THE ILIA D O F HOMER. Tranflated by ALEXANDER POPE, Efq; Te fequor, O Graiæ gentis Decus! inque tuis nunc Non ita certandi cupidus, quàm propter amorem, LUCRET. LONDON: Printed for HENRY LINTOT. M.DCC.LVI. PREFACE. H OMER is univerfally allowed to have had the greatest Invention of any writer whatever. The praise of judgment Virgil has justly contested with him, and others may have their pretenfions as to particular excellencies; but his Invention remains yet unrival'd. Nor is it a wonder if he has ever been acknowledg'd the greatest of poets, who most excell'd in that which is the very foundation of poetry. It is the Invention that in different degrees diftinguishes all great Genius's: The utmoft ftretch of human ftudy, learning and induftry, which mafter every thing befides, can never attain to this. It furnishes Art with all her materials, and without it, Judgment itself can at belt but fteal wifely For Art is only like a prudent fteward that lives on managing the riches of Nature. Whatever praifes may be given to works of Judgment, there is not even a fingle beauty in them to which the Invention must not contribute. As in the most regular gardens, Art can only reduce the beauties of Nature to more regularity, and fuch a figure, which the common eye may better take in, and is therefore more entertained with. And perhaps the reafon why common Criticks are inclined to prefer a judicious and methodiA 2 cal cal genius to a great and fruitful one, is, because they find it easier for themselves to pursue their obfervations through an uniform and bounded walk of Art, than to comprehend the vast and various extent of Nature, Our author's work is a wild paradife, where if we cannot fee all the beauties fo diftinctly as in an order'd Garden, it is only because the number of them is infinitely greater. 'Tis like a copious nursery which contains the feeds and first productions of every kind, out of which thofe who follow'd him have but selected fome particular plants, each according to his fancy, to cultivate and beautify. If fome things are too luxuriant, it is owing to the richness of the foil; and if others are not arriv'd to perfection or maturity, it is only because they are over-run and oppreft by those of a stronger nature. It is to the strength of this amazing invention we are to attribute that unequall'd fire and rapture, which is fo forcible in Homer, that no man of a true poetical fpirit is mafter of himself while he reads him. What he writes, is of the most animated nature imaginable; every thing moves, every thing lives, and is put in action. If a council be call'd, or a battle fought, you are not coldly inform'd of what was faid or done as from a third perfon; the reader is hurry'd out of himself by the force of the Poet's imagination, and turns in one place to a hearer, in another to a spectator. The course of his verfes refembles that of the army he defcribes, Οἱ δ' αρ' ἴσαν, ὡσέν τε πυρὶ χθῶν πᾶσα νέμοιο They pour along like a fire that fweeps the whole earth before it. 'Tis however remarkable that his fancy, which is every where vigorous, is not discover'd immediately at the beginning of his poem in its fulléft fplendor: It grows in the progrefs both upon himself and others, and becomes on fire like a chariot wheel, by its own rapidity. Exact difpofition, juft thought, correct elo cution, cution, polish'd numbers, may have been found in a thousand; but this poetical fire, this Vivida vis animi, in a very few. Even in works where all thofe are im. perfect or neglected, this can over power criticifm, and make us admire even while we disapprove. Nay, where this appears, though attended with abfurdities, it brightens all the rubbish about it, 'till we fee nothing but its own fplendor. This Fire is difcern'd in Virgil, but difcern'd as through a glass, reflected from Homer, more fhining than fierce, but every where equal and constant: In Lucan and Statius, it bursts out in fudden, short, and interrupted flashes: In Milton it glows like a furnace kept up to an uncommon ardor by the force of art: In Shakespear, it ftrikes before we are aware, like an accidental fire from heaven: But in Homer, and in him only, it burns every where clearly, and every where irresistibly. I shall here endeavour to fhow, how this vaft Invention exerts itself in a manner fuperior to that of any poet, through all the main constituent parts of his work, as it is the great and peculiar characteristic which distinguishes him from all other authors. This ftrong and ruling faculty was like a powerful ftar, which in the violence of its courfe, drew all things within its vortex. It feem'd not enough to have taken in the whole circle of arts, and the whole compass of nature, to fupply his maxims and reflections; all the inward paffions and affections of mankind, to furnish his characters; and all the outward forms and images of things for his defcriptions; but wanting yet an ampler fphere to expatiate in, he open'd a new and boundless walk for his imagination, and created a world for himfelf in the invention of Fable. That which Ariftotle calls the Soul of poetry, was first breath'd into it by Homer. I fhall begin with confidering him in this part, as it is naturally the firft, and I fpeak of it both as it means the defign of a poem, and as it is taken for fiction. |