Epistle to a Friend Concerning Poetry (1700) and the Essay on Heroic Poetry (second edition, 1697) | Page 4

some of that worthy's contentions, but we are not aware of its having had much effect.
The Epistle to a Friend concerning Poetry is here reproduced, with permission, from the copy at Harvard. The "Essay on Heroic Poetry" is reproduced, with permission, from a copy of the 1697 edition of The Life of Our Blessed Lord owned by the Henry E. Huntington Library, at San Marino, California. Our reproduction of the second item was made from a typescript because the printing of the original lacks the size and clarity which are necessary for satisfactory results In lithoprinting. The typescript follows the original accurately except that italics (crazily profuse in the 1697 edition) are omitted, the use of quotation marks is normalized, and three obvious typographical errors are silently emended.
Edward Niles Hooker

AN EPISTLE TO A FRIEND CONCERNING POETRY.
By SAMUEL WESLEY.
Fungor vice Cotis.
LONDON Printed for CHARLES HARPER, at the Flower de Luce in Fleetstreet. MDCC. _25. Aprill_.

PREFACE.
_I have not much to say of this Poem, before I leave it to the_ Mercy _of the Reader. There's no need of looking far into it, to find out that the direct_ Design _of a great part of it, is to Serve the_ Cause of Religion and Virtue; _tho' 'twas necessary for that End to dispose the_ whole in such a manner as might be agreeable to the Tast _of the present Age, and of those who usually give such sort of Books the_ Reading. If there be any Thoughts in it relating to Poetry, that either are not known to all Persons, or are tolerably ranged and expressed, _the Reader is welcome to 'em for_ Over-weight: _If there are too few of these, I yet hope the Pardon of all_ candid Judges, _because I've done the best I cou'd on this_ Argument. _I can't be angry with any Person for ranking me amongst the_ Ogylbys; my Quarrel is with these that rank themselves amongst Atheists, and impudently defend and propagate that ridiculous Opinion of the Eternity of the World, and a fatal invincible Chain of Things, _which, it seems, is now most commonly made use of to destroy the_ Faith, as our lewd Plays are to corrupt the Morals of the Nation: _An Opinion, big with more_ Absurdities than Transubstantiation _it self, and of far more_ fatal Consequence, _if receiv'd and believ'd: For besides its extremely weakening, if not destroying, the_ Belief of the Being and Providence of God, it utterly takes away any sort of Freedom in Humane Actions, reduces Mankind beneath the Brute Creation; perfectly excuses the greatest Villanies in this World, and entirely vacates all Retribution _hereafter. One wou'd wonder with what Face or Conscience such a_ Sett _of Men shou'd hope to be treated by the Rules of_ Civility, when they themselves break through those of Society, and common Humanity: How they can expect any fairer Quarter than Wolves or Tygers; or what Reason they can give why a Price should not be sett upon their Heads, as well as on the Others; or at least why they should not be securely hamper'd and muzzled, and led about for a Sight, like other Monsters. _'Tis the fatal and spreading_ Poyson of these Mens Examples and Principles which has extorted these warm Expressions _from me; I cannot with_ Patience see my Countrey ruin'd by the prodigious increase of Infidelity and Immorality, nor forbear crying out with some Vehemence, when I am giving Warning to all honest Men to stand up in the Defence _of it, when it is in greater and more eminent danger than it wou'd have been formerly, if the_ Spanish Armada _had made a Descent amongst us: I don't speak of these things by distant_ Hear-say, or only from our publick Prints, but from my own Knowledg and little Acquaintance _in the World, and therefore others must have observ'd much more, and cannot but fear, that if things go on as they now are, without a greater_ Check, and more severe Laws against these wide and contagious Mischiefs, at least without a more general united Endeavour to put those Laws already made in strict Execution, we are in a fair way to become a Nation of Atheists. _'Tis now no difficult matter to meet with those who pretend to be_ lewd upon Principles; _They'll talk very_ gravely, _look as if they were in earnest, and come_ sobrii ad perdendam Rempublicam: _they wou'd be_ Criticks _too, and_ Philosophers: They attack Religion in Form and batter it from every Quarter; _they wou'd turn the very_ Scriptures _against themselves, and labour hard to remove a_ Supreme Being _out of the World; or if they do vouchsafe him any_ room _in it, 'tis only that they may find_ Fault with his Works, _which they think, with that_ Blasphemer _of old, might have been