Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	bad_a	effect_n	good_a	3,760	5	4.8923	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49887	Monsieur Bossu's treatise of the epick poem containing many curious reflexions, very useful and necessary for the right understanding and judging of the excellencies of Homer and Virgil / done into English from the French, with a new original preface upon the same subject, by W.J. ; to which are added, An essay upon satyr, by Monsieur D'Acier ; and A treatise upon pastorals, by Monsieur Fontanelle.; Traité du poème épique. English	Le Bossu, René, 1631-1680.; W. J.; Dacier, André, 1651-1722. Essay upon satyr.; Fontenelle, M. de (Bernard Le Bovier), 1657-1757. Of pastorals.	1695 (1695)	Wing L804; ESTC R10431	296,769	336

morrow he begins a Ship and in twenty Days finishes it the twenty fifth he sets Sail and after a Voyage of twenty Days is cast upon the Island of Corfu There he tarries three Days with Alcinous All this makes one and fifty Days from the first opening of the Poem to the Arrival of Vlysses in his own Country Eight and twenty of them he spent with Calypso reckoning the four that preceded the building of his Ship three and twenty Days more he is upon his Journey part of which he spent at Sea and part with Alcinous A night after he arrives in Ithaca Four Days he remains incognito at Eumeus's Country House On the fifth he went to his own Palace where he was in disguise two Days taking an account of what had happen'd and squaring his Actions accordingly The next night he kills his Rivals and on the morrow makes an end of discovering himself and re-adjusting all his Affairs Therefore adding these seven Days to the one and fifty before the Duration of the Narration in this Poem amounts to eight and fifty Days As for the Seasons of the Year the Poet gives us an occasion to guess something about it In the Iliad where there is more Action and Violence the Days are longer than the Nights and the Season very hot And on the contrary Homer has assign'd longer and cooler Nights to the Prudence of Vlysses placing the Maturity of Autumn in the Odysseis as he has the Contagious heats of the Summer in the Iliad The Practice of Homer then is without doubt to reduce the Duration of the Epick Narration into the Compass of a Campaign of a few Months But the Difficulty of knowing the design and intention of Virgil is the reason why 't is question'd whether one might not advance it to the Compass of a whole Year or more and whether the Winter season ought in reason to be excluded thence I found my self insensibly ingag'd in the Examen of this particular question I found it a great deal larger than I imagin'd and I have discours'd very amply upon it from whence several things may be deduc'd that in my mind are of no small use for the understanding of the Aeneid I here propose this Question about the time by way of Problem and freely leave others to determine and judge what they please But yet I say that in this Uncertainty two Reasons rather incline me to a single Campaign than a whole Year The first is the Practice of Homer which the Latin Poet commonly proposes as his Exemplar and who by wise men has been esteemed the most excellent Model for Poets to imitate This Reason makes so much the more for me in this Treatise of the Epick Poem because 't is founded upon that Relation that is observable between the Practice of Virgil and that of Homer the Rules of Horace and those of Aristotle The other Reason is still more to my purpose and that is that this reducing of it to one single Campaign is more conformable to that Idea I have proposed concerning the Fable and the Design of Virgil in this Poem We have already considered Aeneas as a Legislator and Founder of the Romans Religion He is so exact in observing all the Ceremonies which were performed for the Dead that there is not the least colour he should omit one so considerable as is that of Mourning especially for the Death of his Father for which he spares no cost This high Veneration he has for him makes one of the principal Qualities of his Character and almost throughout the whole regulates the general Character of the Poem Now the Mourning of the Romans consisted in two things the one is its Duration which lasted ten Months the other is that the Romans in this ominous and inauspicious time never undertook any thing of consequence How then could Aeneas dare to undertake his Settlement in Italy which was then a business of the highest Consequence to him So then he was oblig'd to stay in Sicily full ten Months after the Death of his Father and having stay'd less than two Months at Carthage he returned to Sicily to celebrate the Anniversary of his Death on the same day he arriv'd there This agrees very well with the Expressions of the Poet which we have already cited For the Anniversary happens at the end of the seventh Summer a little more than a Month after the Solstice and rising of Orion Aeneas then leaving Sicily in Summer during the Rising of this Constellation which rais'd the Tempest in the first Book he could not leave it the same Summer Anchises died but must needs have left Sicily the Summer following which is the seventh as the Poet says and the same in which he returns to the Anniversary By this means he must needs have pass'd the Autumn the Winter and the Spring in Sicily and have tarried there more than nine Months before his parting for Carthage but he went out and came back again to it the same Summer In the other Opinions I neither find the Conformity of Virgil with Homer nor the Observation of the Roman Mourning to which I really think Aeneas was oblig'd as much as he was to the other Ceremonies in which he was so punctual But these Reasons which make for me may not perhaps make for others I only propose them as I was oblig'd 'T is for Philosophers and Criticks to examine things to propose Reasons and to make them intelligible and 't is for the Reader to draw his Inferences Monsieur Bossu's Treatise OF THE EPICK POEM BOOK IV. Concerning the Manners of the Epick Poem CHAP. I. Concerning the Manners in General UNder the name of Manners we comprehend all the natural or acquired inclinations which carry us on to good bad or indifferent actions This Definition contains three things The first is the Manners themselves which we call Inclinations whether they have their source and origin in our Souls such as the Love of Sciences and Vertue or whether they proceed from the constitution of the Body as Anger and the Rest which we have in common with the Brutes The second thing is the cause of those Manners which is either Nature or our Choice and Industry according as they are either natural or acquir'd The third thing is the effect of the Manners namely Actions whether good as that of Aeneas or bad as that of Achilles or indifferent as that of Vlysses Those Manners are good which incline us to Vertue and Vertuous Actions those Bad which incline us to Vice and Sin and those are Indifferent which incline us to indifferent Qualities and Actions A right distinction should be made between Real Vertues and those that appear such and are only mere Qualities The Real Vertues such as Piety Prudence and the like make those who are Masters of them Good Praise-worthy and Honest-men But Real Vices such as Impiety Injustice Fraud and the like corrupt and vitiate those who are tainted with them

Meer Qualities in their own Nature produce neither of these two effects such as Valour Art the Knowledge of Sciences and the like Solomon could still preserve the Knowledge of the Sciences even when he was become an Idolater Aencas and Mezentius were both Valiant yet one was a Pious and a good Man the other an Atheistical and profane fellow 'T is farther observable that among the Inclinations there are some which belong more peculiarly to some particular Adventure and that are only of Use upon certain Occasions Such for instance are Valour Clemency and Liberality Others are more Universal and appear in every thing such as are good Nature and a passionate Temper For a Man may be passionate and violent not only in War but at a Council board and upon all other occasions as Achilles was or he may be mild and good-natured even in the heat of Battle as Aeneas We shall call this last species of general and Universal Manners the Character of such or such a Person and will treat of it more particularly The Causes of our Manners are either wholly External or wholly Internal or they may be considered as partly External partly Internal The External Causes are God the Stars and our Native Country The mixt Causes are our Parents and Education The internal Causes are the Complexion the Sex the Passions and the Actions whereby we contract these habits The effects of our Manners are the Discourses the Designs and the Essays we make to do such or such a thing and the Good Bad or Indifferent Actions Poetry is not the only thing where the Manners are of use Philosophers Historians Geographers and Rhetoricians treat of them as well as Poets Each of these in his own way But the Poet has need of all And beside these there are a vast number of things which he is indispensibly obliged to be acquainted with that he may make his Personages speak and act regularly Whatsoever has been said on this Subject yet I cannot wholly pass it over I shall only content my self to apply it to the practice of Virgil. Therefore before I treat of the Poetical Manners I will explain at large what I have proposed concerning the Causes of the Manners and I shall say something concerning the Manners that are Foreign to Poetry CHAP. II. Of the Causes of the Manners GOD is the chief of all the Causes in general we shall look upon him here in particular as the most universal and first cause of the Manners He is the Author of Nature and disposes of all things as he thinks fit This cause renders the Manners of Aeneas good even to admiration 'T is superfluous to show how this Hero is favour'd by Jupiter since we see Juno who prosecuted him loves and esteems his person The Stars and principally the Signs and Planets are the second Cause of the Manners The Poet takes notice what influence they have upon Men. When in the person of Dido He proves from them that the Tyrians are not so dull but that they know what esteem ought to be had for Virtue But is it by chance think ye that this Poet who elsewhere was so skillful in Astronomy causes the Planets to act in favour of his Hero conformable to the Rules of Astrologers Of the seven there are three that favour him Jupiter Venus and the Sun All three act visibly in the Poem in behalf of Aeneas There are three others whose influences are Malignant Saturn Mars the Moon or Diana If they act 't is indeed against the Hero But they appear so obscurely that one may say Virgil has hid them below the Horizon Lastly Mercury whose Planet is said to be good with the good and bad with the bad acts visibly as the good Planets do but he never acts alone 't is Jupiter that always sends him out And this is the Horoscope which the Poet makes for the Birth of the Roman Empire The third external cause of the Manners is the Country in which one is Born Virgil bestows great commendations on the Country of his Hero and advances it far above Greece As long as Troy was assaulted fairly by Force it always remained Victorious 'T was only the fraud and Treachery of the Grecians that gain'd the mastery over the generosity of the Trojans So that according to their Countries the one Party are brave and generous the other Knaves and Cheats the one Civil the other Barbarous the one Hardy the other Nice c. After these Causes that are properly external follow next the Fathers and Mothers whose blood is derived down to their Children We cannot say that the Parents are such Causes as are altogether foreign to the Inclinations of those who are formed from their substance Let us apply this to our Subject Aeneas sprang from the Royal Blood of Troy The first Princes of this Family were as Virtuous as Powerful But in process of time these two things were divided into two different branches Ilus left the Crown to Laomedon and his Virtue to Assaracus Priam and Paris were Heirs to the first Anchises and Aeneas to the second By this means the Poet bestows upon his Hero the good inclinations of his Ancestors before ever he restored to him the Regal Power His Piety deserv'd the Sceptre of his Fathers and the perfidiousness of the other branch was the cause that Priam's Family was extirpated The Innocent themselves felt likewise the smart of it as Virgil observes of Polydore This is more clearly expressed by the Greek Poet. He lays down the genealogy of Priam and Aeneas and adds that Jupiter hated the Family of Priam and that notwithstanding Aeneas was to command the Trojans and transmit the Empire to his Posterity These are the advantages Aeneas derived from his Father His Mother was the Goddess from whom he deriv'd the Character of Good Nature and Meekness which was the finest Ornament of his Manners Parents likewise hand down to their Children their Nobility which often makes a great deal of difference between those that are Noble and those that are not Now that which happens often or ordinarily in these things is the Rule which the Poet ought to go by It would argue Ignorance or Childishness to do otherwise And one should fall under these Censures if for instance one should cause a Poetical person to be born under an unlucky Constellation to whom we would give good inclinations and a happy fortune whatsoever Instances may be opposed against the pretended doctrine of Astrologers yet that which is admirable and extraordinary in Poets does not consist in contradicting the common received opinion about these things Education is another Cause of the Manners which depends upon the two former to wit the Care and Quality of the Parents Virgil has not forgot this Cause Those likewise with whom one converses contribute very much towards those various Inclinations that proceed from Education Whether one suits himself to their Humour or whether that conformity

of Humours makes these Conjunctions and presides o'er the choice of Friends the Companions of Aeneas are good sage and pious Persons Japis his Physician prefers his Skill in Physick beyond the Glory of Arms even in that only design of prolonging the life of his old Father Education depends likewise on the Government and the State under which one is brought up One conceives quite different Sentiments under a Monarchy than one should do under a Common-wealth This Point was of some moment to our Poet who was willing to change the Inclinations of his Audience 'T is upon this account that the Inclinations of all the Personages in the Aeneid are unanimously for a Monarchy And though the Thuscans who were used cruelly by Mezentius revolt from him and drive him thence yet this is not as the first Brutus did to change the Face of the State by banishing both the King and his Power together but in order to submit themselves to a more just Monarch We may take into the number of mixed Causes the Riches the Dignities the Alliances and the other Goods of Fortune which we possess upon which I will only make this Reflection That a King or General of an Army do not always act in that Character Achilles was both But he preserves nothing of his Sovereignty but that Independency by which he refuses to obey Agamemnon as otherwise he ought The Fable requires only this and Homer has said no more of it His Achilles is rather a private Man and a single Voluntier who only fights in his own Quarrel than a King or a General So that nothing of all the good that is done any where else but where he is present is owing either to his Valour or his good Conduct Virgil's Hero is quite of another make He never divests himself of his Dignities he acts in the full Character of a General And this advances his Martial Atchievements to a higher pitch of Glory than those of Achilles The Absence of both these Heroes gives their Enemies great advantage against them and is an Evidence how great and necessary the Valour of both of them is But this is peculiar to Aeneas that whatever good is done in his Absence is owing to his Conduct Two things preserved the Trojans from the rage of Turnus The one is the Rampart and Fortifications of the Camp they were intrenched in Aeneas himself designed and over-looked these Works The other is the good order they observed to defend themselves And in this they did no more than what he ordered them at parting And here is a Glory which the Hero in the Iliad can make no pretensions to and if one would compare both together Achilles is a valiant Soldier and Aeneas a compleat Commander The last Causes of the Manners which we propounded are purely internal The chief and most general of these is the Complexion Poets place high Characters upon Bodies of the largest size and the finest make Virgil gives his Hero the Stature and Visage of a God And he observes * that Vertue is most charming when a good Soul is lodged in a Body that resembles it The Complexion varies according to the difference of Ages and Sexes Turnus is younger than Aeneas because Aeneas ought to be sage and prudent and Turnus furious and passionate like another Achilles I will not transcribe here what Horace has writ concerning the Manners that are proper to every Age. As for the Sex Aristotle says in his Poetry that there are fewer good Women than bad and that they do more mischief than good in the World Virgil is but too exact in copying this Thought Venus is the Mother and Protectress of Aeneas She seems to be good-natured through the whole Sibyl likewise favours him Cybele and Andromache are well-wishers to him and wish him no harm but they appear but little For this small number of good Women how many bad ones are there or at least such as bring a great deal of Mischief upon this Hero Juno is his profess'd Enemy and employs against him Iris Juturna and Alecto Dido thought of ruining him at Carthage and calls in to her aid her Sister a Nurse and an Inchantress The Harpies drive him out of their Island Helena is a Fury that ruines the Trojans and Graecians themselves The Trojan Women though his own Subjects set his Fleet on Fire Amata contemns the Order of the Gods and the Will of the King her Husband and with the Latin Women first blows the Trumpet to Rebellion Sylvia puts her upon it The Women that were most esteemed by this Hero brought insupportable Troubles upon his Head At the end of the Second Book one may see his Sorrow for Creüsa And the innocent Lavinia is the cause of all the Miseries he suffers in the six last Books Camilla bears Arms against him but she gives us an occasion to make a more particular Reflection Virgil in her has given us a pretty Example of the Inconstancy of the Sex It seems as if this courageous Damosel was brought in to fight only to teach other Women that War is none of their Business and that they can never so far divest themselves of their natural Inclinations There still remains something in them which will prove the ruine of themselves and which is a great prejudice to those who relie upon them The Poet does admirably apply this Point to the Manners of that Sex and makes use of this Heroine in the case who seems to be wholly of another make In the heat of the Battel she perceives a Warriour with rich Amour She was presently for having the Spoils of this Enemy and the Motives the Poet gives her are looked upon as a Woman 's greedy Desire This levity of the Sex makes Camilla forget her Dignity and the taking care of her safety and 't is followed with very mischievous Effects She is killed the Cavalry routed and Aeneas preserved from an Ambuscado he was just falling into The Passions likewise are the internal Causes of the Manners If we love any Person we love all we see in him even to his Failings If we hate any one we have an Aversion for even his Perfections So great a Power has Passion over us When Dido loves Aeneas this Hero in her Eye is nothing less than a God But is she incensed against him Then he is no longer one of Humane Race but some hard hearted Rock of Mount Caucasus is scarce good enough to be his Father But the most excellent of all the Causes of each Man's Manners is his own Actions This Cause imprints the strongest Habits 'T is that in which we have the greatest share 'T is that which creates to us the greatest Honour if the Manners it produces be good and which on the other hand is our greatest shame if they be bad Virgil has very divinely touched upon this Cause when he says that next after God Good Manners are the chiefest and

Interest prompt him to The Humours and the Inclinations belong to the Doctrine of the Morals which we shall treat of particularly in the fourth Book We only joyn them here to the two other Causes we mention'd and of all three we affirm this in general That the Poet ought to inform his Readers of them and make them conspicuous in his principal Personages when he introduces them or even before he makes them appear Homer has ingeniously begun his Odysseïs with the Transactions at Ithaca during the Absence of Vlysses If he had begun with the Travels of his Hero he would scarce have spoken of any one else and a Man might have read a great deal of the Poem without conceiving the least Idea of Telemachus Penelope or her Suitors who had so great a share in the Action But in the Beginning he has pitch'd upon besides these Personages whom he discovers he represents Vlysses in his full Length And from the very first Opening of the Action one sees the Interest which the Gods had therein The Skill and Care of the same Poet may be seen likewise in introducing his Personages in the first Book of his Iliad where he discovers the Humour the Interests and the Designs of Agamemnon Achilles Nestor Vlysses and several others nay and of the Gods too And in his second Book he makes a Review of the Grecian and Trojan Armies which is full evidence that all we have here said is very necessary But lastly Since the Epick Poem is doubtless much longer than the Dramatick and since 't is easier to manage the Incidents and the Presence of the Personages in that than in the other one is not obliged to introduce all of them at the Beginning of the Epopéa with as much Exactness as in the first Act of a Theatral Piece where at least one is obliged to give some Item of all those who have any considerable part in the Intrigue I mention this upon the Account of Virgil's Practice He has been less exact than the Greek Poet for he says nothing of Turnus Latinus Amata and other Italians till the middle of his Poem But 't is true likewise that he has so disposed his Action as seems to justifie this Delay He has divided the Aeneid into two parts more sensibly than Homer has his Iliad and Odysseïs He not only makes this Division at the first and in his Proposition by saying that Aeneas suffer'd much when he was toss'd about from this Sea to that and from one Province to another and suffer'd also a great deal more in the Wars he was engag'd in but he likewise when he begins his second Part advertises his Reader of it and proposes the things he is about to mention as all new and quite of another Make from the former Thus in the first Book he introduces the principal Personages of his first part and he only speaks of those who were to appear afresh in the second Part in his sixth seventh and eighth Books And here in my mind he was less fortunate than the Greek Poet. Besides these more general Causes of the Action and of the main Intrigues there are still some Incidents and some Episodes more particular of which the Poet must give an Account This happens commonly not in the Beginning of the Action but only when the Poet is about to make one of his lesser Recitals The Reader could not guess how the Wound of Vlysses came which discover'd him to his Friends not why Camilla should be in love with War nor how it came to pass that Aeneas met with several Persons in the Shades below who were to come into the World many Ages after c. Therefore the Poet must tell him the Causes of all this These Causes must be good and suitable to the Subject All the Action of the Iliad is founded upon the Anger of Achilles The Cause of this Anger is the Displeasure Apollo conceiv'd against Agamemnon because Agamemnon likewise in his Anger had affronted the Priest of this God All these Passions have probable Causes and such as are suitable to the General Subject of the Trojan War For as this General Cause is Heten's being ravish'd from Menelaus so the other Causes are of the same Nature Chryseïs is ravish'd from her Father and Briseïs from Achilles In short all are stamp'd with the same Character of Injustice and Violence in these Heroes If the Hero be a Man of Probity the Causes of all his Designs should be just and commendable as those in the Odysseïs and the Aeneid And the Causes of the Persecution he meets with must not lessen the Esteem which the Poet would raise of his Probity Neptune persecutes Vlysses because Vlysses had blinded his Son Polypheme But this Monster had already devour'd six of the Comerades of Vlysses and was just upon serving Vlysses himself and the rest the same Trick Aeneas makes a more particular Profession of his Piety and accordingly Virgil uses him more honourably The Causes Juno had to persecute him did either not touch his Person or else were much to his Glory since the only one which concern'd him was the Choice which Fate made of him to lay in Italy the Foundation of the Empire of the World Juno is so far from having any scornful or hateful Thoughts for this Hero's Person that she was willing to trust him with all that was most dear to her on Earth and make him Lord over her own Carthage She could never have given a more considerable Token of her Love and Esteem for any Man CHAP. XIII Of the Intrigue and the Vnravelling thereof IN what was said about the Causes of the Action one might have observ'd two opposite Designs The first and most principal is that of the Hero The second comprehends all their Designs that oppose the Pretensions of the Hero These Opposite Causes produce likewise Opposite Effects viz. the Endeavours of the Hero for the accomplishing his Design and the Endeavours of those who are against it As these Causes and Designs are the Beginning of the Action so these contrary Endeavours are the Middle of it and form a Difficulty and Intrigue which makes up the greatest part of the Poem It lasts as long as the Reader 's Mind is in suspense about the Event of these contrary Endeavours The Solution or the Vnravelling begins when one begins to see the Difficulty remov'd and the Doubts clear'd up Our Poets have divided each of their three Poems into two Parts and have put a particular Intrigue and the Solution of it in each Part. The first Part of the Iliad is the Anger of Achilles who is for revenging himself upon Agamemnon by the means of Hector and the Trojans The Intrigue comprehends the three Days Fight which happen'd in the Absence of Achilles and it consists on one side in the Resistance of Agamemnon and the Grecians and on the other in the revengeful and inexorable Humour of Achilles which would not