and level ground. Now all these objects are eminently calculated for inspiring love and pleasure, in conformity to the manners of that goddess. As for the hall of Menelaus, Homer represents it to abound with gold and costly ornaments, like a mansion of the Asiatic monarchs. Indeed, this prince was no remote descendant of Tantalus and Pelops (f): whence also, I presume, the chorus in Euripides thus express themselves in allusion to that circumstance (g):

See Menelaus now appear,

With gay attire and stately pace:
Sumptuous monarch! worthy heir
Of the rich Tantalian race.

He has bestowed, however, no such decorations on the habitation of Ulysses; but describes it only as secure, agreeably to the manners of a cautious man (h):

Walls, battlements, strong doors, on every side.
Protect the court, and force and fraud deride.

Besides, we must consider some portions of the poem, in the light of admonitions and exhortations; some, as simple narrative; some, as reproof and ridicule.

Now in what relates to the articles of sleep, to the bed-room, and the daily sustenance of life, Homer can furnish a discipline suited to

the formation of heroes and of monarchs; so that from him probably Lycurgus derived those frugal convivialities, which he instituted among the Spartans for this legislator is reported to have been an encomiast of Homer, and the first who introduced from Ciete, or Ionia, his poems into Greece. Accordingly, Homer furnishes Diomed with accommodations of a very hardy nature (i), the hide of a weather-beaten ox for his bed, and a circle of upright spears for his curtain; not, however, by way of ornament, but for ppt and convenient use. He regales also his heroes on mech, and the flesh of oxen; with reference to strength, not luxury. Thus, he tells us, Agamemnon, the supreme and most wealthy of the princes, always sacrificed an entire ox, for the entertainment of all the generals at his table (); and graciously presents Ajax with the whole chine, after his victory over Hector. But the bard never introduces them as eating fish (), though their station was on the banks of a sea, which he uniformly distinguishes by the. appellation of the fishy Hellespont: and this accurate observa tion was made by Plato. Nor does he regale the suitors themselves on fish, even in the luxurious banquets of these highly delicate and self-indulgent sensualists.

Besides, that I am not mistaken in my

conception of his design to point out the pro per food of man, and it's uses, is a point demonstrable with the utmost clearness for he calls the meal, which he approves, a strengthsufficing meal (m). Now this peculiarity can have no other view than that of signifying what sort of diet should be studied by men of virtue: for he could be no stranger to every species of expensive luxury; because those very people, who are occupied even to infatuation in these enjoyments, the Persians, and Syrians, with Italians and Ionians of Greek extraction, keep far behind the profusion and delicacies of Homer's banquets.

Then said Philip: Does he not, however, array his heroes in the most beautiful apparel? Certainly he does, replied Alexander; but not in effeminate and particoloured cloathing: Agamemnon only has he adorned with a purple robe, and Ulysses with one costly cloak, which he brought from home (n): and this, under a just persuasion, that a mean appearance, like the appearance of private and ordinary persons, misbecomes a general, whose very dress and armour should confer upon him a superiority of eminence and majesty; undebased at the same time by an effeminacy and puerility of decoration. Accordingly, that Carian, who had bedizened himself with golden

trinkets for the war, he insults in the most pointed language of derision (0):

Who, trick'd with gold, in gay fantastic pride
Went to the combat like a glittering bride.—
Fool that he was! by fierce Achilles slain,
The river swept him to the briny main.

There, whelm'd with waves, the gaudy warriour lies:
The valiant victor seiz'd the goiden prize.

A just ridicule on his finery and folly, for holding out, as it were, an allurement to his enemies for his own destruction! Homer then, we see, has no praise in store for golden ornaments, especially in battle; nor yet for rings and collars, golden trappings and golden bridles; to which the Persians, as fame reports, are studiously addicted: for want, no doubt, of so critical a censor in military equipments, as Homer was.

By such institutes of discipline he has exhibited the rulers, good; and the people, orderly. His common soldiers march on to battle with a silent awe of their commanders; but the barbarians, with much tumult and irregularity, like cranes (p): because a reverential obedience from soldiers to their generals most conduces to safety and victory in the times of danger; whilst the fearless of their leaders are the first to fear their enemy. After victory also silence prevails in the Græcian camp; but among the

Trojans, on the most trivial success, through the whole night (1),

The flute, the pipe resounds, and din of men:

as if a temperate or insolent enjoyment of success were, in his opinion, an adequate criterion of Vice and Virtue.

Upon the whole, father! we have in Homer according to my judgement, a most complete reformer of human manners; and that king, who endeavours to model his conduct by this preceptor, will attain the perfection of prosperity and virtue. Two qualities are clearly propounded by him, as excellencies of the most princely character, Fortitude and Justice, where he says of Agamemnon (r):

A righteous sovereign, and a warriour brave:

an epitome of all other virtues.

Nor should a king surpass others merely in what is masculine and dignified: he should not listen to performers on the flute and harp, or the chanters of effeminate and wanton songs; nor approve the mischievous competitions of a depraved eloquence, whose object is the gratification of a most unlettered sottishness: but his first and principal aim should be, the removal and dismission of all such propensities