DEAR BOY,

LETTER XLIII.

Tunbridge, August the 14th, 1740.

I AM very glad to hear from Mr. Maittaire, that you are so ready at scanning both Greek and Latin verses; but I hope you mind the sense of the words, as well as the quantities. The great advantage of knowing many languages consists in understanding the sense of those nations, and authors, who speak and write those languages; but not in being able to repeat the words like a parrot, without knowing their true force and meaning. The Poets require your attention and observation more than the prose authors; poetry being more out of the common way than prose compositions are. Poets have greater liberties allowed them than prose writers, which is called the Poetical Licence. Horace says, that Poets and Painters have an equal privilege of attempting any thing. Pictoribus atque Poetis, quidlibet audendi, semper fuit æqua potestas. Fiction, that is, invention, is said to be the soul of poetry. For example; the Poets give life to several inanimate things; that is, to things that have no life: as for instance; they represent the passions, as Love, Fury, Envy, &c. under human figures; which figures are allegorical; that is, represent the qualities and effects of those passions. Thus the poets represent Love as a little boy, called Cupid, because Love is the passion of young people chiefly. He is represented blind likewise; because Love makes no distinction, and takes away the judgment. He has a bow and arrows, with which he is supposed to wound people, because Love gives pain: and he has a pair of wings to fly with; because Love is changeable, and apt to fly from one object to another. Fury like

wise is represented under the figures of three women, called the three Furies; Alecto, Megæra, and Tisiphone. They are described with lighted torches or flambeaux in their hands; because Rage and Fury is for setting fire to every thing: they are likewise drawn, with serpents hissing about their heads; because serpents are poisonous and destructive animals. Envy is described as a woman, melancholy, pale, livid, and pining; because envious people are never pleased, but always repining at other people's happiness: she is supposed to feed upon serpents; because envious people only comfort themselves with the misfortunes of others. Ovid gives the following description of Envy.

Videt intus edentem

Vipereas carnes, vitiorum alimenta suorum,
Invidiam: visâque oculos avertit, at illa
Surgit humo pigrâ: semesarumque relinquit
Corpora serpentum; passuque incedit inerti.
Utque Deam vidit formâque armisque decoram ;
Ingemuit: vultumque ima ad suspiria duxit.
Pallor in ore sedet: macies in corpore toto:
Nusquam recta acies: livent rubigine dentes:
Pectora felle virent: lingua est suffusa veneno.
Risus abest; nisi quem visi movêre dolores.
Nec fruitur somno, vigilacibus excita curis :
Sed videt ingratos, intabescitque videndo,
Successus hominum: carpitque et carpitur unà:
Suppliciumque suum est.

This is a beautiful poetical description of that wretched, mean passion of envy, which I hope you will have too generous a mind ever to be infected with; but that, on the contrary, you will apply yourself to virtue and learning, in such a manner as to become an object of envy yourself. Adieu!

DEAR BOY,

LETTER XLIV.

Monday. SINCE, by Mr. Maittaire's care, you learn your Latin and Greek out of the best authors, I wish you would, at the same time that you construe the words, mind the sense and thoughts of those authors; which will help your invention, when you come to compose yourself, and at the same time form your taste. Taste, in its proper signification, means the taste of the palate in eating or drinking; but it is metaphorically used for the judgment one forms of any art or science. For example; if I say, such a man has a good taste in poetry, I mean that he judges well of poetry, and distinguishes rightly what is good and what is bad; and finds out equally the beauties and the faults of the composition. Or if I say, that such a man has a good taste in painting, I mean the same thing; which is, that he is a good judge of pictures; and will distinguish not only good ones from bad ones, but very good ones from others not quite so good, but yet good ones. Avoir le goût bon, means the same thing in French: and nothing forms so true a taste, as the reading the ancient authors with attention.-Description is a beautiful part of poetry, and much used by the best Poets; it is likewise called painting, because it represents things in so lively and strong a manner, that we think we see them as in a picture. Thus Ovid describes the palace of the Sun, or Apollo.

Regia Solis erat sublimibus alta columnis,
Clara micante auro, flammasque imitante pyropo.
Cujus ebur nitidum fastigia summa tenebat:
Argenti bifores radiabant lumine valvæ,
Materiem superabat opus: nam Mulciber illic
Equora cælarat medias cingentia terras,
Terrarumque orbem, cælumque quod imminet orbi.

VOL. I.

L

Afterwards he describes Phoebus himself, sitting upon his throne:

Purpureâ velatus veste sedebat
In Solio Phoebus, claris lucente smaragdis.
A dextrâ lævâque Dies, et Mensis, et Annus,
Sæculaque et positæ spatiis æqualibus Horæ ;
Verque novum stabat, cinctum florente coronâ,
Stabat nuda Estas, et spicea serta gerebat,
Stabat et Autumnus calcatis sordidus uvis,
Et glacialis Hyems, canos hirsuta capillos.

Observe the invention in this description. As the sun is the great rule by which we measure time; and as it marks out the years, the months, the days, and the seasons; so Ovid has represented Phoebus upon his throne, as the principal figure, attended by the years, days, months, and seasons, which he likewise represents as so many persons. This is properly invention, and invention is the soul of poetry. Poets have their name, upon that account, from the Greek word Пow, which signifies, to make, or invent. Adieu!

Translate these Latin verses, at your leisure, into English, and send your translation, in a letter, to my house in town. I mean English prose; for I do not expect verse from you yet.

LETTER XLV.

DEAR BOY,

Friday.

I MENTIONED, in my last, description or painting, as one of the shining marks or characteristics of Poetry. The likeness must be strong and lively; and make us almost think that we see the thing before our eyes. Thus the following description of

Hunger, or Famine, in Ovid, is so striking, that one thinks one sees some poor famished wretch.

Famem lapidoso vidit in agro,

Unguibus et raras vellentem dentibus herbas.
Hirtus erat crinis, cava lumina, pallor in ore,
Labra incana situ, scabra rubigine fauces,
Dura cutis, per quam spectari viscera possent:
Ossa sub incurvis extabant arida lumbis:
Ventris erat pro ventre locus: pendere putares
Pectus, et a spinæ tantummodo crate teneri.

Observe the propriety and significancy of the epithets. Lapidoso is the epithet to agro; because a stony ground produces very little grass. Raras is the epithet to herbas, to mark how few and how scarce the herbs were, that Famine was tearing with her teeth and nails. You will easily find out the other epithets.

I will now give you an excellent piece of painting, or description, in English verse; it is in the tragedy of Phædra and Hippolytus. Phædra was the second wife of the famous Theseus, one of the first Kings of Athens; and Hippolytus was his son by his former wife. Look for the further particulars of their story in your dictionary, under the articles Phedre and Hippolite.

So when bright Venus yielded up her charms,
The blest Adonis languish'd in her arms.
His idle horn on fragrant myrtles hung;
His arrows scatter'd, and his bow unstrung.
Obscure, in coverts, lie his dreaming hounds,
And bay the fancied boar with feeble sounds.
For nobler sports he quits the savage fields,
And all the Hero to the Lover yields.

I have marked the epithets, that you may the better observe them. Venus is called bright, upon account of her beauty: Adonis is called blest, because Venus was in love with him: his horn is said to be idle, because he then laid it by, and made no