es to the _Grecians_, and sent many valiant Souls of
Heroes to Hell, and gave their Bodies to the Dogs, and to the Fowls
of the Air."

Here you see it is the Anger of _Achilles_, that does all that is
mentioned in three or four Lines. Now if the Translator does not
nicely observe _Homer's_ Stile in this Passage, all the Fire of
_Homer_ will be lost. For Example: "O Heavenly Goddess, sing the Wrath
of the Son of _Peleus_, the fatal Source of all the Woes of the
_Grecians_, that Wrath which sent the Souls of many Heroes to
_Pluto's_ gloomy Empire, while their Bodies lay upon the Shore, and
were torn by devouring Dogs, and hungry Vultures."

Here you see the Spirit of _Homer_ evaporates; and in what immediately
follows, if the Stile of _Homer_ is not nicely attended to, if any
great matter is added or left out, _Homer_ will be fought for in vain
in the Translation. He always hurries on as fast as possible, as
_Horace_ justly observes, _semper ad eventum festinat_; and that is
the reason why he introduces his first Speech without any Connection,
by a sudden Transition; and why he so often brings in his [Greek: ton
d' apameibomenos]: He has not patience to stay to work his Speeches
artfully into the Subject.

Here you see what is a _rapid_ Stile. I will now shew you what is
quite the contrary, that is, a _majestic one_. To instance in
_Virgil_: "Arms and the Man I sing; the first who from the Shores of
_Troy_ (the Fugitive of Heav'n) came to _Italy_ and the _Lavinian_
Coast." Here you perceive the Subject-matter is retarded by the
_Inversion of the Phrase_, and by that _Parenthesis_, the _Fugitive of
Heaven_ all which occasions _Delay_; and _Delay_ (as a learned Writer
upon a Passage of this nature in _Tasso_ observes) is the Property of
Majesty: For which Reason when _Virgil_ represents _Dido_ in her
greatest Pomp, it is,

--_Reginam_ cunctantem _ad limina primi_
_Poenorum expectant_.--

For the same Reason he introduces the most solemn and most important
Speech in the _AEneid_, with three Monosyllables, which causes great
Delay in the Speaker, and gives great Majesty to the Speech.

--_O Qui Res_ Hominumq; Deumq;--

These three Syllables occasion three short Pauses. _O--Qui--Res_--How
slow and how stately is this Passage!

But it happens that I can set the Beginning of the _AEneid_ in a clear
Light for my purpose, by two Translations of that Passage, both by the
same Hand; one of which is exactly in th