been fo feverely cenfured as Perfius*. Several of the most celebrated among modern critics have given an unfavourable opinion of him: and indeed perfpicuity is fo indifpenfibly requifite in all compofition, that a work totally defiitute of it must be greatly reprehenfible. But it is certain that Perfius, whether from fear, as fome think, or from a defect in judgment, as others believe, is fingularly obfcure. Bayle calls him the Lycophron of Latin poets.

This obfcurity has excited the indignation of many, who have attempted, without fuccefs, to develope his latent meaning; and S. Hieronymus is faid to have thrown his book into the fire with refentment, and with this exclamation, Si non vis intelligi, non debes legi.

If I might venture, after fo much has been faid on the fubject, to advance my opinion, I would exprefs it in the following imperfet Sketch of his character:

The want of perfpicuity in Perfius can never be defended. For what is the use of writing, if it communicates no ideas? But yet I cannot think Perfius totally deftitute of merit as feveral have affirmed. He poffeffes the acer fpiritus ac vis in a great degree. Vivacity is his diftinguishing characteristic.

He

Satiricus fæpe plufquam ferreus, imo faxeus; nam fatirica ejus dicti fupra modum horrida eft, et Juvenali, ætate licet inferiori, poftponenda. Morkoff

Sequitur Horatium Perfius, qui idem interjectus eft, et tanquam medius inter ætates hujus et Juvenalis: de quo cum tam honorifice video prædicari et a Quintiliano et Martiale: miror quidem, quod ifti tale ac tantum fex in fatiris deprehenderint, quod nos tam longo intervallo, ne fufpicione quidem affecuti fumus.... Nec tamen occurrit quidquam Perfianum, quod laudem a nobis præcipuam, nedum admirationem, magnopere efflagitet. Nam mihi quidem, ut verum dicam, nibil le offert infignius ipsá obfcuritate feriptoris, ex quâ fortaffe nata eft opinio eruditionis et doctrine... In quam obfcuritatem, fi auctor incidit imprudens, magnum vitium: fi de induftria quæfivit ; non apparet cur plerique fcripta mirentar, quæ non intelligunt, aut cur fcriptorem laudent, qui intelligi noluit.... Jofephus Scaliger miferrimum auctorem Perfius dixit, qui ftudeat obscuritati, et qui minime pulchra habeat ipfe, cum in eum poffunt fcribi pulcherrima. Vavafo.

Neque ignotum eft quod paffim narratur de S. Hieronymo, qui non capiens ejus tenebras intellecturis ignibus illa dedit, abjectoque libro, dixit "fi non," &c. Erneftus.

Perfii ftylus morofus; et ille ineptus; qui eum legi vellet quæ fcripfiffet; intelligi noluit quæ leguntur. Julius Scaliger.

He is animated even to rage, and he communicates the flame to his intelligent reader. He is not deftitute of ftrong expreffions and fentiments equally manly and just. He convinces his reader that he is in earnest. The last lines of the fecond fatire are among the most beautiful reliques of antiquity. Never was a better fentiment expreffed in ftronger language. Indeed I am not fure that thefe lines are not worth all the reft. It cannot be denied that there are in every part of Perfius marks of Juvenility.

Ca

Perfius was an imitator of Horace's phrase ; yet nothing can be more unlike the Horatian manner. Horace approaches bis patient with all the gentleness of a polite phyfician; Perfius treats him with the roughness of au executioner. faubon in his Perfiana Horatii Imitatio, has pointed out feveral paffages which are doubtless imitations of Horace, but he has mentioned others which are but cafual coincidences. I cannot but wish that Perfius had chofen to imitate the polite manner of Horace, rather than to have ftolen a few of his expressions only, which in the bands of Perfius lofe their grace.

As Perfius is confeffedly the obfcureft among the Roman claffics, and as he is alfo juftly reprehended for a tumour and a harshness of manner, I should not have inferted his fatires in a SCHOOL Book from choice. I cannot recommend them as particularly adapted to boys; but Perfius has ufually been added to Juvenal, and the book would have been confidered by many as inexcufeably defective, if the general example bad not been followed.

To

There is a fpirit of fincerity in all he fays. You may easily difcern that he is in earneft, and perfuaded of that truth which he inculcates. Dryden.

+ Qui liber (Perfi) etfi obscuritate et reconditis fenfibus eft plerumque refertus, nihilominus boris eft annumerandus au&toribus. Lilius Gyraldus. Ignofcendum Perfio quod et crebris et audacioribus utatur translationibus. Nam, uti animus, ita dictio nobliffimi Juvenis grandia tantum fpectabat, affius.

Magna vis eft obfcurarum rerum etiam poft commentationes tot doctiffimorum hominum apud Perfium, ita ille farciendis multis in pauca verba in anivit. Barthius.

With refpect to the labour beftowed by the commentators in explaining Peries, a French writer fays,-On peut dire neaumoins que leur travail n'a pas été entierement inutile, puis qu'il a fervi du moins a faire connoitre le peu de marite de leur auteur.

To obviate the inconvenience of peculiar difficulty, I have Jubjoined to Perfius, the tranflation of Brewster. To an au thor whom the greatest critics have found it difficult to underftand, it is certainly not improper to affix fuch an illustration, though in general it is not to be approved. Brewster underfood Perfius much better than Dryden, and has rendered his meaning more accurately. Indeed fuch are the obfcurities of Perfius, that a few short notes could not poffibly illuftrate him fufficiently; and a prolix comment was inconfiftent with the defign of this publication. I know no method by which I could affift the young reader fo effectually, as by fubjoining what may be called a paraphrafe or perpetual commentaryz and though I am an enemy to literal tranflations, and indeed to all tranflations in fchools, when the original is easy, yet in the prefent cafe, where the author prefented to school boys has perplexed the most fagacious fcholars, I was of opinion, that a paraphraftic tranflation, like Brewster's, was not only an allowable, but the most defirable method of illuftration. I have enly to add on the fubject of Perfius, for the information of the mere learner, that he was confiderably prior in time to Juvenal, though his work is ufually placed at the end of the volume; a circumftance, which at firft fight, has induced young readers thoughtlessly to conclude that Juvenal was the earlier.

I proceed to the confideration of Juvenal; who, though he appeared at a very late period, and in an age rather unfavourable to the cultivation of poetry, exhibits more of its true fpirit than Perfius and feveral others who preceded him. Quintilian is fuppofed to allude to Juvenal, when he says, Sunt clari hodie quoque et qui olim nominabuntur.

Juvenal writes with the morofe, yet honeft fincerity of a rigid philofopher. His fentiments are fingularly bold, and bis diction approaches to the declamatory. He has little delicacy, but he abounds with mafculine beauty. Every part of his fatires breathes a noble indignation §. It cannot be denied

that

Juvenalis haud paulo quam Horatius et Perfius elatior et fonantior; graviores ponderofiorefque fententiæ; et joci amariores; flomachus in infolentiam

that his fyle partook of the corruption of the age, but yet it is always ftrikingly expreffi ve, and often elegant, beautiful and pure. Its diftinguishing character is a Force, a Fire, a Nerve, which never fails to excite and animate the reader. There is often a manly mufic in this verfe, and a luminous colouring of expreffion, which renders many paffages, truly poetical. He has always maintained an honourable place among the claffics, and has been a favourite author in the best schools of England as well as among claffical scholars in their libraries.

Indeed the fine morality of his writings, has recommended him no less than his merit as a writer. It has often been compared to the pureft philofophy of Seneca and Epidetus, and there is a fublimity in it which nearly approaches to the evangelical. It is well known that a bishop, whofe virtues and abilities adorned this nation, recommended the perufal of Juvenal to the clergy as a very proper part of their studies preparatory to divinity. And if any have objected to the reading of Juvenal at Schools, I apprehend their objection arose from the exceptionable passages, and not from a perfuafion that his work, in general, is unfit for the perufal of learners. I will not however affert that his gold is fo pure and unmixed with alloy, as that of writers who flourished in the age of Auguftus.

Learners

infolentium hominum indignitatem faftidiofior. Cujus non oculi, non aures ferre perditos civitatis nores qreant, meditatur ipfe et adornet fugam in ultimas terrarum oras, ubi ne Romanum quidem nomen exaudiat: interim incurrat in quemvis obvium, et profternat et conculcet : non modo figat aculeis aut morfu frangat. Vavafor.

Juvenalis ardet, inftat, aperte jugelat. Julius Scaliger.

In taxandis moribus, noftrorum patrum memoriâ, primum locum habere putabatur adeo, ut is tunc doctior exiftimaretur, qui plures ejus verfu memoriter recitaret. Lil. Gyraldus.

Jucunda et utilis Juvenalis evolutio futura eft: continet enim multas graves, et utiles fententias, optimis verbis, et genere quodam dicendo falfo, feftivo, hilari, et ut ita dicam, vivido, quod huic poetæ proprium ac perpetuum eft, celebratas. Muretus.

"The fatirical poets, Horace, Juvenal and Perfius, may contribute wonderfully to give a man a deteftation of vice and a contempt of the common methods of mankind; which they have fet out in fuch true colours, that they must give a very generous fenfe to those who delight in reading them often. Perfius's fecond fatire may well pafs for one of the best lectures in divinity." Barnet's Paftoral Care.

Learners fhould be inftructed to distinguish with taste between the language of Juvenal and that of Horace and Virgil. I am attached to Juvenal, but I will avoid the common exaggeration of editors, who extol the author whom they publi beyond the limits of truth and impartiality.

But in the midst of the encomium of Juvenal on the topic of morality, it is neceffary to paufe. The reader is ready to exclaim against the juftice of it; and I wish it had been poffible to affirm that his boafted morality as well as his diction is not greatly depreciated by a base mixture.

Every man of fenfe, virtue and delicacy has lamented, that in the freedom of fatirical invective, he has made use of expreffions, and introduced paffages, which cannot be read by the young and inexperienced without injury †. No arguments are required to prove how pernicious to the morals must be an acquaintance with crimes at an early age, of which it would be bappy if men could be preferved in a state of total ignorance during their lives. Many mafters have probably dismissed Juvenal from their fchools, because they could not retain him confiftently with one of the jufteft of his own obfervations, "That the greatest decency is to be observed in the presence of boys." The poet himself, if he were confiftent, would repro

bate

It has been faid in defence of Juvenal that he imitates the old comedy in the lincentioufnefs of his expreffion :

Quod ad genus fatiræ attinet, in eâ imitatus eft comediam Græcam antiquam et dum voluit vitia invifa reddere, afperius atque etiam obfcenius fcripfit, neque enim amore obfcenitatis fcripfit, &c. Fabricius. His imitation, it must he owned, was too clofe. When we fee imitation carried fo far, we may justly exclaim, O imitatores, fervum pecus.

+ "Alterum eft non minoris pretii preceptum; ut, ne dum vitia infectamur, eas ponamus voces, e quibus qui legunt, evadunt deteriores; nam fane fœditates nemo bonus nominare debet, nedum ut literis mandet. Quid enim cogitet adolefcens, qui certarum ignarus obfcænitatum, audiat verba aut vocabula tam nefanda? quam monftrofo funt ingenio ii qui ea fcriptis fuis audent inferere? Malo igitur non reprehendere vitia deteftanda, quam in execrandâ oratione mereri reprehenfionem. Siquis igitur aliena peccata infectatur: ea modeftia utatur ne foum librum efficiat eo nequiorem de quo verba facit. Quid enim tetrius quibufdam verfibus Juvenalis, propter quorum infolentiam, VEL JUS

SERIM VEL OPTARIM TOTA OPERA ABSTINERE VIRUM PRO

BUM." Scaliger.

4