Page:Reflections upon ancient and modern learning (IA b3032449x).pdf/89

 most Discourses written by any Modern Author, upon any Subject whatsoever. And it does not seem possible to contrive any Poem, whose Parts can have a truer, or more artful Connexion, than Virgils Æneis: And though it is now objected by Monsieur Perrault, as a Fault, that he did not carry on his Poem to the Marriage of Æneas and Lavinia, yet we may reasonably think, that he had very good Reasons for doing so; because, in Augustuss Court, where Matters of that sort were very well understood, it was received with as great Veneration as it has been since; and never needed the Recommendation of Antiquity, to add to its Authority.

Nay, we can give very probable Reasons, at this distance, for it. It is a Fault in Heroick Poetry, to fetch Things from their first Originals: And to carry the Thread of the Narrative down to the last Event, is altogether as dull. As Homer begins not with the Rape of Helen, so he does not go so far as the Destruction of Troy. Men should rise from Table with some Appetite remaining: And a Poem should leave some View of something to follow, and not quite shut the Scenes; especially if the remaining Part of the Story be not capable of much Or-