disobedience to his general; nor his brutal cruelty to his dead
enemy, nor the selling his body to his father. We abhor these
actions while we read them, and what we abhor we never imitate; the
poet only shows them, like rocks or quicksands to be shunned.

By this example the critics have concluded that it is not necessary
the manners of the hero should be virtuous (they are poetically good
if they are of a piece); though where a character of perfect virtue
is set before us, it is more lovely; for there the whole hero is to
be imitated. This is the AEneas of our author; this is that idea of
perfection in an epic poem which painters and statuaries have only
in their minds, and which no hands are able to express. These are
the beauties of a God in a human body. When the picture of Achilles
is drawn in tragedy, he is taken with those warts and moles and hard
features by those who represent him on the stage, or he is no more
Achilles; for his creator, Homer, has so described him. Yet even
thus he appears a perfect hero, though an imperfect character of
virtue. Horace paints him after Homer, and delivers him to be
copied on the stage with all those imperfections. Therefore they
are either not faults in an heroic poem, or faults common to the
drama.

After all, on the whole merits of the cause, it must be acknowledged
that the epic poem is more for the manners, and tragedy for the
passions. The passions, as I have said, are violent; and acute
distempers require medicines of a strong and speedy operation. Ill
habits of the mind are, like chronical diseases, to be corrected by
degrees, and cured by alteratives; wherein, though purges are
sometimes necessary, yet diet, good air, and moderate exercise have
the greatest part. The matter being thus stated, it will appear