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nature and extent of criticism, take notice, that editions of authors, the interpretations of them, and the judgment which is paffed upon each, are the three branches into which the art divides itself. But the last of thefe, that directs the choice of books, and takes care to prepare us for reading them, is, by the learned Bacon, called the chair of the critics. In this chair, to carry on the figure, have fat Aristotle, Demetrius. Phalereus, Dionyfius Halicarnaffenfis, Cicero, Horace, Quintilian, and Longinus; all great names of antiquity, the cenfors of those ages which went before them, and the directors of

those

those that come after them, with respect to the nat tural and perfpicuous manner of thought and expreffion, by which a correct and judicious genius may be able to write for the pleasure and profit of mankind.

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But whatever has been advanced by men really great in themselves, has been alfo attempted by others of capacities either unequal to the undertaking, or which have been corrupted by their paffions, and drawn away into partial violences fo that we have fometimes feen the province of criticism ufurped, by fuch who judge with an obscure diligence, and a certain dryness of understanding, incapable of comprehending a figurative ftile, or being moved by the beauties of imagination; and at other times by fuch, whofe natural morofenefs in general, or particular defigns of envy, has rendered them indefatigable against the reputation of others.

In this laft manner is ZOILUS reprefented to us by antiquity, and with a character fo abandoned, that his name has been fince made ufe of to brand all fucceeding critics of his complexion. He has a load of infamy thrown upon him, great, in proportion to the fame of HOMER, against whom he oppofed himself: if the one was esteemed as the very refidue of wit, the other is defcribed as a profligate, who would deftroy the temple of Apollo and the mufes, in order to have his memory preferved by the envious action. I imagine it may no ungrateful undertaking to write fome account of

be

celebrated perfon, from whom fo many derive their character; and I think the life of a critic is not unseasonably put before the works of his poet, especially when his cenfures accompany him. If what he advances be juft, he stands here as a cenfor; if otherwife, he appears as an addition to the poet's fame, and is placed before him with the juftice of antiquity in its facrifices, when, because such a beaft had offended such a deity, he was brought annually to his altar to be flain upon it.

ZOILUS was born at Amphipolis, a city of Thrace, during the times in which the Macedonian empire flourished. Who his parents were is not certainly known, but if the appellation of Thracian Slave, which the world applied to him, be not merely an expreffion of contempt, it proves him of mean extraction. He was a difciple of one Polycrates a fophift, who had diftinguished himself by writing against the names of the ages before him; and who, when he is mentioned as his master, is faid to be particularly famous for a bitter accufation or invective against the memory of Socrates. In this manner is ZOILUS fet out to pofterity, like a plant naturally baneful, and having its poifon rendered more acute and fubtile by a preparation.

In his perfon he was tall and meagre, his complexion was pale, and all the motions of his face. were sharp. He is reprefented by Ælian, with a beard nourished to a prodigious length, and his head kept close fhaved, to give him a magisterial

appear

appearance: his coat hung over his knees in a flovenly fashion; his manners were formed upon arr averfion to the cuftoms of the world. He was

fond of speaking ill, diligent to fow diffention, and from the conftant bent of his thought, had obtained that fort of readiness for flander or reproach, which is esteemed wit by the light opinion of fome, who take the remarks of ill-nature for an underftanding of mankind, and the abrupt lafhes of rudeness for the fpirit of expreffion. This, at laft, grew to fuch a height in him, that he became carelefs of concealing it; he threw off all referves andmanagements in refpect of others, and the paffion fo far took the turn of a phrenzy, that being one day afked, why he spoke ill of every one? "It is, fays he, because I am not able to do them ill, though I have fo great a mind to it." Such extravagant declarations of his general enmity made men deal with him as with the creature he affected. to be; they no more spoke of him as belonging to the species he hated; and from henceforth his learned fpeeches, or fine remarks, could obtain no other title for him, but that of The rhetorical dog.

While he was in Macedon he employed his time in writing, and reciting what he had written in the fchools of fophifts. His oratory, fays Dionyfius Halicarnaffenfis, was always of the demonftrative kind, which concerns itself about praise or difpraise. His fubjects were the most approved authors, whom he chose to abuse upon the account of their reputa

tion; and to whom, without going round the matter, in faint praises or artificial infinuations, he used to deny their own characteristics. With this gallantry of oppofition did he cenfure Xenophon for affectation, Plato for vulgar notions, and Ifocrates for incorrectness. Demofthenes, in his opinion, wanted fire, Ariftotle fubtilty, and Aristophanes humour. But, as to have reputation was with him a fufficient caufe of enmity, fo to have that reputation univerfal, was what wrought his frenzy to its wildeft degree; for which reafon it was HOMER with whom he was implacably angry. And certainly, if envy choose its object for the power to give torment, it should here, if ever, have the glory of fully answering its intentions; for the poet was fo worshipped by the whole age, that this critic had not the common alleviation of the opinion of one other man, to concur in his condemnation.

ZOILUS however went on with indefatigable induftry, in a voluminous work which he intitled, The Voy, or Cenfure of HOMER: 'till having at last finished it, he prepares to fend it into the world with a pompous title at the head, invented for himfelf by way of excellency, and thus inferted after the manner of the antients.

ZOILUS, the Scourge of HOMER, writ this against that lover of fables.

Thus did he value himself upon a work, which the world has not thought worth transmitting to us, and but just left a specimen in five or fix quotations,