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have been the greatest poet of his nation, and that he may be said in his
sense to be the master even of those who surpassed him.(39)
In all these objections we see nothing that contradicts his title to the
honour of the chief invention: and as long as this (which is indeed the
characteristic of poetry itself) remains unequalled by his followers, he
still continues superior to them. A cooler judgment may commit fewer
faults, and be more approved in the eyes of one sort of critics: but that
warmth of fancy will carry the loudest and most universal applauses which
holds the heart of a reader under the strongest enchantment. Homer not
only appears the inventor of poetry, but excels all the inventors of other
arts, in this, that he has swallowed up the honour of those who succeeded
him. What he has done admitted no increase, it only left room for
contraction or regulation. He showed all the stretch of fancy at once; and
if he has failed in some of his flights, it was but because he attempted
everything. A work of this kind seems like a mighty tree, which rises from
the most vigorous seed, is improved with industry, flourishes, and
produces the finest fruit: nature and art conspire to raise it; pleasure
and profit join to make it valuable: and they who find the justest faults,
have only said that a few branches which run luxuriant through a richness
of nature, might be lopped into form to give it a more regular appearance.
Having now spoken of the beauties and defects of the original, it remains
to treat of the translation, with the same view to the chief
characteristic. As far as that is seen in the main parts of the poem, such
as the fable, manners, and sentiments, no translator can prejudice it but
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