It was, that Agamemnon fhould exhort the Greeks to fight bravely. At any rate, was Diomedes fo little known, as to make it proper to fufpend the action at fo critical a juncture for a genealogical history? A third particular is an endless number of minute circumstances; especially in the defcription of battles, where they are the least tolerable. One capital beauty of an epic poem, is the felection of fuch incidents and circumftances as make a deep impreffion, keeping out of view every thing low or familiar (a). An account of a fingle battle employs the whole fifth book of the Iliad, and a great part of the fixth yet in the whole there is no general action; but warriors, whom we never heard of before, killed at a distance with an arrow or a javelin; and every wound defcribed with anatomical accuracy. The whole seventeenth book is employ'd in the contest about the dead body of Patroclus, ftuffed with minute circumftances below the dignity of an epic poem : the reader fatigued has nothing to relieve him but the melody of Homer's verfification. Gratitude would prompt an apology

(a) Elements of Criticism, vol. 1. p. 232. edit. 5.

for

for an author who affords fo much pleafure: Homer had no good models to copy after; and without good models we cannot expect maturity of judgement. In a word, Homer was a blazing star, and the more to be admired, because he blazed in an obfcure age. But that he should in no degree be tainted with the imperfections of such an age, is a wild thought: it is scarce poffible, but by fuppofing him

to be more than man.

Particular caufes that advance the progrefs of fine arts, as well as of useful arts, are mentioned in the first part of this Sketch, and to thefe I refer.

HAVING traced the progress of the fine arts toward maturity in a fummary way, the decline of thefe arts comes next in order. A useful art feldom turns retrograde, because every one has an intereft to preferve it in perfection. Fine arts depend on more flender principles than those of utility; and therefore the judgement formed of them is more fluctuating. The variety of form that is admitted into the fine arts by fuch fluctuation of judgement, excites artists to indulge their love of noVOL 1. velty.

N n

velty. Reftlefs man knows no golden mean, but will be attempting innovations without end. Such innovations do well in an art distant from perfection; but they are commonly the cause of degeneracy in arts that are in perfection; for an artist ambitious to excel, aims always to be an original, and cannot fubmit to be an imitator. This is the plain meaning of a florid paffage of Velleius Paterculus (Roman history lib. 1.) Naturaque, quod "fummo ftudio petitum eft, afcendit in "fummum; difficilifque in perfecto mo

ra eft; naturaliterque, quod procedere non poteft, recedit.". Which may pafs in a learned language, but will never do in fimple English. The idea," fays Winchleman," of beauty could not be "made more perfect; and those arts that cannot advance farther, become retrograde, by a fatality attending all human things, that if they cannot mount, they must fall down, because stability

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is not a quality of any created thing.” I fhall endeavour to illustrate the cause affigned by me above for decline of the fine arts; beginning with architecture. The Ionic was the ravourite order when archi

tecture

tecture was in its height of glory. The Corinthian order came next; which, in attempting greater perfection, has deviated from the true fimplicity of nature: and the deviation is ftill greater in the Compofite order (a).

With refpect to literary productions, the first effays of the Romans were very imperfect. We may judge of this from Plautus, whofe compofitions are abundantly rude; tho' much admired by his cotemporaries, being the best that existed at that time in Rome. The exalted spirit of the Romans hurried them on to the grand and beautiful; and literary productions of all kinds were in perfection when Auguftus reigned. In attempting ftill greater perfection, the Roman compofitions became a ftrange jumble of inconfiftent parts: they were tumid and pompous, and at the fame time full of antithefes, conceit, and tinfel wit. Every thing new in a fine art pleafes; and for that reafon fuch compofitions were relished. We fee not by what gradual steps writers after the time of Auguftus devia

(a) Elements of Criticism, vol. 1. p. 206. edit. 5.

ted from the patterns that were before them; for no book of any moment from the death of that Emperor is preferved till we come down to Seneca, in whofe works nature and fimplicity give

place to quaint

thought and baftard wit. He was a great corrupter of the Roman tafte; and after him nothing was relished, but brilliant ftrokes of fancy, with very little regard to fentiment: even Virgil and Cicero made no figure in comparison. Lucan has a ftrain'd elevation of thought and ftyle, very difficult to be fupported: he finks often into puerile reflections; witness his encomium on the river Po, which, fays he, would equal the Danube, had it the fame number of tributary ftreams. Quintilian, a writer of true and claffical tafte, who was protected and encouraged by Vefpafian, attempted to ftem the tide of falfe writing. His rhetoric is compofed in an elegant ftyle; and his obfervations contain every delicacy of the critical art. At the fame time flourished Tacitus, poffeffing a more extenfive knowledge of human nature than any other author ancient or modern, if Shakespeare be not excepted. His ftyle is original, concife, com

pact,