DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.69192#0048
[ XXX J
causes. Hence every part of the creation wasy
by them, filled with deities, and no adion was.
performed without the help of some god; for sa
they called eVery power superior to man. These
deities are, by the best of the antient poets, and
the greatest patterns for writing that ever were,
perpetually introduced h. Homer hardly does any
thing without them; and as for V irgil, he has
employed machinery (or supernatural causes) sa
much, that almost the whole course of his TEneid
is carried on by the intervention of the gods, as
will appear by a transient view of the sirst book. If
/Eneas meets with a storm, it is /Eolus who raises
it at Juno’s request—If the sea grows calm again,
it is by Neptune’s command—If /Eneas lands in
Africa, and is to be kindly received at Carthage,
it is Mercury who is sent by Jupiter to soften the
minds of the people and their queen towards him
—If he escapes all danger in pasiing through an
inhospitable country, it is Venus who proteds
him, by Ihrcuding him in a cloud—-If Dido falls
in love with him, though (he is not old, and he
very handsome, yet must Cupid, in disguise, lie
on her breast, and infuse the soft pasiion—In this
h Horace, indeed, speaks (in his Art of Poetry, v. 155— J92)
against a too free introdu&ion of the gods5 but he means on the
stage i for in epic poems they were introduced perpetually, and
without reserve, by the very best of the antient poets. Petronius
(c. 48.) tells us, that a good epic poet ihould carry on the whole
action of his poem by the help of what we call the machinery.
This principle seems to be much the same as our vulgar notion of
a particular providence.
manner
causes. Hence every part of the creation wasy
by them, filled with deities, and no adion was.
performed without the help of some god; for sa
they called eVery power superior to man. These
deities are, by the best of the antient poets, and
the greatest patterns for writing that ever were,
perpetually introduced h. Homer hardly does any
thing without them; and as for V irgil, he has
employed machinery (or supernatural causes) sa
much, that almost the whole course of his TEneid
is carried on by the intervention of the gods, as
will appear by a transient view of the sirst book. If
/Eneas meets with a storm, it is /Eolus who raises
it at Juno’s request—If the sea grows calm again,
it is by Neptune’s command—If /Eneas lands in
Africa, and is to be kindly received at Carthage,
it is Mercury who is sent by Jupiter to soften the
minds of the people and their queen towards him
—If he escapes all danger in pasiing through an
inhospitable country, it is Venus who proteds
him, by Ihrcuding him in a cloud—-If Dido falls
in love with him, though (he is not old, and he
very handsome, yet must Cupid, in disguise, lie
on her breast, and infuse the soft pasiion—In this
h Horace, indeed, speaks (in his Art of Poetry, v. 155— J92)
against a too free introdu&ion of the gods5 but he means on the
stage i for in epic poems they were introduced perpetually, and
without reserve, by the very best of the antient poets. Petronius
(c. 48.) tells us, that a good epic poet ihould carry on the whole
action of his poem by the help of what we call the machinery.
This principle seems to be much the same as our vulgar notion of
a particular providence.
manner