DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.48955#0168
162 EPIC and DRAMATIC Ch. XXII.
beings who aft not upon the same principles with
us. A fable in AEsop’s manner is no objection to
this reasoning : his lions , bulls, and goats , are
truly men in disguise : they aft and feel in every
respeft as human beings ; and the moral we draw
is founded on that supposition. Homer, it is
true, introduces the gods into his fable : but the
religion of his country authorized that liberty ;
it being an article in the Grecian creed, that the
gods often interpose visibly and bodily in human
affairs. I mull however observe, that Homer’s
deities do no honor to his poems : fictions that
transgress the bounds of nature, seldom have a
good efled; they may inssame the imagination for
a moment, but will not berelissied by any person
of a correct tasle. They may be of some use to
the lower rank of writers , but an author of ge-
nius has much finer materials of Nature’s produc-
tion , for elevating his subjeft, and making it in-
teresling.
One would be apt to think, that Boileau, de-
claring for the Heathen deities as above, intended
them only for embellifliing the diftion : but un-
luckily he banissies angels and devils, who un-
doubtedly make a figure in poetic language , equal
to the Heathen deities. Boileau , therefore , by
pleading for the latter in opposition to the former,
certainly meant, if he had any distinft meaning,
that the Heathen deities may be introduced as
adors. And, in fad, he himself is guilty of that
beings who aft not upon the same principles with
us. A fable in AEsop’s manner is no objection to
this reasoning : his lions , bulls, and goats , are
truly men in disguise : they aft and feel in every
respeft as human beings ; and the moral we draw
is founded on that supposition. Homer, it is
true, introduces the gods into his fable : but the
religion of his country authorized that liberty ;
it being an article in the Grecian creed, that the
gods often interpose visibly and bodily in human
affairs. I mull however observe, that Homer’s
deities do no honor to his poems : fictions that
transgress the bounds of nature, seldom have a
good efled; they may inssame the imagination for
a moment, but will not berelissied by any person
of a correct tasle. They may be of some use to
the lower rank of writers , but an author of ge-
nius has much finer materials of Nature’s produc-
tion , for elevating his subjeft, and making it in-
teresling.
One would be apt to think, that Boileau, de-
claring for the Heathen deities as above, intended
them only for embellifliing the diftion : but un-
luckily he banissies angels and devils, who un-
doubtedly make a figure in poetic language , equal
to the Heathen deities. Boileau , therefore , by
pleading for the latter in opposition to the former,
certainly meant, if he had any distinft meaning,
that the Heathen deities may be introduced as
adors. And, in fad, he himself is guilty of that