Design had been _different_: Because if it had, it would have been _better_. If a Man does ill; is it an Answer to say, He designed to do so? The Account which _Horace_ gives of _Achilles_ is a very true one: _Impiger, iracundus, inexorabilis, acer; Jura negat sibi nata, nihil non arrogat armis._ Heroic Virtues, no doubt! An admirable Character of a Demi-god! But who will contend that the _Grecian_ Poet is comparable to the _Roman_, in his exquisite Understanding of humane Nature, and particularly in his Art of moving the Passions? Which is one of the most distinguishing Characters of a Poet, and in which he peculiarly triumphs and glories. I mention only the fourth _Æneid_, (tho' an hundred other Instances might be mentioned) and desire That Book alone may be matched in this respect by all _Homer_'s Works put together. And yet I am not unmindful of several excellent pathetical Passages in both those immortal Poems. What has been hitherto discoursed, includes both Judgment and Invention. That _Homer_ excels _Virgil_ in the latter of These, is generally taken for granted. That he invented _before_ him, and invented _more_, is an undoubted Truth: But it does not from thence follow that he invented _better_, or that he had a _better Invention_. For to say that _Virgil_ betrays a Barrenness of Genius, or Scantiness of Imagination, (even in comparison with _Homer_) is a most groundless, and unjust Reflection upon him. It is his exact Judgment which makes both his Fancy, and his Fire seem less to Some, than they really are. And then we must consider that it was the Fashion among the _Romans_ to adopt all Learning of the _Greeks_ into their own Language: It was so in Oratory, and Philosophy, as well as in Poetry. And therefore it is no Consequence that _Virgil_ was of a narrower Invention than _Homer_ himself, because in many things he copied from him: And yet That Inference is continually made, and those things unreasonably confounded. And after all; _Virgil_ did not copy so much from _Homer_, as some would make us believe; from whose Discourse, if we had no other Evidence, one would imagine the Latin to be little more than a Translation, and an Abridgment of the Greek. The admirable Choice of his Subject, and Heroe, for the Honour of his Country; his most artfully interweaving the _Roman_ History, especially at those three remarkable Divisions in the First, the Sixth, and the Eighth Books; his Action, and the Main of his Fable; the exquisite Mechanism of his Poem, and the Disposition of it's Parts, are entirely his own; as are most of his Episodes: And I suppose it will be allowed that his Diction and Versification were not taken from _Homer_. To pass over many other things which might be mentioned, and some of which I shall mention in my Notes; Why must _Dido_ and _Æneas_ be copied from _Calypso_ and _Ulysses_? The Reason is plain: _Dido_ and _Calypso_ were Women, (if the latter, being a Goddess, may be called so;) and _Ulysses_