and alfo to the affairs of unfeen worlds, and fuperior beings. Nor would it be improper to obferve, that the feveral species of Comic, of Tragic, of Epic compofition, are not confined to the fame degree of probability; for that Farce may be allowed to be less probable than the regular Comedy; the Mafque, than the regular Tragedy; and the Mixed Epic, fuch as The Fairy Queen, and Orlando Furiofo, than the pure Epopee of Homer, Virgil, and Milton.- But this

part of the fubject seems not to require further illustration. Enough has been faid, to fhow, that nothing unnatural can please; and that therefore Poetry, whofe end is to please, must be ACCORDING TO NATURE.

And if fo, it must be, either according to real nature, 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.

T

O exhibit real nature is the bufinefs of the historian; who, if he were strictly to confine himself to his own fphere, would

never record even the minutest circumstance of any speech, event, or defcription, 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 history has ever been fo fcrupulous. Thucydides himself, who began his history when that war began which he records, and who fet down every event foon after it happened, according to the most authentic information, feems however to have indulged his fancy not a little in his harangues and defcriptions, 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: thefe improved or invented fpeeches, and by the heightenings thus given to their defcriptions, their work becomes more interesting, and more ufeful; nobody is deceived, and historical truth is not materially affected. A medium is however to be obferved in this, as in other things. When the hiftorian lengthens a defcription 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 raising a fufpicion that he is more intent upon a pretty story, than

upon

upon the truth. And we are disgusted with his infincerity, when, in defiance even of verifimilitude, he puts long elaborate orations in the mouth of thofe, of whom we know, either from the circumftances 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 ftudied 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 hiftory, or of ftory-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 reafon, 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 hall add to the pleafing qualities of real nature, may be devifed 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 hiftorian, his narrative becomes in that degree poeti-. cal.

The poffibility of thus improving upon nature must be obvious to every one. When we look at a landfcape, we can fancy a thoufand 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 majeftic; buildings more magnificent; oceans more varied with islands, more fplendid with fhipping, or more agitated by ftorm, than any we have ever feen, it is eafy for human imagination to conceive. Many things in art and nature exceed expectation; but nothing fenfible tranfcends, or equals, the capacity of thought: :-a ftriking evidence of the dignity of the human foul! The finest woman in the world appears to every eye fufceptible of improvement, except perhaps, to that of her lover. No wonder, then, if in poetry events can be exhibited more compact, and of more pleafing variety, than thofe delineated by the hiftorian, and scenes of inanimate nature more dreadful or more lovely, and human characters more fublime and more exquifite both in good and evil. Yet ftill let nature fupply the ground-work and materials, as well as the standard, of poetical fiction. The most expert painters VOL. II.

G

ufe

use a layman, or other vifible figure, to direct their hand and regulate their fancy. Homer himfelf founds his two poems on authentic tradition; and Tragic as well as Epic poets have followed the example. The writers of romance too are ambitious to interweave true adventures with their fables; and, when it can be conveniently done, to take the outlines of their plan from real life. Thus the tale of Robinson Crufoe is founded on an incident that actually befel one Alexander Selkirk, a fea-faring man, who lived feveral years alone in the island of Juan Fernandes; Smollet is thought to have given us feveral of his own adventures in the hiftory of Roderick Random; and the chief characters in Tom Jones, Jofeph Andrews, and Pamela, are faid to have been copied from real originals. - Dramatic Comedy, indeed, is for the most part purely fictitious for if it were to exhibit real events as well as prefent manners, it would become too perfonal to be endured by a well-bred audience, and degenerate into downright abuse which appears to have been the cafe with the old comedy of the Greeks *. But, in general, hints taken from real existence will be found to give no little grace and stability to fiction, even in the most fanciful poems. Those hints, however, may be improved by

* Compare Hor. lib. 1. fat. 4. verf. 1.-5. with Ar. Poet. verf. 281.-285.

the