wallows in naftiness and brutality; and the general run of his fatire is downright defamation. Lucian's True History is a heap of extravagancies put together without order or unity, or any other apparent defign, than to ridicule the language and manner of grave authors. His ravings, which have no better right to the name of Fable, than a hill of rubbish has to that of Palace, are deftitute of every colour of plaufibility. Animal trees, fhips failing in the fky, armies of monstrous things travelling between the fun and moon on a pavement of cobwebs, rival nations of men inhabiting woods and mountains in a repugnant to the author's defign, and ought not to have found a place in his narration, Yet he makes his beloved quadrupeds dwell in boufes of their own building, and use warm food and the milk of cows as a delicacy: though these luxuries, fuppofed attainable by a nation of horses, could contribute no more to their perfection, than brandy and imprisonment would to that of a man.. -Again, did Swift believe, that religious ideas are natural to a reasonable being, and neceffary to the happiness of a moral one? I hope he did. Yet has he reprefented his bouyhnhnms, as patterns of moral virtue, as the greatest masters of reason, and withal as completely happy, without any religious ideas, or any views beyond the prefent life. In a word, he would make stu pidity confiftent with mental excellence, and unnatural appetites with animal perfection. Thefe, however, are small matters, compared with the other absurdities of this abominable tale. But when a Chriftian Divine can fet himself deliberately to trample upon that nature, which he knows to have been made but a little lower than the angels, and to have been assumed by One far more exalted than they; we need not be surprised if the fame perverfe habits of thinking which harden his heart, fhould alfo debafe his judgment. whale's whale's belly, are liker the dreams of a bedlamite, than the inventions of a rational being. If we were to profecute this fubject any further, it would be proper to remark, that in some kinds of poetical invention a ftricter probability is required than in others :-that, for instance, Comedy, whether Dramatic or Narrative*, must feldom deviate from the ordinary courfe of human affairs, because it exhibits the manners of real, and even of familiar life;-that the Tragic poet, because he imitates characters more exalted, and generally refers to events little known, or long fince past, may be allowed a wider range; but must never attempt the marvellous fictions of the Epic Muse, because he addreffes his work, not only to the passions and imagination of mankind, but also to their eyes and ears, which are not easily imposed on, and refufe to be gratified with any representation that does not come very near the truth; that the Epic Poem may claim ftill ampler privileges, because its fictions are not fubject to the fcrutiny of any outward fenfe, and because it conveys information in regard both to the highest human characters, and the most important and wonderful events, and alfo to the affairs of unfeen worlds, and fuperior beings. Nor would it be improper to obferve, that the feveral fpecies of Comic, of Tragic, of Epic com -- *Fielding's Tom Jones, Amelia, and Joseph Andrews, are examples of what I call the Epic or Narrative Comedy: perhaps the Comic Epopee is a more proper term, position, pofition, are not confined to the fame degree of probability; for that Farce may be allowed to be lefs probable than the regular Comedy; the Mafque, than the regular Tragedy; and the Mixed Epic, fuch as The Fairy Queen, and Orlando Furioso, than the pure Epopee of Homer, Virgil, and Milton. fubject feems not to require Enough has been faid, to But this part of the further illuftrationfhow, that nothing unnatural can please; and that therefore Poetry, whofe end is to please, must be AGCORDING TO NATURE. And if so, it must be, either according to real pature, or according to nature fomewhat different from the reality. CHA P. III. Poetry exhibits a fyftem of nature fomewhat different from the reality of things. 10 exhibit real nature is the business of the hif T torian; who, if he were ftrictly to confine himself to his own fphere, would never record even the minutest circumftance of any speech, event, or description, which was not warranted by fufficient authority. It has been the language of critics in every age, that the hiftorian ought to relate nothing as true which is falfe or dubious, and to conceal nothing material which he knows to be true. But I doubt whether any writer of profane hiftory has ever been fo fcrupulous. Thucydides himself, who began his hiftory when that war began which he records, and who set down every event soon after it happened, according to the most authentic information, seems however to have indulged his fancy not a little in his harangues and descriptions, particularly that of the plague of Athens: And the fame thing has been practifed, with greater latitude, by Livy and Tacitus, and more or lefs by all the best hiftorians, both ancient and modern. Nor do I blame them for it. By these improved or invented speeches, and by the heightenings thus given to their defcriptions, their work becomes more interesting, and more useful; nobody is deceived, and historical truth is not materially affected. A medium is however to be observed in this, as in other things. When the historian lengthens a description into a detail of fictitious events, as Voltaire has done in his account of the battle of Fontenoy, he lofes his credit with us, by raifing a fufpicion that he is more intent upon a pretty story, than upon the truth. And we are disgufted with his infincerity, when, in defiance even of verifimilitude, he puts long and elaborate orations in the mouth of thofe, of whom we know, either from the circumstances that they could not, or from more authentic records that they did not, make any fuch orations; as Dionyfius of Halicarnaffus has done, in the cafe of Volumnia haranguing her fon Coriolanus, and Flavius Jofephus in that of Judah addreffing his brother as viceroy of Egypt. From what thefe hiftorians relate, one would conjecture, that the Roman matron had studied at Athens under fome long-winded rhetorician, and that the Jewish patriarch must have been one of the most flowery orators of antiquity. But the fictitious part of history, or of story-telling, ought never to take up much room; and must be highly blameable when it leads into any mistake either of facts or of characters. Now, why do hiftorians take the liberty to embellish their works in this manner? One reason, no doubt, is, that they may difplay their talents in oratory and narration: But the chief reafon, as hinted already, is, to render their compofition more agreeable. It would feem, then, that fomething more pleafing than real nature, or fomething which fhall add to the pleafing qualities of real nature, may be devised by human fancy. And this may certainly be done. And this it is the poet's business to do. And when this is in any degree done by the historian, his narrative becomes in that degree poetical. The poffibility of thus improving upon nature must be obvious to every one. When we look at a landscape, we can fancy a thousand additional embellishments. Mountains loftier and more picturefque; rivers more copious, more limpid, and more beautifully winding; fmoother and wider lawns; vallies more richly diverfified; caverns and rocks more gloomy and more ftupendous; ruins more majestic; buildings more magnificent; oceans more |