queft of the golden fleece, the other that could ftrike an infinite number of forms from the first "atoms of matter, both of them fhall give place to "thee without the leaft envy, and even the divine neid fhall pay thee a juft refpect."

Thus far Statius concerning Lucan's work; and even Lucan in two places of the Pharfalia has promised himself immortality to his Poem. The first ris in the Seventh Book, which I beg leave to give in profe, though Mr. Rowe has done it a thousand times better in verfe. "One day (fays he) when these wars shall "be spoken-of in ages yet to come, and among na❝tions far remote from this clime, whether from the "voice of fame alone, or the real value I have given "them by this my hiftory, thofe that read it shall "alternately hope and fear for the great events therein "contained. In vain (continues he) fall they offer up their vows for the righteous caufe, and stand "thunderstruck at so many various turns of fortune; "nor fhall they read them as things that are already paft, but with that concern as if they were yet to come, and hall range themselves, O Pompey, on "thy fide." me ei burt,coltino stal zue

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The other paffage, which is in the Ninth Book, may be tranflated thus: "Oh! Cæfar, profane thou "not through envy the funeral monuments of these

great patriots, that fell here facrifices to thy1ambi❝tion. If there may be allowed any renown to a “Roman Muse, while Homer's verses shall be "thought worthy of praife, they that shall live after

us, fhall read his and mine together: My Pharfalia fhall live, and no time nor age fhall confign it ❝ to oblivion."

This is all that I can trace from the ancients, or himfelf, concerning Lucan's life and writings; and indeed there is fearce any one author, either ancient or modern, that mentions him but with the greatest respect and the highest encomiums, of which it would be tedious to give more inftances.

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I defign not to enter into any criticifm on the Pharfalia, though I had ever fo much leifure or ability for it. I hate to oblige a certain fet of men, that read the ancients only to find fault with them, and seem to live only on the excrements of authors. I beg leave to tell these gentlemen, that Lucan is not to be tried by thofe rules of an Epic Poem, which they have drawn from the Iliad or Æneid; for if they allow him not the honour to be on the fame foot with Homer or Virgil, they must do him the justice at least, as not to try him by laws founded on their model. The Pharfalia is properly an Hiftorical Heroic Poem, because the subject is a known true ftory. Now with our late critics, Truth is an unneceffary trifle for an Epic Poem, and ought to be thrown afide as a curb to invention. To have every part a mere web of their own brain, is with them a distinguishing mark of a mighty genius in the Epic way. Hence it is, these critics obferve, that the favourite poems of that kind do always produce in the mind of the reader the highest wonder and furprize; and the more improbable

the

the ftory is, till the more wonderful and furprizing Much good may this notion of theirs do them; but, to my tafte, a fact very extraordinary in its kind, that is attended with furprizing circumstances, big with the highest events, and conducted with all the arts of the most confummate wisdom, does not strike the lefs ftrong, but leaves a more lasting impression on my mind, for being true.

If Lucan therefore wants thefe ornaments, he might have borrowed from Helicon, or his own invention; he has made us more than ample amends, by the great and true events that fall within the compass of his ftory. I am of opinion, that, in his first defign of writing this poem of the civil wars, he refolved to treat the fubject fairly and plainly, and that fable and invention were to have had no fhare in the work: but the force of custom, and the defign he had to induce the generality of readers to fall in love with liberty, and abhor flavery, the principal defign of the poem, induced him to embellish it with fome fables, that without them his books would not be fo univerfally read: fo much much was fa fable the delight of

the Roman people.

If any fhall object to his privilege of being examined and tried as an hiftorian, that he has given in to the poetical province of invention and fiction, in the Sixth book, where Sixtus enquires of the Theffalian witch Erictho the event of the civil war, and the fate of Rome; may be answered, that perhaps the ftory was true, or at leaft it was commonly believed to be fo in his

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time, which is a fufficient excufe for Lucan to have inferted it. It is true, no other author mentions it. But it is ufual to find fome one paffage in one hiftorian, that is not mentioned in any other, though they treat of the fame fubject. For though I am fully perfuaded that all thefe Oracles and Refponfes, so famous in the pagan world, were the mere cheats of priests; yet the belief of them, and of magic and witchcraft, was univerfally received at that time. Therefore Lucan may very well be excused for fallingin with a popular error, whether he himself believed it or no, especially when it ferved to enliven and embellish his ftory. If it be an error, it is an error all the ancients have fallen into, both Greek and Roman : And Livy, the prince of the Latin historians, abounds in fuch relations. That it is not below the dignity and veracity of an historian to mention fuch things, we have a late inftance in a noble author of our time, who has likewife wrote the civil wars of his country, and intermixt in it the ftory of the ghoft of the duke of Buckingham's father.

In general, all the actions that Lucan relates in the courfe of his history are true; nor is it any impeachment of his veracity, that fometimes he differs in place, manner, or circumftances of actions, from other writers, any more than it is an imputation on them, that they differ from him. We ourselves have seen, in the courfe of the late two famous wars, how differently almost every battle and fiege has been reprefented, and fometimes by thofe of the fame fide, when at the fame

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time there be a thoufand living witnefles, ready to contradict any falsehood, that partiality should impose upon the world. This I may affirm, the moft important events, and the whole thread of action in Lucan, are agreeable to the univerfal confent of all authors, that have treated of the civil wars of Rome. If now and then he differs from them in leffer incidents or circumstances, let the critics in hiftory decide the question: for my part, I am willing to take them for anecdotes firft difcovered and published by Lucan, which may at least conciliate to him the favour of our late admirers of Secret Hiftory.

After all I have faid on this head, I cannot but in some measure call in question fome parts of Cæfar's character as drawn by Lucan; which feem to me not altogether agreeable to truth, nor to the univerfal confent of history. I wish I could vindicate him in fome of his perfonal representations of men, and Cæfar in particular, as I can do in the narration of the principal events and feries of his ftory. He is not content only to deliver him down to posterity, as the fubverter of the laws and liberties of his country, which he truly was, and than which, no greater infamy can poffibly be cast upon any name: but he defcribes him as purfuing that abominable end, by the most execrable methods, and fome that were not in Cæfar's nature to be guilty of. Cæfar was certainly a man far from revenge, or delight in blood; and he made appear, in the exercife of the fupreme power, a noble and generous inclination to clemency upon all occafions: even Lucan,..

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