Page:Hero and Leander; a poem (IA heroleanderpoem00musa).pdf/36



Perhaps the reading may be esteem'd preferable. Henry Stephens, or his printer for him, has clos'd the verse with a full stop, which should be only a comma.

in the succeeding line has somewhat of a stiff appearance, if it is sense. May not, 'nuncia fulsit,' be substituted?

A Friend is displeas'd with the occasional alteration in the foregoing words, which he esteems not classical. I think, that the liberty may be justify'd from the practice of Grecian writers, who exercis'd the 'poetica licentia' to a degree that banish'd nicety. It must indeed be acknowledg'd, that Ovid uses the word, Leander, in one uniform quantity;

Hero Leandro, V. 150.

A Friend, for whose Knowledge of the Greek language I have great veneration, has produced an argument derogatory of the Antiquity of this Poem from the expression. "Homer," says he, "would have written ", and omitted the subsequent verb." There is no doubt, but that it would be more elegantly so written. This objection may be obviated by throwing the word into the next line,, Indeed  would be very aukwardly placed in the first phrase; it would want a classical meaning; add to this, that Priests and Priestesses in Ancient Greece were as usually chosen by Lot, as by any other method.—Homer Il. ζ. V. 300.

It is observable (if it be permitted to enforce the above Pagan by a Christian usage) that the casting lots for the choice of Apostles evinces the general preva-