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Nor let his narrow heart conceive

That, what great Nature deigns to give,

Man on his part fhould not receive!

Each Beauty, to the foul or fenfe,
That Nature's bounty deigns difpenfe,
Accordant to the human heart,

Muft Pleasure's grateful fenfe impart :-
But when, as in his crefted pride,
AARON'S proud ferpent, brought befide
Those giv'n at the Magician's call,

Superior, foon destroy'd them all:

So when in competition, One,

With all thofe charms our hearts fhall own,

Is plac'd in fair and fullest view,

What foul to Manhood's feelings true,

But shall confefs, with manly mind,

How far it leaves them all behind!

Oh, Thou dear adjunct of the soul, Thou, at whofe limitlefs controul,

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* It has often ftruck me, that this paffion, which, however natural, is not uncommonly called a debafing or enervating one, affords a strong proof of the natural love of Virtue; I mean in this, that every Lover (unless indeed of an uncommonly base mind) fuppofes Virtues in his Miftrefs fhe has not, and thinks he loves her for thofe qualities; nay more, does it not really create virtues, or draw forth the latent feeds of them, in our own breafts? What Generofity, for inftance, is mutually exercised between two perfons impressed with a true paffion towards each other! What Confidence, what facrifice of what

is

And is not this, great Nature, fay,
The law Thou givest to obey?——————

And shall the Goddess then deny,

That her firft object 'neath the sky

Bleft Beauty feminine-not ill,

May be the organ giv'n to fill

Those mandates from her heav'nly throne,
Unfhackled Wisdom ftill will own,

As her own maxims and behest,
That what is happieft, is beft:

And truer fure, though it unite
With-

that "whatever is, is right."*

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is moft dear to ourselves, in favour of the beloved object! Nay, and how much greater is the fatisfaction in feeing that object in the enjoyment of it than ourfelves! &c. That it is a paffion which engroffes the mind to too great a degree is certain; and yet, engrosser as it is, furely (with des ames bien nees) it has also its conqueror in Duty or Honour.

* Not only a note is neceffary here, but one it is confeffed of apology to the reader, and requesting his indulgence for this premature mention, if not animadversion, on POPE; who will hereafter, nay, and very fhortly, be much involved in the prefent subject and plan. This indeed has been told in the Preface; but fill the introduction of him here, it is allowed, is rather misplaced and out of rule. Hereafter enough will be advanced in attempt to fupport the prefent propofed axiom on one part, and in refutation of that on the other.

When

When the great Bard's advent'rous plan
Rofe to the tale of fallen man,

He gave him, just to manhood's caufe,

And fure as friend to Nature's laws,

The wish to hear, by lov'd Eve giv'n,

Rather than GOD, the words of heav'n."*

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* This paffage is, I remember, given as one of the great beauties of MILTON, by one of his critical admirers-I think ADDISON. The idea is, as I have faid, a ftroke of Nature; but whether it be not too bold for Propriety and Tafte completely to adopt, let other Critics determine; more especially the perfectly orthodox ones:-But this I would, in all due humility, afk, more especially of those who are not averfe to authority, and still less perhaps to precedent, if my "light-tripping" playful Chlora-(for all this, and as much more as I please, may my fancy alfo invent; and in idea, at least, indulge even as another Tibullus if I can, with whatever I may think moft grateful, most attractive to the heart, foul, and tafle of man)-Yes, I would, I fay, afk if she may not here be as allowably adınitted as the delegate of my small Divinity, as the other in the manner already faid, and which, I confefs, I fhould have my doubts about?

I am fallen on a subject I little thought of treating at the commencement of my Poetical career; what that commencement, as well as progress, has been, is in my prefatory difcourse sufficiently related. The after-thought of addition to a Poem complete in its fingle felf, (I mean complete as a single fubject) and which happened to conclude with a certain playful kind of freedom in contrast to its preceding philofophical gravity, flung a degree of difficulty over the plan of continuation of the reflective subject, which feemed interrupted (to common readers probably irrecoverably fo) by a circumftance feemingly not only fo light, but, to fuch readers at least, fo uncongenial with it. This then, it is plain,

has

Oh, HAMMOND! were thy powers mine,

O'er CHLORA's artlefs brow fhould fhine

Poetic flowers, graces new,

E'en fuch as, to thy DELIA due,

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has occafioned, even neceffarily, fomething or other, whether in alleviation or justification of the light ending of the original fingle Poem, as being now the first Canto of the present enlarged one. If in better hands, I know not but the circumstance I speak of might have been a lucky mischance, fince it might have afforded the opportunity, that would not otherwise have offered, of treating (tho' if even a little episodically) a subject ever dear, if well managed, to the heart of man, as is fufficiently proved, if necessary to be proved, from the universal stamp of approbation, not to say admiration, nay, preference, manifestly given to that subject over all others in writers who have treated other subjects along with it. Need I name VIRGIL or MILTON among the numberless examples that might be brought in proof of my pofition? Who knows not the admiration beflowed on the 4th Book of VIRGIL, with the loves of Dido and Æneas; and on the 4th Book of MILTON, with the loves of Adam and Eve? and does any one think-yes, every one does think, that those Books fhew much more genius in the writers of them, than any others of their performance. Is that wonderful? And is it imagined that the writer of this is either weak or proud enough to expect any one to join him (any farther than in theory and play) in the fupplication to MINERVA? not

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In fact, furely both VIRGIL and MILTON, with equal powers for all, really wrote as well in the other books as in those where the paffion of love was the subject; but the subject, and confequently the feelings excited by it, were more endearing and more striking: And thus it is and ever will be among men.

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