be alleged. " Neque concipere aut edere c partum mens poteft, nifi ingenti flumine "literarum inundata*:" where animal conception and delivery, are confounded with vegetable production. His character' of Horace, however celebrated, and so often quoted as to become naufeous, "Horatii curiofa fæ"licitas," is furely a very unclaffical inverfion; for he ought to have called it the happy carefulness of Horace, rather than his careful happiness. I fhall obferve by the way, that the that the copy of this author found fome years ago, bears many fignatures of its spuriousness, and particularly of its being forged by a Frenchman. For we have this expreffion, "ad CASTELLA fefe receperunt," that is," to their CHATEAUX,” instead of "ad Villas."

41. In grave QUINTILIAN'S copious work we find The jufteft rules, and clearest method join❜d †.

To commend Quintilian barely for his method, and to infift merely on this excel

Pag. 109. Ed. Amftel. 1663.

+ Ver. 669.

lence,

lence, is below the merit of one of the most rational and elegant of Roman writers. Confidering the nature of Quintilian's fubject, he afforded copious matter, for a more appropriated and poetical character. No author ever adorned a fcientifical treatife with fo many beautiful metaphors. Quintilian was found in the bottom of a tower of the monaftery of St. Gal, by Poggius; as appears by one of his letters dated 1417, written from Conftance, when the council was then fitting. The monastery was about twenty miles from that city. Silius Italicus, and Valerius Flaccus, were found at the fame time and place. A history of the manner by which the manuscripts of ancient authors were found, would be an entertaining work to perfons of literary curiofity.

42. Thee bold LONGINUS all the Nine inspire, And bless their critic with a poet's fire *.

THIS abrupt addrefs to Longinus is more spirited and striking, and more suitable to

* Ver. 676.

the

the character of the perfon addreffed, than if he had coldly spoken of him in the third perfon. The tafte and fenfibility of Longinus were exquifite; but his observations are too general, and his method too loose. The precifion of the true philofophical critic is loft in the declamation of the florid rhetorician. Instead of fhewing for what reafon a fentiment or image is SUBLIME, and difcovering the fecret power by which they affect a reader with pleasure, he is ever intent on producing fomething SUBLIME himself, and strokes of his own eloquence. Instead of pointing out the foundation of the grandeur of Homer's imagery, where he describes the motion of Neptune, the critic is endeavouring to rival the poet, by faying that," there

cr

was not room enough in the whole earth, "to take fuch another ftep." He should have fhewn why the fpeech of Phaeton to his fon, in a fragment of Euripides, was fo lively and picturesque: instead of which he ardently exclaims, "would not you say, that "the foul of the writer afcended the chariot

"with the driver, and was whirled along "in the fame flight and danger with the

rapid horses?" We have lately seen a just fpecimen of the genuine method of criticifing, in Mr. Harris's accurate Difcourfe on Poetry, Painting, and Mufic. I have frequently wondered, that Longinus, who mentions Tully, should have taken no notice of Virgil. I suppose he thought him only a fervile copier of the Greeks.

43. From the fame foes, at laft, both felt their doom, And the fame age faw learning fall and Rome*.

""TWAS the fate of Rome to have scarce an intermediate age, or fingle period of time, between the rife of arts and fall of liberty. No fooner had that nation begun to lose the roughness and barbarity of their manners, and learn of Greece to form their heroes, their orators, and poets on a right model, than by their unjuft attempt upon the liberty of the world, they justly loft their own. With their liberty, they loft not only their force of eloquence, but even their ftyle and

* Ver. 686.

language

language itself. The poets who afterwards arofe among them, were mere unnatural and forced plants. Their Two most finished, who came laft, and closed the scene, were plainly such as had seen the days of liberty, and felt the sad effects of its departure *.”

SHAFTESBURY proceeds to obferve, that when defpotism was fully established, not a ftatue, picture, or medal, not a tolerable piece of architecture, afterwards appeared.— And it was, I may add, the opinion of Longinus, and Addison, who adopted it from him, that arbitrary governments were pernicious to the fine arts, as well as to the fciences. Modern history, however, has afforded an example to the contrary. Painting, fculpture, and mufic, have been seen to arrive to a high perfection in Rome, notwithstanding the flavery and fuperftition that reign there: nay, fuperftition itself has been highly productive of these fine arts; for with what enthusiasm muft a popish painter work

* ADVICE to an Auth. Vol. i. pag. 148. Edit. 12mo.

for