portant, and instructive; to fill it with suitable incidents to enliven it with a variety of characters, and of descriptions; and, throughout a long work, to maintain that propriety of sentiment, and that elevation of style, which the epic character requires, is unquestionably the highest effort of poetical genius. Hence so very few have succeeded in the attempt, that strict critics will hardly allow any other poems to bear the name of epic, except the Illiad and the Æneid.

Illus. 1. The plain account of the nature of an epic poem is, the recital of some illustrious enterprise in a poetical form. This is an exact definition of this subject. It comprehends several other poems, beside the Iliad of Homer, the Eneid of Virgil, and the Jerusalem of Tasso; which are, perhaps, the three most regular and complete epic works that ever were composed. But to exclude all poems from the epic class, which are not formed exactly upon the same model as these, is the pedantry of criticism.

2. We can give exact definitions and descriptions of minerals, plants, and animals; and can arrange them with precision, under the different classes to which they belong, because nature affords a visible unvarying standard, to which we refer them. But with re

gard to works of taste and imagination, where nature has fixed no standard, but leaves scope for beauties of many different kinds, it is absurd to attempt defining and limiting them with the same precision.

3. Criticism, when employed in such attempts, degenerates into trifling questions about words and names only.

4. The most competent judges, therefore, have no scruple to class such poems, as Milton's Paradise Lost, Lucan's Pharsalia, Statius's Thebaid, Ossian's Fingal and Temora, Camoens' Lusiad, Voltaire's Henriade, Fenelon's Telemachus, Glover's Leonidas, and Wilkie's Epigoniad, under the same species of composition with the Iliad and the Eneid; though some of them approach much nearer than others to the perfection of these celebrated works. They are, undoubtedly, all epic; that is, poetical recitals of great adventures; which is all that is meant by this denomination of poetry. (Illus. 1.)

5. The end which epic poetry proposes, is to extend our ideas of human perfection: or, in other words, to excite admiration. Now this can be accomplished only by proper representations of heroic deeds, and virtuous characters. For high virtue is the object, which all mankind are formed to admire; and, therefore, epic poems are and must be favourable to the cause of virtue. Valour, truth, justice, fidelity, friendship, piety, magnanimity, are the

objects which, in the course of such compositions, are presented to our minds, under the most splendid and honourable colours.

6. In behalf of virtuous personages, our affections are engaged; in their designs, and their distresses, we are interested; the generous and public affections are awakened; the mind is purified from sensual and mean pursuits, and accustomed to take part in great, heroic enterprises. It is, indeed, no small testimony in honour of virtue, that several of the most refined and elegant entertainments of mankind, such as that species of poetical composition which we now consider, must be grounded on moral sentiments and impressions. This is a testimony of such weight, that, were it in the power of sceptical philosophers, to weaken the force of those reasonings which establish the essential distinctions between vice and virtue, the writings of epic poets alone were sufficient to refute their false philosophy; shewing, by that appeal which they constantly make to the feelings of mankind in favour of virtue, that the foundations of it are laid deep and strong in human nature.

596. The general strain and spirit of epic composition, sufficiently mark its distinction from the other kinds of poetry.

Illus. 1. In pastoral writing, the reigning idea is innocence and tranquility. Compassion is the great object of tragedy; ridicule, the province of comedy. The predominant character of the epic is, admiration excited by heroic actions.

2. It is sufficiently distinguished from history, both by its poetical form, and the liberty of fiction which it assumes. It is a more calm composition than tragedy. It admits, nay, requires, the pathetic and the violent, on particular occasions; but the pathetic is not expected to be its general character. It requires, more than any other species of poetry, a grave, equal, and supported dignity.

3. It takes in a greater compass of time and action, than dramatic writing admits; and thereby allows a more full display of characters. Dramatic writings display characters chiefly by means of sentiments and passions; epic poetry, chiefly by means of actions. The emotions, therefore, which it raises, are not so violent, but they are more prolonged.

Obs. These are the general characteristics of this species of composition. But, in order to give a more particular and critical view of it, let us consider the epic poem under three heads; first, with respect to the subject, or action; secondly, with respect to the actors, or characters; and, lastly, with respect to the narration of the poet.

597. The action, or subject of the epic poem, must have three qualifications: it must be one; it must be great; it must be interesting.

Illus. 1. First, it must be one action, or enterprise, which the poet chooses for his subject.

Example 1. In all the great epic poems, unity of action is sufficiently apparent. Virgil, for instance, has chosen for his subject, the establishment of Eneas in Italy. From the beginning to the end of the poem, this object is ever in our view, and links all the parts of it together with full connection. The unity of the Odyssey is of the same nature; the return and re-establishment of Ulysses in his own country. The subject of Tasso, is the recovery of Jerusalem from the Infidels; that of Milton, the expulsion of our first parents from Paradise; and both of them are unexceptionable in the unity of the story.

2. The professed subject of the Iliad, is the anger of Achilles, with the consequences which it produced. The Greeks carry on many unsuccessful engagements against the Trojans, as long as they are deprived of the assistance of Achilles. Upon his being appeased and reconciled to Agamemnon, victory follows, and the poem closes.

Analysis. It must be owned, however, that the unity, or connecting principle, is not quite so sensible to the imagination here, as in the Eneid. For, throughout many books of the Iliad, Achilles is out of sight; he is lost in inaction; and the fancy dwells on no other object, than the success of the two armies that we see contending in war.

Illus. 2. The unity of the epic action is not to be so strictly interpreted, as if it excluded all episodes, or subordinate actions.

2. Episodes, are certain actions, or incidents, introduced into the narration, connected with the principal action, yet not of such importance as to destroy the main subject of the poem, if they had been omitted.

Example. Of this nature are the interview of Hector with Andromache, in the Iliad; the story Cacus, and that of Nisus and Euryalus, in the Eneid; the adventures of Tancred with Erminia and Clorinda, in the Jerusalem; and the prospect of his descendants exhibited to Adam, in the last books of Paradise Lost.

598. Such episodes as these, are not only permitted to an epic poet; but, provided they be properly executed, are great ornaments to his work. The rules regarding them are the following:

599. Rule first. They must be naturally introduced; they must have a sufficient connection with the subject of the poem; they must be inferior parts that belong to it; but not mere appendages stuck to it.

Illus. The episode of Olinda und Sophronia, in the second book of Tasso's Jerusalem, is faulty, by transgressing this rule. It is too

much detached from the rest of the work; and being introduced so near the opening of the poem, misleads the reader into an expectation, that it is to be of some future consequence; whereas it proves to be connected with nothing that follows, In proportion as any episode is slightly related to the main subject, it should always be the shorter. The passion of Dido in the Eneid, and the snares of Armida in the Jerusalem, which are expanded so fully in these' poems, cannot with propriety be called episodes. They are constituent parts of the work, and form a considerable share of the intrigue of the poem.

600. Rule second. Episodes ought to present to us, objects of a different kind, from those which go before, and those which follow, in the course of the poem. For it is principally for the sake of variety, that episodes are introduced into an epic composition. In so long a work, they tend to diversify the subject, and to relieve the reader, by shifting the scene. In the midst of combats, therefore, an episode of the martial kind would be out of place; whereas, Hector's visit to Andromache in the Iliad, and Erminia's adventure with the shepherd, in the seventh book of the Jerusalem, affords us a well-judged and pleasing retreat from camps and battles.

601. Rule third. As an episode is a professed embellishment, it ought to be particularly elegant and well-finished; and, accordingly, it is, for the most part, in pieces of this kind, that poets put fourth their strength. The episodes of Teribazus and Ariana, in Leonidas, and of the death of Hercules, in the Epigoniad, are the two greatest beauties in these poems.

602. The unity of the epic action necessarily supposes, that the action be entire and complete; that is, as Aristotle well expresses it, that it have a beginning, a middle, and an end.

Illus. Either by relating the whole, in his own person, or by introducing some of his actors to relate what had passed before the opening of the poem, the author must always contrive to give us full information of every thing that belongs to his subject; he must not leave our curiosity, in any article, ungratified; he must bring us precisely to the accomplishment of his plan; and then concludes

603. The second qualification of the epic action, is, that it be great; that it have sufficient splendour and importance, both to fix our attention, and to justify the magnificent apparatus which the poet bestows upon it.

Obs. This is so evidently requisite as not to require illustration; and indeed, hardly any who have attempted epic poetry, have failed in choosing some subject sufficiently important, either by the nature. of the action, or by the fame of the personages concerned in it.

604. It contributes to the grandeur of the epic subject, that it be not of a modern date, nor fall within any period of history with which we are intimately acquainted.

Obs. Both Lucan and Voltaire. have, in the choice of their subjects, transgressed this rule, and they have, upon that account, succeded worse. Antiquity is favourable to those high and august ideas which epic poetry is designed to raise. It tends to aggrandise, in our imagination, both persons and events; and what is still more, material, it allows the poet the liberty of adorning his subject by means of fiction. Whereas, as soon as he comes within the verge of real and authenticated history, this liberty is abridged.

605. The third property required in the epic poem, is, that it be interesting. It is not sufficient for this purpose that it be great. For deeds of mere valour, how heroic soever, may prove cold and

tiresome.

Illus. Much will depend on the happy choice of some subject, which shall, by its nature, interest the public; as when the poet selects for his hero, one who is the founder, or the deliverer, or the favourite of his nation; or when he writes of achievements that have been highly celebrated, or have been connected with important consequences to any public cause. Most of the great epic poems are abundantly fortunate in this respect, and were no doubt as interesting to those ages and countries in which they were composed, as they

are to us.

666. But the chief circumstance which renders an epic poem interesting, and which tends to interest, not one age or country alone, but all readers, is the skilful conduct of the author in the management of his subject.

Illus. He must so contrive his plan, as that it shall comprehend