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DIVINE POETRY 
LETTER XII. 
7 o the fame . 
Madam, Sunday.. 
M USIC and theatres lead us to the harmony of num- 
bers, and we will conftder it particularly in religious 
worfhip. Poetry, alas, has been often proftituted to the offer- 
ing incenfe to the devil, to bring the foul down to a level with, 
brutes : it may indeed be employed to celebrate the feats of 
warriors, as well as martyrs ; or the flories of honeft lovers, 
or honeft faty rifts ; but the nobleft ufe of it is in religion. 
It is very pioufty, as well as poetically faid, 
£t Whom Jhall I fing hut him who gave me voice” 
Were you an angel, whom could you praife, fo worthily, as 
him who made you fuch ! 
Our greateft mafters in poetry have fometimes employed their 
talents in heavenly fongs. Mr. addison has left us feveral fhort 
hymns, which glow with the true fpirit of piety. Be yourfelf 
the judge, if it is poftible to read them without receiving fome 
pleasure : or if you can make them your own, by the force of 
memory, without being occafionally led to repeat them. And 
can you repeat fuch poems, without feeling fame of thofe emo- 
tions which diftinguifh the pious from the profane ? The foul 
is framed to a ienfe of our dependance on god ; and it feems 
natural to indulge ourfelves in all fuch means of piety as 
are calculated to raife the affedlions, that whilft we purify the 
2 heart. 
