Page:An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding - Hume (1748).djvu/54

 particular Scenes, where they display their Humours and Characters, without much forwarding the main Action. The double Plots of Terence are Licences of the same Kind; but in a lesser Degree. And tho' this Conduct be not perfectly regular, it is not wholly unsuitable to the Nature of Comedy, where the Movements and Passions are not rais'd to such a height as in Tragedy; at the same time, that the Fiction or Representation palliates, in some Degree, such Licences. In a narrative Poem, the first Proposition or Design confines the Author to one Subject; and any Digressions of this Nature would, at first View, be rejected, as absurd and monstrous. Neither Boccace, la Fontaine, nor any Author of that Kind, tho' Pleasantry be their chief Object, have ever indulg'd them.

return to the Comparison of History and epic Poetry, we may conclude, from the foregoing Reasonings, that as a certain Unity is requisite in all Productions, it cannot be wanting to History more than to any other; that in History, the Connexion among the several Events, which unites them into one Body, is the Relation of Cause and Effect, the same which takes place in epic Poetry; and that in the latter Composition, this Connexion is only requir'd to be closer and more sensible, on account of the lively Imagination and strong Passions, which