language of poetry. The beauty of his numbers is allowed by the critics to

be copied but faintly by Virgil himself, though they are so just as to

ascribe it to the nature of the Latin tongue: indeed the Greek has some

advantages both from the natural sound of its words, and the turn and

cadence of its verse, which agree with the genius of no other language.

Virgil was very sensible of this, and used the utmost diligence in working

up a more intractable language to whatsoever graces it was capable of,

and, in particular, never failed to bring the sound of his line to a

beautiful agreement with its sense. If the Grecian poet has not been so

frequently celebrated on this account as the Roman, the only reason is,

that fewer critics have understood one language than the other. Dionysius

of Halicarnassus has pointed out many of our author's beauties in this

kind, in his treatise of the Composition of Words. It suffices at present

to observe of his numbers, that they flow with so much ease, as to make

one imagine Homer had no other care than to transcribe as fast as the

Muses dictated, and, at the same time, with so much force and inspiriting

vigour, that they awaken and raise us like the sound of a trumpet. They

roll along as a plentiful river, always in motion, and always full; while

we are borne away by a tide of verse, the most rapid, and yet the most

smooth imaginable.

Thus on whatever side we contemplate Homer, what principally strikes us is

his invention. It is that which forms the character of each part of his

work; and accordingly we find it to have made his fable more extensive and

copious than any other, his manners more lively and strongly marked, his

speeches more affecting and transported, his sentiments more warm and

The Iliad of Homer