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Monsieur Bossu's Treatise
OF THE
EPICK POEM.
BOOK V.
Concerning the Machines.
CHAP. I.
Of the several sorts of Deities.
In the former Book concerning the Manners, we discoursed concerning the Terrestrial, and Mortal Persons, and in this, under the name of Machines, we shall treat concerning the Divine and Immortal persons: So that this will be nothing else but a Consequence of what has been said about the Manners and the Persons; since the Gods as well as Men are Actors in the Epopéa. We shew'd the Necessity of this in our first [1] Book, where we likewise took notice that all these Divine Personages are Allegorical.
We observed that there are three sorts of them. Some are Theological, and were invented to explain the Nature of God: Others are Physical, and they represent Natural things: The last are Moral, and they are the Representations of Vertues and Vices.
- ↑ Chap. 2.
These
