this Narration, says Rapin, should be simple and natural; but the greatest
difficulty is, not to let its Simplicity appear, lest it thence grow
disagreeable, and the chiefest Art in this, consists in its Transitions,
and all the delicate surprising Turns, which lead the Reader from one
thing to another without his thinking whither he's going, or perceiving
any Breach or so much as a passage between 'em; after all, the more Action
there is in Epic, still the more Life there will be. A Poet may, I find,
easily fall into Poorness of Thought by aiming too much at the Probability
and neglecting the Admirable; whereby he loses that agreeableness which is
a mixture of both. He ought then to take more care than some have done,
not to keep himself too long behind the Scenes, and trust the Narration
with another, which, without a great deal of Art and Pains, will take off
much of the Life of the Work, as Longinus has already formerly observed.

And here come in the Qualities of Narration, mentioned in our Definition,
that it ought to be done in a manner probable, agreeable, and admirable;
'tis rendered probable by its Simplicity and Singularity, and admirable by
the Grandeur of the Subject, the Figures and Machines, or [Greek: theoi
apo mêchanês], much more lawful here than in the Drama's; and lastly
agreeable, as has been said, by a mixture of both.

The last thing in our Definition, is, the End of Epic, indeed the first
and principal which ought to be intended, and that's Instruction, not
only, as Rapin thinks, of great Men, but of all, as in Virgil's Scheme,
which we have already described; and, this either by the principal Moral
aim'd at in the whole, or the Manners of particular Persons. Of Fable and
Moral, I've already discours'd, and whether be the more lively and
probable way to instruct, by that or History. But here it may be worth the
while to enquire, whether the principal Hero in Epic ought to be virtuous?
Bossu thinks not, the manners being formed as well by seeing Errors as