one in Fable for that purpose: Nay, he can scarce fail of persuading more
strongly, because he has Truth it self; the other but the Image of Truth,
especially if his History be, in the Third place, of it self diverting and
admirable. If it has from its own Fund, and already made to his hand those
Deorum Ministeria, which cost the Poet so much in the forming 'em out of
his own Brain. Nor can we suppose Fiction it self pleases; no, 'tis the
agreeable and the admirable, in the Dress of Truth; and such a Plan as
this would effectually answer both the Ends of Poetry in general,
delectari & monere, nay come up fuller to the End of Epic, which is
agreeable Instruction; and thence it follows strongly, that a Poem written
in such a manner, must, notwithstanding the foregoing Rules, be a true and
proper Heroic Poem, especially if adorn'd with Poetical Colours and
Circumstances through the whole Body thereof.

Now that all this is not gratis dictum, I think I can prove, even from
most of those very Authors I've already produc'd, as of the contrary
Opinion; and that I can make it appear, Bossu goes too far in fixing Fable
as the Essential Fund and Soul of the principal Action in an Epic Poem. To
begin with Rapin, who has this Passage, sur la Poetique, Reflex. 5. La
Poesie Heroique, &c. "Heroique Poesie, according to Aristotle, is a
Picture or Imitation of an Heroic Action; and the Qualities of the Action
are, That it ought to be (among others) true, or at least, such as might
pass for true;" Thus he. And hence it follows, according to him and
Aristotle, that the principal Action in Heroic, not only ought to pass for
Truth, but may be really true: For Horace, he does indeed call the Iliads
a Fable; but then he does not oblige his Poet superstitiously to follow
Homer in every thing, owning that he sometimes doats as well as other Men:
Further, this may, and I think does, refer rather to the Dress and Turn of
the Action, than to the Bottom and Ground of his History, which there's at
least as much, if not more reason to believe true than false: And in the