ufually poured on the priest's head, which run down to his beard, and even to the skirts of his clothing. The fun rifing and breaking in upon the fhades of night, is compared to a bridegroom iffuing out of his chamber; in allufion to the Jewish custom, of ushering the bridegroom from his chamber at midnight with great solemnity and fplendor, preceded by the light of innumerable lamps and torches. How amiably is the tendernefs and folicitude of God for his favourites expreffed! "As the eagle ftirreth up her neft, fluttereth over her

66

young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, "beareth them on her wings, fo the Lord alone did "lead them!" On the other hand, how dreadfully is his indignation defcribed; "I will be unto them as a "lion, as a leopard by the way will I observe them. I "will meet them as a bear that is bereaved of her "whelps, and I will rent the caul of their heart." A little afterwards the fcene fuddenly changes, and divine favour is painted by the following fimilitudes? "I will be as the dew unto Judæa; he shall grow as "the lily; his branches fhall fpread, and his beauty "fhall be as the olive-tree, and his fmell like Mount "Libanus." Menander himself, that juft characterizer of human life, has not given us a more apt and lively comparison than the following: As the climbing a fandy way is to the feet of the aged, so is a wife full of "words to a quiet man.' Nor has one of our Grecian poets spoken fo feelingly, fo eloquently, or fo elegantly of beauty, as the Emperor Solomon of his miftress, or bride, in images perfectly original and new:

66

66

Thy hair," fays he, " is as a flock of goats that appear from Mount Gilead; thy teeth are like a flock "of sheep that are even fhorn, which come up from

4

"the

"the washing :" by which fimilitude their exact equality, evenness, and whiteness, are juftly represented. "Thy neck is like the tower of David, builded for an 66 armoury, whereon there hang a thousand bucklers, "all shields of mighty men :" that is, straight and tall, adorned with golden chains and the richest jewels of the East, "Thy two breasts are like two young roes “that are twins, which feed among the lilies:" the exquifite elegance and propriety of which fimilitudes need not be pointed out, and cannot be excelled.

I have purposely referved one comparison for a conclufion, not only for the fake of its beauty and justness, but because it describes a friendship fo different from the conftancy which I hope will ever be the character of yours and mine. "My brethren," fays the writer, "have dealt deceitfully with me. They are like tor66 rents which when fwoln and increased with winter "showers and the meltings of ice, promise great and "unfailing plenty of waters; but in the times of vio"lent heats, fuddenly are parched up and difappear.. "The traveller in the deferts of Arabia feeks for them " in vain ; the troops of Sheba looked, the caravans of "Tema waited for them: they came to the accuftom"ed fprings for relief; they were confounded, they 66 perished with thirst."

In giving you thefe fhort fpecimens of Jewish poefy, I think I may compare myfelf to thofe fpies which the above-mentioned Mofes difpatched, to difcover the country he intended to conquer; and who brought from thence, as evidences of its fruitfulness, the most delicious figs and pomegranates, and a branch with one cluster of grapes, "fo large and weighty," fays the hiftorian,

G. 3

torian, "that they bare it between two upon a staff." Farewell.

Ꮓ

No. LVIII. Saturday, May 25, 1753.

Damnant quod non intelligunt.

They condemn what they do not understand.

Cic.

EURIPIDES, having prefented Socrates with the writings of Heraciltus, a philofopher famed for involution and obfcurity, inquired afterwards his opinion of their merit. "What I understand," faid Socrates, "I find "to be excellent; and, therefore, believe that to be of equal value which I cannot understand."

The reflection of every man who reads this paffage will fuggeft to him the difference between the practice of Socrates, and that of modern critics: Socrates, who had, by long obfervation upon himfelf and others, difcovered the weakness of the strongest, and the dimness of the most enlightened intellect, was afraid to decide haftily in his own favour, or to conclude that an author had written without meaning, because he could not immediately catch his ideas; he knew that the faults of books are often more jufly imputable to the reader, who fometimes wants attention, and fometimes penetration; whofe underftanding is often obftructed by preju

dice, and often diffipated by remiffnefs; who comes fometimes to a new study, unfurnished with knowledge previously neceffary; and finds difficulties infuperable, for want of ardour fufficient to encounter them.

:

Obfcurity and clearness are relative terms: to some readers scarce any book is eafy, to others not many are difficult and furely they, whom neither any exuberant praise bestowed by others, nor any eminent conquefts over stubborn problems, have entitled to exalt themfelves above the common orders of mankind, might condefcend to imitate the candour of Socrates; and where they find inconteftible proofs of fuperior genius, be content to think that there is justness in the connection which they cannot trace, and cogency in the reafoning which they cannot comprehend.

This diffidence is never more reasonable, than in the perufal of the authors of antiquity; of those whose works have been the delight of ages, and tranfmitted as the great inheritance of mankind from one generation to another furely, no man can, without the utmost arrogance, imagine, that he brings any fuperiority of understanding to the perufal of thefe books which have been preferved in the devastation ofcities, and snatched up from the wreck of nations; which thofe who fled before barbarians have been careful to carry off in the hurry of migration, and of which barbarians have repented the deftruction. If in books thus made venerable by the uniform attestation of fucceffive ages, any paffages fhall appear unworthy of that praise which they have formerly received; let us not immediately determine, that they owed their reputation to dulnefs or bibut fufpect at least that our ancestors had fome

gotry;

*

reasons for their opinions, and that our ignorance of those reasons makes us differ from them.

It often happens, that an author's reputation is endangered in fucceeding times, by that which raised the loudest applause among his cotemporaries: nothing is read with greater pleasure than allufions to recent facts, reigning opinions, or prefent controverfies; but when facts are forgotten, and controverfies extinguished, these favourite touches lose all their graces; and the author in his descent to posterity must be left to the mercy of chance, without any power of afcertaining the memory of those things, to which he owed his luckieft thoughts and his kindeft reception.

On fuch occafions, every reader should remember the diffidence of Socrates, and repair by his candour the injuries of time; he should impute the feeming defects of his author to fome chafm of intelligence, and fuppofe,. that the fenfe which is now weak was once freble, and the expreffion which is now dubious, formerly determi

nate.

How much the mutilation of ancient hiftory has ta ken away from the beauty of poetical performances, may be conjectured from the light which a lucky commentator fometimes effufes, by the recovery of an incident that had been long forgotten. Thus, in the third book of Horace, Juno's denunciations against those that should prefume to raise again the walls of Troy, could. for many ages pleafe only by fplendid images and. fwelling language, of which no man discovered the use or propriety, till Le Fevre, by fhewing on what occafion the Ode was written, changed wonder to rational delight. Many paffages yet undoubtedly. remain in the fame author, which an exacter knowledge of the incidents.