Lucan, though never fo much his enerhy, has not. omitted his generous usage of Domitius at Corfinium, or of Afranius and Petreius, when they were his prifoners in Spain. What can be then faid for Lucan, when he reprefents him riding in triumph over the field of Pharfalia, the day after the battle, taking delight in that horrid landfkip of Slaughter and Blood, and forbidding the bodies of fo many brave Romans to be either buried or burnt? Not any one passage of Cæfar's life gives countenance to a ftory like this: and how commendable foever the zeal of a writer may be against the oppressor of his country, it ought not to. have transported him to fuch a degree of malevolence, as to paint the moft merciful conqueror that ever was,. in colours proper only for the most favage natures, But the effects of prejudice and partiality are unaccountable; and there is not a day of life, in which even the best of men are not guilty of them in fome degree or other. How many inftances have we in history of the heft princes treated as the worst of men,. by the pens of authors that were highly prejudiced against them!

Shall we wonder then, that the Roman people, fmarting under the lashes of Nero's tyranny, thould exclaim in the bittereft terms against the memory of Julius Cæfar, fince it was from him that Nero derived that power to use mankind as he did? Thofe that lived in Lucan's time, did not confider fo much what Cæfar was in his own perfon, or temper, as what he was the occafion of to them. It is very probable,

there were a great many dreadful stories of him handed about by tradition among the multitude; and even men of fenfe might give credit to them fo far as to forget his clemency, and remember his ambition, tỏ which they imputed all the cruelties and devastations committed by his successors. Refentments of this kind in the foul of a man, fond of the ancient conftitution of the commonwealth, fuch as Lucan was, might betray him to believe, upon too flight grounds, whatever was to the disadvantage of one he looked upon as the fubverter of that conftitution. It was in that quality, and for that crime alone, that Brutus afterwards stabbed him; for personal prejudice against him he had none, and had been highly obliged by him and it was upon that account alone, that Cato fcorned to owe his life to him, though he well knew, Cæfar would have esteemed it one of the greatest felicities of his, to have had it in his power to pardon him. I would not be thought to make an apology for Lucan's thus traducing the memory of Cæfar; but would only beg the fame indulgence to his partiality, that we are willing to allow to most other authors; for I cannot help believing all historians are more or lefs guilty

of it.

:

I beg leave to obferve one thing further on this head, that it is odd, Lucan fhould thus miftake this part of Cæfar's character, and yet do him fo much juftice in the reft. His greatnefs of mind, his intrepid courage, his indefatigable activity, his magnanimity, his generofity, his confummate knowledge

in the art of war, and the power and grace of his eloquence, are all fet forth in the best light, upon every proper occafion. He never makes him speak, but it is with all the ftrength of argument, and all the flowers of rhetoric. It were tedious to enumerate every inftance of this; and I fhall only mention the fpeech to his army before the battle of Pharfalia, which in my opinion furpaffes all I ever read, for the eafy nobleness of expreffion, the proper topics to animate his foldiers, and the force of an inimitable eloquence.

Among Lucan's few mistakes in matters of fact, may be added those of geography and aftronomy; but finding Mr. Rowe has taken fome notice of them in his notes, I fhall fay nothing of them. Lucan had neither time nor opportunity to visit the scenes where the actions he defcribes were done, as fome other hiftorians both Greek and Roman had, and therefore it was no wonder he might commit fome minute errors in these matters. As to aftronomy, the schemes of that noble science were but very conjectural in his time, and not reduced to that mathematical certainty they have been fince.

The method and difpofition of a work of this kind, must be much the fame with those observed by other hiftorians, with one difference only, which I fubmit to better judgments: an hiftorian who like Lucan-has. chosen to write in verfe, though he is obliged to have ftrict regard to truth in every thing he relates, yet perhaps he is not obliged to mention all facts, as

other

other hiftorians are. He is not tied down to relate every minute paffage, or circumftance, if they be not abfolutely neceffary to the main ftory; efpecially if they are fuch as would appear heavy and flat, and confequently incumber his genius, or his verfe. All these trifling parts of action would take off from the pleafure and entertainment, which is the main fcope of that manner of writing. Thus the particulars of an army's march, the journal of a fiege, or the fituation of a camp, where they are not fubfervient to the relation of fome great and important event, had better be fpared than inferted in a work of that kind. In a profe writer, thefe perhaps ought, or at least may be properly and agreeably enough mentioned; of which we have innumerable inftances in most ancient hiftorians, and particularly in Thucydides and Livy.

There is a fault in Lucan against this rule, and that is his long and unnecessary enumeration of the several parts of Gaul, where Cæfar's army was drawn together in the First Book. It is enlivened, it is true, with fome beautiful verfes he throws in, about the ancient Bards and Druids; but ftill in the main it is dry, and but of little confequence to the story itself. The many different people and cities there mentioned were not Cæfar's confederates, as thofe in the third book were Pompey's; and these last are particularly named, to express how many nations efpoufed the fide of Pompey. Those reckoned up in Gaul were only the places where Cæfar's troops had been quartered, and Lucan might with as great propriety have nien

tioned the different routes by which they marched, as the garrifons from which they were drawn. This therefore, in my opinion, had been better left out; and I cannot but likewife think, that the digreffion of Theffaly, and an account of its firft inhabitants, is too prolix, and not of any great confequence to his purpofe. I am fure, it fignifies but little to the civil war in general, or the battle of Pharfalia in particular, to know how many rivers there are in Theffaly, or which of its mountains lies East or Weft.

But if these be faults in Lucan, they are fuch as will be found in the most admired poets, nay, and thought excellencies in them; and befides, he has made us most ample amends in the many extraordinary beauties of his poem. The ftory itself is Noble and Great; for what can there be in history more worthy of our knowledge and attention, than a war of the highest importance to mankind, carried-on between the two greateft Leaders that ever were, and by a people the moft renowned for arts and arms, and who were at that time masters of the world? What a poor subject is that of the Æneid, when compared with this of the Pharfalia! And what a defpicable figure does Agamemnon, Homer's King of Kings, make, when compared with chiefs, who, by faying only, "be thou a King," made far greater kings than him! The fcene of the Iliad contained but Greece, fome islands in the

gean and Ionian feas, with a very little part of the Leffer Afia: this of the civil war of Rome drew after it almost all the nations of the then known world. Troy