the Liberty of reading Homer, or any other Heathen Poer, that was us'd then in their Schools, tho Christian Fathers set one Apellinarius (I think his Name was) to write in all the Parts of Poetry for the Use of the Christians, in Odes, in Heroic Verse, nay, even in Tragedy, and Comedy; by which Means they difappointed the Designs of the Apoftate. So ufeful did the Fathersby this Procedure, judge that Poetry it self was, without the Defects introduced into it by the Wickedness of Men, who have not exempted Religion it felf from their Corruption.

I wonder that you have forgotten a Thing objected by one of the Fathers, against the High-heel'd Shoes then worn in Tragedy. It is Tertullian (if my Memory fail me not) who says, that the Devil sets them on their lofty Buskins to give Christ the Lye, who has told us, that no Body can add one Cubit to his Stature. At this rate of arguing, I am afraid our once high Commodes, and the present High-crown'd Hats of the Village Dames, are not free from this diobolical Design. If the Fathers always talk'd in this wild Manner, I know not how to pay any great Deference to their Difcourses.

I dare believe, that it will not be expected from me to compare this admirable Art with the others, which are concerned in the Regulation of our Manners, and Paffions; and to shew which is the most valuable, because as they are generally confin'd to the Learned, they cannot be so well known to us Women; and for that very Reafon, in my Opinion, are of a lower Degree of Merit and Excellence. They, befides, if I am not mifinform'd, confist chiefly in Precepts and Definitions, and reach therefore but to a Few; but Loetry spreads to all, and theds its benign Influence upon all; it teaches by Example, which strike all Capacities. I learn from them, if not the Difinitions of Virtue, yet what is of niore Confequence: That to be Happy, we must not depart from it;

That

That to avoid Vice and Guilt, we must resist the first Approaches of Paffions, fince our yielding to these first Approaches, gives them the Mastery, and leads us into all our deplorable Miferies.

I am unacquainted with Homer, Sophocles, Euripides, and the other great Poets of Antiquity, only as far as Chapman, Ogilby, Hobbs, and fome more Modern Tranflations inform me; yet by these, I find, those Poets teaching by Fable, or what is call'd in the Holy Scriptures, Parable which, as it reaches all Capacities, fo it touches all Tempers and Constitu

tions.

But that which determines me entirely for Poetry, is, That God has made use of it in the Sacred Scriptures, by his Prophets, Legislators, and most favour'd of Things: That the Pfalms, Canticles, Job, Ecclesiastes, are all Poems, if one may believe the Learned, and all written in Verfe.

So that I must conclude (my dear Eufebia) That Poetry, which is of fuch Ufe in the Correcting, nay, preventing of our Vices, and restoring or confirming our Virtues; That Poetry, whose Force God himself has thought the best Vehicle for the strongest Emanations of his Spirit; can never justly be thought unworthy the Confideration of Men of the greatest Religion and. Senfe.

Give me leave to add, That if it come short of these Perfections in our Time, and that its Profef-fors are in mean and unhappy Circumstances; it is the Fault of our Governors, our Men of Power, who either do not know, or will not give themselves the Painss to distinguish between a Poetaster, and a Poet, a meer. Trifler in Versification, and a great Genius: That can give us, if justly encouraged, Things more worthy to entertain and instruct us. Nay, Experience has too fcandalously shewn us, That they always, or generally favour the Poetafter, for the Deference he pays them, rather than the Poct, whost Soul can not

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fubmit to fuch servile Offices, as they require for their Smiles. And in this Difcouragement of juft Performers of this Art, I must with Reluctance, tho with Justice own, that the Ladies have been as the Men; nay, I fear more fcandaloufly fo, while they have prostitued both their Understanding and Modesty, in filling the Theatres for the Benefit of fuch Scriblers, who for their little Regard to the juft Character of the Sex, deserv'd rather my Lord Rochester's Correction of Black Will, a Cudgel, than the Reward of a throng'd House for their Benefit; and for their Ignorance in their Art, ought rather to have been confin'd to a Bartholomew Booth, or a Mountebank Stage, than be admitted to discover their Follies in the Royal Theatres, at the Expence of the Reputation of a whole Nation, fince more polite Foreigners, by fuch nice Specimens as these, must carry away a very defpicable Opinion of the English Wit and Poetry.

Morifina had no sooner done, but Morat, the Black, coming into the Room with some Burgundy, the feeming to give him fome Directions, left the Compa ny, as if about fome domeftick Affairs; yet certainly it was the Effect of her natural Diffiderce and Modesty, that she might not be forced to blush to hear her own Praise, or find what the had faid less acceptable than the defir'd.

Laudon could not conceal the Satisfaction he found in her agreeable Discourse; and every Body exprefs'd the Pleasure they had found all the Time she was speaking. Even Eufebia her felf, out of a Candour not common to the Sex, was not filent in her Praise; tho' Women are not the most easy People in the World under the Support of Conviction.

When the Heat of the Praise of Morifina was a little now over, I address'd my felf to Eufebia, in this Manner.

Tho, Madam, I think, that the Lady of the House has fufficiently answer'd all your Objections against

Poe

Poetry: For whereas you made it wicked, irreligiousr and trifling, she has shewn it to be religious, pious, of Ufe; nay, of the greatest Importance to the promoting of Virtue, and employ'd by God himself to his Omnipotent Ends, in the iluminating and reclaiming of Mankind: That it has a triple innate Force, that is, The Power of Eloquence, Musick, and Painting, nay, that these three Arts derived these Powers which the World owns, and Experience proves, from Poetry; and that therefore it can be no trifting Study, or vain Amusement, but worthy of the Application of Men of Senfe. Virtue, and Religion.

Tho, I say, the has prov'd all this, in a most easy, obvious, and pleasant Manner; yer give me Leave to add fome more particular Anfiwers to your Objections, in a more explicite Manner.

Fırft, Madam, I must observe, That much of the Accufations of Plato, as well as of the Fathers, is founded on the Abfurdiries of the Heathen System of Religion in general, of which Homer, and the Roets (at least, as far as we can difcover) were not the Founders, but made ufe of it as they found it, in Order to make their moral Doctrines take with a People, whose corrupt Idea of the Deity, the Product of more dark and ignorant Times, had already poffefs'd with Notions which must be admitted as Fundamentals with their Instructors, if they would pretend to have any Effect upon them.

I know very well, that Mr. Rapin in his Reflections on Aristotle's Poefie, is pleas'd to say, by Way of a very awkward Praise of Homer, That he was in a. manner the Author of Paganism, the Religion of which be established by his Poems; fo one may say,. That never Prophet bad fo many Followers as be. Yet, as this is a very fcandalous Praise of an excellent Perfon, so is ic faife in the very Fact: For if he had confirm'd Pagonia in Greece, and its Colonies, its certain, that the rest of the World, which had no Communication

with that Country, could not be influenced by any Writer of it: and we know, that the Plurality of Gods was spread thro' Afia, Africa, and Europe, among Nations who never heard of Homer, or of his Country..

But to come to your particular Objections, from the Fathers, and from Plato, we find, that whatever the Ancient Chriftians might think, the modern Divines all hold, That God may, to good Ends, make use of evil Means and Instruments: And thus was Pandarus employ'd by Jove and Pallas, to break the Peace, as well as the Lying Dream that was fent to Agamemnon. We are acquainted with the Story of Achab too well, and the Lying Spirit mentioned in the History of that King of Ifrael. If we find Fault with Homer on that Account, the fame may be faid of the two Barrels or Vessels in Jupiter's Cellar; for we now know the Original of all the Greek Fables.

Not to have represented their Gods with Face and Fingers, &c. with Actions, Paffions, and other Modifications, after the manner of Man, had been to fay nothing at all. St. Paul, who foar'd as high as any Body, and had the Gift of Tongues, declar'd the things above, to be ineffable. Homer knew this, and therefore would not banter the World with hard Words, and unintelligible Jargon, as Plato and others have fince done; but did accommodate his Speech to the Senfes of Humankind, by Metaphors, Similitudes, and Parables, after the manner of Moses, and the old Prophets before him. He entertains, and fills us to the utmost of our Organs and Capacities. He finds fomething for all our Senfes, bringing it to our Eyes, our Ears, and our Feeling. Nectar he provides for our Taste, and there always exhales Ambrosial Odours in the Divine Prefence. What Plato, or an Angel could fay farther, passes all Understanding, and could not - enter our Organs, could have no Relith or Proportion to affect us, more than the Musick of the Spheres.

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