in our prefence. For the fame reason, we are little moved by any diftant event; because we have more difficulty to conceive it prefent, than an event that happened in our neighbourhood.

Every one is fenfible, that defcribing a past event as prefent, has a fine effect in language: for what other reason than that it aids the conception of ideal prefence? Take the following example.

And now with fhouts the shocking armies clos'd,
To lances lances, fhields to fhields oppos'd;
Hoft against hoft the fhadowy legions drew,
The founding darts, an iron tempest, flew;
Victors and vanquish'd join promifcuous cries,
Triumphing fhouts and dying groans arise,
With streaming blood the flipp'ry field is dy'd,
And flaughter'd heroes fwell the dreadful tide.

In this paffage we may obferve how the writer, inflamed with the fubject, infenfibly advances from the past time to the prefent; led to that form of narration by conceiving every circumftance as paffing in his own fight: which at the fame time has a fine effect upon the reader, by presenting things to him as a fpectator. But change from the paft to the prefent requires fome preparation; and is not fweet where there is no ftop in the fense: witnefs the following paffage.

Thy fate was next, O Phæftus! doom'd to feel
The great Idomeneus' protended fteel;

Whom

Whom Borus fent (his fon and only joy)
From fruitful Tarne to the fields of Troy.
The Cretan jav'lin reach'd him from afar,
And pierc'd his shoulder as he mounts his car.
Iliad, v. 57.

It is still worse to fall back to the part in the fame period; for that is an anticlimax in description:

Through breaking ranks his furious course he bends,
And at the goddess his broad lance extends;
Through her bright veil the daring weapon drove,
Th' ambrofial veil, which all the graces wove :
Her fnowy hand the razing steel profan'd,
And the tranfparent skin with crimson ftain'd.

Iliad, V. 415.

Again, describing the shield of Jupiter,

Here all the terrors of grim War appear,
Here rages Force, here tremble Flight and Fear,
Here ftorm'd Contention, and here Fury frown'd,
And the dire orb portentous Gorgon crown'd.

Iliad, v. 914.

Nor is it pleasant to be carried backward and forward alternately in a rapid fucceffion :

Then dy'd Scamandrius, expert in the chace,
In woods and wilds to wound the favage race;
Diana taught him all her fylvan arts,
To bend the bow and aim unerring darts:
But vainly here Diana's arts he tries,
The fatal lance arrefts him as he flies;

From Menelaus' arm the weapon fent,

Through his broad back and heaving bosom went : Down finks the warrior with a thund'ring found, His brazen armour rings against the ground.

Iliad, v. 65.

It is wonderful to obferve, upon what flight foundations Nature erects fome of her moft folid and magnificent works. In appearance at leaft, what can be more flight than ideal prefence; and yet from it is derived that extenfive influence which language hath over the heart; an influence which, more than any other means, ftrengthens the bond of fociety, and attracts individuals from their private fyftem to perform acts of generosity and benevolence. Matters of fact, it is true, and truth in general, may be inculcated without taking advantage of ideal prefence; but without it, the finest speaker or writer would in vain attempt to move any pasfion our sympathy would be confined to objects that are really prefent; and language would lofe entirely its fignal power of making us fympathize with beings removed at the greatest distance of time as well as of place. Nor is the influence of language, by means of ideal prefence, confined to the heart: it reacheth alfo the understanding, and contributes to belief. For when events are related in a lively manner, and every circumstance appears as paffing before us, we fuffer not patiently the truth of the facts to be queftioned

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 pass without examination: a thing ill defcribed is like an object feen at a distance, or through a mift; 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 ftrongest impreffions:

Veraque conftituunt, quæ belle tangere poffunt
Aureis, et lepido quæ funt fucata fonore.

Lucretius, lib. 1. 7. 644.

A masterly painting has the fame effect: Le Brun is no fmall fupport 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

The foregoing theory must have fatigued the reader with much dry reasoning; but his labour will not be fruitlefs; because from that theory are derived many useful rules in criticifm, which fhall be mentioned in their proper places. One fpecimen fhall be our prefent entertainment. Events that surprise 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 courfe 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 restore 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 justified by reafon ;

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.