tract it in this; and difavow every expreffion which might feem to give precedency to the moderns in works of genius, I am fo far indeed from entertaining the fentiments you impute to me, that I have often endeavoured to account for that superiority which is fo vifible in the compofitions of their poets and have frequently affigned their religion as in the number of those causes, which probably concurred to give them this remarkable preheminence. That enthusiasm which is fo effential to every true artist in the poetical way, was confiderably heightened and enflamed by the whole turn of their facred doctrines; and the fancied prefence of their Muses had almost as wonderful an effect upon their thoughts and language, as if they had been really and divinely inspired. Whilst all nature was fupposed to swarm with divinities, and every oak and fountain was believed to be the refidence of fome prefiding deity; what wonder if the poet was animated by the imagined influence of fuch exalted fociety, and found himself tranfported beyond the ordinary limits of fober humanity? The mind, when attended only

by

by mere mortals of fuperior powers, is observed to rise in her ftrength; and her faculties open and enlarge themselves when fhe acts in the view of those, for whom fhe has conceived a more than common reBut when the force of fuperftition moves in concert with the powers of imagination, and genius is enflamed by devotion, poetry muft fhine out in all her brightest perfection and fplendor.

verence.

WHATEVER therefore the philosopher might think of the religion of his country; it was the intereft of the poet to be thoroughly orthodox. If he gave up his creed, he must renounce his numbers; and there could be no infpiration where there were no Muses. This is fo true, that it is in compofitions of the poetical kind alone, that the ancients feem to have the principal advantage over the moderns: in every other fpecies of writing one might venture perhaps to affert, that these latter ages have, at leaft, equalled them. When I fay fo, I do not confine myfelf to the productions of our own nation, but comprehend likewise those of our neighbours; and with that extent the observation will poffibly hold

true,

true, even without an exception in favour of history and oratory.

BUT whatever may with juftice be determined concerning that question; it is certain, at least, that the practice of all fucceeding poets confirms the notion for which I am principally contending. Though the altars of paganism have many ages fince been thrown down, and groves are no longer facred; yet the language of the poets hast not changed with the religion of the times, but the gods of Greece and Rome are still adored in modern verfe. Is not this a confeffion, that fancy is enlivened by superftition, and that the ancient bards catched their rapture from the old mythology? I will own, however, that I think there is fomething ridiculous in this unnatural adoption, and that a modern poet makes but an aukward figure with his antiquated gods. When the pagan fyftem was fanctified by popular belief, a piece of machinery of that kind, as it had the air of probability, afforded a very striking manner of celebrating any remarkable circumstance, or raising any common one. But now that this fupertition is no longer fupported by vulgar

opinion

opinion, it has loft its principal grace and efficacy, and feems to be, in general, the most cold and uninteresting method in which a poet can work up his fentiments. What, for inftance, can be more unaffecting and fpiritlefs, than the compliment which Boileau has paid to Louis the XIVth on his famous paffage over the Rhine? He represents the Naiads, you may remember, as alarming the god of that river with an account of the march of the French monarch; upon which the river-god affumes the appearance of an old experienced commander, and flies to a Dutch fort, in order to exhort the garrifon to fally out and difpute the intended paffage. Accordingly they range themselves in form of battle with the Rhine at their head, who, after fome vain efforts, obferving Mars and Bellona on the fide of the enemy, is fo terrified with the view of these fuperior divinities, that he most gallantly runs away, and leaves the hero in quiet poffeffion of his banks, I know not how far this may be relished by critics, or justified by custom; but as I am only mentioning my particular taste, I

will acknowledge, that it appears to me extremely infipid and puerile.

I HAVE not however fo much of the fpirit of Typhoeus in me, as to make war upon the gods without reftriction, and attempt to exclude them from their whole poetical dominions. To reprefent natural, moral, or intellectual qualities and affections as perfons, and appropriate to them those general emblems by which their powers and properties are usually typified in pagan theology, may be allowed as one of the most pleasing and graceful figures of poetical rhetoric. When Dryden, addreffing himself to the month of May as to a perfon, fays,

For thee the Graces lead the dancing hours;

one may confider him as speaking only in metaphor: and when such shadowy beings are thus juft fhewn to the imagination, and immediately withdrawn again, they certainly have a very powerful effect. But I can relish them no farther than as figures only: when they are extended in any ferious compofition beyond the limits of metaphor, and exhibited under all the various actions of

real