The first part of this Action is the Alteration of a State, of a King, and of a Priest. And this is Virgil's first Episode, contain'd in his second Book, wherein the [1]Poet describes the Subversion of the Trojan Empire in Asia, the Death of King Priam, and of the Priest Panthus. To all this he adds the Choice which both Gods and Men make of Æneas to be the Successor of these two deceased Persons, and to re-establish the Empire of the Trojans in Italy.
The second part of the Action begins, when Æneas sets himself upon his Duty, executes the Orders he receives, and marches for Italy. Virgil has plac'd almost all this second Episode in his third Book: the rest lies in the first, in the fifth, and in the beginning of the seventh.
The third part of the Action is the Establishing Religion and Laws. Religion consists in Sacrifices, in Funeral Rites, and Festival Sports. Æneas performed all these; and the [2] Poet took care from time to time to advertise his Readers, that these Ceremonies were not to be consider'd as so many particular Actions, or as the simple Effects of the Hero's Piety upon some particular Occasions; but as sacred Rites, which he was going to [3] transfer into Italy under the Quality of the Founder of the Roman Empire. By this means, no body can doubt of his meaning, nor take these Acts of Religion, and these Episodes, for any thing else but the necessary and essential Parts of his Action and Matter. This Part furnishes the Poet with several Episodes, which he distributes into several parts of his Work; as in the third Book, where Æneas receives from Helenus the Ceremonies which hereafter he was oblig'd to institute: in the fifth, where he celebrates the Sports hard by his Father's Tomb: And elsewhere almost throughout the whole Poem.
Virgil design'd his sixth Book for the other part about Laws, viz. for the Morality, for the Politicks, and for the forming such a Genius as was to animate the Body-Politick of the Roman State.
After these parts of the Action, which contain the performance of the Hero's Designs, we are to consider likewise the Obstacles he meets with, which make up the Intrigues of the Action. These Obstacles are the Effects of Juno's Passion. And we might say, that this Opposition is no less proper to the Æneid, than the Opposition of Neptune is to the Odysseïs. Now we observ'd that Aristotle placed the Anger of this God in the first Draught of the Greek Poem among the Incidents that are proper to it.
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