f manners is
resemblance; and this is founded upon the particular characters of
men, as we have them delivered to us by relation or history; that is,
when a poet has the known character of this or that man before him, he
is bound to represent him such, at least not contrary to that which
fame has reported him to have been. Thus, it is not a poet's choice to
make Ulysses choleric, or Achilles patient, because Homer has
described them quite otherwise. Yet this is a rock, on which ignorant
writers daily split; and the absurdity is as monstrous, as if a
painter should draw a coward running from a battle, and tell us it was
the picture of Alexander the Great.

The last property of manners is, that they be constant and equal, that
is, maintained the same through the whole design: thus, when Virgil
had once given the name of _pious_ to AEneas, he was bound to show him
such, in all his words and actions through the whole poem. All these
properties Horace has hinted to a judicious observer.--1. _Notandi
sunt tibi mores;_ 2. _Aut famam sequere,_ 3. _aut sibi concenientia
finge;_ 4. _Sercetur ad imum, qualis ab incepto processerit, et sibi
constet._

From the manners, the characters of persons are derived; for, indeed,
the characters are no other than the inclinations, as they appear in
the several persons of the poem; a character being thus defined,--that
which distinguishes one man from another. Not to repeat the same
things over again, which have been said of the manners, I will only
add what is necessary here. A character, or that which distinguishes
one man from all others, cannot be supposed to consist of one
particular virtue, or vice, or passion only; but it is a composition
of qualities which are not contrary to one another in the same person.
Thus, the same man may be liberal and valiant, but not liberal and
covetous; so in a comical character, or humour, (which is an
inclination to this or that particular folly) Falstaff is a liar, and
a coward, a glutton, and a buffoon, because all these qualities may
agree in the same man; yet it is still to be observed, that one
virtue, vice, and passion, ought to be shown in every man, as
predominant over all the rest; as covetousness in Crassus, love of his
country in Brutus; and the same in characters which are feigned.

The chief character or hero in a tragedy, as I have already shown,
ought in prudence to be such a man, who has so much more of virtue in
him than of vice, tha