Page:A Dissertation on Reading the Classics and Forming a Just Style.djvu/67

and Humour, Variety of Characters, Plot and Contrivance in his Plays.

Virgil has been so often compared with Homer, and the Merits of those Poets so often canvassed, that I shall only say, that if the Roman shines not in the Grecian's Flame and Fire, 'tis the Coolness of his Judgment rather than the Want of Heat. Your Lordship will generally find the Force of a Poet's Genius, and the Strength of his Fancy display themselves in the Descriptions they give of Battles, Storms, Prodigies, &c. and Homer's Fire breaks out on these Occasions in more Dread and Terror: But Virgil mixes