ced natural and engaging; —whereas those human forms that we fee every day bowing, and courtesying, and ftrutting, and turning out their toes, fecundum artem, and dreffed in ruffles, and wigs, and flounces, and hooppetticoats, and full-trimmed fuits, would appear elegant no further than the prefent fafhions are propagated, and no longer than they remain unaltered.

I have heard it difputed, whether a portrait ought to be habited according to the fashion of the times, or in one of those dreffes which, on account of their elegance, or having been long in ufe, are affected by great painters, and therefore called picturesque. The question may be determined upon the principles here laid down. If you wish to have a portrait of your friend, that fhall always be elegant, and never aukward, chuse a picturefque drefs. But if you mean to preferve the remembrance of a particular fuit of cloaths, without minding the ridiculous figure which your friend will probably cut in it a hundred years hence, you may array his picture according to the fashion. The hiftory of dreffes may be worth preferving: but who would have his image fet up, the purpose of hanging a coat or periwig upon it, to gratify the curiosity of antiquarian tailors or wigmakers ?

for

There is, in the progrefs of human fociety, as well as of human life, a period to which it is of great importance for the

2

higher

higher order of poets to attend, and from which they will do well to take their characters, and manners, and the era of their events; I mean, that wherein men are raised above favage life, and confiderably improved by arts, government, and converfation; but not advanced fo high in the afcent towards politenefs, as to have acquired a habit of difguifing their thoughts and paffions, and of reducing their behaviour to the uniformity of the mode. Such was the period which Homer had the good fortune (as a poet) to live in, and to celebrate. This is the period at which the manners of men are most picturefque, and their adventures most romantic. This is the period when the appetites, unperverted by luxury, the powers unenervated by effeminacy, and the thoughts difengaged from artificial reftraint, will, in perfons of fimilar difpofitions and circum-. ftances, operate in nearly the fame way; and when, confequently, the characters of particular men will approach to the nature of poetical or general ideas, and, if well imitated, give pleasure to the whole, or at least to a great majority of mankind. But a character tinctured with the fashions of polite life would not be fo generally interefting. Like a human figure adjusted by a modern dancing-master, and dreffed by a modern tailor, it may have a good effect in fatire, comedy, or farce; but if introduced into the higher poetry, it would be admired by VOL. II.

I

thofe

those only who had learned to admire nothing but prefent fashions, and by them no longer than the present fashions lafted; and to all the rest of the world would appear awkward, unaffecting, and perhaps ridiculous. But Achilles and Sarpedon, Diomede and Hector, Neftor and Ulyffes, as drawn by Homer, muft in all ages, independently on fashion, command the attention and admiration of mankind. These have the qualities that are univerfally known to belong to human nature; whereas the modern fine gentleman is diftinguished by qualities that belong only to a particular age, fociety, and corner of the world. I speak not of moral or intellectual virtues, which are objects of admiration to every age; but of thofe outward accomplishments, and that particular temperature of the paffions, which form the most perceptible part of a human character. As, therefore, the politician, in difcuffing the rights of mankind, muft often allude to an imaginary state of nature; fo the poet who intends to raise admiration, pity, terror, and other important emotions, in the generality of mankind, especially in thofe readers whofe minds are most improved, must take his pictures of life and manners, rather from the heroic period we now fpeak of, than from the ages of refinement; and must therefore (to repeat the maxim of Ariftotle)" exhibit things, not as they are, "but as they might be,

If, then, there be any nations who entertain fuch a partiality in favour of one fystem of artificial manners, that they cannot endure any other fyftem, either artificial or natural; may we not fairly conclude, that in those nations Epic poetry will not flourish? How far this may account for any peculiarities in the tafte and literature of a neighbouring nation *, is fubmitted to the reader. Were a man fo perverted by nature, or by habit, as to think no state of the human body graceful, but what depends on lace and fringe, powder and pomatum, buckram and whalebone, I fhould not wonder, if he beheld with diffatisfaction the naked majesty of the Apollo Belvidere, or the flowing fimplicity of robe that arrays a Cicero or Flora. But if one of his favourite figures were to be carried about the world in company with these statues, I believe the general voice of mankind would not ratify his judgement. Homer's fimple manners may disgust a Terraffon, or a Chesterfield; but will always please the univerfal taste, because they are more picturesque in themselves, than form of artificial manners can be, any

Je me fouviens, que lorfque je confultai, für ma Henriade, feu M. de Malezieux, homme qui joignait une grande imagination à une litterature immenfe, il me dit Vous enterprenez un ouvrage qui n'eft pas fait pour notre nation; LES FRANÇAIS N'ONT PAS LA

TETE EPIQUE.

Voltaire. Effai fur la poefie efique, chap. 9.

and more fuitable to thofe ideas of human life which are most familiar to the human mind.

fashionable arOur drefs and graceful as they

Let it not be thought, that I have any partiality to the tenets of thofe philofophers who recommend the manners of the heroic period, or even of the favage ftate, as better in a moral view, than those of our own time; or that I mean any reflection upon the virtue or good fenfe of the age, when I fpeak difrespectfully of fome ticles of external decoration. attitudes are not perhaps fo might be but that is not our fault, for it depends on caufes which are not in our power: that affects not the virtue of any good man, and no degree of outward elegance will ever reform the heart of a bad one: and that is no more a proof of our ill taste, than the roughnefs of our language, or the coldness of our climate. As a moralift, one would eftimate the things of this life by their influence on the next; but I here speak as a critic, and judge of things according to their effects in the fine arts. Poetry, as an inftrument of pleasure, gives the preference to those things that have moft variety, and operate most powerfully on the paffions; and, as an art that conveys inftruction rather by example than by precept, must exhibit evil as well as good, and vitious as well as virtuous characters. That favages, and heroes like thofe of Homer, may fleep found

er;