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Such a habit will prove fatal to all genuine compofition. Infinitely better it is to have fomething that is our own, though of moderate beauty, than to affect to fhine in borrowed ornaments, which will, at laft, betray the utter poverty of our genius. On thefe heads of compofing, correcting, reading, and imitating, I advife every ftudent of oratory to confult what Quinctilian has delivered in the Tenth Book of his Inftitutions, where he will find a variety of excellent obfervations and direc tions, that well deserve attention. Blair.

37. STYLE must be adapted to the

Subject.

In the fifth place, it is an obvious but material rule, with respect to Style, that we always ftudy to adapt it to the fubject, and alfo to the capacity of our hearers, if we are to speak in public. Nothing merits the name of eloquent or beautiful, which is not fuited to the occafion, and to the perfons to whom it is addreffed. It is to the laft degree awkward and abfurd, to attempt a poetical florid Style, on occañons when it fhould be our business only to argue and reafon; or to speak with elaborate pomp of expreffion, before perfons who comprehend nothing of it, and who can only ftare at our unfeasonable magnificence. These are defects not fo much in point of Style, as, what is much worfe, in point of common fenfe. When we begin to write or fpeak, we ought previously to fix in our minds a clear conception of the end to be aimed at ; to keep this iteadily in our view, and to fuit our Style to it. If we do not facrifice to this great object every ill-timed ornament that may occur to our fancy, we are unpardonable; and though children and fools may admire, men of sense will laugh at us and our Style.

Ibid.

§ 38. Attention to STYLE must not detract
from Attention to THOUGHT.
In the last place, I cannot conclude the
fabject without this admonition, that, in
any cafe, and on any occafion, attention
to Style must not engrofs us fo much, as
to detract from a higher degree of atten-
tion to the Thoughts. "Čuram verbo-

rum," fays the great Roman Critic, " rerum volo effe folicitudinem *." A direction the more neceffary, as the pre

«To your expreffion be attentive; but about "your matter be folicitous."

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fent tafte of the age, in writing, feems to
lean more to Style than to Thought. It
is much easier to dress up trivial and com-
mon fentiments with fome beauty of ex-
preffion, than to afford a fund of vigorous,
ingenious, and ufeful thoughts. The lat-
ter requires true genius; the former may
be attained by induftry, with the help of
very fuperficial parts. Hence, we find fo
many writers frivolously rich in Style, but
wretchedly poor in fentiment. The public
ear is now fo much accustomed to a cor-
rect and ornamented Style, that no writer
can, with fafety, neglect the ftudy of it.
But he is a contemptible one, who does not
look to fomething beyond it; who does
not lay the chief stress upon his matter, and
employ fuch ornaments of Style to recom-
are manly, not foppifh.
mend it, as
"Majore animo," fays the writer whom
I have fo often quoted, "aggredienda est
eloquentia; quæ fi toto corpore valet,
"ungues polire et capillum componere,
exiftimabit ad curam fuam pertinere.
"Ornatus et virilis et fortis et fanctus fit;
"nec effeminatam levitatem et fuco emen-
❝titum colorem amet; fanguine et viri-
"bus niteat
Ibid.

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$ 39. Of the Rife of Poetry among the ROMANS.

The Romans, in the infancy of their ftate, were entirely rude and unpolishedThey came from shepherds; they were increased from the refufe of the nations around them; and their manners agreed with their original. As they lived wholly on tilling their ground at home, or on plunder from their neighbours, war was their bufinefs, and agriculture the chief art they followed. Long after this, when they had fpread their conquefts over a great part of Italy, and began to make a confiderable figure in the world, even their great men retained a roughness, which they raised into a virtue, by calling it Roman Spirit; and which might often much better have been called Roman Barbarity. It seems to me, that there was more of aufterity than jus tice, and more of infolence than courage,

A higher spirit ought to annimate those "who ftudy eloquence. They ought to consult "the health and foundness of the whole body, " rather than bend their attention to fuch trifling "objects as paring the nails, and dreffing the "hair. Let ornament be manly and chafte "without effeminate gaiety, or artificial colouring, let it fhine with the glow of health and "ftrength."

in fome of their most celebrated actions. However that be, this is certain, that they were at first a nation of foldiers and hufbandmen roughnefs was long an applauded character among them; and a fort of rufticity reigned, even in their fenatehoufe.

In a nation originally of fuch a temper as this, taken up almost always in extending their territories, very often in fettling the balance of power among themfelves, and not unfrequently in both thefe at the fame time, it was long before the politer arts made any appearance; and very long before they took root or flourished to any degree. Poetry was the firft that did fo; but fuch a poetry, as one might expect among a warlike, bufied, unpolifhed people.

Not to enquire about the fongs of triamph, mentioned even in Romulus's time, there was certainly fomething of poetry among them in the next reign under Numa: a prince, who pretended to converfe with the Mufes, as well as with Egeria; and who might poffibly himself have made the verfes which the Salian prieits fung in his time. Pythagoras, either in the fame reign, or if you please fome time after, gave the Romans a tincture of poetry as well as of philofophy; for Cicero affures us, that the Pythagoreans made great ufe of poetry and mufic: and probably they, like our old Druids, delivered moft of their precepts in verfe. Indeed the chief employment of poetry, in that and the following ages, among the Romans, was of a religious kind. Their very prayers, and perhaps their whole liturgy, was poetical. They had alfo a fort of prophetic or facred writers, who feem to have wrote generally in verfe; and were so numerous, that there were above two thoufand of their volumes remaining even to Auguftus's time. They had a kind of plays too, in thefe early times, derived from what they had feen of the Tufcan actors, when fent for to Rome to expiate a plague that raged in the city. These feem to have been either like our dumb fhews, or else a kind of extempore farces; a thing to this day a good deal in ufe all over Italy, and in Tuscany. In a more particular manner add to thefe, that extempore kind of jefting dialogues begun at their harvest and vintage feafts; and carried on fo rudely and abufively afterwards, as to occafion a very fevere law to restrain their licentioufnefs-and thofe

lovers of poetry and good eating, who feem to have attended the tables of the richer fort, much like the old provincial poets, or our own British bards, and fang there, to fome inftrument of mufic, the atchievements of their ancestors, and the noble deeds of those who had gone before them, to inflame others to follow their great examples.

The names of almost all these poets fleep in peace with all their works; and, if we may take the word of the other Roman writers of a better age, it is no great loss to us. One of their best poets represents them as very obfcure and very contemptible; one of their best hiftorians avoids quoting them, as too barbarous for politer ears; and one of their moft judicious emperors ordered the greateft part of their writings to be burnt, that the world. might be troubled with them no longer.

All these poets therefore may very well be dropt in the account: there being nothing remaining of their works; and probably no merit to be found in them, if they had remained. And so we may date the beginning of the Roman poetry from Livius Andronicus, the firft of their poets of whom any thing does remain to us; and from whom the Romans themselves feem to have dated the beginning of their poetry, even in the Auguftan age.

The firft kind of poetry that was followed with any fuccefs among the Romans, was that for the flage. They were a very religious people; and ftage plays in thofe times made no inconfiderable part in their public devotions; it is hence, perhaps, that the greatest number of their oldest poets, of whom we have any remains, and indeed almoft all of them, are dramatic poets. Spence,

$40. Of LIVIUS, NEVIUS, and EN

NIUS.

The foremoft in this lift, were Livius, Nævius, and Ennius. Livius's first play (and it was the firft written play that ever appeared at Rome, whence perhaps Horace calls him Livius Scriptor) was acted in the 514th year from the building of the city. He feems to have got whatever reputation he had, rather as their first, than as a good writer; for Cicero, who admired thefe old poets more than they were afterwards admired, is forced to give up Livius; and fays, that his pieces did not deferve a fecond reading. He was for fome time the fole writer for the stage; till Nævius rofe to rival him, and proha

bly

bly far exceeded his mafter. Nævius ventured too on an epic, or rather an hiftorical poem, on the first Carthaginian war? Ennius followed his fteps in this, as well as in the dramatic way; and feems to have excelled him as much as he had excelled Livius; so much at leaft, that Lucretius fays of him, "That he was the first of their poets who deferved a lafting crown from the Mufes." Thefe three poets were actors as well as poets; and feem all of them to have wrote whatever was wanted for the ftage, rather than to have confulted their own turn or genius. Each of them published, fometimes tragedies, fometimes comedies, and fometimes a kind of dramatic fatires; fuch fatires, I fuppofe, as had been occafioned by the extempore poetry that had been in fafhion the century before them. All the most celebrated dramatic writers of antiquity excel only in one kind. There is no tragedy of Terence, or Menander; and no comedy of Actius, or Euripides. But thefe firit dramatic poets, among the Romans, attempted every thing indifferently; just as the prefent fancy, or the demand of the people, led them.

ticular; but improved their comedy fo much beyond him, that he is named by Cicero, as perhaps the best of all the comic writers they ever had. This high character of him was not for his language, which is given up by Cicero himfelf ás faulty and incorrect; but either for the dignity of his characters, or the strength Ibid. and weight of his fentiments.

42. Of TERENCE.

Terence made his first appearance when Cæcilius was in high reputation. It is faid, that when he offered his first play to the Ediles, they fent him with it to Cæcilius for his judgment of the piece. Cæcilius was at fupper when he came to him; and as Terence was dreft very meanly, he was placed on a little ftool, and defired to read away: but upon his having read a very few lines only, Cæcilius altered his behaviour, and placed him next himself at the table. They all admired him as a rifing genius; and the applaufe he received from the public, anfwered the compliments they had made him in private. His Eunuchus, in particular, was acted twice in one day; and he was paid more for that piece than ever had been given before for a comedy: and yet, by the way, it was not much above thirty pounds. We may fee by that, and the rest of his plays which remain to us, to what a degree of exactness and elegance the Roman comedy was arrived in his time. There is a beautiful fimplicity, which reigns through all his works. There is no fearching after wit, and no oftentation of ornament in him. All his fpeakers feem to fay just what they should say, and no more. The ftory is always going on; and goes on just as it ought. Spence.

The quiet the Romans enjoyed after the fecond Punic war, when they had humbled their great rival Carthage; and their carrying on their conquefts afterwards, without any great difficulties, into Greece, gave them leifure and opportunities for making very great improvements in their poetry. Their dramatic writers began to act with more fteadinefs and judgment; they followed one point of view; they had the benefit of the excellent patterns the Greek writers had fet them; and formed themselves on thofe models.

41. Of PLAUTUS.

Plautus was the firft that confulted his own genius, and confined himfelf to that fpecies of dramatic writing, for which he was the best fitted by nature. Indeed, his comedy (like the old comedy at Athens) is of a ruder kind, and far enough from the polish that was afterwards given it among the Romans. His jefts are often rough, and his wit coarfe; but there is a trength and fpirit in him, that make one read him with pleasure at least he is much to be commended for being the first that confidered what he was moit capable of excelling in, and not endeavouring to fhine in too many different ways at once. Crciliu. followed his example in this par

This whole

age, long before Terence and long after, is rather remarkable for ftrength than beauty in writing. Were we to compare it with the following age, the compofitions of this would appear to thofe of the Auguftan, as the Doric order in building if compared with the Corinthian; but Terence's work is to thofe of the Auguftan age, as the Ionic is to the Corinthian order: it is not fo ornamented, or fo rich; but nothing can be more exact and pleafing. The Roman language itself, in his hands, feems to be improved beyond what one could ever expect; and to be advanced almoft a hundred years forwarder than the times he lived in. There are some who look upon this as one of the ftrangeft phænomena in the learned world: but it is a phænoX

menon

menon which may be well enough explained from Cicero. He fays, "that in feveral families the Roman language was spoken in perfection, even in thofe times;" and inftances particularly in the families of the Lælii and the Scipio's. Every one knows that Terence was extremely intimate in both these families: and as the language of his pieces is that of familiar converfation, he had indeed little more to do, than to write as they talked at their tables. Perhaps, too, he was obliged to Scipio and Lælius, for more than their bare converfations. That is not at all impoffible; and indeed the Romans themfelves feem generally to have imagined, that he was aflifted by them in the writing part too. If it was really fo, that will account ftill better for the elegance of the language in his plays: because Terence himself was born out of Italy; and though he was brought thither very young, he received the firft part of his education in a family, where they might not fpeak with fo much correctnefs as Lælius and Scipio had been used to from their very infancy. Thus much for the language of Terence's plays: as for the reft, it feems, from what he fays himfelf, that his moft ufual method was to take his plans chiefly, and his characters wholly, from the Greek comic poets. Thofe who fay that he tranflated all the comedies of Menander, certainly carry the matter too far. They were probably more than Terence ever wrote. Indeed this would be more likely to be true of Afranius than Terence; though, I fuppofe, it would fcarce hold, were we to take both of them together.

$43. Of AFRANIUS.

Spence.

We have a very great lofs in the works of Afranius: for he was regarded, even in the Auguftan Age, as the molt exact imitator of Menander. He owns himfelf, that he had no restraint in copying him; or any other of the Greek comic writers, wherever they fet him a good example. Afranius's ftories and perfons were Roman, as Terence's were Grecian. This was looked upon as fo material a point in thofe days, that it made two different fpecies of comedy. Thofe on a Greek story were called, Palliata; and thofe on a Roman Togatæ. Terence excelled all the Roman poets in the former, and Afranius in the latter.

Ibid.

$44. Of PACUVIUS and ACTIUS.

About the fame time that comedy was improved fo confiderably, Pacuvius and Attius (one a contemporary of Terence, and the other of Afranius) carried tragedy as far towards perfection as it ever arrived in Roman hands. The ftep from Ennius to Pacuvius was a very great one; fo great, that he was reckoned, in Cicero's time, the best of all their tragic poets. Pacuvius, as well as Terence, enjoyed the acquaintance and friendship of Lælius and Scipio: but he did not profit fo much by it, as to the improvement of his language. Indeed his style was not to be the common converfation ftyle, as Terence's was; and all the fiffenings given to it, might take juft as much from its elegance as they added to its dignity. What is remarkable in him, is, that he was almost as eminent for painting as he was for poetry. He made the decorations for his own plays; and Pliny fpeaks of fome paintings by him, in a temple of Hercules, as the most celebrated work of their kind, done by any Roman of condition after Fabius Pictor. Actius began to publish when Pacuvius was leaving off: his language was not fo fine, nor his verfes fo well-turned, even as thofe of his predeceffor. There is a remarkable story of him in an old critic, which, as it may give fome light into their different manners of writing, may be worth relating. Pacuvius, in his old age, retired to Tarentum, to enjoy the foft air and mild winters of that place. As Actius was cbliged, on fome affairs, to make a journey into Afia, he took Tarentum in his way, and flaid there fome days with Pacuvius. It was in this vifit that he read his tragedy of Atreus to him, and defired his opinion of it. Old Pacuvius, after hearing it out, told him very honestly, that the poetry was fonorous and majeftic, but that it seemed to him too stiff and harsh. Actius replied, that he was himself very fenfible of that fault in his writings; but that he was not at all forry for it: "for," fays he, "I have always been of opinion, that it is the fame with writers as with fruits; among which, thofe that are moft foft and palatable, decay the fooneft; whereas thofe of a rough tafte last the longer, and have the finer relish, when once they come to be mellowed by time."-Whether this style ever came to be thus mellowed, I very much doubt; however that was, it is a

point that feems generally allowed, that he and Pacuvius were the two belt tragic poets the Romans ever had. Spence.

$45. Of the Rife of Satire: Of LUCILIUS, LUCRETIUS, and CATULLUS.

All this while, that is, for above one hundred years, the ftage, as you fee, was almot folely in poffeflion of the Roman poets. It was now time for the other kinds of poetry to have their turn; however, the trit that (prung up and flourished to any degree, was ftill a cyon from the fame root. What I mean, is Satire; the produce of the old comedy. This kind of poetry had been attempted in a different manner by fome of the former writers, and in particular by Ennius: but it was fo altered and fo improved by Lucilius, that he was called the inventor of it. This was a kind of poetry wholly of the Roman growth; and the only one they had that was fo; and even as to this, Lucilius improved a good deal by the fide lights he borrowed from the old comedy at Athens. Not long af ter, Lucretius brought their poetry acquainted with philofophy: and Catullus began to fhew the Romans fomething of the excellence of the Greek lyric poets. Lucretius difcovers a great deal of fpirit wherever his fubject will give him leave; and the first moment he fteps a little afide from it, in all his digreffions, he is fuller of life and fire, and appears to have been of a more poetical turn, than Virgil himfelf; which is partly acknowledged in the fine compliment the latter feems to pay him in his Georgics. His fubject often obliges him to go on heavily for an hundred lines together: but wherever he breaks out, he breaks out like lightning from a dark cloud; all at once, with force and brightnefs. His character, in this, agrees with what is faid of him that a philtre he took had given him a frenzy, and that he wrote in his lucid intervals. He and Catullus wrote, when letters in general began to flourish at Rome much more than ever they had done. Catullus was too wife to rival him; and was the most admired of all his cotemporaries, in all the different ways of writing he attempted. His odes perhaps are the leaft valuable part of his works. The ftrokes of fatire in his epigrams are very fevere; and the defcriptions in his Idylliums, very full and picturesque. He paints ftrongly; but all his paintings have more of force

than elegance, and put one more in mind of Homer than Virgil.

With thefe I fhall chufe to close the firft age of the Roman poetry: an age more remarkable for ftrength than for refinement in writing. I have dwelt longer on it perhaps than I ought; but the order and fucceffion of thefe poets wanted much to be fettled: and I was obliged to fay fomething of each of them, because I may have recourfe to each on fome occafion or another, in fhewing you my collection. All that remains to us of the poetical works of this age, are the miscellaneous poems of Catullus; the philofophical poem of Lucretius; fix comedies by Terence; and twenty by Plautus. Of all the reft, there is nothing left us, except fuch paffages from their works as happened to be quoted by the ancient writers, and particularly by Cicero and the old critics.

Ibid.

$46. Of the Criticisms of CICERO, HORACE, and QUINCTILIAN on the above Writers.

The best way to fettle the characters and merits of thefe poets of the firft age, where fo little of their own works remains, is by confidering what is faid of them by the other Roman writers, who were well acquainted with their works. The best of the Roman critics we can confult now, and perhaps the best they ever had, are Cicero, Horace, and Quinctilian. If we compare their fentiments of thefe poets together, we fhall find a difagreement in them; but a difagreement which I think may be accounted for, without any great difficulty. Cicero, (as he lived before the Roman poetry was brought to perfection, and poffibly as no very good judge of poetry himfelf) feems to think more highly of them than the others. He gives up Livius indeed; but then he makes it up in commending Nævius. All the other comic poets he quotes often with refpect; and as to the tragic, he carries it fo far as to feem strongly inclined to oppofe old Ennius to

fchilus, Pacuvius to Sophocles, and Actius to Euripides.-This high notion of the old poets was probably the general fashion in his time; and it continued afterwards (efpecially among the more elderly fort of people) in the Auguftan age; and indeed much longer. Horace, in his epistle to Auguftus, combats it as a vulgar error in his time; and perhaps it was an error from which that prince himself was not

X 2

wholly

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