and _Æneas_ were Men; and between those Men and Women there was a Love-Adventure, and a Heroe detained by it. That is all the Resemblance between the Persons immediately concerned. _Jupiter_'s Message by _Mercury_ indeed is plainly taken from _Homer_ by _Virgil_: But _Virgil_ might very well think of that Imitation, after he had laid the Plan of _Dido_'s Episode; which is quite of another Nature from _Calypso_'s, and introduced with a quite different Design. For the same Reason, I suppose, the Conversation between _Venus_ and _Jupiter_ in the First _Æneid_ must be taken from _Homer_; because _Thetis_ has a Conference with that God (in favour of her Son too) in the First _Iliad_. _Virgil_ mentions Sea and Land, Heaven and Earth, Horses and Chariots, Gods and Men; nay he makes use of Hexameter Verse, and the Letters of the Alphabet; and _Homer_, tho' in a different Language, had I confess, done all This before him. But where _Virgil_ really does (as he often does) imitate _Homer_; how does he at the same time _exceed_ him! What Comparison is there between the Funeral Games for _Patroclus_, and those for _Anchises_? Between the Descent of _Ulysses_ into Hell, and that of _Æneas_? Between the merely ornamental Sculptures upon _Homer_'s _Vulcanian_ Shield, and the _Roman_ History, and the Triumphs of _Augustus_ upon _Virgil_'s? In my Notes I shall be more particular: At present, I cannot forbear saying, that to be _such_ an Improver is at least almost as much Glory, as to be the original Inventer.[14]