Our poet had not been long at fea, e're he was taken fo ill, that Meffala was obliged to put him afhore in Phæacia: in this ifland, fo famous for the gardens of Alcinous, and for the falubrity of its air, he foon recovered; and, reimbarking, overtook Meffala in Greece. On his return, he found his, Delia married; yet he still continued his addreffes to her; and, in a fit of jealous resentment, let her husband into the knowlege of his intrigue; which, no doubt, put an end to it. Soon after, viz. A. U. C. 726, Aquitaine having revolted, and Meffala being fent to reduce that country, Tibullus went with him, and behaved fo well, that he was rewarded with military honours. Whether Tibullus made any more campaigns, is uncertain; probably he did not; but rather devoted his hours to the more pleafing purfuits of love and poetry. He was fucceffively enamoured of Neæra, and Nemefis; and was jilted by both. His ill-luck in his amours, at length, fo far difgufted him, that renouncing his attachment to Venus, he bent all his thoughts to the care of his eftate, the ftudy of philofophy, and the extension of his acquaintance and friendships with wife and learned men. His focial and literary connexions now became numerous; for this was an age when good writing of all kinds, efpecially poetry, had rifen to an extraordinary degree of perfection, and was in the higheft efteem. Many caufes, both phyfical and moral, contributed to its advancement. Rome was then the flourishing capital of the greatest empire that ever exifted in the world; and its citizens enjoyed a tranquillity, the more defirable, as, from their bloody civil wars, it had long been unknown to them. But though they rejoiced at the fhutting the temple of Janus, they were ftill Romans, and retained a deep-rooted antipathy to the dominion of ONE. It therefore behoved Auguftus to endeavour, by every art, to reconcile his new fubjects to his new authority; and, by the infinuating charms of peace, to foften the ruggedness of their natures. This the emperor knew and practifed; nor, perhaps, was his conduct merely political: he really loved the mufes, and was beloved by them. So many circumstances thus uniting for the cultivation of genius, it is the less furprizing that a Virgil and a Horace sprung up, and that poetry, warmed by the genial beams of courtfunfhine, fhould produce fuch excellent fruits. But though Greece had brought forth nothing equal to the Georgics of Virgil, nothing of the fame nature with the fatires, nor any thing fuperior to the odes, of Horace; though Ovid in his his Medea, and Varius in his Thyeftes, had improved the Roman drama, till it became a powerful rival to the Greek—yet the age of Auguftus could not, in all refpects, be compared to that of Alexander, as the Roman genius had not yet frequented the myrtle folitudes of elegy. Tibullus faw this, and moved alfo by the native tenderness of his difpofition, he devoted himfelf almoft entirely to the plaintive mufe. He foon surpassed his mafters in this fpecies of poetry; and, in the opinion of the beft judges, has not fince been equalled by any elegiac poet, either for the genuine tenderness of his thoughts, or the easy correctness of his verfification. But if, in these refpects, our elegant Roman is without a competitor, we must grant, that both Propertius and Ovid exceed him in copiousness of invention; for if we take from Tibullus his praifes of the country, his aversion to war, his complaints of female falfhood and venality, and his descriptions of rural devotions, we leave him few thoughts behind: and as his elegies are all of the plaintive kind, there is a more frequent recurrence of the fame thought in them than in either of the other two elegiac poets. How little does Tibullus then deserve the character of an original, as moft critics have affected to ftile him? Yet if truth obliges us to deny him that honour, juftice will make him full amends by her teftimony in favour of his judgment:-in which even the critical Horace himself repofed fuch confidence, that to his correction he fubmitted his poems: as he himself informs us in a beautiful epiftle to our poet. Albi noftrorum fermonum candide judex, &c. Some commentators, and others, notwithstanding the exprefs teftimony of Horace in this very epiftle, and notwithstanding many paffages in Tibullus's own poems to the contrary, infift, that having exhaufted a large patrimonial estate by his youthful extravagancies, he was forced to retire to the country, where he supported himself by writing verfes. This opinion, fo disadvantageous to the memory of his favourite poet, our Translator has fully refuted; for the Doctor juftly imputes the great diminution of his fortune, as hath already been obferved, to the ill fuccefs of the party to which, in his early youth, he had attached himself. Rich, indeed, he was not, if we compare his circumftances with those of his forefathers; yet neither his impaired fortune, nor his friendship for Meffala, could ever induce Tibullus to part with his independency. Nay, while Virgil wrote his Eneid, purposely to reconcile the Romans to monarchical government; while Horace, and other bards, addreffed Auguftus as a deity, in their poems, Tibullus, never deviating from his political principles, does not once mention either that emperor or Mæcenas. On the contrary, if Dr. Grainger's conjectures conjectures are well founded, and they feem to carry as much certainty as matters of this kind commonly admit, Tibullus obliquely oppofed a favourite plan which Auguftus formed for transferring the feat of empire from Rome to Troy: and perhaps it is not paying the fifth elegy of the fecond book too great a compliment, to fay, that it had a confiderable fhare in deterring the Emperor from his projected innovation. As a patriot then, his Tranflator deems Tibullus unrivalled; and he is perfectly enthufiaftic in his eulogies on him, in this refpect. Thus, beloved by the beft, and admired by all, Tibullus enjoyed every advantage that birth, merit, competence, and philoTophy could afford. His death is fuppofed to have happened about the time of Virgil's deceafe, viz. in the year of Rome 735. At least it appears from the following lines of a cotemporary Epigrammatift, that Tibullus was the firft Poet of eminence who died after the great Author of the Æneid. Te quoque Virgilio comitem, non æqua Tibulle! Ne foret aut Elegis molles qui fleret amores; Nor was Marfus the only Poet who lamented the death of Tibullus; Ovid has immortalized both himself and his friend, by a beautiful elegy which he compofed to his memory. Of this poem Dr. Grainger has inferted a good tranflation, by a friend. We must request the patience of our Readers, till the publication of the next Review, for an examination of the merit of our Tranflator's verfion. This matter is fully difcuffed in the notes to the fifth elegy of the fecond book. Lectures concerning Oratory. Delivered in Trinity College, Dublin, by John Lawfon, D. D. Lecturer in Oratory and History, on the foundation of Erafmus Smith, Efq; 8vo. 5s. Davis and Reymers. IN N these Lectures we have the late * Dr. Lawfon's fentiments on a great variety of fubjects, that have been frequently treated of by fome of the beft Writers, both antient and modern. Those who are converfant with fuch fubjects, will find that the Doctor has scarce advanced any thing new upon them, and that his file is not always well fuited to the dignity of his fubject. His lan The Doctor died at Dublin but a few weeks ago; and the news of his disease did not arrive in England, till after this article was drawn up. guage, though clear and ftrong, is fometimes inelegant; and his periods often harfh and unharmonious. His obfervations, however, are generally juft; his method is easy and natural; and he has difplayed no inconfiderable fhare of learning. But we shall lay fome few quotations before our Readers, together with a general view of what is contained in the work, and thus enable them to judge for themselves. The first lecture confifts of fome general introductory obfervations, concerning the excellence of eloquence, &c. in the clofe of it the Author makes a little excurfion into metaphyfics, and enquires into the meaning of the word Tafte; with what fuccefs, the following extract, without any comment upon it, will fufficiently fhew. • If I understand rightly, fays he, the Authors who treat of taste, they represent it as a diftinct faculty of the mind, that as the understanding judgeth of truth and falfhood in fcience, so doth taste of what is beautiful or otherwife in the polite arts; it is here the umpire and fole judge. Now it hath been laid down as an axiom, and is not, I think difputed, that no more caufes are to be admitted than fuch as are real, and fufficient to produce the effect. If then, the known faculties of the mind. fuffice to this end which is afcribed to tafte, why fhould we fuppofe the existence of this latter? We must reject it as altogether imaginary. And that they do thus fuffice, I apprehend to be clearly the cafe. For proof of which, run over in your own minds the feveral arts, poefy, eloquence, mufic, painting, architecture; then afk, "Is there any thing in thefe, which I may not conceive to be produced by genius, directed by a good understanding, improved in the manner above mentioned; by judicious applicátion?" I know not any: proportion, harmony, variety, novelty, beauty, and if there be any other excellence, may be all accounted for from thefe caufes. Genius and understanding we know to be real caufes, exifting in nature, and we find them to be fufficient; what then is tafte? Conceived as a faculty diftinct from them, is it any thing but a mere name? If thefe, genius and underftanding have produced, it follows, that they fuffice to judge of thefe arts. Diftributed in different degrees, they produce and judge: a great degree of genius makes the excellent artift; a lefs, joined with good understanding, forms the accurate critic. From whence you fee the reafon, why the deepest mathematician, however juft his understanding, may be a very incompetent judge of poefy, or eloquence: genius is wanting: which reafoning may be extended to the other arts. It deferveth particularly to be noted, that this realizing the imaginary faculty of tafte, began indeed in the arts: yet it did not remain confined to them; the infection fpread farther, was received into the affairs of common life, into modes and drefs; nay, it caught even the philofophers; it became the great ftandard of manners; and we have seen a certain inward sense; a moral taste, made the fource of duty and obligation; it may be feared with worse effects; as it is more dangerous to refolve manners, the art of living well, than other arts, into chimerical, at leaft refined metaphyfical principles. My answer then to the question propofed, "Do I allow of the use of the term Tafte," is direct. I do, as a complex term, expreffing the refult of "genius and understanding, improved by due application;" in which fenfe you fee it is the fame with the qualities before mentioned; but in what I take to be the ufual fuppofition, as a diftinct principle from the understanding, as an independent legiflator, I cannot fee any reafon for admitting its exiftence, and I think the use of it hath caufed much. obfcurity, and fome mistake.' The fecond lecture contains the hiftory of the rife and progrefs of eloquence among the antients; the third, an abstract of Aristotle's rhetoric, and of Cicero's treatife concerning the Orator, with a comparison of these two tracts. It will not, perhaps, be difpleafing to the learned Reader, to fee the parallel which the Doctor draws between thefe two celebrated perfor mances. "In each of these tracts,' fays he, we behold ftrongly expressed the character of the Writer. The Greek fpeaks itself the work of an Author turned to fpeculation, one of fevere ftudy and intenfe thought, a genius fubtile, penetrating, and profound. The Latin difcovers the hand of a Writer long in high office, polished by converfation and commerce with the Great, a genius rich, agreeable, and delicate. The one is ftrong, grave, and clofe; the other eloquent, eafy, and copious. That addreffes himself to reafon alone; this calleth in the affiftance of imagination. You may liken Ariftotle's book to a vaft magazine, compleatly furnished with all materials and inftruments useful to an orator, all difpofed in the most exact order; yet their very abundance produces a feeming diforder; and in this profufion of treasure, where no fpace remains unpoffeffed, things most valuable feem piled up negligently, as if vulgar and ordinary: Cicero's is a much fmaller ftore, and for the moft part fupplied from the other; but he has polifhed every thing to fo high a luftre, and hath ranged them with fuch fkill, that they appear in REV. Nov. 1759. F the |