an harmonious pen, whofe every line makes a part of the reader's faith, and is the very life or death of his foul.

If the trifling and incredible tales that furnish out a tragedy, are fo armed by wit and fancy, as to become fovereign of the rational powers, to triumph over all the affections, and manage our fimiles and our tears at pleasure; how wondrous a conqueft might be obtained over a wild world, and reduce it, at least, to fobriety, if the fame happy talent were employed in dreffing the fcenes of religion in their proper figures of majesty, fweetness, and terror! The wonders of creating power, of redeeming love, and renewing grace, ought not to be thus impiously neglected by thofe whom Heaven has endued with a gift so proper to adorn and cultivate them; an art whofe fweet infinuations might almost convey piety in refifting nature, and melt the hardest fouls to the love of virtue. The affairs of this life, with their reference to a life to come, would shine bright in a dramatic defcription; nor is there any need or any reason why we fhould always borrow the plan or history from the ancient Jews, or primitive martyrs; though feveral of thefe would furnish out noble materials for this fort of poefy: but modern scenes would be better understood by most readers, and the application would be much more eafy. The anguish of inward guilt, the fecret ftings and racks and scourges of confcience; the sweet retiring hours, and feraphical joys of devotion; the victory of a refolved foul over a thoufand temptations; the inimitable love and paffion of a

dying God; the awful glories of the last tribunal; the grand decifive sentence, from which there is no appeal ; and the confequent tranfports or horrors of the two eternal worlds; these things may be variously difpofed, and form many poems. How might such performances, under a divine bleffing, call back the dying piety of the nation to life and beauty? This would make religion appear like itself, and confound the blafphemies of a profligate world, ignorant of pious pleasures.

But we have reafon to fear, that the tuneful men of our day have not raised their ambition to fo divine a pitch; I should rejoice to see more of this celeftial fire kindling within them; for the flashes that break out in fomne present and past writings betray an infernal fource. This the incomparable Mr. Cowley, in the latter end of his preface, and the ingenious Sir Richard Blackmore, in the beginning of his, have fo pathetically defcribed and lamented, that I rather refer the reader to mourn with them, than detain and tire him here. These gentlemen, in their large and laboured works of poefy, have given the world happy examples of what they wish and encourage in profe; the one in a rich variety of thought and fancy, the other in all the fhining colours of profufe and florid diction.

If fhorter fonnets were composed on sublime subjects, fuch as the Pfalms of David, and the holy transports interfperfed in the other facred writings, or fuch as the oral odes of Horace, and the ancient Lyricks; I perde myself, that the Chriftian preacher would find undant aid from the poet, in his defign to diffuse vir

tue,

tue, and allure fouls to God. If the heart were first inflamed from Heaven, and the Mufe were not left alone to form the devotion, and pursue a cold scent, but only called-in as an affiftant to the worship, then the fong would end where the inspiration ceases; the whole composure would be of a piece, all meridian light and meridian fervour; and the fame pious flame would be propagated, and kept glowing in the heart of him that reads. Some of the fhorter odes of the two poets now mentioned, and a few of the Rev. Mr. Norris's Effays in verfe, are convincing inftances of the fuccefs of this propofal.

It is my opinion alfo, that the free and unconfined numbers of Pindar, or the noble meafures of Milton without rhyme, would best maintain the dignity of the theme, as well as give a loofe to the devout foul, nor check the raptures of her faith and love. Though, in my feeble attempts of this kind, I have too often fettered my thoughts in the narrow metre of our Pfalmtranflators; I have contracted and cramped the fenfe, or rendered it obfcure and feeble, by the too speedy and regular returns of rhyme.

If my friends expect any reason of the following compofures, and of the firft or fecond publication, I entreat them to accept of this account.

The title affures them that poefy is not the business of my life; and if I feized thofe hours of leifure, wherein my foul was in a more fprightly frame, to entertain them or myself with a divine or moral fong, I hope I ¦ fhall find an easy pardon.

any handle of the foul, to lead it away betimes from vicious pleasures; and if I could but make up a compofition of virtue and delight, fuited to the taste of well-bred youth, and a refined education, I had fome hope to allure and raise them thereby above the vile temptations of degenerate nature, and custom that is yet more degenerate. When I have felt a flight inclination to fatire or burlesque, I thought it proper to fupprefs it.

The

grinning and the growling Mufe are not hard to be obtained; but I would difdain their affiftance, where a - manly invitation to virtue, and a friendly fimile, may be fuccessfully employed. Could I perfuade any man by a kinder method, I should never think it proper to scold or laugh at him.

Perhaps there are fome morofe readers, that stand ready to condemn every line that is written upon the theme of Love; but have we not the cares and the felicities of that fort of focial life reprefented to us in the facred writings? Some expreffions are there used with a defign to give a mortifying influence to our foftest affections; others again brighten the character of that ftate, and allure virtuous fouls to purfue the divine advantage of it, the mutual affiftance in the way to falvation. Are not the cxxviith and cxxviiith Pfalms indited on this very fubject? Shall it be lawful for the prefs and the pulpit to treat of it, with a becoming folemnity in profe, and must the mention of the fame thing in poefy be pronounced for ever unlawful? Is it utterly unworthy of a fericus character to write on this argument, because it has been unhappily polluted by

fome fcurrilous pens? Why may I not be permitted to obviate a common and a growing mifchief, while a thoufand vile poems of the amorous kind fwarm abroad, and give a vicious taint to the unwary reader? I would tell the world that I have endeavoured to recover this argument out of the hands of impure writers, and to make it appear, that virtue and love are not such firangers as they are represented. The blissful intimacy of fouls in that ftate will afford fufficient furniture for the gravest entertainment in verfe; so that it need not be everlastingly dreffed-up in ridicule, nor asfuned only to furnish out the lewd fonnets of the times. May fome happier genius promote the fame fervice that I propofed, and by superior sense, and sweeter found, Iender what I have written contemptible and useless.

The imitations of that nobleft Latin poet of modern ages, Cafimire Sarbiewski, of Poland, would need no excuse, did they but arise to the beauty of the original. I have often taken the freedom to add ten or twenty Lines, or to leave out as many, that I might fuit my Long more to my own defign, or because I saw it impoffible to prefent the force, the fineness, and the fire of his expreffion in our language. There are a few copies wherein I have borrowed fome hints from the same author, without the mention of his name in the title. Methinks I can allow fo fuperior a genius now and then to be lavifh in his imagination, and to indulge fome excurfions beyond the limits of fedate judgment: the riches and glory of his verfe make atonement in