. The same may be

said with respect to the Greek poets: Homer, Pindar, Anacreon, Aristophanes, Euripides, Sophocles, Theocritus, Callimachus, must never be entirely laid aside; and will recompense as many repetitions as a man's time and affairs will allow. Hesiod, Orpheus, Theognis, Eschylus, Lycophron, Apollonius Rhodius, Nicander, Aratus, Oppian, Quintus Calaber, Dionysius Periegetes, and Nonnus, will amply reward the labour of one careful perusal. Sallust, Livy, Cicero, Cæsar, and Tacitus, deserve to be read several times; and read them as oft as you please, they will always afford fresh pleasure and improvement. I cannot but place the two Plinies after these illustrious writers, who flourished, indeed, when the Roman language was a little upon the declension : but by the vigour of a great genius, and wondrous industry, raised themselves in a great measure above the discouragements and disadvantages of the age they lived in. In quality and learning, in experience of the world, and employments of importance in the government, they were equal to the greatest of the Latin writers, though excelled by some of them in language.

The elder Pliny's natural history is a work learned and copious, that entertains you with all the variety of nature itself, and is one of the greatest monuments of universal knowledge, and unwearied application, now extant in the world. His geography, and description of herbs, trees and animals, are of great use to the understanding of all the authors of Rome and Greece.

Pliny the younger is one of the finest wits that Italy has produced; he is correct and elegant, has a florid and gay fancy, tempered with maturity and soundness of judgment. Every thing in him is exquisitely studied; and yet, in general speaking, every thing is natural

+ V. 181, &c.

and easy. In his incomparable oration in honour of Trajan, he has frequent and surprising turns of wit, without playing and tinkling upon sounds. He has exhausted the subject of panegyric, using every topic, and every delicacy of praise. Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, Plato, Demosthenes, are of the same merit among the Greeks: to which, I think, I may add Polybius, Lucian, and Plutarch. Polybius was nobly born, a man of deep thought, and perfect master of his subject: he discovers all the mysteries of policy, and presents to your view the inmost springs of those actions which he describes his remarks and maxims have been regarded, by the greatest men both in civil and military affairs, as oracles of prudence: Scipio was his friend and admirer; Cicero, Strabo, and Plutarch, have honoured him with high commend ations; Constantine the Great was his diligent reader; and Brutus abridged him for his own constant use. Lucian is an universal scholar, and a prodigious wit: he is Attic and neat in his style, clear in his narration, and wonderfully facetious in his repartees; he furnishes you with almost all the poetical history in such a diverting manner, that you will not easily forget it; and supplies the most dry and barren wit with a rich plenty of materials. Plutarch is an author of deep sense and vast learning; though he does not reach his illustrious predecessors in the graces of his language, his morals are sound and noble, illustrated with a perpetual variety of beautiful metaphors and comparisons, and enforced with very remarkable stories, and pertinent examples: in his lives there is a complete account of all the Roman and Grecian antiquities, of their customs, and affairs of peace and war; those writings will furnish a capable and inquisitive reader with a curious variety of characters, with a very valuable store of wise remarks and sound politics. The surface is a little rough, but under lie vast quantities of precious ore.

§ 162.

Blackwall.

The subordinate Classics not to be neglected. Every repetition of these authors will bring the reader fresh profit and satisfaction. The rest of the Classics must by no means be neglected; but ought once to be carefully read over, and may ever after be occasionally consulted with much advan

tage. The Grecian Classics next in value to those we have named, are, Diodorus Siculus, Dionysius Halicarnassensis, Strabo, Elian, Arrian's Expedition of Alexander the Great, Polyænus, Herodian; the Latin are, Hirtius, Justin, Quintus Curtius, Florus, Nepos, and Suetonius. We may, with a little allowance, admit that observation to be just, that he who would completely understand one Classic must diligently read all. When a young gentleman is entered upon a course of these studies, I would not have him to be discouraged at the checks and difficulties he will sometimes meet with: if upon close and due consideration he cannot entirely master any passage, let him proceed by constant and regular reading, he will either find in that author he is upon, or some other on the same subject, a parallel place that will clear the doubt.

The Greek authors wonderfully explain and illustrate the Roman. Learning came late to Rome, and all the Latin writers follow the plans that were laid out before them by the great masters of Greece.

They every where imitate the Greeks, and in many places translate 'em. Compare 'em together, and they will be a comment to one another; you will by this means be enabled to pass a more certain judgment upon the humour and idiom of both languages; and both the pleasure and advantage of your reading will be double. Ibid.

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The classic scholar must by no means be so much wanting to his own duty, pleasure and improvement, as to neglect the study of the New Testament, but must be perpetually conversant in those inestimable writings which have all the treasures of divine wisdom, and the words of eternal life in them. The best way will be to make them the first and last of all your studies, to open and close the day with that sacred book, wherein you have a faithful and most entertaining history of that blessed and miraculous work of the redemption of the world; and sure directions how to qualify and entitle yourself for the great salvation purchased by Jesus.

This exercise will compose your thoughts into the sweetest serenity and cheerfulness; and happily consecrate all your time and studies to God. After you have read the Greek Testament once over with care and

288

deliberation, I humbly recommend to your frequent and attentive perusal, these following chapters:

23. 24.
19.20.-
12.-
6. 11.-

St. Matthew 5. 6. 7. 25. 26. 27. 28.St. Mark 1. 13.-St. Luke 2. 9. 15. 16. -St. John 1. 11. 14. 15. 16. 17. -Acts 26. 27.- -Romans 2. 8. 1 Cor. 3. 9. 13. 15.- -2 Cor. 4. Ephes. 4. 5. 6.—Philipp. 1. -Coloss. 1. 3. -1 Thess. 2. 5. -1 Tim. 1. 6.- -2 Tim. 2. 3.Philemon.- -Heb. 1. 4. 6. 11. 12.1 St. Peter all.- -2 St. Peter all. -St. Jude.- -1 St. John 1. 3.- -Revel. 1.

2. 3.

18. 19. 20.

In this collection you will find the Book of God, written by the evangelists, and apostles, comprised in a most admirable and comprehensive epitome. A true critic will discover numerous instances of every style in perfection; every grace and ornament of speech more chaste and beautiful than the most admired and shining passages

of the secular writers.

In particular, the description of God, and the future state of heavenly glory, in St. Paul and St. Peter, St. James and St. John, as far transcend the descriptions of Jupiter and Olympus, which Homer, and Pindar, and Virgil, give us, as the thunder and lightning of the heavens do the rattling and flashes of a Salmoneus; or the eternal Jehovah is superior to the Pagan deities. In all the New Testament, especially these select passages, God delivers to mankind laws of mercy, mysteries of wisdom, and rules of happiness, which fools and madmen stupidly neglect, or impious. ly scorn; while all the best and brightest beings in the universe regard them with sacred attention, and contemplate them with wonder and transporting delight. These studies, with a suitable Christian practice (which they so loudly call for, and so pathetically press) will raise you above all vexatious fears, and deluding hopes; and keep you from putting an undue value upon either the eloquence or enjoyments

of this world.

Blackwall.

§ 164. The old Critics to be studied.

That we may still qualify ourselves the better to read and relish the Classics, we must seriously study the old Greek and La. tin critics. Of the first are Aristotle, Dionysius Longinus, and Dionysius of Halicarnassus: of the latter are Tully, Horace, and Quinctilian.

These are excellent authors, which lead their readers to the foun

tain-head of true sense and sublimity; teach them the first and infallible principles of convincing and moving eloquence; and reveal all the mystery and delicacy of good writing. While they judiciously discover the excellencies of other authors, they successfully shew their own; and are glorious examples of that sublime they praise. They take off the general distaste. fulness of precepts; and rules, by their dexterous management, have beauty as well as usefulness. They were, what every true critic must be, persons of great reading and happy memory, of a piercing sagacity and elegant taste. They praise without flattery or partial favour; and censure without price or envy. We shall still have a completer notion of the perfections and beauties of the ancients, if we read the choicest authors in our own tongue, and some of the best writers of our neighbour nations, who always have the Ancients in view, and write with their spirit and judgment. We have a glorious set of poets, of whom I shall only mention a few, which are the chief; Spenser, Shakspeare, Milton, Waller, Denham, Cowley, Dryden, Prior, Addison, Pope; who are inspired with the true spirit of their predecessors of Greece and Rome; and by whose immortal works the reputation of the English poetry is raised much above that of any language in Europe. Then we have prose writers of all professions and degrees, and upon a great variety of subjects, true admirers and great masters of the old Classics and Critics; who observe their rules, and write after their models. We have Raleigh, Clarendon, Temple, Taylor, Tillotson, Sharp, Sprat, South-with a great many others, both dead and living, that I have not time to name, though I esteem them not inferior to the illustrious few I have mentioned; who are in high esteem with all readers of taste and distinction, and will be long quoted as bright examples of good sense and fine writing. Horace and Aristotle will be read with greater delight and improvement, if we join with them the Duke of Buckingham's Essay on Poetry, Roscommon's Translation of Horace's Art of Poetry, and Essay on Translated Verse, Mr. Pope's Essay on Criticism, and Discourses before Homer, Dryden's Critical Prefaces and Discourses, all the Spectators that treat upon Classical Learning, particularly the justly admired and celebrated critique upon Milton's Paradise Lost, Dacier upon Aristotle's Poetics, Bos

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