The facred poets first shall hear the found,
And foremost from the tomb shall bound,
For they are cover'd with the lightest ground;
And ftraight, with in-born vigor, on the wing,
Like mounting larks, to the new morning fing.
There thou, sweet saint, before the quire shall go,
As harbinger of heaven, the way to show,
The way which thou so well hast learnt below.

}

}

****

***

Upon the DEATH of the

EARL of DUNDEE.

Hlastand best of Scots! who didst maintain Thy country's freedom from a foreign reign; New people fill the land now thou art gone, New gods the temples, and new kings the throne. Scotland and thee did each in other live; Nor would'it thou her, nor could she thee survive. Farewel, who dying didst support the state, And couldst not fall but with thy country's fate.

1

EARL of ABINGDON, &c.

MY LORD,

T

HE commands, with which you honored me some months ago, are now performed: they had been fooner; but betwixt ill health, some business, and many troubles, I was forced to defer them till this time. Ovid, going to his banishment, and writing from on shipboard to his friends, excused the faults of his poetry by his misfortunes; and told them, that good verses never flow, but from a ferene and composed spirit. Wit, which is a kind of Mercury, with wings fastened to his head and heels, can fly but flowly in a damp air. I therefore chose rather to obey you late than ill: if at least I am capable of writing any thing, at any time, which is wor thy your perufal and your patronage. I cannot say that I have escaped from a shipwreck; but have only gained a rock by hard swimming; where Imay pant a while and gather breath: for the doctors give me a fad assurance, that my disease never took its leave of any man, but with a purpose to return. However, my lord, I have laid hold on