LETTER XXI. From Mr. CROMWELL, Nov. 5, 1710. Find I am obliged to the fight of your loveverfes, for your opinion of my fincerity; which had never been call'd in question, if you had not forced me, upon fo many other occafions to express my esteem. a I have just read and compar'd Mr. Row's verfion of the ixth of Lucan, with very great pleasure, where I find none of thofe abfurdities fo frequent in that of Virgil, except in two places, for the fake of lafhing the priests; one where Cato fays---Sortilegis egeant dubii---and one in the fimile of the Hæmorrhois---fatidici Sabai-He is fo errant a whig, that he strains even beyond his author, in paffion for liberty, and averfion to tyranny; and errs only in amplification. Lucan ix in initio, defcribing the feat of the Semidei manes, says, Quodque patet terras inter lunæque meatus, Semidei manes habitant. Mr. Row has this Line, Then looking down on the Sun's feeble Ray. a Pieces printed in the 6th vol. of Tonfon's Mifcellanies. P. Pray Pray your opinion, if there be an Error-Sphæ ricus in this or no? Your, &c. LETTER XXII. Nov. 11, 1710. You OU mistake me very much in thinking the freedom you kindly us'd with my love-verses, gave me the first opinion of your fincerity: I affure you it only did what every good-natur❜d action of yours has done fince, confirm'd me more in that opinion. The fable of the nightingale in Philips's paftoral, is taken from Famianus Strada's Latin poem on the fame fubject, in his Prolufiones Academica; only the tomb he erects at the end, is added from Virgil's conclufion of the Culex. I can't forbear giving you a paffage out of the Latin poem I mention, by which you will find the English poet is indebted to it. Alternat mira arte fides: dum torquet acutas, Fræbet iter liquidem labenti e pectore voci, This poem was many years fince imitated by Crafhaw, out of whose verses the following are very remarkable. From this to that, from that to this he flies, I have (as I think I formerly told you) a very good opinion of Mr. Row's ixth book of Lucan: Indeed he amplifies too much, as well as Brebœuf, the famous French imitator. If I . remember right, he fometimes takes the whole comment into the text of the version, as particularly in lin. 808. Utque folet pariter totis fe effundere fignis Corycii preffura croci.---And in the place you quote, he makes of those two lines in the Latin, Vidit quanta fub nocte jaceret Noftra dies, rifitque fui ludibria trunci, no less than eight in English. What you obferve, fure, cannot be an ErrorSphæricus, ftrictly speaking, either in the Ptolemaic, or our Copernican fyftem; Tycho Brahe himself will be on the tranflator's fide. For For Mr. Row here fays no more, than that he look'd down on the rays of the fun, which Pompey might do, even tho' the body of the fun were above him. ney You can't but have remarked what a jour Lucan here makes Cato take for the fake of his fine descriptions. From Cyrene he travels by land, for no better reafon than this; Hæc eadem fuadebat hiems, quæ clauferat æquor. The winter's effects on the fea, it feems, were more to be dreaded than all the serpents, whirlwinds, fands, &c. by land, which immediately after he paints out in his fpeech to the foldiers : Then he fetches a compass a vaft way round about, to the Nafamones and Jupiter Ammon's temple, purely to ridicule the oracles: and Labienus must pardon me, if I do not believe him when he fays--fors obtulit, & fortuna viæ--either Labienus or the map, is very much miftaken here. Thence he returns back to the Syrtes (which he might have taken firft in his way to Utica) and fo to Leptis Minor, where our author leaves him; who seems to have made Cato speak his own mind, when he tells his army--Ire fat eft--no matter whither. I am, Your, &c. LETTER K 3 TH LETTER XXIII. From Mr. CROMWELL. Nov. 20, 1710. HE fyftem of Tycho Brahe (were it true, as it is novel) could have no room here: Lucan with the rest of the Latin poets, feems to follow Plato; whose order of the spheres is clear in Cicero, De natura Deorum, De fomnio Scipionis, and in Macrobius. The feat of the Semidei manes is Platonic too, for Apuleius De deo Socratis affigns the fame to the Genii, viz. the region of the Air for their intercourse with gods and men; fo that, I fancy, Rowe mistook the fituation, and I can't be reconcil'd to, Look down on the fun's rays. I am glad you agree with me about the latitude he takes; and wish you had told me, if the fortilegi, and fatidici, could license his invective against priests; but, I fuppofe you think them (with Helena), undeferving of your protection. I agree with you in Lucan's errors, and the cause of them, his poetic descriptions: for the Romans then knew the coast of Africa from Cyrene (to the foutheast of which lies Ammon toward Egypt) to Leptis and Utica: but, pray, remember how your Homer nodded while Ulyffes flept, and |