I his Senfe into as narrow a compafs as poffibly he cou'd; for which reafon he is so very Figurative, that he requires (I may almoft fay) a Gram→ mar apart to conftrue him. His Verfe is every where founding the very Thing in your Ears, whose Sense it bears: Yet the Numbers are perpetually varied, to increase the delight of the Reader; fo that the fame Sounds are never repeated twice together. On the contrary, Ovid and Claudian, though they write in Stiles differing from each other, yet have each of them but one fort of Mufick in their Verfes. All the verfification and little variety of Clau dian, is included within the compass of four or five Lines, and then he begins again in the fame tenour; perpetually clofing his Senfe at the end of a Verfe, and that Verse commonly which they call Golden, or two Subftantives and two Adjectives with a Verb betwixt them to keep the peace. Ovid, with all his fweetnefs, has as little variety of Numbers and Sound as he: He is always as it

な

were upon the hand-gallop, and his Verfe runs upon Carpet ground. He avoids like the other all Synalæpha's, or cutting off one Vowel when it comes before another, in the following word. But to return to Virgil, tho' he is fmooth where fmoothnefs is requir'd, yet he is fo far from affecting it, that he feems rather to difdain it. Frequently makes use of Synalæpha's, and concludes his Senfe in the middle of his Verfe. He is every where above conceits of Epigrammatick Wit, and grofs Hyperboles: He maintains Majefty in the midst of Plainnefs; he fhines, but glares not; and is ftately without ambition, which is the vice of Lucan. I drew my definition of Poetical Wit from my particular confideration of him: For propriety of thoughts and words are only to be found in him; and where they are proper, they will be delighful. Pleafure follows of neceffity, as the effect does the caufe; and therefore is not to be put into the definition. This exact propriety of Virgil I par

ticularly regarded, as a great part of his Character; but muft confefs to my fhame, that I have not been able to Tranflate any part of him fo well, as to make him appear wholly like himself. For where the Original is clofe, no Verfion can reach it in the fame compafs. Hannibal Caro's in the Italian, is the neareft, the moft Poetical, and the moft Sonorous of any Tranflation of the Eneids; yet, though he takes the advantage of blank Verfe, he commonly allows two Lines for one of Virgil, and does not always hit his Senfe. Taffo tells us in his Letters, that Sperone Speroni, a great Italian Wit, who was his Contemporary, obferv'd of Virgil and Tully; that the Latin Orator endeavour'd to imitate. the Copiousness of Homer, the Greek Poet; and that the Latin Poet made, it his Business to reach the Concifenefs of Demosthenes, the Greek Orator. Virgil therefore being fo very fparing of his Words, and leaving fo much to be imagin'd by the Reader, can never be tranflated as he

ought, in any modern Tongue: To make him Copious is to alter his Character; and to Tranflate him Line for Line is impoffible, becaufe the Latin is naturally a more fuccinct Language, than either the Italian, Spanish, French, or even than the English, (which by reafon of its Monofyllables is far the most compendious of them.) Virgil is much the closest of any Roman Poet, and the Latin Hexameter has more Feet than the English Heroick.

Befides all this, an Author has the choice of his own Thoughts and Words, which a Tranflator has not; he is confin'd by the Senfe of the Inventor to thofe Expreffions, which are the nearest to it: So that Virgil ftudying Brevity, and having the command of his own Language, could. bring thefe Words into a narrow compass, which a Tranflator cannot render without Circumlocutions. In fhort, they who have call'd him the Torture of Grammarians, might alfo have call'd him the Plague of Tranf lators; for he feems to have ftudy'd

not to be Tranflated. I own that endeavouring to turn his Nifus and Euryalus as clofe as I was able, I have perform'd that Episode too literally; that giving more fcope to Mezentius and Laufus, that Verfion which has more of the Majefty of Virgil, has lefs of his Concifeness; and all that I can promife for my felf, is only that I have done both, better than Ogleby, and perhaps as well as Caro. By confidering him fo carefully as I did before my attempt, I have made fome faint refemblance of him; and had I taken more time, might poffibly have fucceeded better; but never fo well, as to have fatisfy'd my self.

He who excels all other Poets in his own Language, were it poffible to do him right, muft appear above them in our Tongue, which, as my Lord Refcommon juftly obferves, approaches nearest to the Roman in its Majefty: Nearest indeed, but with a vaft Interval betwixt them. There is an inimitable grace in Virgil's words, and in them principally confifts that