NUMB. 58. SATURDAY, May 25, 1753. Damnant quod non intelligunt. CIC. They condemn what they do not understand. E URIPIDES, having prefented Socrates with the writings of Heraclitus, a philofopher famed for involution and obfcurity, inquired afterwards his opinion of their merit. "What I understand," faid Socrates, "I find to be excellent; and, therefore, be"lieve that to be of equal value which I cannot "understand." The reflection of every man who reads this paffage will fuggeft to him the difference between the practice of Socrates, and that of modern criticks; Socrates, who had, by long obfervation upon himself and others, difcovered the weakness of the ftrongest, and the dimnefs of the most enlightened intellect, was afraid to decide haftily in his own favour, or to conclude that an author had written without meaning, because he could not immediately catch his ideas; he knew that the faults of books are often more juflly imputable to the reader, who fometimes wants attention, and fometimes penetration; whose understanding is often obftructed by prejudice, and often diffipated by remiffness; who comes fometimes to a new ftudy, unfurnished with knowledge previously neceffary; and finds difficulties infuper able able, for want of ardour fufficient to encounter them. Obscurity and clearness are relative terms: to some readers fcarce any book is eafy, to others not many are difficult and surely they, whom neither any exuberant praise bestowed by others, nor any eminent conquefts over ftubborn problems, have entitled to exalt themselves above the common orders of mankind, might condefcend to imitate the candour of Socrates; and where they find inconteftible proofs of fuperior genius, be content to think that there is justness in the connection which they cannot trace, and cogency in the reasoning which they cannot comprehend, This diffidence is never more reasonable than in the perufal of the authors of antiquity; of those whofe works have been the delight of ages, and tranfmitted as the great inheritance of mankind from one generation to another: furely, no man can, without the utmost arrogance, imagine that he brings any fuperiority of understanding to the perufal of these books which have been preserved in the devaftation of cities, and fnatched up from the wreck of nations; which those who fled before barbarians have been careful to carry off in the hurry of migration, and of which barbarians have repented the destruction. If in books thus made venerable by the uniform atteftation of fucceffive ages, any paffages fhall appear unworthy of that praise which they have formerly received, let us not immediately determine, that they owed their reputation to dullness or bigotry; but fufpect at least that our ancestors had fome reafons for their opinions, and and that our ignorance of those reasons makes us differ from them. It often happens that an author's reputation is endangered in fucceeding times, by that which raifed the loudeft applaufe among his cotemporaries: nothing is read with greater pleafure than allufions to recent facts, reigning opinions, or present controverfies; but when facts are forgotten, and controverfies extinguifhed, thefe favourite touches lofe all their graces; and the author in his descent to posterity must be left to the mercy of chance, without any power of afcertaining the memory of those things, to which he owed his luckiest thoughts and his kindest reception. On fuch occafions, every reader should remember the diffidence of Socrates, and repair by his candour the injuries of time; he should impute the feeming defects of his author to fome chafm of intelligence, and fuppofe that the fense which is now weak was once forcible, and the expreffion which is now dubious formerly determinate. How much the mutilation of ancient hiftory has taken away from the beauty of poetical performances, may be conjectured from the light which a lucky commentator fometimes effufes, by the recovery of an incident that had been long forgotten: thus, in the third book of Horace, Juno's denunciations against those that should prefume to raise again the walls of Troy, could for many ages pleafe only by fplendid images and fwelling language, of which no man difcovered the ufe or propriety, till Le Fevre, by fhewing on what occafion the Ode was written, changed wonder wonder to rational delight. Many paffages yet undoubtedly remain in the fame author, which an exacter knowledge of the incidents of his time would clear from objections. Among thefe I have always numbered the following lines: Aurum per medios ire fatellites, Demerfa excidio. Diffidit urbium Stronger than thunder's winged force, FRANCIS. The clofe of this paffage, by which every reader is now disappointed and offended, was probably the delight of the Roman court; it cannot be imagined, that Horace, after having given to gold the force of thunder, and told of its power to ftorm cities and to conquer kings, would have concluded his account of its efficacy with its influence over Haval commanders, had he not alluded to fome fact then current in the mouths of men, and therefore more interesting for a time than the conquefts of Philip. Of the like kind may be reckoned another ftanza in the fame book: ' -Juffa coram non fine confcio The confcious husband bids her rise, FRANCIS. He has little knowledge of Horace who imagines that the factor, or the Spanish merchant, are mentioned by chance there was undoubtedly fome popular story of an intrigue, which those names recalled to the memory of his reader. The flame of his genius in other parts, though fomewhat dimmed by time, is not totally eclipsed; his addrefs and judgment yet appear, though much of the fpirit and vigour of his fentiment is loft: this has happened to the twentieth Ode of the firft book; Vile potabis modicis Sabinum Cantharis, Græca quod ego ipfe testâ Conditum levi; datus in theatro Cùm tibi plaufus, Chare Mecenas eques. Ut paterni Fluminis ripa, fimul et jocosa Redderet laudes tibi Vaticani Montis imago. A poet's |