g to Mr. Pope, a confused heap of
beauties, without order or symmetry, and a plot whereon nothing but
seeds, nor nothing perfect or formed is to be found; and a production
loaded with many unprofitable things which ought to be retrenched, and
which choak and disfigure those which deserve to be preserved? Mr. Pope
will pardon me if I here oppose those comparisons, which to me appear
very false, and entirely contrary to what the greatest of ancient, and
modern critics ever thought.

"The Iliad is so far from being a wild paradise, that it is the most
regular garden, and laid out with more symmetry than any ever was. Every
thing herein is not only in the place it ought to have been, but every
thing is fitted for the place it hath. He presents you at first with
that which ought to be first seen; he places in the middle what ought to
be in the middle, and what would be improperly placed at the beginning
or end, and he removes what ought to be at a greater distance, to create
the more agreeable surprize; and, to use a comparison drawn from
painting, he places that in the greatest light which cannot be too
visible, and sinks in the obscurity of the shade, what does not require
a full view; so that it may be said, that Homer is the Painter who best
knew how to employ the shades and lights. The second comparison is
equally unjust; how could Mr. Pope say, 'that one can only discover
seeds, and the first productions of every kind in the Iliad?' every
beauty is there to such an amazing perfection, that the following ages
could add nothing to those of any kind; and the ancients have always
proposed Homer, as the most perfect model in every kind of poetry.

"The third comparison is composed of the errors of the two former; Homer
had certainly an incomparable fertility of invention, but his fertility
is always checked by that just sense, which made him reject every
superfluous thing which his vast imagination could offer, and to retain
only what was necessary and useful. Judgment guided the hand of this
admirable gardener, and was the pruning hook he employed to lop off
every useless branch."

Thus far Madam Dacier differs in her opinion from Mr. Pope concerning
Homer; but these remarks which we have just quoted, partake not at all
of the nature of criticism; they are meer assertion. Pope had declared
Homer to abound with irregular beauties. Dacier has contradicted him,
and asserted, that all his beauties are regular, but no reason