Reflections on Aristotle's treatise of poesie containing the necessary, rational, and universal rules for epick, dramatick, and the other sorts of poetry : with reflections on the works of the ancient and modern poets, and their faults noted / by R. Rapin.

X.

FOr no other end is Poetry delightful, then that it may be profitable. Plea∣sure is only the means by which the pro∣fit is convey'd; and all Poetry, when 'tis perfect, ought of necessity to be a pub∣lick Lesson of good Manners for the in∣struction of the world. Heroick Poe∣sie proposes the example of great Vir∣tues, and great Vices, to excite men to abhor these, and to be in love with the other: it gives us an esteem for Achil∣les in Homer, and contempt for Thersites: it begets in us a veneration for the piety of Aeneas in Virgil, and horrour for the profaness of Mezentius. Tragedy recti∣fies the use of Passions, by moderating our fear, and our pity, which are obsta∣cles of Virtue; it lets men see that Vice never escapes unpunish'd, when it represents Aegisthus in the Electra of So∣phocles, punish'd after the Ten years en∣joyment of his Crime. It teaches us, that the favours of Fortune, and the grandeurs of the World, are not al∣ways true Goods, when it shews on the Theatre a Queen so unhappy as Hecuba

deploring with that pathetick ayre her misfortunes in Euripides Comedy, which is an image of common conversation, corrects the publick Vices, by letting us see how ridiculous they are in parti∣culars. Aristophanes does not mock at the foolish vanity of Praxagora (in his Parliament of Women) but to cure the vanity of the other Athenian Wo∣men; and 'twas only to teach the Roman Souldiers in what consisted true Valour, that Plautus expos'd in publick the ex∣travagance of false Bravery in his Brag∣gadocio Captain, in that Comedy of the Glorious Souldier.