queftioned. An hiftorian, accordingly, who hath a genius for narration, feldom fails to engage our belief. The fame facts related in a manner cold and indistinct, are not suffered to pafs without examination: a thing ill described is like an object feen at a distance, or through a mist t; we doubt whether it be a reality or a fiction. Cicero fays, that to relate the manner in which an event paffed, not only enlivens the ftory, but makes it appear more credible *. For that reafon, a poet who can warm and animate his reader, may employ bolder fictions than ought to be ventured by an inferior genius: the reader, once thoroughly engaged, is fufceptible of the strongest impreffions: Veraque conftituunt, quæ belle tangere poffunt Lucretius, lib. 1. 7. 644. A masterly painting has the fame effect: Le Brun is no small support to Quintus Curtius: and among the vulgar in Italy, the belief of fcripture-history is perhaps founded as much upon the authority of Raphael, Michael Angelo, and other celebrated painters, as upon that of the facred writers †. G 3 * De Oratore, lib. 2. fect. 81. The + At quæ Polycleto defuerunt, Phidiæ atque Alcameni dantur. Phidias tamen diis quam hominibus efficiendis melior artifex traditur: in ebore vero longe citra 1. The foregoing theory must have fatigued the reader with much dry reafoning; but his labour will not be fruitlefs; because from that theory are derived many ufeful rules in criticifm, which shall be mentioned in their proper places. One fpecimen fhall be our prefent entertainment. Events that furprise by being unexpected, and yet are natural, enliven greatly an epic poem : but in fuch a poem, if it pretend to copy human manners and actions, no improbable incident ought to be admitted; that is, no incident contrary to the order and course of nature A chain of imagined incidents linked together according to the order of nature, finds eafy admittance into the mind; and a lively narrative of fuch incidents occafions complete images, or, in other words, ideal prefence: but our judgment revolts against an improbable incident; and, if we once begin to doubt of its reality, farewell relish and concern-an unhappy effect; for it will require more than an ordinary effort, to reftore the waking dream, and to make the reader conceive even the more probable incidents as paffing in his prefence. I never was an admirer of machinery in an epic poem, and I now find my taste juftified by reason; citra æmulum, vel fi nihil nifi Minervam Athenis, aut Olympium in Elide Jovem feciffet, cujus pulchritudo adjeciffe aliquid etiam receptæ religioni videtur; adeo majeftas operis Deum æquavit. Quintilian, lib. 12. cap. 10. § 1. reafon; the foregoing argument concluding ftill more ftrongly againft imaginary beings, than againft improbable facts: fictions of that nature may amuse by their novelty and fingularity; but they never move the fympathetic paffions, because they cannot impofe on the mind any perception of reality. I appeal to the difcerning reader, whether that obfervation be not applicable to the machinery of Taffo and of Voltaire: fuch machinery is not only in itself cold and uninteresting, but gives an air of fiction to the whole compofition. A burlesque poem, fuch as the Lutrin or the Difpenfary, may employ machinery with fuccefs; for these poems, though they affume the air of hiftory, give entertainment chiefly by their pleasant and ludicrous pictures, to which machinery contributes; it is not the aim of fuch a poem, to raise our fympathy: and for that reafon a ftrict imitation of nature is not required. A poem profeffedly ludicrous, may employ machinery to great advantage; and the more extravagant the better. Having affigned the means by which fiction commands our paffions; what only remains for accomplishing our present task, is to affign the final caufe. I have already mentioned, that fiction, by means of language, has the command of our fympathy for the good of others. By the fame means, our fympathy may also be raised for our own good. In the fourth fection of the prefent chapter, it is obferved, that examples both of virtue and of vice raife virtuous emotions which becoming ftronger by exercise, tend to make us virtuous by habit, as well as by principle. I now further obferve, that examples confined to real events are not fo frequent as without other means to produce a habit of virtue if they be, they are not recorded by hiftorians. It therefore fhows great wifdom, to form us in fuch a manner, as to be fufceptible of the fame improvement from fable that we receive from genuine history. By that contrivance, examples to improve us in virtue may be multiplied without end: no other fort of discipline contributes more to make virtue habitual, and no other fort is fo agreeable in the application. I add another final cause with thorough fatisfaction: because it shows, that the Author of our nature is not lefs kindly provident for the happinefs of his creatures, than for the regularity of their conduct: the power that fiction hath over the mind affords an endless variety of refined amusements always at hand to employ a vacant hour: fuch amufements are a fine refource in folitude; and, by chearing and sweetening the mind, contribute mightily to focial happiness. PART PART II. EMOTIONS AND PASSIONS AS PLEASANT AND PAINFUL, AGREEABLE AND DISAGREEABLE. MODIFICATIONS OF THESE QUALITIES. IT. T will naturally occur at first, that a discourse upon the paffions ought to commence with explaining the qualities now mentioned: but upon trial, I found that this explanation could not be made diftinctly, till the difference fhould firft be ascertained between an emotion and a paffion, and their caufes unfolded. Great obfcurity may be obferved among writers with regard to the prefent point: particularly no care is taken to diftinguish agreeable from pleasant, difagreeable from painful; or rather these terms are deemed fynonymous. This is an error not at all venial in the fcience of ethics; as inftances can and fhall be given, of painful paffions that are agreeable, and of pleafant paffions that are difagreeable. These terms, it is true, are ufed indifferently in familiar converfation, and in compofitions for amufement; but more accuracy is required from thofe who profess to explain the paffions. In writing upon the critical art, I would avoid every refinement that may seem more curious than useful: but the proper meaning of the terms under confide ration |