PREFACE.

the sacred pulpit, in explaining the holy Antiquities In this context, "Antiquities" refers to the study of Biblical history and the ancient world of the Old and New Testaments., must make use of such liberties—whether as the thoughts of the Theologians Godtgeleerden: scholars of divinity, or as original inventions—both to rescue oneself from difficulty and to accommodate the weak listener. This is to say nothing of the many spiritual allusions and mere guesses which often pass there for current coin The author uses "current coin" as a metaphor for ideas that are widely accepted as truth without being strictly proven.. Indeed, we do not doubt that the reader, having reached the end of our Literary Path Letterbane: the course of a written work or a literary career, will through careful contemplation come to this conclusion: that heavenly Truth cannot hold itself offended if the holy Art of Poetry, out of a pure reverence for the light that radiates from her divine bosom, comes to offer her homage, draping her in a proud mantle embroidered with flowers, and placing a crown of bright gemstones upon her head.

One more word to the discerning and poetic Reader, and with that we take our leave; we request him to use our labor with as much benefit and edification as possible, and to that end to lay aside that nagging prejudice vooroordeel by which one immediately rejects everything that is new, as soon as one finds it not precisely consistent with this or that arbitrary law, put forward by foreigners This likely refers to the strict rules of French Neoclassicism, which many Dutch poets of the time felt were too restrictive for religious epics.,