from the Misfortunes this Disobedience draws upon them, the Evil Consequences which almost infallibly attend these particular Conducts, which are distinct from the general Notion of him who ought to Govern.
But as 'tis necessary that the Princes in the [1]Iliad should be Cholerick and Quarrelsome: † So 'tis necessary in the Fable of the Odysseïs that the chief Personage should be. Sage, and Prudent. This raises a difficulty in the Fiction; because this Personage ought to be absent for the two reasons aforemention'd, which are Essential to the Fable; and which constitute the principal part thereof: But he cannot be absent from his own home without offending against another Maxim of equal importance; viz. That a King should never leave his own Country.
It is true, there are sometimes such necessities as sufficiently excuse the Prudence of a Politician: But such a necessity is a thing important enough to supply matter for another Poem, and this multiplication of the Action would have been Vicious. To prevent this, first this necessity and the departure of the Hero must be disjoin'd from the Poem: And in the second place, the Hero having been oblig'd to absent himself for a Reason antecedent to the Action, and distinct from the Fable; he ought not to embrace this opportunity of instructing himself, and so absent himself voluntarily from his own Government. For at this rate, his absence would have been still voluntary, and one might with reason lay to his Charge, the disorders which might have happen'd thereon.
Thus in the constitution of the Fable, the Poet ought not to take for his Action, and for the Foundation of his Poem, the Departure of a Prince from his own Country, nor his voluntary stay in any other Place; but his Return, and this Return hinder'd against his Will. This is the first Idea the Poet gives us of it. [2]His Hero appears at first in a desolate Island, sitting upon the side of the Sea, which with Tears in his Eyes he looks upon as the obstacle, that had hinder's him so long from returning home, and visiting his own dear Country.
And lastly, since this forc'd delay has something in it that is most Natural and usual to such as make Voyages by Sea: Homer has judiciously made choice of a Prince whose Kingdom was in an Island.
We see then how he has feign'd all this Action, allowing his Hero a great many Years, because he stood in need of so many to instruct himself in Prudence and Policy.
"A Prince had been oblig'd to forsake his Native Country, and to head an Army of his Subjects in a Foreign Expedition. Having gloriously perform'd this Enterprize, he was for marchinghome
