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and conformity of ftyle and colouring, for the fimplex duntaxat unum, which Horace preferibes, as requifite to make the whole picture beautiful and perfect.

As precept, however true in theory, or useful in practice, would be but dry and tedious in verfe, efpecially if the recital be long; I found it neceffary to form some story, and give a kind of body to the poem. Under what fpecies it may be comprehended, whether Didafcalic or Heroic, I leave to the judgment of the critics; de.. firing them to be favourable in their cenfure; and not folicitous what the poem is called, provided it may be accepted.

The chief perfonage or character in the epic, is always proportioned to the defign of the work, to carry on the narration and the moral. Homer intended to fhew us in his Iliad, that diffentions amongst great men obftruct the execution of the nobleft enterprizes, and tend to the ruin of a state or kingdom. His Achilles therefore is haughty, and paffionate, impatient of any reftraint by laws, and arrogant in arms. In his Odyffes the fame poet endeavours to explain, that the hardest difficulties may be overcome by labour, and our fortune reftored after the fevereft afflictions. Ulyffes therefore is valiant, virtuous, A 3

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and patient. Virgil's design was to tell us, how from a fmall colony established by the Trojans in Italy, the Roman empire rofe, and from what antient families Auguftus (who was his prince and patron) defcended. His hero therefore was to fight his way to the throne, ftill diftinguished and protected by the favour of the Gods. The poet to this end takes off from the vices of Achilles, and adds to the virtues of Ulyffes; from both perfecting a character proper for his work in the person of Æneas.

As Virgil copied after Homer, other Epic poets have copied after them both. Taffo's Gierufalemme Liberata is directly Troy Town facked; with this difference only, that the two chief characters in Homer, which the Latin poet had joined in one, the Italian has feparated in his Godfrey and Rinaldo: but he makes them both carry on his work with very great success. Ronfard's Franciade, (incomparably good as far as it goes) is again Virgil's Æneis. His hero comes from a foreign country, fettles a colony, and lays the foundation of a future empire. I inftance in these, as the greatest Italian and French poets in the Epic. In our language Spencer has not contented himself with this fubmiffive manner of imitation: he lanches out into

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very flowery paths, which ftill feem to conduct him into one great road. His Fairy Queen (had it been finished) muft have ended in the account, which every knight was to give of his adventures, and in the accumulated praises of his heroine Gloriana. The whole would have been an Heroic poem, but in another caft and figure, than any that had ever been written before. Yet it is obfervable that every hero (as far as we can judge by the books ftill remaining) bears his dif tinguished character, and reprefents fome particular virtue conducive to the whole defign.

To bring this to our prefent fubject. The pleasures of life do not compenfate the miseries: age fteals upon us unawares; and death, as the only cure of our ills, ought to be expected, but not feared. This inftruction is to be illuftrated by the action of fome great perfon. Who therefore more proper for the bufinefs, than Solomon himself and why may he not be fuppofed now to repeat what, we take it for granted, he acted almost three thousand years fince? If in the fair fituation where this prince was placed, he was acquainted with forrow; if endowed with the greatest perfections of nature, and poffeffed of all the advantages of external condition, he could not find happiness; the rest of mankind

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may fafely take the monarch's word for the truth of what he afferts. And the author who would perfuade, that we should bear the ills of life patiently, merely becaufe Solomon felt the fame, has a better argument, than Lucretius had, when in his imperious way, he at once convinces and commands, that we ought to fubmit to death without repining, because Epicurus died.

The whole poem is a foliloquy: Solomon is the perfon that speaks: he is at once the hero and the author; but he tells us very often what others fay to him. Thofe chiefly introduced are his rabbies and philofophers in the first book, and his women and their attendants in the fecond with these the facred history mention him to have converfed; as likewife with the angel brought down in the third book, to help him out of his difficulties, or at least to teach him how to overcome them.

Nec deus interfit nifi dignus vindice nodus.

I prefume this poetical liberty may be very juftly allowed me on fo folemn an occafion.

In my defcription I have endeavoured to keep to the notions and manners of the Jewish nation at the time when Solomon lived: and where I allude to the customs of the Greeks, I believe I

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may be justified by the ftricteft chronology; though a poet is not obliged to the rules that confine an hiftorian. Virgil has anticipated two hundred years; or the Trojan hero and Carthaginian queen could not have been brought together and without the fame anachronism feveral of the finest parts of his Æneis must have been omitted. Our countryman Milton goes yet farther. He takes up many of his material images fome thousands of years after the fall of man nor could he otherwife have written, or we read one of the fublimeft pieces of invention that was ever yet produced. This likewise takes off the objection, that fome names of countries, terms of art, and notions in natural philofophy are otherwife expreffed, than can be warranted by the geography or aftronomy of Solomon's time. Poets are allowed the same liberty in their descriptions and comparisons, as painters in their draperies and ornaments: their perfonages may be dreffed, not exactly in the fame habits which they wore, but in fuch as appear moft graceful. In this cafe probability must atone for the want of truth. This liberty has indeed been abufed by eminent masters in either science. Raphael and Taffo have fhewed their difcretion, where Paul Veronefe and Ari

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