opportunity of afferting their fidelity to the deceased friend of their mafter. We fhall mention two other incidents which appear somewhat ludicrous, as well as improbable; the one we find in the twenty-first book of the Iliad, where the river Scamander attacks' Achilles, purfues, and threatens to overwhelm him with all his waves; till Vulcan, at the instigation of Juno, comes down from heaven, to chastise the infolence of Scamander, whose waters he fcorches and dries up with fire. The other we meet with in the tenth book of the Odyssey, where Aolus gives Ulyffes the adverfe winds, fhut up in a bag, which being loofed by the ignorance or imprudence of his companions, the winds rush forth and raise a most dreadful tempeft. These extravagant fictions, however, are inftances of that exuberance, wildnefs, and irregularity of imagination, which diftinguish every great genius. We may bestow the fame epithet upon them, which the ancient fathers of the Christian church beftowed upon the virtues of the heathens; we may call them the "Splendida peccata" of Homer. Great liberties in compofition, are fometimes taken by men of exalted genius, and must be allowed to them. It is their fingu lar priviledge upon certain occafions, to depart from, and to tranfgrefs thofe rules, which will be for ever binding on perfons of ordinary abilities, not only with impunity, but with applaufe.

• Great wits may fometimes gloriously offend, And rife to faults true critics dare not mend; From vulgar bounds with brave disorder part,

And fnatch a grace beyond the reach of art. POPE."

Thefe glaring abfurdities are not to be defended by attributing them to a wildness of imagination, which, with people who like to be made to ftare, may pass for true greatness : and it is as ridiculous in Mr. Duff to call these foolish incidents the Splendida peccata, the fplendid faults of Homer, as it was in the doting fathers of the church, to apply that expreffion to the exalted virtues of the ancient heroes and philofophers. The faults which a modern writer ought to avoid, are not excellencies, nor graces in Homer. A modern genius, if we fuppofe him as great as Homer, would never be fo extravagant as to make ufe of fuch incidents and images as we frequently meet with in Homer; which is a proof that thofe incidents and images are abfolutely, and in the true nature of compofition, improper, and only excufeable in Homer on account of the period in which he lived. What is an actual abfurdity in one author, is an actual abfurdity in another; how different foever they may be in their de

gree

gree of genius; and though the one may have been dead three thousand years, and the other but three.

The four verfes of Mr. Pope, cited by Mr. Duff, are very juft, if we take them in the sense in which we are to suppose their author meant them. A great genius, he fays, may tranfgrefs the laws of the fchools, and by offending against them, will rife to a fublimity which will astonish and captivate the minds of his readers, will be warranted by the fanction of human nature, and which, therefore, true critics, inftead of correcting, will pronounce the highest pitch of excellence. But we can hardly think that Pope, with all his partiality to Homer, would have admitted Minerva's turning charioteer to Diomed, wind pent up in bags by Æolus for the use of Ulyffes, or fpeaking horfes, amongst the graces which a great poet might fnatch beyond the rules of art.

Deliberately and minutely to prove, that the old, new, epic, paftoral Fingal has no title to that rank which Mr. Duff arrogates to it, would be painful to us and to our readers; nor would the bounds of our work permit us. We fhall fpeak to it, however, en passant, and then confign it to its oblivion.

Very much, indeed, is written by Mr. Duff in praise of his pretended Offian. He fays, that in fublimity of fentiment, in vivacity, and strength of defcription, he may justly claim a full equality of merit with Homer himself.'

From many examples which he gives of what he calls the greatness of Oflian's genius, we fhall tranfcribe the following Let us be comforted; it is not long.

one.

The appearance of Fingal "when his wrath arofe," and he was preparing to revenge the death of Fillan, is thus amazingly exhibited to us. "Unequal were his fteps on high, as he fhone in the beam of the oak. He was dreadful as the form of the fpirit of night, when he cloaths on hills his wild geftures with mift, and iffuing forth on the troubled ocean mounts the car of winds." This description is picturesque and elevated in the highest degree.'

The mind of man has no data by which it can form any idea of this fimile. In the great fublime, fays Mr. Burke, fomething is often happily left for the fancy of the reader to conceive. The poet, by not limiting the object, more ftrongly agitates our imagination, which amplifies the picture, and makes it more tremendous, or majeftic, than it would have been, if it had been defined by defcription. But if fomething is to be left to the operation of fancy, fomething is to be given for fancy to operate upon. A huddle of wild ideas, which cannot be connected, and therefore cannot ftrike, and of founding words, is the fublime of Fingal.

Mr. Duff

Mr. Duff gives us another quotation from this rhapsodist, in page 113, as an inftance of the astonishing fublime. Offian affigns the following province to the ghost of Fingal.—" Thy fteps are on the winds of the defart; and the ftorms darken in thy hand. Thou takeft the fun in thy wrath, and hideft him in thy clouds.". This is a very turbulent and mischievous state of existence for the fhade of a departed hero, fitter for the blackeft than for the moft fhining characters of antiquity. When we find a departed spirit seizing the fun in a fit of anger, plunging him in clouds, and thus thwarting at his pleasure the principal laws of the creation, we ought rather to rank the paffage which contains this extravagance with the wildeft chimeras of Ariofto, than produce it as a fpecimen of the great fublime.

We shall here observe, that Macpherfon's works are written in profe; a circumftance fufficient, alone, to difqualify them from being compared with thofe immortal monuments, of which they are fo injuriously made the rivals. Numbers without the force of fentiment, are jejune and contemptible; but the energy of the nobleft fentiments is doubled by the magick of numbers.

Yet Mr. Duff is fo blindly prejudiced in favour of the author of Fingal, that he thus fondly prophefies the duration of his writings.

C If however, from the merit of thofe works, we may be permitted to prefage their future fame, we may without heftation venture to affirm, that they will be read with admiration and delight, even in a tranflation, wherever the English language is known; and that their duration will be co-eval with the existence of fenfibility and tafte in Great Britain.'

Pray, Sir, throw an eye upon facts; and from them read the fortune of Fingal. Fingal (an epic poem we shall call it) published in a moft difcerning country, and in a most enlightened period, addreffed, by the nature of its composition, to the univerfal feelings of mankind, is already lefs read in England than Hudibras, a poem written to a party which existed a century ago.

The author's eighth and laft fection is written with judgment and fentiment. It treats of the effects of genius on the temper and character; and of the advantages and disadvantages attending the poffeffion of it.

Though Mr. Duff hath here shown himself well acquainted with the frame of a poet, and with the conduct refulting from it, yet, we think, he hath attributed fome effects to conftitution, which may flow from contingent caufes. The man of genius, for inftance, is not naturally, in the main of his beha

viour,

thing can reasonably be excepted. It is, alas! but too common to obferve, that when people, who have learned no fyftem of genuine logic, much less are capable of making a due application thereof, come to the perufal of books executed with folidity, they imagine, they have difcovered defects and errors in places, where the greatest accuracy prevails. They find fault with definitions, for the very reason they ought to be commended; with the order of propofitions and their demonftrations, for the very thing they are moft worthy of praise, if such persons had attained the habit of genuine logic. And even others, who have laid a good foundation in logical knowledge, and, by means of mathematics, have attained to fome ability therein, yet, like novices, blunder every where, and deem as wrong, what as yet they understand not, or what had not till then offered to their mind, or what they overlooked in their noviciate exercises. From all which it may be abundantly feen, what great caution is neceflary in examining defects and errors, committed against logical rules; especially, as a great deal may have the appearance of being erroneous, which would be found just and right, did we know how to diftinguish well the operations of the understanding from the words in which they are expreffed. And thus we must guard against all precipitation, especially in examining the writings of thofe, who have given proofs of their ability; fo as not lightly to deem as faults, what we are at a lofs about understanding, but wait, whether, when in time come to greater ripeness of judgment, we may not have a different view of things. What I here write, I can fufficiently recommend from my own experience. Befides, there accrues other damage from the prematurely applying ourselves to the finding out defects and errors; namely, the being puffed up with a vain conceit of ourselves, and having in contempt, what is in itself really good and laudable; and thereby coming to take greater pleasure in finding fault, than in acquiring ufeful and folid knowledge; on which to enlarge, is not our prefent business.'

As we learn from a note, in p. 63, that this translation was made from an edition printed in 1744, we cannot help expreffing our furprize that it did not make its appearance at an earlier period. The tranflation is well executed, and the sense of the author, a few mistakes excepted, faithfully preferved,

IV. Archa

IV. Archæologia: or Miscellaneous Tracts relating to Antiquity. Published by the Society of Antiquaries of London. Vol. I. 410. 155. in Sheets. Whifton.

Before

Efore we enumerate the contents of this volume, it is neceffary to give fome account of the affociation, by order of which it is now ufhered into the world.

The Society of Antiquaries appears to have been founded in 1572, (the 14th year of the reign of Elizabeth) by archbishop Parker. The members affembled for the fpace of near twenty years, at the house of Sir Robert Cotton; and in 1589, applied to the queen for a charter of incorporation, and for fome public building in which they might meet, as well as fix their future library. For this purpose, they drew up a petition, which was figned by Sir John Dodderidge, and Sir James Lee; but it should feem, that their hopes were fruftrated by the death of her majefty. Before this event happened, their meetings were held at the apartments of Sir Willam Dethick, garter king at arms; and minutes of their proceedings were 'duly registered.

The fociety fubfifted till the fufpicious temper of James I. was alarmed for the arcana of his government, &c. and thought fit to diffolve it. From the year 1604, or thereabouts, the accounts relative to the state in which it remained are very imperfect; though it is generally believed, that the members ceased to affemble as an incorporate body till the beginning of the prefent century. It is fufficient to add, that their minutes begin Feb. 5, 1717-18, and that a charter of incorporation was granted to them in 1751, by his late majefty king George the second.

From their first fettlement in their prefent house in ChanceryLane, the fociety had formed a defign of communicating their difcoveries, &c. to the world; and this has been done in the volume before us, which we are to confider as the fore-runner of a series of others.

Before the Table of Contents, which we fhall transcribe, is exhibited a speech delivered by the rev. Dr. Milles, dean of Exeter, on his fucceeding the late Dr. Lyttleton, bishop of Carlisle, as prefident of this fociety. This fpeech is but an indifferent prologue to the work, as it contains all the cant of an advertisement from a fuccessful candidate, who had offered himself to a county on the decease of the late knight of the fhire. Dr. Milles may be a worthy fucceffor to Toms Hearne or Rawlinfon; but we will venture to fay, that he is a most ungraceful panegyrift; and may add, that when the time approaches in which we are to be gathered to the critics of

for