legant Extracts OR, useful and entertaining Pi ECES of POETRY, Book I.a. Il Printed for J.Johnson G.G & J.Robinson, W. J & J. Richardson J. Sewell F & C.Rivington R. Baldwin 1801 F PREFACE. INCE Poetry affords young perfons an innocent pleasure, a tafte for it, SINCE under certain limitations, fhould be indulged. Why should they be forbidden to expatiate, in imagination, over the flowery fields of Arcadia, in Elyfium, in the Ifles of the Bleft, and in the Vale of Tempe? The harmless delight which they derive from Poetry, is furely fufficient to recommend an attention to it, at an age when pleasure is the chief purfuit, even if the fweets of it were not blended with utility. If indeed pleasure were the ultimate object of Poetry, there are some who, in the rigour of auftere wisdom, would maintain that the precious days of youth might be more advantageously employed than in cultivating a tafte for it. To obviate their objections, it is neceffary to remind them, that Poetry has ever claimed the power of conveying inftruction, in the most effectual manner, by the vehicle of pleasure. There is reafon to believe that many young perfons of natural genius would have given very little attention to learning of any kind, if they had been introduced to it by books appealing only to their reafon and judgment, and not to their fancy. Through the pleasant paths of Poetry they have been gradually led to the heights of science: they have been allured, on firft fetting out, by the beauty of the scene prefented to them, into a delightful land flowing with milk and honey; where, after having been nourished like the infant from the mother's breaft, they have gradually acquired ftrength enough to relish and digest the folideft food of philofophy. This opinion feems to be confirmed by actual experience; for the greatest men, in every liberal and honourable profeffion, have given their early years to the charms of Poetry. Many of the most illuftrious worthies in the church and in the state were allured to the land of learning by the fong of the Mufe; and they would perhaps have never entered it, if their preceptors had forbidden them to lend an ear. Of so much confequence is the study of Poetry in youth to the general advancement of learning. And as to morals, "Poetry," in the words of Sir Philip Sydney, " doth not "only fhew the way, but giveth fo fweet a profpect of the way, as will entice "any man to enter into it; nay, the Poet doth, as if your journey fhould be through a fair vineyard, at the very first give you a cluster of grapes, that, “full of that taste, you may long to país farther. He beginneth not with ob"fcure definitions, but he cometh to you with words fet in delightful pro"portion, either accompanied with, or prepared for, the well-enchanting fkill of “mufic;—and with a tale;-he cometh unto you with a tale, which holdeth "children from play, and old men from the chimney corner. Even thofe hard"hearted evil men, who think virtue a school-name, and despise the austere "admonitions of the philofopher, and feel not the inward reafons they stand upon, yet will be contented to be delighted; which is all the good fellow "Poet feems to promife; and fo fteal to fee the form of goodness; which seen "they cannot but love, ere themselves be aware, as if they took a medicine of "cherries." Thus Poetry, by the gentle, yet certain method of allurement, leads both to learning and to virtue. I conclude, therefore, that under a few self-evident reftrictions, it is properly addreffed to all young minds, in the course of a liberal education. It must be confeffed, at the fame time, that many fenfible men, both in the world and in the schools of philofophy, have objected to an early ftudy of it. They have thought that a taste for it interfered with an attention to what they call the MAIN CHANCE. What poet ever fined for sheriff? says Oldham. It is feldom feen that any one discovers mines of gold and filver in Parnaffus, fays Mr. Locke. Such ideas have predominated in the exchange and in the warehouse; and, while they continue to be confined to thofe places, may perhaps, in fome inftances, be advantageous. But they ought not to operate on the mind of the gentleman, or the man of a liberal profeffion; and indeed there is no good reason to be given why the mercantile claffes, at least of the higher order, should not amuse their leifure with any pleasures of polite literature. That fome object to the ftudy of Poetry as a part of education, is not to be wondered at, when it is confidered that many, from want of natural sensibility, or from long habits of inattention to every thing but fordid intereft, are totally unfurnished with faculties for the perception of poetical beauty. But fhall we deny that the cowflip and violet poffefs a vivid colour and (weet fragrance, because the ox who fattens in the meadow tramples over them without perceiving either their hues or their odours? The taste of mankind, from China to Peru, powerfully militates against the oppofers of Poetry. Young Young minds have commonly a tafte for Verfe. Unfeduced by the love of money, and unhacknied in the ways of vice, they are indeed delighted with nature and fact, though unembellifhed; becaufe all objects with them have the grace of novelty: but they are transported with the charms of Poetry, where the funshine of fancy diffufes over every thing the fine glofs, the rich colouring, of beautiful imagery and language. "Nature" (to cite Sir Philip Sydney again) "never fet forth the earth in fo rich tapestry as diverse poets have done, "neither with so pleasant rivers, fruitful trees, sweet smelling-flowers, nor "whatsoever may make the earth more lovely. The world is a brazen world "the poets only deliver a GOLDEN; which whoever diflike, the fault is in their "judgment, quite out of taste, and not in the fweet food of SWEETLY-UTTERED "KNOWLEDGE." It will be readily acknowledged, that ideas and precepts of all kinds, whether of morality or fcience, make a deeper impreffion when inculcated by the vivacity, the painting, the melody of poetical language. And what is thus deeply' impreffed will also long remain; for metre and rhyme naturally catch hold of the memory, as the tendrils of the vine cling round the branches of the elm, Orpheus and Linus are recorded in fable to have drawn the minds of favage men to knowledge, and to have polished human nature, by Poetry. And are not Children in the ftate of nature? And is it not probable that Poetry may be the best inftrument to operate on them, as it was found to be on nations in the favage ftate? Since, according to the mythological wifdom of the ancients, Amphion moved ftones, and Orpheus brutes, by mufic and verfe, is it not reasonable to believe, that minds which are dull, and even brutally infenfible, be penetrated, sharpened, foftened, and irradiated, by the warm influence of fine Poetry? may But it is really fuperfluous to expatiate either on the delight or the utility of Poetry. The fubject has been exhausted; and, whatever a few men of little tafte and feeling, or of minds entirely fordid and fecular, may object, such are the charms of the Goddess, fuch her powerful influence over the heart of man, that she will never want voluntary votaries at her fhrine. The Author of Nature has kindly implanted in man a love of Poetry, to folace him under the labours and forrows of life. A great part of the Scriptures is poetry and verse, The wife fon of Sirach enumerates, among the moft honourable of mankind, SUCH AS FOUND OUT MUSICAL TUNES, AND RECITED VERSES IN WRITING, With respect to this Compilation, the principal fubject of this Preface (but from which I have been feduced into a digreffión, by giving my fuffrage in fayour of the art I love)-if I should be asked what are its pretenfions, I must freely A 3 |