foner has often been released, 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 whofe 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 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 vrit poetry; Auguftus and Macenas, the protectors of learning; Ariftides the good citizen; and Atticus, the well-bred friend; and bring them in as examples of my Lord Dorjet's wit, his judgment, his juftice, and his civility. But for his charity, my Lord, we can fcarce find a parallel in history itself.

Titus was not more the " deliciæ humani generis,” on this account, than my Lord Dorset -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 reafon to feel any forrow fo fenfibly as that of his death.

Ille dies---quem femper acerbum

Semper honoratum (fic Di voluiftis) habebo.

Eneas could not reflect upon the loss of his own father with greater piety, my Lord, than I must recall

the

the memory of your's, and when I think whofe fon I am writing to, the leaft I promife myself from your goodness is an uninterrupted continuance of favour, and a friendShip for life; to which that I may with fome juftice entitle myself, I fend your Lordship a Dedication not filled with a long detail of your praises, but with my fincereft wishes that you may deferve them; that you may employ thofe extraordinary parts and abilities with which Heaven has bleffed 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 whofe 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 verses of my writing bould 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 hearafter bind up my fuller fheaf, and lay fome pieces of a very different nature (the product of my severer ftudies) at your Lordship's feet, I shall engage your more ferious reflection; happy if, in all my endeavours, I may have contributed to your delight, or to your inftruction. I am, with all duty and respect,

My Lord,

Your Lordship's most obedient

and most humble fervant,

MATTHEW PRIOR.

THE greatest part of what I have written having been already published, either singly or in some of the Miscellanies, it would be too late for me to make any excuse for appearing in print. But a collection of poems has lately appeared under iny naine, though without my knowledge, in which the publisher has given me the honour of some things that did not belong to me, and has transcribed others so imperfectly that I hardly knew them to be mine. This has obliged me, in my own defence, to look back upon some of those lighter studies which I ought long since 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 public for reprinting some pieces which, as they came singly from their first impression, have (I fancy) lain long and quietly in Mr. Tonson's shop; and adding others to them which were ne er before printed, and might have lain as quietly, and perhaps more safely, in a corner of my own study.

The reader will, I hope, make allowance for their having been written at very distant times, and on very different occasions; and take them as they happen to come. Public pane gyrics, amorous odės, serious reflections, or idle tales, the product of his leisure hours, who had business enough upon his hands, and was only a poet by accident.

I

I own myself much obliged to Mrs. Singer, who has given me leave to print a pastoral of her writing, that poem having produced the verses immediately following it. I wish she might be prevailed upon to publish some other pieces of that kind, in which the softness of her sex, and the fineness of her genius, conspire to give her a very distinguishing character.

POSTSCRIPT.

1 MUST help my preface by a posteript, to tell the reader that there is ten years distance between my writing one and the other; and that (whatever I thought then, and have somewhere

said,

said, that I would publish no more poetry) he will find several copies of verses scattered through this edition, which were not printed in the first. Those relating to the public, stand in the order they did before, according to the several years in which they were written; however the disposition of our nationa affairs, the actions or the fortunes of some men, and the opinions of others, may have changed. Prose and other human things may take what turn they can; but poetry, which pretends to have something of divinity in it, is to be more per

anent Odes once printed cannot well be altered, when the author has already said, that he expects his works should live for ever: and it had been very foolish in my friend Horace, if, some years after his "Exegi Monumentum," he should have desired to see his building taken down again.

The dedication likewise is reprinted, to the Earl of Dorset, in the foregoing leaves, without any alteration, though I had the fairest opportunity, and the strongest inclination, to have added a great deal to it. The blooming hopes, which I said the world expected from my then very young patron, have been confirmed by most noble and distinguished first-fruits; and his life is going on towards a plentiful harvest of all accumulated virtues. He has, in fact, exceeded whatever the fondness of my wishes could invent in his favonr; his equally good and beautiful lady enjoys in him an indulgent and obliging husband; his children, a kind and careful father; and his acquaintance, a faithful, generous, and polite friend. His fellow-peers have attended to the persuasion of his eloquence; and have been convinced by the solidity of his reasoning. He has long since deserved and attained the honour of the garter. He has managed some of the greatest charges of the kingdom with known ability; and laid them down with entire disinterestment. And as he continues the exercises of these eminent virtues (which that he may to a very old age, shall be my perpetual wish) he may be one of the greatest men that our

See Advertisement, p. 36.

age,

age, or possibly our nation, has bred; and leave materials for a panegyric, not unworthy the pen of some future Pliny. From so noble a subject as the Earl of Dorset, to so mean a one as myself, is (1 confess) a very Pindaric transition. I shall only say one word, and trouble the reader no further. I published my poems formerly, as Monsieur Jourdan sold his silk: he would not be thought a tradesman ; but ordered some pieces to be measured out to his particular friends. Now, I give up my shop, and dispose of all my poetical goods at once: I must therefore desire, that the public would please to take them in the gross; and that every body would turn over what he does not like.