his example, and propofe Homer for the ftandard of epic writing, with this bright teftimony, that he "never undertook any thing inconfiderately, nor ever made any foolish attempts;" if indeed this celebrated poet did not intend to form his poems in the order and defign we fee them in. If we look upon the fabric and construction of those great works, we fhall find an admirable proportion in all the parts, a perpetual coincidence, and dependence of one upon another; I will venture an appeal to any learned critic in this caufe; and if it be a fufficient reafon to alter the common readings in a letter, a word, or a phrafe, from the confideration of the context, or propriety of the language, and call it the reftoring of the text, is it not a demonftration that these poems were made in the fame course of lines, and upon the fame plan we read them in at prefent, from all the arguments that connexion, dependence, and regularity can give us? If thofe critics, who maintain this odd fancy of Homer's writings, had found them loofe and undigefted, and restored them to the order they ftand in now, I believe they would have gloried in their art, and maintained it with more uncontested reasons, than they are able to bring for the discovery of a word or a fyllable hitherto falfely printed in the text of any author. But, if any learned men of fingular fancies and opinions will not allow these buildings to have been originally defigned after the prefent model, let them at least allow us one poetical fuppofition on our fide, That Homer's harp was as powerful to command his fcattered incoherent pieces into the beautiful ftructure of a poem, as Amphion's was to fummon the ftones into a wall, or Orpheus's to lead the trees a dance. For certainly, however it happens, the parts are fo juftly difpofed, that you cannot change any book into the place of another, without fpoiling the proportion, and confounding the order

of the whole.

The Georgics are above all controverfy with Hefiod; but the Idylliums of Theocritus have fomething fo inimitably sweet in the verse and thoughts, fuch a native fimplicity, and are fo genuine, fo natural a refult of the rural life, that I muft, in my poor judgment, allow him the honour of the pastoral.

In Lyrics the Grecians may feem to have excelled, as undoubtedly they are fuperior in the number of their poets, and variety of

their verfe. Orpheus, Alcæus, Sappho, Simonides, and Stefichorus are almost entirely loft. Here and there a fragment of fome of them is remaining, which, like fome broken parts of ancient ftatues, preferve an imperfect monument of the delicacy, ftrength, and skill of the great mafter's hand.

Pindar is fublime, but obfcure, impetuous in his courfe, and unfathomable in the depth and loftinefs of his thoughts, Anacreon flows foft and easy, every where diffufing the joy and indolence of his mind through his verfe, and tuning his harp to the smooth and pleasant temper of his foul. Horace alone may be compared to both; in whom are reconciled the loftinefs and majefty of Pindar, and the gay, careless, jovial temper of Anacreon: and, i fuppofe, however Pindar may be admired for greatnefs, and Anacreon for delicateness of thought; Horace, who rivals one in his triumphs, and the other in his mirth and love, furpaffes them both in juftness, elegance, and happiness of expreffion. Anacreon has another follower among the choiceft wits of Rome, and that is Čatullus, whom, though his lines be rough, and his numbers inharmonious, I could recommend for the foftnefs and delicacy, but muft decline for the loofenefs of his thoughts, too immodeft for chafte ears to bear.

I will go no farther in the poets; only, for the honour of our country, let me obferve to you, that while Rome has been contented to produce fome fingle rivals to the Grecian poetry, England hath brought forth the wonderful Cowley's wit, who was beloved by every mufe he courted, and has rivalled the Greek and Latin poets in every kind but tragedy.

I will not trouble you with the hiftorians any further, than to inform you, that the conteft lies chiefly between Thucydides and Salluft, Herodotus and Livy; though I think Thucydides and Livy may on many accounts more juftly be compared: the critics have been very free in their cenfures, but I fhall be glad to fufpend any farther judgment, till you fhall be able to read them, and give me your opinion.

Oratory and philofophy are the next difputed prizes; and whatever praises may be justly given to Ariftotle, Plato, Xenophon and Demofthenes, I will venture to say, that the divine Tully is all the Grecian orators and philosophers in one. Felton.

Language.

And now, having poffibly, given you fome prejudice in favour of the Romans, I muft beg leave to affure you, that if you have not leifure to mafter both, you will find your pains well rewarded in the Latin tongue, when once you enter into the elegancies and beauties of it. It is the peculiar felicity of that language to fpeak good fenfe in fuitable expreffions; to give the finest thoughts in the happiest words, and in an eafy majefty of ftyle, to write up to the fubject. "And in this, lies the great "fecret of writing well. It is that elegant fimplicity, that ornamental plainness of fpeech, which every common genius "thinks fo plain, than any body may reach "it, and findeth so very elegant, that all " his Iweat, and pains, and study, fail him "in the attempt."

In reading the excellent authors of the Roman tongue, whether you converse with poets, orators, or historians, you will meet with all that is admirable in human com

pofure. And though life and fpirit, propriety and force of ftyle, be common to them all, you will fee that nevertheless every writer fhines in his peculiar excellencies; and that wit, like beauty, is diverfified into a thousand graces of feature and complexion.

I need not trouble you with a particular character of these celebrated writers. What I have faid already, and what I fhall fay farther of them as I go along, renders it lefs neceffary at prefent, and I would not pre-engage your opinion implicitly to my fide. It will be a pleafant exercife of your judgment to diftinguish them yourself; and when you and I fhall be able to depart from the common received opinions of the critics and commentators, I may take fome other occafion of laying them before you, and fubmitting what I fhall then say of them to your approbation. Felton.

$87. Directions in reading the Claffics.

In the mean time, I fhall only give you two or three cautions and directions for your reading them, which to fome people will look a little odd, but with me they are of great moment, and very neceffary to be obferved.

The firft is, that you would never be perfuaded into what they call Commonplaces; which is a way of taking an author to pieces, and ranging him under pro.

he has faid upon any point, by confulting in circumftantials of time and place, cufan alphabet. This practice is of no ufe but where facts are to be remembered, not tom and antiquity, and in fuch inftances where the brain is to be exercised. In these cafes it is of great ufe: it helps the in a fort of order and fucceffion. But, memory, and ferves to keep thofe things common-placing the fenfe of an author is fuch a ftupid undertaking, that, if I may be indulged in faying it, they want common fenfe that practife it. What heaps of this rubbish have I seen! O the pains and labour to record what other people have faid, that is taken by those who have no

thing to fay themselves! You may depend upon it, the writings of thefe men are need, the invention spoiled, their thoughts on ver worth the reading; the fancy is crampevery thing are prevented, if they think at all; but it is the peculiar happiness of these collectors of fenfe, that they can write without thinking.

I do moft readily agree, that all the bright fparkling thoughts of the ancients, their finest expreffions, and noblest sentiments, are to be met with in these transcribers but how wretchedly are they brought in, how miferably put together! Indeed, I can compare fuch productions to nothing but rich pieces of patch-work, fewed together with packthread.

When I fee a beautiful building of exact order and proportion taken down, and the different materials laid together by themfelves, it puts me in mind of thefe commonplace men. The materials are certainly very good, but they understand not the rules of architecture fo well, as to form them into juft and mafterly proportions any more and yet how beautiful would they stand in another model upon another plan!

For, we must confefs the truth: We can fay nothing new, at least we can fay nothing better than has been faid before; but we may nevertheless make what we fay our own. And this is done when we do not trouble ourselves to remember in what

page or what book we have read fuch a paffage; but it falls in naturally with the courfe of our own thoughts, and takes its place in our writings with as much ease, and looks with as good a grace, as it appeared in two thousand years ago.

This is the best way of remembering the ancient authors, when you relish their

way

way of writing, enter into their thoughts, and imbibe their fenfe. There is no need of tying ourselves up to an imitation of any of them; much lefs to copy or transcribe them. For there is room for vast variety of thought and ftyle; as nature is various in her works, and is nature ftill. Good authors, like the celebrated mafters in the several schools of painting, are originals in their way, and different in their manner. And when we can make the fame ufe of the Romans as they did of the Grecians, and habituate ourselves to their way thinking and writing, we may be equal in rank, though different from them all, and be esteemed originals as well as they.

of

And this is what I would have you do. Mix and incorporate with thofe ancient streams; and though your own wit will be improved and heightened by fuch a strong infufion, yet the spirit, the thought, the fancy, the expreffion, which fhall flow from your pen, will be entirely your own.

Felton.

$88. The Method of Schools vindicated. It has been a long complaint in this polite and excellent age of learning, that we lofe our time in words; that the memory of youth is charged and overloaded without improvement; and all they learn is mere cant and jargon for three or four years together. Now, the complaint is it. fome measure true, but not eafily remedied; and perhaps, after all the exclamation of fo much time loft in mere words and terms, the hopeful youths, whofe lofs of time is fo much lamented, were capable of learning nothing but words at thofe years. I do not mind what fome quacks in the art of teaching say; they pretend to work wonders, and to make young gentlemen mafters of the languages, before they can be mafters of common fenfe; but this to me is a demonstration, that we are capable of little elfe than words, till twelve or thirteen, if you will obferve, that a boy fhail be able to repeat his grammar over, two or three years before his understanding opens enough to let him into the reafon and clear apprehenfion of the rules; and when this is done, fooner or later, it ceafeth to be cant and jargon: fo that all this clamour is wrong founded, and the cause of complaint lies rather against the backwardness of our judgment, than the method of our fchools. And therefore I am for the old way in fchools ftill, and children will be furnished

there with a stock of words at least, when they come to know how to use them. Ibid.

$89. Commendation of Schools.

thoughts of thofe great men who prefide I am very far from having any mean in our chiefest and most celebrated schools; it is my happiness to be known to the most eminent of them in a particular manner, and they will acquit me of any disrespect, where they know I have the greateft veneration; for with them the genius of claffic learning dwells, and from them it is derived. And I think myfelf honoured in the acquaintance of fome mafters in the are learned, and to the exact knowledge of country, who are not lefs polite than they the Greek and Roman tongues, have joined a true tafte, and delicate relish of the claffic authors. But fhould you ever light into fome formal hands, though your fenfe is too fine to relish thofe pedantries I have been remonftrating against, when you come to understand them, yet for the present they may impose upon you with a grave appearance; and, as learning is commonly managed by fuch perfons, you may think them very learned, because they are very dull: and if you should receive the tincture while you are young, it may fink too deep for all the waters of Helicon to take out. You may be fenfible of it, as we are of ill habits, which we regret, but cannot break, and fo it may mix with your ftudies for ever, and give bad colours to every thing you defign, whether in speech or writing.

For thefe meaner critics drefs up their entertainments fo very ill, that they will fpoil your palate, and bring you to a vicious tale. With them, as with diftempered ftomachs, the fineft food and nobleft juices turn to nothing but crudities and indigeftion. You will have no notion of delicacies, if you table with them; they are all for rank and foul feeding; and fpoil the best provifions in the cooking; you must be content to be taught parfimony in fenfe, and for your most inoffenfive food to live upon dry meat and infipid stuff, without any poignancy or relish.

So then thefe gentlemen will never be able to form your taste or your style; and thofe who cannot give you a true relish of the belt writers in the world, can never inftruct you to write like them.

Ff

Ibid.

§ 90.

$90. On forming a Style. Give me leave to touch this fubject, and draw out, for your ufe, fome of the chief ftrokes, fome of the principal lineaments, and fairest features of a juft and beautiful style. There is no neceflity of being methodical, and I will not entertain you a dry fyftem upon the matter, but with what you will read with more pleasure, and, I hope, with equal profit, fome defultory thoughts in their native order, as they rife in my mind, without being reduced to rules, and marfhalled according to art.

with

To affift you, therefore, as far as art may be an help to nature, I shall proceed to say fomething of what is required in a finished piece, to make it complete in all its parts, and masterly in the whole.

I would not lay down any impracticable schemes, nor trouble you with a dry formal method: the rule of writing, like that of our duty, is perfect in its kind; but we muft make allowances for the infirmities of nature; and fince none is without his faults, the most that can be faid is, That he is the best writer, against whom the feweft can be alledged.

"A compofition is then perfect, when "the matter rifes out of the fubject; when the thoughts are agreeable to the "matter, and the expreflions fuitable to the "thoughts; where there is no inconfiftency "from the beginning to the end; when "the whole is perfpicuous in the beautiful "order of its parts, and formed in due fymmetry and proportion."

Felton.

ferved, are of more value than the whole mafs of ordinary authors: and it is a maxim with me, that he has not wit enough, who has not a great deal to spare.

It is by no means neceffary for me to run out into the feveral forts of writing: we have general rules to judge of all, without being particular upon any, though the ftyle of an orator be different from that of an hiftorian, and a poet's from both. Ibid.

§ 92. On Embellishments of Style. The defign of expreffion is to convey our thoughts truly and clearly to the world, in fuch a manner as is moft probable to attain the end we propofe, in communicating what we have conceived to the public; and therefore men have not thought it enough to write plainly, unless they wrote agreeably, fo as to engage the attention, and work upon the affections, as well as inform the understanding of their readers: for which reafon, all arts have been invented. to make their writings pleafing, as well as profitable; and thofe arts are very commendable and honeft; they are no trick, no delufion, or impofition on the fenfes and understanding of mankind; for they are founded in nature, and formed upon obferving her operations in all the various paffions and workings of our minds.

To this we owe all the beauties and embellishments of ftyle; all figures and fchemes of fpeech, and those feveral decorations that are used in writings to enliven and adorn the work. The flourishes of fancy refemble the flourishes of the pen in mechanic writers; and the illuminators of manufcripts, and of the prefs, borrowed their title perhaps from the illumination which a bright genius every where gives to his work, and difperfes through his compofition.

The commendation of this art of enlightening and adorning a fubject, lies in a right diftribution of the fhades and light. It is in writing, as in picture, in which the art is to observe where the lights will fall, to produce the most beautiful parts to the day, and caft in fhades what we cannot hope will fhine to advantage.

It were endlefs to purfue this fubject through all the ornaments and illuftrations of fpeech; and yet I would not dif miss it, without pointing at the general rules and neceflary qualifications required in thofe who would attempt to fhine in the productions of their pen. And therefore

you