often but the Praife of a Day, and become by the next, utterly useless, improper, indecent, and falfe. This is the more to be lamented, inasmuch as these two are the forts whereon in a manner depend that Profit which must still be remembered to be the main end of our Writers and Speakers. We fhall therefore employ this chapter in fhewing the quickest method of compofing them; after which we shall teach a short Way to Epic Poetry. And these being confeffedly the works of most Importance and Difficulty, it is prefumed we may leave the rest to each author's own learning or practice. First of Panegyric: Every man is honourable, who is fo by Law, Cuftom, or Title. The Publick are better judges of what is honourable than private Men. The Virtues of great Men, like those of Plants, are inherent in them whether they are exerted or not; and the more ftrongly inherent, the lefs they are exerted; as a Man is the more rich, the less he spends. All great Ministers, without either private or econo. mical Virtue, are virtuous by their Posts; liberal and generous upon the Publick Money, provident upon Publick Supplies, juft by paying Publick Intereft, courageous and magnanimous by the Fleets and Armies, magnificent upon the Publick Expences, and prudent by Publick Succefs. They have by their Office, a right to a share of the Publick Stock of Virtues; befides they are by Prefcription immemorial invefted in all the celebrated virtues of their Predeceffors in the fame ftations, especially thofe of their own Ancestors. As As to what are commonly called the Colours of Honourable and Dishonourable, they are various in different Countries: In this they are Blue, Green, and Red. But forafmuch as the duty we owe to the Publick doth often require that we should put fome things in a ftrong light, and throw a fhade over others, I fhall explain the method of turning a vicious Man into a Hero. The first and chief Rule is, the Golden Rule of Transformation, which confifts in converting Vices into their bordering Virtues. A Man who is a Spendthrift, and will not pay a just Debt, may have his Injustice transformed into Liberality; Cowardice may be metamorphofed into Prudence; Intemperance into good Nature and good Fellowship; Corruption into Patriotism; and Lewdness into Tenderness and Facility. The fecond is the Rule of Contraries. It is certain, the less a Man is endowed with any Virtue, the more need he has to have it plentifully beftowed, especially those good qualities of which the world generally believes he hath none at all: For who will thank a Man for giving him that which he has? The Reverse of these Precepts will ferve for Satire, wherein we are ever to remark, that whofo lofeth his place, i A fevere farcasm on three orders of knighthood in this coun try. But why ridicule fuch orders? Is it not of public utility, and confequently providential, that there fhould be a fort of minds in the world capable of being actuated and put into motion by fuch objects, as wits and philofophers call Trifles? place, or becomes out of favour of the Government, hath forfeited his fhare in publick Praife and Honour. Therefore the truly publick fpirited writer ought in duty to strip him whom the government hath stripped; which is the real poetical Justice of this age. For a full collection of Topicks and Epithets to be ufed in the Praise and Difpraise of Ministerial and Unminifterial Perfons, I refer to our Rhetorical Cabinet; concluding with an earnest exhortation to all my brethren, to observe the precepts here laid down, the neglect of which hath coft fome of them their Ears in the Pillory. A CHA P. XV. A RECEIPT TO MAKE AN EPIC POEM k N Epic Poem, the Critics agree, is the greatest work human nature is capable of. They have already laid down many mechanical rules for compofitions of this fort, but at the same time they cut off almost A fevere animadverfion is here intended on Boffu; who, after he has been fo many years quoted, commended, and followed, by a long train of refpectable difciples, muft, I am afraid, alas! be at last deserted and given up as a vifionary and fantastical critic; especially for imagining, among other vain and groundless con almost all undertakers from the poffibility of ever performing them; for the first qualification they unanimously require in a Poet, is a Genius. I fhall here endea ceits and refinements, that Homer and Virgil firft fixed on some one moral truth or axiom, and then added a fable or story, with fuitable names and characters, proper to illuftrate the truth fo fixed upon. Before Boffu, Mambrun had advanced the same doctrine, and treated it in a philofophical Ariftotelian manner, in a laboured Differtation, which he exemplified by a woeful Latin Epic Poem, intituled Conftantinus. He was one of those many critics who may remind us of the fate of Boccalini, when he was appointed by Paul V. governor of a small town, because he had written well on political fubjects and on the art of government; but was obliged to bc recalled after three months adminiftration for incapacity in the bufinefs. The lamentable Epic Poems that Boileau has ftrung together, the Jonas, the David, the Mofes, the Alaric, the Clovis, are exactly of the fort and fize of Sir Richard's Job, Arthur, and Alfred; from whom our Scriblerus takes fo many instances of the abfurd. To these Voltaire has added a work that ought to be exempted from this catalogue, the St. Louis of the Jefuit Le Moine, who seems to have poffeffed a more vigorous and fertile fancy than any of his countrymen; who, whatever talents they may lay claim to, are not eminent for imagination and creative powers. His Poem is in eighteen books, on the Recovery of our Saviour's Crown of Thorns from the Saracens; the fubject therefore clofely refembles that of Taffo, certainly one of the moft interefting fubjects that has ever been treated. He has, like Taffo alfo, introduced machinery of angels, demons, and magicians. The fpeech and behaviour of one of the latter, Mireme, in the fifth book, page 145. who calls up from Hell the fhades of many departed tyrants, is conceived with wonderful wildness of fancy, heightened by the fcene of this tranfaction, near the pyramids of Egypt; especially when the ghost of Saladin declares, with an awful and tremendous voice, that the Sultan muft flay his daughter as an expiatory facrifice. In fhort, this poem abounds in the terrible graces, and is in a tone and manner very fuperior to that generally used by the writers of France, and approaching to the fublimity of Dante or Milton; the noble fictions of whofe Paradife Loft, the cautious and endeavour (for the benefit of my Countrymen). to make it manifeft, that Epic Poems. may be be made without a Genius, nay without learning or much reading. This must neceffarily be of great use to all those who confefs they never Read, and of whom the world is convinced they never Learn. Moliere obferves of making a dinner, that any Man can do it with Money, and if a profeffed Cook cannot do it without, he has his Art for no. thing; the fame may be faid of making a Poem, 'tis eafily brought about by him that has a Genius, but the fkill lies in doing it without one. In pursuance of this end, I fhall present the reader with a plain and certain Recipe, by which any author in the Bathos may be qualified for this grand performance. FOR THE FABLE. Take out of any old Poem, Hiftory-book, Romance, or Legend (for inftance, Geoffry of Monmouth, or Don Belianis and fevere Boileau has, it is imagined, endeavoured to ridicule in the third canto of his Art of Poetry, v. 193. "Et quel objet enfin a prefenter aux yeux, Que le diable toujours hurlant contre les cieux, Et fouvent avec Dieu balance la victoire." What Boileau fays of the Epopee is the worft, and what Marmontel fays, is the best part in their respective Arts of Poetry. It ought to be added, that although Le Moine frequently uses a turgid and hyperbolical ftyle; yet that he has prefixed a difcourfe on Heroic Poetry, in which are many fenfible and acute remarks. Le Moine is praised by Fontenelle, vol. II. of his works. Voltaire very frankly owns, "Les Francais n'ont pas la tete Epique." |