Page:Monsieur Bossu's Treatise of the epick poem - Le Bossu (1695).djvu/28

 Reason than the former, and if true, would silence all our pretences to Epick Poetry. Sir William Temple in his Essay of Ancient and Modern Learning, presses this Argument very strongly against the Modern Poets. But without any offence to that great Man, it may be justly affirm'd, That this last Age has produc'd as many great and noble Genius's, as any other Age before it: So that had they been inclin'd to Epick Poetry, and received any encouragement that way, they might no question have come off with the same success as they have in the Drama. Sir William will not allow our Moderns to be any more than Dwarfs in Learning, when compar'd to the Ancients; and then, by a pretty sort of Allegory, he goes about to prove, that they with all the Advantages of writing after the Ancients, cannot make so great a Progress in Learning as those did. I shall not trouble my self with refuting his Assertion, since that is done already by Mr. Wootton in his Reflections upon Ancient and Modern Learning, wherein he sufficiently proves the Moderns to be as tall in Learning, if not taller than Sir William's Giants were; and that 'tis not want of Genius, but some Accidental Circumstances, which make the Men of this Age come behind those of former times in Oratory and Poetry.

Another Objection is, our defect of Numbers, and that our Language is not proper for Heroick Poetry. This is what Wootton himself urges in his Reflections, when he will not allow the former Reason to hold good. He tells us there, "That the Greek was so smooth, soft, and ductile, that Homer had great encouragement even from his Language, to set about an Heroick Poem: That the Latin was majestical and stately, but withal so rough, that Virgil had much ado to run it down to Verse: But that our Modern Languages are all so harsh and unmalleable, that the Poets have no encouragement to form any thing that is great out of them." This, if I mistake not his sense, is the force of his Ob-