Page:Monsieur Bossu's Treatise of the epick poem - Le Bossu (1695).djvu/64

20 make them attend to the Instruction of his Poem, and to gain their Approbation by praising them, as far as the Faults he must of necessity make his Personages fall into, would admit. He admirably discharges all the Duties, by making these Brave Princes, and those Victorious People, to be Grecians, and the Fathers of those he had a Mind to Commend.

But in that Length and Extent which is given to these Fables, if we would not stuff up the rest with useless Ornaments and foreign Incidents, we must do something else besides proposing the principal point of Morality that is made use of. We must extend this Moral by its necessary Consequences: as for instance, in the Subject before us, 'tis not enough to know, that a good Understanding ought always to be maintain'd among Confederates: 'tis likewise very material to know, that if there happens any Division, great Care is to be taken, that it be kept from the Enemies Knowledge, that so they being ignorant of this Advantage, may not venture to make use of it.

In the second place, when this Concord is but counterfeit, and only in appearance, one should never press the Enemy too closely, nor oblige them to make use of all their Forces: for this would discover the Weakness that ought to be concealed from them.

The Episode of Patroclus does even to Admiration furnish us with these two Instructions. For when he appear'd in the Arms of Achilles, the Trojans, who took him for Achilles himself, now reconciled and re-united to the Confederates, gave ground, and quitted the Advantages they had over the Greeks. But Patroclus, who should have been contented with this Success, presses upon Hector too boldly, and by obliging him to fight, discovers that it was not the true Achilles that was clad in his Armour, but a much more feeble Hero. So that Hector kills him, and re-gains the Advantages which the Trojans had lost upon the Conceit that Achilles was reconcil'd.

'Tis by such sort of Fictions that this great Poet has fill'd his Poem with Instructions so excellent for their Design, and whereby he has merited those Praises which Aristotle, Horace, and all the Ancients have bestow'd upon him.