ul. Indeed, we do not
hesitate to say, that the temperament of his mind is the ruin of his
poem. We shall take the liberty, as we have intimated, of touching upon
these defects as moral delinquincies, under another head; but for the
present we wish to notice them merely as poetical errors.

The legitimate object, then, of poetry, as we have said, is to
_instruct_ by _pleasing_; and, caeteris paribus, that poem is the best
which conveys the noblest lessons in the most attractive form. If, in
reply to this, it is urged that the heathen poets, and especially Homer,
taught no lesson to his readers; we answer, that he taught all the
lessons which, in his own days, were deemed of highest importance to his
country. The first object of philosophers and other teachers, in those
days, was to make good soldiers, and therefore to condemn the vices
which interfered with successful warfare. Now be it remembered, that the
grand topic of the Iliad is the fatal influence of the wrath of kings on
the success of armies. Its first words are [Greek: MENIN aeide]. Besides
this, the Iliad upholds the national mythology, or the only accredited
religion; and by a bold fiction, bordering upon truth, displays in an
Elysium and Tartarus, the eternal mansions of the good and bad, the
strongest incentive to virtue and penalty to vice. Indeed, that both
this and the Odyssey had a moral object, and that this object was
recognized by the ancients, may be inferred from Horace, who says of
Homer, in reference to the first poem:

"Qui, quid sit pulchrum, quid turpe, quid utile, quid non,
Plenius ac melius Chrysippo aut Crantore dicit."

And as to the second:

"Rursum--quid virtus, et quid sapientia possit,
Utile proposuit nobis exemplar Ulyssem." Epist. I. 2.

Many of the Odes of Horace had a patriotic subject--his Epistles and
Satires, with those of Juvenal and Persius, were the sermons of the
day. Virgil chiefly proposed to himself to exalt in his hero the
character of a patriot, and, in his fictitious history, the dignity of
his country. If the lessons they taught were of small importance or
doubtful value, or if they often forget to "teach" in their ambition to
"please," this is to be charged rather on the age than on the poet. They
taught the best lessons they knew; and were satisfied to please only
when they had nothing better to do. In modern times, it will not be
questioned that the greatest poets have ever endeavoured to ensh