and to say that it is inferior to Homer's and Virgil's shields, is not saying much against it. Pindar is too often obscure, and sometimes much more spun out and wordy than suits my taste; but there are passages in him quite divine. I have not read above half his works. Appollonius Rhodius is, I think, very well worth reading. The beginning of Medæa's love is, I believe, original, and though often copied since, never equalled. There are many other fine parts in his poem, besides some of which Virgil has improved, others scarce equalled. There is, however, in the greater part of the poem an appearance of labour, and a hardness, that makes it tiresome. He seems to me to be an author of about the same degree of genius with Tasso; and if there is more in the latter to be liked, there is nothing I think, to be liked in him so well as the parts of Appollonius to which I have alluded. I have said nothing of Aristophanes, because I never read him. Callimachus and Moschus are worth reading; but there is little of them. By the way, I now recollect that the passage about death, which I said was in Bion's elegy upon Adonis, is in Moschus's upon Bion. Now you have all my knowledge about Greek poetry. I am quite pleased at your liking Ariosto so much; though indeed I foresaw you would, from the great delight you expressed at Spenser, who is certainly inferior to him, though very excellent too. Tasso, I think below both of them, but many count him the first among those three; and even Metastasio, who ought to be a better judge of Italian poetry than you or I, gives him upon the whole the preference to Ariosto.

She

You will, of course, have been rejoiced at the peace, as we all are. Mrs. F. desires to be remembered to you kindly. is very busy just now, but will write to you soon. I think this place has looked more beautiful than ever this year, both in spring and summer, and so it does now in autumn. I have been very idle about my history, but I will make up for it bye and bye; though I believe I must go to Faris, to look at some papers there, before I can finish the first volume. I think in the last half of the Iliad you will admi e the 16th, 20th, 22d, and 24th, books particularly. I believe he general opinion is, that Homer did write near the shore, and he certainly does, as you

observe, particularly delight in illustrations taken from the sea, 2 waves, &c. Perhaps a lion is rather too frequent a simile with him. I dare say you were delighted with Helen and Priam on the walls in the 3d book; and I suspect you will be proportionSably disgusted with Tasso's servile and ill-placed imitation of it. Do not imagine, however, that I am not sensible to many beauties in Tasso, especially the parts imitated by Spencer, Erminia's flight and adventure, the description of the pestilence, and many others. I am, dear sir, Most truly,

St. Anne's Hill,

Monday.

(Post Mark, Oct. 20, 1801.)

Your's ever,

C. J. FOX.

MY DEAR SIR,

I am quite scandalized at having so long delayed answering your letters, but I put it off, as I am apt to do every thing, from day to day, till Christmas; and on that day Mrs. F. was taken very seriously ill with a fever, and sore throat of the inflammatory kind. The violence of the disorder was over this day se'nnight, but though she has been mending ever since, she is still weak. However, she may now be called comparatively speaking, quite well; and I did not like to write till I could tell you that she was so. I hope you go on with your Greek, and long to know whether you are as fond of the Odyssey as I am, as also what progress you have made in the other poets. The Plutarchus, whom you ask after, is, I believe, the same Plutarch who wrote the lives, and who certainly was of Charonea. At least, I never heard of any other author of that name, and he wrote many philosophical works. I think when you say you despise Tasso, you go further than I can do; and though there is servility in his manner of imitation, which is disgusting, yet it is hardly fair to be angry with him for translating a simile of Homer's, a plunder, if it be one, of which

nearly every poet has been guilty. If there be one who has not, I suspect it is he whom you say you are going to read, I mean Dante. I have only read part of Dante, and admire him very much. I think the brilliant passages are thicker set in his works, than in those of almost any other poet, but the want of connexion and interest makes him heavy; and, besides, the difficulty of his language, which I do not think much of, the obscurity of that part of history to which he refers, is much against him. His allusions, in which he deals not a little, are, in consequence, most of them lost.

I agree in liking Armida, but cannot help thinking Rinaldo's detention in his gardens very inferior to Ruggiero's.

Or fino agli occhi ben nuota nel golfo

Delle delizie e delle cose belle,

may seem to some an expression rather too familiar, and nearly foolish; but it is much better for describing the sort of situation in which the two heroes are supposed to be, than the Romito Amante of Tasso; not to mention the garden of Armida being all on the inside of the palace, and walled round by it, instead of the beautiful country described by Ariosto. Do you not think, too, that Spenser has much improved upon Tasso, by giving the song in praise of pleasure to a nymph rather than to a parrot? Pray, if you want any information about Greek poets or others, that I can give you, do not spare me, for it is a great delight to me to be employed upon such subjects, with one who has a true relish for them.

I do not wonder at your passionate admiration of the Iliad, and agree with you as to the peculiar beauty of most of the parts you mention. The interview of Priam and Achilles is, I think, the finest of all. I rather think, that in Andromache's first lamentation, she dwells too much upon her child, and too little upon Hector, but may be I am wrong. By your referring to the 4th book only for Agamemnon's brotherly kindness, I should almost suspect that you had not sufficiently noticed the extreme delicacy and kindness with which he speaks of him in the 10th v. 120, &c.

We have not at all fixed our time for going to Paris yet. Mrs. F. desires to be most kindly remembered to you.

I am very truly,

My dear sir, your's ever,

C. J. FOX.

P.S. I do not know which is the best translation of Don Quixote; I have only read Jarvis's, which I think very indifferent. I like Feijoo very much when I read him, but I have not his works.

MY DEAR SIR,

Pray do not think you trouble me, but quite the contrary, by writing to me, and especially on the subject of your poetical studies. What I do not like in your letter is, your account of yourself; and I am afraid a winter in Dublin, which may be so useful to you in other respects, may not be quite so well for your health; which, after all, is the grand article. Mrs. F. has not written lately, because you had not told her how to direct; and as she had not heard of your receiving the last letter she directed to Glasnevin, she feared that might not do. She desires me to say every thing that is kind to you.

I am very glad you prefer Euripides to Sophocles, because it is my taste; though I am not sure that it is not thought a heresy. He (Eur.) appears to me to have much more of facility and nature in his way of writing, than the other. The speech you mention of Electra is, indeed, beautiful; but when you have read some more of Euripides, perhaps you will not think it quite unrivalled. Of all Sophocles's plays, I like Electra clearly the best, and I think your epithet to Oed. Tyrs. a very just one; it is really to me a disagreeable play; and yet there are many who not only prefer it to Electra, but reckon it the finest specimen of the Greek theatre. I like his other two plays upon the Theban story both better, i. e. the Oed. Col. and the Antigone. In the latter there is a passage in her answer to Cicero that is, perhaps, the sublimest in the world; and, in many parts of the play there is a spirit almost miraculous, if, as it is said, Sophocles, was past eighty when he composed it. Cicero has made great

use of the passage I allude to, in his oration for Milo. I suppose you selected Hipp, and Iph. in Aulis, on account of Racine; and I hope you have observed with what extreme judgment he has imitated them. In the character of Hipp. only, I think he has fallen short of his original. The scene of Phædra's discovery of her love to her nurse, he has imitated pretty closely; and if he has not surpassed it, it is only because that was impossible. His Clytemnestra, too, is excellent, but would have been better if he had ventured to bring on the young Orestes as Eur. does. The change which you mention in the Greek Iphigenia, I like extremely; but it is censured by Aristotle as a change of character, not, I think, justly. Perhaps, the sudden change in Menelaus, which he also censures, is less defensible. Now, though the two plays of Eur. which you have read, are undoubtedly among his best, I will venture to assure you, that there are four others you will like full as well; Medca, Phænissæ, Heraclidæ, and Alcestis; with the last of which, if I know any thing of your taste, you will be enchanted. Many faults are found with it, but those faults lead to the greatest beauties. For instance, if Hercules's levity is a little improper in a tragedy, his shame afterwards, and the immediate consequence of that shame being a more than human exertion, afford the finest picture of an heroic mind that exists. The speech beginning w Kodλa Tλara nagdia, &c. is divine. Besides the two you have, and the four I have recommended, Hercules Furens, Iph. in Tauris, Hecuba, Bacchæ, and Troacles, are all very excellent. Then came Ion, Supplices, Electra and Helen; Orestes and Andromache are, in my judgment, the worst. I have not mentioned Rhesus and Cyclops, because the former is not thought to be really Euripides's and the latter is entirely comic, or rather a very coarse farce; excellent, however, in its way, and the conception of the characters not unlike that of Shakspeare in Caliban. I should never finish, if I were to let myself go upon Euripides. In two very material points, however, he is certainly far excelled by Sophocles: 1st, in the introduction of proper subjects in the songs of the chorus; and, 2dly, in the management of his plot. The extreme absurdity of the chorus, in Medea suffering her to kill her children, and of that in Phædra let