many affecting incidents. He must not dazzle us perpetually with valiant achievments; for all readers become tired of constant fighting, and battles; but he must study to touch our hearts. He may sometimes be awful and august; he must often be tender and pathetic; he must give us gentle and pleasing scenes of love, friendship, and affection. The more an epic poet abounds with situations which awaken the feelings of humanity, the more interesting it is; and these always form, the favorite passages of the work. No epic poets are more happy in this respect than Virgil and Tasso.

607. Much, too, depends on the characters of the heroes, for rendering the poem interesting; that they be such as shall strongly attach the readers, and make them take part in the dangers which the heroes

encounter.

Illus. These dangers or obstacles, form what is called the nodus, or the intrigue of the epic poem; in the judicious conduct of which consists much of the poet's art. He must rouse our attention, by a prospect of the difficulties which seem to threaten disappointment to the enterprise of his favourite personages; he must make these difficulties grow and thicken upon us, by degrees; till, after having kept us for some time, in a state of agitation and suspense, he paves the way, by a proper preparation of incidents, for the winding up of the plot in a natural and probable manner. It is plain, that every tale which is designed to engage attention, must be conducted on a plan of this sort.

608. A question has been moved, Whether the nature of the epic poem does not require that it should always end successfully? Most critics are inclined to think, that a successful issue is the most proper; and they appear to have reason on their side. An unhappy conclusion depresses the mind, and is opposite to the elevating emotions which belong to this species of poetry.

609. With regard to the time or duration of the epic action, no precise boundaries can be ascertained. A considerable extent is always allowed to it, as it does not necessarily depend on those violent passions which can be supposed to have only a short continuance.

Illus. The Iliad, which is formed upon the anger of Achilles, has, with propriety, the shortest duration of any of the great epic poems. According to Bossu, the action lasts no longer than forty

seven days. The action of the Odyssey, computed from the taking of Troy to the peace of Ithaca, extends to eight years and a half; and the action of the Eneid, computed in the same way, from the taking of Troy to the death of Turnus, includes about six years. But if we measure the period only of the poet's own narration, or compute from the time in which the hero makes his first appearance, till the conclusion, the duration of both these last poems is brought within a much smaller compass. The Odyssey; beginning with Ulysses in the island of Calypso, comprehends fifty-eight days only; and the Eneid, beginning with the storm, which throws Eneas upon the coast of Africa, is reckoned to include, at the most, a year and some months.

Obs. Having thus treated of the epic action, or the subject of the poem, we proceed next to make some observations on the actors or personages.

610. As it is the business of an epic poet to copy after nature, and to form a probable interesting tale, he must study to give all his personages proper and well-supported characters, such as display the features of human nature. This is what Aristotle calls, giving manners to the poem.

Obs. It is by no means necessary, that all his actors be morally good; imperfect, nay, vicious characters, may find a proper place; though the nature of epic poetry seems to require, that the principal figures exhibited should be such as tend to raise admiration and love, rather than hatred or contempt. But whatever the character be which a poet gives to any of his actors, he must take care to preserve it uniform, and consistent with itself. Every thing which that person says, or does, must be suited to this uniformity, and must serve to distinguish him from any other.

611. Poetic characters may be divided into two kinds, general and particular.

1st. General characters are, such as wise, brave, virtuous, without any father distinction.

2nd. Particular characters express the species of bravery, of wisdom, of virtue, for which any one is eminent.

Illus. They exhibit the peculiar features which distinguish one individual from another, which mark the difference of the same moral quality in different men, according as it is combined with other dispositions in their temper. In drawing such particular characters, the genius of the poet is chiefly exerted.

Obs. In this part Homer has particularly excelled; Tasso has come the nearest to Homer; and Virgil has been the most deficient.

612. It has been the practice of all epic poets, to select some one personage, whom they distinguish above all the rest, and make the hero of the tale. This is considered as essential to epic composition, and is attended with several advantages.

Illus. It renders the unity of the subject more sensible, when there is one principal figure, to which, as to a centre all the rest re fer. It tends to interest us more in the enterprise which is carried on; and it gives the poet an opportunity of exerting his talents for adorning and displaying one character, with peculiar splendour.

2. It has been asked, Who then is the hero of Paradise Lost? Satan, it has been answered by some critics; but Adam is undoubtedly the hero; that is, the capital and most interesting figure in the poem.

613. Besides human actors, there are personages of another kind, that usually occupy no small place in epic poetry; namely, the gods, or supernatural beings; forming what is called the machinery of the epic poem.

Illus. 1. Almost all the French critics decide in favour of machinery, as essential to the constitution of an epic poem. This decision seems to be founded on the practice of Homer and Virgil. These poets very properly embellished their story by the traditional tales and popular legends of their own country; according to which, all the great transactions of the heroic times were intermixed with the fables of their deities. (Illus. Art. 29.)

2. In other countries, and other ages, where there is not the like advantage of current superstition, and popular credulity, epic poetry has been differently conducted. Lucan has composed a very spirited poem, certainly of the epic kind, where neither gods nor supernatural beings are at all employed. The author of Leonidas has made an attempt of the same kind, not without success; and beyond doubt, wherever a poet gives us a regular heroic story, well connected in its parts, adorned with characters, and supported with proper dignity and elevation, though his agents be every one of them human, he has fulfilled the chief requisites of this sort of composition, and has a just title to be classed with epic writers.

3. Mankind do not consider poetical writings with a philosophical eye. They seek entertainment from them; and for the bulk of readers, indeed for almost all men, the marvellous has a great charm. It gratifies and fills the imagination; and gives room for many striking and sublime descriptions. In epic poetry in particular, where admiration and lofty ideas are supposed to reign, the marvellous and supernatural find, if any where, their proper place. They both enable the poet to aggrandize his subject, by means of those august and solemn objects which religion and supernatural agents intro

EE

duce into it; and they allow him to enlarge and diversify his plan, by comprehending within it the realities of earth, the probabilities of Elysium and of Tartarus, men and invisible beings, and the whole circle of the universe.

614. At the same time, in the use of this supernatural machinery, it becomes a poet to be temperate and prudent. He is not at liberty to invent what system of the marvellous he pleases. It must always have some foundation in popular belief. He must avail himself in a decent manner, either of the religious faith, or the superstitious credulity of the country wherein he lives, or of which he writes, so as to give an air of probability to events which are most contrary to the common course of nature.

Illus. Whatever machinery he employs, he must not overload us with it; nor withdraw human actions and manners too much from view, nor obscure them under a cloud of incredible fictions. His chief business is to relate to men, the actions and exploits of men ; by these principally he is to interest, and touch our hearts; and, therefore, if probability be altogether banished from his work, it can never make a deep or lasting impression. Paradise Lost being altogether theological, Milton's supernatural beings form not the machinery, but are the principal actors in the poem.

615. Allegorical personages, fame, discord, love, and the like, it may be safely pronounced, have been supposed to form the worst machinery of any.

Illus. In description they are sometimes allowable, and may serve for embellishment; but they should never be permitted to bear any share in the action of the poem. For being plain and declared fictions, mere names of general ideas, to which even fancy cannot attribute any existence as persons, if they are introduced as mingling with human actors, an intolerable confusion of shadows and realities arise, and all consistency of action is utterly destroyed. (See Art. 307. and 308.)

616. In the narration of the poet, which is the last head that remains to be considered, it is not material, whether he relate the whole story in his own character, or introduce some of his personages to relate any part of the action that had passed before the poem opens.

Illus. Homer follows the one method in his Iliad, and the other in his Odyssey. Virgil has, in this respect, imitated the conduct of the Odyssey; Tasso that of the Iliad.

617. In the proposition of the subject, the invocation of the muse, and other ceremonies of the introduction, poets may vary at their pleasure.

Illus. It is trifling to make these little formalities the object of precise rule, any farther, than that the subject of the work should always be clearly proposed, and without affected or unsuitable pomp. For, according to Horace's noted rule, no introduction should ever set out too high, or promise too much, lest the author should not fulfill the expectations he has raised.

618. What is of most importance in the tenor of the narration is, that it be perspicuous, animated, and enriched with all the beauties of poetry. No sort of composition requires more strength, dignity, and fire of imagination, than the epic poem.

Illus. 1. It is the region within which we look for every thing that is sublime in description, tender in sentiment, and bold and lively in expression; and therefore, though an author's plan should be faultless, and his story ever so well conducted, yet if he be feeble, or flat in style, destitute of affecting scenes, and deficient in poetical colouring, he can have no success.

2. The ornaments which epic poetry admits, must all be of the grave and chaste kind. Nothing that is loose, ludicrous, or affected, finds any place there. All the objects which it presents ought to be either great, or tender, or pleasing. Descriptions of disgusting or shocking objects should as much as possible be avoided; and therefore the fable of the Harpies, in the third book of the Eneid, and the allegory of Sin and Death, in the second book of Paradise Lost, had been better omitted in these celebrated poems.

Obs. The judicious teacher is left to illustrate, from the epic poems to which we have referred the several branches of composition and ornament for, which we have furnished rules or criteria of judg

ment.

CHAPTER VIII.

CONCLUSION.

ON PRONUNCIATION, OR DELIVERY.

619. THE great objects which every speaker will naturally have, in view in forming his delivery, are, first, to speak so as to be fully and easily under