e might gain materials to fill
up his subject, and that he might pay a compliment to his Patron by some
digression on the merit of his Ancestors, as well as by an encomium on
his personal qualities[86]. If these considerations do not fully
apologize for the excursions of this Great Genius, they render them at
least more excusible in him, than the same liberties without an equal
inducement can possibly be in any of his imitators.

[Footnote 85: Mr. West. See the Preface and Notes of his
Translation.]

[Footnote 86: It is generally to be supposed, that a Poet in a
panegyrical address to his Patron will select with solicitude
every circumstance in his character and actions which excite
approbation, in order to render his encomium as perfect and
compleat as possible. When therefore he is unexpectedly engaged to
retouch a subject which he had formerly discussed, we ought to
expect, either that he will fix upon _new points of panegyric_,
which is always a matter of the greatest difficulty; or we must
indulge him in the liberty of calling in _adventitious
assistance_, when he is deprived of other materials. This appears
on many occasions to have been the case of Pindar. No less than
four of his Odes are inscribed to Hiero King of Syracuse, all on
account of his victories in the Games of Greece. Two Odes
immediately following the first to Hiero are addressed to Theron
King of Agrigentum; Psaumis of Camarina is celebrated in the 4th
and 5th Olympic; and the 9th and 10th are filled with the praises
of Agesidamus the Locrian. Every reader must make _great
allowances_ for a Poet, who was so often obliged to retouch and to
_diversify_ subjects of one kind.]

After all however we must acknowledge, that Pindar has rendered his
pieces obscure on many occasions by giving too much scope to a wild
imagination; and perhaps the true reason for which he took this liberty
was that he _imitated the example of his Predecessors_. He had seen the
first Lyric Poets indulging the boldest sallies of Fancy, and applying
to particular purposes the Mythology of their country; and as their
writings had been held in admiration by succeeding ages, instead of
being exposed to the researches of criticism, he was encouraged to
proceed in the same course, by the expectation of obtaining a similar
reward. From a passage formerly quoted, it would appear that Pindar
thought h