Good M-mt's fate tore Pth from thy fide, And thy last sigh was heard when W - - m died.

Thy Nobles Sls, thy Ses bought with gold, Thy Clergy perjur'd, thy whole People fold. An atheist a ""'s ad.. Blotch thee all o'er, and fink ..

Alas! on one alone our all relies,

Let him be honest, and he must be wise,
Let him no trifler from his school,

Nor like his..

Be but a man! unminifter'd, alone,

And free at once the Senate and the Throne;
Efteem the public love his beft fupply,

A's true glory his integrity;

Rich with his
in .. his strong,
Affect no conquest, but endure no wrong.
Whatever his religion or his blood,

His public virtue makes his title good.
Europe's just balance and our own may stand,
And one man's honefty redeem the land.

ftill a

THE

PLAN OF AN EPIC POEM,

TO HAVE BEEN WRITTEN IN BLANK VERSE,

AND INTITLED,

BRUT U S.

AA 3

1

THE

PLAN

OF AN

EPIC POEM.
О Е М.

AS S ENEAS was famed for his piety, fo his grandfon's characteristic was benevolence; this first predominant principle of his character, prompted his endeavours to redeem the remains of his country, men, the defcendants from Troy, then captives in Greece, and to establish their freedom and felicity in juft form of government.

He goes to Epirus; from thence he travels all over Greece; collects all the fcattered Trojans; and redeems them with the treasures he brought from Italy.

Having collected his fcattered countrymen, he confults the oracle of Dodona, and is promised a fettle, ment in an Ifland, which, from the defcription, appears to have been Britain. He then puts to sea, and enters the Atlantic Ocean.

A A 4

The

The First Book was intended to open with the appearance of Brutus at the Straits of Calpe, in fight of the Pillars of Hercules (the ne plus ultra). He was to have been introduced debating in council with his captains, whether it was advisable to launch into the great Ocean, on an enterprise bold and hazardous as that of the great Columbus,

One reason, among others, affigned by Brutus, for attempting the great Ocean in fearch of a new country was, that he entertained no profpect of introducing pure manners in any part of the then known world; but that he might do it among a people uncorrupt in their manners, worthy to be made happy, and wanting only arts and laws to that purpose.

·J

A debate enfues. Pifander, an old Trojan, is rather for fettling in Betica, a rich country near the Straits, within the Mediterranean, of whofe wealth they had heard great fame at Carthage,

Di Brutus apprehends that the foftness of the climate, and the gold found there, would corrupt their manners; befides, that the Tyrians, who had established great commerce there, had introduced their fuperstitions among the natives, and made them unapt to re. ceive the instructions he was defirous to give.

- Cloanthes, one of his captains, out of avarice and effeminacy, nevertheless defires to fettle in a rich and fertile country, rather than to tempt the dangers of the Ocean, out of a romantic notion of heroifm.

This