But, in respect to some books he has wrote since, I pass by a great part of this, and shall only touch briefly some of the rules of this sort of poem. The first is, that an air of piety, upon all occasions, should be maintained in the whole poem. This appears in all the ancient Greek writers, as Homer, Hesiod, Aratus, &c. And Virgil is so exact in the observation of it, not only in this work, but in his "Æneïs" too, that a celebrated French writer taxes him for permitting Æneas to do nothing without the assistance of some god. But by this it appears, at least, that M. St Evremont is no Jansenist. M. Fontenelle seems a little defective in this point: he brings in a pair of shepherdesses disputing very warmly, whether _Victoria_ be a goddess or a woman. Her great condescension and compassion, her affability and goodness, (none of the meanest attributes of the divinity,) pass for convincing arguments, that she could not possibly be a goddess. _Les Déesses, toûjours fières et méprisantes, Ne rassureroient point les bergères tremblantes Par d'obligeans discours, des souris gracieux. Mais tu l'as vu: cette auguste personne, Qui vient de paroître en ces lieux, Prend soin de rassurer au moment qu'elle étonne; Sa bonté descendant sans peine jusqu' à nous._ In short, she has too many divine perfections to be a deity, and therefore she is a mortal; which was the thing to be proved. It is directly contrary to the practice of all ancient poets, as well as to the rules of decency and religion, to make such odious preferences. I am much surprised, therefore, that he should use such an argument as this: _Cloris, as-tu vu des déesses Avoir un air si facile et si doux?_ Was not Aurora, and Venus, and Luna, and I know not how many more of the heathen deities, too easy of access to Tithonus, to Anchises, and to Endymion? Is there any thing more sparkish and better-humoured than Venus's accosting her son in the deserts of Libya? or than the behaviour of Pallas to Diomedes, one of the most perfect and admirable pieces of all the Iliads; where she condescends to _raillé_ him so agreeably; and, notwithstanding her severe virtue, and all the ensigns of majesty with which she so terribly adorns herself, condescends to ride with him in his chariot? But the Odysseys are full of greater instances of condescension than this. This brings to mind that famous passage of Lucan, in which he prefers Cato to all the gods at once: _Victrix causa diis placuit, sed victa Catoni_-- which Breboeuf has rendered so flatly, and which may be thus paraphrased: Heaven meanly with the conqueror did comply; But Cato, rather than submit, would die.[292] It is an unpardonable presumption in any sort of religion, to compliment their princes at the expence of their deities. But, letting that pass, this whole Eclogue is but a long paraphrase of a trite verse in Virgil, and Homer; _Nec vox hominem sonat: O Dea certe!_