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TO THE

READER.

POETA

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OETA nafcitur non fit, is a Sentence of as great. Truth as Antiquity; it being moft certain, that all the acquir'd Learning imaginable is infufficient to compleat a Poet, without a natu ral Genius and Propensity to fo noble and fublime an Art. And we may without offence obferve, that many very learned Men, who have been ambitious to be thought Poets, have only render'd themselves obnoxious to that Satyrical Inspiration, our Author wittily invokes :

Which made them, tho' it were in fpight
Of Nature and their Stars, to write.

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On the other fide, fome who have had very little Human Learning, but were endued with a large fhare of Natural Wit and Parts, have become the moft celebrated Poets of the Age they liv'd in. But as thefe laft are, Rara Aves in Terris; fo when the Mufes have not disdain'd the affiftances of other

Shakespear, D'Avenant, &c.

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Arts

Arts and Sciences, we are then bless'd with t lafting Monuments of Wit and Learning, wh may justly claim a kind of Eternity upon Ear And our Author, had his modefty permitted b might with HORACE have faid,

Exegi Monumentum Ære perennius;

Or with OvID,

Jamque opus exegi, quod nec Jovis Ira, nec Ign Nec poterit ferrum, nec edax abolere Vetufta

The Author of this celebrated Poem was of th laft Compofition; for altho' he had not the happ nefs of an Academical Education, as fome affirm it may be perceiv'd, throughout his whole Poen that he had read much, and was very well ac complish'd in the most useful Parts of Huma Learning.

RAPIN (in his Reflections) Speaking of the ne ceffary Qualities belonging to a Poet, tells us, H must have a Genius extraordinary; great Natu ral Gifts; a Wit, juft, fruitful, piercing, foli and univerfal; an Understanding, clear and di ftinet; an Imagination, neat and pleasant; an Elevation of Soul, that depends not only on Art or Study, but is purely a Gift of Heaven, which muft be fuftain'd by a lively Senfe and Vivacity; Judg

ment

ment to confider wifely of Things, and Vivacity for the beautiful Expreffion of them, &c.

Now, how juftly this Character is due to our Author, Ileave to the Impartial Reader, and those of nicer judgements, who had the happiness to be more intimately acquainted with him.

The Reputation of this incomparable Poem is fo thoroughly establish'd in the World, that it would be fuperfluous, if not impertinent, to endeavour any Panegyric upon it. However, fince most men have a curiofity to have fome account of fuch Anonymous Authors, whofe Compofitions have been eminent for Wit or Learning; I have been defired to oblige them with fuch Informations, as I could receive from thofe who had the happiness to be acquainted with him, and also to rectify the Miftakes of the Oxford Antiquary, in his Athene Oxonienfes, Concerning him.

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THE

AUTHOR's

LIFE.

SAMUEL BUTLER, the Author of this

excellent Poem, was born in the Parish of Strensham, in the County of Worcester, and baptized there the 13th of February 1612. His Father, who was of the fame Name, was an honest Country Farmer, who had fome fmall Estate of his own, but rented a much greater of the Lord of the Manor where he liv'd. However, perceiving in this Son an early Inclination to Learning, he made a shift to have him educated in the FreeSchool at Worcester, under Mr. Henry Bright; where having past the usual time, and being become an excellent School-Scholar, he went for fome little time to Cambridge, but was never matriculated into that University, his Father's Abilities not being fufficient to be at the charge of an Academical Education; fo that our Author return'd foon into his native Country, and became Clerk to one Mr. Jefferys of Earls-Croom, an eminent Justice of the Peace for that County,

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