But all this, being divine and furprizing, may quite ruin all probability; therefore the poet should take a particular care as to that point, fince his chief aim is to inftruct, and without probability any action is lefs likely to perfuade.

Laftly, fince precepts ought to be concise, to be the more easily conceived, and lefs opprefs the memory; and fince nothing can be more effectual to this end than propofing one fingle idea, and collecting all things fo well together, as to be present to our minds all at once; therefore the poets have reduced all to one fingle action, under one and the fame defign, and in a body whofe members and parts fhould be homogeneous.

What we have observed of the nature of the Epick Poem, gives us a just idea of it, and we may define it thus:

"The Epick Poem is a difcourfe invented by art, "to form the manners, by fuch inftructions as are <disguised under the allegories of fome one important action, which is related in verfe, after a probable, diverting, and furprizing manner."

ว

THE FABLE OF THE ILIAD.

IN every defign which a man deliberately under

takes, the end he propofes is the first thing in his mind, and that by which he governs the whole work, and all its parts; thus, fince the end of the Epick Poem.

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Poem is to regulate the manners, it is with this firft view the poet ought to begin.

But there is a great difference between the philofophical and the poetical doctrine of Manners. The schoolmen content themselves with treating of virtues and vices in general; the inftructions they give are proper for all states of people, and for all ages. But the poet has a nearer regard to his own country, and the neceffities of his own nation. With this design he makes choice of fome piece of morality, the most proper and just he can imagine; and in order to press this home, he makes less use of the force of reasoning, than of the power of infinuation; accommodating himself to the particular customs and inclinations of those who are to be the subject, or the readers, of his work.

Let us now see how Homer has acquitted himself in thefe refpects.

He faw the Grecians, for whom he defigned his Poem, were divided into as many ftates as they had capital cities. Each was a body politick apart, and had its form of government independent from all the rest. And yet these distinct states were very often obliged to unite together in one body against their common enemies. These were two very different forts of government, fuch as could not be comprehended in one maxim of morality, and in one fingle poem.

The poet, therefore, has made two diftinct fables of them. The one is for Greece in general, united into one body, but compofed of parts independent on

each

each other; and the other for each particular state, confidered as they were in time of peace, without the former circumstances and the neceffity of being united..

As for the first fort of government, in the union or rather in the confederacy of many independent states; experience has always made it appear, "That nothing "so much causes success as a due fubordination, and "a right understanding among the chief commanders "And on the other hand, the inevitable ruin of fuch "confederacies proceeds from the heats, jealoufies, "and ambition of the different leaders, and the dif "contents of fubmitting to a fingle general." All forts of ftates, and in particular the Grecians, had dearly experienced this truth. So that the most useful and neceffary inftruction that could be given them, was, to lay before their eyes the lofs which both the people and the princes muft of neceffity fuffer, by the ambition, discord, and obstinacy of the latter.

Homer then has taken for the foundation of his fable this great truth; That a misunderstanding between princes is the ruin of their own states. "I fing "(fays he) the anger of Achilles, fo pernicious to "the Grecians, and the caufe of fo many heroes "deaths, occafioned by the difcord and feparation "of Agamemnon and that prince."

But that this truth may be completely and fully known, there is nced of a fecond to fupport it. It is neceffary in fuch a defign, not only to reprefent the confederate states at first disagreeing among themselves,

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and

and from thence unfortunate; but to fhow the fame ftates afterwards reconciled and united, and of confequence victorious.

Let us now fee how he has joined all these in one general action.

"Several princes independent on one another were "united against a common enemy. The person whom "they had elected their general, offers an affront to "the moft valiant of all the confederates. This "offended prince is fo far provoked, as to relinquish "the union, and obftinately refufe to fight for the "common caufe. This misunderstanding gives the

enemy fuch an advantage, that the allies are very 66 near, quitting their defign with difhonour. He him"felf who made the feparation, is not exempt from

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fharing the misfortune which he brought upon his party. For having permitted his intimate friend to fuccour them in a great neceffity, this friend is killed by the enemy's general. Thus the contending princes, being both made wiser at their own coft, are "reconciled, and unite again: then this valiant prince "not only obtains the victory in the public cause, but 66 revenges his private wrongs, by killing with his own "hands the author of the death of his friend.”

This is the firft platform of the Poem, and the fiction which reduces into one important and univerfal action all the particulars upon which it turns.

In the next place it must be rendered probable by the circumstances of times, places, and perfons: fome perfons must be found out, already known by history or

otherwife,

otherwise, whom we may with probability make the actors and perfonages of this fable. Homer has made choice of the fiege of Troy, and feigned that this action happened there. To a phantom of his brain, whom he would paint valiant and cholerick, he has given the name of Achilles; that of Agamemnon to his general; that of Hector to the enemy's commander, and fo to the reft.

Befides, he was obliged to accommodate himself to the manners, customs, and genius of the Greeks his auditors, the better to make them attend to the inftruction of his Poem: and to gain their approbation by praifing them; fo that they might the better forgive him the reprefentation of their own faults in fome of his chief perfonages. He admirably difcharges all thefe duties, by making thefe brave princes and those victorious people all Grecians, and the fathers of those he had a mind to commend.

But not being content, in a work of fuch a length, to propofe only the principal point of the moral, and to fill up the reft with useless ornaments and foreign incidents, he extends this moral by all its neceffary confequences. As for inftance, in the fubject before us, it is not enough to know that a good understanding ought always to be maintained among confederates : it is likewife of equal importance that, if there happens any divifion, care must be taken to`keep it fecret from the enemy, that their ignorance of this advantage may prevent their making use of it. And in the fecond place, when their concord is but counterfeit and only in appearance,

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