You in majestic numbers mount the skies,
And meet defcending angels as you rife,
Whofe juft applauses charm the crouded groves,
And Addison thy tuneful song approves.
Soft harmony and manly vigour join

To form the beauties of each sprightly line,
For every grace of every Mufe is thine.
Milton, immortal bard, divinely bright,
Conducts his favourite to the realms of light;
Where Raphael's lyre charms the celeftial throng,
Delighted cherubs listening to the song :
From blifs to blifs the happy beings rove,
And taste the fweets of mufic and of love.
But when the fofter fcenes of life you paint,
And join the beauteous virgin to the faint,
When you defcribe how few the happy pairs,
Whofe hearts untied foften all their cares,
We fee to whom the fweeteft joys belong,
And Myra's beauties confecrate your song.
Fain the unnumber'd graces I would tell,
And on the pleasing theme for ever dwell;
But the Mufe faints, unequal to the flight,
And hears thy ftrains with wonder and delight.
When tombs of princes shall in ruins lie,
And all but Heaven-born piety fhall die,
When the last trumpet wakes the silent dead,
And each lafcivious poet hides his head,
With thee fhall thy divine Urania rise,
Crown'd with fresh laurels, to thy native skies :

}

Great

Great How and Gouge shall hail thee on thy way,
And welcome thee to the bright realms of day,
Adapt thy tuneful notes to heavenly strings,
And join the Lyric Ode while fome fair feraph fings.
Sic fpirat, fic optat,

Tui amantiffimus

BRITANNICUS..

PRE

PREFACE.

IT

T has been a long complaint of the virtuous and refined world, that poefy, whofe original is divine, should be enslaved to vice and profanenefs; that an art, infpired from heaven, fhould have fo far loft the memory of its birth-place, as to be engaged in the interefts of hell. How unhappily is it perverted from its most glorious defign! How bafely has it been driven away from its proper station in the temple of God, and abused to much dishonour! The iniquity of men has constrained it to ferve their vileft purposes, while the fons of piety mourn the facrilege and the shame.

The eldest fong, which history has brought down to our ears, was a noble act of worship paid to the God of Ifrael, when his " right hand became glorious in 66 power; when thy right hand, O Lord, dashed in "C pieces the enemy: the chariots of Pharaoh and his "hofts were caft into the red fea. Thou didst blow "with thy wind, the deep covered them, and they fank "as lead in the mighty waters.” Exod. xv. This art was maintained facred through the following ages of the church, and employed by kings and prophets, by David, Solomon, and Isaiah, in defcribing the nature and the glories of God, and in conveying grace or vengeance to the hearts of men. By this method they brought fo much of heaven down to this lower world,

as the darkness of that dispensation would admit: And now and then a divine and poetic rapture lifted their fouls far above the level of that oeconomy of fhadows, bore them away far into a brighter region, and gave them a glimpse of evangelic day. The life of angels was harmoniously breathed into the children of Adam, and their minds raifed near to heaven in melody and devotion at once.

In the younger days of heathenism the Mufes were devoted to the fame fervice: the language in which old Hefiod addreffes them is this:

Μέσαι Πιερίηθεν ἀοιδῆσε κλείουσαι,

Δεῦτε, Δῖ ἐννέπετο σφέτερον πατέρ' ὑμνείουσαι.

"Pierian Mufes, fam'd for heavenly lays, "Defcend, and fing the God your Father's praife."

And he pursues the fubject in ten pious lines, which I could not bear to transcribe, if the aspect and found of fo much Greek were not terrifying to a nice reader.

But fome of the latter Poets of the Pagan world have. debased this divine gift; and many of the writers of the. first rank, in this our age of national Chriftians, have, to their eternal fhame, furpaffed the vileft of the Gentiles. They have not only difrobed religion of all the ornaments of verfe, but have employed their pens in impious mischief, to deform her native beauty and defile her honours. They have expofed her most facred character to drollery, and dreffed her up in a most vila. and ridiculous disguise, for the fcorn of the ruder herd of mankind. The vices have been painted like fo many

Goddeffes, the charms of wit have been added to de-bauchery, and the temptation heightened where nature needs the strongest restraints. With sweetness of sound, and delicacy of expreffion, they have given a relish to. blafphemies of the harshest kind; and when they rant. at their Maker in fonorous numbers, they fancy themfelves to have acted the hero well.

.

Thus almost in vain have the throne and the pulpit · cried Reformation; while the stage and licentious poems: have waged open war with the pious defign of church and state. The prefs has fpread the poifon far, and fcattered wide the mortal infection: Unthinking youth have been inticed to fin beyond the vicious propenfities of nature, plunged early into diseases and death, and funk down to damnation in multitudes. Was it for this that poefy was endued with all those allurements that lead the mind away in a pleasing captivity? Was it for this, he was furnished with fo many intellectual charms, that she might feduce the heart from God, the original beauty, and the most lovely of Beings? Can I ever be perfuaded, that thofe fweet and refiftlefs forces of metaphor, wit, found, and number, were given with this defign, that they should be all ranged under the banner of the great malicious fpirit, to invade the rights of heaven, and to bring swift and everlasting destruction upon men? How will these allies of the nether world, the lewd and profane verfifiers, ftand aghaft before the great Judge, when the blood of many fouls, whom they never faw, fhall be laid to the charge of their writings, and be dreadfully required at their hands? The Reve

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