thinks for himfelf, has also another paffage too full of strong fenfe, and too appofite to the subject before us, to be here omitted.

"CRITICISM, though dignified, from the earliest ages, by the labours of men eminent for knowledge and fagacity, and, fince the revival of polite literature, the favourite study of European scholars, has not yet attained the certainty and ftability of fcience. The rules that have been hitherto received, are feldom drawn from any fettled principle, or felf-evident poftulate; nor are adapted to the natural and invariable constitution of things: but will be found upon examination, to be the arbitrary edicts of dictators exalted by their own authority, who out of many means by which the fame end may be attained, selected those which happened to occur to their own reflection; and then by an edict, which idlenefs and timidity were willing to obey, prohibited any new experiments of wit, reftrained fanfy from the indulgence of her innate inclination to hazard and adventure, and condemned

condemned all the future flights of genius, to perfue the path of the Mæonian eagle.

THE authority claimed by critics may be more justly opposed, as it is apparently derived from them whom they endeavour to controul; for we are indebted for a very fmall part of the rules of writing to the acutenefs of those by whom they are delivered. The critics have generally no other merit, than that of having read the works of great authors with attention; they have observed the arrangement of their matter, and the graces of their expreffion; and then expect honour and reverence for precepts, which they never could have invented: fo that practice has introduced rules, rather than rules have directed practice.

For this reason, the laws of every fpecies of writing have been fettled by the ideas of him by whom it was first raised to reputation; without much enquiry, whether his performances were not yet fufceptible of improvement. The excellencies and the faults

of celebrated writers have been equally recommended to pofterity; and fo far has blind reverence prevailed, that the NUMBER of their BOOKS has been thought worthy of imitation *."

THIS liberal and manly cenfure of critical bigotry, extends not to those fundamental and indifpenfable rules, which nature and neceffity dictate, and demand to be observed; fuch for inftance, as in the higher kinds of poetry, that the action of the epopea be one, great, and entire; that the hero be eminently distinguished, move our concern, and deeply intereft us; that the episodes arise eafily out of the main fable; that the action commence as near the catastrophe as poffible: and, in the drama, that no more events be crowded together, than can be justly supposed to happen during the time of reprefentation, or to be tranfacted on one individual spot, and the like. But the abfurdity here animadverted on, is the fcrupulous nicety of those, who bind themselves to obey frivolous and unim

• No. 158.

portant

portant laws; fuch as, that an epic poem fhould confift not of less than twelve books; that it should end fortunately; that in the first book there fhould be no fimile; that the exordium should be very fimple and unadorned; that in a tragedy, only three perfonages fhould appear at once upon the stage; and that every tragedy fhould consist of five acts; by the rigid observation of which last unneceffary precept, the poet is deprived of using many a moving ftory, that would furnish matter enough for three perhaps, but not for five acts; with other rules, of the like indifferent nature. For the reft, as Voltaire observes, * whether the action of an epopea be fimple or complex, completed in a month or in a year, or a longer time, whether the scene be fixed on one spot, as in the Iliad; or that the hero voyages from fea to sea, as in the Odyffey; whether he be furious like Achilles, or pious like Eneas; whether the action pafs on land or fea; on the coast of Africa, as in the Luziada of Camoens; in

* Effay fur la poefie Epique, pag. 339. tom. 1.

America,

Loft;

America, as in the Araucana of Alonzo D' Ercilla; in heaven, in hell, beyond the limits of our world, as in the Paradife all thefe circumftances are of no confequence: the poem will be for ever an Epic poem, an Heroic poem; at least, till another new title be found proportioned to its merit. If you fcruple, fays Addison, to give the title of an Epic poem to the Paradife Loft of Milton, call it, if you choose, a DIVINE poem, give it whatever name you pleafe; provided you confefs, that it is a work as admirable in its kind as the Iliad. "To difpute about titles is an unpardonable puerility."

8. Hear how learn'd Greece her useful rules indites, When to reprefs, and when indulge our flights *.

In the second part of Shaftesbury's ADVICE to an Author, is a judicious and elegant account of the rife and progrefs of arts and sciences, in ancient Greece; to fubjects of which fort, it were to be wifhed this author

* Ver. 92.

had