Pray tell me one thing, and I'll trouble you no further; is it English, do you think, to ufe advance as a fubftantive, for advancement? I believe not. Yet he has used it in a fine repetition of the words fate and chance,

So vain are mens defigns! for fate and chance,
And earth and heaven, confpire to his advance.

I'll mention, now my hand is in, one thing more, which is to me an odd and new tranfpofition, and yet really I think it good: 'tis in the fecond of thefe verfes about Jonathan,

A name, which every wind to heaven would bear, Which men to speak, and angels joy to hear.

I have tired you with my lucubrations, and fo I conclude, dear Sir,

Your most affectionate humble fervant,

M. BACON.

P. S.

P. S. There is a particular beauty in the above lines, "His birth, &c." which I just now recollect, viz. that 'tis at the beginning of a narration, and it is obferved, that Virgil almoft always begins a defcription with a monofyllable:

Eft in feceffu.

And twenty other examples I have feen' laid together by Pontanus.

LETTER XCIII.

Mr. BACON to Mr. JEFFREY S.

DEAR SIR,

As

Cambridge, Oct. 26, 1732.

S to your "rhetoric," I profefs I am at a loss for the author of it; I suppose it to be fomebody about bishop Andrews's time, a long time ago, before the "flood," as I think Mr. Dryden calls the grand rebellion. And I can only answer it by another

of

of the famous fir John Cheek, viz. "Where treason is above reason, and might rules

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right, and commotioners are better than "commiffioners,"-----with fuch pretty jin

... As to my French critic, he is making a comparison between Homer and Virgil, and obferves, very judiciously, "that Virgil has given the finest example "of unlawful love, that ever was, in ' Dido; and Homer the most beautiful "inftance of conjugal love, that is any "where to be met with, in Andromache." So far he is right; but what I object to, is this; he fays, "the fupper of Alcinoüs is "the beft-contrived entertainment that can "be; and that Dido's fupper in Virgil "is not even within the rules of bienféance. "In Homer, (he fays,) they fing the ad

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ventures and gallantries of the gods; in Virgil, matters of philofophy, the stars, "and the tides, and I know not what all. "Place Dido's feaft in Phæacia, and

* See the laft letter, p. 21. VOL. II.

E

"Alci

"Alcinoüs's in Carthage, and all will be

་

right." And, I believe, the Frenchman would have done indeed juft fo. But Virgil understands decency a little better. What! fhould Dido, that fevere widow and queen, whofe heart, till that time, was in the grave with Sichæus, and had despised lärbas, and I know not how many lovers more, have nothing but bawdy fongs fung at her table, the dulcia furta of the gods, to tell Æneas, from the very beginning, what she was thinking of? That would have been an advance indeed! And as to the philofophy, which he thinks improper, it is to be confidered, that the country Dido came from, was near the original of aftronomy, and at that time the most learned part of the world: befides, the Phoenicians dealing wholly in navigation, the ftars and the tides, and the length and fhortness of the days were fubjects that concerned them. And it had almoft the dignity of a hymn, or, as formerly here in England, a chapter of the bible. This, I think, is enough to preferve Virgil's feast from transportation; to rehabilitate it in the place where

it is; and to fave it from the fate of fir John Daw's fupper, to be carried over the

way.

The author I blame in this, is Vigneul Marville, who, however, has many good things in him. I forgot to fay, that Atlas, who was supposed to live in Afric, had taught Iöpas, which makes it ftill more proper for the place where they were. Take it which way you will, 'tis excufable enough: this last I have from the common notes.

As to your notion of tranfpofitions, ľ

think it does not at all affect the merit of the poet; for it is certain, that the conftraint of verfe, and even of rhyme, as it is a hindrance to the writer in fome things, fo that very constraint occafions many of the beauties of poetry, to thofe who have the genius to get over it, as every good poet has. But it would require too long, and too philofophical a difcuffion to go through with the proof of it. I have an idea how it may be demonftrated.

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