d, and lastly, brought under the Rules of
Art, which assisted, in Correcting the defaults of Nature.

God touch'd with Compassion for the Misery of Men, who were obliged to
toil and labour, ordain'd Feasts to give them some rest; the offering of
Sacrifices to himself, by way of Thanksgiving, for those Blessings they
had received by his Bounty. This is a Truth which the _Heathens_
themselves acknowledged; they not only imitated these Feasts, but spake
of them as a Gift of the Gods, who having granted a time of Repose,
requir'd some tokens of their grateful remembrance.

The first Feasts of the Ancients were thus, They assembled at certain
times, especially in Autumn, after the gathering in their Fruits, for to
rejoyce, and to offer the choicest of them to God; and this 'tis, which
first gave birth to Poetry: For Men, who are naturally inclined to the
imitation of Musick, employ'd their Talents to sing the praises of the
God they worshipped, and to celebrate his most remarkable Actions.

If they had always kept to that Primitive Simplicity, all the Poesie we
should have had, would have been, only Thanksgivings, Hymns, and Songs,
as amongst the _Jews_. But 'twas very difficult, or rather impossible,
that Wisdom and Purity, should reign long in the _Heathen_ Assemblies;
they soon mingl'd the Praises of Men, with those of their Gods, and came
at last, to the Licentiousness of filling their Poems with biting
Satyrs, which they sung to one another at their drunken Meetings; Thus
Poetry was entirely Corrupted, and the present scarce retains any Mark
of Religion.

The Poets which followed, and who were (properly speaking,) the
Philosophers and Divines of those Times, seeing the desire the People
had for those Feasts, and Shows, and impossibility of retrieving the
first Simplicity; took another way to remedy this Disorder, and making
an advantage of the Peoples Inclinations, gave them Instructions,
disguis'd under the Charmes of Pleasure, as Physicians gild and sweeten
the bitter Pills they administer to their Patients.

I shall not recount all the different Changes, which have happen'd in
Poetry, and by what degrees it has arrived to the Perfection, we now
find it; I have spoken of it already in my _Commentaries_ on _Horace's
Art of Poetry_, and shall say more in explaining, what _Aristotle_
writes in this Treatise.

_Homer_ was the first that invented, or finished, an Epick Poem, for he
found out the Unity of the Subject,