would be endless to make collections of this nature. Homer
illustrates one of his heroes encompassed with the enemy, by an ass
in a field of corn that has his sides belaboured by all the boys of
the village without stirring a foot for it; and another of them
tossing to and fro in his bed, and burning with resentment, to a
piece of flesh broiled on the coals. This particular failure in the
ancients opens a large field of raillery to the little wits, who can
laugh at an indecency, but not relish the sublime in these sorts of
writings. The present Emperor of Persia, conformable to this
Eastern way of thinking, amidst a great many pompous titles,
denominates himself "the sun of glory" and "the nutmeg of delight."
In short, to cut off all cavilling against the ancients, and
particularly those of the warmer climates, who had most heat and
life in their imaginations, we are to consider that the rule of
observing what the French call the bienseance in an allusion has
been found out of later years, and in the colder regions of the
world, where we could make some amends for our want of force and
spirit by a scrupulous nicety and exactness in our compositions.
Our countryman Shakespeare was a remarkable instance of this first
kind of great geniuses.

I cannot quit this head without observing that Pindar was a great
genius of the first class, who was hurried on by a natural fire and
impetuosity to vast conceptions of things and noble sallies of
imagination. At the same time can anything be more ridiculous than
for men of a sober and moderate fancy to imitate this poet's way of
writing in those monstrous compositions which go among us under the
name of Pindarics? When I see people copying works which, as Horace
has represented them, are singular in their kind, and inimitable;
when I see men following irregularities by rule, and by the little