From this to that, from that to this he flies, I have (as I think I formerly told you) a very good opinion of Mr. Rowe's ixth book of Lucan: indeed * he amplifies too much, as well as Brebœuf, the famous French imitator. If I remember right, he fometimes takes the whole comment into the text of the verfion, as particularly in line 808. Utque folet pariter totis fe effundere fignis Corycii preffura croci.And in the place you quote, he makes of those two lines in the Latin, Vidit *Rowe's tranflation of Lucan has certainly never met with the popularity and applause it deferved. It is one of the few translations that is better than its original. I venture to say the fame of three more tranflations; namely, of Hampton's Polybius; of Pitt's Vida; and of Melmoth's Pliny. Brebeuf, fays VigneulMarville, was Lucano Lucanior. Horace was the favourite of Brebœuf in his youth, as was Lucan of his friend M. Gautier. They difputed fo frequently and fo warmly on the preference due to each of their favourites, that they agreed to give these authors a very attentive reading. The confequence was, they became mutual converts; Brebœuf became intoxicated with the love of Lucan, and Gautier of Horace. Melanges, v. i. p. 25. These Melanges are, I perceive, become of late a popular book. Dr. Campbell, above fifty years ago, was the perfon who I remember first recommended them to me, and occafioned me to give feveral quotations from them. They have more learning than the Menagiana, or indeed than any of the numerous Ana, so much at prefent in vogue. Bayle was fond of them, frequently quotes them in his Dictionary, and in his Letters, 1699; where he was the first who informs us of the real name of the author, Dom. Bonaventure d' Argonne, Prior of the Carthufians of Gaillon. Vidit quanta fub nocte jaceret no less than eight in English. What you observe, fure, cannot be an Error-Sphæ ricus, ftrictly speaking, either according to the Ptolemaic, or our Copernican fyftem; Tycho Brahe himself will be on the tranflator's fide. For Mr. Rowe here fays no more, than that he looked down on the rays of the fun, which Pompey might do, even though the body of the fun were above him. You can't but have remarked what a journey Lucan here makes Cato take for the fake of his fine defcriptions. From Cyrene he travels by land, for no better reason than this; Hæc eadem fuadebat hiems, quæ clauferat æquor. The winter's effects on the fea, it feems, were more to be dreaded than all the ferpents, whirlwinds, fands, etc. by land, which immediately after he paints out in his speech to the foldiers: then he fetches a compass a vast way round about, to the Nafamones and Jupiter Ammon's temple, purely to ridicule the oracles and Labienus must pardon me, if I do not believe him when he says-fors obtulit, et fortuna viæ— either Labienus, or the map, is very much mistaken here. Thence he returns back to the Syrtes (which he might have taken first in his way to Utica) and fo to Leptis Minor, where our author leaves him; who feems to have made Cato fpeak his own mind, when he tells his army-Ire fat eft-no matter whither. I am Your, etc, LETTER XXIII. FROM MR. CROMWELL. Nov. 20, 1710. THE HE fyftem of Tycho Brahe (were it true, as it is novel) could have no room here: Lucan, with the rest of the Latin poets, feems to follow Plato; whose order of the fpheres is clear in Cicero, De natura Deorum, De fomnio Scipionis, and in Macrobius. The feat of the Semidei manes is Platonic too, for Apulius De deo Socratis affigns the fame to the Genii, viz. the region of the Air for their intercourse with gods and men; fo that, I fancy, Rowe mistook the fituation, and I can't be reconciled to Look down on the fun's rays. I am glad you agree with me about the latitude he takes; and wish you had told me, if the fortilegi, and fatidici, could license his invective against priests; but, I suppose, you think them (with Helena) undeferving of your protection. I agree with you in Lucan's errors, and the cause of them, his poetic descriptions; for the Romans then knew the coast of Africa from Cyrene (to the fouth-east of which lies Ammon toward Egypt) to Leptis and Utica: but, pray, remember how your Homer nodded, while Ulyffes flept, and waking knew not where he was, in the fhort paffage from Corcyra to Ithaca. I like Trapp's 24 Trapp's verfions* for their juftnefs; his Pfalm is excellent, the prodigies in the firft Georgic judicious (whence I conclude that 'tis cafier to turn Virgil justly in blank verse, than rhyme). The eclogue of Gallus, and fable of Phaeton, pretty well; but he is very faulty in his numbers; the fate of Phaeton might run thus, The blafted Phaeton with blazing hair, I am LETTER XXIV. Your, etc. Nov. 24, 1710. so make use of that freedom and familiarity of T ftyle, which we have taken up in our correfpondence, and which is more properly talking upon paper, than writing; I will tell you without any preface, that I never took Tycho Brahe for one of the ancients, or in the least an acquaintance of Lucan's; nay, 'tis a mercy on this occafion that I do not give you * Of all the parts of Trapp's translation of Virgil, that of his Georgics is moft blamable and profaic. The Author of the Prelections loft himfelf much in this tranflation of Virgil; yet many of his notes fhew that he understood and felt his author: and his Prelections may be read with advantage by young fcholars. His Latin tranflation of Milton was a woful performance. you an account of his life and conversation; as how he lived fome years like an inchanted knight in a certain island, with a tale of a King of Denmark's mistrefs that fhall be nameless-But I have compaffion on you, and would not for the world you should stay any longer among the Genii and Semidei Manes, you know where; for if once you get so near the moon, Sappho will want your prefence in the clouds and inferior regions; not to mention the great lofs Drurylane will sustain, when Mr. C is in the milkyway. These celestial thoughts put me in mind of the priests you mention, who are a fort of fortilegi in one fense, because in their lottery there are more blanks than prizes; the adventurers being at first in an uncertainty, whereas the fetters-up are fure of fomething. Priests indeed in their character, as they represent God, are facred; and fo are constables, as they represent the King; but you will own a great many of them are very odd fellows, and the devil of any likeness in them. Yet I can affure you, I honour the good as much as I deteft the bad, and I think, that in condemning thefe, we praise those. The tranflations from Ovid I have not fo good an opinion of as you; because I think they have little of the main characteristic of this author, a graceful eafiness. For let the fenfe be ever so exactly rendered, unless an author looks like himself, in his air, habit, and manner, 'tis a difguife, and not tranflation. But as to the Pfalm, I think David is much more beholden to |