TO THE EARL OF CARLISLE. I MY LORD, BEG leave to present to your lordship, the fol lowing Ode; for at whose shrine can it be offered with more propriety, than at your lordship's, whose tafte for poetry, as well as for every other part of polite literature, is so justly and so universally acknowledged? Your lordship has yourself made no inconfiderable figure in the lyric; but I will not so much flatter you, even in a Dedication, as to affirm, that you have perfectly fucceeded. I allow, that the very few pieces with which you have favoured the public, are as elegant and beautiful as any in our language: I own, that in every one of them there are just conception, lively imagination, correct expreffion, and clear connection; but I know your lordship's goodnefs will pardon me, when I presume to affert, that all thefe excellencies are utterly repugnant to the VOL. I. P noble noble frenzy, and sublime obscurity of the Ode; both which are fufficiently visible in this, which I have here the honour to lay before your lordship, and which I take to be a model of perfection: My obligations, perhaps, may make me partial to its merits, as to the publication of it, I am indebted for this opportunity of affuring your lordship that I am, MY LORD, Your lordship's most devoted, and Obedient humble servant, THE EDITOR. PREFACE. PREFACE. HE following Ode was found in the cabinet of TH a late celebrated writer; and is esteemed, by the best judges, to be the most perfect compofition of the kind that is any where to be met with amongst the productions of the numerous lyric poets of modern times. That learned and judicious critic, Dr. Jofeph Trap, in his Prælectiones Poetica, thus defcribes the moft excellent compofers of lyric Poems or Odes. "Conceptus omnium ardentiffimi; a vulgaribus co"gitatis remotiffimi; methodum fugere videntur; "tranfitiones affectant, quæ nulla arte fieri viden«tur, nihilo licet plus artis infit. Sententiarum "nexus & copulas negligere amant; modo abrupto " & improviso poema incipiunt, & finiunt; & fu"rore quodam ufitatis legibus & regulis fuperiore, ab hoc ad illud devolant, nulla loquendi formulis ❝venia vel obtenta prius, aut petita." Which, for the benefit of ladies and gentlemen, I thus tranflate: "Their P 2 |