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

d 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