Ο Βίθ γὶς νομ ̓ ἔχει, πόνω δ' ἔργῳ πέλει. Eurip. Siquis Deus mihi largiatur, ut ex hac ætate repuerafcam, & in cunis vagiam, valde recufem. Cic. de Senect. The BEWAILING OF MAN'S MISERIES hath been elegantly and copiously set forth by many, in the writings as well of philofophers, as of divines. And it is both a pleasant and a profitable contemplation. Lord Bacon's Advancement of Learning. VOL. II. A PRE THE PREFACE. It is hard for a man to speak of himself with any tolerable fatisfaction or fuccefs; he can be no more pleafed in blaming himself, than in reading a fatyr made on him by another: and though he may justly defire, that a friend fhould praise him; yet, if he makes his own panegyrick, 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 condescending too far, he may injure his own caufe, and become a kind of FELO DE SE; 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 thofe 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 A 2 indifferent poem; I would fay fomething to perfuade him to take it as it is, or to excufe 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, Ecclefiaftes, and other books, commonly attributed to Solomon, afford fubjects for finer poems in every kind, than have, I think, yet appeared in the Greek, Latin, or ány modern language: how far they were verfe in their original, is a differtation not to be entered into at prefent. Out of this great treafure, which lies heaped up together, in a confufed magnificence, above all order, I had a mind to collect and digeft fuch obfervations, and apothegms, as most particularly tend to the proof of that great affertion, laid down in the beginning of the Ecclefiaftes, "ALL IS VANITY! Upon the fubject thus chofen, fuch various images prefent themfelves to a writer's mind, that he muft find it eafier to judge, what fhould be rejected, than what ought to be received. The difficulty lies in drawing and difpofing; or (as painters term it) in grouping fuch a multitude of different objects, preferving ftill the juftice and |