nature, and were the genuine product of the workings of the human mind [n]. For it is the mere illufion of this inveterate error concerning imitation, in general, which hath mifled fome great names to imagine them traductive from each other. But the occafion does not require us to take the matter fo deep. The office of poetry, in defcribing the folemnity of her religious ritual, is to look no farther, than the established modes of the age and country, whofe manners it would reprefent. If these fhould be the fame at different times in two religions, or the religion itself continue unchanged, it neceffarily follows, that the representations of them by different writers will agree to the minutest resemblance. Not only the general rite or ceremony will be the fame; but the very peculiarities of its performance, which are prescribed by rule, remain unaltered. Thus, if religious fentiments usually express themselves, in all men, by a certain pofture of the body, direction of the bands, turn of the countenance, &c. these figns are uniformly and faithfully pictured

[z] Div. LEG. vol. ii. par. 1. p. 355. ed. 1741..

in

in all devotional pourtraits. So, again, if by the genius of any particular religion, to which the poet is carefully to adhere, the practice of facrifices, auguries, omens, luftrations, &c. be required in its established ceremonial, the draught of this diversity of fuperftitions, and of their minuteft particulars, will have a neceffary place in any work, profeffing to delineate fuch religion; whatever resemblance its defcriptions may be foreseen to have to thofe of any other.

1

The reader will proceed to apply these remarks, where he fees fit. For it may fcarcely feem worth while to take notice of the infinuation, which a polite writer, but no very able critic, hath thrown out againft the entire ufe of religious defcription in poetry. I fay the entire ufe; for fo I understand him, when he fays, " the religion of

66

the gentiles had been woven into the con"texture of all the antient poetry with a very agreeable mixture, which made the "moderns affect to give that of Christianity a place alfo in their poems [o]." He feems not to have conceived, that the vi

te

[o] Sir WILLIAM TEMPLE's Works, vol. i. p. 245. ed. 1740. fol.

fible

fible effects of religious opinions and difpo fitions, conftitute a principal part of what is moft ftriking in the fublimer poetry. The narrative fpecies delights in, or rather cannot fubfift without, thefe folemn pictures of the religious ritual; and the theatre is never more moved, than when its awful fcenery is exhibited in the dramatic. Or, if he meant this cenfure, of the intervention of fuperior agents, and what we call machinery, the obfervation (though it be feconded by one, whofe profeffion fhould have taught him much better [p]) is not more to the purpose. For the pomp of the epic mufe demands to be furnished with a train of thefe celeftial perfonages. Intending, as fhe doth, to aftonish the imagination with whatever is most auguft within the compass of human thought, it is not poffible for her to accomplish this great end, but by the

[p]La machine du merveilleux, l'intervention d'un 66. pouvoir céleste, la nature des epifodes, tout ce qui depend de la tyrannie de la coutume, & de cet infting "qui on nomme goût; voilà fur quoi il y a mille opi "nions, & point de régles générales." M. DE VOL TAIRE, Efaye fur la Poëfie Epique, chap. i.

miniftry

miniftry of fupernatural intelligencies, PER

AMBAGES ET MINISTERIA DEORUM.

Or, the proof of thefe two points may be given more precifely thus: "The relation "of man to the deity, being as effential to "his nature, as that which he bears to his "fellow-citizens, religion becomes as necef

fary a part of a serious and fublime nar"ration of human life, as civil actions. "And as the fublime nature of it requires

even virtues and vices to be perfonified, “much more is it neceffary, that fupernatu"ral agency agency fhould bear a part in it. For, "whatever fome fects may think of religion's being a divine philofophy in the "mind, the poet muft exhibit man's addreffes "to heaven in ceremonies, and heaven's in"tervention by visible agency."

So that the intermixture of religion, in every point of view, is not only agreeable, but neceffary to the very genius of, at least, the highest clafs of poetry. Antients and moderns might therefore be led to the dif play of this facred Scenery, without affectar tion. And for what concerns Chriftian poets, in particular, we fee from an instance at home (whatever may be the fuccefs of fome

Italians,

Italians, whom he appears to have had in his eye) that, where the fubject is pro per to receive it, it can appear with as much grace, as in the poets of paganism. It may be concluded then, univerfally, that religion is the proper object of poetry, which wants no prompter of a preceding model to give it an introduction; and that the forms, under which it prefents itself, are too manifeft and glaring to obfervation, to escape any writer.

The cafe is fomewhat different with what I call the moral and oeconomical Sentiments: Thefe operate indeed within, and by their bufy and active powers adminifter abundant matter to poetic defcription, which alone is equal to thefe unfeen workings. For their actings on the body are too feeble to produce any visible alteration of the outward form. Their fine and delicate movements are to be apprehended only and furveyed by confcious attentive reflexion. They are not, ufually, of force enough to wield the machine of man; to difcompofe his frame, or diftort his feature: and fo rarely come to be susceptible of picture or representation. One may compare the fubtle operations of

thefe