timulus is able to excite in a
man of warm passions, and florid imagination. This is a fact, of which
experience will suggest examples to every person who is conversant with
mankind.

We ought not therefore to wonder, when we observe in the writings of a
Great Genius beauties and blemishes blended promiscuously, and when we
find the Poet's imagination distinguished only by those marks of
inaccuracy which appear in the actions of others, and which are
ultimately to be derived from the complicated ingredients of the human
mind.

I have been led into this train of reflection, as it will enable us to
account for the inequalities which are to be met with in the writings of
Pindar, exposed as they have been to the admiration, and to the censure
of posterity. Whatever propriety the preceding rules may have with
regard to Lyric Poetry, it is certain that this Poet is not the standard
from whose work they are deduced. We have already seen that He himself
disclaims all conformity to the shackles of method, and that he insists
upon the privilege of giving a loose rein to the excursions of
imagination. The consequences of this proceeding are eminently
conspicuous in every part of his writings. His composition is coloured
with that rich imagery which Fancy throws upon the coldest sentiments,
his digressions are often too frequent and but remotely connected with
the principal subject, his personifications are bold and exuberant, and
he has made as free an use of theological fable as any Poet among the
Ancients.

The learned and ingenious Translator of Pindar has suggested several
striking pleas in his favour, both with respect to the _connection of
his thoughts_ and the _regularity of his measure_[85]. To resume on the
present occasion any part of what he hath advanced, would be equally
useless and improper. As to the first, I shall only add to this
Gentleman's observations, that all the writings of Pindar which have
reached the present times are of the panegyrical kind, in which _remote
circumstances_ and _distant allusions_ are often referred to with great
propriety; that sometimes several Odes are inscribed to _the same
person_; and that all of them are wrote on subjects too _exactly
similar_ to afford room for _continued variety of description_, without
allowing him frequently to digress. It is obvious that in these
circumstances the Poet must have been forcibly prompted to indulge the
natural exuberance of his genius, that h