The greatest Modern Criticks have laid it down as a Rule, that an Heroick Poem should be founded upon some important Precept of Morality, adapted to the Constitution of the Country in which the Poet writes.
Homer
and
Virgil
have formed their Plans in this View. As
Greece
was a Collection of many Governments, who suffered very much among themselves, and gave the
Persian
Emperor, who was their common Enemy, many Advantages over them by their mutual Jealousies and Animosities,
Homer