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terefting. This depends in a great measure upon the choice of it. But it depends much more upon the skilful management of the poet. He must fo frame his plan, as to comprehend many affecting incidents. He must sometimes dazzle with valiant achievements; sometimes he must be awful and auguft; often tender and pathetic; and he muft fometimes give us gentle and pleasing scenes of love, friendship, and affection.

To render the subject interesting, much alfo depends upon the dangers and obftacles, which must be encountered. It is by the management of these, that the poet must rouse attention, and hold his reader in sufpenfe and agitation.

It is generally fuppofed by critics, that an epic poem fhould conclude fuccefsfully; as an unhappy conclufion depreffes the mind. Indeed it is on the prosperous fide, that epic poets generally conclude. But two authors of great name, Milton and Lucan, hold the contrary courfe. The one concludes with the fubverfion of Roman liberty; and the other with the expulfion of man from Paradise.

No precife boundaries can be fixed for the duration of the epic action. The action of the Illiad lafts, according to Boffu, only forty feven days. The action of the Odyffey extends to eight years and a half; and that of the Æneid includes about fix years.

The perfonages in an epic poem should be proper and well fupported. They fhould display the features of human nature; and may admit different degrees of virtue, and even vice; though the principal characters fhould be fuch, as will raise admiration and love. Poetic characters are of two forts, general and particular. General characters are fuch, as are wife, brave, and virtuous, without any farther distinction. Particular characters exprefs the fpecies of bravery, of wisdom, and of virtue, for which any one is remarkable. In this difcrimination of characters Homer excels. Taffo approaches the nearest to him in this respect; and Virgil is the most deficient.

Among epic poets it is the practice to felect fome perfonage, as the hero of the tale. This renders the unity of the subject more perfect, and contributes highly to the intereft and perfection of this fpecies of writing. It has been asked, Who then is the hero of Paradise Loft? The devil, fay fome critics, who affect to be pleafant against Milton. But they mistake his intention by fuppofing that, whoever is triumphant in the clofe, must be the hero of the poem. For Adam is Milton's hero; that is, the capital and most interesting figure in his poem.

In epic poetry there are befide human characters gods and fupernatural beings. This forms, what is called the machinery of epic poetry; and the French fuppofe this effential to the nature of an epic poem.

They hold that in every epic compofition the main ac tion is neceffarily carried on by the intervention of gods. But there feems to be no folid reason for their opinion. Lucan has no gods, nor fupernatural agents. The author of Leonidas also has no machinery.

But, though machinery is not abfolutely neceffary to the epic plan, it ought not to be totally excluded from it. The marvelous has a great charm for most readers. It leads to fublime description, and fills the imagination. At the fame time it becomes a poet ta be temperate in the ufe of fupernatural machinery; and fo to employ the religious faith or fuperftition of his country, as to give an air of probability to events, most contrary to the common courfe of nature..

With regard to the allegorical perfonages, Fame, Difcord, Love, and the like, they form the worst kind of machinery. In defcription they may fometimes be allowed; but they fhould never bear any part in the action of the poem. As they are only mere names of general ideas, they ought not to be confidered, as perfons; and cannot mingle with human actors without an intolerable confufion of fhadows with realities.

In the narration of the poet it is of little confequence, whether he relate the whole ftory in his own character, or introduce one of his perfonages, to relate a part of the action, that paffed before the poem opens. Homer follows one method in his Iliad, and the other in his

Odyffey. It is to be obferved however that, if the narrative be given by any of the actors, it gives the poet greater liberty of fpreading out fuch parts of the fubject, as he inclines to dwell upon in perfon, and of comprising the reft within a fhort recital. When the fubject is of great extent, and comprehends the tranfactions of feveral years, as in the Odyffey and Æneid; this method feems preferable. But, when the fubject is of finaller compass and fhorter duration, as in the Iliad and Jerufalem; the poet may without disadvantage relate the whole in his own perfon.

What is of most importance in the narration is, that it be perfpicuous, animated, and enriched with every poetic beauty. No fort of compofition requires more ftrength, dignity, and fire, than an epic poem. It is the region, in which we look for every thing fublime in defcription, tender in fentiment, and bold or lively in expreffion. The ornaments of epic poetry are grave and chafte. Nothing loose, ludicrous, or affected, finds place there. All the objects, it prefents, ought to be great, tender, or pleafing. Defcriptions of difgufting or fhocking objects are to be avoided. Hence the fable of the Harpies in the Æneid, and the allegory of Sin and Death in Paradife Loft, fhould have been omitted.

HOMER'S ILIAD AND ODYSSEY.:

THE father of epic poetry is Homer; and, in or

der to relish him, we must divest ourselves of modern ideas of dignity and refinement, and tranfport our imagination almost three thoufand years back in the hiftory of mankind. The reader is to expect a picture of the antient world. The two great characters of Homer's poetry are fire and fimplicity. But, to have a clear idea of his merit, let us confider the Iliad under the three heads of the subject or action, the characters, and the narration.

The fubject of the Iliad is happily chofen. For no fubject could be more fplendid, than the Trojan war. A great confederacy of the Grecian ftates and ten years fiege of Troy must have spread far abroad the renown of many military exploits, and given an extenfive intereft to the heroes, who were concerned in them. Upon thefe traditions Homer grounded his poem ; and, as he lived two or three centuries after the Trojan war, he had full liberty to intermingle fable with history. He chofe not however the whole Trojan war for his fubject; but with great judgment felected the quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon, which includes the most interesting period of the war. He has thus given greater unity to his poem. He has gained one hero, or principal character, that is, Achilles; and

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