| 54 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 |
| 1 | 245 | 490 | 735 | 980 |
|
and conquers with tranquillity. And when we look upon their machines,
Homer seems like his own Jupiter in his terrors, shaking Olympus,
scattering the lightnings, and firing the heavens: Virgil, like the same
power in his benevolence, counselling with the gods, laying plans for
empires, and regularly ordering his whole creation.
But after all, it is with great parts, as with great virtues, they
naturally border on some imperfection; and it is often hard to distinguish
exactly where the virtue ends, or the fault begins. As prudence may
sometimes sink to suspicion, so may a great judgment decline to coldness;
and as magnanimity may run up to profusion or extravagance, so may a great
invention to redundancy or wildness. If we look upon Homer in this view,
we shall perceive the chief objections against him to proceed from so
noble a cause as the excess of this faculty.
Among these we may reckon some of his marvellous fictions, upon which so
much criticism has been spent, as surpassing all the bounds of
probability. Perhaps it may be with great and superior souls, as with
gigantic bodies, which, exerting themselves with unusual strength, exceed
what is commonly thought the due proportion of parts, to become miracles
in the whole; and, like the old heroes of that make, commit something near
extravagance, amidst a series of glorious and inimitable performances.
Thus Homer has his "speaking horses;" and Virgil his "myrtles distilling
blood;" where the latter has not so much as contrived the easy
intervention of a deity to save the probability.
5
6
Page
Quick Jump
|