The Lusiad, designated as a whole, may therefore be termed an epic national picture of Portuguese glory, something greater than a mere gallery of poetic stories, but less than a perfect epopee. The principles of the composition are exceedingly simple; but that they may not be misconceived, it is necessary to understand the epic machinery of the poem, as the poet himself would have it understood, and as it was understood in the spirit of the age by his contemporaries. Camoens was too truly a poet to exclude from his Lusiad the charm of the marvellous and the co-operation of supernatural beings. But he was either accidentally less happy than Tasso in the choice of epic machinery for a modern heroic poem, or he purposely preferred the Greek mythology as the most beautiful. Nothing prevented him from assigning the necessary parts in his machinery to the good and bad agents of popular christian belief; and the subject seems particularly calculated for such an application as the diffusion of christianity by the discoveries and conquests of the Portuguese is in the poem itself made the highest merit of the nation. Camoens, however, appears to have been of opinion that an epic poem, such as he had planned, should be adorned with learning, and particularly mythological learning; and besides, by the introduction of the Greek deities the whole composition seemed to be raised to the true poetic region of the ancient epopœia. Thus there remains the singular incongruity of the Greek mythology and the atchievements of the Portuguese christians, who, on no occasion neglect to act and discourse in the true spirit of their faith. But in the mind of Camoens this incongruity was removed by the opinion, which he shared in common with his contemporaries, that the machinery in epopœia was merely a poetic figure, and that all the heathen deities might be introduced as allegorical characters, in modern narrative poetry, by the same privilege which enables Cupid to retain his place in the lyric compositions of christian poets, without any theological or literary offence. Thus Camoens allegorically introduced Olympus into his poem. The erroneous opinion which misled the poet does not, it is true, redeem this defect in the poem, though it contributes to cast a veil over it. But if the reader admits this opinion, which he must do in order to understand the poet in his own sense, then will even the offence against taste be found to vanish imperceptibly. This compromise once made, the whole poem becomes not only singular, but even wonderful in its singularity, particularly where Vasco da Gama and his companions sport with Thetis and her nymphs allegorically, and yet in good earnest; and the historical material begins, as if suddenly ennobled by magic, to shine in the full light of poetry.