racters in HOMER, which the LATIN poet had join'd in one, the ITALIAN has feparated in his GODFREY and RINALDO: but he makes them both carry on his work with very great fuccefs. RONSARD'S FRANCIADE, (incomparably good as far as it goes) is again VIRGIL's Aeneis. His heroe comes from a foreign country, fettles a colony and lays the foundation of a future empire. I inftance in thefe, as the greatest ITALIAN and FRENCH poets in the Epic. In our language SP ENSER has not contented himfelf with this fubmissive manner of imitation: he launches out into very flowery Paths, which still seem to conduct him into one great road. His Fairy Queen (had it been finished) must have ended in the account, which every knight was to give of his adventures, and in the accumulated praises of his heroine GLORIANA. The whole would have been an Heroic poem, but in another caft and figure, than any that ever had been written before. Yet it is obfervable that every heroe (as far as we can judge by the books ftill remaining) bears his distinguished character, and represents some particular virtue conducive to the whole defign.

To bring this to our prefent fubject. The pleafures of life do not compenfate the miferies: age fteals upon us unawares; and death, as the only cure of our ills, ought to be expected, but not feared. This inftruction is to be illustrated by the action of fome great perfon. Who therefore more proper for the business, than SOLOMON himself? and why may he not be fuppofed now to repeat

what, we take it for granted, he acted almost three thoufand years fince? if in the fair fituation where this prince was placed, he was acquainted with forrow; if endowed with the greatest perfections of nature, and poffeffed of all the advantages of external condition, he could not find happiness; the rest of mankind may fafely take the monarch's word for the truth of what he afferts. And the author who would perfuade, that we should bear the ills of life patiently, meerly becaufe SOLOMON felt the fame, has a better argument, than LUCRETIUS had; when in his imperious way, he at once convinces and commands, that we ought to fubmit to death without repining, because EPICURUS died.

The whole poem is a foliloquy: SOLOMON is the person that speaks: he is at once the heroe and the author; but he tells us very often what others fay to him. Those chiefly introduced are his rab-bies and philofophers in the first book, and his women and their attendants in the fecond: with these the facred history mention him to have conversed; as likewife with the angel brought down in the third book, to help him out of his difficulties, or at leaft to teach him how to overcome them.

Nec Deus interfit nifi dignus vindice nodus.

I prefume this poetical liberty may be very justly allowed me on fo folemn an occafion.

In my defcription I have endeavoured to keep to the notions and manners of the JEWISH nation, at

He

the time when SOLOMON lived: and where I allude to the customs of the GREEKS, I believe I may be justified by the strictest Chronology; though a poet is not obliged to the rules that confine an historian. VIRGIL has anticipated two hundred years; or the TROJAN heroe and CARTHAGINIAN Queen could not have been brought together: and without the fame Anachronism several of the fineft parts of his Aeneis must have been omitted. Our countryman MILTON goes yet further. takes up many of his material images fome thoufands of years after the fall of man: nor could he otherwife have written, or we read one of the sub. limeft pieces of invention that was ever yet produced. This likewife takes off the objection, that fome names of countries, terms of art, and notions in natural philofophy are otherwife expreffed, than can be warranted by the Geography or Aftronomy of SOLOMON's time. Poets are allowed the fame liberty in their defcriptions and comparisons, as painters in their draperies and ornaments: their perfonages may be drefs'd, not exactly in the fame habits which they wore, but in fuch as make them appear most graceful. In this cafe probability must atone for the want of truth. This liberty has indeed been abused by eminent masters in either science. RAPHAEL and TASSO have fhewed their difcretion, where PAUL VERONESE and ARIOSTo are to answer for their extravagancies. It is the excess, not the thing itself, that is blameable..

I would fay one word of the measure, in which

this, and most poems of the age are written. Heroic with continued rhime, as DONNE and his contemporaries used it, carrying the fenfe of one verfe most commonly into another, was found too diffolute and wild, and came very often too near prose. ASDAVENANT and WALLER corrected, and DRYDEN perfected it; it is too confined: it cuts off the fenfe at the end of every firft line, which must always rhime to the next following; and confequently produces too frequent an identity in the found, and brings every couplet to the point of an epigram. It is indeed too broken and weak, to convey the fentiments and reprefent the images proper for Epic. And as it tires the writer while he composes, it must do the fame to the reader while he repeats; especially in a poem of any confiderable length.

If striking out into Blank Verfe, as MILTON did (and in this kind Mr. PHILIPS, had he lived, would have excelled) or running the thought into Alternate and Stanza, which allows a greater variety, and still preferves the dignity of the verse; as SPENSER and FAIRFAX have done; if either of these, I say, be a proper remedy for my poetical complaint, or if any other may be found, I dare not determine: I am only enquiring, in order to be better informed; without prefuming to direct the judgment of others. And while I am speaking of the verse itself, I give all juft praise to many of my friends now living; who have in Epic carried the harmony of their numbers as far, as the nature of

this measure will permit. But once more; he that writes in rhimes, dances in fetters: and as his chain is more extended, he may certainly take larger steps.

I need make no apology for the fhort digressive Panegyric upon GREAT BRITAIN,in the first book: I am glad to have it obferved, that there appears throughout all my verfes a zeal for the honour of my country: and I had rather be thought a good English-man, than the best poet, or greatest scholar

that ever wrote.

And now as to the publishing of this piece, though I have in a literal fenfe obferved HORACE's nonum prematur in annum; yet have I by no means obeyed our poetical lawgiver, according to the fpirit of the precept. The poem has indeed been written and laid afide much longer than the term prefcribed; but in the mean time I had little leifure, and lefs inclination to revife or print it.

The fre

quent interruptions I have met with in my private ftudies, and great variety of publick life, in which I have been employed; my thoughts (fuch as they are) having generally been expreffed in foreign language, and even formed by a habitude very different from what the beauty and elegance of English poetry requires: all these, and fome other circumftances which we had as good pafs by at prefent,do justly contribute to make my excufe in this behalf very plaufible. Far indeed from defigning to print I had lock'd up these papers in my Scritoire, there to lie in peace 'till my executors might have taken