LYCEUM OF ANCIENT LITERA- general, with admirable art and judg

their mythology allowed, and of which Homer has fo largely availed himfelf, there are fome incidents in the Iliad rather too marvellous even for the poet's own age, and which have too ludicrous an effect for the gravity of the epopea. It may be fufficient to mention the miraculous gift of fpeech conferred on the horfes of Achilles. Perhaps the undiftinguishing admirers of Homer will fatasty theinfelves by refolving the whole into a fupernatural incident, and juftify it by a miracle of a fimilar nature recorded in the facred writings. But the caufes of fuch a phenomenon were by no means fimilar, nor can we admit it in the former cafe as a fullicient reafon for breaking through the order of nature, and encroaching upon the prerogative of the human fpecies. The paffage in the 21ft book, where the river Scamander attacks Achilles, and threatens to overwhelm him with us waves, till Vulcan, at the infligation of Juno, comes down from heaven to chafife the infolence of Scamander, whofe waters he fcorches and dries up with fire, is another incident equally ludicrons, as exceeding the utmoft boundary of fiction. But thefe extravagancies must be attributed to that wildnefs and irregularity of imagination which have diftinguished every great genius from Homer to Shakespeare, and deferve the fame epithet of fplendida peccata which the ancient Fathers of the Chriftian church bestowed on the virtues of the heathen. Indeed, most of the faults of Homer must be afcribed to this exuberance of fancy, and may be compared to the apoftate angels in Milton, who, though with "faded fplendour wan," fill exhibited "excefs of glory obfcured."

Under the third and laft head in which we are to confider the Iliad, we muft notice the narration, the imagery, and the fentiments. In his narrative of events, we have already remarked that Homer is concife, fpirited, and rapid. In his fpeeches he must be admitted to be tedious. But they fhould be confidered as flowing from the characters, as perfett or defective in proportion as they. agree or difigree with the inanners of

thefe who utter them. There is much more dialogue in Homer than in Virgil. What Virgil informs us of by two words of narration, Homer brings about by a fpeech. Such a ftyle as this is the moft ample and artless form of writing, and muft therefore undoubtedly have been the most ancient. It is copying directly MONTHLY MAG. No. 155.

from nature, giving a plain rehearsal of what paffed, or was fuppofed to pafs, in converfation between the perions of whom the author treats. In progress of time, when the art of writing was more ftudied, it was thought more elegant to comprefs the fubftance of converfation into thort diftinct narrative, made by the poet or hiftorian in his own perfon, and to referve direct fpceches for folemn oc cafions only. The fpeeches of Homer are however, upon the whole, characteriftic and lively; and to them we owe, in a great measure, that admirable difplay which he has given of human nature. But it is in the defcriptive parts of his narrative that he more particularly excels. They are fometimes reprefentations of fuch fcenes as we ourfelves may have beheld. At others, they are merely fictitious, but always pleafing. The defcription of the light arifing from the fires of the Grecian camp, in the eighth book, beginning with this line,

''yougave açga qaɛını aμpı sshBIYAY, exhibits as beautiful and exquifite a night fcene as is to be met with in ancient or modern poetry. The celebrated tranfla tion, or rather imitation, of Pope is too well known to be tranfcribed, but it vies with the original in fplendour of diction and poetical ornament. Of fictitious fcenery there is a ftriking fpecimen in the faine book, in the fublinie and picturefque defcription of the almighty thunderer fcaling the heavens, darting through the fkies with the rapidity of lightning, and feating himself at lalt on his throne in awful majetty, while the heavens and the earth tremble under his feet. There is alfo a remarkable example of vivacity and ftrength of defcription in the lamentations of Achilles, when brooding over the injury done him by Agamemnon in depriving him of his fair captive. Indignation, grief, and difdain rend his heart, which feems ready to burft with the conflict of impetuous paffions,

-άνταρ Α'χιλλεὺς Δάκρυσας ἑταρων αφαρ εζετο νόσφι λιας εις Θῖν ἐφ' ἄλος πολιᾶς, ὁρῶν ἐπι δνοπα πόντον, πολλά δε μητρι φίλη υξήσατο χειρας ορέγους.

Lib. i. 1. 347.

The imagery of Homer is, in general,
grand, awful, and beautiful. It may
perhaps be urged, that the fimilies occur
too often, and fometimes interrupt the
courfe of his narration. He was fo na
turally poetical, that he faw all the fen-
timents and actions of men through the
mirror of fome correfponding image.
His mind, teeming with poetical allu-
fious, poffeffed a greater elevation than
delicacy, and was more capable of abun-
dance than choice. He is fo prolific in
images, that he inay be faid to have fup-
plied every poet who has fucceeded him.
He has more daring figures, and more
ftriking metaphors, than any other. But
it is wonderful with what propriety his
expreffions are always fuited to his ideas.
They are never too big for the fenfe,
but are great in proportion to the gran-
deur of the fentiment. It is the fenti-
ment that fwells the diction, which rifes
with it in exact proportion. Such are
the arrow impatient to be on the wing, a
weapon thirfting to drink the blood of
the enemy. Thefe are what Ariftotle
juftly calls living words. The most beau
tifal figures are what we have already
mentioned; the fires in the camp com-
pared to the moon and ftars by night;
Paris going to battle, to the war-horfe
prancing to the river; the comparison
of Achilles, in the 22d book, to the dog-
ftar; and above all, the following beau-
tiful fimile on the death of Euphorbus,
Οιον δε τρέφει ερνος ανηρ εγίθηλες ελαίης
Χωρῳ ἐν οι πολῷ, ὅθ ̓ άλλες αναβέβρυχεν ύδως;
Καλόν τυλεύαον, το δε τε πνοικὶ δονευσι
Παντοίων ανέμων, και τε βρυές ανθές λευκο"
Ελθων δ' εξαπίνης ανέμος, στη λαιλαπί πολλῃ,
Βιθρα τ' εξέτρεψε, και εξεταννυσ' επί γαίη,
Lib. 17, l. 53.
As the young olive, in fome fylvan scene,
Crown'd by freth fountains with eternal green,
Lifts the gay head in fnowy flowrets fair,
And plays and dances to the gentle air:
When lo! a whirlwind from high heaven in-
vades

The tender plant, and withers all its fhades:
It lies uprooted from its genial bed,
A lovely ruin, now defaced and dead.

the image exquifitely tender, and gives it a peculiar propriety.

It is impoffible to felect a finer image from nature to reprefent the untimely death of a young warrior, celebrated for his beauty. Though Pope has in a great meafure preferved the delicacy and beauty of the original in his tranflation of the above pallage, he has omitted the fine circuittance of a man rearing the wide-fpreading olive with care in a foliAary field, a circumftance which renders

It is alfo in fentiment that Homer has principally excelled. This remark, originally made by Longinus, is verified by a variety of pallages in the Iliad. An example of fublimity of fentiment occurs in the 17th book, in the abrupt and ftriking prayer of Ajax, when the Grecian army is enveloped in fudden and impenetrable darkness :

Ποίησον δ' αίθρων, δος δ' οφθαλμοίσιν ιδεςθαί
Ζευ πατερ, αλλά συ ξυσαι ὑπ ̓ητρος ὗιας Αχαιών,
Εν δε φαίει και ολέσσον, έπει να τοι ευαδὲν οὕτως.

les yeux,

Et combats contre nous à la clarté des cieux,

We have another inftance of fublimity of fentiment in the beginning of the 8th book, in the speech of Jupiter to the interior deities. The paffage is too long for tranfcription; but the reader is aftonifhed at the awful denunciations against the offenders, and the bold defiance which he gives to the power of all the gods combined against him. The idea contained in the two following lines, is one of the grandeft that can be prefented to the human imagination:

Αλλ' ότε δη και εγω πρώτρων εθέλοιμι ἐξυτσάς,
Auty aāν γαιῃ εξυσαιμ', αυτῇ τε θαλασσα.

-If I but ftretch this hand,
I heave the gods, the ocean, and the land.
It bears a ftrong refemblance to the re-
prefentation which is given us in the
Sacred Writings of the power of Jehovah,
when he is faid “to weigh the hills in
fcales, and the mountains in a balance,
and to take up the ifles as a very little
thing." There is a remarkable parity
between paffages in Homer, and thote
in the Scriptures; and Duport, in hi
Gnomologia Homerica, has collected in-
numerable inftances of this fort. Ac-
cording to Gale, Homer took many of
his fictions from fome real Scripture tr
ditions, which he gathered up whilft he

Was

Finsbury, or Moor fields, were at this period but a vaft morals.

ELY HOUSE.

the great fummes of money bequeathed, it may acquit itfelf boldly and valiantly are foue probabilities; and the charity in real engagements, it will run thefe of fome good men already, in cloathing hazards in tham ones." and repayring the infide, is a great encouragement; and there is a fpeech that the houfes that are about it must be pulled down, for Paules church is old enough to ftand alone. Here are prayers often, but finifter fufpition doubts more formal than zealous; they should not be worldly, because al church-men; there are none dumbe, for they can fpeake loud enough. I leave it and them, withing all might be amended."

FINSBURY FIELDS,

Fitzftephen, who wrote his Defcription of London before 1182, is very accurate in defcribing the winter amufements of the Londoners in Finsbury fields; and particularly mentions a fpecies of fkaiting. The following is a tranflation of the paffage :

"When that vait lake, which waters the walls of the city toward the north, is hard frozen, the youth in great numbers go to divert theinfelves on the ice. Some taking a small run for an increment of velocity, place their feet at the proper distance, and are carried fliding fideways a great way; others will make a large cake of ice, and feating one of their companions upon it, they take hold of one another's hands, and draw him along; when it fometimes happens, that moving fwiftly on fo flippery a plain, they all fall down headlong. Others there are who are fill more expert in these amusements on the ice; they place certain bones, the leg-bones of fome animal, under the foles of their feet, by tying them round their ankles, and then taking a pole thod with iron into their hands, they push themfelves forward by ftriking it against the ice, and are carried along with a velocity equal to the flight of a bird, or a bolt difcharged from a cross-bow. Sometimes, two of them thus furnished agree to start oppofite one to another, at a great diftance; they meet, clevate their poles, attack and ftrike each other, when one or both of them fall, and not without fome bodily hurt; and even after their fall, they thall be carried a good diftance from each other by the rapidity of the motion; and whatever part of your head comes upon the ice, it is fure to be laid bare to the fkull Very often the leg or the arm of the party that falls, if he chances to light upon them, is broken: but youth is an age ambitions of glory, fund and covetous of victory; and that in future times

Here, according to Stowe, died, February 3d, anno 1399, John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancasier.

It feems from the following paffage in Stowe's Annals, that the gardens here were famous for producing fine ftrawberries. He fays, speaking of Richard III. "And after a little talking to them, he faid to the Bishop of Ely, My Lord, you have very good ftrawberries at your Garden in Holborn, I require you to let me have a meffe of them? Gladly, my Lord, quoth he, would to God I had foine better thing as ready to your pleasure as that; and therewith he fent in all hafte his fervant for a meffe of ftrawberries." This circunftance has been minutely copied by Shakespeare in his play of Richard III. where he puts the following words in that prince's mouth.

My Lord of Ely, when I was last in
Holbourne,

I faw good ftrawberries in your Grace's
garden there,

I do befeech you fend for fome of them."

During the civil war, this houfe was converted into an hofpital, as appears by an entry in Rufhworth, vol. ii. part iv. "The Lords concurred page 1097. with the Commons, in a meffage fent up to their Lordships for Ely House, in Holbourne, to be for the ufe of the fick and maimed foldiers."-Groft's Antiquities of England and Wales.

STREETS IN LONDON IN THE SAXON TIMES.

London is mentioned in Bede as the

metropolis of the Eaft Saxons in the year 604, lying on the banks of the Thames, the emporium of many people coming by fea and land."

"

In a grant, dated 889, a Court in London is conveyed "at the ancient fiony edifice, called by the citizens hwat mandes tone, from the public street to the wall of the fame city." From this we learn that fo early as 889, the walls of

London exified.