The Poets which followed, and who were (properly speaking,) the Philosophers and Divines of those Times, seeing the desire the People had for those Feasts, and Shows, and impossibility of retrieving the first Simplicity; took another way to remedy this Disorder, and making an advantage of the Peoples Inclinations, gave them Instructions, disguis'd under the Charmes of Pleasure, as Physicians gild and sweeten the bitter Pills they administer to their Patients. I shall not recount all the different Changes, which have happen'd in Poetry, and by what degrees it has arrived to the Perfection, we now find it; I have spoken of it already in my _Commentaries_ on _Horace's Art of Poetry_, and shall say more in explaining, what _Aristotle_ writes in this Treatise. _Homer_ was the first that invented, or finished, an Epick Poem, for he found out the Unity of the Subject, the Manners, the Characters, and the Fable. But this Poem could only affect Customes, and was not moving enough to Correct the Passions, there wanted a Poem, which by imitating our Actions, might work in our Spirits a more ready and sensible effect. 'Twas this, which gave occasion for _Tragedy_, and banished all Satyrs, by this means Poetry was entirely purg'd from all the disorders its Corruption had brought it into. This is no proper place to shew, that Men who are quickly weary of regulated Pleasures, took pains to plunge themselves again into their former Licentiousness by the invention of _Comedy_. I shall keep my self to _Tragedy_, which is the most noble Imitation, and principal Subject of this Treatise, all the Parts of an Epick Poem are comprized in a _Tragedy_. However short this account may be, it suffices to let you see that Poesie is an Art, for since it has a certain End, there must necessarily be some way to arrive there: No body doubts of this constant Truth, that in all concerns where you may be in the right, or the wrong, there is an Art and sure Rules to lead you to the one, and direct you, how to avoid the other. The question then is, whether the Rules of this Art are known, and whether they are those which _Aristotle_ gives us here? This question is no less doubtful, than the former, I must also confess that this cannot be determined, but by the unlearned; who because they are the greater number, I shall make my Examination in their favour. To do this with some sort of Method, there are four Things to be consider'd, who gives the Rules, the time when he gives them; the manner in which he gives them, and the effects they have in divers times wrought on different People: For I believe from these four Circumstances, I can draw such Conclusions, that the most obstinate shall not be able to gainsay.