the iliad , the tragic poetry of greece-shakespeare , in the tempest and midsummer night 's dream-and most especially milton , in paradise lost , conform to this rule ; and the most humble novelist , who seeks to confer or receive amusement from his labours , may , without presumption , apply to prose fiction a licence , or rather a rule , from the adoption of which so many exquisite combinations of human feeling have resulted in the highest specimens of poetry .