representations of them, by raising the actor's stature to a supernatural height upon stilts or cothurni, by augmenting his bulk in proportion with stuffed garments, and giving him the inflated features of a vast and hideous mask; which served at the same time to swell and deepen the tones of his voice *.

27. This expansion of the imagination, by a systematic elevation of language, is one of the most efficacious means of giving poetical probability'; or making supernatural events appear credible for, when once we have conceived supernatural ideas of the characters, we expect them to perform supernatural actions. actions. The fictions of the Iliad are as extravagant as those of any common romance or book of knighterrantry; and if we read them in prose, we immediately perceive them to be so; but the enthusiasm of the poet's numbers so expands the imaginations of his readers, that they spontaneously conceive ideas of his characters adequate to the actions which he makes them perform.

* ως ειδεχθες άμα και φοβερον θεαμα, εις μήκος αρρυθμον ησκημενος ανθρωπος, εμβαταις ὑψηλοις εποχούμενος, προσωπον υπερ κεφαλης ανατεινομενον επικειμενος, και στομα κεχηνος παμμεγά, ὡς καταπιόμενος τους θεατας. εω λέγειν προστερνίδια, και προγαστ τρίλια, προσθετην και επίτεχνητην παχυτητα προσποιουμενος, ὡς μη του μήκους ή αρρυθμία εν λεπτῳ, μαλλον ελεγχοιτο. ειτ' ενδοθεν αυτος κεκραγώς, ἑαυτον ανακλων, και κατακλων, ενιοτε και περιοδων τα ιαμβεία, και, το δη αίσχιστον, μελῳδων τας συμφορας, και μονης της φωνης ὑπευθυνον παρέχων ἑαυτον. LUCIAN de Saltat,

28. But even with this magical enthusiasm of verse, had Achilles been brought into action at once; and, without our having any previous acquaintance with him, defeated a whole Trojan army of fifty thousand men by the force of his single arm, we should have turned away with coldness and disgust from so absurd a tale: but the poet has opened his character to us by degrees; and raised it by artful contrasts, and allusions seemingly accidental, scattered through all the preceding parts of the poem :-every faculty of his mind, too, is upon the same scale as the strength and agility of his body; all that he says being distinguished by a glow of imagination, a fervor of passion, and energy of reasoning peculiar to himself:-even the tender affections of his mind partake of its greatness and its pride: his piety is reverence and not fear; his friendship gives, but never seeks protection; his love imparts favour, which it scorns to ask; and his grief assumes the character of rage, and expends itself in menaces and vows of vengeance against those who have caused it. By an artful concatenation of circumstances, seemingly accidental, he is shown to the reader under the influence of every passion by turns, all of which operate to the same end, and conspire to swell his rage, rendered doubly dreadful by despair and impending death. In this temper of mind, endowed with more than mor

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tal strength, and clad in celestial armour, he is shown advancing to the fight, like the autumnal star, whose approach taints the air, and diffuses disease, pestilence, and death. Such an image prepares the mind for the events that follow, which thence seem natural consequences, instead of extravagant fictions *.

29. To describe such a character as this, or indeed any other, requires neither feeling nor talents but to delineate or represent it-to exhibit it speaking and acting under the influence of all the variety of passions, to which it is liable-requires the utmost perfection of both; and the more highly the picture is finished, the greater is the difficulty and the greater the merit for it is in the little expressions of nature, and circumstances of truth, that the mind discovers and feels the resemblance between fiction and reality; and thence gives credit to the former, when it embellishes and exaggerates. Truth is naturally circumstantial, especially in matters that interest the feelings; for that, which has been strongly impressed upon the mind, naturally leaves precise and determinate ideas: whence a narration is always rendered more credible by being minutely detailed; provided the minute particulars are such as really do happen in similar transactions,

αρισται των υπερβολων αἱ αυτο τωτο διαλανθανεσαι, ότι Evoir VπEgSoλa.—LONGIN. f. XXXviii.

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with which we are acquainted. That which is demonstrably false can never, by any means, acquire even the semblance of truth; but that, which we judge to be false only by analogy and general experience, may acquire such semblance, by being connected with circumstances, which, demonstration or experience tell us, are true; or by arising out of events, which analogy tells us, may be true; and the more of these real circumstances, and probable events are connected with it, the more credible will it seem.

30. Hence we may account for the extreme exactitude, with which, that supreme master of fiction, the author of the Iliad, has described every thing, in which error or inaccuracy might be detected, either by experience, or demonstration. The structure of the human body; the effects of wounds; the symptoms of death; the actions and manners of wild beasts; the relative situations of cities and countries; and the influence of winds and tempests upon the waters of the sea, are all described with a precision, which, not only no other poet, but scarcely any technical writer upon the respective subjects of anatomy, hunting, geography and navigation has ever attained. The hyper-" boles are all in the actions of his gods and heroes; in which, exaggeration could not be detected: but in every object and every circumstance, which it was possible for his audience

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practically to know, the most scrupulous exactness, in every minute particular, is religiously observed. There are near twenty descriptions of the various effects of wind upon water-all different, and all without one fictitious or exaggerated circumstance-no fluctus ad sidera tollit; or imo consurgit ad æthera fundo, which even Virgil, the most modest of his imitators, has not avoided, but the common occurrences of nature, raised into sublimity by being selected with taste, and expressed with energy.

31. The untutored, but uncorrupted feelings of all unpolished nations have regulated their fictions upon the same principles, even when most rudely exhibited. In relating the actions of their gods and deceased heroes, they are licentiously extravagant: for there falsehood could amuse, because it could not be detected: but in describing the common appearances of nature; and all those objects and effects, which are exposed to habitual observation, their bards are scrupulously exact; so that an extravagant hyperbole, in a matter of this kind, is sufficient to mark as counterfeit any composition attri buted to them. In the early stages of society, men are as acute and accurate in practical observation, as they are limited and deficient in speculative science; and in proportion as they are ready to give up their imaginations to