obability
and neglecting the Admirable; whereby he loses that agreeableness which is
a mixture of both. He ought then to take more care than some have done,
not to keep himself too long behind the Scenes, and trust the Narration
with another, which, without a great deal of Art and Pains, will take off
much of the Life of the Work, as Longinus has already formerly observed.

And here come in the Qualities of Narration, mentioned in our Definition,
that it ought to be done in a manner probable, agreeable, and admirable;
'tis rendered probable by its Simplicity and Singularity, and admirable by
the Grandeur of the Subject, the Figures and Machines, or [Greek: theoi
apo mechanes], much more lawful here than in the Drama's; and lastly
agreeable, as has been said, by a mixture of both.

The last thing in our Definition, is, the End of Epic, indeed the first
and principal which ought to be intended, and that's Instruction, not
only, as Rapin thinks, of great Men, but of all, as in Virgil's Scheme,
which we have already described; and, this either by the principal Moral
aim'd at in the whole, or the Manners of particular Persons. Of Fable and
Moral, I've already discours'd, and whether be the more lively and
probable way to instruct, by that or History. But here it may be worth the
while to enquire, whether the principal Hero in Epic ought to be virtuous?
Bossu thinks not, the manners being formed as well by seeing Errors as
Beauties in the chief Actors; but yet methinks it seems too much to form a
Hero that's a perfect Almanzor, with not one spark of Vertue, and only
remarkable for his extraordinary Strength and little Brains; such was
certainly Homer's Achilles, of whom I think the Father was in the right
when he observes, the Poet makes him not do one brave or virtuous Action,
all the while he lies before the Town: whereas Virgil's Hero, is, to tell
truth, an indifferent good Heathen, and, bating one or two slips, comes up
pretty well to his own good word. The same however may be said for Homer,
which our present Dramatists plead for their Excuse; that he copied his
Hero from those who were esteemed such in the barbarous Age in which he
liv'd,

Impiger, iracundus, inexorabllis, acer,
Jura neget sibi nata, &c.

Made up of Lewdness, Love, and Fighting: who, had he liv'd in our Days,
would have made an excellent Town Bully, I wish there were not too much
reason to say a modish Gentleman. But tho' old Homer took this way,