LONDON:

PRINTED FOR A. STRAHAN; AND T. CADELL,

IN THE STRAND.

M DCC XC.

PREFACE.

WIT ITHOUT encreafing his genius, the Author may have improved his language, in the eleven years, that the following Poems have been in the hands of the Public. Errors in diction might have been committed at twenty-four, which the experience of a riper age may remove; and some exuberances in imagery may be reftrained, with advantage, by a degree of judgment acquired in the progress of time. Impreffed with this opinion, he ran over the whole with attention and accuracy; and, he hopes, he has brought the work to a ftate of correctnefs, which will preclude all future improvements.

The eagerness, with which these Poems have been received abroad, are a recompence for the coldness with which a few A 3 have

have affected to treat them at home. All the polite nations of Europe have tranfferred them into their refpective languages; and they speak of him, who brought them to light, in terms that might flatter the vanity of one fond of fame. In a convenient indifference for a literary reputation, the Author hears praise without being elevated, and ribaldry without being depreffed. He has frequently feen the firft bestowed too precipitately; and the latter is so faithless to its purpose, that it is often the only index to merit in the prefent age.

Though the tafte, which defines genius, by the points of the compafs, is a subject fit for mirth in itself, it is often a ferious matter in the fale of a work. When rivers define the limits of abilities, as well as the boundaries of countries, a writer may meafure his fuccefs, by the latitude under which he was born. It was to avoid a part of this inconvenience, that the Author is faid, by fome, who speak without any authority, to have afcribed his own productions to

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