But juft disease to luxury fucceeds, And every death its own avenger breeds *. 41. Thus then to man the voice of nature spake, "Go from the creatures thy inftructions take; THE profopopia is magnificent, and the occafion important, no less than the origin of the arts of life. NATURE is perfonified alfo by Lucretius, and introduced fpeaking with suitable majesty and elevation; the is chiding her foolish and ungrateful children for their vain and impious discontent. Quid tibi tantopere 'ft, mortalis, quod nimis ægris THERE is an authoritative air in the animoque, agedum, jam aliis concede:neceffe 'ft ‡." Ver. 165. Ep. iii. ver. 171. Lib. iii. ver.975. 42. Thy 42. Thy arts of building from the bee receive, Learn of the mole to plow, the worm to weave *. THE Romans have left us fcarcely any piece of poetry fo ftriking and original, as the beginning and progrefs of arts at the end of the fifth book of Lucretius. I shall at prefent confine myself to transcribe his beautiful account of the rife of mufic. At liquidas avium voces imitarier ore Ante fuit multo, quam lævia carmina cantu 43. He from the wond'ring furrow call'd the food, * Ver. 175. The Perfians, it is faid, diftinguish the different degrees of the ftrength of fancy in different poets, by calling them, painters or fculptors. Lucretius, from the force of his images, fhould be ranked among the latter. He is, in truth, a SCULPTOR-POET. His images have a bold relief. Lib. v. ver. 1378. $ Ver. 219. A FINER example can perhaps scarce be given of a compact and comprehensive ftile *. The manner in which the four elements were fubdued is comprised in thefe four lines alone. POPE is here, as Quintilian fays of another, denfus et brevis et inftans fibi. There is not an useless word in this paffage; there are but three epithets, wondering, profound, aerial; and they are placed precifely with the very fubftantive that is of moft confequence: if there had been epithets joined with the other fubftantives, it would have weakened the nervousness of the sentence. This was a fecret of verfification POPE well underftood, and hath often practifed with peculiar fuccefs. 44. Who first taught souls enflav'd, and realms undone, QUAND les fauvages de la Louifiane veulent avoir du fruit, ils coupent l'arbre * We have here what Dionyfius fays of Alcæus, du Meta SELOTHтos, "Sweetness with strength." Edit. Sylburg, p. 69. tom. ii. + Ver. 241. au au piè & cueillent le fruit. Voilà le Gouvernement defpotique." A fentiment worthy of the free spirit of Demofthenes, and an image worthy of the genius of Homer*, 45. Such is the world's great harmony, that fprings From order, union, full confent of things t THERE is no where to be found fo perfect an illuftration of this doctrine, that the beauty and concord of the universe arife from contrarieties, as in the fhort treatise of Aristotle, Tegi nooμe, which, notwithstanding the different form of its composition, ought to be ascribed to this philo *Chapit. 13, De L'Efprit des Loix. Thefe few words are the whole chapter. Woe be to the liberty and science of that country, where this noble and original work is prohibited to be read. Can that author be suspected of irreligion, who in the fixth chapter of his twenty-fourth book has entirely demolished one of the moft fubtle objections against Christianity, and that too urged by one of the ablest adversaries to our holy religion, M. Bayle; who afferts, in his Thoughts on the Comet, that a fociety of men practifing the rules of Christianity, in their full rigour, could not long fubfift. + Ver. 295. fopher : с fopher*: I shall infert it at length in its fublime original, it being, as it were, a fummary or compendium of the philosophy of the poem before us. σε Και τοι γε τις εθαύμασε, πως ποτε ει εκ των εναντιων αρχών συνέτηκεν κοσμος, λέγω δη ξηρων τε και ύγρων, ψυχρών τε και θερμων, ο παλαι δια εφθαρται και απολωλεν ὡς καν ει πολιν τινες θαυμαζοιεν, όπως διαμένη, συνέςηκυιαν εκ των εναντιων εθνων Πένητων λεγω, και πλυσιων νεων, και γεροντων, ασθενων, ισχυρων· πονηρων, χρησων. Αγνουσι δε, ότι τετ' ην πολίτικης ὁμονοίας το θαυμασιώτατον λεγω δε, ότι εκ πολλων μιαν, και όμοιαν εξ ανομοίων, αποτελει *The learned have been divided in their opinions concerning this piece. Muretus, both the Scaligers, Cafaubon, Heinfius, Menage, Voffius, Naude, Alcyonius, and others, will not ascribe it to Ariftotle, and lay great stress on a paffage of Proclus in his fifth book on the Timæus. On the other hand, Demetrius Phalereus, Stobæus, Apuleius, Juftin Martyr, Beffarion, Bradwardin, and our own truly learned Bishop Berkley, unanimously give it to Aristotle, This opinion is confirmed by a fenfible difcourfe on the fubject, cap. 19. Petiti Mifcell. Obfervation. Lib. 2. One of his obfervations I will not omit. "Scriptus quippe ad Alexandrum Regem, ut Titulus indicat, ideoque faciliore, quam alii, ftilo, et aperto orationis plaufibilique filo: ut decet Regibus fcribentem, ut illi univerfæ naturalis fcientiæ compendium effet. Quo pacto et objectionem a stili difcrepantiâ ductam removeo." διαθεσική |