SECT. 2.

_How to form the most regular kind of Moral_.

If a Writer's only Aim was the preserving Poetical Justice in his Moral,
he would have nothing to do but to show a Person defective in some
slight Particular, and from thence Unhappy; but as a Poet always reaches
at Perfection, these following Rules are to be observ'd.

The Inadvertency or Fault which the Character commit's, must be such a
Fault as is the natural or probable Consequence of his Temper. And his
Misfortune such an one as is the natural or probable Consequence of his
Fault. As in Othello: (For how can I instance in Pastoral.) I rather
suppose the Moor's Fault, to be a too rash and ungrounded Jealousy; than
that Fault, common to almost all our Tragedies, of marrying without the
Parent's Consent. A rash _Jealousy_ then, is the natural consequence of
an open and impetuous Temper; and the Murder of his Wife is a probable
Consequence of such a Jealousy, in such a Temper. So that the Hero's
Temper naturally produces his Fault, and his Fault his Misfortunes.

If you allow that the fault should be the natural or probable
Consequence of the Temper; let me ask you then, if those Tragedies or
Pastorals can be so perfect, where the original natural Temper of the
Hero or Heroine is not drawn into the Piece. I mean, where all that
we see of the Mind of the Chief Character, is his Mind or Temper, as
alter'd entirely, by some foreign or accidental Means. As, Who will tell
me what Hamlet's natural Temper was? Throughout that admirable Tragedy,
we see not his bare Temper once; but before he appear's, he's in wild
Distraction, which proceed's from former Accidents. This Method Mr.