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And as to morals, "Poetry," in the words of Sir Philip Sydney, "doth not tr only fhew the way, but giveth so sweet a prospect 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 propor❝tion, either accompanied with, or prepared for, the well-enchanting skill 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 feen, they cannot but love, ere themselves be aware, as if they took a medicine of "cherries."

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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 courfe 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 philosophy, have objected to it. They have thought that a tafte for it interfered with an attention to what they call the MAIN CHANCE. What poet ever fined for fheriff? fays Oldham. It is feldom feen that any one difcovers 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 reafon to be given why the mercantile claffes, at leaft of the higher order, fhould 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 shall we deny the cowflip and violet their vivid colour and fweet fragrance, becauf: the quadruped who feeds in the meadow, tramples over them without perceiving either their hues or their odours? Againft the oppofers of Poetry, the taste of mankind, from China to Peru, powerfully militates.

Young

Young minds have commonly a tafte for Poetry. Unfeduced by the love of money, and unhacknied in the ways of vice, they are indeed delighted with nature and fact, though unembellished; because all objects with them have the grace of novelty: but they are transported with the charms of Poetry, where the sunshine of fancy diffuses over every thing the fine gloss, the rich colouring, of beautiful imagery and language. "Nature" (to cite Sir Philip Sydney again) "never set forth the earth in so rich tapestry as diverse poets have done, "neither with so pleasant rivers, fruitful trees, sweet-fmelling 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 tafle, 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 science, make a deeper impreffion when inculcated by the vivacity, the painting, the melody of poetical language. And what is thus deeply impreffed will alfo 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.

Old 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 verse, is it not reasonable to believe, that minds which are dull, and even brutally infenfible, may be penetrated, sharpened, softened, and irradiated, by the warm influence of fine Poetry?

But it is really fuperfluous to expatiate either on the delight or the utility of Poetry. The fubject has been exhaufted; 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 shrine. 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 verfe. The wife fon of Sirach enumerates, among the most honourable of mankind, SUCH AS FOUND OUT MUSICAL TUNES, AND RECITED VERSES IN WRITING.

With respect to this Compilation, the principal fubje&t of this Preface (but from which I have been feduced into a digreffion, by giving my fuffrage in favour of an art I love)-if I fhould be asked what are its pretentions, 1 muft freely

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freely anfwer, that it profeffes nothing more than (what is evident at first fight) to be a larger Collection of English Verse, FOR THE USE OF SCHOOLS, than has ever yet been publifhed IN ONE VOLUME. The original intention was to comprize in it a great number and variety of fuch pieces as were already in ufe in fchools, or which feemed proper for the use of them; fuch a number and variety as might furnish fomething fatisfactory to every taste, and sérve as a little Poetical Library for school-boys, precluding the inconvenience and expence of a multitude of volumes.

Such was the defign of the Publication. The Editor can claim no praise be yond that of the defign. The praife of ingenuity is all due to the Poets whose works have fupplied the materials. What merit can there be in directing a famous and popular paffage to be inferted from Shakspeare, Milton, Pope, Gray, and many others of lefs fame, indeed, but in great esteem, and of allowed genius? Their own luftre pointed them out, like ftars of the first magnitude in the heavens. There was no occafion for fingular acuteness of vifion, or of optical glaffes, to difcover a brightnefs which obtruded itself on the eye. The best pieces are ufually the most popular. They are loudly recommended by the voice of Fame, and indeed have been already selected in a variety of volumes of preceding collections. To confefs an humiliating truth, in making a book like this, the hand of the artifan is more employed than the head of the writer. Utility and innocent entertainment are the fole defigns of the Editor; and if they are accomplished, he is satisfied, and cheerfully falls back into the fhade of obfcurity. He is confident that the Book cannot but be useful and entertaining; but he is, at the fame time, fo little inclined to boast of his work, that he is ready to confefs, that almost any man, willing to incur a confiderable expence, and undergo a little trouble, might have furnished as good a collection.

As tafte will for ever differ, fome may wish to have seen in it paffages from fome favourite, yet obfcure poet, and fome allo from their own works; but it was the bufinefs of the Editor of a school-book like this, not to infert fcarce and curious works, fuch as please virtuofo readers, chiefly from their rarity, but to collect fuch as were publicly known and univerfully celebrated. The more known, the more celebrated, the better they were adapted to this Collection; which is not defigned, like the leffons of fome dancing-mafters, for grown gentlemen, but for young learners only; and it will readily occur to every one, that what is old to men and women, may be, and for the most part muf be, NEW to boys and girls receiving their education. Private judgment, in a work like this, must often give way to public. Some things are interted in this Volume, entirely in fubmidfive deference to public opinion; which when general and long continued,

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is the leaft fallible teft of merit in the fine arts, and particularly in Poetry. Whatever was found in previous collections, which experience had pronounced proper for schools, has been freely taken and admitted: the ftamp of experience gave it currency. The freedom of borrowing, it is hoped, will be pardoned, as the collectors, with whom it has been used, firft fet the example of it.

It is unneceffary, and perhaps might be deemed impertinent, to point out the mode of ufing the Collection to the best advantage. It is evident that it may be used in schools, either in recitation, tranfcription, the exercife of the memory, or in imitation. It furnishes an abundance of models, which are the best means of exciting genius. Such Arts of Poetry as thofe of Gildon, Byfshe, Newbery, and their imitators, effect but little in the dry method of technical precept; and the young Poet, like the Sculptor, will improve moft by working after a model. It is evident that this Collection may be usefully read at ENGLISH SCHOOLS, in the claffes, juft as the Latin and Greek authors are read at the grammar-fchools, by explaining every thing grammatically, hiftorically, metrically, and critically; and then giving a portion to be learned by memory. The Book, it is hoped, will he particularly agreeable and useful in the private Studies of the amiable young ftudent, whofe firft love is the love of the Mufe, and who courts her in his fummer's walk, and his winter's folitude.

In the latter part many little pieces are admitted, mere lufus poetici, chiefly for the diverfion of the ftudent. They are, it must be confeffed, no more than flowrets at the bottom of Parnaffus; but it is hoped, that their adıniffion will be approved, as they may gradually lead the fcholar to afcend higher up the hill, who might have been deterred from approaching it if he had feen nothing in the first profpect, but the fublime, the folemn, and the fombrous.

To every Edition a great variety of long and valuable Poems has been added, and the volume is confequently much enlarged. A few pieces have been of neceffity omitted, the infertion of which would have rendered the Book unwieldy. Their omiffion is amply supplied by the copious addition of new Materials.—If fome mistakes have infinuated themfelves, in confequence of the Editor's diftance from the prefs, it is hoped they will be confîdered with candour.

The reader will have no caufe to complain, if, instead of Extracts, he often finds whole poems inferted. This has been done whenever it feemed confiftent with the defign, and could be done without injuftice. In this matter, the opinion of those who must be fuppofed beft qualified to give it, was afked, and followed. The wish was to take nothing but what feemed to lie on the common, relinquifhed or neglected by the lord of the manor.

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Though the Book is divided into Four Parts, yet the formality of regular
and fyftematical arrangement of the component pieces, has not been strictly ob-
ferved. Such compilations as these have not unfrequently been called garlands
and nofegays: but in a garland or nofegay, who would place the tulips, the lilies,
the pinks, and the roses in separate compartments? In this artificial disposition,
their beauty and fragrance would be lefs pleafing than if they were carelessly
mingled with all the ease and wildness of natural variety. I hope the analogy
will hold; if not, I must throw myself in this, as I do in all other circum-
stances of this Publication, upon my readers indulgence. I expect not praise;
but I confide in receiving pardon.

Perhaps the reader will be the more inclined to extend it towards me, if I do
not weary him with apologies. I will then conclude my Preface with the ideas.
of Montaigne:“ I have here only made a nosegay of culled flowers, and have broughɛ
"nothing of my own but the thread that ties them."

CONTENTS.

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