_At Phœbi nondum patiens immanis in antro Bacchatur vates, magnum si pectore possit Excussisse Deum_; tanto magis ille fatigat Os rabidum, fera corda domans, fingitque premendo.
_Talibus ex adyto dictis Cumæa Sibylla Horrendas canit ambages, antroque remugit, Obscuris vera involvens_; ea fræna furenti Concutit, & stimulos sub pectore vertit Apollo.
What was my Lord _Roscommon'_s Precept, was _Virgil_'s Practice,
_To write with Fury, but correct with Phlegm:_
Things very consistent in their own Nature. And therefore I must insist that _Virgil_ was no way deficient in Poetical Fire; and that _Homer_ excelled him not in that Particular. By which last I always mean, that either _Homer_ had not _more_ of it, or if he had _more in the Whole_, he had _too much_ in _some_ Instances, and _too little_ in _others_. If His were _more_ than _Virgil_'s, (tho' even That I question) it was not _better_; no nor _so good_: considering how their Fire was disposed, or (if I may so speak) situated in their several Constitutions; and what use they severally made of it in their Writings. And therefore upon this Article I must take the Liberty to say, Mr. _Pope_ is not just to _Virgil_, as well as to some other Poets, in the Preface to his admirable Translation of _Homer_. "This Fire (says he) is discerned in _Virgil_; but discerned as through a Glass, reflected, and rather shining than warm, but every-where equal and constant: In _Lucan_, and _Statius_, it bursts out in sudden, short, and interrupted Flashes: In _Milton_, it glows like a Furnace, kept up to an uncommon Fierceness by the Force of Art: In _Shakespear_, it strikes before we are aware, like an accidental Fire from Heaven: But in _Homer_, and in Him only, it burns every where clearly, and every where irresistibly." Supposing his Account of _Lucan_ and _Statius_ to be true: I no more know how to distinguish it from his Account of _Shakespear_, than I agree with him in the Character he gives of that great Man. For Fires from Heaven do not _often_ strike; and when they do, are of no long Continuance: And so _Shakespear_'s, like That of the other Two before mentioned, is supposed to _burst out in short, sudden, and interrupted Flashes_: For Instance, like Lightning; which is the only Fire from Heaven that we ordinarily see, or hear of, and even That not very frequently. For if any other Celestial flashes are here meant, they indeed may be more Divine; but they are much more rare, and short, than Those of _Statius_ and _Lucan_. Whereas _Shakespear_, in my Judgment, has more of the Poetical Fire, than either of those Poets. _Milton_ indeed had more of it than He: and therefore I am no less suprized at the Character here given of his Fire, that _it glows like a Furnace, kept up to an uncommon Fierceness by the Force of Art_: Because, tho' his Art, Learning, and Use of Books, especially of _Homer_, be very great; yet he is most distinguished by natural Genius, Spirit, Invention, and Fire; in all which perhaps he is not very much inferiour to _Homer_ himself. Whose Fire again does not, I conceive, _burn every where clearly, and irresistibly_: Or if it did, it would be no Commendation. For the small Praise here given to _Virgil_, is, in my Opinion, no true Praise at all: His Fire is not every where equal: and it would be a Fault in him, if it were; as I have above observed. But waving That; Surely such an Account of _Virgil_'s Fire was never given by any Critick before. _It is discerned_: As faint, and lessening an Expression, as could have been thought of. And how is it even _discerned_? Only _through a Glass_: And lest we should imagine That Glass to be a _Burning-Glass_; it is _reflected_, and _rather shining, than warm_. Now I desire to be informed, what truer Idea any one can have of the coldest, and most spiritless Writer in the World; supposing him only to be a good Judge, and a Man of tolerable Parts. If I am my self a little warm upon this Subject, I hope it may be pardoned upon such an Occasion; when so great a Genius as _Virgil_'s is unjustly censured by so great a Genius as Mr. _Pope_'s. However it be; _Homer_, according to this Account, remains the Sun of Poetry: For I know of no other Luminary (to which he may be compared) whose Fire _burns every where clearly, and every where irresistibly_. Whereas, if we must pursue these Similes of Light, and Fire, (tho', like other Similes, they do not answer in every Particular) I should rather say, as I hinted in the Beginning of this Preface, that the Fire of Poetry arose in _Homer_, like Light at the Creation; shining, and burning, it is true, but enshrined in a Cloud: But was afterwards transplanted into _Virgil_, as into the Sun; according to the Account which _Milton_ gives of Both:[16]