After carrying on together epic and dramatic com pofitions, I fhall mention circumftances peculiar to each; begining with the epic kind. In a theatrical entertainment, which employs both the eye and the ear, it would be a grofs abfurdity, to introduce upon the ftage fuperior beings in a vifible fhape. There is no place for fuch objection in an epic poem; and Boileau,* with many other critics, declares ftrongly for that fort of machinery in an epic poem. But waving authority, which is apt to impofe upon the judg ment, let us draw what light we can from reafon. begin with a preliminary remark, That this matter is but indictinctly handled by critics: the poetical privilege of animating infenfible objects for enlivening a defcription, is very different from what is termed machinery, where deities, angels, devils, or other fupernatural powers, are introduced as real perfonages, mixing in the action, and contributing to the cataftrophe; and yet these are conftantly jumbled together in the reafoning. The former is founded on a natural principle ;t but can the latter claim the fame

I

chaque interlocuteur eft toujours celui de briller. Prefque tout s'enonce en maximes générales. Quelque agités qu'ils puiffent être, ils fongent toujours plus au public qu'à eux mêmes; une fentence leur coute moins qu'un fentiment; les pieces de Racine et de Moliere exceptées, le je eft prefque auffi fcrupuleufement banni de la fcene Françoife que des écrits de Port-Royal; et les paffions humaines, auffi modeftes que l'humilité Chrétienne, n'y parlent jamais que par on. Il y a encore une certaine dignité manierée dans la gefte et dans le propos, qui ne permet jamais à la paffion de parler exactement fon language, ni à l'auteur de revetir fon perfonage, et de fe tranfporter au lieu de la fcene; mais le tient toujours enchainé fur le théatre, et fous les yeux des spectateurs. Auffi les fituations les plus vives ne lui font-elles jamais oublier un bel arrangement de phrafes, ni des attitudes élégantes; et fi le de felpoir lui plonge un poignard dans le cœur, non content d'obferver la décence en tombant comme Polixene, il ne tombe point; la décence le maintient debout après la mort, et tous ceux qui viennent d'expirer s'en retournent l'in flant d'après fur leurs jambes.

* Third part of his art of poetry,

† Chap. 20. fe&t. 1,

Rouffeau

fame authority,? far from it; nothing is more unnatural. Its effects, at the fame time, are deplorable. First, it gives an air of fiction to the whole; and prevents that impreffion of reality, which is requifite to intereft our affections, and to move our paffions.* This of itfelf is fufficient to explode machinery, whatever entertainment it may afford to readers of a fantastic taste or irregular imagination. And, next, were it poffible, by difguifing the fiction, to delude us into a notion of reality, which I think can hardly be; ; an infuperable, objection would ftill remain, that the aim or end of an epic poem can never be attained in any perfection, where machinery is introduced; for an evident reafon, that virtuous emotions cannot be raifed fuccefsfully, but by the actions of those who are endued with paffions and affections like our own, that is, by human actions: and as for moral instruction, it is clear, that none can be drawn from beings who act not upon the fame principles with us. A fable in Efop's manner is no objection to this reafoning: his lions, bulls, and goats, are truly men in disguise: they act and feel in every refpect as human beings; and the moral we draw is founded on that fuppofition. Homer, it is true, introduces the gods into his fable: but the religion of his country authorised that liberty; it being an article in the Grecian creed, that the gods often interpofe vifibly and bodily in human affairs. I must however obferve, that Homer's deities do no honour to his poems: fictions that tranfgrefs the bounds. of nature, feldom have a good effect: they may inflame the imagination for a moment, but will not be relished by any perfon of a correct tafte. They may be

CH. XXII be of fome ufe to the lower rank of writers; but an author of genius has much finer materials of Nature's production, for elevating his subject, and making it interesting.

One would be apt to think, that Boileau, declaring for the Heathen deities as above, intended them only for embellishing the diction: but unluckily he banishes angels and devils, who undoubtedly make a figure in poetic language, equal to the Heathen deities. Boileau, therefore, by pleading for the latter in oppofition to the former, 'certainly meant, if he had any distinct meaning, that the Heathen deities may be introduced as actors. And, in fact, he himself is guilty of that glaring abfurdity, where it is not fo pardonable as in an epic poem. In his ode upon the taking of Namur he demands with a most ferious countenance, whether the walls were built by Apollo or Neptune? and in relating the paffage of the Rhine anno 1672, he describes the god of that river as fighting with all his might to oppose the French monarch: which is confounding fiction with reality at a strange rate. The French writers in general run into this error: wonderful the effect of custom, to hide from them how ridiculous fuch fictions are!

That this is a capital error in the Gierufalemme liberata, Taffo's greatest admirers must acknowledge: a fituation can never be intricate, nor the reader ever in pain about the catastrophe, as long as there is an angel, devil, or magician, to lend a helping hand. Voltaire, in his effay upon epic poetry, talking of the Pharfalia, obferves judiciously," That the proximity of time, the notoriety of events, the character of the age, enlightened and political, joined with the folidity of Lucan's subject, deprived him of poetical fiction.". Is it not amazing, that a

critic who reasons fo juftly with refpect to others, can be fo blind with refpect to himself? Voltaire, not fatisfied to enrich his language with images drawn from invisible and fuperior beings, introduces them into the action: in the fixth canto of the Henriade St. Louis appears in perfon, and terrifies the foldiers in the seventh canto, St. Louis fends the god of Sleep to Henry; and in the tenth, the demons of Difcord, Fanaticism, War, &c. affift Aumale in a fingle combat with Turenne, and are driven away by a good angel brandishing the fword of God. To blend fuch fictitious perfonages in the fame action with mortals, makes a bad figure at any rate; and is intolerable in a history fo recent as that of Henry But perfection is not the lot of man.*

IV.

I have tried ferious reafonings upon this fubject: but ridicule, I fuppose, will be found a more fuccefsful weapon, which Addison has applied in an elegant manner: "Whereas the time of a general peace is, in all appearance, drawing near; being informed that there are several ingenious perfons who intend to fhow their talents on so happy an occasion, and being willing, as much as in me lies, to prevent that effufion

* When I commenced author, my aim was to amufe, and perhaps to inftruct, but never to give pain. I accordingly avoided every living author, till the Henriade occurred to me as the best inftance I could find for illuftrating the doctrine in the text; and I yielded to the temptation, judging that my flight criticisms would never reach M. de Voltaire. They have, however reached him; and have, as I am informed, flirred up fome refentment. I am afflicted at this information; for what title have I to wound the mind more than the body? It would befide fhow ingratitude to a celebrated writer, who is highly entertaining, and who has bestowed on me many a delicious morfel. My only excufe for giving offence is, that it was undefigned; for to plead that the cenfure is juft, is no excufe. As the offence was public, I take this opportunity to make the apology equally fo. I hope it will be fatisfactory: perhaps not. I owe it however to my own character.

effufion of nonfenfe, which we have good caufe to apprehend; I do hereby ftrictly require every perfon who fhall write on this fubject, to remember that he is a Christian, and not to facrifice his catechism to his poetry. In order to it, I do expect of him, in the first place, to make his own poem without depending upon Phoebus for any part of it, or calling out for aid upon any of the mufes by name. I do likewife pofitively forbid the fending of Mercury with any particular meffage or dispatch relating to the pence; and fhall by no means fuffer Minerva to take upon her the fhape of any plenipotentiary concerned in this great work. I do farther declare, that I fhall not allow the deftinies to have had an hand in the deaths of the feveral thoufands who have been flain in the late war; being of opinion that all fuch deaths may be well accounted for by the Chriftian fyftem of powder and ball. I do therefore ftrictly forbid the fates to cut the thread of man's life upon any pretence whatfoever, unless it be for the fake of the rhyme. And whereas I have good reafon to fear, that Neptune will have a great deal of bufinefs on his hands in feveral poems which we may now fuppofe are upon the anvil, I do alfo prohibit his appearance, unlefs it be done in metaphor, fimile, or any very short allufion and that even here he may not be permitted to enter, but with great caution and circumfpection. I defire that the fame rule may be extended to his whole fraternity of Heathen gods; it being my defign, to condemn every poem to the flames in which Jupiter thunders, or exercises any other act of authority which does not belong to him. In fhort, I expect that no Pagan agent fhall be introduced, or any fact related which a man cannot give credit to with a good confcience. Provided always, that nothing herein contained fhall extend, or be conftrued

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