a few minutes, and afford his advocate a fair hearing.

The epic plan, more especially that of the Aeneis, naturally comprehends whatever is most august in civil and religious affairs. The folemnities of funeral rites, and the feftivities of public games (which religion had made an effential part of them) were, of neceffity, to be included in a reprefentation of the latter. But what games? Surely thofe, which ancient heroism vaunted to excell in; thofe, which the ufage of the times had confecrated; and which, from the opinion of reverence and dignity, entertained of them, were become moft fit for the pomp of epic defcription. Further, what circumftances could be noted in thefe fports? Certainly thofe, which befell most ufually, and were the apteft to alarm the fpectator and make him take an interest in them. Thefe, it will be faid, are numerous. They are fo; yet fuch as are most to the poet's purpose, are, with little or no variation, the fame. It happened luckily for him, that two of his games, on which accordingly he hath exerted all the force

of

This

of his genius, were entirely new. Th advantage, the circumftances of the times afforded him. The Naumachia was purely his own. Yet fo liable are even the best and most candid judges to be haunted by this fpectre of imitation, that one, whom every friend to every human excellence honours, cannot help, on comparing it with the chariot-race of Homer, exclaiming in thefe words; " what is the encounter of

Cloanthus and Gyas in the ftrait between the rocks, but the fame with that of Menelaus and Antilochus in the hollow way? Had the galley of Serjestus been broken, if the chariot of Eumelus had not been demolished? Or, Mneftheus been caft from the helm, had not the other been thrown from his feat?" The splain truth is, it was not poffible, in defcribing an antient fea-fight, for one, who had even never feen Homer, to overlook fuch ufual and ftriking particulars, as the justling of ships, the breaking of galleys, and lofs of pilots.

It may appear from this inftance, with what reafon a fimilarity of circumstance, G 4

in

in the other games, hath been objected. The fubject-matter admitted not any ma terial variation: I mean in the hands of fo judicious a copier of Nature as Virgil. For,

Homer and Nature were, he found, the fame."

So that we are not to wonder he kept clofe to his author, though at the expence of this falfe fame of Originality. Nay it ap pears directly from a remarkable instance that in the cafe before us, He unquestionably judged right.

A defect of natural ability is not that, which the critics have been most forward to charge upon Statius. A perfon of true taste, who, in a fanciful way, hath contrived to give us the juft character of the Latin poets, in affigning to this poet the topmost ftation on Parnaffus, fufficiently acknow ledges the vigour and activity of his genius, Yet, in compofing his Thebaid (an old ftory: taken from the heroic ages, which obliged him to the celebration of funeral obfequies with the attending folemnities of public games) to avoid the difhonour of following

too

too clofely on the heels of Homer and Virgil, who had not only taken the fame route, but purfued it in the moft direct and natural courfe, he refolved, at all adven tures, to keep at due diftance from them, and to make his way, as well as he could, more obliquely to the fame end. To accomplish this project, he was forced, though in the description of the fame individual games, to look out for different circumftances and events in them; that fo the identity of his fubject, which he could not avoid, might, in fome degree, be attoned for by the diverfity of his manner in treating it. It must be owned, that great in genuity as well as industry hath been used, in executing this defign. Had it been practicable, the character, juft given of this poet, makes it credible, he must have fucceeded in it. Yet, fo impoffible it is, without deferting nature herfelf, to diffent from her faithful copiers, that the main objection to the fixth book of the Thebaid hath arifen from this fruitless endeavour of being original, where common fenfe and the reafon of the thing would not permit

it.

ite In the particular defcriptions of each "of thefe games (fays the great writer, "before quoted, and from whofe fentence "in matters of tafte, there lies no appeal) "Statius hath not borrowed from either of "his predeceffors, and his poem is fo much "the worse for it.”

2. The cafe of DESCRIPTION is ftill - clearer, and, after what has been fo largely difcourfed on the fubjects of it, will require but few words. For it must have appear ed, in confidering them, that not only the objects themselves are neceffarily obtruded on the poet, but that the occafions of introducing them are also restrained by many limitations. If we reflect a little, we fhall find, that they grow out of the action reprefented, which, in the greater poetry, implies a great fimilarity; even when moft different. What, for inftance, is the pure pofe of the epic poet, but to fhew his hero under the most awful and interefting circumftances of human life? To this end fome general defign is formed. He must war with Achilles, or voyage with Ulyffes, And, to work up his fable to that magni

ficence,