L E C T.

XL1V.

LECTURE XL IV,

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LUCAN’s PHARSAUA.-TASSO’s lh

JERUSALEM . - CAMOEN’s LUSIAD. - ;rf f

FENELON ’s TELEMACHUS._ si

VOLTAIRE’s HENRI A DE. - MILTGNsPARADISE LOST;

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.A.FTER Homer and Virgil , the next great eKEpic Poet of ancient times, -who prefents himfelf, ijltiois Lucan. Fie is a Poet who deferves our atten- iH±tion, on account of a very peculiar mixture ofgreat beauties, with great faults. Though his ; r , r |Pharfalia difcover too little invention, and be ^conducted in too hiftorical a manner, to be ^accounted a perfectly regular Epic Poem , yet it !; i0were the mere fqueamilhnefs of Criticifm , to ;!i)0exclude it from the Epic Clafs. The boundaries, . HC]as I formerly remarked, are far from being afcer- a;tained by any fuch precife limit, that tVe muft 16 ^refufe the Epic name to a Poem , which treats of ^great and heroic adventures, becaufe it is not gy,exactly conformable to the plans of Homer andVirgil . The fubject of the Pharfalia carries, un* .-ydoubtedly, all the Epic Grandeur and Dignity; ^

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