this is far better counsel than Horace gives us when

he fays

Vos exemplaria Græca

"Nocturna verfate manu, verfate diurna."

As in the conduct of my ftudies with regard to divinity have reason to repent of nothing more than that I have not perufed the Bible with more frequency, fo if I were to fet up for a poet with a defign to exceed all the modern writers I would follow the advice of Rapin, and read the Prophets night and day. I am fure the compofures of the following book would have been filled with much greater fenfe, and appeared with much more agreeable ornaments, had I derived a larger portion from the Holy Scriptures.

Befides, we may fetch a further answer to Monf. Boileau's objection from other poets of his own country. What a noble use have Racine and Corneille made of Christian subjects in fome of their best trage. dies! what a variety of divine fcenes are displayed and pious paffions awakened in those poems! The martyrdom of Polyeucte how doth it reign over our love and pity, and at the fame time animate our zeal and devotion! May I here be permitted the liberty to return my thanks to that fair and ingenious hand * that directed me to fuch entertainments in a foreign language, which I had long wifhed for and fought in vain in our own: yet I must confefs that the Davideis

Philomela,

and the two Arthurs have fo far anfwered Boileau's objection in English, as that the obstacles of attempting Chriftian poefy are broken down, and the vain pretence of its being impracticable is experimentally confuted t.

It is true indeed the Chriftian mysteries have not fuch need of gay trappings as beautified or rather compofed the Heathen fuperftition; but this ftill makes for the greater eafe and furer fuccefs of the poet. The wonders of our religion, in a plain narration and a fimple dress, have a native grandeur, a dignity and a beauty, in them, though they do not utterly difdain all methods of ornament. The Book of the Revelations feems to be a prophecy in the form of an opera or a dramatick poem, where divine art illuftrates the fubject with many charming glories: but ftill it must be acknowledged that the naked themes of Christianity have fomething brighter and bolder in them, fomething more furprifing and celeílial, than all the adventures of gods and heroes, all the dazzling images of falfe luftre that form and garnish a Heathen fong. Here the very argument would give wonderful aids to the Mufe, and the heavenly theme would

+ Sir Richard Blackmore, in his admirable preface to his iaft poem entitled Alfred, has more copioully refuted all Boileau's arguments on this fubject, and that with great juftice and elegance, 1723. I am perfuaded that many perfons who defpife the poem would acknowledge the juft fentiments of that pre

face.

so relieve a dull hour and a languishing genius, that when the Mufe nods the fenfe would burn and sparkle upon the reader, and keep him feelingly awake.

With how much lefs toil and expenfe might a Dryden, an Otway, a Congreve, or a Dennis, furnish out a Chriftian poem than a modern play? There is nothing amongst all the ancient fables or later romances that have two fuch extremes united in them as the Eternal God becoming an infant of days; the Poffeffor of the palace of heaven laid to fleep in a manger; the holy Jefus, who knew no fin, bearing the fins of men in his body on the tree; agonies of forrow loading the foul of him who was God over all, blessed for ever! and the Sovereign of life ftretching his arms on a cross, bleeding and expiring. The heaven and the hell in our divinity are infinitely more delightful and dreadful than the childish figments of a dog with three heads, the buckets of the Belides, the Furies with fnaky hairs, or all the flowry ftories of Elyfium. And if we furvey the one as themes divinely true, and the other as a medley of fooleries which we can never believe, the advantage for touching the fprings of paffion will fall infinitely on the fide of the Christian poet: our wonder and our love, our pity, delight, and sorrow, with the long train of hopes and fears, must needs be under the command of an harmonicus pen, whose every line makes a part of the reader's faith, and is the very life or death of his foul.

If the trifling and incredible tales that furnish out a tragedy are foarmed by Wit and Fancy as to become fovereign of the rational powers, to triumph over all the affections, and manage our fmiles and our tears at pleafure, how wondrous a conquest might be obtained over a wild world, and reduce it at least to sobriety, if the fame happy talent were employed in dreffing the fcenes of religion in their proper figures of majefly, fweetness, and terrour! the wonders of creating power, of redeeming love and renewing grace, ought not to be thus impioufly neglected by those whom Heaven has endued with a gift so proper to adorn and cultivate them; an art whose sweet infinuations might almost convey piety in refisting nature, and melt the hardest fouls to the love of virtue. The affairs of this life, with their reference to a life to come, would shine bright in a dramatick description; nor is there any need or any reason why we fhould always borrow the plan or history from the ancient Jews or primitive martyrs, though feveral of thefe would furnish out noble ma→ terials for this fort of poefy; but modern scenes would be better understood by most readers, and the application would be much more easy. The anguish of inward guilt, the fecret stings and racks and scourges of conscience, the sweet retiring hours and seraphical joys of devotion, the victoryof a resolved foul over a thousand temptations, the inimitable love and paffion of a dying God, the awful glories of the last tribunal,

the grand decifive fentence, from which there is no appeal, and the consequent transports or horrours of the two eternal worlds, these things may be variously difpofed, and form many poems. How might such performances under a divine bleffing call back the dying piety of the nation to life and beauty? This would make religion appear like itfelf, and confound the blasphemies of a profligate world, ignorant of pious pleasures.

But we have reafon to fear that the tuneful men of our day have not raifed their ambition to fo divine a pitch; I should rejoice to fee more of this celeftial fire kindling within them, for the flashes that break out in fome present and paft writings betray an infernal fource. This the incomparable Mr. Cowley, in the latter end of his preface, and the ingenious Sir Richard Blackmore in the beginning of his, have fo pa thetically defcribed and lamented that I rather refer the reader to mourn with them than detain and tire him here. These gentlemen, in their large and laboured works of poefy, have given the world happy examples of what they wish and encourage in profe, the one in a rich variety of thought and fancy, the other in all the fhining colours of profufe and florid diction.

If shorter fonnets were compofed on fublime fubjects, fuch as the Pfalms of David, and the holy tranfports interfperfed in the other facred writings, or fuch as the moral Odes of Horace and the ancient