But as I can say nothing new to you on any subject you you razin, is as remarkable for its wit as for the naïve simplicity of its language: Lorsqu' Adam vit cette jeune beauté Faite pour lui d'une main immortelle, S'il aima fort, elle de son coté Dont bien nous prend, ne lui fut pas cruelle. Mes chers amis, alors en vérité Je crois qu'il fut une femme fidelle; Mais comme quoi ne l'auroit elle été ? Elle n'avoit qu'un seul homme avec elle. Or, en cela nous nous trompons tous deux, CHAP. III. BOOK I. Hamilton of you with these letters than Burlington could in sending you originals of Raphael.- But judge yourself, and return them by the first opportunity; for I am not yet certain whether I can come your way. If I can, you may be sure I will; since I should lay in pleasure enough with you to entertain me all the rest of my journey.—I blotted out the names in the letters, and may mine be so served in the Book of Life, if I don't wish your happiness, as I do that of JAMES FORRESTER." . With the elegant and accomplished WILLIAM HAMILTON of Bangour, whose amiable manners were long remembered with the tenderest recollection by all who knew him, Mr Home lived in the closest habits of friendship. The writer of these Memoirs has heard him dwell with delight on the scenes of their youthful days; and he has to regret, that many an anecdote to which he listened with pleasure, was not committed to a better record than a treacherous. memory. Hamilton's mind is pictured in his verses. They are the easy and careless effusions of an elegant fancy and a chastened taste; and the sentiments they convey are the genuine feelings of a tender and susceptible heart, which perpetually owned the dominion of some favourite mistress; but whose passion generally evaporated in song, and made no serious or permanent impression. His poems had an additional charm to his cotemporaries, from being commonly addressed to his familiar friends of either sex There are few minds insensible to the soothsex, by name. ing flattery of a poet's record. I question whether his friend Home was ever more highly gratified by the applause he gained for his talents on the success of a legal argument, than by the elegant lines addressed by Hamilton, To H. H. in the Assembly. Hamilton's letters are, like his verses, the transcript of his feelings. Mr Home had sent him a few remarks on Horace ; of the same tenor, as it would seem, with those observations which, many years afterwards, he gave to the world in his Elements of Criticism*. In a letter, dated September 1738, to CHAP. III "In Horace there is no fault more eminent than want of connexion: in stances are without number. In the first fourteen lines of Ode 7. lib. i. he " mentions several towns and districts which by some were relished more "than "VOL. I. I BOOK I. to Mr Home, then passing the autumn vacation at Kames, Hamilton thus writes: "I am entirely of your opinion with respect to your observations on Horace. He certainly wanders from his text, "than others in the remainder of the Ode, Plancus is exhorted to drown his "cares in wines. Having narrowly escaped death by the fall of a tree, the poet takes occasion properly to observe, (lib. ii. Ode 13.), that while we "guard against some dangers, we are exposed to others we cannot foresee: “he ends with displaying the power of music. The parts of Ode 16. lib. ii. "are so loosely connected, as to disfigure a poem otherwise extremely beau"tiful. The 1st, 2d, 3d, 4th, 11th, 24th, 27th Odes of the 3d book, lie open, "all of them, to the same censure. The first satire, Book i. is so deformed by want of connexion, as upon the whole to be scarce agreeable: It com"mences with an important question, How it happens that people, though "much satisfied with themselves, are seldom so with their rank or condition? "After illustrating the observation in a sprightly manner by several ex"amples, the author, forgetting his subject, enters upon a declamation against "avarice, which he pursues till the line 108: there he makes an apology for wandering, and promises to return to his subject; but avarice having got "possession of his mind, he follows out that theme to the end, and never re"turns to the question proposed in the beginning."-Elements of Criticism, vol. i. ch. 1. 66 This censure of Lord Kames has given occasion to an ingenious vindication of the poet by C. D. JANI of Leipzig, who, in his excellent edition of the Odes of Horace, has shown, that the apparent want of connexion which the English critic has remarked, and which has been noticed by Dacier and others of the, commentators, arises from not taking into view the historical circumstances text, but still they are the wanderings of Horace. Why we are never contented with our lot, but still envy the condition of others, was a noble subject; and it were to be wished he had adorned it, as well he could, from his own experience; satisfied, as he seems to have been, with his own pursuits, and the fame they had acquired him. Let me put Horace's question to myself, Why don't I acquiesce in the determination of Heaven, to which I have myself so much contributed? Why don't I rest contented with I 2 that, CHAP. III. which gave occasion to the several odes thus censured; whence their scope and tendency, and the connexion of their parts, have not been fully perceived. Thus, in the first of the odes alluded to, lib. i. Ode 7. when we are informed, that Plancus, from grief at losing the favour of Augustus, to whom his versatile and intriguing temper had become suspected, had determined to leave his beautiful villa at Tibur, quit Italy, and retire to some of the Grecian cities or isles, we discern immediately the whole connexion of the ode, and admire the art and delicacy of the poet, who, in this elegant composition, endeavours to dissuade his friend from his purpose, and prevail with him to abandon a public life, and devote his time to social enjoyments in his beautiful retreat on the banks of the Anio. With similar ingenuity and judgment, the learned commentator removes the ground of Lord Kames's censure of the other odes above mentioned. The edition of Horace's Odes by Jani, is entitled to the highest praise. It is not the work of one of those dull commentators, qui acumen frigidum pro nisu poëtico, delicatulas subtilitates pro ingressu ingenii, artem rhetoricam et grammaticam pro poëtica intulerint,—copiosi scilicet et ad fastidium docti; but of a kindred genius, who feels the true spirit of his author, kindles with his enthusiasm, and sympathizes with his tone of mind in all its varied emotions. It is much to be regretted, that this valuable edition has never been completed, extending no farther than to the four books of Odes. |