other in prose. Turn what Herodotus tells into verse, and none the less
it will be a sort of history; the metre makes no difference. The real
difference lies in the Historian's telling what has happened, the Poet's
telling what may happen. _Thus Poetry is a more philosophical thing, and
a more serious, than History: for Poetry tells of the Universal, History
of the Particular_. Now the business of the Universal is to tell us how
it will fall to such and such a person to speak or act in such or such
circumstances according to likelihood or necessity: and it is at this
that Poetry aims in giving characters names of its own: whereas the
Particular narrates what Alcibiades did or what happened to him."

* * * * *

This may seem a hard saying, even after what has been said. So let us
pause and digest it in Sir Philip Sidney's comment: "... Thus farre
Aristotle, which reason of his (as all his) is most full of reason. For
indeed, if the question were whether it were better to have a
particular acte truly or falsely set down, there is no doubt which is to
be chosen, no more than whether you had rather have _Vespasian's_
picture right as hee was or at the Painter's pleasure nothing
resembling. But if the question be for your owne use and learning,
whether it be better to have it set downe as it should be, or as it was,
then certainly is more doctrinable the fayned _Cyrus of Xenophon_ than
the true _Cyrus in Justine_, and the fayned _�neas in Virgil_ than the
true _�neas_ in _Dares Phrygius._"

* * * * *

But now, having drawn breath, let us follow our Poet from the lowest up
to the highest of his claim. And be it observed, to start with, that in