Jong before put himself out of a poffibility of receiving any favour from the court; my lord allowed him an equivalent, out of his own eftate. However displeased with the conduct of his old acquaintance, he relieved his neceffities; and, while he gave him his affistance in private, in public he extenuated and pitied his error. The foundation indeed of thefe excellent qualities, and the perfection of my lord Dorfet's character, was that unbounded charity which ran through the whole tenour of his life, and fat as vifibly predominant over the other faculties of his foul, as fhe is faid to do in heaven above her fifter-virtues. Crouds of poor daily thronged his gates, expecting thence their bread; and were still leffened by his fending the most proper objects of his bounty to apprenticefhips or hofpitals. The lazy and the fick, as he accidentally faw them, were removed from the street to the phyfician; and many of them not only restored to health, but fupplied with what might enable them to refume their former callings, and make their future life happy. The prifoner has often been releafed, by my lord's paying the debt; and the condemned has been faved, by his interceffion with the fovereign, where he thought the letter of the law too rigid. To those whose circumstances were fuch as made them ashamed of their poverty, he knew how to bestow his munificence, without offending their modefty; and, under the notion of frequent prefents, gave them what amounted to a fubfiftence. Many yet alive know this to be true; though he he told it to none, nor ever was more uneafy than when any one mentioned it to him. We may find, among the Greeks and Latins, Tibullus and Gallus, the noblemen that writ poetry; Auguftus and Mæcenas, the protectors of learning; Ariftides, the good citizen; and Atticus, the wellbred friend and bring them in, as examples of my lord Dorset's wit, his judgement, his justice, and his civility. But for his charity, my Lord, we can scarce find a parallel in history itself. Titus was not more the "deliciæ humani generis," on this account, than my lord Dorfet was. And, without any exaggeration, that prince did not do more good in proportion out of the revenue of the Roman empire, than your father out of the income of a private estate. Let this, my Lord, remain to you and your pofterity a poffeffion for ever; to be imitated; and, if poffible, to be excelled. As to my own particular, I fcarce knew what life was, fooner than I found myself obliged to his favour; nor have had reason to feel any forrow fo fenfibly as that of his death "Ille dies-quem femper acerbum "Semper honoratum (fic Dî voluiftis) habcbo." Æneas could not reflect upon the lofs of his own father with greater piety, my Lord, than I must recall the memory of yours and, when I think whofe fon I am writing to, the leaft I promise myself, from your goodness, is an uninterrupted continuance of favour, and 5 a friend a friendship for life. To which that I may with fome juftice intitle myself, I fend your Lordship a dedication, not filled with a long detail of your praises, but with my fincerest wishes that you may deserve them; that you may employ those extraordinary parts and abilities, with which Heaven has blessed you, to the honour of your family, the benefit of your friends, and the good of your country; that all your actions may be great, open, and noble, fuch as may tell the world whose fon and whofe fucceffor you are. What I now offer to your Lordship is a collection of poetry, a kind of garland of good-will. If any verfes of my writing should appear in print under another name and patronage than that of an Earl of Dorfet, people might fufpect them not to be genuine. I have attained my prefent end, if these poems prove the diverfion of fome of your youthful hours, as they have been occafionally the amufement of fome of mine; and I humbly hope, that, as I may hereafter bind up my fuller theaf, and lay fome pieces of a very different nature (the product of my feverer ftudies) at your Lordship's feet, I fhall engage your more ferious reflection; happy, if in all my endeavours I may contribute to your delight, or to your inftruction. I am, with all duty and refpect, My Lord, Your Lordship's most obedient, and . MAT. PRIOR. TH PRE FACE. HE greatest part of what I have written having been already published, either fingly or in fome of the Miscellanies, it would be too late for me to make any excufe for appearing in print. But a collection of poems has lately appeared under my name, though without my knowledge, in which the publisher has given me the honour of fome things that did not belong to me; and has tranfcribed others fo imperfectly, that I hardly knew them to be mine. This has obliged me, in my own defence, to look back upon fome of those lighter ftudies, which I ought long fince to have quitted; and to publish an indifferent collection of poems, for fear of being thought the author of a worse. Thus I beg pardon of the publick for re-printing fome pieces, which, as they came fingly from their first impreffion, have (I fancy) lain long and quietly in Mr. Tonfon's fhop; and adding others to them, which were never before printed, and might have lain as quietly, and perhaps more fafely, in a corner of my own ftudy. The reader will, I hope, make allowance for their having been written at very diftant times, and on very different occafions; and take them as they happen to come. Public panegyricks, amorous odes, ferious reflections, or idle tales, the product of his leisure hours, who who had business enough upon his hands, and was only a poet by accident. I own myself much obliged to Mrs. Singer, who has given me leave to print a paftoral of her writing; that poem having produced the verfes immediately following it. I wifh fhe might be prevailed with to publifh fome other pieces of that kind, in which the foftness of her fex, and the fineness of her genius, confpire to give her a very distinguishing character. POST |