"Mea columbula, ostende mihi tuum vulticulum.
Cerviculam habes Davidicae turris similem--Cervicula quasi eburnea
turricula, &c."
Beattie is severe upon Dryden's obtuseness in his translation of the
"Iliad." "Homer," he says, "has been blamed for degrading his gods into
mortals, but Dryden has made them blackguards.... If we were to judge of
the poet by the translator, we should imagine the Iliad to have been
partly designed for a satire upon the clergy."
Addison observes that the Ancients were not particular about the bearing
of their similes. "Homer likens one of his heroes, tossing to and fro in
his bed and burning with resentment, to a piece of flesh broiled on the
coals." "The present Emperor of Persia," he continues, "conformable to
the Eastern way of thinking, amidst a great many pompous titles,
denominates himself the 'Son of Glory,' and 'Nutmeg of Delight.'"
Eastern nations indulge in this kind of hyperbole, which seems to us
rather to overstep the sublime, but we cannot be astonished when we read
in the Zgand-Savai (Golden Tulip) of China, that "no one can be a great
poet, unless he have the majestic carriage of the elephant, the bright
eyes of the partridge, the agility of the antelope, and a face rivalling
the radiance of the full moon."
Reflection is generally antagonistic to humour, just as abstraction of
mind will prevent our feeling our hands being tickled.
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