i 5 4 APPENDIX. 



injuflice, and think of leaving a religion where piety was fo ill 

 requited. I fay the greater part would be tempted fo to do; 

 I fay not that they ought ; and the confequence is too dan- 

 gerous for the practice. In this I have aceufed myfelf for my 

 own St. Catharine; but let truth prevail. Sophocles has taken 

 the juft medium in his Oedipus : He is fomewhat arrogant 

 at his firft enterance, and is too inquifitive through the whole 

 Tragedy; yet thefe imperfections being balanced by great 

 virtues, they hinder not our compaffion for his miferies, nei- 

 ther yet can they deftroy that horror which the nature of his 

 crimes have excited in us. Such in Painting are the warts 

 and moles which, adding alikenefs to- the face, are not, there- 

 fore, to be omitted ; but thefe produce no loathing in us : but 

 how far to proceed, and where to flop, is left to the judgment 

 of the Poet and the tainter. In Comedy there is fomewhafc 

 more of the worfe likenefs to be taken, becaufe that is often 

 to produce laughter, which is occalioned by the fight of fome 

 deformity; but for this I refer the reader to Ariftotle. It is a 

 (harp manner of inftruction for the vulgar, who are never well 

 amended till they are more than fu-fficiently expoied. That I 

 may return to the beginning of this remark, concerning per- 

 fect Ideas, I have only this to fay, that the parallel is often true- 

 in Epic Poetry. 



The Heroes of the Poets are to be drawn according to this 

 rule : There is fcarce a frailty to be left in the be ft of them, 

 any more than is to be found in a Divine Nature. And if 

 ./Ericas fometimes weeps, it is not in bemoaning his own 

 miferies, but thofe which his people undergo. If this be an 

 imperfection, the Son of God, when he was incarnate, fhed 

 tears of companion over Jerufalem ; and Lentulus defcribes 

 him often weeping, but never laughing ; fo that Virgil is 

 juftified even from the Holy Scriptures. I have but one word 



more, 



