was ftill more ftrongly bent against receiving him.

Now the Cardinal of Bourbon, that Mock-King, was dead: An Affembly was held in Paris under the Name of the General States of the Kingdom, to proceed to the Election of a new King. Spain influenced powerfully thofe States. Mayenne had a ftrong Party, who would have placed the Crown on his Head. At laft Henry, tired with the cruel Neceffity of waging an eternal War against his Subjects, knowing befides they hated his Religion, not him, refolved to turn Roman Catholick; for the Priefts were the only Enemies he was afraid of. Few Weeks after Paris opened its Gates to him, and what his Valour and his Magnanimity could never bring about, was eafily obtain'd by going to Mafs, and by receiving Abfolution from the Pope.

་

AN

ESSAY

ON

EPICK POETRY.

W

E have in every Art more Rules than Examples, for Men are more fond of teaching, than able to perform; fo there are more Commentators than Poets, and many Writers who could not make two Verfes, have over-charged us with voluminous Treatifes of Poetry. All thofe Teachers feem to have much labour'd by their Definitions, Diftinctions, &c. to fpread a profound Obfcurity over Things in their own Nature clear and perfpicuous; and 'tis no wonder if fuch Lawgivers, unequal to the Burthen which they took upon themfelves, have embroil'd the States which they intended to regulate.

C 3

The

The greatest Part of the Criticks have fetch'd the Rules of Epick Poetry from the Books of Homer, according to the Cultom, or rather, to the Weakness of Men, who mistake commonly the Beginning of an Art, for the Principles of the Art itself; and are apt to believe, that every Thing muft be by its own Nature, what it was, when contriv'd at firft. But as Homer wrote two Poems of a quite different Nature, and as the Æneid of Virgil partakes of the Iliad, and of the Odiffey, the Commentators were forc'd to establish different Rules to reconcile Homer with himself, and other new Rules again to make Virgil agree with Homer: Juft as the Aftronomers labour'd under the Neceffity of adding to, or taking from their Syftems, and of bringing in concentric, and excentric Circles," as the discovered new Motions in the Heavens.

The Ignorance of the Aftronomers was excufable, and their Search after the unfathomable Syftem of Nature, was to be commended; because it is certain, that Nature hath its own Principles unvariable, unerring, and as worthy of our Search, as remote from our Conceptions."

But it is not with the Inventions of Art, as with the Works of Nature. The fame Fancy which hath invented Poe

try,

try, changes every day all its Productions, because it is liable itself to eter-nal Viciffitudes. The Poetry and Mufick of the Perfians, differ as much from ours, as their Language. Even a Nation differs from itself, in lefs than a Century. There are not more Revolutions in Governments, than in Arts. They are fhifting, and gliding away from our Purfuit, when we endeavour to fix them by our Rules and Definitions.

If I am to give a Definition of a Suit of Clothes, I ought not to defcribe any particular one. Neither the Roman nor the Greek, nor the French ought to be fet up for a Pattern. A Suit of Clothes in itself, is the Covering of the Body, that is all that is effential to it. The reft is but acceffary Ornament, which Fancy and Cuftom create, preferve, and deftroy at their Will; and if we like one Fashion beft, we are not to exclude every other.

So 'tis perhaps with Epick Poetry. The Word Epick comes from Epos, which fignifies Difcourfe. An Epick Poem is a Difcourfe in Verfe. Ufe alone has prefix'd the Name of Epick, particularly to thofe Poems which relate fome great Action. Let the Action be fingle or complex, let it lie in one fingle Place, as in C 4 the