the first, and I speak of it both as it means the defign of a poem, and as it is taken for fiction.

Fable may be divided into the probable, the allegorical, and the marvellous. The probable fable is the recital of fuch actions as though they did not happen, yet might, in the common course of nature : Or of fuch as though they did, become fables by the additional episodes and manner of telling them. Of this fort is the main ftory of an Epic poem, the return of Ulyffes, the fettlement of the Trojans in Italy, or the like. That of the Iliad is the anger of Achilles, the moft short and fingle fubject that ever was chofen by any Poet. Yet this he has fupplied with a vafter variety of incidents and events, and crouded with a greater number of councils, fpeeches, battles, and epifodes of all kinds, than are to be found even in thofe poems whofe fchemes are of the utmost latitude and irregularity. The action is hurried on with the moft vehement fpirit, and its whole duration employs not fo much as fifty days. Virgil, for want of fo warm a genius, aided himself by taking in a more extensive subject, as well as a greater length of time, and contracting the defign of both Homer's poems into one, which is yet but a fourth part as large as his. The other Epic Poets have ufed the fame practice, but generally carried it fo far as to fuperinduce a multiplicity of fables, destroy the unity of action, and lose their readers in an un

reasonable length of time.

main defign that they have

Nor is it only in the been unable to add to

his invention, but they have followed him in every episode and part of story. If he has given a regular catalogue of an army, they all draw up their forces in the fame order. If he has funeral games for Patroclus, Virgil has the fame for Anchifes, and Statius (rather than omit them) deftroys the unity of his action for those of Archemorus. If Ulyffes vifit the fhades, the Æneas of Virgil and Scipio of Silius are fent after him. If he be detained from his return by the allurements of Calypfo, fo is Æneas by Dido, and Rinaldo by Armida. If Achilles be abfent from the army on the score of a quarrel through half the poem, Rinaldo muft abfent himself juft as long, on the like account. If he gives his hero a fuit of celeftial armour, Virgil and Taffo make the fame prefent to theirs. Virgil has not only observed this clofe imitation of Homer, but where he had not led the way, fupplied the want from other Greek authors. Thus the story of Sinon, and the taking of Troy was copied fays Macrobius) almost word for word from Pifander, as, the Loves of Dido and Æneas are taken from those of Medda and Jafon in Appollonius, and feveral others in the fame manner.

To proceed to the allegorical fable: If we reflect upon those innumerable knowledges, those secrets of nature and phyfical philosophy, which Homer is ge

nerally supposed to have wrapp'd up in his allegories, what a new and ample scene of wonder may this confideration afford us! How fertile will that imagination appear, which was able to clothe all the properties of elements, the qualifications of the mind, the virtues and vices, in forms and perfons; and to introduce them into actions agreeable to the nature of the things they fhadowed This is a field in which no fucceeding poets could difpute with Homer; and whatever commendations have been allowed them on this head, are by no means for their invention in having enlarged his circle, but for their judgment in having contracted it. For when the mode of learning changed in following ages, and science was delivered in a plainer manner; it then became as reasonable in the more modern poets to lay it afide, as it was in Homer to make ufe of it. And perhaps it was no unhappy circumftance for Virgil, that there was not in his time that demand upon him of fo great an invention, as might be capable of furnishing all thofe allegorical parts of a poem.

The marvellous fables includes whatever is fupernatural, and especially the machines of the Gods. He feems the firft who brought them into a fyftem of machinery for poetry, and fuch a one as makes its greatest importance and dignity. For we find thofe authors who have been offended at the literal

notion of the Gods, conftantly laying their accufation against Homer as the chief fupport of it. But whatever cause their might be to blame his machines in a philosophical or religious view, they are so perfect in the poetic, that mankind have been ever fince contented to follow them: None have been able to enlarge the sphere of poetry beyond the limits he has fet: Every attempt of this nature has proved unsuccessful; and after all the various changes of times and religions, his Gods continue to this day the Gods of Poetry.

We come now to the characters of his perfons: And here we fhall find no author has ever drawn fo many, with so visible and furprizing a variety. or given us fuch lively and affecting impressions of them. Every one has fomething fo fingularly his own, that no painter could have distinguished them more by their features, than the Poet has by their manners. Nothing can be more exact than the distinctions he has obferved in the different degrees of virtues and vices. The fingle quality of courage is wonderfully diverfified in the feveral characters of the Iliad. That of Achilles is furious and intractable; that of Diomede forward, yet liftening to advice and fubject to command: That of Ajax is heavy and felf-confiding: of Hector active and vi gilant. The courage of Agamemnon is infpirited by love of empire and ambition, that of Menclaus VOL. VII.

T

mixed with softnefs and tenderness for his people: We find in Idomeneus a plain direct foldier, in Sarpedon a gallant and generous one. Nor is this judicious and aftonishing diverfity to be found only in the principal quality which conftitutes the main of each character, but even in the underparts of it, to which he takes care to give a tincture of that principal one. For example, the main characters of Ulyffes and Neftor confift in wisdom; and they are distinct in this, that the wisdom of one is artificial and various, of the other, natural, open, and regular. But they have, befides, characters of courage; and this quality alfo takes a different turn in each from the difference of his prudence: for one in the war depends ftill upon caution, the other upon experience. It would be endless to produce inftances of thefe kinds. The characters of Virgil are far from ftriking us in this open manner; they lie in a great degree hidden and undistinguished, and, where they are marked most evidently, affect us not in proportion to thofe of Homer. His characters of valour are much alike; even that of Turnus feems no way peculiar but as it is in a fuperior degree; and we fee nothing that differences the courage of Mnestheus from that of Sergeftus, Cloanthus, or the reft. In like manner it may be remark'd of Statius's heroes, that an air of impetuofity runs through them all; the fame horrid and