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THE

PREFACE.

IT is hard for a man to speak of himself with any

tolerable fatisfaction or fuccefs: he can be no

more pleased in blaming himself, than in reading a fatire made on him by another: and though he may justly defire, that a friend should praise him : yet if he makes his own panegyric, he will get very few to read it. It is harder for him to speak of his own writings. An author is in the condition of a Culprit: the public are his judges: by allowing too much, and condefcending too far, he may injure his own cause, and become a kind of Felo de fe; and by pleading and afferting too boldly, he may displease the court that fits upon him : his apology may only heighten his accufation. I would avoid thefe extremes: and though, I grant, it would not be very civil to trouble the reader with a long preface, before he enters upon an indifferent poem; I would fay fomething to perfuade him to take it as it is, or to excuse it for not being better.

The noble images and reflections, the profound reafonings upon human actions, and excellent precepts for the government of life, which are found in the PROVERBS, ECCLESIASTES, and other books commonly attributed to SOLOMON, afford fubjects for finer poems in every kind, than have, I think, as yet appeared in the GREEK, LATIN, or any modern

language: how far they were verse in their original, is a differtation not to be entered into at prefent.

Out of this great treafure, which lies heap'd up to gether in a confufed magnificence, above all order, I had a mind to collect and digeft fuch observations and apophthegms, as moft particularly tend to the proof of that great affertion, laid down in the beginning of the ECCLESIASTES, ALL IS VANITY.

Upon the subject thus chofen, fuch various images prefent themselves to a writer's mind, that he muft find it easier to judge, what fhould be rejected, than what ought to be received. The difficulty lies in drawing, and difpofing; or (as the painters term it) in grouping fuch a multitude of different objects, preferving fill the juftice and conformity of ftyle and colouring, the fimplex duntaxat et unum, which HORACE prefcribes, as requifite to make the whole picture beautiful and perfect.

As precept, however true in theory, or ufeful in practice, would be but dry and tedious in verfe, efpecially if the recital be long; I found it neceffary to form fome flory, and give a kind of body to the poem. Under what fpecies it may be comprehended, whether Didafcalic, or Heroic, I leave to the judg‐ ment of the critics; defiring them to be favourable in their cenfure; and not follicitous what the poem is called, provided it may be accepted.

The chief perfonage or character in the Epic, is always proportioned to the defign of the work, to carry on the narration, and the moral. HOMER intended to show us in his ILIAD, that diffentions amongst great men obftrue the execution of the nobleft

enterprizes, and tend to the ruin of a state or king. dom. His ACHILLES therefore is haughty, and paffionate, impatient of any restraint by laws, and arro gant in arms. In his ODYSSEYS the fame poet endeavours to explain, that the hardeft difficulties may be overcome by labour, and our fortune reftored after the fevereft afflictions. ULYSSES therefore is valiant, virtuous, and patient. VIRGIL's defign was to tell us, how from a fmall colony eftablished by the TROJANS in ITALY, the ROMAN empire rofe, and from what ancient families AUGUSTUS (who was his prince and patron) defcended. His hero therefore was to fight his way to the throne, ftill diftinguithed and protected by the favour of the Gods. The poet to this end takes off from the vices of ACHILLES, and adds to the vir tues of ULYSSES; from both perfecting a character proper for his work in the perfon of NEAS.

As VIRGIL Copy'd after HOMER, other Epic poets have copied after them both. TASSO's Gierufalemme Liberata is directly Troy Town facked; with this difference only, that the two chief characters 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, (incompa rably good as far as it goes) is again VIRGIL's ENEIS. His hero 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 SPENSER has not contented himfelf with this fubmiffive manner of imitation: he launches out into very flowery paths, which

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ftill feem 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 ob fervable that every hero (as far as we can judge by the books ftill remaining) bears his diftinguished character, and reprefents fome particular virtue con ducive to the whole defign.

The plea

To bring this to our present fubject. fures 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 instruction is to be illuftrated 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 almoft three thousand years fince? if in the fair fituation where this prince was placed, he was ac quainted with forrow; if endowed with the greatest perfections of nature, and poffeffed of all the advantages of external condition, he could not find happinefs; 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, merely because 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, becaufe EPICURUS died.

The whole poem is a foliloquy: SOLOMON is the perfon that fpeaks: he is at once the hero and the author; but he tells us very often what others fay to him. Thofe chiefly introduced are his rabbies and philofophers in the first book, and his women and their attendants in the fecond: with these the facred history mention him to have converfed; as likewife with the angel brought down in the third book, to help him out of his difficulties, or at least to teach him how to overcome them.

Nec Deus interfit nifi dignus vindice nodus.

I presume 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 the time when SOLOMON lived: and where I allude to the customs of the GREEKS, I believe I may be juftified by the strictest Chronology; though a poet is not obliged to the rules that confine an hiftorian. VIRGIL has anticipated two hundred years; or the TROJAN Hero and CARTHAGINIAN Queen could not have been brought together and without the fame Anachronism several of the finest parts of his ENEIS muft have been omitted. Our countryman MILTON goes yet further. He takes up many of his material images fome thousands of years after the fall of man: nor could he otherwise have written, or we read one of the fublimeft pieces of invention that was ever yet produced. This likewife takes off the objection, that some names of countries, terms of art, and notions in natural philofophy are otherwife expreffed, than can be warranted by the Geography or Aftronomy

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