ore him. In short, he sets his heart upon it, and with wonderful
care makes his business sure; that is, in plain English, neither to be
blamed nor praised.--I could, says my author, find out some blemishes
in Homer; and am perhaps as naturally inclined to be disgusted at a
fault as another man; but, after all, to speak impartially, his
failings are such, as are only marks of human frailty: they are little
mistakes, or rather negligences, which have escaped his pen in the
fervour of his writing; the sublimity of his spirit carries it with me
against his carelessness; and though Apollonius his "Argonauts," and
Theocritus his "Idyllia," are more free from errors, there is not any
man of so false a judgment, who would chuse rather to have been
Apollonius or Theocritus, than Homer.

It is worth our consideration a little, to examine how much these
hypercritics in English poetry differ from the opinion of the Greek
and Latin judges of antiquity; from the Italians and French, who have
succeeded them; and, indeed, from the general taste and approbation of
all ages. Heroic poetry, which they condemn, has ever been esteemed,
and ever will be, the greatest work of human nature: In that rank has
Aristotle placed it; and Longinus is so full of the like expressions,
that he abundantly confirms the other's testimony. Horace as plainly
delivers his opinion, and particularly praises Homer in these verses:

_Trojani Belli scriptorem, maxime Lolli,
Dum tu declamas Romae, Praeneste relegi:
Qui quid sit pulchrum, quid turpe, quid utile, quid non,
Plenius ac melius Chrysippo et Crantore dicit._

And in another place, modestly excluding himself from the number of
poets, because he only writ odes and satires, he tells you a poet is
such an one,

--_Cui mens divinior, atque os
Magna soniturum._

Quotations are superfluous in an established truth; otherwise I could
reckon up, amongst the moderns, all the Italian commentators on
Aristotle's book of poetry; and, amongst the French, the greatest of
this age, Boileau and Rapin; the latter of which is alone sufficient,
were all other critics lost, to teach anew the rules of writing. Any
man, who will seriously consider the nature of an epic poem, how it
agrees with that of poetry in general, which is to instruct and to
delight, what actions it describes, and what persons they are chiefly
whom it informs, will find it a work which indeed is full of
difficulty in the attempt, but adm