284 STUDIES OP NATURE. 



habitants, and the boifterous difcordant charaders 

 of the heroes of Pylos, of Aljcen^j and of Jrgos ; 

 between the gentle adventures of it's fimple and 

 innocent Ihepherdefles, and the awful cataflrophes 

 of Iphigeniaj of Eledra, and of Clytemnejira, 



I divided the materials of my Work into twelve 

 Books, and conftrud;ed a kind of Epic Poem of 

 them ; not conformably to the rules laid down by 

 Arijlotle, and to thofe of our modern Critics, who 

 pretend, after him, that an Epic Poem ought to 

 exhibit only one principal adlion of the life of a 

 hero ; but conformably to the Laws of Nature, 

 and after the manner of the Chinefe, who fre- 

 quently comprehend in it, the whole life of a hero, 

 which, in my judgment, is much more fatisfadory. 

 Befides, I have not, in this, deviated from the ex- 

 ample of Homer ; for, if I have not adopted the 

 plan of his Iliad, I have nearly copied that of his 

 Odyffey. 



But, while I was devifing plans for the happinefs 

 of Mankind, my own was diflurbed by new cala- 

 mities. 



My flate of health, and my experience, permit- 

 ted me no longer to folicit, in my native Country, 

 the flender refources, which I was on the point of 

 lofing there, nor to go abroad in queft of them. 



Befides, 



