Scheme, so that all the Atheistick Raillery must point upon the true God. In the beginning we are told that _Absalom_ was _David's_ Natural Son: So then there's a blot in his _Scutcheon_ and a Blemish upon his Birth. The _Poet_ will make admirable use of this, remark presently! This _Absalom_ it seems was very extraordinary in his Person and Performances. Mr. _Dryden_ does not certainly know how this came about, and therefore enquires of himself in the first place, _Whether inspired with a diviner Lust, His Father got him_----[360] This is down right Defiance of the Living God! Here you have the very Essence and Spirit of Blasphemy, and the Holy Ghost brought in upon the most hideous Occasion. I question whether the Torments and Despair of the Damn'd, dare venture at such Flights as these. They are beyond Description, I Pray God they may not be beyond Pardon too. I can't forbear saying, that the next bad Thing to the writing these Impieties, is to Suffer them. To return to _Amphitryon_. _Phoebus_ and _Mercury_ have _Manners_ assign'd very disagreeable to their Condition. The later abating Propriety of Language, talks more like a _Water-man_ than a Deity. They rail against the Gods, and call _Mars_ and _Vulcan_ the _two Fools of Heaven. Mercury_ is pert upon his Father _Jupiter_, makes jests upon his Pleasures, and his Greatness, and is horribly smutty and profane.[361] And all this Misbehaviour comes from him in his own shape, and in the sublimity of his Character. Had He run Riot in the Disguise of _Sofia_, the Discourse and the Person had been better adjusted, and the Extravagance more Pardonable. But here the Decorum is quite lost. To see the _Immortals_ play such Gambols, and the biggest Beings do the least Actions, is strangely unnatural. An Emperour in the Grimaces of an Ape, or the Diversions of a Kitten, would not be half so ridiculous. Now as Monsieur _Rapin_ observes, without Decorum there can be no _probability_, nor without Probability any true Beauty. Nature must be minded, otherwise Things will look forced, tawdry, and chimerical. Mr. _Dryden_ discourses very handsomly on this occasion in his _Preface_ to _Albion_ and _Albanius_.[362] He informs us, _That Wit has been truly defin'd a propriety of Words and Thoughts.----That Propriety of Thought is that Fancy which arises naturally from the Subject._ Why then without doubt, the Quality, of Characters should be taken care of, and great Persons appear like themselves. Yes, yes, all this is granted by implication, and Mr. _Dryden_ comes still nearer to the present case. He tells us, that _Propriety is to be observed, even in Machines; And that the Gods are all to manage their Peculiar Provinces_. He instances in some of their respective Employments; but I don't find that any of them were to talk Lewdly. No. He plainly supposes the contrary. For as he goes on, _If they were to speak upon the Stage it would follow of necessity, that the Expressions should be Lofty, Figurative, and