for one while he scares him with bugbears in the way, "Vafti quoque rector Olympi, tr Qui fera terribili jaculetur fulmina dextrâ, "Non agat hos currus; et quid Jove majus habetur?". ❝ —Patrio pater effe metu probor; afpice vultus P. 110. 1. 13. A golden axle, &c.] Ovid has more turns and repetitions in his words than any of the Latin, poets, which are always wonderfully eafy and natural in him. The repetition of Aureus, and the tranfition to Argenteus, in the description of the chariot, give these verses a great fweetnefs and majesty :: "Aureus axis erat, temo aureus, aurea fummæ "Curvatura rote; radiorum argenteus ordo." P. 111. 1. 7. Drive them not on directly, &c.] Several have endeavoured to vindicate Ovid against the old objection, that he mistakes the annual for the diurnal motion of the fun. The Dauphin's notes tell us that Ovid knew very well the fun did not pass through all the figns he names in one day, but that he makes Phoebus mention them only to frighten Phacton from the undertaking. But though this may anfwer for what Phoebus fays in his firft fpeech, it can not from what is faid in this, where he is actually giving directions for his journey, and plainly "Sectus in obliquum est lato curvamine limes, "Zonarumque trium contentus fine plomumque "Effugit australem, junctamque aquionibus Arcton,” defcribes the motion through all the Zodiac. P. 111. 1. 23. And not my chariot, &c.] "Ovid's verfe is, Confiliis non curribus utere noftris." This way of joining two fuch different ideas as chariot and counfel to the fame verb is mightily used by Ovid; but is a very low kind of wit, and has always in it a mixture of pun, because the verb must be taken in a different fenfe when it is joined with one of the things, from what it has in conjunction with the other. Thus in the end of this story he tells you that Jupiter flung a thunderbolt at Phaeton-" Pariterque, animâque, rotifque expulit aurigam," where he makes a forced piece of Latin ("animæ expulit aurigam") that he may couple the foul and the wheels to the fame verb. P. 112. l. 17. The youth was in a maze, &c.] It is impoffible for a man to be drawn in a greater confusion than Phaeton is; but the antithesis of light and darkness a little flattens the defcription. "Suntque oculis tenebræ per tantum lumen oborta." Ibid. 1. 20. Then the feven ftars, &c.] I wonder none of Ovid's commentators have taken notice of the overfight he has committed in this verfe, where he make the Triones grow warm before there was ever fuch a fign in the heavens; for he tells us in this very book, that Jupiter turned Califto into this conftella tion, after he had repaired the ruins that Phaeton had made in the world. P. 114. l. 12, Athos and Tmolus, &c.] Ovid has here, after the way of the old poets, given us a catalogue of the mountains and rivers which were burnt. But, that I might not tire the English reader, I have left out fome of them that make no figure in the defcription, and inverted the order of the reft according as the fmoothness of my verfe required. P. 115. 1. 7. 'Twas then, they say, the swarthy Moor, &c.] This is the only Metamorphofis in all this long story, which, contrary to custom, is inserted in the middle of it. The critics may determine whether what follows it be not too great an excurfion in him who propofes it as his whole design to let us know the changes of things. I dare say that, if Ovid had not religiously observed the reports of the ancient Mythologists, we should have seen Phaeton turned into fome creature or other that hates the light of the fun or perhaps into an eagle, that still takes pleasure to gaze on it. P. 115. 1. 28. The frighted Nile, &c.] Ovid has made a great many pleasant images towards the latter end of this story. His verfes on the Nile, "Nilus in extremum fugit perterritus orbem, "Occuluitque caput, quod adhuc latet: oftia feptem "Pulverulenta vacant, septem fine flumine valles." are as noble as Virgil could have written; but then he ought not to have mentioned the channel of the fea afterwards, « Mare "Mare contrahitur, ficcæque eft campus arenæ," because the thought is too near the other. The image of the Cyclades is a very pretty one; 66 -Quos altum texerat æquor "Exiftunt montes, et fparfas Cycladas augent." but to tell us that the fwans grew warm in Cäyster, "Medio volucres caluere Cäystro," and that the Dolphins durft not leap, "Ne fe fuper æquora curvi "Tollere confuetas audent Delphines in auras," is intolerably trivial on fo great a fubject as the burning of the world. P. 116. 1. 19. The earth at length, &c.] We have here a fpeech of the Earth, which will doubtlefs seem very unnatural to an English reader. It is I believe the boldest Profopopoeia of any in the old Poets; or, if it were never so natural, I cannot but think she speaks too much in any reafon for one in her condition. ON EUROPA'S RAPE. P. 141. 1. 17. The dignity of empire, &c.] This ftory is prettily told, and very well brought in by those two ferious lines, "Non bene conveniunt, nec in unâ fede morantur, Majeftas et Amor. Sceptri gravitate reli&tâ, &c." without which the whole fable would have appeared very prophane. P. 142. l. 27. The frighted nymph looks, &c.] This confternation and behaviour of Europa, "Elufam defignat imagine tauri "Europen "Europen: verum taurum, freta vera putaras. “Ipsa videbatur terras spectare relictas, "Et comites clamare fuos, tactumque vereri "Affilientis aquæ, timidasque reducere plantas," is better defcribed in Arachne's picture in the Sixth Book, than it is here; and in the beginning of Tatius's Clitophon and Leucippe, than in either place. It is indeed ufual among the Latin Poets (who had more art and reflexion than the Grecian) to take hold of all opportunities to defcribe the picture of any place or action, which they generally do better than they could the place or action itself; because in the defcription of a picture you have a double subject before you, either to defcribe the picture itself, or what is represented in it. ON THE STORIES IN THE THIRD BOOK. FA B. I. THERE is fo great a variety in the arguments of the Metamorphofes, that he who would treat of them rightly, ought to be a mafter of all ftiles, and every different way of writing. Ovid indeed fhows himself moft in a familiar ftory, where the chief grace is to be eafy and natural; but wants neither ftrength of thought nor expreffion, when he endeavours after it, in the more fublime and manly fubjects of his poem. In the prefent fable, the ferpent is terribly defcribed, and his behaviour very well imagined; the actions of both parties in the encounter are natural, and the language |