What could induce a man of learning, and sometimes of eloquence, as the author of the "_Christiade_" appears to be, to compose this pretended poem? It was, as he tells us in his preface, the example of Milton; but we well know how deceitful are examples. Milton, who--be it observed--did not hazard that weakly monstrosity, a poem in prose--Milton, who in his Paradise Lost, has, amid the multitude of harsh and obscure lines of which it is full, scattered some very fine blank verse--could not please any but fanatical Whigs, as the Abbé Grécourt says: _En chantant l'univers perdu pour une pomme,_ _Et Dieu pour le damner créant le premier homme._ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . By singing How God made man on purpose for hell-fire, And how a stolen apple damned us all. He might delight the Presbyterians by making Sin cohabit with Death; by firing off twenty-four pounders in heaven; by making dryness fight with damp, and heat with cold; by cleaving angels in two, whose halves immediately joined again; by building a bridge over chaos; by representing the Messiah taking from a chest in heaven a great pair of compasses to describe the circuit of the earth, etc. Virgil and Horace would, perhaps, have thought these ideas rather strange. But if they succeeded in England by the aid of some very happy lines, the author of the "_Christiade_" was mistaken in expecting his romance to succeed without the assistance of fine verses, which are indeed very difficult to make. But, says our author, one Jerome Vida, bishop of Alba, once wrote a very powerful "_Christiade_" in Latin verse, in which he transcribes many lines from Virgil. Well, my friend, why did you write yours in French prose? Why did not you, too, imitate Virgil? But the late M. d'Escorbiac, of Toulouse, also wrote a "_Christiade._" Alas! why were you so unfortunate as to become the ape of M. d'Escorbiac?