"But this his patron will impute to his want of judgment; for this
poet's heroes are commonly such monsters as Theseus and Hercules
are, renowned throughout all ages for destroying.
"But to excuse him, this man hath forsaken his post, and entered
upon another province. To "The Observator"[2] it belongs to confound
truth and falsehood; and, by his false colours and impostures, to
put out the eyes of the people, and leave them without
understanding.
"But our poet hath not so much art left him as to frame any thing
agreeable, or _verisimilar_, to amuse the people, or wherewith to
deceive them.
"His province is to corrupt the manners of the nation, and lay waste
their morals; his understanding is clapt, and his brains are
vitiated, and he is to rot the age.
"His endeavours are more happily applied, to extinguish the little
remains of the virtue of the age by bold impieties, and befooling
religion by impious and inept rhymes, to confound virtue and vice,
good and evil, and leave us without consciences.
"And thus we are prepared for destruction.
"But to give the world a taste of his atheism and impiety, I shall
recite two of his verses, as recited upon the stage, viz.
For conscience, and heaven's fear, religious rules,
They are all state-bells to toll in pious fools;
which I have done the rather, that some honest judge, or justice,
may direct a process against this bold impious man; or some honest
surrogate, or official, may find leisure to proceed, _ex officio,_
against him, notwithstanding at present they are so encumbered with
the dissenters.
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