since in truth, Aristotle himself has extracted them out of the Works of this great Poet.
In every thing which a Man undertakes with Design, the End he proposes to himself is always the first thing which occurs in his Mind, and upon which he grounds the whole Work, and all its parts. Thus, since the Epick Poem was invented to form the Manners of Men, 'tis by this first View the Poet ought to begin.
The School-men treat of Vertues and Vices in general. The Instructions they give are proper for all sorts of People, and for all Ages. But the Poet has a nearer Regard to his own Country, and the Necessities he sees his own Nation lie under. 'Tis upon this account that he makes choice of some piece of Morality, the most proper and fittest he can imagine: and in order to press this home, he makes less use of Reasoning, than of the force of Insinuation; accommodating himself to the particular Customs and Inclinations of his Audience, and to those which in the general ought to be commended in them. Let us now see how Homer has acquitted himself in all these Respects.
He saw the Grecians, for whom he design'd his Poem, were divided into as many States as they had Capital Cities. Each was a Body Politick, and had its Form of Government independent from all the rest. And yet these distinct States were very often oblig'd to unite together in one Body against their common Enemies. And here we have two very different sorts of Government, such as cannot be very well comprehended in one Body of Morality, and in one single Poem.
The Poet then has made two distinct Fables of them. The One is for all Greece united into one Body, but compos'd of Parts independent on one another, as they in truth were: and the Other is for each particular State, consider'd as they were in time of Peace, without the former Circumstances, and the necessity of being united.
As for the first sort of Government observable in the Union or rather in the Assembling of many Independent States: Experience has always made it appear, "That there is nothing like a due Subordination, and a right Understanding between Persons to make the Designs that are form'd and carried on by several Generals to prosper. And on the other hand, an universal Misunderstanding, the Ambition of a General, and the Under-Officers refusing to submit, have always been the infallible and inevitable Bane of these Confederacies." All sorts of States, and in particular the Grecians, have dearly experienc'd this Truth. So that the most useful and the most necessary Instructions that could be given them, was, to lay before their Eyes the Loss which both the People and the Princes themselves suffer'd by the Ambition and Discord of these last.
Homer
