Part 8

I have hinted more than once, that such Poets, and their Admirers, almost always mistake Affectation for Beauty, and I wonder the Translator of _Homer_ should give them the least Countenance by his Example; for I am very much deceiv'd if there is a more affected Period in the _English_ Tongue than what follows: _Nothing is more lively_ and Picturesque _than the_ Attitude _of_ Patroclus _is describ'd in; The_ Pathetick _of his Speech is finely_ contrasted _by the_ Fierte _of_ Achilles. Again, _There's something inexpressibly_ riant _in the_ Compartments of _Achilles_'s Shield. In the _Spectator_, Nº 297. you read thus: _The last Fault which I shall take notice of in Stile, is the frequent Use of_ technical _Words or Terms of Art_. The bringing in more _French_ Words to soften and enervate our Stile is of very ill Consequence. The Translator, besides _Riant_, has also _Traits_, _ensanguin'd_, &c. I doubt, the Last is hardly a Word in any other Language, and does not at all enrich our own. _Dryden_, in an Epistle to the Earl of _Orrery_, has this Remark upon it: _I wish we might at length leave to borrow Words of another Nation, which is now a Wontonness in us, not a Necessity: But so long as some affect to speak, there will not be wanting others, who will have the Boldness to write them_.

If I might make Use of the Word _Contrast_, nothing can be more so than Affectation and Simplicity; and the Translator seems, either not to have a just Notion of the Latter, or to have a very ill Opinion of it: For without distinguishing between Simplicity and Negligence, he affirms, _That Simplicity is a Word of Disguise for a shameful unpoetical Neglect of Expression_, he makes no Exception in this general Charge. And thus one of the greatest Beauties of both Thought and Expression is rendered one of the greatest Deformities. Father _Bouhours_ asserts, that _Simplicity contributes the most of any Thing to make a Stile perfect_; and again, _The Holy Scripture, the Stile of which is, at the same Time, so_ simple _and so_ sublime.

Mr. _Addison_ has treated of the noble Force of Simplicity as it relates to Thought; and in the following Verses, if I am not mistaken, the Simplicity of Expression as well as Thought is noble:

_So chear'd he his fair Spouse, and she was chear'd; But silently a gentle Tear let fall From either Eye, and wip'd them with her Hair. Two other precious Drops, that ready stood Each in their chrystal Sluice, he 'ere they fell Kist, as the gracious Signs of sweet Remorse, And pious Awe, that fear'd to have offended._

It is certain, Simplicity, as well as other Virtues in Speech, has its Vice, and that is Meanness which falls naturally into Burlesque, as this Line:

_Then he will talk--good gods! How he will talk._

Which the _Spectator_ speaks of as inexpressibly beautiful for its Simplicity, though I think one can hardly repeat it with a grave Tone; and when I have heard it pronounced on the Stage in a burlesque Way, as it is in _The Plot and No Plot_; it has never fail'd of a hearty Laugh and Clap. _Spectator_, Nº 39. _There is a Simplicity in the Words, which out-shines the utmost Pride of Expression_; and he attributes it to the Break, _good gods_! He also informs us, that the Thought is at once _natural_, _soft_, _passionate_, and _simple_. It would have been well for us, if the learned Critick had told us in what this Thought is _simple_, in what _passionate_, in what _soft_, and in what _natural_, there being so few Words to express it; and I cannot help thinking, that it is but one fond Rant of an amorous Woman. True it is, Simplicity is not of it self very wordy, but methinks the Break, _good gods!_ has more of the _Passionate_ in it, than of the _Simple_ or the _Soft_; and may be as well used in Anger as in Love, as well in a Fright as in a Transport. It would have gone a good Way in explaining the different Kinds of Thought, if the judicious Author had distinguished them in this Line; for there are not so many Kinds in one Verse in all Father _Bouhour_'s _Maniere de bien penser_. I would not be mistaken here, nor be charged with Ostentation, in setting up my Judgement in Opposition to the _Spectator_'s; from whose Writings and Lessons, I have learned more than from all other Authors. I only offer it as an Instance, that the Best of our Criticks do not seem to have gone to the Bottom of this Subject. It never enter'd into the Heads of Writers and Readers in General, that Thought was any Thing but Thought, or Stile any Thing but Stile, or that there were any other Terms or Distinctions for them, but the Good and the Bad, as is already hinted; nor were they at all sensible of my Lord _Roscommon_'s Meaning in these Verses:

_Whose incoherent Stile, like sick Men's Dreams, Varies all Shapes, and mixes all Extreams._

The same may be said of Thought.

I want very much to be informed, whether there is a perfect Agreement of Thought in these several Quotations out of _Homer_, or how they must be understood so as not to contradict one another. The first Couplet is against _Wine_:

_Inflaming Wine, pernicious to Mankind, Unnerves the Limbs, and dulls the noble Mind._

The next Couplet is for Wine:

_With_ Thracian _Wines recruit thy honour'd Guests, For happy Counsels flow from sober Feasts._

What follows taken out of the _Notes_ upon _Homer_ is against Wine. _What_ Hector _says against Wine in the two first Verses has a great Deal of Truth in it: It is a vulgar Mistake to imagine the Use of Wine, either raises the Spirits or encreases Strength._

The next Words are for Wine:

_Then with a plenteous Draught refresh his Soul, And draw new Spirits from the generous Bowl._

Again for Wine:

_For Strength consists in Spirits and in Blood, And those are ow'd to generous Wine and Food._

And the Translator's Observation, that the moderate Use of Wine does not raise the Spirits, is not the truer, because it is said by _Hector_, the Son of _Priam_. Father _Sirmond_, a sober reverend as well as learned Priest says quite another Thing:

Si bene commemini causæ sint quinque bibendi, Hospitis Adventus, præsens Sitis, atque futura, Et Vini bonitas, & quælibet altera Causa.

_If all be true_, &c.

Whoever reads an Author with Exactness cannot fail of meeting with several Passages, where Self-love, Humour, Party, or Complexion, are uppermost. Thus a good Catholick will never have a good Word for a Heretick, nor a _Puritan_ for a _Papist_. Dr. _Ch----_ will never speak well of Punch, nor Dr. _Mand----_ of Watergruel. He who writes well is jealous of him who judges well, and he who judges well envies him who writes well. The _Swifts_ turn every Thing into Grimace, the _Whistons_ into Mathematicks, and whatever touches an Author's own Taste, he is always recommending to his Reader.

We all remember how the Duke of _Malborough_ was treated by the blessed Peace-makers for beating their Friends the _French_. _Delight in War_ was a Mark set upon him in a most solemn Manner, and a memorable Instance of our Wisdom and Gratitude. There is a Paraphrase upon it in the Version of _Homer_; and when the Application is made will turn the _Epick_ into Satyr.

_Curs'd is the Man, and void of Law and Right, Unworthy Property, unworthy Light; Unfit for publick Rule or private Care, That Wretch, that Monster who delights in War; Whose Lust is Murder, and whose horrid Joy To tear his Country_, &c.

To _tear_ a Country is very much in Heroicks. The Image of _Discord_ has good Lines in it; but methinks they would not have been the Worse, if they had been heated a little in _Milton_'s Furnace:

_Discord, dire Sister of the slaughtering Pow'r, Small at her Birth,_ but rising ev'ry Hour; _While scarce the Skies her horrid Head can bound, She stalks on Earth, and_ shapes _the World around: The Nations bleed, where e'er her Steps she turns, The Groan still deepens, and the Combat burns._

I refer to the Judgement of the Reader, whether the following Image of Discord taken from a modern burlesque Poem, has not more of the Epick in it:

Non tulit invisæ speciem Discordia Pacis, Ilicet horrentes ad fibila concitat hydros, Ulcisci jubet Ira nefas. Spumantia felle Ora tument, micat ex oculis ardentibus Ignis.

_Discord enrag'd at the Approach of Peace Made her Snakes hiss, and urg'd to dire Revenge. Her foaming Mouth of horrid Poison full, From her red Eyes she darted Flakes of Fire._

The new invented Words made use of by the Translator of _Homer_ are well enough chosen, and well warranted by the Practice of the greatest Poets, such as _Moveless_, _Instarr'd_, _Inurn'd_, _Conglobe_, _Deathful_, _Fountful_, _Lengthful_:

_But if you write of Things abstruse and new, Words of your own inventing may be us'd._ Roscom.

I have mention'd some of the Helps which were prepared for the Translator of the _Ilias_. But Dr. _Felton_ informs us, Dr. _Busby_ would not allow of Notes; a very curious Remark That. It is not impossible, but Dr. _Busby_ himself might have read and taught _Homer_ 50 Years as a _Grammarian_, without understanding him as a Poet. A Portion of that Genius which inspir'd the Author is requisite for the Reader to see all the Beauties that are in a Poem. I believe the Lord _Roscommon_'s Judgement will be preferred to that of both those Doctors:

_Search every Comment that your Care can find, Some here, some there, may hit the Poet's Mind._

If the Translator of _Homer_ search'd every Comment, his Labour was more than _Herculean_. I own my self extreamly edify'd by what he says of Antiquaries; applying a Saying of my Lord _Bacon_'s to them: _In General they write for Ostentation not for Instruction, and their Works are perpetual Repetitions._ The Reason is plain, they have no Fund of their own, they must therefore borrow from those that have. It is necessary there should be such Men, but the Dryness and Barrenness of their Studies are inconsistent with a lively Fancy and a good Taste; and I know not which of the Antiquaries deserve most to be rever'd by us, those that would restore lost Words, Letters, and Points, or those that would recover lost Fable or History. To know exactly where _Brute_ built his _Palace Royal_, where _Bladud_ set up his _Laboratory_ would be something; as also to prove, that _Cassibelan_ liv'd where my Lord _Essex_ now does at _Cashiobury_; or that _Constantine the Great_ was a _Yorkshire_ Man; which Things have been attempted, would be as much to the Glory of the Students in Antiquity, as to find out a lost _Comma_, or restore a Letter to a Word that was robb'd of it 1500 Years ago. But as for our Monkish Antiquaries, and the Monastick Learning, it seems to be reserv'd for the Improvement of those, whose Minds, like barren Soils, will never bear without dunging. They are always turning up the Ruins of old Convents, and hope like the Cock to find a Jewel in the Dunghill. They dig for holy Water-Pots and Crucifixes, as greedily as the modern _Romans_ dig for Medals, Images, and Urns. To know whether such an Abbey was founded in the Papacy of Pope _Joan_ or Pope _Boniface_, in what Dormitory such a Monk slept, and in what Penitentiary such a Nun was disciplined, must needs be very edifying. But most of all the Deciding of historical Debates by old Charters, which, with a little curious Examination, will be found to be forged ones. Many of this Kind are printed by _Dugdale_, as I shall have Occasion to remark elsewhere. If these Antiquaries could fix the same Authority on _Monkish_ Writings, as we are told of _Homer_'s, that the Claims of two Cities to certain Limits, were determined by what he said of them in his _Ilias_, it would be worth every one's while to read the Monks instead of the Classicks; And I doubt not Dr. _Felton_ would have succeeded better if he had given us Instruction in the Monkish Learning, than he has done in the _Classical_. But since their Writings prove nothing but their Ignorance and Superstition, I believe Men of Taste and Genius will be so generous as to leave such hidden Treasures to enrich those, whose Invention and Judgement lie under the Calamity of the most extream Poverty. There is nothing but Labour and Patience requisite to acquire a Mastery in these Studies, whether the Matter collected be good or bad, 'tis the same Thing if it be Old, if it be _Teutonick_ or _Runick_, _Danish_ or _Saxon_, that's sufficient. A Man who has any Warmth in his Imagination, and any Delicacy in his Taste, cannot be always raking in the Rubbish of barbarous Ages, and groping in _Gothick_ Darkness. A good Proof of the small Talent necessary for this Work is, that there hardly ever was an Author among these Monkish Antiquaries, but his Language was as barbarous as his Subject. Such Sort of Scholarship is, I own, very serviceable to those that know how to make a good Use of others Labours; but the Merit of the Scholar consists rather in the Goodness of his Eyes, and the Strength of his Head, than in the Fineness of his Genius, or the Regularity of his Judgement. I am apt to think the Translator of _Homer_ had not the Admirers of these Antiquities in his Thoughts, but refer'd to the Criticks and Commentators on the _Greek_ and _Roman_ Authors: For he says, in another Place, _To talk of the Genius of an Ancient, as_ Macrobius _did, is at once the cheapest Way of shewing our own Taste, and the shortest Way of criticising the Wit of others_. This must be only meant of those whom Mr. _Dryden_ calls _Dutch_ Commentators, of those that do by the Classicks, as Correctors of the Press do by their Copies, and instead of applying themselves to the Sense stick close to the Letters, and look out for _Dele's_ and _Addenda's_. This they call correcting and restoring the Text; and it is much to be fear'd, that by this restoring and correcting of the Commentators, and the Mistakes, Blunders and Negligences of the Copiers, we have few or no Books of the Antients in their original Purity and Perfection. However, there is Perfection enough left in the Classical Writings to prove, That what the Translator of _Homer_ says, does not relate to the Classicks themselves, but to those that make an ill Use of them, and under their Name and Authority insult the Moderns. The Lord _Bacon_ says somewhere, that what we call the Antiquity was the Youth of the World, and that we are properly the Antients as the Inhabitants of an older World, and having made infinite Improvements in all the most useful Parts of Learning.

I dare not say, there is a Quibble in the Expression of so illustrious a Writer, but I must always take the Authors that wrote 1500 or 2000 Years ago to be the Antients; and one may very well Question, whether there was not as much useful Learning lost in twelve or thirteen Centuries of Barbarism and Ignorance, as has been discover'd, or rather recovered in two or three of the last Ages.

The Antiquaries the Translator speaks of would do Wonders, if they would make it out that the Letter sent to the King of _Edessa_, and the Passage in _Josephus_'s Book XVIII, relating to our Saviour, are genuine, with several other Particularities, which are much insisted upon by Ecclesiastical Writers. The _Spectator_ has told us something too of Antiquity, which wants the Confirmation of the Antiquaries, and that is a Quotation out of a Manuscript in the _Vatican_ Library, where _Longinus_ is made to say, Paul _of_ Tarsus, _the Patron of an Opinion not fully proved, must be reckon'd among the best_ Græcian _Orators_. This must be a downright Forgery: _Longinus_ surely knew the _Greek_ Tongue too well, to cry up the Eloquence of a Writer in it, who, as St. _Jerome_ says, did not understand _Grammar_, and mentions the Places where he err'd, _Propter Imperitiam Artis Grammaticæ_. See _Gregory_ on the _Septuagint_. It were to be wished, that the Ecclesiastical Writers, even of the earliest Centuries, had suffer'd nothing to escape them that was improbable, if not incredible. 'Tis also much wanted to have further Proof of the Ceasing of Oracles at the Nativity of our Saviour, and that _Virgil_ prophesy'd of it in his fourth Eclogue. We should be still more oblig'd to them, if they would prove, that the _Sibyl_'s Verses are a Prophecy of the same Thing, which Things are generally asserted in the Writings of the Ecclesiasticks. As to Oracles _Lucian_ tells us, Answers were given in his Time, that of the Emperor _Commodus_ 160 Years after, _Juvenal_ makes their Ceasing to be only 100 Years after:

Delphis Oracula cessant.

_Theodoret_ writes, that _Julian_ the Apostate received an Answer from _Apollo_ at _Delphos_, 300 Years after the Birth of our Saviour. All which may be seen in Bishop _Potter_'s _Greek_ Antiquities, a most excellent Book; and if we had more such Antiquaries as that learned Prelate's and Mr. _Basil Kennet_'s who wrote the Antiquities of _Rome_, we might at the same Time improve ourselves both in antient and polite Learning. These being, I think the two most valuable Pieces of the Kind in any Language. As the middle Way is safest in all Things, so as to the Antients to run them down as _Perrault_ has done, or cry them up as _Boileau_ is perhaps equally dangerous, and out of the Medium. Whatever Advantages we have had of the Antients, probably they had the same of those that preceeded them. This we know, that the _Latins_ borrow'd as much from the _Greeks_ as we have borrow'd from them; and it would be no difficult Matter to prove, that in all the Branches of polite Literature, the Moderns, particularly the _English_, have excell'd the Antients in as many as the Antients excelled them.

The Passage of my Lord _Bacon_'s before cited, gave Occasion to Monsieur _Perrault_, to bring in that noble Author for an Evidence on his Side against the Antients: But _Boileau_ vindicates him in this Point; and Father _Bouhours_, as another Instance of his excellent Judgement, declares he prefers the Lord Chancellor _Bacon_ before the most celebrated Names of Antiquity. _Rapin_ calls him the greatest _Genius of England_, and he has not more Glory from his own Countrymen than from the learned Men in _France_.

I expect no Quarter from the Dealers in monastick Learning, in Heraldry, and Genealogy, who generally doat upon them even to Frenzy. _Du Val_ in his Geography informs us, that there is a Nation in _America_, bordering on the River of the _Amazons_, where old Women go off better than young; under a Notion, that the Knowledge of the One is preferable to the Vigour and Beauty of the Other. Thus these Men please themselves more with the Dryness and Gravity of Antiquity, than with a beautiful Imagination, and the Charms of Eloquence. I believe their Opinion will not have many Followers, nor their Example be much imitated. However, when such an Antiquary as the great _Selden_ appears in the World, the Instruction it will receive from him, more than makes amends for the Labour and Time which others lose in hunting after worthless Manuscripts, forg'd Charters, and monkish Fables. The learned and polite Dr. _Bathurst_ of _Oxford_, wrote an admirable Poem on the Death of _Selden_:

_So fell the sacred_ Sibyl, _when of Old Inspir'd with mere than mortal Breast could hold: The gazing Multitude stood doubtful by, Whether to call it Death or Extasy: She silent lies, and now the Nations find No Oracles, but i' th' Leaves she left behind._

_Selden etant sans Contredit le plus docte des Anglois moderns._ 'Tis said by a _Frenchman_ and a _Papist_; but as much as _Selden_ was an Oracle, and a Glory to our Country, Archbishop _Laud_ his Brethren would have thrust his learned Head into a Pillory, if they could have come at him. I don't know whether it was for his History of _Tythes_ or not; but that would have been hard after he had been so fully answer'd by Doctors of both Universities; who, however, were not, _Les plus Doctes des Anglois moderns_. Judicious Antiquaries ever were, and ever will be in Esteem. Those that meddle with Things solid and useful. None of the Pretenders to this Sort of Knowledge, are more despicable than such as deal in old Terms and Phrases, who generally affect a Contempt for those that are in present Use as weak and effeminate. The Emperor _Augustus_ could not bear these Men, any more than _Punster_'s whom he heartily despis'd. The Spectator, Nº 470. has with much Pleasantry animadverted on those Criticks in Readings, and has brought in the _Cotton Library_, _Aldus_, _Scaliger_, _Scioppius_, _Salmasius_, the elder _Stephens_, and a Heap of old Manuscripts, to clear up the Difficulties in certain Lyrick Verses, about _a Shape_, _an Eye_, _Wit_, _Charms_, Corinna _and_ Belvedera.

As scrupulous and as curious as these _Antiquaries_ would be thought to be, one might fill Volumes with Examples of the most notorious Mistakes and Blunders in the Writings of the most learned among them; which are not taken notice of to lessen the Credit they have worthily acquir'd, but to shew the Infirmity of humane Nature, which will always be attended with Errours, and never arrive at Perfection as we have elsewhere observ'd after _Horace_:

_Non ego Paucis_, &c.