fuch a Truant to these Affairs, that I am an utter Stranger to all those entertaining Novelties, of which this Town is generally so fertile.

Hold, Sir, (faid I) give me leave to appease the Joud Call of Nature for Repletion, before you cram me with Questions which require a quiet Appetite to answer with any tolerable Satisfaction.

So fitting down, and having sufficiently appeas'd the Importunity of my Stomach, and refresh'd my felf with a Glass or two of generous Wine, Laudon renewing his Demands.

Why truly (faid E) the abundance of News, in State Affairs, has made it very scarce in Parnaffus; the Mountains of Scotland have engross'd the Talk of the Town, and the Pens of the Writers so much, that the forked Hill of Greece is almost as filent as the Oracles, and the Poets may now fay what Dryden did some Years ago.

The Pamphleteers their Venom daily Spit,

They thrive by Treason, and we flarve by Wit.

Divifion and Party is now fo much the Genius of the Age, that it has thrust it felf into the very Dominions of Helicon; and old Homer, who after his Death. was the Caufe of Strife to seven Cities, for the Honour of his Nativity; is now fo between two GenNemen, who contend for the Mastery in the tranfla✓ting of him. One of them has only (to the Regret of good Judges) given us the first Book of the Iliads; the other, the first four adorn'd with Pictures and fine Notes. If the latter has not done the blind Bard Justice, it has not been for want of Encouragement, fince he has had more subscribed to him for the Tranflation, than we can discover the Author ever got by the Original; if at least it be true, that Homer, was in those low and narrow Circumstances, when he writ his admirable Poems.

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For my Part (faid Laudon) I can never believer that fuch a Spirit, such Fire, a Design so judicioufly weigh'd, and so perfect, cou'd be produced in fo miferable a Fortune, as the Traditionary Writers of his Life have given him: For Poverty damps the generous Fire of Poetry, as well as that of Love. They are both the Off-fpring of Affluence and Eafe; nor can I conceive how Man, whose Thoughts must be employ'd in a follicitous Care of Subfiftance, cou'd ever be free enough to be filled with fuch large and wonderful Ideas, as are able to beget a Pleasure so transporting in all who read him; for Pain was never yet the Mother of a Child fo agreeable. It' seems not indeed poffible that such vast Acquifitions of Knowledge in Philosophy, Policy, Martial Difcipline, Theology, and all the other Arts, which require the whole Time and Application of the " brightest Understanding and Capacity to obtain, cou'd be arrived at by Homer, amidst the anxious and necessary Avocations of a neceflitous Fortune. Frather think that he was either born to a plentiful, or at least an eafie Paternal Estate; or that by his Margites, his Battle of the Frogs, his Hymns, or what other Primary Effays he made, he found fufficient Reward to enable him to undettake his Iliads and Odyffeis, For the Greek Nation were never so stupid, fo little refined, as to fuffer fuch Merit to remain in that Want, as the Writers of the Life of this Poet wou'd leave him in to his Death. Nor is it likely that fo delicate a People, as gave such commanding Force to the first rude Appearances of Poetry in Orpheus, among the uncultivate Thracians, and Amphion among the groffeft and leaft elevated Regions of Grecee, thou'd be so insensible themselves of the Divine Excellencies in a present Poet. For it is, I Fancy, evident to common Reason, that Learning was not in its Infancy in Homer's Time, as had we not loft Six hundred thousand Volumes in the Prolomaic Library,

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might doubtless be made appear. And I think Sir William Temple's Conjectures on this Head, in his first Essay, are very well grounded; unless we will fup- pose Homer to have been divinely inspired with Knowledge in an Age of Univerfal Ignorance. Can we suppose that the very repeating the Verses of Euripides, cou'd save so many of the Athenians Lives, after the Rout of Nicias; and the same Verses of the fame Poet, deliver Athens it self from Destruction, when taken by Lysander; and that the more excellent Verses of Homer, wanted Power with the fame Nationor. Race of People, to get him an Eafiness and Tranquility of Fortune? The Genius and Taste of the People, forbid those false Imaginations, however justify'd by the Obscurity of Time, and our Ignorance of the Fact. But not to infist on an Opinion, in which all Tradition is against me: Pray, How stands the present Controverfy?

Why Fairli (answered I) the Controversy as yet remains undecided: Will's Coffee-House gives it to the four Books, Bution's to the one. For my part (who ama Berfon indifferent, and a Retainer to neither of thofe Reforts of the Efprits) I must say this of Mr. Tickells,, that he seems to have enter'd into the Soul. of Homer:: You are fure, at least, of having fome

> Taste of the Genius and Manner of the Poet, when you read his Verfion; for there seems to me to be a Masculine Strength, both in his Expressionand Numbers, and the Native Simplicity of that Old Father of Verse, is not embarrass'd with any Modern Turns and Embellishing Softnesses. Mr. Pope has indeed all the Softness and Harmony of the Lydian Measures, as I may call them;; but whether he comes up to the Majesty, and Variety of his Author, I dare not determine.

Ic is not indeed to be supposed, that any Modern Tongue can come up to that of Greece, the most harmonious, and fitteft: for Verse of any that ever was

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in the World; but I know, that a Master of the Eng lish Numbers is capable of giving a wonderful Variety of Gadence; of which a vulgar fmooth Verfifyer has not the least Knowledge. No Body ever denied, but that Claudian's Verse were numerous, and flow'd fweetly enough, but every School Boy almost knows, that the perpetual Identity of Cadence, in that Author, breeds a Satiety, which is never found in Virgil. Dryden, wiro was the greatest Mafier of English Verfification we have yet known, was perfectly acquainted with the agreeable Secret of diverfifying his Numbers. I can't help observing, That fome of the zealous Partizans of the fubfcribd Tranflation, express a mighty Aftonishment at the Notes it is fer out with; but alas! That is only the Labour of the Hand, a meer Transcript from Authors who have gone before, and give not the leaft Addition to the Merit of the Tranflation.

But leaving the Divifion of the Merits of the Caufe, to those two Sovereign Tribunals of Will's and Rutton's, I hall only observe, That Mr. Bay's Rule of Expectation was throughly employed, and every one came into the Subscription, in full Affurance thatthis Expectation wou'd be as fully answer'd.

That Rule of Mr. Bay's (faid Laudon) has generally produc'd the contrary Effect in me as'to Men, as well as Poems, for I trave most commonly found so vast a Difference between the promised Excellence, and the real Defect, that two Contraries cord not be more oppofite: Nay, this Rule has been infinitely disadvantageous to them, by raising Expectation to the Height, and not fupplying so much as Ixion's Cloud to our eager Pursuits.

Who that has read Grimaldi's Tracts; wou'd not imagine,. That we had a Second Cato amongst us; and that: Publick Spirit had surviv'd all the Attacks of the growing Avarice of these later Ages. But

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come close to him, and you find, a poor, narrow Soul'd selfish Creature ; a mean Purfuer of little Byends; a Prodigal of Promises, and endearing Affurances; but fuch as were no more to be confided in, than a Whore's Vows and Tears, and a Sharper's Careffes. Who that hears Boanerges, can chuse but think, that the old Primitive Zeal of the Apoftolical Times, is revived in ours, notwithstanding the daily Efforts of Incredulity and Atheism? But alas! Draw the Veil, and your discover the Man: Pride, Ambition, Avarice, Revenge and Irreligion, appear in all his Actions and Pursuits.

Thus when Budnetto has fent Abroad two or three detach'd Descriptions, Expectation is rous'd, and you perfuade your self that the whole Poem is of a Piece; but when you come near, and view it more closely, you find it a wretched Medly of incoherent Patches of Velvet, Linsey-Woolsey, and fometimes Cloth of Gold, but feldom any Thing so precious in all his voluminous Scriptions, which render the whole, the vifible Product of a most miferable Poerafter. These trifling Authors make themselves indeed taken Notice of, but certainly not much to their Advantage. They might otherwise have past filently, and unobserved, from the Booksellers Stalls, to the Tobacconists, Pastry-Cooks, or Grocers, with Abundance of infinitely more meritorious Work; but they chose rather in their Paffage to be acquainted with Ignominy, and make their Exit in a Noise, though in one fo difagreeable as an Hiss; for they can never go off with the more joyful Claps of an Audience.

Of a just and judicious Audience, I grant you, (fard I) but that is not to be found in these Regions, where Ignorance and Caprice prefide and determine the Fate of Knowledge and Wit.. These little Parcel Efforts, which go before the main Body of our Authors Performances, have feldom failed of Success