Whatever liberty might have been taken with the rites and gods of Paganism before his time; yet, when he had given an exact description of both, and had formed, to the fatisfaction of all, the established religion into a kind of fyftem, fucceeding poets were obliged, of course, to take their theology from him, and could no longer be thought to write justly and naturally of their gods, than whilft their defcriptions conformed to the authentic delineations of Homer. His relations, and even the fictions, which his genius had raised on the popu lar creed of elder Paganifm, were now the proper archetype of all religious reprefentations. And to fpeak of thefe, as given truly and originally, is, in effect, to say, that they were borrowed or rather tranfcribed from the page of that poet.

And the fame may be obferved of biftorical facts, as of religious traditions. For not unfrequently, where the fubject is taken from authentic hiftory, the authority of a preceding poet is fo prevalent, as to render any account of the matter improbable which is not fashioned and regulated after

his

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his ideas. A fucceeding writer is neither at liberty to relate matters of fact, which no one thinks credible, nor to feign afresh for himself. In this cafe, again, all that the most original genius has to do is to imitate. We have been told that the Second book of the AENEIS was tranflated. from Pifander [a]. Another thinks it was taken from the LITTLE ILIAD [b]. Or, why confine him to either of thefe, when METRODORUS, SYAGRUS, HEGESIANAX, ARATUS, and others, wrote poems on the taking of TROY? But, granting the poet (as is most likely) to have had thefe originals before him, what fhall we infer from it? Only this, that he took his principal facts and circumstances (as we fee he was obliged to do, for the fake of probability) from thefe writers. And why should this be thought a greater crime in him, than in POLYGNOTUS; who, in his famous picture on this fubject, was under the neceffity, and for the fame rea

[a] MACROBIUS, V. Saturnal.

[b] Inquiry into L. &c. of Homer, p. 319.

fon, of collecting his fubject-matter from feveral poets [c]?

It follows, from these confiderations, that we cannot juftify ourselves in thinking fo hardly, as we commonly do, of the clafs of imitators; which is now, by the concur rence of various circumftances, become the neceffary character of almost all poets. Nor let it be any concern to the true poet that it is fo. For imitations, when real and confeffed, may ftill have their merit; nay, I prefume to add, fometimes a greater merit, than the very originals on which they are formed; and, with the reader's leave (though I am haftening to a conclufion of this long difcourfe), I will detain him one moment with the reafons of this opinion.

After all the praises that are deservedly given to the novelty of a fubject, or the beauty of defign, the fupreme merit of poetry, and that which more efpecially immortalizes the writers of it, lies in the execu tion. It is thus that the poets of the

[c] Mem. de l'Acad. des Infcript. &c. tom. vi. p. 445.

Auguftan

Auguftan age have not fo properly excelled, as difcredited, all the productions of their predeceffors; and that those of the age of Louis XIV. not only obscure, but will in procefs of time obliterate, the fame and memory of the elder French writers. Or, to fee the effect of masterly execution in fingle inftances, hence it is, that Lucilius not only yields to Horace, but would be almost forgotten by us, if it had not been for the honour his imitator has done hini. And nobody needs be told the advantage which Pope is likely to have over all our older fatirifts, excellent as fome of them are, and more entitled than he to the honour of being inventors. We have here then an established fact. The first effays of genius, though ever fo original,, are overlooked; while the later productions of men, who had never rifen to fuch dif tinction but by means of the very originals they difgrace, obtain the applause and admiration of all ages.

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The folution of this fact, fo notorious, and, at the fame time, fo contrary in pearance to the honours which men are

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difpofed

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disposed to pay to original invention, will open the mystery of that matter we are now confidering.

The faculties, or, as we may almoft term them, the magic powers, which ope the palace of eternity to great writers, are a confirmed judgment, and ready invention.

Now, the first is feen to most advantage in selecting, out of all preceding ftores, the particulars that are moft fuited to the nature of a poet's work, and the ends of poetry. When true genius has exhaufted, as it were, the various manners in which a work of art may be conducted, and the various topics which may be employed to adorn it, judgment is in its province, or rather fovereignty, when it determines which of all these is to be preferred, and which neglected. In this fenfe, as well as others, it will be most true, Quòd artis pars magna contineatur imitatione.

Nay, by means of this difcernment, the very topic or method, which had no effect, or perhaps an ill one, under one management, or in one fituation, fhall charm every reader, in another, And, by force of judging

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