Sententious Harangue which we cited above he both delays and discontinues his Action to give a tedious Account of the very Moral of that Action if it can pretend to a Moral But perhaps Mr. Blackmore may say that to instruct by Fable is not so Christian as to instruct by Precept To this I answer First That if he was of that Opinion he ought not to have begun to write an Epick Poem And secondly That the Author and Founder of our Religion as appears by his Parables is of another Mind Now as it is plain that Epick Poetry properly instructs by Action so it is manifest that the true Philosophy and the true Religion can be only shown by Action If a Poet has a mind to make his Hero perfectly vertuous he has free Liberty to do so Let him make him as much a Philosopher and as much a Christian as he pleases But let his Philosophy and let his Religion both appear by his Action It is the King's Example that influences the People and not the Words which he speaks Let him take care to make his People prosper out of a sense of his Duty and that in a Monarch's Religion Aeneas never is discover'd Preaching but he is always found to be the same Always good-natur'd always pious always carefull and anxious for his People Now let us examine Mr. Blackmore's Speculative Hero and see how constant he is to himself We find Prince Arthur appearing at first with three very commendable Qualities which were Piety Valour and a Care and Concern for his People So that the Poet is now oblig'd to maintain these Qualities in his Hero and to make him behave himself throughout the whole Poem like a Man that has Piety and undaunted Courage and the tender'st Concern for his People What will any one say now to see this very Hero who in the first Book of the Poem is so concern'd for the Souls of his Subjects that tho' they were but just escap'd from a Storm in which they had been terribly Tempest-beaten and were wet and cold and weary and hungry and spiritless yet does not suffer them so much as to refresh themselves before he instructs them What will any one say to see this Prince neglect this People after the strangest manner What will any one say to see this Valiant and this Pious King become as fearfull as the meanest and as impious as the most profligate of all his Subjects In the Sixth Book while the Plague was raging in the British Army Arthur by Devotion brings down the Angel Raphael who tells him the Cause of his Affliction in the following Verses Th' Angelick Guards return'd to Heav'n complain'd That your flagitious Troops you ne'er restrain'd Your Captains boldly Whoredoms Riots Rapes Commit and yet each Criminal escapes Thus you avow the Ills by others done And their unpunish'd Guilt becomes your own And thus if we will believe the Poet 's own Angel the Hero is neglectfull of his People and impious But this is at the latter end of the Sixth Book Let us now return to the First Upon the return of the Message which the Embassadours of Arthur brought back from Hoel Mr. Blackmore says That when Arthur heard the Message first His wavering Mind with fears and wise distrust And rising Tides of sudden Joy was tost Uncertain which strong Passion prest him most But when he saw the Presents Hoel sent His Doubts suppress'd he grew more confident And his calm Mind eas'd of his anxious Cares T' embrace his new and generous Friend prepares Here for six lines together the Author takes care to set before us the extraordinary Fear of Arthur Indeed he seems to repent at last that he call'd it by its proper Name And so that which was plain Fear in the second Verse is call'd Doubt in the sixth and Care in the seventh Which puts me in mind of a Custom of the Modern Italians They are very sensible how scandalous a Passion Fear is and therefore when they have a mind to encourage any one whom they respect they never cry Don't be afraid Sir but Quae Vossignoria non si dubiti de mente Don't let your Worship doubt Thus we have seen Prince Arthur fearfull neglectfull and impious The Manners then of the Hero are ill express'd because they are not maintain'd And they are unequal which is self-evident And they are inconvenient For neither is Fear becoming of a Captain nor Impiety of one who takes up Arms to re-establish Religion nor is Neglect of his Subjects becoming of a good King But the Impiety of the Hero is not shown only in the Sixth Book It is apparent from his very Fear in the First For before he left England the Arch-Angel Gabriel had assur'd him that he should Triumph over Octa at ten Years end These are his Words in the Fourth Book and the 115th Page Now Albion sinks beneath the Saxon Weight So Heav'n decrees 't is so ordain'd by Fate But after ten times the revolving Sun His crooked Race has through the Zodiack run The Clouds dispell'd propitious Heav'n shall smile On Uter's House and this reviving Isle Octa shall feel just Heav'ns avenging Stroke And Albion's Youth shall break the Saxon Yoke This we find in the Relation which Lucius made to Hoel Now the ten Years that the Angel mention'd were elaps'd before Arthur set Sail from Normandy as Lucius assures us in the same Relation and the 122d Page of the same Book Ten times the Sun had pass'd his Oblique way By turns contracting and increasing way Darting to either Pole a warmer Ray And now the British Lords c. Thus was Arthur assur'd by Gabriel in England And he was afterwards re-assur'd by Raphael on the Coasts of Britany Who says to him Pag. 16. Book the First No Force or Arts shall your Design prevent Propitious Heav'n decrees your wish'd Event You on these Coasts for happy Ends are thrown And after this expect the British Crown And immediately afterwards he bids him particularly not be afraid of Hoel But fear not Hoel's Pow'r tho' now your Foe By Hell incens'd he will not long be so This I must confess is strange Language for an Angel However we are to suppose that Prince Arthur understood it And yet by and by as we have observ'd above he appears exceedingly afraid of this very Hoel Now that person methinks must show an extraordinary inclination to Fear whom an Angel from Heav'n nay whom two Angels cannot ensure Besides that he must appear to be impious and unbelieving But Hoel is not the only Person of whom Prince Arthur appears afraid For afterwards in the Seventh Book when upon the Ravage that the Plague had made amongst the Britons Octa prepar'd to Attack them Mr. Blackmore tells us That The Tidings soon through all the Army ran VVhen in their Minds tormenting Fears began First the Army was afraid and afterwards the Hero as appears by the Prayer which he makes immediately upon it
am confident that no man can take it amiss that an Englishman who Writes to his Fellow Subjects should take the old honest English Liberty of publickly reprehending what he disapproves I never design'd to make an Enquiry into any of Mr. Blackmor's Principles which may regard either Church or State A Man had need have a great deal of time upon his hands who has leisure enough to Examine a Poet 's Politicks or a Physician 's Religion My intention was only to consider this Gentleman in his poetical capacity and to make some Remarks upon the reasonableness of his Design and upon the felicity of his execution And therefore the College of Physicians to whom he in a peculiar manner belongs have juster cause to be alarm'd at the following Treatise than either the Church or the State who are no further concern'd in him than they are in any other Englishman My little penetration could never discover what motive can prevail upon any of the Clergy of the Church of England to espouse a very faulty Poem in the which they cannot be in the least concern'd For First I have demonstrated in the first part of the following Treatise as clearly as any thing in Humanity can be demonstrated that the action of Mr. Blackmor's Poem is an empty Fiction without any manner of instruction and I cannot for my Soul comprehend how Legends in Rhyme should become Sacred at the same time that Prosaick Legends are contemn'd and exploded Secondly Boileau tells us with a great deal of Reason in the Third Canto of his Art of Poetry tho it is spoken in Rhyme That the Terrible Mysteries of the Christian Faith are not capable of delightful Ornaments That the Gospel offers nothing to us but Repentance on the one side or Eternal Torments on the other and that the Criminal mixture of Poetical Fictions gives a Fabulous Air even to its most Sacred Truths De la Foy d'un Chrestien les Mysteres Terribles D'ornemens egayez ne sont point susceptibles L'Evangile a l'Esprit n'offre de touscôtez Que Penetence a faire ou tourmens meritez Et de vos fictions le melange coupable Meme a ses veritez donne l'air de la Fable Now if this be reasonable in the Roman Church I cannot but think that it must have as much force in a much purer Religion Thirdly All Mr. Blackmor's Celestial Machines as they cannot be defended so much as by common receiv'd opinion so they are directly contrary to the Doctrine of the Church of England For the visible descent of an Angel must be a Miracle Now it is the Doctrine of the Church of England if I am not mistaken that Miracles had ceas'd a long time before Prince Arthur came into the World Now if the Doctrine of the Church of England be true as we are oblig'd to believe then are allthe Celestial Machines in Prince Arthur unsufferable as wanting not only Humane but Divine probability But if the Celestial Machines in that Poem are sufferable that is if they have so much as Divine probability as all the Machines in every Poem certainly ought to have it follows of necessity that the Doctrine of the Church must be false So that I leave it to any impartial Clergyman to consider if it can consist with the credit or interest of our Religion so violently to espouse a Book whose errours he cannot possibly defend but by contradicting the Doctrine which he is bound to Teach But to come to the Second Part of the Objection I cannot with all the application of Mind that I am able to use Discover that the State is concern'd in Prince Arthur any more than the Church If the State is concern'd in this Poem it follows by Manifest consequence that there must be a Parallel between the late Revolution and the Expedition of Arthur Now if there is such a Parallel it must necessarily reach to the Characters and especially the principal Characters For to make two actions like the Causes of them must be resembling and the Causes af actions are the manners of the Agents as has been more than once declar'd in the following Treatise From what has been said it follows that to constitute a Parallel between the Revolution and the Expedition of Arthur King William and Prince Arthur must have resembling Characters Now I would fain ask the Friends of Prince Arthur one Question Whether the resemblance between Prince Arthur and the present King was design'd to be total or partial If they Answer that the resemblance was design'd but partial then I would ask them in what Qualities these Princes consent and in what they differ and whether a partial resemblance sussises to make the Parallel For I cannot possibly apprehend how any actions can be very like whose causes are not very like But if those Gentlemen reply that the Author intended a total resemblance between the present King and Prince Arthur then I must freely tell them that whatever they may pretend they cannot be Mr. Blackmore's Friends who either tax him of so prodigious a want of discernment as even his honest enemies would blush to accuse him of or affirm that he intended to expose the King in a very disshonourable Character which I am sure he has a great deal more Honour and Justice than to design Prince Arthur when he is upon the Coasts of Armorica seems very much concern'd for the Cause of Religion and for the welfare of Great Britain But after he has beaten King Oct's Navy anp made a League with that Saxon Monarch at Land he throws of the Mask and appears concern'd neither for Religion nor for his Subjects and gives them cause to believe that his zeal and his care were only pretences which now it was time to disclaim since in all appearance he had compass'd his Sole Design Now can any of the Kings most inveterate Enemies urge any thing against him that is more Maliciously false Is not this the very thing which their miserable Libels have so often in vain repeated That Râ—…ligion and the State were only pretences and that he valued himself alone Have they not stupidly objected this to a Heroe who has been seen by assembled Nations to value himself and human greatness so little that if I could be presumptuous enough to find fault with a Prince who shall always be Sacred to me it should certainly be upon this account because he is the only Person of all the Confederates who has not a due regard for that important Life upon which the safety of the Christian World depends Yet of all the things that his Enemies have basely objected to him not one of them has had courage enough to accuse him of fear But Mr. Blackmore has made his Prince Arthur afraid upon every occasion as has been manifestly prov'd against him in the following Treatise And therefore these Gentlemen ought to consider that by affirming Prince Arthur was designed to resemble the King they affirm that Mr. Blackmore has
the least maim the Action we ought to conclude that this relation is an irregular Episode or rather a Medley of irregular Episodes which corrupt the Unity of the Action For a just Episode must be a part of the Action but an Episode says Aristotle which can be transpos'd or remov'd without maiming or altering thé Action that is by no means a part of the Action Thus we have endeavour'd to show that the Action of Prince Arthur has Episodes in it which are vicious and irregular and which corrupt its Unity Two things are yet to be prov'd that this Action is not entire and that there are things in the disposition of it which destroy the Moral CHAP. VII Of the Integrity of the Action WE have said already that an Action to be entire must have a Beginning a Middle and an End And that as that was a just beginning of an Action which began it so as that the Reader should require nothing preceeding it to understand what he reads so that was a just end which requir'd nothing to follow it and left the Reader in no expectation or at least no doubt of what was to come We are now to show that Mr. Blackmore's Poem has not this just end For after the Combat between Prince Arthur and Tollo the Poet should have shewn us the former in the quiet possession of his Dominions and restor'd to the Throne of his Father Perhaps Mr. Blackmore may say that Virgil has ended his Action with the single Combat between Aeneas and Turnus 'T is true he did so but Mr. Blackmore may be pleas'd to consider that Turnus had been the main Obstacle to the Trojans Establishment Yet Virgil was not contented with removing him he had before taken care to remove the less as Amata Mezentius Camilla But Octa is all along the main Obstacle to the Restoration of Arthur and therefore he continuing in power and place at the end of the Poem the main Obstruction is yet in the way and the end of the Action cannot be just 'T is true Latinus remain'd in Power after the single Combat but first he had never oppos'd Aeneas quite contrary he had at Aeneas his very first Arrival desir'd him for the Heir of his Empire and for his Son-in-Law Hunc illum poscere fata Et reor siquid veri mens augurat opto And Secondly he had taken a solemn Oath to deliver up his Daughter to Aeneas upon his success Octa it will be urg'd had taken the like Oath But what signifies an Oath to a Man of Octa's perfidious Principles Latinus was just and honourable and was inclin'd to the Trojan Oct'a was base and treacherous and and mortally hated the Briton 'T is true indeed he had made a solemn Covenant but then he had made one before too which yet upon the first advantage he broke What security then can the Reader have that he intended to keep this inviolable And consequently how can we have any Moral assurance from the Action that Arthur upon the success of the single Combat was restor'd to his Father's Kingdom Thus it appears that the main Obstruction continuing the Action cannot be justly ended and Octa lies as a scandal in our way to the Moral Of which we design to say more in the following Chapter CHAP. VIII Of the Moral SInce Mr. Blackmore's Poem wants a just End it manifestly wants a Moral which must always be deduc'd from the very last Event If Prince Arthur has any Moral it must be the same with Virgil's Which is this That those great and good Men who are chosen by Heav'n to be the Instruments of its great Designs are highly favour'd and protected by Heav'n and that all who oppose them are impious in vain and shall be severely punish'd for their Impiety This Moral has Two Parts The first is that the great and good Men whom Heav'n chooses to be the Instruments of its great Designs are under the divine Protection and consequently shall infallibly succeed in their Undertakings We have said once already that the Action is to prove the Moral and if any one shall urge against this that to conclude from Particulars to Generals is not a Logical proceeding To this we answer That the Action at the bottom is Universal and Allegorical even after the Imposition of Names and that the Persons likewise after they are made Singular by the Imposition of Names remain at the bottom Universal and Allegorical To illustrate this by Example Aeneas succeeds in his Undertaking and is establish'd Aeneas at the bottom is an Universal Character and is put for any or every good and great Man that is chosen by Heav'n to be instrumental in the carrying on its great Designs And therefore the showing that Aeneas succeeds shows that every such good and great Man succeeds in such Enterprizes and is establish'd To show which is to demonstrate the Moral but then it must be shown or the Moral remains unprov'd Now I would fain ask how Mr. Blackmore's Poem shews Prince Arthur's Establishment when we neither see it nor have any Moral assurance of it but on the Contrary have very just Reasons to doubt of it But there is yet another Place in the Story which is destructive of this first Part of the pretended Moral King Uter is a very good King at least Mr. Blackmore tells us so tho' the Character which he gives of him does not inform us so but of that we shall speak in its place and yet this very good King who begins a very just War for the recovering Liberty and the securing Religion loses at once his Life and his Kingdom by the Villainy of a treacherous Pagan But now let us come to the second Part of the Moral which is That all who oppose these great and these good Men are impious in vain and shall be severely punish'd for their Impiety Now Octá first opposes King Uter and that by a base and a treacherous Way and not in an open and honourable Manner as Mezentius and Turnus resisted Aeneas yet Treachery prevails and Right and Innocence fall But that is not all The same Octa opposes the Restoration of Arthur makes a League upon his ill Success and then perfidiously breaks it yet at last is left in Power and Place and we find to our Sorrow that the very worst thing that can happen to him is that he is like to Marry his Daughter to the Hero whose Father he Murder'd Thus we have shown that there are two things in Mr. Blackmore's Poem which destroy his Moral which being destroy'd the Fable falls of course For says Bossu the most essential Part of a Fable and that which indispensably ought to be the Foundation of it is the Truth that is signified by it Now the Fable being faln the Action is gone For the Fable says Aristotle Chap. 6. is the Imitation of an Action that is it is an Universal and Allegorical Action And thus we see that there is
little incident This they saw very well and saw at the same time that this General Action must be their own Creation that is that it must be a feign'd one or in other Words a Fable That the feigning that is the imitating an Action was the likeliest way both to instruct and please That Imitation is natural to Man and that nothing delights us more and that Imitation alone makes a Writer of Verses a Poet. To give all this still further Light by Example The Design that Virgil had in Writing the Aeneis was to reconcile all the World and more particularly the Romans to the New Establishment and the Person of Augustus Caesar. To compass this design of his he frames this General Maxim That those good and great Men of whom Heaven made choice for the Instruments of its great Designs were highly favour'd and protected by Heaven and that their Opposers were impious in vain and should be severely punish'd for their Impiety After he had done this he found that the best way to teach this Precept would be to convey it by Example that is by Action But he knew very well that from a Particular Action a General Precept could not be deduced Upon which he forms this Universal and Allegorical Action A great State is destroy'd by its Enemies and by the Permission of Heaven for the Injustice of those who govern'd it But one Man who was greatly Good and who was not an Accomplice in that Injustice is preserv'd by Heaven and is chosen King by the Remnant of his wretched Country-men with whom and with his Gods he sails to a foreign Land to which he is commanded by those very Gods and there lays the foundation of a Mighty Empire to his own Glory and the utter Destruction of all who dar'd to expose him Thus Virgil form'd a General Action upon an Universal Maxim and thus we see what the Fable is which is the Soul of an Epick Poem But he who first writ an Epick Poem saw that it was not only necessary to instruct by Action and by General Action which alone is capable of giving General Instruction but he saw that That Action to attain the End which he propounded to reach by it must besides its Universality have likewise Unity And that for the following Reasons To avoid tediousness because nothing that over burdens the Memory can instruct the Mind as it should doe and therefore Horace gives this General Rule for Precepts Quicquid praecipies esto brevis And to avoid confusion for nothing that troubles the Memory can instruct the Soul And Thirdly because he had but one General Moral Maxim to convey by it for he knew very well that one main Doctrine well inculcated would be sufficient at one time for the infirmity of Humane-kind and that there was an Occasion but for one Action to convey and inculcate one important Doctrine But 't is time to look back and summ up what we have said which is That the Design of him who writes an Epick Poem is to give Moral Instructions to Mankind That there are but two Ways of giving Moral instruction Precept and Example or in other words Action that Historical Actions were too particular to give general Instructions and consequently that the Action which is the Subject of an Epick Poem must be general that is feign'd or in other words a Fable a Fable compounded of Truth and Fiction the Truth disguis'd and convey'd by the Fiction Then we proceeded to prove that the Action besides its Universality must have Unity And thus we consider'd it as far as we can doe till we come to make that general Action singular by the imposition of Names But here it will not be amiss to observe what has been all along hinted That the Action is only fram'd for the Instruction and that it is design'd for a proof of the Moral that every part of that Action ought to be a gradual Progress in the proof and that consequently all the Parts of it ought to be as dependant one of another as the Propositions are of a Syllogism and that to insert any thing between the Parts which is foreign from the Action that is from the Argument is to destroy or at least to weaken that Argument and is as absurdly impertinent as a Parenthesis would be between the Propositions of a Categorical Syllogism That an Epick Poet is to drive on his Action which is but urging his Argument and that he is still to have an eye to the end of his Action and to make hast to that which is the conclusion of his Argument That Homer one of the greatest of Poets apparently took this Method and accordingly receiv'd Commendations for it from one of the greatest of Criticks Semper ad eventum festinat The reason of the Commendation is plain For only the last Event can be an absolute proof of what the Poet design'd to prove which is either that Success attends a design which is conceiv'd by Vertue and carried on by â—…rudence or that Actions deriv'd from ill Principles have often unhappy and fatal Consequenceâ—… Thus far we have consider'd the Action in general But there is no Action which can be perform'd without Agents every thing that is done must be done by some-body The Poet after he has invented his Action is oblig'd to impose Names And here he ought to observe two Things First To take those Names from History to give the Action an Air of Truth Secondly To take the Names of Kings and Rulers of the Earth to make this Action important For the Divinity is to appear concern'd in it in order to inforce the Moral it being certain that Religion is the only solid Foundation even of Moral Vertue And for that reason the Subject must be important to make it in some measure deserving of the Care of so August a Super-intendant Well then illustrious Names are to be impos'd on the Persons to heighten the Subject and to distinguish the Actors Which imposition of Names does in some measure make that Action Singular which was before General But as that Action which is thus made Singular is still at the bottom General so those Poetical Persons to which Particular Names are assign'd remain at the bottom Universal and Allegorical As soon as the Poet has impos'd his Names he is to frame his Episodes which are nothing but the necessary Parts of the Action extended by probable Circumstances This is not to be done till after the Names are impos'd Because if the Poet should find that any thing would accommodate him which was really done by the Persons to whom those Names belong he is to make his advantage of it that thus he may make his Action credible by making it enter into the Truth of History But here he is to take care that the Episodes doe not corrupt the Unity of the Action for Reasons which we have mention'd above And that they may be sure not to doe that they are to have
that compose the Character of Aeneas that by thus opposing the Conduct of Virgil to Mr. Blackmore's management the judgment of the one and the unskilfulness of the other may the more plainly appear As it was necessary that Aeneas should be Valiant because he was to be the Founder of the Roman State so it was requisite that he should be Pious because he was to establish Religion as well as Empire And the Poet was oblig'd to make the Hero show his Religion by Action and not by Words as Mr. Blackmore has done because as we hinted above Epick Poetry properly instructs by Action and Religion can only appear by Action and lastly because it is the Prince's Example by which his Subjects are fram'd And Virgil was oblig'd to make the Acts by which Aeneas discover'd his Piety parts of the Action of his Poem and not to do as Mr. Blackmore has done to crowd the greatest part of his Religion together and make it constitute a Medley of irregular Episodes which would have discontinued his Action and would have corrupted its Unity Besides as one and the same Design of the Hero comprehended the establishing the Trojan Religion and Empire in Italy it was but just that they should go hand in hand in the Poem and as the establishing the Trojan Power was to be a means for the setting up their Religion so it was but just that the Religious Acts of the Hero should contribute to the Foundation of Empire Let us now examine the particular Acts by which Aeneas discovers his Piety which are First the actual Obedience which he pays to the Command of the Gods Secondly The making those very Gods the Guardians of his Navy and the Companions of his Voyage Thirdly His Religious Duties which are Prayer and Sacrifices And Fourthly the Proofs which he gives of his filial Affection and those are principally two First the Funeral Games celebrated in the Honour of Anchises his Memory And Secondly the Descent of Aeneas to Hell In the next place let us consider how these Religious Acts apparently influence the Action of the Poem and evidently advance the Design of the Hero The First is the actual Obedience that he pays to the Commands of the Gods From which it is manifest that the Action had its beginning Vix prima inceperat aestas Et Pater Anchises dare fatis vela jubebat Lib. 3. Another Act by which Aeneas discover'd his Piety is Sacrifice Upon his Arrival in Thrace and his laying the Foundation of the City which he design'd to build there he Sacrifices to his Mother and to the King of the Gods and wanting Boughs to adorn the Altar that want conducts him to Polydorus his Tomb whose Spirit inform'd him of his unfortunate Tragedy and assur'd him that Thrace was by no means the Country that the Gods and Fate had design'd for him Upon which they remov'd from that unfortunate Climate and set Sail for Delos There Aeneas prays to Apollo to instruct him where he shall settle Apollo directs them to their Original Mother Upon which by a mistake of Anchises they set Sail for Crete from which Country Teucer deriv'd his Descent But nevertheless by that very mistake they were considerably advanc'd in their Way to Italy As soon as they began to settle in Crete they found by the Plague that rag'd amongst them that Crete was not the Place that was destin'd for their Establishment and took a Resolution to go back to the Oracle at Delos when Apollo sav'd them the Trouble and deliver'd his Mind to Aeneas in the Night by the Mouths of the Houshold-Gods who had been the Companions of his Voyage Thus it is plain that Aeneas his Obedience to the Commands of the Gods his Sacrifice his Prayer and his carrying his Gods along with him influenc'd his Action and advanc'd his Design Let us next consider his filial Affection of which he gave two signal Proofs The first was the Institution of the Funeral Games and the second his Descent to Hell whether he descended in Obedience to the Command that he receiv'd from his Father's Spirit Gens dura atque aspera cultu Debellanda tibi â—…atio est Ditis tamen ante Infernas accede domos Averna per alta Congressus peti Nate meos Lib. 5. And Aeneas says afterwards to the Sybil in the Sixth Book Unum oro quando hic inserni janua Regis Dicitur tenebrosa Palas Acheronie refusa Ire ad conspectum chari genitoris ora Contingat doceas iter sacra ostia pandas Illum ego per flammas mille sequentia tela Eripui his humeris medioque ex hoste recepi Ille meum comitatus iter Maria omnia mecum Atque omnes Pelagique minas coelique ferebat Invalidus vires ultra sortemque Senect ae Quin ut te supplex peterem tua lumina adirem Idem orans mandata dabat Natique patrisque Alma precor miserere Now the Celebration of the Funeral Games by drawing all the Men together was the occasion of the Women's burning part of the Fleet and consequently of the Trojans sailing for Italy without their Wives which left them free to mix with the Blood of the Italians and so prâ—…pared their Establishment And the Descent of Aeneas to Hell upon his Arrival in Italy animated and exalted the Hero by the view of a glorious Posterity And thus we have shown as succinctly as we could that the Piety of Aeneas discovers it self by Action and that it advances the Hero's design I should be too tedious if I should show that this Piety of the Hero is apparent throughout the whole Course of the Poem and that it every where influences the Action not only by the insensible Operation of the Powers whom the Greatness of his Piety engages to favour him but very often by manifest visible Consequence It would be an easie matter to prove this and to demonstrate further That as the Religious Acts of Aeneas are efficient of something which follows them so they are necessary or probable Consequences of something which went before them and that therefore they are just and regular Parts of the Action Let us now come to the third Quality which goes to the Composition of Aeneas his Character And that is the transcendent Goodness of his Nature which the Poet gave him as the very Ground and Original of his Religion For an excellent Goodness of Nature was very reasonably believ'd by the Heathens to be the Principle and Foundation of Piety And therefore Mezentius a Man of an ill and of a cruel Nature is represented as a Contemner of the Gods at the same time that he is a Destroyer of Men. I think it would be superfluous to show that this surpassing Goodness of Nature is a predominant Quality of Aeneas his Character since the sweetness and tenderness of his Nature has been objected as a fault to him and as lessening of his Merit and destructive of his Courage by those