106 0)1 the Machinery of the 



it means, and no better guide to this know- 

 ledge presents himself than the celebrated 

 Bossu, the great admirer and champion of the 

 ancients. His definition of epic poetry \% 

 that it is a .discourse artfully invented to form 

 the manners by instructions, which are ^dis- 

 guised under the allegory of some one 'im- 

 portant action^ related in verse, in a probable, 

 diverting and. surprising manner. Agreeably 

 to this.delinition (in which the>' critics have 

 tliought pjoper genc^rally to acquiesce) l>e de- 

 fends the mf^iciiinery of the ancient epic poem 

 against those, whom its apparent absurdity 

 offends, by saying, thatj with a view of con- 

 veying instruction by one gri:at moral, which 

 formed .the ground-work of their poem, which 

 the wholef'. action • served to illustrate, and 

 wjiieh was conveyed by allegory, they meant 

 that all their gods and goddesses should be 

 considered as allegorical, or as representative of 

 some mental, or physical quality or defect, to 

 which all their actions are supposed to relatCj 

 and with- a reference to' which they are all to be 

 considered. 



r.iYsOu will please not to- smile at this fa^iciful 

 statement, of the anciertt epic, because it 

 would, disturb the sober view, that we are to 

 take of iti^ There are^ in this statement, two 

 distinc^; ; objects offered- to consideration, 



