Narration: And lastly, its End, Instruction, which is aimed at in general
by the Moral of the Fable; and besides in the particular Manners of the
Persons who make the most considerable Figure in the Work.

To begin with Fable, which he makes included in the general Nature or
Essence of Epic. This, he says, is the most essential Part of it; "That
some Fables and Allegories scatter'd up and down in a Poem don't suffice
to constitute Epic, if they are only the Ornaments, and not the very
Foundation of it." And again, "That 'tis the very Fund and principal
Action that ought to be Feign'd and Allegorical:" For which reason he
expresly excludes hence all simple Histories, as by Name, Lucan's
Pharsalia, Silius Italicus's Punic War, and all true Actions of particular
Persons, without Fable: And still more home; that 'tis not a Relation of
the Actions of any Hero, to form the Manners by his Example, but on the
contrary, a Discourse invented to form the Manners by the Relation of some
one feign'd Action, design'd to please, under the borrow'd Name of some
illustrious Person, of whom Choice is made after we have fram'd the Plan
of the Action which we design to attribute to him.

Nor indeed is Bossu singular in his Judgment on this Matter, there being
few or none who have ever writ on the same Subject, but are of the same
mind: For thus Boileau in his Art of Poetry,

Dans la vaste recit d'une longue action
Se soutient par la Fable & vit de Fiction.

Which his Translator I think better;

In the Narration of some great Design,
Invention, Art, and Fable, all must join.