this kind, which would lead into many ufelefs fubtilties, we fhall confider fome of the effects of this connection upon the paffions and imagination; where we may open a field of speculation more entertaining, and perhaps more inftructive, than the other.

As man is a reasonable being, and is continually in pursuit of happiness, which he hopes to attain by the gratification of fome paffion or affection, he seldom acts or speaks or thinks without a purpose and intention. He has ftill some object in view; and however improper the means may sometimes be, which he chufes for the attainment of his end, he never lofes view of an end, nor will he fo much as throw away his thoughts or reflections, where he hopes not to reap any satisfaction from them.

In all compofitions of genius, therefore, 'tis requifite that the writer have fome plan or object; and though he may be hurried from this plan by the vehemence of thought, as in an ode, or drop it carelessly, as in an epiftle or effay, there must appear fome aim or intention, in his first setting out, if not in the compofition of the whole work. A production without a design would resemble more the ravings of a madman, than the fober efforts of genius and learning.

As this rule admits of no exception, it follows, that in narrative compofitions, the events or actions, which the writer relates, must be connected together, by fome bond or tye: They must be related to each other in the imagination, and form a kind of Unity, which may bring them under one plan or view, and which may be the object or end of the writer in his first undertaking.

VOL. II.

This

This connecting principle among the several events, which form the fubject of a poem or hiftory, may be very different, according to the different designs of the poet or historian.. OVID has formed his plan upon the connecting principle of refemblance. Every fabulous transformation, produced by the miraculous power of the gods, falls within the compass of his work. There needs but this one circumftance in any event to. bring it under his original plan or intention.

An annalift or hiftorian, who should undertake to write the hiftory of EUROPE during any century, would be influenced by the connexion of contiguity in time and place. All events,, which happen in that portion of space, and period of time,, are comprehended in his design, though in other respects different and unconnected. They have ftill a fpecies of unity,, amidst all their diversity.

But the most usual fpecies of connexion among the different events, which enter into any narrative composition, is that of cause and effect; while the historian traces the series of actions according to their natural order, remounts to their fecret fprings and, principles, and delineates their most remote confequences. He chuses for his subject a certain portion of that great chain of events, which compofe the history of mankind:: each link in this chain he endeavours to touch in his narration: Sometimes unavoidable ignorance renders all his at-tempts. fruitless: Sometimes, he supplies by conjecture what is wanting in knowlege: and always, he is fenfible, that the more unbroken the chain is, which he prefents to his readers,. the more perfect is his production. He fees, that the knowlege of causes is not only the most fatisfactory, this relation

or connexion being the strongest of all others; but also the most instructive, fince it is by this knowlege alone, we are enabled to controul events, and govern futurity.

Here therefore we may attain fome notion of that Unity of Action, about which all critics, after ARISTOTLE, have talked fo much: Perhaps, to little purpose, while they directed not their taste or sentiment by the accuracy of philofophy. It appears, that in all productions, as well as in the epic and tragic, there is a certain unity required, and that, on no occafion, can our thoughts be allowed to run at adventures, if we would produce a work, which will give any lasting entertainment to mankind. It appears also, that even a biographer, who should write the life of ACHILLES, would connect the events, by fhewing their mutual dependence and relation, as much as a poet, who should make the anger of that hero, the subject of his narration*. Not only in any limited portion of life, a man's actions have a dependence on each other, but also during the whole period of his duration, from the cradle to the grave; nor is it poffible to ftrike off one link, however minute, in this regular chain, without affecting the whole series of events, which follow. The unity of action, therefore, which is to be found in biography or hiftory, differs from that of epic poetry, not in kind, but in degree. In epic poetry, the connexion among the events is more close and sensible: The narration is not carried on through fuch a length of time: And the actors hasten to some remarkable period, which satis

Contrary to ARISTOTLE, Μῦθος δ ̓ ἐσίν εἷς, εχ, ὥσπερ τινὲς οἴοναι, ἐὰν περὶ 9 ̓ ἕνας ἦσ Πολλά γάρ, και απείρα τῷ γένει (υμβαίνει, ἐξ ὧν ἐνίων εκ ἰσίν ἔν. Οὕτω δὲ καὶ πραξεῖς ἑνὸς πολλαι ἰσιν, ἐξ ὧν μία αδιμία γίνεται πρᾶξις, &c. φ. το

fies the curiosity of the reader. This conduct of the epic poet depends on that particular fituation of the Imagination and of the Paffions, which is supposed in that production. The imagination, both of writer and reader, is more enlivened, and the paffions more enflamed than in history, biography, or any fpecies of narration, which confine themselves to ftrict truth and reality. Let us confider the effect of these two circumstances, an enlivened imagination and inflamed paffions, circumftances, which belong to poetry, efpecially the epic kind, above any other fpecies of compofition; and let us examine the reafon why they require a ftricter and closer unity in the fable.

First. All poetry, being a species of painting, approaches us nearer to the objects than any other fpecies of narration, throws a stronger light upon them, and delineates more dif→ tinctly those minute circumstances, which, though to the hiftorian they seem fuperfluous, serve mightily to enliven the imagery, and gratify the fancy. If it be not neceffary, as in the Iliad, to inform us each time the hero buckles his shoes,. and ties his garters, it will be requifite, perhaps, to enter into a greater detail than in the HENRIADE; where the events: are run over with fuch rapidity, that we scarce have leisure to become acquainted with the fcene or action. Were a poet, therefore, to comprehend in his fubject any great compass of time or series of events, and trace up the death of HECTOR to its remote caufes, in the rape of HELEN, or the judgment. of PARIS, he must draw out his poem to an immeasurable length, in order to fill this large canvas with just painting and imagery. The reader's imagination, enflamed with fuch a feries of poetical defcriptions, and his paffions, agitated by a continual fympathy with the actors, must flag long before the

period of the narration, and muft fink into laffitude and dif guft, from the repeated violence of the fame movements.

Secondly. That an epic poet muft not trace the causes to any great distance, will farther appear, if we consider another reafon, which is drawn from a property of the paffions ftill more remarkable and fingular. 'Tis evident, that in a just compofition, all the affections, excited by the different events, defcribed and reprefented, add mutual force to each other; and that while the heroes are all engaged in one common scene, and each action is ftrongly connected with the whole, the concern is continually awake, and the paffions make an easy tranfition from one object to another. The ftrong connection of the events, as it facilitates the paffage of the thought or imagination from one to another,. facilitates alfo the transfufion of the paffions, and preferves the affections ftill in the fame channel and direction. Our fympathy and concern for EVE prepares the way for a like fympathy with ADAM: The affection is preserved almost entire in the tranfition; and the mind feizes immediately the new object as strongly related to that which formerly engaged its attention. But were the poet to make a total digreffion from his fubject, and introduce a new actor, nowife connected with the perfonages, the imagination, feeling a breach in the tranfition, would enter coldly into the new fcene; would kindle by flow degrees; and in returning to the main fubject of the poem, would pass, as it were, upon foreign ground, and have its concern to excite anew, in order The fame inconveni

to take party with the principal actors. ence follows in a lefs degree, where the poet traces his events to too great a distance, and binds together actions, which though not entirely disjoined, have not so strong a connexion

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as,