Æn. II.
The first mention of the Horse’s having armed men within, should have been reserved for this place. There is something truly terrible and sublime in Æneas’s being waked by such a variety of horrid sounds, and ignorant of the cause; the reader also should have been ignorant until Pantheus explained the mystery. See the whole passage in Æn. II. beginning at the 298th verse, and if possible, forget that this went before.
Delecta virum fortiti corpora furtim
Includunt cæco lateri, &c.
One of the finest parts of Don Quixote is also spoiled by mentioning a circumstance which should have been delayed. The Knight and his ’Squire, at the close of the day, hear the clank of chains, and dreadful blows, which would have puzzled the reader as much as it frightened them, had not the author unluckily said “that the strokes were in time and measure,” which is telling us very plainly that it was a mill. The whole scene is highly pictoresque and beautiful.
If these hints will be of any service to you it will be a great pleasure to
Yours, &c.
LETTER X.
THE productions of genius require some ages to be brought to perfection. The liberal arts have their infancy, youth and manhood; and, to carry on the allusion, continue sometime in a state of strength, and then verge by degrees to a decline, which at last ends in a total extinction. The English language, poetry, and music, exhibit proofs of this observation, as far as they have as yet gone: with the two former I have at present nothing to do, but shall confine what I have to say on this subject to the latter.