Virgil chiefly proposed to himself to exalt in his hero the
character of a patriot, and, in his fictitious history, the dignity of
his country. If the lessons they taught were of small importance or
doubtful value, or if they often forget to "teach" in their ambition to
"please," this is to be charged rather on the age than on the poet. They
taught the best lessons they knew; and were satisfied to please only
when they had nothing better to do. In modern times, it will not be
questioned that the greatest poets have ever endeavoured to enshrine
some moral or intellectual object in their verse. Milton calls Spenser
"our sage serious Spenser, whom I dare be known to think a better
teacher than Scotus or Aquinas." In like manner, the Absalom and
Achitophel, the Hind and Panther of Dryden, the philosophic strain of
Pope, the immortal page of Milton, and the half-inspired numbers of the
Task, are all, in their various ways, attempts of poets to improve or
reform the world. Every species of poetry, indeed, has received fresh
lustre, and even taken a new place in Parnassian dignity, by a larger
infusion of moral sentiment into its numbers.
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