Ill
 
 o. 
 
 DIALOGUE 
 
 O F 
 
 PLATO 
 
 ^ 
 
 CONCERNING 
 
 jtLf X XV 
 
 L N D JV : 
 
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 M Dec LIX. 
 [ Price Two Shillings and Sixpence; ] 
 
 T
 
 
 I o. 
 
 DIALOGUE, 
 
 CONCERNING 
 
 POETRY 
 
 5^0668
 
 T O 
 
 THE RIGHT HONOURABLE 
 
 GEORGE,. Lord LH'TLETON, 
 Baron o^ FRAN KLET^ 
 
 ONE OF THE LORDS 
 
 OF His majesty's PRIVY COUNCIL; 
 This TRANSLATION of 
 
 The IO of PLATO 
 
 Is, 
 
 With the HIGHEST Respect> 
 JUSTLY infcribed 
 
 by his Lordship's 
 moft obedient 
 humble Servant 
 
 Floyer Sydenham.
 
 [s ] 
 
 THE 
 
 ARGUMENT. 
 
 ^ i HE General Subject of this Dialogue is Poetry : but 
 various 'titles are found prefixed to the Copys of it, 
 €ijfigned probably by the Ancients. Some file it a Dialogue 
 " Concerning the Iliad :" while Others^ aimi7ig to open the 
 Subject more fully and difinSlly^ entitle it, " Of the Inter- 
 pretation of the Poets :" a7id Others again, with Litention to 
 exprefs the Defign or Scope of it in the Title, have invented 
 Thisy " Concerning the Mark or Charaderiftick of a Poet." 
 But None of thefe 'Titles, or Infcriptions, will be found adequate 
 or proper. The ' Firjl is too partial afid deficient. For the 
 
 Dialogue 
 
 ' " Concerning the Iliad." This however appears to be the moft 
 Ancient, being the only one found in Laertius; and the Others hein'^ 
 too precife and particular to be of an earlier Date. For the Titles of 
 all the Profaic Works of the Ancients, whether Dialogues, Dilfertations, 
 or methodical Treatifes, written before the Age of Plutarch, were as 
 genera^ and as concife, as poffible, exprefling the Subjed: ufually in One 
 Word. The Title, that we have chofen, appears not indeed in any of 
 3 ■ the
 
 6 The A R G U M E N T. 
 
 Dialogue^ now before us^ concerns the Odyffey as much as the 
 Iliad, and ma?iy Other Poets no kfs than Homer. As to the 
 next Title ; the Interpretation or Expoftion of the Poets is 
 but an Occaiional or Accefibry SuhjeEi, ijtt reduced only for 
 the Sake of fo7ne other ^ which is the Principal. The lajl Title 
 is Erroneous, and i?iiflakes the main Drift and End of this 
 Dialogue^ which is by ?io Means fo flight or unimportant^ as 
 meerly to fhew^ that ' Enthufiafm^ or the Poetic Furjy is the 
 
 Cha- 
 
 the Copys of this Dialogue ; but perhaps may be fupported by the Au- 
 thority of Clemens of Alexandria, a Writer Httle later than Laertius. For 
 citing a Paflage out of the /<?, he has thefe Words, -ro-gp) }Jih T«ro»iT<x5i5 
 ^A«'T&)^ — y^(p£{. Stro?nat. Lib. 6. near the End. Tho it muft be owned 
 not abfolutely clear, whether he means it as the known Title of the 
 Dialogue, or as the Subjedt only of the Paflage there quoted. 
 
 * Yet only in this Light was the lo confidered by Ficinus, as appears 
 from his Commentary on this Dialogue. And His Reprefentations of 
 it have been blindly followed by All, who have fmce his Time written 
 concerning it, as Janus Cornarius in his jth Eclogue, Serranus in his 
 Argument of the lo, and Francifcus Patritius in his Diflertation de Or- 
 dine Dialogorum. Nor muft we conceal from our Readers the oppo- 
 fite Opinion of a very ingenious Friend, who fuppofes Plato to have no 
 other View in this Dialogue, than to expofe lo to Ridicule, and to con- 
 vince him of his own Ignorance. Whatever therefore is faid on the 
 Suhjed of Etithufiafm in Poetry, appears to Him wholly Ironical, and 
 Socrates to be abfolutely in Jeft throughout the Dialogue. To this 
 Conjefture we {hall only fay, in the Words of Horace, which a Reader 
 of Plato ought always to have in Mind, 
 
 Ridentcm dicere Verum 
 
 i^id vetat ? 
 
 TFbat
 
 The A R G U M E N T. 7 
 
 CharaSieriJiick of a 'True Poet ; hut makes a Fart of the 
 grand Defgn of Plato m all h's Writings^ that is, the teach - 
 ing True Wifdom : in order to which, every Kind of Wifdoni 
 fairly fo called, commonly taught in the Age when He lived ^ 
 was to he unlearnt. "The "Teachers, or Leaders of Popular 
 Opinion, among the Grecians of thofe Days, were the Sophifts, 
 the Rhetoricians, and the Poets ; or rather, inflead of thefe lafl, 
 their ignorant and falfe Interpreters. Men of liberal Educa- 
 tion were jnif-led pri?icipally hy the Firft of thefe : the Second 
 Sort were the Seducers of the Populace, to whofe Pajftons the 
 Force of Rhetorick chiefly is apply ed in Com??W7iwealths : hut 
 
 the. 
 What hinders., but that ferioiis Truth be /poke 
 In Humour gay, with Fleajantry and 'joke ? 
 
 As to the other Opinion, that, which is generally received, we contend 
 not, that it has no Foundation ; nor even at all difpute the Truth of it ; 
 but deny only the Importance of that Truth to the Jo. For tho the 
 immediate and diredl End of Plato, in this Dialogue, was to prove, 
 that the Wifdom, which appears in the Writings of the Elder Poets, 
 efpecially in thofe of Homer, was 7iot owing to Science : yet another 
 Thing, which he had obliquely in his View, was the intimating to his 
 Readers, to what Caufe pofitively it was owing, that fo many profound 
 Truths were contained in thofe ancient Poems. The Caufe, afTigned by 
 the Philofopher, is fome Univerfal and Divine Principle, operating in 
 various Ways ; partly ading only occafwnaUy, in which refpedt he 
 terms it, agreeably to the Language of thofe Days, the Infpiration of 
 the Miife ; and partly with a continual and conftant Energy, being a 
 Divine Genius, but limited, and confined to certain Suhjefts, operating 
 differently in di-§'erent Perfons; tho in Homer, mod of All Men, exert- 
 ing its full Force, and the moft according to its cwn Nature, that \s\ 
 Univerfal and Divine,
 
 8 The A R G U MEN T. 
 
 the Minds of ^ People of all Ranks received a had ImpreJJion 
 from thofe of the laft mentioned Kind. To prevent the ill In- 
 fluence of Thefe, is the immediate Defgn of the lo. For one 
 great Obfiacle to the Reception of the Socratic DoElrine^ (which 
 was noty like the Teaching of the Sophi/ls^ by being extremely 
 expenfivey confined to Men of high Rank aftd large Fortunes J 
 was the Vulgar Religio72 of thofe Times. Of this the earliefl 
 Poets, principally Orpheus, are '^fuppofed by Some to have been 
 the Firfl Teachers : certain it is, that the Greater Poets, wh(y 
 came after thein, efpecially ^ Homer and Hefiod, /// underfiood, 
 were the chief Supporters ; and that all the refi, who followed, 
 were the Favourers. Nor is This at all to be wondered at : 
 for Poets always write to pleafe ; and affeSling the Favour of 
 the Magi/iracy, or that of the People, fall ijt with the eflablifh- 
 
 ed 
 
 3 As foon as Boys had been taught Letters, they were introduced 
 to the reading of the Poets; their Minds were charged with the Me- 
 mory of (horter Poems, and of many Pafiages from the longer ; and they 
 had Mafters appointed to explain, criticife, and comment upon what 
 they had learnt. From the Poets confequently did the Youth imbibe 
 Principles of Manmrs, and general Opinio7is of Things : their Odes 
 were as commonly fung as Ballads among Us ; and their Verfes were 
 cited, not only to grace Converfation, but even to add Weight to grave 
 Difcourfes. Juftly therefore does Arijlides tlie Orator call them xoit-aj 
 nutv '^.KK^vjof T^^'kcti so cTJ a 7" xaAbi, tbe com?non Tutors and Teachers of 
 all Greec:. Ariftid. Tom. 3. pag. 22. Ed. Ctmter. 
 
 * See the primitive Apologijls for the Chri/iiafi Faith : whofe Opinion 
 upon this Point we fhall examine in our Notes on the Second Book of 
 the Republick. 
 
 i See P/atM'6 Repub. L. 2 6c 3. Max. Tyr. Difl". 27.
 
 The A R G U M E N T. 9 
 
 td Syjlem of Opinions y or with the prevailing 'Taji ; and then 
 give a Kind of SanSlion to that Syflem 'which they ferve^ or 
 to that Tajl which they flatter^ through the natural Force 
 
 Of magic Numbers and perfuaflve Sound. 
 
 Co?JZ' 
 
 But much Jlronger mujl have been the EffeSl of Poetry in thofe 
 DaySy when Poejns were thought Infpired, ajid eve?y Syllable 
 of them had the SanSiion of fome Divine Mufe. The Way^ 
 -which the Philofopher takes to leffen their Credit y is not by 
 calling in ^tejiion the Infpiration of the Poet, or the Divi- 
 nity of the Mufe. Far from atte7npti?2g This^ he eflablifhes 
 the received Hypothefis^ for the Foundation of his Argument 
 againfl the Authority of their DoBrine : inferring^ frofn their 
 Inability to write without the Impulfe of the Mufe, that they 
 had no real Knowlege of what they taught : whereas the 
 Pri7icplcs of Science, as he tells us in the Philebus, defce?td 
 i?tto the Mifid of Man immediately from Heaven ; or, as he 
 exprefes it in the Epinomis, frofn God Himfelf without the 
 hitervention of any lower Divinity. The true Philofopher 
 therefore^ who attends to this Higher Infpiration, He alo?2e 
 poffcffing that Divineft Science^ the Science of thofe Principles, 
 is able to teach in a Sclentilic Way. But Plato, of all the 
 polite JFriters among the A?icients the mofi polite, makes not 
 
 B • l:h
 
 10 The ARGUMENT. 
 
 his Attack upon the Poets themfelves direEily : for, as the Dif- 
 affeSied to any Government^ fo long as they 7'etai?i the'w Re- 
 fpeSi for it, Jlrike at the Sovereigns only in the Perfons of 
 their Minijlers ; /;/ the fame refpeElfid Manner does the courtly 
 Vhxo feem to f pare thofe f acred Perfons, the Anointed of the 
 Mufes, making free with the Rhapfodifts o}ily, their Literpre- 
 ters. "this he does in the Perfon of lo, Q?je of that Nwnber, 
 who profejfed to interpret the Senfe of Homer ; proving out 
 of his own Mouth, that he had 710 true Knowlege of thofe 
 Matters, which he pretended to explain ; a?id infmuating at 
 the fa??te time, that the Poet no lefs wanted true Knowlege 
 in thofe very "Things, tho the SuhjcSis of his own Poem. For 
 every "Thing, that he fays of the Rhapfodifts a7id of Rhapfody, 
 holds equally True of * Poets a7jd of Poetry. The Putfuit of 
 
 this 
 
 * This appears to have been fo underflood by the Poets themfelves of 
 thofe Davs. For what other Provocation Socrates could have given 
 them, than by fome fuch Talk, as Plato in this Dialogue puts into his 
 Mouth, is not eafy to conceive. The Enemys, that Socrates had made 
 himfelf by his Freedom of Speech, as we are informed by Himfelf in 
 his /Ipohgy, reported to us by Plato^ were of three Sorts ; the Politicians^ 
 the Rhetoricians^ and the Poets. That the former Sort refented his ex- 
 pofing their conceited Ignorance, and vain Pretenfions to Political Science^ 
 is told us by Laertius, B. 2. and is indeed abundantly evident from 
 Plato's Meno. That Socrates treated the Rhetoj-icians in the fame Man- 
 ner, will appear very fufficiently in the Gorgias. Is it not then highly 
 probable, that the Refentment of the Poets was niifcd againll: him by 
 the fame Means j and that they well underftood his Attack upon the 
 RhapJodiJIs^ a Set of Men too inconfiderable for any Part of his Princi- 
 pal
 
 The A R G U M E N T. 1 1 
 
 this Argtmient naturally leads to a Twofold Inquh-y : One 
 Head or Article of which regards the Sciences, the Other 
 concerns the Arts. By this Partition does Plato divide his lo ; 
 throwing however here, as he does every where elfe^ a grace- 
 fid Veil over his Art of Compofuion, and the Method ii^ith 
 which he frames his Dialogues ; in order to give them the Ap- 
 pearance of Familiarity and Eafe, fo kcomi?2g thai Kind of 
 Writing : in the fame Ma?iner, as he always takes Care to 
 C07iceal their Scope or Defign ; that, openi?ig itfelf unexpeEl- 
 edly at lafl, it may flrike the Mind with greater Efficacv. 
 Upon the Article of Science, Plato reprefe7its the Poets 
 writing of All Things, whether Human or Divine ; of Mo- 
 rals, Politicks, a7id Military Affairs ; of Hiflory, and Anti- 
 quity s ; of Meteorology, and Aflronomy ; in fine, of the whole 
 Univerfe ; yet without any inti7nate Acquai7itance with the 
 Nature of thofe Tlmigs, a7id without havi77g had any other 
 than a Superficial View. For, accordi7ig to the beautiful 
 Defer iption given us by One of the Firfi Rank amo7ig the777, 
 
 The Poet's Eye, in a fine Frenzv rollino- 
 Glances from Heav'n to Eaith, from Eartli to Heav'n. 
 
 Shakefpear. 
 
 K 2 It 
 
 pal Notice, to be intended a^ainft Themfelves ? We Hiould add to this 
 Argument the Authority of AtknKsus, were it of any Weight in what 
 regards Plato. For he gives This as one Inftance of Plato\ envious 
 and malignant Spirit, which his own Malignity againa the Divine Phi- 
 lofopher attributes to him, that in his lo he viiifys and abufes the Poets, 
 StQ Atht'ti. Deipnofoph. L. ii. pas;. 506. ' -
 
 iz The A R GUME N T. 
 
 // catches therefore but the Surfaces of Things. This fine 
 Frenzy, or, as the Ancients call it^ Divine Fury, arifes from 
 rapturous Views of fame Natural Beauty, or of the Hi^heft 
 of all, that of Nature her Self : to he fnitten nscith which 
 equally indeed makes the Enthufiafm of the Poet, and that of 
 the Philofopher ; but with this Difference, that it puts the 
 Former upon defcribing only^ a7jd imitating ; the Latter 
 upon contemplating, and tracing out the Caufes of ivhat he 
 fo admires, and the Principles of Things. Under the other 
 Article, that of Art, Plato pews, that the Poets defcribc, 
 and i?i Defcription imitate, the Operations and Performaiwes 
 of Many of the Arts, tho in the Principles of thofe Arts tin- 
 inflruEled and ignorant ; as having Skill in One Art only. 
 That, through which they fo defcribe and imitate, the Art of 
 Poetry : while every Other Artifl hath Skill in fo7ne One other, 
 his own proper, Art ; and to the true Philofopher, as he tells 
 us in his Dialogue called the Politician, belongs the Knowkge 
 of That Art, in which are comprehended the Principles of -AX 
 the reft. Hence it follows, that of fuch Poetical Sulfe&s, as 
 have any Relation to the Arts, whether Military or Peacefully 
 ■whether hnperatorial. Liberal, or Mechanical, the Knowing 
 in Each Art are refpeSlively the only proper Judges. And as 
 a Corollary from hence alfo, the Philofopher i?ifnuates, that 
 None are able to interpret the Poets rightly y wherever they aim 
 
 atf
 
 The ARGUMENT. 13 
 
 at givwg an Account of the inward or occult Parts of Na- 
 ture, except the Wife a7id truly Knowing i?i the Nature of 
 things ', who alo?ie know how to jnahe the due ^ DiflinElion in 
 the Writings of a?7y of the Poets j and to feparate what is fou7id^ 
 pure, and agreeable to Truth, from what is tainted with Su- 
 perfition, or a7iy other TVay corrupted by the Mixture of 
 Popular Opinion. Such is the * Deiign, and fuch the Order 
 of this Dialogue. As to its Ki?id, it is 72umbered by the An- 
 cients amo7ig the Peiraftic :■ but according to the Schejne p^o- 
 pofed in our SynopHs, the Outward Form or Character of it 
 is purely Dramatic : and the Genius of it isfeen in 7'his, that 
 the Argu77jentation is only ^ Probable ; a7id in "This alfo, that 
 the Conclufwn leaves the Rhapfodifl lo '° perplexed a7jd flenced, 
 bringi77g off Socrates in modefl Triumph ever the. Embarraf- 
 nicnt of his half-yiddi7ig Adverfary, 
 
 f Antijlhenes^ a Difciple of Socrates, Zeno, the Father of Stoicifm, 
 and Pcrfaus, a Difciple of this Ze}20, wrote Treatifes on this very Sub- 
 jeclj purpofely fliewing, with regard to the Works of Homer, the £)/- 
 flinciion here mentioned. See Dion. Chryfojlom. Orat. 53. pag. 554. 
 Ed. Paris, 
 
 * See the Synopfis, Page 15 and 16.. 
 
 9 See the Synopfis, Note 4. 
 
 '** See Synopfis, Page y, ix. 10.
 
 [ 14] 
 
 PERSONS OF THE DIALOGUE, 
 
 Socrates, Io. 
 
 VS C E N E, Athens. 
 
 1 The Scene, tho not prechely marked out to us by Plato, evidently 
 lyes within the City ; and fome Circumftances make it probable to be 
 the Public Streets ; where Socrates, in paffing along, cafually met with 
 Io. Not to infifl on That of lo's recent Arrival at Athens, nor on that 
 Other of the feeming Hajl of Socrates, exprelTed in his poftponing ]o's 
 impertinent Harangue, and his endeavouring to draw the Converfation 
 into narrow Compafs, Circumftances perhaps ambiguous ; One more deci- 
 five is the Reftridtion of the Nianber of Pfr/o«5 compofing the Dialogue to 
 thofe Two. For whenever Plato lays his Scene in fome Publick Place, 
 frequented for the fake of Company, Exercife, or Amufe?nenc ; many 
 Perfons are made Partys, or Witneffes at leaft, to the Converfation : and 
 This out of Regard to Probability ; becaufe a Converfation-Party, con- 
 fifting of more than Two Perfons, may naturally be fuppofed the aioft 
 frequent in Places, where Few of the AlTembly could fail of meeting 
 with Many of their Acquaintance. Another Circumftance contributing 
 to determine, Where the Scene lyes, is the Brevity of this Dialogue. 
 For Plato, to his other Dramatic Excellencys, in which he well might 
 
 be
 
 I O. It 
 
 J 
 
 Socrates. 
 O Y be with lo. Whence come you now ? What ; 
 do you come diredly from Home, from Ephefus ? 
 
 lo. 
 
 be a Pattern to all Dramatic Poets, addeth This alfo, to adjuft the Length 
 of the Converfation to the Flace where it is held : a Piece of Decorum 
 little regarded even by the Beft of our modern Writers for the Stage. 
 Accordingly, the longeji Converfations, related or feigned by Flato^ we 
 may obferve to be carryed on always in fome Private Hoiife, or during 
 %\ongWalk\x\io ihe Count 7-y; unlefs fome peculiar Circnmftance per- 
 mits the Difcourfe to be protraded in a Place otherwife improper. For 
 the fame Reafon of Propriety, the Exchange, where much Talk would 
 be inconvenient ; or the Street, where People converfe only as they pafi 
 along together, and fometimes, removed a little from the Throng, fiand- 
 ing jVill a while ; is generally made the Scene of \he J}:orte/i Dialogues. 
 And in Purfuance of the fame Rule, Thofe of middling Length have 
 for their Scene fome Public Room, a Gymnaftic or a Literary School 
 for Iriftance, in which were Seats fixed all round, for Any of the M- 
 fembly to fit and talk: but in a Place of this Kind the Converfation 
 mufl be abridged, becaufe liable to Interruption ; befides that Decency, 
 and a Regard to the Prefence of the whole Ajfcrnbly, regulate the Bounus 
 ol private Converfation in thofe detached znd feparate Partys, into 
 which ufually a. large Company divides itfelf ^ appointing it to be con- 
 fined within moderate Compafs. As this Note regards all the Dialogues 
 of Plato, the Length of it, we hope, wants no Apology. 
 
 • To wifh "Joy, was the ufual Salutation of the ancient Greeks,, 
 when they met or parted: as ours is, to hope or wifh Health; aa. 
 Expreffion of our Courtefy, derived to us from the old Romans. 
 
 2.
 
 i6 I O. 
 
 lo. 
 
 s Not fo, Socrates, I afTure you ; but from % Epidaurus, 
 from the * Feafts of ^^^fculapius. 
 
 Socrates. 
 The People of Epidaurus, I think, upon this Occafion, 
 
 propofe 
 
 » As much as to fay, " // is not fo bad with me neither, as to be 
 " obliged ever to be at Home" Plato makes him exprefs himfelf in 
 this Manner, partly, to (liew the roving Life of the Rhapfodifts, incon- 
 fiftent with the Attainment of any real Science ; but chiefly, to open the 
 Charadler of lo, who prided himfelf in being at the Head of his Pro- 
 feflion, and confequently, in having much Bufinefs abroad. The very 
 firft Queftion therefore of Socrates, who knew him well, is on Purpofe 
 to draw from him Ihch an Anfwer : as the Queftions, that follow next, 
 are intended to put him upon hoajling of his great Performances. No- 
 thing in the Writings of P/^/o, not the minuteft Circumftance, is idle 
 or infignificant. It would be endlefs to point out This in every In- 
 flance. Scarce a Line, but would demand a Comment of this Sort. 
 The Specimen however, here given, may fuffice to fhew, with wliat 
 •Attention fo perfeft a Mafter of Good Writing ought to be read : and 
 with fuch a Degree of Attention, as is due, the intelligent Reader will 
 of himfelf difcern, in ordinary Cafes, the particular Defign of every 
 Circumftance, and alfo what Relation it bears to the General Defign of 
 the whole Dialogue^ 
 
 5 In this City was a Temple of JEfciilapiiis, much celebrated for his 
 immediate Prefence. An annual Fellival was here likewife held in 
 Honour to that God. 
 
 * '£k tmv ' Kiv-Mitiiittiv. Ficinus feems to think, This means tlye 
 JVorJhippers of /Elculapiiis. Bembo tranflates it " da Figliuoli di Ef 
 " culapio,'' an Appellation given only to Phyficians. Serranus inter- 
 prets it in the fame Senfe that we do : and that this is the true one, 
 appears ixom Jul . Pollux, Onomajh L. i, C. 13. • . . 
 
 2
 
 I O. 17 
 
 propofe a Trial of Skill among the ' Rhapfodifls, in Ho- 
 nour of the God. Do they not ? 
 
 lo. 
 They do ; and a Trial of Skill in every Other Branch of 
 the ^ Mufe's Art. 
 
 Socrates. 
 
 5 Thefe were a Set of People, whofe Profeflion fomewhat refcmbled 
 that of our Strolling Players. For they travelled from one populous 
 City to another, wherever the Greek was the Vulgar Language, re- 
 hearfing, adling, and expounding (fee Notes 8, 14, and 23) the Works 
 of their ancient Poets, principally thofe of Homer. They reforted to 
 the Fea/Is and Banquets of Private Perfons, where fuch Rehearfals made 
 Part of the Entertainment ; and in the Public Theatres performed be- 
 fore the Multitude. Efpecially they failed not their Attendance at the 
 General Afemblys of the People from all Parts of Greece; nor at the 
 Religious Feftivals, celebrated by any Particular State. For on thefe 
 folemn Occafions it was ufual to have Prizes propofed to be contended 
 for, not only in all the Manly Exercifes fafhionable in thofe Days, but 
 in the Liberal Arts alfo ; of which even the Populace among the Gre- 
 cians, then the politeft People in the World, were no lefs fond. The 
 prijicipal of Thefe is Poetry : (fee the Second of Mr. Harris's Three 
 Treatifes:) and Poets themfelves often contended for the Prize of Ex- 
 cellence in this Art. But Poets were rare in that Age. Their Places 
 therefore on thefe Occafions were fupplyed by the Rkapfcdifts ; who 
 vyed one with another for Excellence in reciting: juft as in This Age 
 we have feen the Competition as warm, and as deeply engaging the At- 
 tention of the Publick, between Rival Stage-Playeis, as was feen in the 
 laft Ages between Shakefpear and Fletcher, Drydcn and Otway, Con- 
 gre'ue and Vanburgb. Whoever defires a more particular Account of 
 the Rhapfodift?, fo often mentioned in this Dialogue, than can be given 
 within the Compafs of thefe Notes, may confult the Commentary of 
 Eiiflathius upon Homer, with the Notes of the learned Sahvini, vol. j. 
 page I 5, &c. as alfo a Treatife of H. Stephens de Rhapfodis. 
 
 * JEJculapiiis was fuppofed to be the Son of Apollo ; and that Suppo- 
 fuion was the higheft Thought, that could be entertained of a Mortal. 
 
 C In
 
 i8 I O. 
 
 Socrates. 
 Well ; you, I prefume, were One of the Competitors : 
 What Succefs had you ? 
 
 lo. 
 We came off, O Socrates, with the Chief Prize. 
 
 Socrates. 
 You fay well : Now then let us prepare to win the Con- 
 queft in the ^ Panathensa. 
 
 lo. 
 
 In the Feafts therefore of ^fctilapius, to propofe Prizes in thofe Arts, 
 that were under the Aufpices of Apollo, whom Plato in his Laws, B. 2. 
 calls fjiva-fiyiTfiVi Prefident of the Mufes, was paying the higheft Compli- 
 ment to their God, in eflablifhing the Suppofition of his being the Son 
 of fuch a Father. 
 
 7 This was a Feflival, kept at Athens yearly in Honour of Mitterva^ 
 •who was believed by the Athetiia?js to be the Divine Protedrefs of their 
 City. Every Fifth Tear it was celebrated with more Feftivity and Pomp 
 than ordinary; and was then called the Great Panathenaa, to diftin- 
 guifh it from thofe held in the Intermediate Years, termed accordingly 
 the Lefs. We learn from Plato in his Hipparchus, from whence Milan 
 almoft tranfcribes it in his Various Hi/l. L. 8. C. 2. that there was a 
 Law at Athens, appointing the Works of Homer to be recited by the 
 Rhapfodifts during the Solemnization of this Feftival : in order, fays 
 Ifocrates in his Panegyrical Oration, to raife in the Athenians an Emu- 
 lation of the Virtues there celebrated. From a Paflage in the Oratioa 
 of Lycurgus the Orator it appears, that this Law regarded only the 
 Great Panathencea. On this very folemn Occafion, it is highly proba- 
 ble, that lo was come to Athens, on Purpofe to (hew his Abilitys, aAd 
 contend for the Prize of Vidory. We cannot help obferving by the 
 Way, that many Writers, ancient as well as modern, exprefs them- 
 felves, as if they imagined the Greater and the Lefs Panathenasa to be 
 Two different Feftivals : See in particular Cafiellan. de Fejl. Grcec. p. 
 206, 7. whcfeas it is clear from the Words of Lycurgus^ that there 
 3 was
 
 I O. 19 
 
 lo. 
 
 That we fLall accomplifli too, if Fortune favour us. 
 
 SoCRATE S. 
 
 Often have I envyed You Rhapfodifts, lo, the great Ad- 
 vantages of your Profeflion. For to be always * well dreft, 
 and to make the handfomeft Appearance poffible, as be- 
 comes a Man, no Doubt, who fpeaks in Publick ; to be 
 
 C 2 con- 
 
 was but One Feftival of that Name, tho held in a more fplendid Man- 
 ner every Fifth Year. As they nearly concern the Subjedt now before 
 us, we prefent them to the Learned Reader at full Length : btw ycco 
 u-jreha.^'iv Vjx'Zv o\ 'mocri^a a-naS'a.Tov eifccl ixroimm, (fc. tov "Of^n^pov) uq-e 10- 
 
 Ts-oimuv paxj^wcTacSK^ id. eVji. Pag. 223. oi T)x. Taylor s Edition. " l^our 
 " Ancejlors had fo high an Opinion of the Excellence of Homer, as to 
 " make a Laiv, that in every Fifth Tear of the Panathen(sea, His Poems^ 
 " and His only, fiould be recited by the Rhapfodifls." 
 
 * The Rhapfodifls often ufed to recite in a Theatrical Manner, not 
 only with proper Geflures, but in a Garb alfo fuitable to their Subjeft : 
 and when they thus adled the Odyjfey of Hotner, were drefled in a Pur^ 
 ple-coloiired Robe, aAiyp^a, to reprefent the Wandrings of Ulyffes by 
 Sea : but when they adled the Iliad, they wore one of a Scarlet Colour, 
 to fignify the Bloody Battles defcribed in that Poem. Upon their Heads 
 they bore a Crown of Gold ; and held in their Hands a IVand, made 
 of the Laurel-Tree, which was fuppofed to have the Virtue of height- 
 ning Poetic Raptures ; being, we may prefume, found to have, like 
 the Laurel with Us, tho a different Kind of Tree, fomewhat of an in- 
 toxicating Quality. See Fiijlathius on Horner^ Iliad, B. i. and the Schc- 
 Haft on Hefod's Theogony, f. 30. This little Piece of Information, we 
 imagine, will not be difagreeable to our Readers : altho, in this Paf- 
 fage, we muO: own, the common Drefs of the Rhapfodifls, when off 
 the Stage, feems rather to be intended ; and the Finery of To, at that 
 very Time of his meeting with Socrates, refembling probably That of 
 our itinerant Quack- Dodors, to be here ridiculed.
 
 20 I O. 
 
 converfant, befides, in the Works of many excellent Poets, 
 efpecially in thofe of Homer, the beft and moft divine of 
 ihem All ; and to learn, not meerly his Verfes, but his 
 Meaning ; as it is neceffary you fhould ; Thefe are Advan- 
 tages highly to be envyed. For a Man could never be a 
 good Rhapfodifl, unlefs he underflood what he recited : be- 
 caufe it is the Bufinefs of a Rhapfodift to explain to his 
 Audience the Senfe and Meaning of the Poet : but This it 
 is impoffible to perform well, without a ' Knowlege of thofe 
 Things, concerning which the Poet writes. Now all This 
 certainly merits a high Degree of Admiration. 
 
 lo. 
 You are in the Right, Socrates. And the learning This 
 I have made my principal Bufinefs. It has given me indeed 
 more Trouble than any other Branch of my ProfefTion* I pre- 
 
 fume 
 
 • This whole Speech of Socrates is ironical. For Xenophon, in whofe 
 Writings Socrates is ^ graver Charadter, with a lefs Mixture oi Humour, 
 than in thofe oi Plato, introduceth his Great Mafter exprefsly declaring, 
 that no Sort of People in the World were fiilier, vXt.^.c!n:i^i, than the 
 Rhapfodifts : and Maximus Tyrius calls them a Race of Men utterly 
 void of Underftanding, li nm '^tx.-^cJ^Kv ^e'ros to ava-n-roroLTov. DifT. 23. 
 We are to obferve however, that, notwithftanding This, and our Com- 
 parifon of their Manners and Way of Life with thofe of Mountebanks 
 and Strolling Players, (fee Notes 5, 6c 8,) yet they held a much higher 
 Rank in common Eftimation, equal to that of the mofl: judicious Ad;ors 
 in the Theatres of our Metropolis, or the mofl: ingenious ProfeiTors of 
 any of the polite Arts ; were fit Company for Perfons even of the Firft 
 Rank, and Guefts not unbecoming their Tables. We are not therefore 
 to be furprized at feeing Socrates fo highly compliment Z?, and treat 
 him with fo much outward Rcfpeft, as he does thro the whole Dialogue, 
 
 J
 
 I O. 21 
 
 fume therefore, there is now no Man living, who differts upon 
 Homer To well as my Self: nay, that None of thofe '" cele- 
 brated Perfons, " Metrodorus of Lampficus, '^ Stelimbrotus 
 the Thafian, '^ Glauco, nor any Other, whether ancient 
 
 or 
 
 '* The Perfons, here mentioned, were not Rhapfodifts, but Criticks, 
 or as they were afterwards called. Grammarians ; to wiiofe Profeffioii 
 anciently belonged the Interpreting or Explaining of their Elder Poets. 
 See D/o?7. Chryf. Orat. 53. Pag. 553. 
 
 " We are told by Diog. Laertius in his Life of Anaxagoras, that this 
 Metrodorus, was the Firft, who applyed himfelf to compofe a Work 
 exprefsly concerning the Phyfiology of Homer ; meaning, without Doubt, 
 as appears from Tatian. Aoy. -zb-^s's "Emjii'. that he explained Homers 
 Theology from the various Operations and Phenomena of Nature: and 
 farther, that he was intimate with Anxagora-,, and improved the Moral 
 Explications of Homer., which had been given by that Philofopher. If 
 ali This be true, Metrodorus muft have been a Great Philofopher him- 
 felf. For to have done This to the Satisfadion of fuch a Man as An- 
 axagoras, the Mafter of Socrates, required certainly no mean Degree of 
 Knowlege in the Nature of Man and of the Univerfe. What is more 
 probable is, that Metrodorus, having been inftrudled by Anaxagoras in 
 this Knowlege, applyed it to the giving a Rational Account of Horner^ 
 Mythology, which was underflood and received in a Literal Senfe by 
 the Vulgar, The Book, which he compofed on this Subjtd, as we learn 
 from 'Tatian, was entitled 'mifl 'Otxrpv, Concet-nhig Homer. 
 
 " Stefimbrotus is mentioned with Honour by Socrates himfelf in Xe- 
 nophon% Sympojium, as a Mafter in explaining Homer : and his Abilitys 
 of this Kind are there fet in Contraft with the Ignorance of the Rhap- 
 fodifls. As to the Time when he lived, we learn from Plutarch in liis 
 Life oi Cimcn, that he was exadly of the fame Age Vv-ith that General. 
 The Work, for which he feems here to he celebrated, was entitled 
 •Etrgpf TTi ■uyoiWioDi 'OfArpy, Co?icermiig the Poetry of Homer, as appears, 
 we think, from Tatian, §.48. 
 
 '5 We cannot find this Glauco mentioned by Any of the Ancients, 
 unlefs he be the fame Perfon cited as a Grammarian, under the Name 
 
 of
 
 22 
 
 I o. 
 
 or modern, was ever able to (hew in the Verfes of that Poet 
 
 To many and fo fine '* Sentiments as I can do. 
 
 Socrates. 
 of Ghiuco of Tarfns, by an old Greek Scholiafl: upon Homer in the Me- 
 dicean Library, never publiflied. See the PalTage, to which we refer, 
 in Luc. Holften. de Vita Gf Scriptis Porphyrii, Cap. 7. But he appears, 
 we think, from the Specimen of his Criticifms, there given, to have 
 been a Grammarian of a much later Age : we are inclined therefore to 
 fufpedl a Mifnomer in this Place, and inftead of TAci,vy.(,)v would chufe 
 to read FAauxo--, if any Manufcript favoured us; believing, that the 
 Perfon here mentioned is Glaucus oi Rhegiiim, who flouriflied about this 
 Time, and wrote a Treatife 7r«p( iroinroov, as we are informed by Plu- 
 tarch, tom. 2. Ed. Par. p. 833. C. or as the Title of it is elfewhere by 
 the fame Author given us more at large, -mpi rcov dp^eciuv Trotnroov re ^ 
 /ucaaikZi; torn. 2. 1 132. E. See 'Jonfnis de Scriptor. Hi ft. Philof. L. 2. 
 C. 4. §. 4. But certainly much miftaken is J. Alb. Fabricius, Bibl. Gr. 
 L. 2. C. 23. n. 37. in fuppoling the G/auco, here mentioned, to have 
 been a Rhapfodift. That very learned and worthy Man was ufed to 
 read too haftily ; and did not therefore duly obferve, amongft what Com- 
 pany Glauco is here introduced. 
 
 '+ We learn from Plato in this Dialogue, that the Rhapfodifts not 
 only recited the Poems of Homer, but profefled to interpret them too. 
 For the Multitude every where, having heard that profound Secrets of 
 Wifdom lay concealed there, thought there was no Reafon, why they 
 fnould not be made as wife as their Betters ; and w^ere eager to have 
 thofe hidden Myfterys opened and revealed to Them. The Philofo- 
 phers, and Thofe who had ftudyed under them, knew the Bulk of the 
 People to be incapable of apprehending thofe Things rightly ; or of 
 receiving any real Benefit from fuch Revelation ; which they confidered 
 confequently as a Profanation of the Truth. The Statefmen, with the 
 Priefts, knew the Popular Religion to be in Danger from fuch a Dif- 
 covery. But where the People govern, they will have their Humour 
 gratifyed, no lefs than Kings. The Athenians therefore, being in a 
 State of Democracy, encouraged the Rhapfodifts to undertake the un- 
 folding to Them that fecret Wifdom, reported to be wrapped up in the 
 
 Fables
 
 I O. ^3 
 
 Socrates. 
 I am glad, lo, to hear you fay fo : for I am perfuaded, 
 you will not be fo ill-natured, as to refufe the exhibiting 
 before Me your Ability s in this Way. 
 
 lo. 
 My Illuflrations of Homer are indeed, Socrates, well 
 worth your Attention. For they are Such as, I think, en- 
 title me to receive from the '^ Admirers of that Poet the 
 '^ Crown of Gold. 
 
 Socrates. 
 Fables and Allegorys of Homer. The Rhapfodifts accordingly indulged 
 their Curiofity ; colledling, as well as they were able, every Meaninf^, 
 which had been attributed to that Poet by Grammarians, Criticks, or 
 Philofophers. Thus the People became perplexed with a Multiplicity 
 of different Opinions, infufed into them by Men, who had never fludy- 
 ed the Nature of Things. See alfo Mr. Pope% Fird or Introduftory 
 Note on Homers Iliad. 
 
 '5 'Ttto 'Ou.rejiS'Sv. This Word in its Original Senfe fignifyed only 
 Thofe, who were fuppofed to be defcended from Homer, or from Some 
 of his Kindred, and were the Fathers or Founders of that Rhapfodicai 
 Way of Life, defcribed in Note 5, The Title was afterwards extended 
 to all their SuccefTors in that Profeffion. See the Scholiafl; on Pindar i 
 fecond Nemceaji Ode ; and Athenceus, p. 620. H. Stcpbetn feems to 
 think thefe Rhapfodifts of Homer to be the Perfons chiefly intended in 
 this Paffage. If fo, it ought to be tranflated, or rather paraphrafed, thus j 
 " For all the Interpreters of that Poet ought, I think, to yield Me the 
 " Preference and the Prize, confenting to crown me with the Golden 
 " Crown." But believing the Word capable of being extended to that 
 larger Meaning given it by the Old Tranflators, we have ventured to 
 follow them in it, as being a more rational one ; the Other Senfe ma- 
 king the Arrogance of lo too extravagant and abfurd. 
 
 '^ This means not the Crown, mentioned in Note 8, to have been 
 worn by the Rhapfodifts at the Time of their Rehearfal : for fo his 
 
 Boaft
 
 24 I O. 
 
 SOCR AT ES. 
 
 I fliall find an Opportunity of hearing you defcant on 
 this Subjedl fome other Time. For the prefent, I defire 
 only to be informed of This •, Whether you are fo great a 
 Mafter in explaining Homer alone, or whether you fhine 
 no lefs in illuftrating '^ Hefiod and Archilochus. 
 
 lo. 
 Boaft would amount to no more, than the pronouncing himfelf worthy 
 of his Profeflion ; a Speech, too httle arrogant for the Charadler of 
 lo : but it means the Prize, beftowed on the moft excellent Performer 
 on this Occafion. For that This was a Crown of Gold, may be feen 
 in Mciirfiuss Panathcncea., C. 25. 
 
 '' Thefe two Poets are fingled out from the reft of the Poetic Tribe, 
 becaufe Their Poetry, next to that of Homcr^ was the moft frequently 
 recited by the Rhapfodifts. This is fairly deducible from the Words 
 of ChamceliofZy cited by Athencrus. Not only, fays he, were the Poems 
 cf Homer futig by the Rhapfodijis, hut thofe of Hefiod too, and c/ Ar- 
 chilochus ; and farther, ( that is, fometimes, ) the Verfes oj Mimner- 
 mus, and of Phocylides. OJ jjiovov to. 'Opripv, a^Xa j^ td 'Haioia :^ 
 'A/>^/?>o■:^;H• hi Si, Mifxi>9.py.u tcf i>coy.vhlS'ii. Deipnofoph. h. i ^. pag. 620. 
 The Firft of thefe Two, Hefiod, is well known : and as he comes 
 neareft to Homer in Point of Time, of all the Poets, any of whofe 
 Works are yet remaining intire ; fo is he confefledly the next to him 
 in Point of Merit, among Thofe who wrote in Heroic Meafure. Ar- 
 chilochus was the Firft, who compofed Poems of the Jambic Kind, 
 in which he is faid to have been fuperiour to All, who came after 
 him. (See Athenaus's Introdudion to his Dcipnofph.) Upon which 
 Account Patercidus joins him with Homer ; mentioning thefe Two 
 Poets, as the only Inftances of Such, as advanced thofe Arts, which 
 they invented themfelves, to the utmoft Pitch of Perfe6lion. Dion 
 Chryjojlom goes beyond this in the Praifes o'i Archilochus, putting him in 
 the fame Rank with Homer, as a Poet : Sua yocp ■uroimuv ■yiyovoiuv, o^ 
 
 >,p;^,/cp/w, «.T. A. Dion. Orat. 33. pag. 397. In all the Courfeof Time 
 ther.e have been but Two Poets, with whcm no Other is worthy of Cun- 
 parifon. Homer and Archilochus.
 
 I O. 25 
 
 lo. 
 By no Means : for I own My Powers confined to the il- 
 liiftrating Homer. To execute This well, is Merit enough, 
 I think, for One Man. 
 
 Socrates. 
 But in the Writings of Homer and of Hefiod are there 
 no Paffages, in which their Sentiments and Thoughts agree ? 
 
 lo. 
 There are, I believe, many Paffages of that Kind. 
 
 SOCRAT ES. 
 
 In thefe Cafes now, are you better able to explain the 
 Words of Homer, than thofe of Hefiod ? 
 
 lo. 
 Equally well to be fure, Socrates, I can explain the Words 
 of Both, where they agree. 
 
 Socrates. 
 But how is it with you, where, in writing on the fame 
 Subje6l, they differ ? For Inftance, Homer and Hefiod, 
 Both, write of Things that relate to Divination. 
 
 lo. 
 True. 
 
 Socrates. 
 Well now ; the Paffages in Either of thefe Poets, relat- 
 ing to Divination ; not only where he agrees with the Other, 
 but where he differs from him ; who, think you, is capable 
 of interpreting with moft Skill and Judgment, your Self, or 
 fome able Diviner .? 
 
 D I o.
 
 26 I O. 
 
 lo. 
 An able Diviner, I mufl: '^ own. 
 
 Socrates. 
 But fuppofe You were a Diviner, and were able to inter- 
 pret rightly the Similar Places in Both ; would your Abi- 
 litys, do you imagine, fail you, when you came to inter- 
 pret the Places in Either of them, where he difFer'd from 
 the Other ? 
 
 lo. 
 I fhould certainly in that Cafe have equal Skill to ex- 
 plain Both of them. 
 
 Socrates. 
 How comes it to pafs then, that you interpret Homer in 
 fo mafterly a Manner, yet not Heliod, or any Other of the 
 Poets ? Are the Subjeds of Homer's Writings any thing 
 different from the Subjeds of Other Poems, taken all to- 
 gether ? Are they not, in the firft place. War and Military 
 Affairs ; then, the Speeches and mutual Difcourfe of all 
 Sorts of Men, the Good as well as the Bad, whether they 
 be Private Perfons or '^ Public ; the Converfe alfo of the 
 Gods, One with Another, and their Intercourfe with Men ; 
 the Celeflial Bodys, with the various Phenomena of the 
 
 Sky 
 '^ Serranus gives the contrary Turn to this Anfvver of lo ; and makes 
 him fay, that He could do it better than Any of Them : in which Ex- 
 plication, fpoiling the whole Argument, he is followed by the Italian 
 Tranflator. 
 
 '9 An/zispo-wi'. Serranus tranflates it rightly, " Eos qui publica geruiit 
 *' mutter a :" hut Ficinus znd CornariuSj " Opijicum ;" and in the fame 
 miftaken Senfe Beml?o, " Artcjici'^
 
 I O. 27 
 
 sky and Air ; the State of Souls departed, with the Affairs 
 of that lower World ; the Generations of the Gods, with 
 the Defcent and Race of the Hero's ? Are not Thefe the 
 -° Subjeds of Homer's Poetry ? 
 
 lo. 
 They are, Socrates, tliefe very Things. 
 
 Socrates. 
 Well ; and do not the reft of the Poets write of thefc 
 very Things ? 
 
 lo. 
 They do, Socrates : but Their Poetry upon thefe Sub- 
 jeds is nothing like the Poetry of Homer. 
 
 SOCRATE s. 
 
 What then, is it worfe ? 
 
 lo. 
 
 Much worfe. 
 
 Socrates. 
 
 The Poetry of Homer, you fay then, is better and more 
 
 excellent than That of Other Poets. 
 
 lo. 
 
 Better indeed is it, and much more excellent, by Jove. 
 
 D 2 Socrates. 
 
 ^° As in defcribing the Shield o^ Achilles, Homer has prefented us 
 with a View of Human Life, and of the whole Utii'verfe, in Epitome: 
 To Plaio here finely fums up, in the concifeft Manner pofTible, thofe very 
 Things, as the Subjefts of the Iliad and the OdyJJey, giving us to be- 
 hold in them a Pidturc of all Human Affairs, whether in Peace or IVar; 
 of all Nature, whether Vifible or Invifible ; of the Divine Caiifes of 
 Things J of the Heroic Virtues among Men, and the Greatnefs of Fa- 
 milys in ancient Days from thence arifing.
 
 28 I O. 
 
 Socrates. 
 Suppofe now, my Friend lo, out of Several Perfons, all 
 in their turns haranguing before an Audience upon the Na- 
 ture of Numbers, Some One made a better Speech than the 
 reft ; might not One of the Auditors be capable of finding 
 out that Better Speaker, and of giving him the Preference 
 due to him ? 
 
 lo. 
 There might be fuch a one. 
 
 Socrates. 
 Would not the Same Auditor, think you, be a Judge of 
 what was faid by the Worfe Speakers ? or muft He be a 
 different Perfon, who was a proper Judge of Thefe ? 
 
 lo. 
 The fame Perfon, certainly. 
 
 Socrates. 
 And would not a Good Arithmetician be fuch a Perfon, 
 thus equally Able in Both Refpeds ? 
 
 lo. 
 Without Doubt. 
 
 SoCRA T ES. 
 
 To put Another Cafe to you : Suppofe, among many 
 Perfons, feverally differting upon Food, what Sorts of it 
 were wholefome, there fhould be One, who fpoke better 
 than the reft ; would it belong, fay you, to One of the 
 Hearers to diftinguifli accurately the Better Speaker, while 
 it was neceffary to look amongft the reft of the Audience, 
 
 4 - ^"^
 
 I O. 29 
 
 for a fit Judge of the Meaner Speakers ? Or would the 
 Speeches of them All be examined judiciouHy, and their 
 different Merits and Demerits be eftimated juftly by the 
 fame Perfon ? 
 
 lo. 
 By the fame Perfon, beyond all Doubt. 
 
 SOCRAT ES. 
 
 Of what Charadler muft this Perfon be, who is thus qua- 
 lifyed ? What do you call him ? 
 
 lo. 
 A Phyfician. 
 
 Socrates. 
 And do not you agree with Me, that This holds True 
 univerfally ; and that in every Cafe, where Several Men 
 made Difcourfes upon the Same Subjed, the Nature both 
 of the good and of the bad Difcourfes would be difcerned 
 by the Same Perfon ? For if a Man was no proper Judge 
 of the Defedls in the Meaner Performance, is it not evi- 
 dent, that he would be incapable of comprehending the 
 Beautys of the more Excellent ? 
 
 lo. 
 You are in the Right. 
 
 Socrates. 
 It belongs to the Same Perfon therefore, to criticife with 
 true Judgment upon All of them. 
 
 lo. 
 No Doubt, 
 
 Socrates,
 
 30 I O. 
 
 Socrates. 
 Did not you fay, that Homer, and the reft of the Poets, 
 for inftance, Hefiod and Archilochus, write concerning 
 the Same Things, tho not in the Same Manner ? the Com- 
 pofitions of the One being excellent, you fay, while thofe 
 of the Others are comparatively mean. 
 
 lo. 
 I faid nothing more than what is True. 
 
 Socrates. 
 If then you can diftinguifh and know the Compofitlons, 
 which excell, muft not you necefTarily know thofe, which 
 fall fliort of that Excellence ?. 
 
 lo. 
 I own it appears probable, from your Argument. 
 
 Socrates. 
 It follows therefore, my good Friend, that in affirming 
 lo to be equally capable of explaining Homer and every 
 Other Poet, we fhould not mifs the Truth : fince he ac- 
 knowkges One and the Same Perfon to be an Ablejudge of 
 all Such, as write concerning the Same Things ; admitting 
 at the fame time the Subjeds of almoft all Poetical Writings 
 to be the Same. 
 
 lo. 
 What can poflibly be then the Reafon, Socrates, that 
 whenever I am prefcnt at an Harangue upon any Other 
 Poet, I pay not the leaft Regard to it ; nor am able to con- 
 tribute to the Entertainment, or to advance any thing upon 
 4 the
 
 I o. 
 
 -;! 
 
 the Subject in My Turn, worth the Regard of Others ; but 
 grow downright dull, and fall afleep : yet that as foon as 
 any Mention is made of Homer, immediately I am rous'd, 
 am all Attention, and with great Facility find enough to 
 fay upon This Subjedl: ? 
 
 Socrates. 
 It is not in the leaft difficult, my Friend, to guefs the 
 Reafon. For to every Man it mufl be evident, that you 
 are not capable of explaining Homer on the "" Principles of 
 Art, or from real Science. For if your Ability was of this 
 Kind, depending upon your Knowlege of any Art, you 
 would be as well able to explain every Other Poet : Unce 
 the Whole, of what they All write, is Poetry ; is it not? 
 
 lo. 
 It is. 
 
 Socrates. 
 Vv^ell now ; when a Man comprehends any Other Art, 
 the Whole of it, is not his Way of confidering, and criti- 
 cifing All the " ProfefTors of that Art, One and the Same ? 
 
 and 
 
 ^' The Italian Tranflator has ftrangely omitted this latter Part of the 
 Sentence, the very material to the Senfe. 
 
 " In the Greek we read " 'mif\ oiTraawv rm Tep^^rwr." But if Socrates 
 does indeed, as he undertakes to do, explain the Meaning of this Sen- 
 tence in what follows, his own Explanation requires us to read " izrg/3i 
 aTrzv'Tui' ru>v Ti^vnSiv," or rather -n^vixaivy this being the Word always 
 ufed by Plato to fignify Artijls. The Argument however would bear 
 the reading with lefs Alteration, " 'urtfi diia.am -xm n^vocvmi;" that 
 is, all the Performances iji that Art, _ Either way we are thus freed 
 
 from
 
 32 I O. 
 
 and does not his Judgment in Every Cafe depend on the 
 Same Principles ? Would you have me explain myfelf upon 
 this Point, lo ? Do you defire to know the Meaning of 
 my Queilion? 
 
 lo. 
 
 By all Means, Socrates. For I take great Pleafure in 
 hearing you Wife Men talk. 
 
 Socrates. 
 
 I fhould be glad. To, could that Appellation be juftly ap- 
 plyed to Me. But You are the Wife Men, you Rhapfodifts 
 and the ^^ Players, together with the Poets, whofe Verfes 
 you recite to us. For My Part, I fpeak nothing but the 
 fimple Truth, as it becomes a meer Private Man to do. 
 For the Queftion, which I jufh now afked you, fee how mean 
 
 a 
 
 from the Neceffity, which Fichius was under, from his retaining the 
 common Reading, to infert many Words of his own, in order to pre- 
 ferve tlie Juftnefs of the Reafoning, and make this Paflage agreeable to 
 the Sequel. 
 
 =^3 P/ato m other Places befide This, as hereafter in fbis Dialogue, in 
 the 3d Book of the Republick, and in the 2d of the Laws, joyns toge- 
 ther the Arts of Rhapfody and of aSl'nig Plays, as being Arts of near 
 Affinity. That Affinity between them was greater, than one would be 
 apt to imagine, and appears in a ftrong Light from what Eu/iathitis fays 
 of the Rhapfodijls, that '■^frequently tkey ufed to a£i in a Manner fotne- 
 *' what Dramatic." Hence in theFeafts o^ Bacchus, principally celebrat- 
 ed with Dramatic Entertainments, the Rhapfodijh had anciently a Share : 
 and One of the Feflival-Days was called io^-ir^ t^v hoL^Cf^Sc^v. See ^the- 
 nceus,h. 7. pag. 275. Hejychius therefore with great Propriety explains 
 theWord 'f3.-\.'x$o], Rhapfodijts, by this Defcription, \nroK^^a^ Itiwv, ASfors 
 of Epic P-ocms.
 
 I O. 33 
 
 a Matter it concerns, how common, and within the Com- 
 pafs of every Man's Reach to know, That which I called 
 ** One and the Same Way of criticifing, when a Man com- 
 prehends the Whole of any Art. To give an '^ Inftance 
 of fuch Comprehenfive Skill ; Painting is an Art, to be 
 
 com- 
 *+ Socrates here in the Way of Irony, after his ufual Manner, infi- 
 nuates fome very important Dodrines of his Philofophy, leading us 
 up even to the Higheft. For obferving, that all the Arts depend on 
 certain uniform and Jlable Principles, he would have us infer, in the 
 firft Place, that every Art, properly fo called, or as it is diftinguifiied 
 from Science on the One hand, on the Other from me.tv Habit and Ex- 
 perience, is built on Science; and that no Perfon can be juftly called an 
 Artijl, or a Mafter of the Art which he profeiTes, unlefs he has learnt 
 the Epijlemonic or Sciential Principles of it : in the next Place, that 
 Science is a Th'mgjiable, unifortn, and gejieral^ guiding the Judgment 
 with unerring Certainty, to know the ReSlitiide and the Pravity of every 
 Particular, cognifable from the Rides of any Art depending thus on 
 Science : further, that every Science hath certain Principles, peculiar to 
 it, uniform and identical : and lailly, that All the Sciences are Branches 
 of Science General, arifing from One Root, which in like manner is Uni- 
 form, and always the Same. 
 
 =5 hafioofxiv TzS ^oycf], Serranus very abfurdly tranflates it thus, " ad- 
 " kibitd rat lore ccmprehendere." Ficiniis imperfedlv thus, " exempli 
 " causa :" followed by the Italian, " cotne per efeinpioi". So alfo Cor- 
 narius, " verbi causa." True it is, that Aa/3g tJ Xoyu, frequently figni- 
 fys take an In/lance. But in this Place, xd^Mfjuv refers to the Word Aa'/3>-, 
 comprehend, in the preceding Sentence ; and Xoyut is oppofed to an a^ual 
 Comprehending of any Art. Thus, to omit many Pallages in Plaios 
 Republick ; in the third Book of his Laics, Xayui xaTcPt/V^ov tth- 'urohiv is 
 oppofed to the aSlual Founding of a City : and again in his Thccctetus, 
 'iva. tJM q-i(To.>iJLiv atiTb? Ttif /^iycf' is in Oppofition to an aSliial Settling, or 
 Fixing. Euripides with the fame Meaning oppofes Ac^ccj to iL-^cf- in this 
 Verfe of bis Cxclcps, YiZaoti vvv, a5< av /xri >.6yco '-Tiaah ijuvy. 
 
 E " '
 
 34 1 O. 
 
 comprehended as One Kind of Skill, whole and intire : is i£ 
 not? 
 
 I o. . 
 It is. 
 
 Socrates. .» . 
 
 Is there not a Difference, in Degree of Merit, between. 
 the feveral Profeffors of that Art, whether you confider the 
 Ancients or the Moderns ? 
 
 lo. 
 Undoubtedly. 
 
 Socrates* 
 Now then, do you know any Man, who is an Able Cri- 
 tick in the Works of '^ Polygnotus, the Son of Aglaophon ; 
 and can fhew, with great Judgment, which of his Pieces 
 he executed well, and which with lefs Succefs ; yet in the 
 Works of Other Painters hath no Critical Skill ; and when- 
 ever 
 
 *^ This excellent Artift was, In the Days of Socrates^ the Homer of 
 the Fahiters; and is here for this Reafon fingled out from the reft of his 
 Profeflion, as the mofl proper for the Comparifon ; which was intended 
 to fhew, that the fame Circumftance attended Both the Arts, of Foetry 
 and Tainting', This; tlvat true Critical Skill, to judge of the Perform- 
 ances of the hefl Artift, inferred equal Judgment with regard to all of 
 inferior Clafs. Folygnctia was the Firft Painter, who gave an accurate 
 and livel}^ Expicffion of the Manners and PafTions, by proper Attitudes, 
 and every Variety of Countenance. He diftinguilhed himfelf alfo by 
 giving his Portraits what we call a HandfomeLikenefs : and, befides many 
 other Improvements which he made to his Art, invented the Way of 
 fhewing the Skin thro a tranfparent Drapery. See Arijiotle'% Politicks^ 
 B. 8. C. 5. and his Foeticks, C. 2, & 6. P/Zw/s Nat. Hlji. B. 35. C. c^ 
 and Mliarii Far. Hiji. B. 4. C. 3.
 
 I O. 35 
 
 ever Their Performances are brought upon the Carpet to be 
 examined and criticifed, grows dull and falls afleep, or is 
 unable to contribute his Quota to the Converfation : but as 
 foon as Occafion calls him to declare his Judgment about 
 Polygnotus, or any other particular Painter whatever, im- 
 mediately is roufed, is all Attention, and linds enough to 
 fay upon This Subjedl ? Know you any fuch Man ? 
 
 lo. 
 Really I do not. 
 
 SOCR AT ES. 
 
 Well now ; in the Statuary's Art how is it ? Did you 
 ever fee any Man, who upon the Works of ^'^ Dsdalus the 
 Son of Metion, or Epeius, Son to Panopeus, or Theodo- 
 rus the Samian, or any other fingle Statuary, was able to 
 difplay great Judgment, in fliewing the excellent Perform- 
 ances of fo great a Mafter ; yet with regard to the Works 
 of Other Statuarys was at a Lofs, grew dull, and fell afleep, 
 becaufe he had nothing to fay ? 
 
 E 2 lo. 
 
 *7 Flato here has purpofely chofen for his Tnftances Three Statuarys, 
 famous for their Excellence in Three very different Ways, to make his 
 Reafoning more juft and lefs liable to Exception j when he is proving, 
 by Induction, the Samenefs of the Art of criticifing upon All the Poets, 
 however different in their Kinds. Dcedalus then was particularly ad- 
 mirable for his wonderful Automatons^ ox JelJ-nioving Machines, men- 
 tioned by Plato in his Meno. Epeius is well known to the Readers of 
 Homer's Odyfey and Virgil's Mneid, for that -caft Work of his, the Tro- 
 jan Horfe, of a Size fo /hpendous. And the Excellence of Theodorus 
 confided in the extream Miniitenefs and Subtility of his Works. See 
 Pliny's Nat. Hiff B. 34. C. 8. "
 
 36 
 
 I O. 
 
 lo. 
 
 I confefs, I never favv fuch a Man neither. 
 
 SOCRATE S. 
 
 Nor is it othervvife, i imagine, with regard to ^^ Mufick, 
 
 whether 
 -' In this Word the Ancients comprehended all thofe Arts, which have 
 any Relation to the Mufcs. Every Species of Poetry, known at that 
 Time, is mcluded in what follows. For hi/hmti includes Dithyrambie 
 Poetry and Satyr. Ki^cx-ptai?, joyned with ctvAnaiSy implys Comedy and 
 Tragedy; becaufe in Thefe the oMhoi and the xi^atpa. were the Inftru- 
 ments principally ufed : thus Maximus Tynus ; auuAnp{gf.ra.,n )it^ccp:'a,uae.rx, 
 r\ ei Tis (xVam cv A.iotuav /J.vcra rpxyixri tj5 xa( y.ct:if.ct)S ixri. Diflert. J. 
 
 Ki^ccpo^^la means all Lyrtc Poetry, or That, which the Miifician Jung 
 to his own Inftrument, the y.i^xpx, or the Af^a. And 'Pa-^^S'ta com- 
 prehends all Poems, ufually recited, whether compofcd in Heroic, Ele- 
 giac, or other Meafure. We fee here then, in what Arts were thofe 
 d-ymii, or Trials of Skill before- mentioned, propofed at the Feafts of 
 Mfciilnpius. True it is, that Plato, in different Parts of his Writings, 
 ufeth the Word Miijick in different Senfes. In fome Places, he means 
 by it not only all Harmony, whether Injlrumental or Vocal, but alt 
 Rytbn, whether in Sound or in Motion. The following remarkable 
 Inftance of This occurs in his Firjl Alcibiades: 2fiK. EiVe 'crpiwTO', 
 n\i y\ ni'x,^'{\,'yii to x(9-*f/^«f, xal to a.^&v,xa.\ ri ^y.^xlv^iv op'irSc, o-fia-Vara 
 tis xaAaTai ; wVw Svvxaa.1 e'lTrei'v ; '.AAK. OJ Jflxa. SQK. A;^ i>ie 
 •areipc^- Tiva a.\ ^x\, Zv r> T?;^i» j 'AAK. Tas Mtoas, w 'Zuixpccrei, ?^iyeii ; 
 2Q K. "E'j'W^e. ofo. tfJi' Tf'ia aV avTwr CTrmvixioiv v ts^vyi f/^a; AAK. Mk- 
 a-ixr,v /^oi ■^oxiTi ?^Jyeiv. 2QK. Aiyc^ yxp. In other Places, he confines 
 it to Melody alone. Thus, for Inftance, in his Gorgias, Mufick is de- 
 fined to be an Art converfant "srf^; 'n-.v tmv j^gAwv 'moin^it. Sometimes 
 he enlarges it, fo as to take in Profaic Eloquence ; and fometimes fo 
 widely, as to comprehend all the Liberal Arts. There are Paflages, 
 where it is made to fignify Virtue; and a Few, in which it is applyed 
 to the fuhlimer Parts of Philofophy. Thefc laft Metaphorical Ufes of 
 the Word are fufficiently accounted for by Plato himfelf on proper Oc- 
 
 2 cafions t
 
 I O. 37 
 
 whether we confider -^ Wind-Inftruments, or thofe of the 
 String-Kind ; and thefe laft, whether alone, or ^° accom- 
 panyed by the Voice ; fo likewife in Rhapfodical Recitals ; 
 you never, I prefume, faw a A^an, who was a Great Mafter 
 
 in 
 
 cafions : the reft we fhall take Notice of, and vindicate, in their due 
 Places. But in the Sentence now before us, that Enumeration of the 
 Species of Mufick fixes the Meaning of the Word, and limits it to the 
 common Acceptation. That Maatxri has the fame Meaning in the Be- 
 ginning of this Dialogue, where we have tranllated it, " the Mu/e's 
 " yf/Y," is plain from the Nature of the Subjed in that Place. For 
 every Thing elfe, comprehended in the larger Senfes of the Word, 
 would there be foreign to the Purpofej as being, if we except Medi- 
 cine, Nclbing to /Efciilapiiis. 
 
 ^ The Greek is w'jf h a-hXiai 7?, vSi Iv xiBup:cei. AuAos is known- 
 to be a General Term for all Wind-Inftrnmenti. 'E-TnTieofxevcx. opyatva, vh 
 fj.iv (TuuTrar, ecv?'.o'i n^.l avpiyfei, fays yui. Pollux, Ofioma/iic, L. 4. C. 9, 
 And becaufe the K/.^-a/ia ftood at the Head oi zW flringed In/lruments, it 
 is fometimes taken for them All. Accordingly Maximus Tyrius exprefles 
 all Inftrumental Mufick by thefe Two Kinds, 'jjj\f,,j^T7x, xai yA^apur/j^Ta. 
 Diirert.-32. See hkewife^n/fotle's Poeticis, Ch. i. and Plato's Lefer 
 Hlppias, pag. 375. Ed. Steph, But thefe Tv/o being wholly diftindt, the 
 One from the Other, we are not to imagine, that ever they were either 
 confounded together, and ufed promifcuoufly, the One for the Other; 
 or that Both of them were fometimes fignified by the Word ajjMi, as a. 
 common Term for all Inftruments of Either Kind. We make this 
 Obfervation, to prevent the Young Scholar from being mif-led by 
 Hefychius, who explains the Word AJAo; thus, xl^xe^ m ave,f^>: fo~ 
 which egregious Miftake his late Learned Editor has but lamely apo- 
 logifed. 
 
 3° The Gred here is y^^ufuS'la. : which Word Eiiftathius, in his^ 
 Commentary on the Iliad, B. 2. ^. 600. by a ftrange Blunder, confoundai 
 with Ki^cc^aii, and makes them Both to have the fame Meaning_,.
 
 3S 
 
 I O. 
 
 in criticiring on '' Olympus, or on Thamyris, or on Or- 
 pheus, or on Phemius the Rhapfodift of Ithaca ; but as to 
 lo the Ephefian, was at a Lofs what to fay about him, and 
 unable to give any Account of lo's good or bad Per- 
 formances. 
 
 lo. 
 I have Nothing to oppofe to what you fay upon this 
 Point, Socrates : but of This I am confcious to my Telf, 
 that upon Homer I diflert the Befl of All Men, and do 
 it v/ith great Eafe. Nor is this my own Opinion only ; 
 for all People agree, that my DiiTertations of this Kind 
 
 are 
 3' Thele Four Perfons Severally excelled in the Four Arts juft before 
 mentioned, Each of them in One, according to the Order, in which 
 they are there ranked. For we learn from Plutarch -zzrsf) ^cv^imj, and 
 from Maximns Tyrua^ Dill. 24. that Olympus'^ Inftrument was the A^Ao?. 
 How excellent a Mafter he was of Mufick, we are told by Plato in his 
 Minos, and by Arijlotle in his Politicks, B. 8. C. 5. who Both agree, 
 that the Mufical Airs of His compofing were mofl Divine, and excited 
 Enthufiaftic Raptures in every Audience. Thamyris is celebrated by 
 Homer himfelf, who calls him xj^e^f^'^* Iliad. L. 2. ii. 600. Agree- 
 ably to which we are informed by Pli7iy, that Thamyris was the Firft, 
 who played on the Cithara, icithont accompanying it with his Voice. 
 Hill. Nat. L. 7. C. 56. The Fame of Orpheus is well known: and 
 amon^ many Paffages in the Writings of the Ancients, to prove that he 
 was ziS-apwcfd?, ot fling and played on his Inftrument together, This of 
 Oi;/W is moll: exprefs, " Talia dicentem, nervofque ad verba moventem.'^ 
 Metamorph. L. 10. f. 40. and this Other in L. 1 1. >*. 4. " Orphea per- 
 " cnfjis fociantem carmina riervis.'" And as to Phemius, that He re^ 
 cited (or fung in Recitativo) Poems of the Epic Kind, touching his Lyre 
 at the fame Time, appears from Homer's Odyjcy, B. i. /. 153, (^c 
 and B. \j. ^. 262. 
 3 '
 
 I o. 
 
 39 
 
 are excellent. But if the SubjeA be any Other of the Poets, 
 it is quite otherwife with me. Confider then what may 
 be the Meaning of this. 
 
 SOCR AT ES. 
 
 I do confider, lo ; and proceed to {hew you how it ap- 
 pears to Me. That you are able to difcourfe well concern- 
 ing Homer, is not owing to any Art, of which you are Ma- 
 iler ; nor do you explain or illuftrate him, as I faid before 
 upon the Principles or from the Rules of Art ; but from a 
 Divine Power, acting upon you, and impelling you : a 
 Power refembling That, which acls in the Stone, called by 
 Euripides the Magnet, but known commonly by the Name 
 of ^^ the Loadftone. For this Stone does not only attraA; 
 
 Iron- 
 
 3* Tht Greek Word here is r,pxxMicc,'wh\ch Bembo tranOates " di Her- 
 " coky But we are taught by Hefychius, that this Name was given to 
 the Loadftone from the City Heraclea in Lydia, where probably they 
 were found in greater Number than elfewhere. Accordingly, the fame 
 Stone was alfo called a/S-o« At/^xo?, the Lydiaii Stone. The fame Hefychius 
 however fays, that Plato is miftaken in fuppofing the Magnet to be the 
 Same with this Stone, referring undoubtedly to the FafTage now be- 
 fore us. But it is Hefychius, who is miftaken, not Plato. For that the 
 fji^yi^Ti? of the Ancients was the Same with our Magnet, appears from 
 thefe Words of Alexander Aphrodifienfis, an earlier Writer than Hef\- 
 chiuSt /^g.yvririi fAxe< fjiovov rov (TiSy\fij)v. Com. in Ariftot. Problem, 
 fol. I. and from thefe of Cicero long before, Magnetejn lapidem — qui 
 ferrum ad fe alliciat & attrahat. Cic. de Divinat. L. i. Yet Hefychius 
 is fo fond of his Miftake, as to repeat it in Three different Places j ad- 
 mitting the n^KAdoi. to attrad: Iron, but denying that Quality to the 
 l^yt^rii. See Hefych. in vocibus, riQ^xMla, ?.i';?-o? A'A\yM, and f^-)vv- 
 115. A/3-05 AvSuos indeed -frequently. among the Ancients fignified ths 
 
 Touchy-
 
 40 I O. 
 
 Iron-Rings, but impart to thofe Rings the Power of do- 
 ing that very Thing, which itfelf does, enabling them to 
 attra6l Other Rings of Iron. So that fometimes may be 
 feen a very long Series of Iron-Rings, depending, as in 
 a Chain, One from Another. But from that Stone, at the 
 Head of them, is derived the Virtue, which operates in them 
 all. In the fame manner, the Mufe, " infpiring, moves 
 Men her Self thro her Divine Impulfe. From thefe Men, 
 
 thus 
 
 Touch-ftone : but fo did rometimes fjci.y,yiji:. Witnefs the following 
 'Paflage oi Euripides himfelf, t-2c, I^^tuv ri&j|Ma< o-x.07r&!', [o^] o-c^i Hsf-y' 
 y7,Tii a/S'o?. See alio 'Theophra/Ius -T^ifi A/>&'n The Truth feems to be, 
 -that the Names of thefe Two Stones, the Touch-ftone and the Load- 
 ilone, were not well diftinguiflied, but vulgarly confounded, in the 
 'Days of P/rti'o. This accounts for that Uncertainty and Doubtfulnefs, 
 with which Plato here mentions the Name of this Stone; which in any 
 other Light would appear unneceflixry and infipid. This perhaps alfo 
 was the Reafon, why no particular Name of that Stone was mentioned 
 hy Arijiotle, fpeaking of it in This Paflage, hixi ci'i 3(a( QxAn':, ^^ «i/ 
 
 <[ij^yiv 'ix^'^'i o'T' '^°^ (Tiir^v y.ivii. Arijlot. de A'limd, L. i. Cap 2.. 
 
 35 Tho it is not to be fuppofed, that the Philofopher underftood the 
 Injpiration of the Miife'm the Vulgar Sejije ; yet neither are we to ima- 
 gine, that he meant Nothing more, than what we now generally mean 
 by it, a natural Poetic Genius. For he exprefsly tells us Himfelf, in 
 his Phadrus, that to this iupvix there muft be added t^ v\f:XQv^v., a 
 Grandeur and Elevation of "Thought ; which he fays is owing to the hav- 
 ing been much exercifed in the moft fublime Philcfophic Speculations. 
 li This be true, it will account for the fuperior Excellence of all thofe 
 Poets, whether ancient or modern, who appear to have deeply philo- 
 fophifed : Such efpecially Ti'CQ Homer, He/iod, Pindar, Sophocles, and £//- 
 ripides among the ancient Greeks; Lucretius and A^?V^// among the old 
 Romans ; and of the Moderns, to name only One, our own Philofo- 
 
 ^ phital
 
 I O. 41 
 
 tlius Infpired, Others ^''' catching the Sacred Power, form a 
 
 Chain of Divine Enthufiafts. For the beft Epic Poets, and 
 
 all Such as excell in the compofing any Kind of Verfes to 
 
 be recited, frame not thofe their admirable Poems from the 
 
 Rules of ^^ Art ; but pofTefTed by the Mufe, they write from 
 
 Divine 
 phical and learned Poet, Spencer. That the Sagacity of fuch Men mufl: 
 be greater, than that of Others, to divine the Nature of Things ; and 
 their Perception finer, to difcern the Flower of their Beauty ; that their 
 Minds muft alfo be enlarged^ to take in wider Views, and capable of 
 foaring to greater Heights; Thofe, who behold Nature with Admi- 
 ration, may eafily conceive. 
 
 34 The Contagion of this Kind of Enthufiafm is thus beautifully 
 painted by a fine Critick, who Himfelf felt all the Force of it : OoMoi 
 
 fli; TOis TMv (^-nA'dvTUi- eyteivm "^^h as ajro npoov q'oiuuuv, ccToppoixi nvn <pe- 
 ^I'Tctf, t;(p (t)v iitiTTvioijiJivot ng^i ol f*ri Aiac $o(5aij-/>yi -nJ" ivipuv avviv^timmn 
 fMyed^i. Many are fo[[e[fed and aSinated by a Divine Spirit, derived to 
 them thro Others : in the fame Manner as it is reported of the Delphian 
 Prie/iefs, that when She approaches the Sacred Tripod, where a Chafm in 
 the Earth, they fay, refpires fome Vapour, which fills her with Enthufiafm, 
 She is immediately by that fnore than Human Power made pregnant ; and 
 and is there upon the Spot delivered of Oracles, fuch as the particular 
 Nature of the Infpiration generates. So, from the Great Genius refding 
 in the Ancients, thro Them, as thro fome facred Opening, contain EffluxeSy 
 iffuing forth, pafs into the Souls of their Admirers : by which Many, 
 who of Themfelves but little feel the Force of Phoebus, pwell with the ex- 
 panfve Virtue of thofe great and exalted Spirits. Longin. de Sublim. 
 §. II. 
 
 35 In the Greek it is m ov. ie^vr,i. Bembo's Tranflation of which, 
 '' non con arte," excludes Art from having any Share in the befl Poeti- 
 
 F cal
 
 42 I O. 
 
 Divine Infpiration. Nor is it otherwife with the beft Lyric 
 Poets, and all other fine Writers of Verfes to be fung. For 
 as the Priefts of '^ Cybele perform not their Dances, while 
 they have the free Ufe of their Underftandings ; fo thefe 
 Melody - Poets pen thofe beautiful Songs of theirs, only 
 when they are out of their fober Minds. But as foon as 
 they proceed to give Voice and Motion to thofe Songs, add- 
 ing to their Words the Harmony of Mufick and the Mea- 
 fure of Dance, they are immediately tranfported ; and pof- 
 feiled by fome Divine Power, are hke the Prieftefses of 
 .^''Bacchus, who, full of the God, no longer draw Wa- 
 ter, 
 
 cal Compofitions. But Plato's Words admit of Art, as an AtieJtdajit 
 upon the Mufe ; tho they make not her Art, but her Lifpiratio7i, to be 
 the Mijlrefs, and Lead'nig Caufe, of all which is excellent in Poetry. 
 Serra?ms happily paraphrafes it, " Jion artis aufpiciis." The following 
 Paflage in the Phcedrus puts the Meaning of Plato, with regard to this 
 Point, out of Difpute. 'Oi (5V' a.v dvev /^i/a^ Mni^oiv ern '^iyi'n>(J.?. ^v^i 
 dfiKnTut, 'sr&i^eii eci auQ^ eK li^vm ly^^vcm tjtoihtks ImfMvo?, aiiAris avroi tt, 
 otcuj fi "molvo^ii vTTo T?? Tuov /^ivofJLiiutv Yi TW (mcp^vvi/Tiji TCpctvi^ti- JVhc- 
 ever went, with a Mind fob er ajid iininj'pired, to the Gates of the Miifes ; 
 and made his Application to the??t, in order to be taught their Art ; per- 
 Juaded, that the learning That was alone fufficient to qualify him for 
 writing Poetry j ne'oer attained to any PerfeBion as a Poet ; and his 
 Poetry, as being That of a Man cool and fober, is ?20w obliterated all, 
 having been darkened by the Splendour of That of the Infpired. 
 
 s* The Rites of Cybele and of Bacchus, beyond thofe of any Other 
 Deitys, were performed in a Spirit of Enthufafm ; which exerted itfelf 
 in extraordinary Agitations of Body, and antick Gefticulations. Ac- 
 cordingly, theje two Religious Rites are fung of together, as equally 
 Enthujiaftical, by the Chorus between the Firft and Second k^% in the 
 Baccha of Euripides. 3
 
 I O. 43 
 
 ter, but ^^ Honey and Milk out of the Springs and Foun- 
 tains ; tho unable to do any Thing hke it, when they are 
 
 fober. 
 
 37 This Place receives great Light from the two following Paflages 
 in Euripides ; 
 
 Qvpa-cov y?\.vxeict] ydKirni sifa^oc poa/. Bacch. f. 707. 
 
 'Pfl ^« yiXa.y.Ti m^QYy 
 
 NejtTTz^t. Bacch. f. 142. 
 
 The Firfl: of thefe is in one of the Dialogue-Scenes of the Tragedy, 
 and Part of a Narration ; in Englifi thus, 
 
 SomCj longing for the 7mlder Milky Draughty 
 Green Herbs or bladed Grafs of the bleft Gromid 
 Crop'd with light Finger ; and to Thefn, behold. 
 Out giifjd the Milky Liquid : trickling down 
 7(9 Others, from their Ivy-twined Wands 
 Drop'd the fweet Honey. — 
 
 The Other is fung in Chorus by the Bacchce themfelves ; which wc 
 have therefore thus paraphrafed, 
 
 Streams of Milk alo?7g the Plain 
 Gently flow in ma?iy a Vein : 
 Flows fweet NeSlar, fiich as Bee 
 Sipsfrofn Flow'r and flowering Tree : 
 Flow the richer purple Rills ; 
 Bacchus' felf their Current fills. 
 
 F 2 . Whence
 
 44 I O. 
 
 ibber. And in Fa6l there paffes in the Souls of thefe Poets 
 that very Thing, which they pretend to do. For they affure 
 us, that out of certain Gardens and flowery Vales belong- 
 ing to the Mufes, from Fountains flowing there with Honey, 
 gathering the '^ Sweetnefs of their Songs, they bring it to 
 us, like the Bees ; and in the fame Manner withal, flying. 
 Nor do they tell us any Untruth. For a Poet is a Thing 
 
 light. 
 Whence we learn, that Thefe were the very Fancys of thofe Female 
 Enthufiafts, into which they worked up themfelves and their Followers by 
 their Bacchanalian Hymns. From hence are to be explained the fabulous 
 Relations in Anton, Liberal. Met. L. lo. and Mlian. V. H. L. 3. C. 42. 
 There is likewife a PalTage, cited by Anjiides the Orator, from Mfchines 
 one of the Difciples oi Socrates, fo much like This of Plato, that the Rea- 
 der may perhaps have Pleafure in comparing them together. Al Bm^^cu, 
 eirnS'a.v tv^iai yevrnvraiy o^tv 01 ccMoi ex. iSiv (ppeocTuv BcT^ iS^wp SwavTctj vS^piv- 
 e^ttj, ix,eivai fjitXi ■>i^\ yLXct. upvovra^. Ariftid. Orat. vol. 3. pag. 34. Ed. 
 Canter. The Priejleffes of Bacchus isohen they are become full of the God., 
 extraB Honey and Milkf-om thofe Wells, out of ivhich 710 cotJimon Per/on 
 is able fo much as to draw Water. This Religious Enthufiafm, or heat- 
 ed Imagination, Mfchines compares to the Enthufiafm oi Love ; o.s Plato 
 does here to That of Poetry -, and with equal Juflice : for Each of them 
 elevates the Idea of that Objedl, on which it dwells, to a Degree of 
 Excellence far exceeding what is Real. 
 
 3* The Greek is only ta jMhr}, and is by the old Tranflators rendred 
 fimply carmina, and / verfi. We are in Doubt, whether the true 
 Reading is not tc (jJiKi : for the preceding Word is ^pg-^nipwro/, and the 
 Metaphor the Same with This oi Horace, Ego apis Matinee More modo- 
 que. Grata carpcntis thyma, &c. If this Alteration be not admitted, 
 an AUufion however to the Word ^jAki is certainly meant, in the Simi- 
 larity of Sound, which ^A« bears to it. And there is then a Necef- 
 fity, befides, for inferting the Word (jA?j immediately afterwards, as 
 Ficinus docs in his Tranflation ; which is making a ftill greater Change 
 jn the Text of the Original. 3
 
 I O. 45 
 
 light, and volatile, and '^ facrcd : nor is he able to write 
 Poetry, till the Mufe entring into him, he is tranfported out 
 of Himfelf, and has no longer the Command of his Un- 
 derftanding. But fo long as a Man continues in his ^° Senfes, 
 he is unable to fing either Odes or Oracles ; to write '^' any- 
 Kind of Poetry, or utter any Sort of Prophefy. Hence it is, 
 that the Poets fay indeed many fine Things, whatever their 
 Subje6l be ; juft as you do concerning Homer : but not do- 
 ing it thro any Rules of Art, Each of them is able to fucceed, 
 according to the Divine Diflribution of the Genius's of 
 Men, only in that Species of Poetry, toward which he 
 feels the Impulfe of the Mufe ; This Poet in ^' Dithyram- 
 
 bick ; 
 
 39 Bees were by the Ancients held Sacred, becaufe fabled to have 
 yielded their Honey for a Nourifhment to the Cretan 'Jupiter in his In- 
 fancy ; (fee F/>^//'s4th Georgick, f. 150.) and Poets, becaufe fuppofed 
 to be under the Influence of the Mufe. 
 
 ^^ For a more explicit Account of this Divine Infpiration of the Mufe 
 in the Senfe of Plato, we refer our Readers to his Phcedrus, with our 
 Notes on that Dialogue. For the Philofopher there delivers his Thoughts 
 in a more ferious Manner, without that Mixture oi Humour and Irony, 
 which runs throughout the lo. 
 
 *' The Words oi Plato are -Tmv iromv : which Bembo abfurdly tranf- 
 lates " jar qualunque cofa j" ignorant, as it feems, that ttquTv frequent- 
 ly fignifys " to ivrite Poetry." 
 
 '^^ The ufual Accuracy of Plato appears ftrongly in this Pafiljge. For 
 the five Species of Poetry, here enumerated, were the mod: of Any full 
 oi Enthufiapm, of the /^/j Poetic a, and the Os magna Jonans; and ap- 
 pear ranked in their proper Degrees of Excellence in thofe Refpeits ; 
 beginning with That, which was deemed, and indeed by its Effects 
 proved, to be the moll highly Rapturous. But, for a more dillinft 
 Account of them, we refer to a Dijertation on the ancient Greek Poetry, 
 
 io
 
 46 I O. 
 
 bick ; That in Panegyrick ; One in Chorus-Songs, Another 
 in Epic Verfe, Another in Iambic. In the Other Kinds 
 every One of them is mean, and makes no Figure: and 
 This, bec-uife they write not what is taught them by Art, 
 but what is fuggefted to them by fome Divine Power, on 
 vvhofe Influence they depend. For if it was their Know- 
 lege of the Art, which enabled them to write Good Poems 
 upon One Subjedt, they would be able to write Poems 
 equally Good upon all Other Subjeds. But for this Reafon 
 it is, that the God, depriving them of the Ufe of their 
 Underftanding, employs them as his '^^ Minifters, his ^"^ Ora- 
 cle-Singers, and Divine '*' Prophets ; that when we hear 
 them, we may know, '^^ it is not Thefe Men, who de- 
 liver 
 
 fo far as may ferve to illuftrate thofe many PafTages of Plafo, where 
 that Poetry is mentioned, or alkided to ; which will be properly fub- 
 joyned to the Seventh Book of the Laws. 
 
 *5 'T-mpiT-xj. See Note ^^. But for the more Philofophical Mean- 
 ing of this Apellation, we refer to our Notes upon the Phcedrus. 
 
 'H- Near the Seat of the Oracle were certain Poets employed, as the 
 Oracular Refponfe was delivered, to put it into Metre. And becaufe, 
 in order to execute their Office well, they ought to enter into the Se^ife 
 and Spirit of thofe Refponfes, they were pioufly prefumed to be Them- 
 felves infpired by the Oracle. 
 
 *5 Plato in other Places calleth the Poets by this Name ; particu- 
 larly in the Secotid Book of his Repiiblick, where his Words are, o\ 
 S-eilf 'rm'iii', Troirncct, ■>{^-l "nT^pfrtrcci toov Sri-*)v yivOfXivoi, PoetSy born the Chil- 
 dren of the Gods, and made afteriuard their Prophets. And in the Se- 
 cond Alcihiades he calls Horner^ by way of Eminence, 3-gwv -nj^tprm-Sj 
 the Prophet of the Gods. 
 
 4* Thus Tiilly, who profefledly imitated Plato ; Dens inclufus corporc 
 humano jam, non CaJJandra, loquitur. Cic. de Divinat. L. i.
 
 I O. 49 
 
 liver Things Co excellent ; Thefe, who are divefted of 
 common Senfe ; but the God himfelf Tpeaking, and 
 thro Thefe Men pubhfl-iing his Mind to Us. The greateft 
 Proof of That, which I advance, is Tynnichus the Chal- 
 cidian ; who never compofed any other Poem, worth the 
 Mention or Remembrance, belide that '^' Pa^an, which Every 
 body fings, of almoft all '^^ Odes the moft excellent, and as 
 he Himfelf tells us, 
 
 49 
 
 Wholly a Prefent from the Mufes HaJids^ 
 Some 7iew hivefition of their own^ 
 
 For in Him does the God feem to give us a convincino- 
 Evidence, fo as to leave no Room for Doubt, that thofc 
 beautiful Poems are not Human, nor the Compofitions of 
 
 Men ; 
 
 *7 This was an Ode or Hymn in Honour of Apollo^ fo called from 
 one of the Names or Titles of that God : in the fame manner, as the 
 Word Dithyrambick is derived from Ai^u^/xl^o;, one of the Names of 
 Bacchus. 
 
 '^^ MtAwi. In fJxn are Included all Poems, made to be y?/?z§- j as ?xn, 
 in the larger Senfe of that Word, comprehends all thofe, made for Re- 
 cital. See Page 41, and 42. 
 
 49 The Greek is aVg^/i/aJs ivpniuLci tj fAvaav. This is a Ferfe in the 
 Alcmaman Meafure. Whence it appears, that this incomparable Ode 
 of Tynnichus^ unhappily lofl, was of the Lyric Kind, and in the Mea- 
 fure ufed by Alcman, approaching the nearefl: of Any to the Heroic, 
 It is evident, that Plato, in citing this Verfe, as applicable to his pre- 
 fent Purpofc, alludes to the other Senfe of the Word oinyvo^i, in which 
 it fignifys Liartijicially, or laithout Art. It was impoflible to preferve 
 this Double Meaning in Our Language, unleis the Word Simply may 
 
 be
 
 48 I O, 
 
 Men ; but Divine, and the Work of Gods : and that Poets 
 are only Interpreters of the ^° Gods, infpired and poffefTed, 
 Each of them by that particular Deity, who correfponds to 
 the peculiar Nature of the Poet. This the better to de- 
 monflrate to us, did the God purpofely chufe out a Poet 
 of the meanefl Kind, thro whom to fing a Melody of the 
 noblefl:. Do not you think, lo, that I fay what is True ? 
 
 lo. 
 
 Indeed I do : for I ^' feel as it were in my very Soul, So- 
 crates, the Truth of what you fay. To Me too fuch 
 Poets, as write finely, appear in their Writings to be 
 
 Inter- 
 be thought tolerably exprefllve of it. Comarius renders it in Latin, 
 ^^ fine arte :"' but the reft of the Tranflators, as if it were a Word of 
 no Force or even Meaning at all, have intirely omitted it in Their Tranf- 
 lations, It is probable, however, that they were mif-led by the falfe 
 Pointing in Aldus % Edition, which refers the Word dnx^^i to the pre- 
 ceding Sentence. 
 
 5* Hence probably was this Title given to Orpheus, " facer, iiiter- 
 " prefque Dcorum" by Horace, Epift. ad Pifon. i'. 391. 
 
 5' The Words in the Original are very ftrong and fignificant, a-l^ 
 T»5 -ly^^M;, Ton touch my Soul. Whoever is well verfed in Plato's Way 
 of fVriting, and is no Stranger to the Socratic Way of Thinking, will 
 eafily imagine, that Plato intends here to hint to us, by what Means 
 Poetry operates fo ftrongly upon the Soul ; that is, by touching fome in- 
 tvard String the moft ready to vibrate ; aivakening thofe Sentiments, and 
 jlirring up thofe Pajjicns, to which the Soul is moft prompt : iniinu- 
 ating at the fame time, that by means of the like Aptitude and natural 
 Corrcfpondence, Truth touches the Mind. Thus lo, in the prefent Si- 
 tuation of his Soul, reminded of his own paft Feelings, and made fen- 
 fible to what Canfe they were owing, exemplifys and illuftratcs the 
 Truth of that Dodtrine, juft before laid down by Socrates.
 
 I O. 49 
 
 ^^ Interpreters of the Gods, in Proportion to the Kind and 
 Degree of thofe Divine Powers, allotted feverally to Each 
 Poet. 
 
 Socrates. 
 Now You Rhapfodifts interpret in like manner the Writ- 
 ings of the Poets. Do you not ? 
 
 lo. 
 So far you ftill fay what is True. 
 
 Socrates. 
 Do you not then become the Interpreters of Interpreters ? 
 
 lo. 
 Very True. 
 
 Socrates. 
 Mind now, lo, and tell me This; and think not to 
 conceal any Part of the Truth, in anfwering to what I 
 am going to afk. At thofe Times, when you perform your 
 Rehearfals in the beft Manner, and ftrike your Audience 
 with uncommon Force and Efficacy ; when you fing, for 
 Inftance, of Ulyffes, haftning to the Entrance of his Houle, 
 appearing in his own proper Perfon to the Wooers of 
 his Queen, and pouring out his Arrows clofe before him, 
 ready for fpreading round him inftant Death ; or reprefent 
 
 Achilles 
 
 5» In this Senfe it is, that the Poefs are a little before filled the Mi" 
 n'lflcrs of the Gods, as ferving them in the Conveying their Mind and 
 Will to Mortals. In the fame Senfe the Rhapfodifts are called, in the 
 Second Book of the Repiiblick, noinruv JTrw^ira/, the Mimllers of the 
 Poets, 
 
 G
 
 50 T O. 
 
 Arhillcs rulliin^!; upon Hcdor ; or when you rehearfe, in a 
 different Strain, any of the mehinclioly mournful Circum- 
 ftances, attending Andromaclic, or Hecuba, or Priam; at 
 fuch Times whether have you the free Ufe of your Senfes 
 and UnderHanding ? or are you not rather '' out of your 
 fober Mind ? Does not your Soul, in an Ecflafy, imagine 
 her felf prefent to thofe very Tilings and Adtions, wliich you 
 relate ? as if you had beei\ ^" hurry'd away by fome Divine 
 Power to Itliaca, or Troy, or wherever elfe be laid the 
 Seene of Adlion. 
 
 lo. 
 How clear and convincing a Proof, Socrates, of your 
 Argument, is This which you have produced ! For with- 
 out concealing any thing, I (ball own the Truth, When 
 I am reciting any lliijig Pitiable or Mournful, my P'.ycs 
 are filled with Tears : when any thing Dreadlul or Hor- 
 rible is the Subjei^l, my Hairs ibind ered, and n^,y Heart 
 beats quick, thro Terror and A {Light. 
 
 SOCR AT KS. 
 
 What fliall we fay then, lo ? that a Man is at That time 
 in iiis Wits or Senfes, when, clad in a fplcndid Garb, with 
 
 a 
 
 5' Agreeably to This, Cicero introdmcth his Brother Sliiin^tis, ob- 
 fcrving of Iliin, ami oi' /E/bf> the Orator, " ((irilum ardoran vultuum 
 (itqite motiium, til cum vis quada/n af>Jlruxi[fc t) fhifu mentis vidfrctur." 
 Cic. </(' Divinaf. L. i. 
 
 5* Horace had, probably, this I'afliigc of the lo ip his View, whcii 
 he thus dcfcribes, tho for a tlilVcrcnt rurpofc, the Magical EW'otX of the 
 Dramatic Scene; " modo me Thcbis, modo poriit Aibcnis. llor, Epijh 
 
 L. 2. Ep..I. y. 21 V
 
 I O. SI 
 
 a down of Gold upon his Head, amidft a Fcaft, or nt a 
 Feftival, he flills into Tears, without having loll any Part 
 of his Finery, or of the Entertainment ? or when he is af- 
 frighted and terrify cd, ftanding in the midft ot twenty 
 thoufmd Men, all well-difpofcd and friendly to him, None 
 offering to ftrip him of his Ornaments, or do him the 
 Icaft Injury ? 
 
 lo. 
 To confefs the Truth, Socrates, not in liis Senfes, by any 
 Means. 
 
 Socrates. 
 Do you know, that '' You produce this very fimc Fffcd 
 upon Many of your Auditors ? 
 
 lo. 
 I am indeed fully fcnfiblc of it. For at every ftriking 
 Paflligc I look down from my '" Pulpit round mc, and fee 
 the People fuitably afleded by it : now weeping, then look- 
 ing as. if Florror fcized them ; fuch Emotion and fiich 
 Altonillniicnt arc fpred thro All. And it is my Buiincfs 
 
 G 2 to 
 
 J5 From hence Horace feems to have drawn that excellent Precept 
 to Theatrical Adlors, " Si vis vie fcrc, ddlcrjuin cjl Primuiii ip/i til'ij' 
 Epilt. ad Pilbn, >^. lo::. Titlly too had perhaps this Pall'agc in his Kye, 
 when he made the following Obfervation ; " '^iid oratio f qui J ipfa 
 *' aBio ? pote/{ cJJ'c i;cbctncri5, & gnivis, & copiojii, riiji cjl animus ipfe 
 " conutiotior?" Cic. de Diviruit. L. i. 
 
 5* This was a Place, railed on high above the Area, like thole two 
 oppofitc Gallery-Boxes in our magnificent Theatre at OxforJ ; from 
 whence Orators, Rhapfudills, and gthcr Dcclaimers harangued the 
 People. I
 
 52 I O. 
 
 to obferve them with ftridl Attention, that if I fee I have 
 fet them a weeping, I may be ready to receive their Money, 
 and to laugh ; but if I find them laughing, that I may 
 prepare my felf for a forrowful Exit, difappointed of my 
 expeded Gain. 
 
 Socrates. 
 Know you not then, that this Audience of yours is like 
 theLaft of thofe Rings, which, One to Another, as I faid, 
 impart their Power, derived from that Magnet at th-e Top? 
 The Middle Ring arre " You the Rhapfodift, and fo too is 
 the ^^ Player : the Firft Ring being the Poet himfelf. By 
 
 means 
 
 57 Learned Men are divided in their Opinions concerning lo the Rbap- 
 fodift, whether he is the fame Perfon, or not. with lo the Chian, a 
 confiderable Poet, who flourished in the fame Age. See °Jonfnis de 
 Scriptor. Hift. Phiiof. L. 2. C 13. n. 4. and S^^/'/m Epift. ^d Milliiiin, 
 p. 50, &c. In the great Want of good Reafoning on either Side of 
 the Queftion, it inay be worth obferving, that in this Paffage, as alfo 
 in Page 32, lo is contra-diftinguifhed from the Poets. A Negative Ar- 
 gument too may be of fome Weight, from the Silence of Plato upon 
 this Point. Indeed it is ftrange, had lo been a Poet, and had won the 
 Prize of Tragedy, which was the Cafe of lo the Cbian, that Plato 
 fliould have made him take none of thofe many Opportunitys to glory 
 in it, which offered themfelves in this Converfation. 
 
 58 Agreeably to This, we may obferve thofe ASiors of Tragedy, or 
 of Comedy, to be the mod excellent in their Art, who have in fome 
 meafure caught the Flame of the Dramatic Authors, and are tnfpired 
 with fome Portion of Their Spirit. Whoever has frequented our Theatres 
 in the prefent Age, and happens to read this Note, we cannot but think 
 will immediately have in his Mind the Same Perfon in particular, we 
 have in our own while we are writing it,, a celebrated Player^ whofe 
 
 Per-
 
 I O- S3 
 
 means of All Thefe does the God " draw, wherever it pleafes 
 him, the Souls of Men, fufpendcd Each on Other thro at- 
 tradive Virtue. In the fame manner too, as from that: 
 Magnet, is formed a Chain of many Rows, where ^° Cho- 
 rus-Singers and Dancers, Mafters and '" Under Mailers^ 
 hang, like the Collateral Rings, attradled and held together 
 fide- ways, all depending from the Mufe. But upon One 
 Miife One of the Poets, upon a different Mufe Another 
 
 is 
 
 Performances in the Plays of Shakefpear (o well illudrate that Poet ; 
 and to whofe having imbibed fo much of Shakefpear ^ Spirit feems to 
 be chiefly owing the Increafe of the Popular Tafl among us for the 
 Writings of a Genius, fo much above the Vulgar Level, 
 
 59 The Source, or rather Vehicle, of thefe Ecftafys and Raptures- 
 according to an excellent Judge of them, is Strength of Imagery in the 
 Poem, affeding the Imagination of the A6lor, and thro Ilim that of 
 the Spedtator : o'tilv a. Xtyrti utt ev^v(7ioc,a-iJt.v kx\ 7ra,S-a$ (i?.h^v Sox7u, xa; 
 Ctt o^iv Ti3-»5 To?s a-K^vcjiv : When the Speaker is fo far inipajjioned., atid 
 wrought up tofuch a Height of Enihiifiafm, as to fancy, he fees what he 
 defcribes, and is thus enabled to prefent it to the View of his Audience, 
 Longin. de Sublim. §. 13. 
 
 *" Or xzxhtx: Chorus- Singers dancing; [^opivrZy'] for they were not' 
 different Perfons : the Dance being nothing elfe than a meafured Mo- 
 tion., accompanyed with certain Geflures of Body, adapted to the Tmie^, 
 (which they called the Harmony,) as that was to the Words of the 
 Chorus-Song, fung by the fame Perfons who performed the Dance. 
 
 ^' The hindmofl Rows of the Chorus fang an Under-Part, and had 
 peculiar Maflers of their own to teach it them, who were therefore 
 called Under-Mafters. At the Head of each Row was placed the ?vla- 
 fter of it, to give the Mufical Key, and to lead the Dance to his pro- 
 per Row. The principal Teacher of the whole Choir, who alfo headed 
 the Whole, was called Xo|)«>oj, See fid. Pollux^ OncmaJftic L, 4,- 
 C, 1^, 3
 
 54 I O. 
 
 k fufpended ; ^' poffefied we call him, that is, held faft ; 
 becaufe he is faft held by the Mufe. From thefe Firft 
 Rings, the ^^ Poets, hang their Followers and Admirers ; 
 Some from One, Others from Another ; infpired by them, 
 and faftened on to them, by means of the Enthufiaftic Spirit, 
 
 iffuing 
 
 ** This Paffage in all the Editions of Plato is read thus ; ovomLd^o/jLiv 
 S^e aoTO x.a.ri^€7cti. to S'l Iq^t 'nsa.^'7f>miav' ^^iixi ydp. Which, being 
 Nonfenfe, is thus nonfenfically rendered into Latiti by Ficijius; " Vo' 
 " ca7nui autem id nos occupari, (altered by Gryncem into mcnte cap'i^) 
 *' quod quidem illi proximiim ejl : tenetur enim.'" And by Cornarius 
 thus ; " Hoc verb corripifur nominamus, quod cojifimile eft : haret enim.'' 
 In the Steps of thefe Tranflators Be7nbo thought it fafefl: here to tread, 
 as being wholly in the Dark himfelf. For he thus tranflates it; e cio 
 chiamamo nei /' effer prefix il che i ftmile : and then quite omits the 
 s'vfTai yocp. Serranus, divining, as it feems, the true Senfe of the Paf- 
 fage, (for the Words fliew it not,) avoids the finking into Nonfenfe ; 
 but hobbles along very lamely. The Emendation of the Pointing, with 
 Omiflion only of the Word yiip, would make the Paffage plain and 
 clear, thus red, oio^xC^ojxiv ^? aJro xa.^f';^iTah to Sk ffi, "srcctP-TrXnaiov 
 tyerai. But there is another Way of amending this Paflage, that is, by 
 a Repetition of the Word f;t?Tai : and this Way we prefer, and follow 
 in our Tranflation ; reading it thus; o ijt.ojucii^ofj.iv S'e auTo xse.ri';)(eTar to 
 J^e iq-i, 'uroLesf-irXmiov i'}iron' i^rai y»^. The Omiffion of a Word, 
 where the fame Word immediately follows, is a common Fault in 
 Manufcripts. 
 
 ^3 The wrong Pointing of this Paflage in the Greek has occafioncd 
 Serranus to tranflate it, as if it defcribed the Poets depending, that is, 
 receiving their Infpiration, One from Another. But tho this Fad; be true, 
 it is not the primary Intention of Flato in this Place to defcribe it. To 
 prevent the fame Miftake in the Readers of any future Edition of the 
 Original, this Sentence ought to be printed with a Comma after the 
 Word TsrowTwj', as well as with one before it. Ficinus however and 
 the reft t-ranflate it rightly.
 
 riTuIng from them ; Some to ^'^ Orpheus, Others to Mufseus j 
 but the moil numerous Sort is of fuch, as are poffeffed 
 by Homer, and held faft by Flim. Of this Number, lo, 
 are You, ^ infpired as you are, and enthufiaftically poffefs'd 
 by Homer. Hence it is, that when the Verfes of any other 
 Poet are fung or recited, you grow dull and fall afleep, 
 for want of Something to fay : but that, as foon as yoa 
 hear a Strain of tliat Poet poured forth, immediately yoa 
 are roui'ed, your Soul recovers her Spritelinefs, and Much 
 to fay prefents itfelf to your Mind : becaufe, when you 
 harangue upon Homer, you do it not from Art or Science, 
 but from Enthufiafm, of that particular Kind, which has 
 poffefs'd you by Divine Allotment. Juft as Thofe, who 
 join in the Rites of Cybele, have an acute Perception of Such 
 Mufick only, as appertains to that Deity, by whom they 
 are poireffed ; and are not wanting either in Words or 
 Geftures, adapted to a Melody of that Kind ; but have no 
 l^ Regard to any Other Mufick, nor any Feeling of its 
 
 Power,. 
 
 ^* Concerning thefe Two Poets, and the Writings attributed to them 
 in the Times of Plato, we refer to our Notes on the Second Book of 
 the Republick. 
 
 *5 From what Socrates fays of the Rhapfodifts in this Speech, Cicero- 
 feems to have taken the Similitude, which he ufes in the following 
 Sentence ; Riorum omnium (fc. oraculorum) intcrfretes, ut Grammatici 
 Poetamm, proxime ad eorum, quos interpretantiir^ dhinationem videntiir 
 accedere. Cic. de Divinat. L. i. 
 
 ** This Obfervation holds equally True, with regard to Religioifs 
 Enthujiajm in modern Ages. We fee different Species apt to feize on 
 Perfons of different Temper, Genius, and Turn of Mind^ None of 
 
 them.
 
 S6 I O. 
 
 Power. In the fame manner You, lo, when any Mention 
 is made of Homer, feel a Readinefs and a Facility of fpeak- 
 ing ; yet with regard to Other Poets, find your felf want- 
 ing. That therefore, which your Queftion demands, Whence 
 you have within you fuch an ample Fund of Difcourfe, 
 upon every thing relating to Homer ; whilft 'tis quite other- 
 wife with you, when the Subject, brought upon the Car- 
 pet, is any Other of the Poets ; the Caufe is This ; that 
 not Science, but Enthufiafm, not Art, but fome particular 
 Divine Power ^ allotted to You, has made you fo mighty 
 a Panegyrift on Homer. 
 
 lo. 
 
 You fpeak well, Socrates, I own. But I fhould wonder, 
 if, with all your fine Talk, you could perfuade Me to think 
 my felf pofTefs'd, and out of my Senfes, when I make my 
 Panegyricks on Homer. Nor would You, as I imagine, 
 think fo your Self, were you but to hear from Me a Dif- 
 fertation upon that Poet. 
 
 Socrates. 
 
 And willing am I indeed to hear you ; but not till 
 you have anfwer'd me this Queftion in the firft place, 
 
 Which 
 
 them receiving eafily the Contagion of the other Kinds. The fame 
 Thing Ariftotle has remarked of the feveral Sorts of Miifick ; conclud- 
 ing thus ; 7roi« Twc yt^ovm iKo^on ro xaTa (fCaiv oixeTey. Whatever is of 
 Kindred to a Man's Soul, or familiar to bis Nature, excites in him a 
 Senfe of Fleafure. Ariftot. PoHtic. L. 7. C. 8. 
 
 '7 Qi7a, /uo'pa. Concerning this Expreflion, very frequent in P/ato, 
 we refer to our Notes on the latter Part of the Meno.
 
 I O. 57 
 
 "^ Which of his Subjedls does Homer handle bejft ? for cer- 
 tainly you will not fay, that he excells in All things. 
 
 lo. 
 Be afTured, Socrates, there is Nothing, in which ^' he 
 excells not, 
 
 SOCRAT ES. 
 
 You certainly do not mean to include Thofc things, of 
 which Homer writes, and of which you are "° ignorant. 
 
 lo. 
 
 " The Greek of this Paflage in all the Editions runs thus j Zv "Oyy^epf 
 As'^&f, -erg/)) Tivos iv xiya ; Corfiarius in his Ecloga very dogmatically al- 
 ters the lafl Word of this Queftion into Ag>f<s. Afterwards H. StephenSy 
 into whofe Hands had fallen a Copy of Plato with Conjedlural Emen- 
 dations in Fici?ius's own Hand-Writing on the Margin, tells us in his 
 Notes, that the fame Alteration was there propofed by Flcinus. This, 
 if admitted, will give a different Turn, not only to this Queftion, but 
 to lo\ Aniwer, and to the Obfervation of Socrates thence arifing : but 
 the Philofopher's Drift, in aiking the Queftion, and the Series of the 
 Argument, will be very little affeded by it. For the Bufinefs is to (hew, 
 that neither Poets write, nor Rhapfodijh interpret, when their Subjedl 
 happens to be fome Point belonging to any one of the Arts, from their 
 real Skill in fuch Art. The only Difference is, that in the common 
 Reading, the Poets are concerned immediately ; and according to the 
 propofed Alteration, the QuePaon \i pointed at the Rhapfodijis, and reaches 
 the Poets but in Confequence. In either Way, however, as the Argu- 
 ment proceeds, the direSi Proof equally lyes againfi: the Rhapfodijis. 
 Now in fuch a Cafe as this, we believe it to be an effabliflied Rule of 
 found Criticifm, to forbear alterin'j the Text. 
 
 *9 Cornariiis and Serranus here make lo boaft of his own univerfal 
 Excellence as a Rhapfodijl, inftead of attributing this high Praife to Ho- 
 mer as a Poet : and 1 his, in confequence of that Alteration in the Text, 
 mentioned in the preceding Note. 
 
 7° And conftquently can be no Judge of. The Senfe is thus fuffi- 
 ciently clear. There is therefore no Reafon to make, with Cornarius 
 
 H and
 
 -§ 
 
 ny^ 
 
 I o. 
 
 lo. 
 And What things may thofe be, which Homer writes of, 
 and which I am ignorant of? 
 
 SOCR AT ES. 
 
 Does not Homer frequently, and copioufly too, treat of 
 the Arts ? for Inftance, the Art of ^' Chariot- driving ? If I 
 can remember the Verfes, I will repeat them to you. 
 
 lo. 
 
 I'll recite them rather to you : for I well remember them. 
 
 SOCRATE S. 
 
 Recite me then what Neftor fays to his Son Antilochus, 
 where he gives him a Caution about the Turning, in that 
 Chariot-Race, celebrated in Honour of Patroclus. 
 
 lo. 
 
 His Words are thefe, 
 
 T'i'ere to the Left incli?jmgj eafy turn 
 
 'The light-built Chariot ; mindful then to urge 
 
 TVith pungent Whip^ and animatiiig Voice^ 
 
 The Right-hand Courfer^ and with Hand remifs 
 
 The Reins to yield him j hard upon the Goal, 
 
 Mean time^ his Partner bearing \ till the Wheels 
 
 Skim" 
 and Serram/s, this Queftion relate to lo's boafted Differtations, inftead 
 of Homer's Poetry : and confequently no Need of altering the Text in 
 the former Queflion of Socrates, in order to explain this. 
 
 7' What this Art was in ancient Times, and in what high Eflimation 
 it was held, Such of our Readers, as are not converfant in the Writings 
 of the Ancients, may find in the entertaining Notes to Mr. Pope's 
 Homer. 4
 
 7* 
 
 I O. 59 
 
 Skimming the Stofiy Li?tes of that old Marky 
 
 Doubt if its Nave with Point proje&i?7g touch 
 TJj extreamefl Margin : but of thofe rough Stones 
 TJi Encounter rude be carefull to decline. 
 
 Socrates. 
 Enough. Now in thefe Verfes, lo, whether Homer gives 
 a right Account of what ought to be done upon the Oc- 
 cafion, or not, who muft be the ableft Judge, a Phyiician, 
 or a Charioteer ? 
 
 lo. 
 A Charioteer, undoubtedly. 
 
 Socrates. 
 .Whether is he thus able, from his having Skill in his Art 
 or by fome other Means ? 
 
 lo. 
 From his Skill in his Art only, and no other Way. 
 
 H 2 Socrates. 
 
 7* It is great Pity, that Mr, Tope^ in his elegant Verfion of Horner^ 
 has dropt this ftrong Poetical Stroke ; by which not only the Wheel is 
 animated, but the exquifite Nicety of turning the Goal, in keeping clofe 
 to the Edge of it, without touching, is defcribed by One Word in the 
 fineft manner poffible. This Miflake happened to him, from his mif- 
 underflanding the Word, S'odo^iTo.i, to mean, doubling the Goal; in 
 which Senfe this Part of the Defcription would be flat, lifelefs, and 
 Profaic, altogether unworthy Homer. Had Mr. Pope thought fit to con- 
 fult Eujtathius, He would have fet him right. The Verfes here cited 
 are in the 23^ Book of the Iliad; where the Word, «.•, in the fifth 
 Line is evidently the right Reading, inftead of fxr,, which we meet with 
 in the Copys of Plato.
 
 do I O, 
 
 SOCR AT ES. 
 
 ^^ Has not thus Every one of the Arts an Ability, "^"^ given 
 it by God himfelf, to judge of certain Performances ? For 
 the fame Things, in which we have good Judgment from 
 our Skill in the Art of Piloting, by no means fl:iall we be 
 able to judge of well from any Skill in the Art of Medicine. 
 
 lo. 
 By no means, undoubtedly. 
 
 Socrates. 
 Nor the fame Things, in which our Skill in the Art of 
 Medicine has given us good Judgment, would the greated 
 Skill in the Art of Building qualify us to judge of equally 
 well. 
 
 lo. 
 Certainly, not. 
 
 SOCRATE S. 
 
 '^ Does it not then hold True alike in all the Arts, that 
 of whatever Things we are good Judges by means of our 
 beino- poffefs'd of One Art, we can never judge well of thofc 
 very Things from our Skill in any other Other Art ? But 
 before you anfwer to This Queftion, anfwer me to this 
 
 Other : 
 
 73 In the Greek, as it is printed, this is made an abfolute AjJ'eriion of 
 Socrates, contrary to his ufual Manner of converfing, and to the Genius 
 of this Dialogue in particular, where Socrates is reprefcnted as proving 
 the Ignorance of lo out of his own Mouth. 
 
 7+ See our Argument of this Dialogue, Page 9. 
 
 75 This Sentence in the Original is likewife printed, as if it was 
 fpokcn pofitively ; and is fo tranflated by Bembo : whereas immediately 
 afterwards Socrates himfelf calls it a ^ejlion.
 
 I O. 6i 
 
 Other : Do not you admit: a DIverfity between the Arts, 
 and call This fome One Art, and That feme Other ? 
 
 lo. 
 I admit fuch a Diverfity. 
 
 Socrates. 
 Do not you diftinguifli every Art in the fame Way that 
 I do, inferring a Diverfity between them from the Diverfity 
 of their Subjedls ? When One Art is attended with the 
 Knowlege of One Sort of Things, Another Art by Know- 
 lege in Things of a different Nature, do you not from hence 
 conclude, as I do, that This accordingly is One Art, and 
 That Another ? 
 
 lo. 
 I do. 
 
 Socrates. 
 For if, in any Two Arts, there was the Knowlege of the 
 fame Things in Both, why ihould we make a Diftindion, 
 and call This fome One Art, and that fome Other diffe- 
 rent, when Both of them were attended by Skill in the 
 Same Sort of Things ? As I know, for Inftance, thefe Fin- 
 gers of mine to be Five in Number ; and You know it as 
 well as I. Now were I to afk you, whether it was by the 
 Same Art, that we know this One and the Same Thing, 
 by the Art of Arithmetick You as well as I, or Each of 
 us by a Several Art ; you would certainly anfwer, 'twas by 
 the Same Art* 
 
 lo.
 
 62 I O. 
 
 lo. 
 
 Undoubtedly. 
 
 SOCR AT ES. 
 
 The Queftion then, which I was about afking you be- 
 fore, anfwer me now ; whether in all the Arts, You think 
 it alike neceffary, that the Same Things fhould be judged 
 of by the Same Art ; and that a different Art muft not pre- 
 tend to judge of thofe very Things ; but that if in Reality 
 it be a different Art, different Things mufl of Courfe fall 
 under its Cognizance ? 
 
 lo. 
 I do think fo, Socrates. 
 
 Socrates. 
 No Man therefore will be able to judge well of any 
 Thing faid, or done, relating to Any One of the Arts, in 
 which he has no Skill. 
 
 lo. 
 You fay right. 
 
 Socrates. 
 In thofe Verfes then, which you repeated, can You beft 
 tell, whether Homer gives a right Account of Things or 
 not ; or is a Charioteer the propereft Judge of This ? 
 
 lo. 
 A Charioteer. 
 
 Socrates. 
 And That for this Reafon, becaufe You are a Rhapfodift, 
 and not a Charioteer. 
 
 Jo.
 
 I O. 62, 
 
 lo. 
 True. 
 
 Socrates. 
 And becaufe the Art of a Rhapfodift is difFerent from 
 that of a Charioteer. 
 
 lo. 
 
 Right. 
 
 Socrates. 
 If then it be a difFerent Art, it is attended by Skill in a 
 different Sort of Things. 
 
 lo. 
 Very right. 
 
 Socrates. 
 Well then ; when Homer relates, how Hecamede, aDam- 
 fel of Neftor's, mingled a Potion for Machaon to drink, 
 after he had been wounded ; giving us this Defcription of it; 
 
 Into rough Pramnian carefully pe f crapes^ 
 With brazen Scraper^ acrid- tajied Cheefe^ 
 Made of thin Milk drawn frotn falacious Goat ; 
 And fets befde the Life-reviving Bowl 
 ' Strong flimulatijig O?iion. 
 
 To 
 
 7* This latter Circumftance is mentioned by Homer at fome DIftance 
 from the former, eight Lines intervening. Plato brings them together, 
 feledling them out from the other Particulars of that Defcription, as the 
 Two moft lingular and remarkable, the moft blamed by the Phyficians, 
 and ridiculed by the Wits of thofe Days. But in the o^d Book of his 
 Republick, he anfwers all their Criticifms and Cavils himfelf, in a juft 
 
 Defence
 
 64 I O. 
 
 To form a true Judgment in this Cafe, whether Homer be 
 in the Right or not, does it belong to the Art of Medicine, 
 or to that of Rhapfody ? 
 
 lo. 
 To the Art of Medicine. 
 
 SOCRATE S. 
 
 Well ; and what, where Homer fays thus ; 
 
 Steep down to the low Bottom of the Main 
 'Then plimg d the Goddefs ; rujhing^ like the Lead,, 
 Penda?tt from Horn of Meadow- ranging Bull^ 
 Which falls impetuous^ to devouring Fijh 
 
 I'' Bearing the deathful Mi/chief 
 
 Whether 
 
 Defence of the Great Poet, and of fuch a Method of treating Wounded 
 Perfons, in the more fimple, lefs luxurious, and heakhier Ages. The 
 Verfes oi Homer, here cited, are to be found in the eleventh Book of 
 the Iliad. 
 
 77 Had we been to have tranflated this Paffage immediately from 
 Hofncr, we fliould have made tlie lall Line thus ; " Bearing their Fates 
 " dcflru&ive" — the GraZ' Word being xri^ in the Copys oi Homer ; 
 inftead of which we read ^s■'^^!Ji^ in thole of Plato. Upon this Occafion, 
 we beg Leave, once for all, to advertife our Readers, that in many 
 Paflages of Homer, as cited by Plato, there are Variations, and thofe 
 fometimes material, from the received Reading of the Text of that 
 Poet : and that This was one of the Reafons, on which we grounded 
 our undertaking to tranflate all thofe Parages afrefli; when Mr. Po/i/s 
 Verfion, fo excellent upon the Whole, might otherwife have well ej:- 
 cufed us from that Trouble. The Palfagc of /iow^r, now before us, 
 occurs in the laft Book of the Iliad.
 
 I O. 65 
 
 Whether /hall we fay it belongs to the Art of Fifliing, or 
 to that of Rhapfody, to judge beft, whether this Defcrip- 
 tion be right or wrong ? 
 
 lo. 
 
 To the Art of Fifhing, Socrates, without Doubt, 
 
 Socrates. 
 
 Confider now, fuppofe your Self had taken the Part of 
 Queftioner, and were to fay to Me thus ; Since then, So- 
 crates, you have found, what Paffages in Homer it belongs 
 to ^ Each of thofe Arts before mentioned, feverally to 
 difcern and criticife with good Judgment ; come, find me 
 out, upon the Subjed: of Divination, what Pafiages it is the 
 Bufinefs of a Diviner critically to examine, and to tell us 
 whether the Poetical Account be right or wrong : confider, 
 how eafily I fhould be able to give You a fatisfadory and a 
 proper Anfwer. For Homer has many PafTages, relating to 
 this Subjedl, in his OdyfTey j particularly One, where Theo- 
 
 clymenus 
 
 7* It is obfervable, that Plato here takes his four Inflances from four 
 different Sorts of Arts ; the Firft from one of the Arts Military \ the 
 Second from one of the Liberal Arts, ; the Third from one of the Me- 
 chanical Kind; and the Fourth from one of thofe Arts, relating to Re- 
 ligion. His Ends in thus muUiplying and varying his Inftances are thefe ; 
 One is, to fliew the Univcrfality of Homer's Genius ; and Another is, 
 to make it appear the more plainly, what a Variety of Arts the Poet 
 mufl have been Mafter of, had he wrote, not from a Di'-cine Genius^ 
 but from real Skill humanly acquired. With the fame View he in- 
 ftances again a little farther in the Arts Imperatcrial^ Liberal, Servil, 
 and Mechanical, See cur Argument of this Dialogue, Paec 12. 
 
 I
 
 66 I O. 
 
 clymenus the Diviner, " One of the Race of Melampus, 
 addreffes the Wooers of Penelope in this manner ; 
 
 Mark' d out by Heav n for great Events 1 What III 
 Is This attends ye I What J ad Omens point 
 Prefagefull } Round ye fome dark Vapour fpreads 
 His diijky Wings ; Head, Face, and lower Li?nbs 
 hi Shades involving : thick thro burthen d Air 
 Roll hollow Sounds lamenti77g : dropping Tears 
 Stain of each mourning Statue the wet Cheeks : 
 Crouded the Porch, and crouded is the Hall 
 With Spe&res ; down to Pluto's fjadowy Reign 
 Ghojls feem they gliding : the Suns cheary Light 
 Is loft from Heavn : a Gloom foreboding falls y 
 O' erhaiiging all things, fadd'fiing every Heart. 
 
 On the fame Subjedl he writes in many Places of his Iliad ; 
 as, for Inftance, where he defcribes that Fight, which hap- 
 pened under the Grecian Fortifications. For he there gives 
 us this Relation of it ; 
 
 While eager they prepard to pafs the Moat, 
 
 Afid force tU Intrenchments ; oer them catne a Bird 
 
 Tow ring, 
 
 79 Sec the OdyJJ'ey oi Homer, B. 15. f. 225, &c. But the fine De- 
 (criptive Speech following is taken out of the Twentieth Book of 
 that Poem.
 
 I O. 67 
 
 7'ow7'ing^ aft Eagle, from the "" Lefl of Heavn, 
 Their Rnterprize forbidding : on be camey 
 And in his Tahis bore a Dragon^ huge, 
 Enormous^ glijlning horrid with red Scales. 
 Still livd the Serpent ; and tho clofe with Death 
 He flrove, afidgaffdy and panted \ yet his Rage 
 A7td F'enom he forgot Jtot : for half roimd 
 Wreathing the pliant foynts of his high Crefl, 
 TVith backward Stroke he piercd his griping Foe : 
 His BreafI he piercd, where clofe beneath the Neck 
 Soft to the Stroke it yielded. Stu7ig with Smart^ 
 Loofend his Gripe the Foe, and to the Ground 
 Down drof d him. Mid the martial Throng the Beafl 
 Fell : while the bleeding Bird with Clangour f drill 
 Strain d onward his weak Flight, where bore the fVinds. 
 
 I 2 Tliefe 
 
 *° This Circumftance is very important. For upon the Principles of 
 Augury, one Kind of Divination, had the Flight of the Eagle over their 
 Heads been, on the Contrary, fj-om the Right Side of the Heav'ns, that 
 is, from the Eaft, making toward the Left, or Weft, it had been a Pre- 
 fage of Good Succefs. Yet is this Circumftancc carelefsly omitted by 
 Mr. Pope. Now the Paffage being cited by Pinto, exprefsly, as an In- 
 ftance to fhew, that Homer treats of the Art of Divination, we could 
 not, without an Abfurdity, pafs over that Part of it, which is the moil 
 material with regard to the Scope of our Author in this Place. And 
 as this often is the Cafe, that where Plato cites Homer for fome parti- 
 cular Purpofe, Mr. Pope\ Verfion happens there to be defedive, we 
 found our felves obliged, for this farther Reafon, to attempt fetting 
 thofe Palfages in their proper Light by a new Tranflation. Th:s is cited 
 from the 'iti')^ng.'x}<^-, or twelfth Book of the Iliad.
 
 68 I O. 
 
 Thefe PaiTages, and others of the fame Kind, fhall I fay, 
 it belongs to the Diviner to confider, and to criticife ? 
 
 lo. 
 So will you fay what is true, Socrates. 
 
 Socrates. 
 You fpeak Truth your Self, lo, in This. Come on then, 
 and tell me, as I have feledled out for You certain PaiTages 
 from the Odyffey, and from the Iliad, appertaining Some 
 of them to the Diviner, Some to the Phyfician, and Others 
 to the Fifherman ; in Return, do You pick out for Me 
 (fince You are better verfed in Homer than I am) Such Paf- 
 figes, lo, as appertain to the Rhapfodift, and relate to the 
 Rhapfodical Art ; Such, as it becomes the Rhapfodift to 
 examine, and to criticife, with a Judgment and Skill fupe- 
 riour to that of other Men. 
 
 lo. 
 The Whole of Homer I affirm it to be, Socrates. 
 
 Socrates. 
 You denyed it, lo, but juil: now, to be the Whole of 
 Homer. ^' What, are you fo forgetfuU ? It ill becomes, how- 
 ever, a Man, who is a Rhapfodift, to be forgetful!. 
 
 lo. 
 But what it is nov/, that I have forgot ? 
 
 Socrates, 
 
 *' The Greek here is erroneoufly printed in all the Editions, thus j 
 % (inftead of n) utws i-niXyi<^iuoiv u; accordingly, Cornarius tr;infl;ites it, 
 " Aut itq obliviojiis es?" This Error of the Prefs, we hope, will be 
 corredted in the next Edition of P/alo.
 
 I O. 69 
 
 Socrates. 
 Do you not remember, that you affirmed the Art of Rhap- 
 fody to be an Art different from that of Chariot-driving ? 
 
 lo. 
 I do remember it. 
 
 Socrates. 
 Did not you allow too, that being a different Art, it was 
 accompanyed by Skill and Judgment in a different Sort of 
 Things ? 
 
 I o. 
 I did allow it. 
 
 Socrates. 
 The Art of Rhapfody therefore, according to Your own 
 Account, is not accompanyed by Skill and Judgment in 
 Things of Every Sort : nor will the Rhapfodifl: know All- 
 things. 
 
 lo. 
 With an Exception perhaps, Socrates, of Such Sort of: 
 Things. 
 
 Socrat es. 
 By Such Sort of Things, which You are pleafed to ex- 
 cept. You mean fuch Things, as belong to nearly all the 
 other Arts. But, fince the Rhapfodift knows not All things • 
 Pray, what are thofe Things, which he does know .? 
 
 lo. 
 He knows, I prefume, what is proper for a Man to fpeakj 
 and what for a Woman 3 what for a Slave, and what for a 
 
 Free--
 
 70 I O. 
 
 Free-Man ; what for thofe who are under Government or 
 Command, and what for the Governor and the Commander. 
 
 Socrates. 
 For the Commander, do you mean, w^ho has the Com- 
 mand of a Ship at Sea, amidft a Tempeft, what is proper 
 for Him to fpeak, that the Rhapfodifl; will know better than 
 the Mafter of a Ship ? 
 
 lo. 
 Not fo ; for This indeed the Mafter of a Ship will know 
 beft. 
 
 Socrates. 
 For the Governor then, who has the Government of the 
 Sick, what is proper for Such a one to fpeak, will the Rhap- 
 fodift know better than the Phyfician ? 
 
 lo. 
 Not This neither. 
 
 Socrates. 
 But that, which is proper for a Slave, you fay. 
 
 lo. 
 I do. 
 
 SOCR at E S. 
 
 For Inftance now, a Slave, whofe Office it is to keep the 
 Cattle, what is proper for Him to fpeak, when the Herd 
 grows wild and madding, in order to pacify and tame them ; 
 do you fay the Rhapfodift will know This, better than the 
 Cow-keeper ? 
 
 lo.
 
 I O. 71 
 
 lo. 
 No, to be fure. 
 
 Socrates. 
 That, however, which is proper for a Woman to Ipeak ; 
 for a Woman-Weaver now, fuppofe, relating to the Fabrick 
 of Cloth. 
 
 lo. 
 No, no. 
 
 Socrates. 
 But he will know, what is proper for a Man to fpeak, who 
 has the Command of an Army, in order to animate his Men. 
 
 lo. 
 You have it ; Such Sort of Things the Rhapfodifl will 
 know. 
 
 Socrates. 
 What is the Art of Rhapfody then, the Art of com- 
 manding Armys ? 
 
 lo. 
 Truly I "^ fhould know, what Speech is proper for the 
 Commander of an Army. 
 
 Socrat es. 
 
 Becaufe You have, perhaps, the Art of Generalfhip, lo. 
 
 For fuppofe you were fkilled in the Arts of Horfemanihip 
 
 and of Mufick, Both of them, you would be a good 
 
 Judge of What Horfes were well-managed, and would be 
 
 able 
 '* In the printed Editions of the Greek we here read -^^voUv jlv a.^ 
 iyuy whereas certainly we ought to read -^toinv ^sv aV (or tile s/] 
 iya, 2
 
 72 I O. 
 
 able to diftinguiHi them from Such as were managed ill. 
 Now, in that Cafe, were I to afk you this Queflion, By which 
 of your Arts, lo, do you know the well-managed Horfes ? 
 do you know them, thro your Skill in Horfemanfhip, or thro 
 your Skill in Mufick ? What Anfwer would you make me ? 
 
 lo. 
 Thro my Skill in Horfemanfhip, I fliould anfwer. 
 
 Socrates. 
 Again ; when you diftinguifhed rightly the good Per- 
 formers in Mufick, would not you own, that you diftin- 
 guifhed them, by your being fkilled in Mufick ; and not 
 fay it was owing to your Skill in Horfemanlhip ? 
 
 lo. 
 Certainly. 
 
 Socrates. 
 But now that you underftand what belongs to the ^ Com- 
 mand of Armys, whether do you underftand This by means 
 of your Skill in the Art of Generahhip, or as you are an 
 excellent Rhapfodift ? 
 
 lo. 
 There appears to Me no Difference. 
 
 Socrates. 
 What mean you by no Difference ? do you mean, that 
 
 the 
 
 *5 This refers to an Aflcrtion of lo's a little before. It feems necef- 
 fary thercfare in this Place to read <^^aTny'Ka., (as the Senfe alio re- 
 quires,) and not (j-tytTiwr/xct, Military Affairs^ as it is printed, and ac- 
 cordingly tranflatcd by Coj-Jiariiis, and Serr-anui. Ficinus however, Gry- 
 nausy and Bembo agree with Us. 2
 
 I O. 73 
 
 the Art of Rhapfody and the Art of Generalfhip are One 
 and the Same Art ? or do you admit them to be Two dif- 
 ferent Arts ? 
 
 lo. 
 I think they are One Art only. 
 
 Socrates. 
 Whoever then happens to be a good Rhapfodift, the fame 
 Man muft alfo be a good General. 
 
 lo. 
 By all means, Socrates.^ 
 
 Socrates. 
 ** And whoever happens to be a good General, muft He- 
 be a good Rhapfodift too ? 
 
 I o. 
 Thisj I think, does not hold true. 
 
 Socrates. 
 '^ But that other Confequence, you think, will hold 
 true, that whoever is a good Rhapfodift is alfo a good- 
 General. 
 
 lo. 
 Beyond all Doubt. 
 
 Socrates. 
 
 '♦We chafe, here, to tread in the Steps oi Ficinus, deviating from 
 the printed Original, where the Sentence is not Interrogative, but Af- 
 Jirmattve. 
 
 '5 By a ftrange Perverfenefs in the Editors or Printers of the Greek 
 Text, this Sentence is changed mio 2i ^ejlion ; by which means the 
 Humorous Turn of it is half loft. 
 
 K-
 
 74 I O. 
 
 Socrates. 
 Now are not You the moft excellent of all the Greciaa 
 Rhapfodifts ? 
 
 Id. 
 
 Certainly fo, Socrates. 
 
 Socrates^ 
 
 Do You alfo then, lo, excell the reft of the Grecians ia 
 knowing how to command Armys ? 
 
 lo. 
 Be afTured, Socrates, that I do; for I have acquired 
 that Knowlege from the Works of ^ Homer. 
 
 Socrates. 
 
 In the Name of the Gods then, lo, what can be the 
 Meaning, that, excellent as You are above the reft of the 
 
 Grecians, 
 
 *^ The Words of Plato are iZ 'ISti. This was an arrogant Expref- 
 /lon, frequent in the Mouths of the Sophifts. See Plato's Sympofium, 
 In the fame Spirit he here very properly attributes it to lo. Yet Betnbo 
 renders it thus in Italia?:, " Tu il fai bene\' following the Senfe, or 
 rather Nonfenfe, given it by Cortiarius and Serra?ius. 
 
 '7 lo, being driven from all his other Pretenfions to any found Judg- 
 ment, or true Knowlege, in the Works of Hoffier, retires at length to 
 his main Fortrefs, the Opinion of his Knowlege in that Branch of the 
 Kingly Art, whofe Subject is the Command of Armys, He ima- 
 gined, he had attained to this Skill from his being thoroughly verfed 
 in Homer s Iliad, where occur fo many fine Defcriptions of the excel- 
 lent Condu(5l of the Grecian Leaders in the various Exigencys of War. 
 As ridiculous as this Fancy of /c's may feem, it was anciently very com- 
 mon, and not at all wonderfull to find in fuch Men, as know not how 
 to diftinguifii Imitation from Reality, defcribing from teaching, or a deep 
 Sagacity joyned to a lively Imagination from experienced Skill and real 
 Science, 2
 
 I O- 75 
 
 Grecians, both as a General and as a Rhapfodift, you chufe 
 to make your Appearance only in this latter Charadler ; and 
 travel about all over Greece, reciting and expounding, but 
 take not the Command of the Grecian Armys ? Is it bc- 
 caufe you think, the Grecians are in great Need of a Rhap- 
 fodift, or of a Man to repeat Verfes to them with a Golden 
 Crown upon his Head, but have no Occadon at all for a- 
 General ? 
 
 lo. 
 
 The City, which I belong to, Socrates, is under the Go- 
 vernment of Yours, and her Forces are commanded by the 
 Athenians ; therefore She is in no Want of a General. And 
 as to Your City, or that of the Lacedaemonians, Neither of 
 You would appoint Me her General, becaufe You have, 
 Both of you, a high Opinion of your own Sufficiency. I 
 
 Socrates. 
 
 What, my Friend lo, do you not know Apollodorus of 
 Gyzicum.. 
 
 lo. 
 • Which Apollodorus ? 
 
 SocraTes,- 
 ** This Queftion feems flat and unnecefTary, unlefs it be underftood 
 to diflinguilh him from another Apollodorus of the fame City, and in- 
 tended as a fecret Sarcafm on this Other, as not being an able or a 
 worthy Man ; by whom probably is meant That Apollodorus of Cyzi- 
 cum, mentioned by Diog. Laertius in his Ninth Book, who wrote fome 
 Account of the Life of DemocrituSy and feems to have been One of his 
 few immediate Difciples. For the Doftrine of Bemocritus was not con- 
 tinued on after Them^ but dyed, till it was revived again with Improve- 
 
 K. 2 ments-
 
 ,76 
 
 I O. 
 
 SoCRAT ES. 
 
 ' 'Him, whom the Athenians have often appointed to the 
 Command of their Armys, tho a Foreigner. Then there 
 is, befides, Phanofthenes the Andrian, and ^'^ Heraclides of 
 Clazomenae ; upon whom the City, notwithftanding that 
 they are Foreigners, yet becaufe they have ^° approved them- 
 
 felves 
 
 ments by Epicurus. If This be the Perfon hinted at, it confirms the 
 Truth of what Laertius dehvcrs for Certain, the Diilike which Plato 
 had conceived againft the Perfon of Dcmocritus, his Writings, and his 
 Dodrine, extending itfelf naturally to a Piejudice againft his Difcipks. 
 But of This further in our Dijfertation cojicerning the Lije aud Writ- 
 ings of Plato. 
 
 '9 This General is mentioned hy /Elian in his Various Hijlorys, B. 14. 
 
 C. 5. together with Apollodorus of CyzicutJi, and Both of them with 
 
 •fiigh Commendations ; but in fuch a Manner, it muft be owned, as to 
 
 induce a Sufpicion, that he had all his Knowlege of them from this 
 
 Paffage of the lo. 
 
 '° Plato feems to take this Opportunity of exprefllng the Efteem he 
 had for thefe three Commanders -, under whom, 'tis probable, that &- 
 crates had ferved his Country in fome of thofe Campaigns, which he 
 had made with fo much Glory. See Plato's Banquet. This whole Paf- 
 fage, however, is underftood in a very different Senfe hy yltben^eus, B. 1 1. 
 p. 506. who takes this Praife to be ironical : in confequence of which 
 Miftakehe beftows ill Language on Plato, for having here, as he pretends, 
 vilify d thefe Commanders, and thrown a Reflexion upon the City for 
 promoting them : According to the Suppofition therefore oi Athencrus, 
 ihey are introduced here, on Purpofe to depreciate them, and put them 
 on a Level with an ignorant Rhapfodlft. A ftrange Interpretation ! by 
 which is weakened, if not intirely deitroyed, as well the Force of the 
 Argument here ufed by Socrates, as of that Ridicule, with which he all 
 along treats lo. For by fttting him in Comparifon with Commanders 
 vcf real Merit only, could Sdcrates, confiftently with his own Reafon- 
 
 a in^
 
 I O. 77 
 
 felves confiderable and worthy Men, confers the chief Com- 
 mand of her Army, with other Pofts of Power and Govern- 
 ment. And will not the City then beftow her Honours on 
 lo the Ephefian, and appoint Him her General, fhonld he 
 appear a Man valuable, and worthy that Regard ? What ; 
 are not '' You Ephefians originally of Athens ? and then, 
 
 beiides, 
 
 ing, invalidate the Account given by lo, why he was not promoted, in 
 that he was a Foreigner. Since the Argument would be very incon- 
 clufive, if This were fuppofed the Meaning ; " Ton fee hoiv the City 
 " chiifes to prefer a Pack of Fellows, who have no Merit, and are Fo- 
 *' reigners as well as your Self; If Tou theti are truly an expert and abl 
 " General, tho a Foreigner, You may reafonably expe^ a Share in fo in- 
 " judicious a Promotion" And as to the Irony, Socrates is thus made to 
 go out of his Way, and take off the Ridicule from lo, whilft he turns it 
 upon Others. But the Reafoning is juft^ and the Ridicule on lo con- 
 tinued ftrong, upon the contrary Suppofition, exprefled in other Words 
 thus ; " Toiir bei77g a Foreigner can be no Bar to your Prefennent ; let 
 *' not That deter you from fo laudable an Ambition : you fee what Regard 
 " the City pays to Men of Great Ability s, tho born in other Count7yi. 
 *' Let the Succefs therefore of Apollodorus a?id the reft encourage Tou to 
 " offer your felf a Cajididate : for Tou on other Accounts have Jli II fairer 
 " Pretenfons." Were the Point, now in Debate, a Matter to ha de- 
 cided by Authority, to that oi Athemeus we might oppofe that of /Elian, 
 who commends the Compliment, made by Plato in this Paffage, not 
 only to the three foreign Generals, but to the City of Athens at the fame 
 time, for giving her firft Honours to fuperiour Virtue, wherever found 
 without Regard to Birth-Place or to Popular Favour. See /Elian. Var 
 Hift. L. 14. C. 5. 
 
 9' Socrates, having now fufficiently derided the perfonal Arrogance 
 and Ignorance of lo, before he quits him, beflows an Ironical Sarcafm 
 -or two upon the general Vanity of /o's Countrymen ; who, while they 
 ■were funk in Afiatic Luxury and Effeminacv, valued themfelves hio-hlv 
 
 J3
 
 78 I O. 
 
 befides, does Ephefus yield the Preference to Any City In 
 point of Greatnefs ? But the Queftion is about your own 
 Character, lo ; What fliall we think of You ? For if you 
 fpeak Truth, when you fay, that you are able to difplay 
 the Excellencys of Flomer thro your Skill in any Art or 
 Science, you are a Man, who does not adt fairly. For af- 
 ter you had profefled to know many fine Things, from- 
 which you could illuftrate the Works of Homer, and had 
 undertaken to give Me a Specimen of that Knowlege of 
 yours, you deceive and difappoint me : whilft you are fo 
 far from doing as you promifed, and giving me fuch a Spe- 
 cimen, that you will not fo much as inform me. What thofe: 
 Things are, in which you have fo profound a Skill ; and 
 this, notwithflianding I have long preiTed you to tell me :: 
 but abfolutely become, like Proteus, all various and multi- 
 form, changing backwards and forwards, till at lafl you: 
 efcape me, by ftarting up a General ; for Fear, Ifuppofe,, 
 you fhould be driven to difcover, how deep your Wifdom-. 
 is in the Works of Homer. If then you really are an Ar- 
 tift, and when you had promifed to give Me a Specimen of 
 your Art and Knov/lege in Homer, wilfully difappoint me;. 
 
 you 
 
 in the firft place, upon their Defceni from the Aihenians, fo illuftri- 
 ous for Wifdom and Valour, and next on Account of their Opulence 
 and Magnificence ; Circumftances, in Truth, redounding only to their 
 Shame ; yet the ufual Topicks of Boaft, thefe Two, High Defcent and; 
 Outward Greatnefs, whether in Nations or private Perfons, degenerated; 
 from their Ancellors, and void of thofe Virtues, which raifcd Them to 
 that Greatnefs,
 
 I O, 79 
 
 yoii a6l, as I juft now faid, unfairly. If indeed you are not 
 an Artift, but an Enthualiaft, one of thofe, who from Di- 
 vine Allotment are infpired by Homer ; and thus, without 
 any real Knowlege, are able to utter Abundance of fine 
 Words about the Writings of that Poet, agreeably to the 
 Opinion, which I had of you before ; in this Cale you arc 
 not guilty of any unfair Dealing. Chufe then. Whether 
 of thefe two Opinions you would have me entertain of you ; 
 whether This, that you are a Man, who ads unfairly ; or 
 this Other, that you are a Man under the Influence of fome 
 Divinity. 
 
 lo. 
 
 Great is the Difference, O Socrates : 'tis certainly much 
 the better Thing, to be deemed under Divine Influence. 
 
 Socrates. 
 
 This better Thing then, lo, is with You, to be deemed 
 by Us, in your Encomiums upon Homer, '' an Enthuflaft, 
 and not an Artift. 
 
 9* In this laft Speech of Socrates the double Defign of the lo is very 
 plainly unfolded : for an Account of which more at large we refer to 
 our ylrgumerit of this Dialogue,
 
 I 
 
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