To follow the steps of Grecian authors was the general practice of the Romans. Each of them found fome predeceffor who had led the way to the fields of invention, and was therefore adopted as the inftructor of his inexperienced genius, and his guide to eminence and fame. The affiftance which Homer, Hefiod, and the tragedians, afforded to Virgil, was fimilar to that which in other branches of compofition Pindar, Archilochus, Alcæus, and Sappho gave to Horace; Menander to Terence; Plato and Demofthenes to Cicero; Polybius to Livy; and Thucydides to Salluft. As a copy muft from its own nature be inferior to the original, they have all fallen fhort in point of originality Talis in æterno felix Vertummus Olympo, Tibull. lib. iv, carm. 2. ed. Heyne. Whate'er Sulpicia does, where'er the roves, and and fervour of compofition. The poets are more particularly remarkable for enriching themfelves with foreign treasures; and as fo many of their obligations to the Greeks, whofe works are ftill extant, are difcovered; it is perhaps the lefs unfair for us to conclude, that the Romans were very deeply indebted to thofe, whofe works have not escaped the ravages of time. The want of originality was in fome meafure, although imperfectly, fupplied by judgment and tafte. The rules of criticifm were ftudied when various kinds of literature were cultivated at Rome; for Horace wrote his Art of Poetry nearly at the fame time Virgil was compofing his Eneid. Too clofe an attachment to their great mafters made the Romans fervile followers, rather than daring and free adventurers. If however we confider the manners of the nation, their dignity of character, their undaunted fpirit, their love of freedom, and the great improvements they made upon other foreign in-. ventions; particularly upon the arts of government and war; we may fafely pronounce, that they would have approached much nearer to perfection, and would have taken a nobler and a fublimer flight, if they had trufted lefs to the genius of Greece, and more to the enthusiasm of nature. II. Decline of the Language. The decay of tafte, which extended its influence to the productions of the fine arts, prevailed like wife in works of literature. In the writers who flourished after the Auguftan age, this circumstance is remarkable, although we fhould be deficient in juftice not to acknowledge that they poffefs a confiderable fhare of beautiful imagery, lively defcription, and juft obfervation both in poetry and profe. Seneca degraded the dignity of his moral treatifes by fentences too pointed, and ornaments of rhetoric too numerous and ftudied; and Pliny gave too laboured and epigrammatic a turn to his Epiftles. Lucan indulged the extravagance and wildnefs of his genius in puerile flights of fancy; and Tacitus fettered the powers of his judgment, and obfcured the brightness of his imagination by elaborate brevity, and dark and distant allufions. Such affectation The character given by Pliny to Timanthes may be juftly applied to Tacitus: "In omnibus ejus operibus intelligitur plus femper quam pingitur; et cum ars fumma fit, ingenium tamen ultra artem eft." Lib. xxxv. c. 10. "A man who could join the brilliant wit, and concife fententioufnefs peculiar to that age, with the truth and gravity of better times, and the deep reflection, and good sense of the best moderns, cannot choose but have something to strike you, Yet what I admire in him above all this, is his detestation of tyranny, and the high spirit of liberty, that every now and then breaks out, as it were, whether he would or no. I remember a fentence in his Agricola, that (concife as it is) I always admired, for faying much in a little compafs. He fpeaks of Domitian, who upon feeing the laft will of Agricola, where he had made him coheir with his wife and daughter, stabat lætatum eum velut honore judicioque; tam cæca et corrupta mens affiduis adulationibus erat, ut nefciret a bono patre non fcribi hæredem, nifi malum principem." Gray's Letters to Weft. 6 Satis con was in vain fubftituted for the charms of nature and fimplicity. So fruitless is the attempt to supply, by gaudy ornaments of drefs, and artificial beauty of complexion, the want of genuine charms, and the native bloom of youth. QUINTILIAN, in an incomparable work, written to give directions for the complete education of a Roman orator, and abounding with the purest principles of judgment, and the choiceft treasures of learning and experience, endeavoured to direct the attention of his countrymen to the ancient models of compofition. But the weeds of a bad tafte were too deeply and too widely fown to be eradicated, even by his diligent and skilful hand; and this degeneracy in the productions of literature, with a few exceptions, kept a regular pace with the depravity of manners, which prevailed during the fucceeding times of the lower empire. It may be obferved of Quintilian and of Sir Joshua Reynolds, that their refpective works are not merely calculated for the improvement of youth in eloquence and painting, but that they contain the principles of true tafte, which are applicable to the fine arts and to literature in general, aided by great force of expreffion, and adorned with great elegance of fancy. The concife review of Greek and Latin authors by Quintilian, is perhaps fcarcely to be paralleled for correctnefs of judgment. He Quiut. lib. x. de Copia Verborum. enlarges enlarges with peculiar pleasure upon the Orations of Cicero, of whom he was an enthufiaftic admirer; and gives fo high a character of the Comedies of Menander, as to make us deeply regret their loss. His ftrictures upon Seneca prove, that in the deeline of literature, when the works of that author were most popular, the tafte of Quintilian was neither vitiated by false refinement, nor perverted by the prejudices of his contemporaries. "Were we to divide the whole space from Auguftus to Conftantine into two equal periods of time, we could not obferve without furprife the difference in their refpective degeneracy and deterioration. The writers in the first divifion rank, it is true, far below their predeceffors of the Auguftan fchool but who will compare Calphurnius and Nemefianus with Lucan and Statius? Tacitus muft not be degraded by a comparifon with any hiftotian of the latter interval; and Suetonius himself rifes far above the level of Spartianus, Capitolinus, and Lampridius .". The great caufe of the corruption of the Latin language, which gradually took place after the reign of Auguftus, proceeded from the number of trangers, Goths, Alans, Huns, and Gauls, who reforted to Rome from the provinces of Italy, and other parts of the empire, and intermixed foreign. words, and new combinations of speech, with the Introduction to the Literary History, &c. p. 20. original |