roical, I leave any Man to judge: It being besides certain, that 'tis
singulars and particulars which give an Air of Probability, and the main
Life and Beauty to a Poem, especially of this Nature; without which it
must of necessity sink and languish. However so much of Truth, I must
confess, there is in what he says, that I verily believe Magor-missabib,
or Mahershal-alhashbaz, wou'd scarce yoke decently in one of our
Pentameters, but be near as unquiet and troublesome there, as a Mount
Orgueil it self. Nor can partiality so far blind my Judgment as not to be
my self almost frighted at second hearing of such a thundering Verse, as
Belsamen Ashtaroth Baaltii Ba'al: Which seems as flat Conjuration, as
Zinguebar, Oran, &c. tho' 'tis now too late to amend it. But then there
are other Words or a more soft and treatable Cadence, even in the same
Hebrew Language, especially when mollified by a Latin or Greek form, or
Termination; and such as these one may make use of and let others alone:
though neither is our bolder rougher Tongue so much affrighted at them, as
the French and Latin.

But Boileau pushes the Objection further, and wou'd make it bear against
the Things as well as Words, persuading himself,

Our God and Prophets that he sent,
Can't act like those the Poets did invent.

Tho' he too, is short in History, how excellent soever in Poetry. For
first, the Heathen Poets did not invent the Names of their Gods and
Heroes, but had 'em from Eastern Tradition, and the Phenician and Jewish
Language, tho' deflected and disguis'd after the Greek and other Forms, as
Josephus tells us, which the learned Bochart has proved invincibly; and I
have made some Essay towards it, in my Sixth Book. Nay further, it seems
plain to me, that most, even of their best Fancies and Images, as well as
Names, were borrow'd from the Antient Hebrew Poetry and Divinity, as, were
there room for't, I cou'd, I think, render more than probable, in all the
most celebrated Strokes of Homer, moat of the Heathen Poetical Fables, and
even in Hesiod's blind Theogonia. Their Gods or Devils, which you please,
were not near as Antient as the Hebrews. The Word Satan is as ancient as
Job; nor can they shew us a Pluto within a long while of him. Ashtaroth,
and Astarte, are old enough to be Grandmothers to their Isis, or Venus,
and Bel, of the same standing with Idolatry. Lawful it must certainly be,
to use these very Heathen Gods in Christian, since they were us'