ther, at least, he has, in matters of science, improved on the difcoveries of his predeceffors, and reduced principles formerly known, to a greater degree of fimplicity and confiftence, or traced them through a train of confequences hitherto unknown? Or, in the arts, defigned fome new work, different from thofe of his predeceffors, though not perhaps excelling them? Whatever falls short of this, is fervile imitation, or a dull effort of plodding industry, which, as not implying invention, can be deemed no proof of genius, whatever capacity, fkill, or diligence it may evidence. But if a man fhows invention, no intellectual defects which his performance may betray, can forfeit his claim to genius. His invention may be irregular, wild, undif ciplined; but still it is regarded as an infallible mark of real natural genius: and the degree of this faculty, that we afcribe to him, is always in proportion to our estimate of the novelty, the difficulty, or the dignity of his inventions. THESE obfervations, when barely mentioned, are so agreeable to our natural fentiments, that a long illuftration of them would be superfluous. They would be amply confirmed 6 by by an examination of the characters of those whom the voice of all ages has pronounced most eminent for genius, and of the particular grounds on which this eminence has been affigned them. But a few examples fhall fuffice in fo clear a case. ALL the ancients who are most celebrated for genius in the greater kinds of poetry, either invented fome new fpecies, or brought a fpecies already invented, to higher perfection; or at leaft produced compofitions distinguished from those of others, by a diversity of subject, or by a peculiar and original manner. Efchylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, not only composed several tragedies, by which they displayed invention, in the contrivance of the fable, in imagining incidents, in forming characters, in conceiving fentiments adapted to them; but each of them made fome confiderable improvements in the conftruction of the drama (6). The genius of Homer has been (6) Καὶ τό, τε τῶν ὑποκριτῶν πλῆθος ἐξ ἑνὸς εἰς δύο, πρῶτος Αισχύ λες ἤγαγε, καὶ τὰ τοῦ χοροῦ ἐλάττωσε, καὶ τὸν λόγον πρωταγωνιστ παρασκεύασε. Τρῶς δὲ καὶ σκηνογραφίαν Σοφοκλής. ΑΡΙΣΤΟΤ. περὶ ποιητ. αφ. δ. Καὶ ὁ Ευριπίδης, οι καὶ τὰ ἄλλα μὴ ἦν οικονομοί, αλο νὰ τραγικώτατος γι τῶν ποιητῶν φαίνεται. κιφ. την Διὸ δεῖ λανθάνει ποιοῦντας, καὶ μὴ δοκεῖν λόγιω πιπλασμάτων, άλλα πολυκόπως. Τούτο γὰρ πιθανώς ἐκῖν δὲ τούναντίον. Ωσπερ γὰρ πρὸς ἐπιβούλευοντα διαβάλε λουσαι, καθάπερ πρὸς τοὺς οίκους τους μεμιγμένους. Και όσον ή Θεοδώρου φωτὶ τίπωθε πρὸς τὴν τῶν ἄλλων ὑποκριτῶν. Ἡ μὲν γὰρ τοῦ λέγοντος always . always held in veneration. His Iliad, his Odyssey, and even his more trivial productions, display so much of rich and original invention in almost every poffible way, as would have fecured to the author an acknowlegement of very uncommon genius, though he had lived in the most enlightened age, and poffeffed all advantages for improving his natural talents. But our idea of his invention is immensely raised, when we confider, tha he lived in times of ignorance, when poetry remained almost in its first rudeness; that he had no model, by which he could direct his conceptions, or from which he could receive fo much as a hint of his grand defigns; and that he notwithstanding, merely by the force of his own abilities, brought the nobleft species of poetry all at once to its just perfection, and comprehended alfo in his works, the rudiments of every other fpecies of com δοικιν είναι, αιδ ̓ ἀλλότριαι· κλίπτεται δ' εὖ, ἐάν τις ἐκ τῆς ἐιωθύνας διαλίκτου ἐκλίγων συντίθη· ὅπερ Ευριπίδης ποιεῖ καὶ ὑπέδειξε πρώτος ο Prop. B.C. 7. x1Q. B. Tragedias primus in lucem Æfchylus protulit. Sed longe clarius illuftraverunt hoc opus Sophocles atque Euripides. QUINTIL. Inft. Orat. lib. x. cap. I. perfonæ pallæque repertor honefta Efchylus et modicis inftravit pulpita tignis, Hon. Ars Pout. ver. 278. pofition, メ pofition, the feeds from which, in Aristotle's judgment (c), fucceeding writers reared both tragedy and comedy, and from which, in the opinion of Quintilian (d), even orators might produce all the virtues of their art. On account of original and extenfive invention, thus amazingly difplayed, his title to the first rank of genius, has been acknowleged by all capable and impartial judges. The Eneid is perhaps more correct and faultless than the Iliad; but few have pretended that Virgil is the greater poet. He does not show fuch copious and boundless invention, as his master. Befides, Virgil derives from imitation, many. things for which Homer is indebted folely to his own penetration. Were we to compare the Eneid with Paradife Loft, merely in respect of the genius which they manifeft, we might justly prefer Milton to Virgil. For though we know that Milton was perfectly (ε) Ωσπερ δὲ καὶ τὰ σπουδαία μάλισα ποιητής Όμηρος ἦν (μόνος γὰρ Ψυχ ὅτι ἦν, ἀλλ' ὅτι καὶ μιμήσεις δραματικὰς ἐπίησιν) οὕτω καὶ τὰ τῆς Γεωμοδίας σχήματα πρώτος ὑπέδειξεν, ον ψόγον, ἀλλὰ τὸ γελοῖον δρα ματοποιήσεις. Ο γὰρ Μαργείτης ανάλογον ἔχει ὥσπερ Ιλιὰς καὶ Ὀδύσο στις πρὸς τὰς τραγωδίας, οὕτω καὶ ὄντος πρὸς τὰς κωμωδίας. Περὶ σωστ. κιφ. δ. (Hic (quemadmodum ex oceano dicit ipfe amnium vim, fontiumque curfus initium capere) omnibus eloquentiæ partibus exemplum et ortum dedit." Inftit, Orat. lib. x. cap. 1. well well acquainted both with the Mantuan and with Homer, had the works of both in his eye, and scrupled not to imitate them; yet the nature of his plan, and the peculiarity of many of the incidents and characters in his poem, require greater and more original invention, than there was room for displaying in a fubject fo fimilar to Homer's, as that of the Eneid is. It will be generally allowed, that Shakespear is, in point of genius, fuperior to Milton. The preference arifes from the fuperiority of his invention. In the lower accomplishments of a poet, he is often defective: but the richness of his defcriptions, the multiplicity and juftnefs of his characters; the variety, the compass, and the propriety of his fentiments, bear the deepest marks of their being original: and at the fame time that the internal excellences of his works display a luxuriance of invention, we know that his education gave him but flender opportunities of being acquainted with those ancient masters, from whom he could have borrowed any of his beauties, or by whofe example he could have even improved his natural powers. There were many English rhymers before the time of Chaucer; but he is juftly reckoned the |