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fuade him to ftay; and that he told her, "That the 66 ague he was feized with was not a fever of the body, but "of the place:" it follows thus; " She let me go, fays he, "with giving me a ftrict charge of my health: now I, "who know that her life is involved in mine, begin to "make much of myself, that I may preferve her; and I "lofe the privilege, my age has given me, of being more "conftant and refolute in many things, when I call to "mind, that there is a young lady who is interested in "this old man's health; and, ince I cannot perfuade her "to love me more courageoufly, fhe makes me more fol"licitoufly to love myfelf; for we must allow fomething "to honest affections; and fometimes, though occafions "importune us to the contrary, we must call back life,

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even though it be with torment; we must hold the "foul within our teeth, fince the rule of living amongst good men is not fo long as they pleafe, but as long as they ought he that loves not his wife and his friend "fo well as to prolong his life for them, but will obfti"nately die, is too delicate and too effeminate: the foul "muft impofe this upon itself, when the utility of our "friends does fo require: we muft fometimes lend our"felves to our friends, and, when we would die for our"felves, muft break that refolution for their fakes: it is

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a teftimony of a noble courage to return to life for "the fake of another's, as many excellent perfons have "done: and it is a mark of fingular good-nature to pre"ferve old age (of which the greateft convenience is an "indifference for its duration, and a more flout and dif"dainful ufe of life) when a man perceives that this of"fice is pleafing, agreeable, and ufeful to fome perfon "whom we are very fond of; and a man reaps a very

pleafing reward from it; for what can be more delight

ful than to be fo dear to one's wife, as, upon her ac"count, to become dear to one's felf? Thus has my "Paulina imputed to me not only her fears, but my "own; it has not been fufficient for me to confider "how refolutely I could dic, but I have alfo confidered "how unable fhe would be to bear it: I am entorced to live, and fonietimes to live is magnanimity" Thefe are his own excellent words, according to his ufual manner. CHAP.

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CHA P. XXXVI.

Of three most excellent Men.

Homer preferred to the great. eft geniuses.

F I should be afked who I prefer, of all the men that have come to my knowledge, I would anfwer, that I think three more excellent than "all the reft :" one of them Homer; not but Aristotle and Varro, for example, were perhaps as learned as he; and poffibly Virgil might compare with him, even in his own art; I leave this to be determined by fuch as know them both; I, who, for my part, understand but one of them, can only fay this, according to my poor talent, "that I do not believe the "Mufes themselves ever furpaffed the Roman."

Tale facit carmen dollâ teftudine, quale
Cynthius impofitis temperat articulis *.

As rapt'rous joys his lute and verfe inspire,
As when we hear Apollo's voice and lyre.

And yet in this judgment we are not to forget, that it is
chiefly from Homer that Virgil derives his excellence;
that he is his guide and teacher; and that the Iliad only
has fupplied him with body and matter, out of which to
compofe his great and divine neis.
and divine Æneis. I do not reckon
upon that alone, but take in feveral other circumstances
that render this poet admirable to me, even as it were
above human condition : and, in truth, I often wonder,
that he who has erected, and by his authority given fo
many deities reputation in the world, was not deified
himself, being both blind and poor, and fo well ac-
quainted with the fciences, before they were reduced
into rule and certain obfervations, that all those who have
fince taken upon them to establish governments, to carry
on wars, and to write either of philofophy or religion, of
what fect foever, or of the arts, have made use of him, as

Propert. lib. ii. eleg. ult. ver, 79, 80,

of a most perfect inftructor, in the knowledge of all things; and of his books as a nursery of all forts of learning:

Qui quid fit pulchrum, quid turpe, quid utile, quid non,
Plenius ac meliùs Chryfippo ac Crantore dixit *.

Who hath what's brave, what's bafe, what's hurtful, and what's good,

Clearer than Crantor or Chryfippus fhew'd.

and as this other fays,

a quo ceu fonte perenni

Vatum Pieriis labra rigantur aquis †.

At that clear spring the poets take their fwill,
Which ever flows from the Pierian hill.

and another,

Ad Heliconiadum comites, quorum unus Homerus
Aftra potitus.

Of all the poets, Homer is alone

Judg'd the most worthy of the Mufes' throne.

and another,

cujufque ex ore profufo

Omnis pofteritas latices in carmina duxit,
Amnemque in tenues aufa eft deducere rivos,
Unius fæcunda bonis §.

from whofe abundant fpring

Succeeding poets draw the fongs they fing;

From him they take, from him adorn their themes,
And into little channels cut his streams;

Rich in his store

It is contrary to the order of nature that he has made the most excellent production that can poffibly be; for

Hor. lib. i. epift. 2. ver. 3.
Lucret. lib. iii. ver. 1050.

Ovid. Amor. lib. iii. eleg. 9. ver. 25. § Manil. Aftron. lib. ii. ver. 8, &c.

the

the ordinary birth of things is imperfect; they thrive and gather ftrength by growing: whereas he has rendered even the infancy of poefy, and of several other fciences, mature, perfect, and complete. For this reafon he may be called the firft and the laft of the poets, according to the fair testimony antiquity has left us of him, "that, as there was none before him whom he could

imitate, so there has been none fince that could imi*tate him." His words, according to Ariftotle †, are the only words that have motion and action, and are the only fubftantial words. Alexander the Great, having found a rich little coffer amongst Darius's fpoils, gave order it "fhould be referved for him to keep his Homer in;" faying, "that he was the best and and most faithful counsellor he had in his military affairs §. For the fame reason it was that Cleomenes, the fon of Anaxandridas, said, “that he was the Lacedæmonian poet, "because he was the best master for the difcipline of war ||. This fingular and particular commendation is alfo left of him in the judgment of Plutarch, "that he is the only "author in the world that never glutted nor difgufted his "readers, prefenting himself always in different lights, "and always flourishing in fome new grace ¶." That merry droll Alcibiades, having afked one who pretended to learning for a book of Homer, gave him a box on the ear because he had none, which he thought as fcandalous as we should for one of our priests to be without a Breviary. Xenophanes complained one day to Hiero, the tyrant of Syracufe, "that he was fo poor he had not

wherewithal to maintain two fervants:" the tyrant replied, "Homer, who was much poorer than you are**, "keeps above ten thousand now he is dead." What did Panarius leave unfaid++ when he called Plato the Homer of philofophers? Befides, what glory can be compared to his? Nothing is fo frequent in men's mouths as his

24.

• Velleü Paterculi Hift. lib. i. cap. 5.

+ Arift. de Politica, cap.

↑ Plin. Nat. Hift. lib. vii. cap. 29. § Plutarch, in the life of Alexander, cap. 2. In the Notable fayings of the Lacedæmonians. Plutarch, in his treatife of Loquacity, chap. 5. life of Alcibiades, chap. 3. ancient kings, &c. at the word Hiero. sap. 32.

+ Idem, in the Idem, in the Notable fayings of the tt Cic. Tufc. Quæft. lib. i.

003

name

name and works; nothing fo known and received as Troy, Helen, and the war about her, when perhaps there was never any fuch thing. Our children are ftill called by names that he feigned above three thousand years ago. Who is ignorant of the ftory of Hector and Achilles? Not only fome particular families, but most nations feek their original in his inventions. Mahomet, the fecond of that name, emperor of the Turks, writing to our Pope Pius the fecond; "I am aftonifhed, fays he, that the "Italians fhould appear againft me, confidering that we "have our common defcent from the Trojans; and that "it concerns me, as well as it does them, to revenge the blood of Hector upon the Greeks, whom they coun"tenance against me.' Is it not a noble farce wherein kings, republics, and emperors have fo many ages played their parts, and to which all this vaft univerfe ferves for a theatre? Seven Grecian cities contended for his birth, fo much honour did he derive even from his obfcurity. Smyrna, Rhodus, Colophon, Salamis, Chios, Argos, Athens*. The second of my three perfonages is Alexander the Great for whoever will confider the age at which he began his enterprizes; the fmall means by which he effected fo glorious a defign; the authority he obtained, at fo flender an age, with the greatest and most experienced captains of the world, by whom he was followed; and the extraordinary favour wherewith fortune embraced him, and rendered him fuccessful in fo many hazardous, I had almost said rash designs of his !

Alexander the Great, the fecond of these excellent perfonages.

impellens quicquid fibi fumma petenti,

Obftaret, gaudenfque viam feciffe ruinâ †.

Whofe high defigns no hoftile force could stay,
And who by ruin lov'd to clear his way.

That grandeur, to have, at the age of thirty-three years, paffed victorious through the whole habitable earth, and in half a life to have attained to the utmost effort

• Aul, Gell. lib. iii, cap. 11.

+ Lucan. lib. i. ver. 149, 150.

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