Death that he resolves to die yet he too descends to Entreaties But those Entreaties are only that he may be buried in the same Grave with his much lamented Lausus All which is extreamly natural For Mezentius was intrepid by Nature and a confirm'd Atheist And that lovely Son was for ever snatch'd from him who was the only Person and the only Thing of all the World in which he could take delight Now a Man must of necessity despise Death who is fierce and valiant by Nature and who has lost the only Object that made him in love with Life and who besides all this contemn'd the Gods and laugh'd at Futurity We have said above that Men who are transported by Passions to great Offences when those Passions come to be calm'd by the approach of Death acknowledge their Faults and repent of the Wrongs they have done But nothing is more common than for one who has liv'd an Atheist to go out of the World remorseless and insensible Mezentius then speaks as one of his Character and in his Circumstances would probably speak when he cries out Nec mortem horremus nec divum parcimus ulli Desine jam venio moriturus Lib. 10. v. 879. And a little afterwards when Aeneas had him at his Mercy Host is amare quid increpitas mortemque miner is Nullum in caede nefas nec sic ad praelia veni Nec tecum meus haec pepigit mihi foedera Lausus Yet in the midst of this obstinate Intrepidity Virgil finds a way to make him descend to Entreaty For he desires that his Body may be preserv'd from the Rage of his Subjects and be buried by that of his dear Lausus Unum hoc per siqua est victis venia hostibus oro Corpus humo patiare tegi scio acerba meorum Circumst are odia hunc oro defende furorem Et me consortem nati concede sepulchro Lib. 10. v. 903. Where we may observe by the way that he takes notice of the Wrongs which he has done his Subjects without the least Remorse Now the Concern that he shows for his Funeral and his Request to be buried with his Lausus seems to be extreamly natural even in one of his undaunted and unrelenting Temper And there is something seen every day in the World that is very like it For nothing is more common than to find an expiring Person who because he knows himself very stupid believes he has no Soul seem very sollicitous for his Carkass For it is impossible for any Man so far to stifle Eternal Truths and the Dictates of Common Nature but that there will be always some Remains of them and the departing Soul of the most obstinate and invincible Atheist by a glimmering Consciousness of its Immortality will provide for something at least to come And thus we have plainly prov'd that Virgil has made the principal Quality of his Hero's Character shine even in the opposite Characters and that without the least Violation of the fourth Condition of the Manners Now since Virgil has done nothing even by varying the Manners in these opposite Characters but what the strictest Reason requires I think it will be needless to prove that one of his admirable Judgment has maintain'd the Manners in the rest of the Characters with the severest Constancy I have shown that Mr. Blackmore has been so very far from maintaining this scrupulous Unity or from observing this exact Regularity or from preserving a Unity of Character in his Hero through his Poem that he has neither mark'd any predominant or distinguishing Quality in his Hero nor preserv'd the Qualities in them which he has mark'd which being ill maintain'd are consequently ill express'd Upon which account they can neither be resembling nor convenient Thus much we have said of the Characters in which if we appear to have been tedious I hope the Reader will excuse it Since we have already demonstrated of what importance they are to the Moral and since we shall show by the Sequel of this Discourse in what an extraordinary Manner they influence not only the Passions but all the Incidents CHAP. V. That the Incidents in Prince Arthur are not of a delightfull Nature WE now come to the â—…econd thing which makes the Narration delightfull and that is the things included in it In the former part of this Treatise we spoke of the Episodes as they are necessary parts of the Action We shall now speak of the Incidents which compose those Episodes or of those probable Circumstances which extend each part of the Action to the length of a just Episode We shall now show that these Incidents in Mr. Blackmore are not delightfull I mean that they are not very delightfull to Readers of the best Tast and that they who are acquainted with Virgil cannot be pleas'd to a height with them The Incidents in Prince Arthur are not delightfull for the following Reasons First Because they are not in their Natures agreeable Secondly Because there is not a sufficient number of them Thirdly Because they want Variety Fourthly Because they have not 〈◊〉 true Disposition Fifthly Because they are not surprizing And Sixthly Because they are not Pathetick We shall speak to all these as succinctly as possibly we can First The Incidents are not in their Natures agreeable The things included in Mr. Blackmore's Narration are chiefly four Voyages Wars Councils Machines Now there are three things that make a Voyage delightfull to the Reader 1. The interest that he has in the Person that takes it and the concern he lies under for him 2. The Adventures that happen to that Person And 3. the Countries thro' which he passes A Man who has a Friend in a foreign Country receives ten times the Pleasure from the account which he has of his Travels that he would from a relation of the same Journeys or Voyages taken and made by an indifferent Person unless there should be a very great disproportion in the manner of making it This experience confirms From whence it follows that if a Poet would very much please us by a relation of the Voyages of his Hero he must take care to give him such Qualities as may oblige us to wish him well And the Qualities which oblige us to wish any one well are such as we either have our selves or believe we have or such as we desire and consequently in some measure endeavour to have For the concern which we have for others is grounded upon the love of our selves And the same likeness of Humours and Qualities which obliges us to make a Friend causes us to affect a Poetical Person Now as I cannot possibly be a Friend to any one with whose Humours and Qualities I am unacquained so I cannot affect any Poetical Person whose Character I do not know But I have prov'd very plainly above that we are not acquainted with Prince Arthur's Character For the Manners being ill-maintain'd in him are consequently ill-express'd At one time he
Pallas Secondly the Question might be very well ask'd Where the indispensable Obligation lay to revenge the Death of Pallas by the Death of Turnus Virgil has remov'd both these Difficulties with incomparable Address He has provided for the putting his Hero in mind in the Middle of his tenth Book by making Turnus wear the Spoils of Pallas Lib. 10. v. 495. Et laevo pressit pede talia fatus Exanimem rapiens immaniâ—… ponder a baltei Quo nunc Turnus ovat spolio gaudetque potitus And the Poet gives you a Hint of his Design even in that very Place and gives us Cause to reflect that he does not make Turnus wear the Belt of Pallas for nothing For the Time says he is coming when Turnus shall curse both the Day and the Spoyls and the Action Ibid. v. 503. Turno tempus erit magno cum optaver at emptum Intactum Pallanta cum spolia ista diemque Oderit And accordingly we see at the latter End of the twelfth Book that the wearing of this very Belt is the Cause of the Death of Turnus lib. 12. v. 940. Et jam jamque magis cunctantem flectere sermo Coeperat inselix humero cum apparuit alto Balteus notis fulserunt cingula bullis â—…llantis pueri victum quem vulnere Turnus Straverat atque humeris inimicum insigne gerebat Ille occulis postquam saevi monumenta doloris Exuviasque hausit furiis accensus ira Terribilis Tune hinc spoliis indute meorum Eripiare mihi Pallas te hoc vulnere Pallas Immolat poenam scelerato ex sanguine sumit But let us come to the second Difficulty where lay the indispensable Obligation of revenging the Death of Pallas by the Death of Turnus And here in Excuse of Virgil I could urge his own Expression Immolat By which he seems to hint that his Hero look'd upon the killing Turnus as a religious Duty and thought himself obliged to sacrifice him to the Manes of Pallas But there is still a more just and unexceptionable Answer And here see the admirable Address of Virgil who as we have observ'd in so many Places always makes his Religion contribute to the working up of his Design For the funeral Pomp of Pallas in the Beginning of the eleventh Book by reason of the Message which Evander sends back by the Mourners not only prepares but justifies the Death of Turnus lib. 11. v. 175. Vadite haec memores regi mandate referte Quod vitam moror invisam Pallante perempto Dextera causa tua est Turnum gnatoque patrique Quam debere vides meritis vacat hic tibisolus Fortunaeque locus The Sight of the Belt which put Aeneas in mind of the Death of Pallas could not but remind him of the Message too of Evander And consequently he had Reason to think that if after the Receit of such a Message he suffer'd Turnus to live after he had him in his Power he should not only save a Man of whom he could not be secure but disoblige Evander to whom he had great Obligations and make the Arcadians his Enemies and give sufficient Cause to the Etrurians to look upon him as an ungrateful Person So that Duty and Interest both conspired in Aeneas to animate and determine him to the Death of Turnus And thus I have endeavour'd to shew that the Valour of Aeneas is of it self sedate and always consistent with right Reason that is with good Nature And consequently that it very much differs from that of Turnus which is always outragious and ungovernable We are now to shew that the Valour of Mezentius is clearly distinguish'd from the Valour of the Rutilian and from that of the Trojan Hero Aeneas had a Valour that of it self was sedate and temperate and was always attended with good Nature The Courage of Turnus was joyn'd with Fury yet accompanied with Generosity and with Greatness of Mind Mezentius has a savage and a cruel Courage He has no Fury but then he has Fierceness which is a Habit and not a Passion and nothing but the Effect of Fury cool'd into a very keen Hatred and an inveterate Malice Turnus seems to fight to appease his Anger Mezentius to satisfie his Revenge and his Malice and his barbarous Thirst of Blood Mezentius is mentioned once in the Seventh and twice in the ninth Book without so much as a Word that may serve to express Anger in him It is true when Evander mentions him in the eighth he does use the Word furens lib. 8. v. 489. At fessi tandem cives infanda furentem Armati circumsistunt But there it is plainly us'd in a metaphorical Sense Turnus goes into the Field with Grief Duris dolor ossibus ardet Which as Aristotle says in his Rhetorick always accompanies Anger 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereas Mezentius destroys with a barbarous Joy lib. 10. v. 721. Impastus stabula alta leo ceu saepe peragrans Suadet enim vesana fames si fortefugacem Conspexit capream aut surgentem in cornua cervum Gaudet hians immane comasque arrexit haereâ—… Visceribus super incumbens lavit improba teter Ora cruor Sic ruit in densos alacer Mezentius hostes He is so far from being subject to Fury that he is hardly to be provok'd to a common Anger He calmly kills Orodes who when he threatens him with a like Fate from a more powerful Hand makes him but half angry Ibid. v. 742. Ad quem subridens mista Mezentius ir â. Thus it is plain that he has not the Fury of Turnus and the Poet takes care in the Beginning of this Episode to tell you that he has Barbarity which is peculiar to himself For he gives us an Image of him than which nothing could more discover a Savage Fierceness lib. 10. v. 707. Ac velut ille canum morsu de montibus altis Actus aper multos Vesulus quem pinifer annos Defendit multosque palus Laurentia sylva Pastus arundineâ—… post quam inter retia ventum est Substitit infremuitque ferox inhorruit armos Nec cuiquam irasci propiusve accedere virtus Sed jaculis tutisque procul clamoribus instant Ille autem impavidus partes cunctatur in omnes Dentibus infrendens tergo decutit hastas Haud aliter c. From all which it is plain that the Valour of this Tuscan is as different from that of the Trojan as from that of the Rutilian Hero which is the thing we propounded to prove And thus we have endeavoured to shew that Virgil has infinitely a greater Variety than Mr. Blackmore both in his Travels and Machines and Councils and Battels It remains that we prove that his Incidents are better dispos'd But because we have been already tedious we shall speak but a Word of this There is certainly something very tender in the meeting of Aeneas and Andromache in the third Book but if that had come immediately after the Passion of Dido where the Pity
and Dominions were both predestin'd Lib. 7. v. 98. Externi veniunt generi qui sanguine nostrum Nomen in astra ferant quorumque ab stirpe nepotes Omnia sub pedibus qua sol utrumque recurrens Aspicit Oceanum vertique regique videbunt And Virgil takes care to show that what this Oracle deliver'd was no Secret but that Fame had taken care to divulge it just upon the Arrival of Aeneas Haec responsa patris Fauni monitusque silenti Nocte datos non ipse suo premit ore Latinus Sed circum late volitans jam Fama per urbes Ausonias tuler at cum Laomedontia pubes Gramineo ripâ—… religavâ—… ab aggere classem Ibid. v. 105. Yet Turnus tho' he was acquainted with this urg'd by Alecto and his inborn Fury heighten'd and inflam'd by Love not only persists in his Pretensions but causes his Subjects to Arm and Alarms his Neighbours and constrains Latinus to begin a War against his own Inclinations and the Commands of the Gods Upon which Latinus threatens him with the certain Consequences of so impious an Undertaking Frangimur heu fatis inquit ferimurque procellâ Ipsi has sacrilego pendetis sanguine poenas O miseri te Turne nefas te triste manebit Supplicium votisque Deos venerabere seris Ibid. 594. In consequence of which Turnus is twice beaten his Friends destroy'd and his Party broken and Latinus in the beginning of the Twelfth Book takes care to put him in mind that this was all an Effect of Divine Vengeance And Turnus seems to be sensible of this when he approaches the Altar in order to the single Combat For the sight of the Altar upon this occasion putting him in mind that he had grieviously offended the Gods may with a great deal of Reason be believ'd to cause that Paleness and Dejection which appears in his Countenance Incessu tacito progressus aram Suppliciter venerans demisso lumine Turnus ' Tabenresque genae juvenali in corpore pallor Which some Gentlemen who are avow'd Abhorrers of Thinking have taken to proceed from his Fear of the single Combat Immediately afterwards Turnus appears to be perfectly convinc'd of the Truth of what Latinus predicted in the Seventh Book Te Turne nefas te triste manebit Supplicium votisque Deos venerabere seri And that now it was too late to invoke the Gods and that he had nothing to expect but the very last dreadfull Effect of the Divine Displeasure And therefore he invokes the infernal Powers Vos O mihi manes Este boni quoniam superis aversa voluntas Lib. 12. v. 546. Here was enough already to bring a Man to Relent even a Man of the most undaunted Temper if he had any thing of Belief or Fear of the Gods in him But immediately upon this the Terrours of Jove were upon him who sent down one of his Furies on purpose to astonish and to confound him turni se pestis ad ora Fertque refertque sonans clipeumque everberat alis Illi membra novus solvit formidine torpor Arrectaeque horrore comae vox faucibus baesit Lib. 12. v. 865. But then as soon as ever he comes to himself he discovers in one Expression to Aeneaâ—… both the Fear and the Greatness of his Mind Non me tua turbida torrent Dicta ferox Dei me torrent Jupiter hostis So that here we find a Man who is brought by a long Train of Calamities to a sense of his Crime by which he had grievously offended the Gods yet of a Crime which proceeded from no irreligious Principle but from the Violence of a Rage which transported and clouded his Mind and hurried him on to his Ruin But tho' Turnus discovers Considerateness he yet a-while shows no Fear He was by Nature intrepid and furious and incapable of Fear But here see the admirable Address of the Poet. For whom cannot Jupiter terrifie Jupiter takes care to plague him with a Passion whose Motions are quite contrary to those of his natural Fury For Fear and Rage are inconsistent Affections See then the Terrours of Jove upon him which dispell the Remains of his Rage and bring him perfectly to a sence of the greatness of his Crime which flashes full in his Conscience He feels the amazing Effects of the Gods displeasure for going against their Commands for audaciously endeavouring to oppose their Supreme Decrees and for wageing an unjust and an impious War against the Man who was under their immediate Protection Now can any thing in the World be more reasonable than for a Man even of his Character when he lies under such circumstances and is not without a sense of Religion and his miserable Condition Can any thing be more reasonable than for such a Man to confess his Crime and the Wrong that he has done to disclaim his Pretension which was the cause of his Crime and to be apprehensive of going out of the World before he had by Prayer and Sacrifice aton'd the Powers which he had so grievously offended Can any thing be more according to Reason and Nature than this And consequently can any thing be more regular We see every Day that People who by the Violence of their Passions have been transported to great Offences when those Passions are dispell'd by the approach of Death become sensible of their Faults and confess their Injustice I have now one word to say of the different Behaviour of Mezentius at his Death But first I desire the Reader 's leave to show how the Supplication of Turnus which is so very reasonable and so very natural and consequently so very regular I desire leave I say to show how admirably it serves the design of the Poet. For tho' I know very well that this is not exactly to my purpose yet it will serve at least to Illustrate the Divine Conduct of Virgil. This Supplication then is perfectly necessary for the Integrity of the Action For if Turnus had died without speaking a word and the Poem had ended so we might have been in a reasonable Doubt of the Event and might have cause to believe that the Latins and Rutilians who broke the League once before to avoid the exposing of Turnus would break it yet once more to revenge him But by this Supplication we are perfectly satisfied that upon the Death of Turnus all things were calm and sedate who acknowledg'd in the Presence both of the Latins and his Rutilians that by his Proceedings he had wrong'd Aeneas and that he had deserv'd his Fate Equidem merui nec deprecor inquit For it is impossible that any of the Captains who were Spectators of the single Combat could be so very unjust and so very unreasonable as to endeavour to revenge a Man who confess'd he deserv'd his Fate But now let us come to Mezentius He behaves himself quite at a different rate He neither begs his Life nor confesses that he had done any Wrong He is so far from fearing
till the Arrival of Volscens though they knew that the Fate of their Country depended on the Success of their Voyage as that depended upon the Expedition of their Passage Nisus seems to be sensible of this as Virgil who loves to instruct by Action and who hates to moralize has artfully contriv'd it to hint his Instruction to the Reader Lib. 9. v. 353. Brevitcr cum talia Nisus Sensit enim nimi â caede atque cupidine ferri Absistamus ait In the fourth Book we see the Separation of Aeneas and Dido which alone is productive of Compassion as Aristotle has observed in the tenth Chapter of his Rhetorick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To be torn from ones Friends and those with whom we have a long time convers'd excites Compassion But that is not all the Vehemence of her Passion constrains her to lay violent Hands upon her self And such a Catastrophe from such a Cause must of necessity be very deplorable as we have shewn above Let us now consider the Character of Dido as we shall find it in Bossu and we shall easily see that it is not only compounded of Virtues and Faults which Composition is proper for the exciting Terrour and Pity but that by the Opposition it has to that of Aeneas it is contriv'd to give the last Satisfaction to all who are acquainted with the Carthaginian and Roman States Dido says Bossu is the first Person whom the Poet presents to us and is after the Hero the most considerable one of the first Part of the Aeneis She is the Foundress of the Carthaginian State as Aeneas is the Founder of the Roman Empire and she represents the Obstacle which that Common-wealth oppos'd to the victorious Progress which at last exalted Rome to the World's Empire As then the Poet has stamp'd the Character of the Roman State on his Hero she ought to have that of Carthage imprinted on her Behold her then passionate violent bold undertaking ambitious and false to her Word And all these Qualities are set in Motion by Trick which is the Character and the Soul of them all 'T is by Trick that she makes all her great Undertakings succeed that she revenges her Husband chastises her Brother deceives Jarbas 'T is by the same Quality that she resolves to stop Aeneas and not being able to bring it about she deceives her Sister who was her only Confident As ill and as odious as this Character appears to the Reader Virgil was forced upon it by the first Plan of his Fable But as far as the Necessity of that Fable permitted him he has taken care according to the Maxim of Aristotle to bestow on this Character all the softning which would consist with his Subject and to exalt it by all the Beauties of which he found it capable Dido in the Action of the Poem at least does not make an ill use of her Wit unless with Intention to stop Aeneas at Carthage And she is compelled to it by the Violence of a Passion which takes from the Odium of the Action and leaves a Place for the Readers Tears and for his Compassion of the Pains which she suffers and of the Death to which she condemns her self Besides he makes her exercise her Cunning on legitimate illustrious and glorious Occasions He bestows on her Qualities that are truly imperial She discovers with Bounty and with Magnificence an uncommon Esteem for Virtue All this is shewn in the obliging manner with which she receives the Trojans even before she had seen Aeneas From all which it appears that this Character is taken by Bossu to be very capable of raising Compassion as containing a Mixture of good and bad in it And we have shewn above that the Cause of her Calamity which is the extraordinary Force of Love is above all things proper for the exciting of that Affection And the Presumption which we have found in Lausus and the Ambition which we have discovered in Nisus are neither great Crimes nor shameful Infirmities but are rather creditable tho' ungovernable Passions But to come to Mr. Blackmore there are but three Passages in all his Poem by which he can pretend to excite Compassion The first is the Death of Macor in the eighth Book The second is the Supplication of Elda for her Husband's Life in the same Book The third is the Death of Uter related by Lucius to Hoel King of Armorica First for Macor his Character does not seem to be rightly compos'd nor to have the requisite Mixture of good and bad in it nor does it appear that his Death was occasioned by his Fault nor was it occasion'd by a Friend but caus'd by an Enemy which makes the Compassion so much the weaker And then for Elda the Passion which Mr. Blackmore designs to raise by her is not in the least prepared First we never so much as heard of her before her Supplication begins and we ought to have been acquainted with her Character before that it might have made the deeper Impression on us But secondly she has no Character For no Quality appears in her but the Love of her Husband and no one Quality can form a Character Thirdly she is never in any Danger of what she pretends to fear For the Reader knows upon the very Beginning of her Petition that Arthur will spare her Husband and consequently cannot be in the least concerned for her And fourthly this Petition rather shews a foolish Fondness than a very violent Passion For though nothing is more proper for the exciting Compassion than a disastrous Love yet I think I may venture to affirm that to compass the End design'd by it it ought always to be joyn'd not only with good Sense but likewise with Greatness of Mind But to come to Uter his Calamity is caus'd by an Enemy and not occasion'd by a Friend Nor is his Character fram'd for the exciting Compassion Let us consider what Lucius says of him in his Relation to Hoel in the fourth Book Won by the potent Charms of Saxon Gold Carvil his Prince and Native Country sold. He in indulgent Uter 's Bosom lay And did the Secrets of his Breast betray He on his Conduct and his Faith rely'd In Peace and War alike his treacherous Guide He held the most important Trusts of State Nor could his Treasons Uter 's Love abate Unhappy Prince that still his Foes believ'd Only by Ruin to be undeceiv'd To Friends ingrate his Foes he entertain'd Thus lost the one but not the other gain'd Wisely undone he knew his Friends too late By his own Prudence manag'd to his Fate Our Prayers and Warnings tir'd his Ears inVain Perfidious Councils only could obtain Rough Truth and loyal Bluntness gall'd his Ear That only soft melodious Sounds could bear His firm and loyal Friends tho hardly us'd Look'd on enrag'd to see their Prince abus'd Tho some grown cold ceas'd to lament his Fate For Will and choice Compassion still abate Thus is this Uter
Recourse to them as very bad yet the only Means to tack the pretended Relation of Arthur to the rest of the Work But Fourthly No Man ever writ an Epick Poem without writing Verses preluding to it No one can doubt of that Since then Mr. Blackmore did write Verses before he thought of Prince Arthur and since we never saw any Verses of his before the Heroick Poem appear'd and we have shewn that the pretended Relation of Arthur is of a different Character from the rest of the Poem and a thing entire by it self and that there are several things in it which are very absurd as they are tack'd to the rest of the Work and which would be reasonable enough if the pretended Relation had been published by it self we have very good probable Grounds to conclude that the Verses included in that Relation are some of those which were writ before Mr. Blackmore thought of writing Prince Arthur ANNOTATION But he was afraid of missing the Rites of Funeral Page 24. THAT which is so often said to excuse Aeneas his Fear in the first of the Aeneis which is that he was afraid of missing the Rites of Funeral without which there was no ferrying over the Stygian Lake seems to me to be invalid For Aeneas in the Relation that he makes to Dido of the Destruction of Troy makes Anchises when they urg'd him to depart advise his Son and Daughter-in-law to make their Escape but that for his own part he was resolv'd to dye upon the Place As for the want of a Funeral says he that is but a Trifle Facilis jactura sepulcri Which he speaks as if he design'd to obviate an Objection that he believ'd his Son might make which looks as if Aâ—…chises thought it without Consequence and Aeneas by repeating it as his Father's Opinion appears to be of the same Mind too What shall we say then that Aeneas did not know that Souls whose Bodies were unburied were denied the Passage of the infernal River till the Sybill upon his Descent to Hell shew'd him the Ghosts that were hovering upon the hithermost Banks of Styx and amongst the rest some of his own Friends as Leucaspis Orontes and Palinurus Indeed she speaks as if she made a Discovery to him Hi quos vehit unda sepulti Nec ripas datur horrendas rauca fluent a Transport are prius quam sedibus ossa quierunt Centum errant annos volitanque haec littor a circum But then we meet with a terrible Difficulty at the latter End of the fifth Book For when Aeneas saw that Palinurus was lost after fetching a deep Sigh and appearing very much disturb'd at the deplorable Accident he ends the Book with the two following Verses which are so admirable for the Pathetick Heu nimium Coelo Pelago consise sereno Nudus in ignot â Palinure jacebis aren â. Where we may observe that Aeneas does not lament the Death of Palinurus but only his want of Funeral Nudus in ignot â c. From whence it is plain that Aeneas knew the Consequence of it For else these Verses which are now so extreamly pathetick would shew a very great Weakness in the Hero and consequently a very great Absurdity in the Poet and would neither be consonant to good Sense nor the Nature of true Compassion It being undeniable that the want of a Funeral consider'd in it self and without any Consequence is but a Trifle compar'd to the Calamity of a sudden untimely Death Aeneas therefore as was said above knew the Consequence of this want of Funeral before his Descent to Hell and the Sybill only told him this to remind him upon the Sight of the Ghosts that were slocking to the Banks of Styx What then can be said to the Passage in the second Book Facilis jactura sepulcri The only reasonable Answer that I can make to it is this That Aeneas and Anchises both knew and believed that all who had any Excellence above the rest of Mankind and were of divine Extraction were exempted from the common Fate When Aeneas desires the Sybill in the sixth Book to be his Guide to the infernal Regions he tells her that he might undoubtedly take this Journey since there had been Persons who had done it before him and that he had the same Qualification that they had Si potuit manes accessere conjugis Orpheus Threiciâ fretus citharâ fidibusque canoris Si fratrem Pollux alternâ Morte redemit Itque reditque viam toties quid Thesea magnum Quid memorem Alciden mi genus ab Jove summo Where we see that all whom he mentioned were Persons who had some Excellence above the rest of his Contemporaries and were of divine Extraction The Sybill makes answer to him that very few had been able to do what he desir'd Pauci quos aequus amavit Jupiter aut ardens evexit and Aether a virtus Diis geniti potuere And those few had been Persons of extraordinary Virtucs and of divine Original And afterwards when Aeneas and the Sybil approach'd the Banks of the River Châ—…ron says to them Nec vero Alciden me sum laetatus cuntem Accepisse lacu nec Thesea Perithoumque Diis quamquam geniti atque invicti viribus essent I was not well pleas'd with carrying over Hercules nor the two Friends though they were Heroes all and all of divine Extraction From whence it appears that since Aeneas knew that Persons of extraordinary Virtue and of divine Extraction had pass'd and repass'd the River of Hell without so much as dying which was denyed to others he might very well believe that they might pass it once for all without the Rites of Funeral though it was denyed to others ANNOTATION Consists of needless and trifling Descriptions Of Descriptions Page 146. IN speaking of Descriptions I shall endeavour to explain Bossu whose Instructions concerning this matter are neither so full nor clear as to be understood by every one Descriptions in Heroick Poetry are either of Action and that if it is long is call'd Narration if it be short painting or of the Circumstances of Action as Time Place c. or of Persons It is necessary to declare that by Description here we do not mean Narration of which we have treated apart The Descriptions which we speak of here are but Parts of that which we call Narration Nothing requires more Judgment than to write them as they should be He who writes an Heroick Poem is not to make Descriptions only because he has a mind to it or to indulge the Wantonness of an extravagant Fancy Descriptions in an epick Poem are only for the Action and the Action is only for the Moral The Poet is to make all the Haste that he possibly can with good speed to the End of his Action which is the Praise that Horace has given to Homer because till we come to the End we can never have the main Instruction He ought indeed to make his Narration