vid, and calling the Muses and Nymphs to the Labour of the Blessed
Virgin, Tho' the truth is, the Italian Poets seem more excusable, at least
to a Papist, in this Case, than any other Nation, who parted with as
little of their Idolatry as they could possibly, after they had kept it as
long as they were able, making the Change very easie, and turning their
Pantheon into an All Saints; much like the good Fathers in the Spanish
Conquests in America, who suffer the Natives to keep their Old Idols, so
they'll but pay for 'em, and get 'em christen'd; by this means making many
a good Saint out of a very indifferent Devil. So far, I say, Balzac is
undoubtedly in the right, that Christianity and Heathenism ought not to be
confounded, nor the Pagan Gods mention'd, but as such, in Christian Poems.
Of which Boileau also says, "They should not be Fill'd with the Fictions
of Idolatry;" tho' he tells us just before,

In vain have our mistaken Authors try'd
Those ancient Ornaments to lay aside.

As tho' he were afraid lest all Poets shou'd be forc'd to turn Christians,
and yet in the next Lines he thinks it full as bad,

To fright the Reader in each Line with Hell,
And talk of Satan, Ashtaroth and Bel.

As tho' he'd have no Christian to be a Poet. And much at the same rate is
Monsieur Balzac very angry with Buchanan, for the same reason; nor will he
by any means let us substitute Belzebub, Asmodeus, and Leviathan, in the
room of Alecto, Tisiphone, and Megaera, which is, in his Opinion, perfect
Pedantry and Affectation; and is extreamly afraid, lest any of those
Barbarous Hebrew Words should disfigure the purity of the Latin Tongue;
when surely he cou'd not but know, that this pure Latin Tongue it self,
for which he's so much concerned, is nothing but the gradual Corruption or
Barbarizing of the Greek; as that of the Phonician and Hebrew before; and
the Italian, and his own French too, from the Latin afterwards, by the
adulterous mixture of 'tis hard to say how many Languages: So that between
'em, they'd make it impossible for a Christian Poet to write a good Heroic
Poem, or even a Tragedy, on any, but profane Subjects; by taking away all
the Machines, and therein whatever is admirable. No, says Balzac, instead
of those hard Words and proper Names, Appellatives may be chosen, Words
common to all People: As for example, Ill luck instead of the Fates, and
the Foul Fiend for Lucifer; and whether this wou'd not sound extreamly
He