he is a Christian, and not to Sacrifice his Catechism to his Poetry.  In order to it, I do expect of him in the first place, to make his own Poem, without depending upon Phoebus for any part of it, or calling out for Aid upon any one of the Muses by Name.  I do likewise positively forbid the sending of Mercury with any particular Message or Dispatch relating to the Peace, and shall by no means suffer Minerva to take upon her the Shape of any Plenipotentiary concerned in this Great Work.  I do further declare, that I shall not allow the Destinies to have had an hand in the Deaths of the several thousands who have been slain in the late War, being of opinion that all such Deaths may be very well accounted for by the Christian System of Powder and Ball.  I do therefore strictly forbid the Fates to cut the Thread of Man’s Life upon any pretence whatsoever, unless it be for the sake of the Rhyme.  And whereas I have good Reason to fear, that Neptune will have a great deal of Business on his Hands, in several Poems which we may now suppose are upon the Anvil, I do also prohibit his Appearance, unless it be done in Metaphor, Simile, or any very short Allusion, and that even here he be not permitted to enter, but with great Caution and Circumspection.  I desire that the same Rule may be extended to his whole Fraternity of Heathen Gods, it being my design to condemn every Poem to the Flames in which Jupiter Thunders, or exercises any other Act of Authority which does not belong to him:  In short, I expect that no Pagan Agent shall be introduc’d, or any Fact related which a Man cannot give Credit to with a good Conscience.  Provided always, that nothing herein contained shall extend, or be construed to extend, to several of the Female Poets in this Nation, who shall be still left in full Possession of their Gods and Goddesses, in the same manner as if this Paper had never been written.

O.

[Footnote 1:  In this year, 1712, Bernard Lintot, having observed the success of Tonson’s volumes of Miscellanies, produced a Miscellany edited by Pope (now 24 years old), and containing the first sketch of his ‘Rape of the Lock,’ translations from Statius and Ovid, and other pieces.  Addison’s delight with the discovery of rising genius leads him to dispose in a sentence of ‘that ingenious gentleman’ who had just published a ‘Rape of the Lock,’ and proceed to warm praise of his personal friends, Thomas Tickell and Ambrose Philips.  In his Poem to his Excellency the Lord Privy Seal on the Prospect of Peace, Tickell invites Strafford to ‘One hour, oh! listen while the Muses sing.’]

[Footnote 2:  [that]]

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No. 524.  Friday, October 31, 1712. [1]

  ‘Nos populo damus—­’

  Sen.