It is true, that the period of the Play of Jane Shore is during the times of Popery; but still, as prayers, even at that time, were offered to the Deity himself, it is not necessary, even in a critical point of view, to make the characters address Saints and Angels. They should either be addressed to the true object, or entirely omitted. At the beginning of Act III. of Douglas, Anna, after speaking of Lady Randolph sleeping, says, Ye ministers Of gracious heaven, who love the human race, The blest above upon their golden beds. In The Battle of Hexham, Act I. Scene 3. Queen Margaret says, Oh! may the white robed angel, That watches over baby innocence, Hear a fond mother's prayer, and in the battle Cast his protecting mantle round thee. And the idea of the protecting mantle is afterwards treated with levity by another of the characters. In the lines on Mrs. Unwin's monument, in East Dereham Church, is the following address, Her spotless dust, angelic guards, defend! TICKEL, in his Lines to the Earl of Warwick, on the Death of Addison, goes farther, and addresses his departed friend, Oh! if, sometimes, thy spotless form descend, Till bliss shall join, nor death can part us more. MR. WRANGHAM, in the beginning of his Seaton's Prize Poem of The Holy Land, invokes the Spirit of CowPER. SPIRIT so lately fled of Him, whose lyre 'Mid its "light Task" with strains of holiest theme Oft sounded, and for Sion's songs renounc'd In an Elegy on the late Right Honourable William Pitt, there are many expressions, which I consider as highly presumptuous and profane. Immortal Pitt ascends his native skies; Seeks the bright fountain whence his genius flow'd. It then proceeds to suppose him either roving through boundless space, or admitted into the councils of the Almighty, and concludes with these lines: Whate'er in those bright realms thine high employ, To saints gives pleasure, or to angels joy; * Oh! from those bright abodes of bliss look down, Stars turn to dust, and planets melt in fire, O'er thy lov'd isle thy ample pinions wave, And guard that empire which THOU DIEDST TO SAVE! So prone are persons when writing poetry to forget themselves, that I find even my late friend, the pious, the Christian, HENRY KIRKE WHITE, in his Poem of the CHRISTIAD, falling into this error. I. I sing the CROSS! ye white rob'd angel-choirs, Who know the chords of harmony to sweep; Ye, who o'er holy David's varying wires Were wont of old your hovering watch to keep, M Oh, now descend! and with your harpings deep, Of music-such as soothes the saint's last sleep, And teach me how to exalt the high mysterious theme. Spirits of pity! mild Crusaders, come! Buoyant on clouds around your minstrel float; I shall avail myself of this opportunity to speak a little farther upon the subject of the Invocations of Poets. The heathens believing in a plurality of gods, and in Muses presiding over the different Arts and Sciences, very naturally requested their aid in their undertakings. Having them as models of excellent versification and imagery, succeeding poets, living under a very different system of Religion, have nevertheless copied their manners and opinions, and invoked their deities; whereas they should surely have reasoned thus, If Homer, Horace, and Virgil, believed in the existence of Muses, and implored their aid in their writings, shall not Christians, believing that it is from God alone, that "all holy desires, all good counsels, and all just works do proceed,"* implore HIS aid. Pope, however, in his Ode upon St. Cecilia's Day, (Cecilia being a Roman Catholic Saint) begins with, "Descend ye Nine," he then relates the heathen story of Orpheus, and institutes a comparison between his powers in music and St. Cecilia's, with an odd jumble of "angels leaning from heaven to hear," and Orpheus "raising a shade from hell." Some of our more pious poets seem to have been aware of the impropriety of this mixture of heathenism and Christianity, and have endeavoured to shake it off, though not always successfully. * See the Second Collect at Evening Prayer. Also the Collects for the fifth Sunday after Easter, and the nineteenth after Trinity. MILTON begins with a HEAVENLY Muse, whom he supposes to have inspired Moses, and then goes on to address the HOLY SPIRIT himself: And chiefly thou, O SPIRIT! that dost prefer And mad'st it pregnant: what in me is dark And justify the ways of God to man. Par. Lost, B. I. 1. 17. And at the beginning of the 7th Book, he invokes Urania and calls her goddess. 1. 1-40. POPE, in his Poem of Messiah, says, O Thou my voice inspire, Who touch'd Isaiah's hallow'd lips with fire! DR. YOUNG's address to the Deity has been quoted before, p. 124. " MR. CUMBERLAND begins his Calvary with a profession of forsaking Aonian haunts and the unhallowed Nine." His 4th Book begins with an address to the "Mount of Agony," and then proceeds, Ah! where is now That purifying Angel me to cleanse From this vile world, that so I may approach, Though but in thought, with a right sp'rit renew'd, Thy hallow'd solitude! And at the opening of B. V. he "invokes" the Evangelists to "aid him from Heaven." DR. JOHNSON, before he sat down to write his Rambler, by which he intended to instruct, as well as to amuse, mankind, considered the matter in its true light, and implored the only aid which is effectual: "Almighty God, the giver of all good things, without whose help all labour is ineffectual, and without whose grace all wisdom is folly; grant, I beseech Thee, that in this my undertaking, thy Holy Spirit may not be withheld from me, but that I may promote thy glory, and the salvation both of myself and others; grant this, O Lord, for the sake of Jesus Christ. Amen." (See Johnson's Prayers, p. 8. Edition 3. See also his Prayer before any new Study, p. 16. and Thomas Aquinas's Prayer before Study, in Bishop Horne's Essays and Thoughts, Article, Devotion, §. 12.) DR. HEY begins his Seaton's Prize Poem on The Redemption, with Whom shall the bard that dares of themes to sing, And MRS. MORE, in the Introduction to her Sacred Dramas, prays for the same divine aid that Pope does in his Messiah, and invokes the Holy Spirit himself, not addressing any inferior being; O FOR the sacred energy which struck The harp of Jesse's Son! or for a spark Of that celestial flame which touch'd the lips SPIRIT OF TRUTH! to bless these worthless lays: That none, who ask in faith, should ask in vain. It seems to me that the Poet, in making his addresses to Muses, &c, must confess, either that they mean nothing, in which case they musṭ be considered as common-place nonsense, or else that they are profane and impious. Let no works be undertaken but "Good Works," and then there need be no fear of making a direct address to Him from whom alone all holy desires and words do proceed. Bb. p. 26. line 18. (N.B. The reference to this note was omitted.) There are some passages in the Play of The Mountaineers, which I think must be highly offensive to every mind that has but a common share of piety. The character of Sadi, a Moor, is introduced as upon the point of turning Christian, which is the topic of |