several Allegorical Persons of this Nature which are very beautiful in those Compositions,
may, perhaps, be used as an Argument, that the Authors of them were of Opinion,
such
Characters might have a Place in an Epic Work. For my own part, I should be glad the Reader would think so, for the sake of the Poem I am now examining, and must further add, that if such empty unsubstantial Beings may be ever made use of on this Occasion, never were any more nicely imagined, and employed in more proper Actions, than those of which I am now speaking.
Another Principal Actor in this Poem is the great Enemy of Mankind. The
of