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DR. WARBURTON'S

ADVERTISEMENT

To the OCTAVO EDITION of Mr. POPE's Works, 1751.

MR. POPE, in his laft illness, amufed himself,

amidst the care of his higher concerns, in preparing a corrected and complete Edition of his writings; and, with his usual delicacy, was even folicitous to prevent any share of the offence they might occafion, from falling on the Friend whom he had engaged to give them to the Public.

In discharge of this trust, the Public has here a complete Edition of his Works; executed in such a manner, as, I am perfuaded, would have been to his fatisfaction.

The Editor hath not, for the fake of profit, fuffered the Author's Name to be made cheap by a Subscription; nor his Works to be defrauded of their due honours by a vulgar or inelegant Impreffion; nor his memory to be disgraced by any pieces unworthy of his talents or virtue. On the contrary, he. hath, at a very great expence, ornamented this Edition with all the advantages which the best Artists in Paper, Printing, and Sculpture could bestow upon it.

If the Public hath waited longer than the deference due to it fhould have fuffered, it was owing to a reafon which the Editor need not make a fecret. It was his regard to the family-interests of his deceased Friend. VOL. I.

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Mr. Pope, at his death, left large impreffions of feveral parts of his Works, unfold; the property of which was adjudged to belong to his Executors; and the Editor was willing they fhould have time to dispose of them to the best advantage before the publication of this Edition (which hath been long prepared) fhould put a ftop to the fale.

But it may be proper to be a little more particular concerning the fuperiority of this edition above all the preceding: fo far as Mr. Pope himself was concerned. What the Editor hath done, the Reader must collect for himself.

The first Volume, and the original poems in the fecond, are here printed from a copy corrected throughout by the Author himself, even to the very preface : which, with several additional notes in his own hand, he delivered to the Editor a little before his death. The Juvenile Translations, in the other part of the fecond Volume, it was never his intention to bring into this Edition of his Works, on account of the levity of fome, the freedom of others, and the little importance of any. But these being the property of other men, the Editor had it not in his power to follow the Author's intention.

The third Volume, all but the Effay on Man (which, together with the Effay on Criticifm, the Author, a little before his death, had corrected and published in Quarto, as a fpecimen of his projected Edition) was printed by him in his laft illness (but never published) in the manner it is now given. The difpofition of the Epistle on the Characters of Men is quite altered: that

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on the Characters of Women, much enlarged; and the Epiftles on Riches and Tafte corrected and improved. To thefe advantages of the third Volume, must be added a great number of fine Verses taken from the Author's Manufcript-copies of these poems, communicated by him for this purpose to the Editor. These, when he first published the Poems to which they belong, he thought proper, for various reafons, to omit. Some from the Manuscript-copy of the Effay on Man, which tended to difcredit fate, and to recommend the moral government of God, had, by the Editor's advice, been reftored to their places in the last Edition of that Poem. The reft, together with others of the like fort from his Manufcript-copy of the other Ethic Epiftles, are here inferted at the bottom of the page, under the title of Variations.

The fourth Volume contains the Satires; with their Prologue, the Epiftle to Dr. Arbuthnot; and Epilogue, the two Poems intitled MDCCXXXVIII. The Prologue and Epilogue are here given with the like advantages as the Ethic Epiftles in the foregoing Volume, that is to fay, with the Variations, or additional verses from the Author's Manufcripts. The Epilogue to the Satires is likewife enriched with many and large notes, now first printed from the Author's own Manuscript.

The fifth Volume contains a correcter and completer Edition of the Dunciad than hath been hitherto publifhed; of which, at prefent, I have only this further to add, That it was at my request he laid the plan of a fourth Book. I often told him, it was pity fo fine a poem fhould remain difgraced by the meanness of its

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fubject, the most insignificant of all Dunces, bad Rhymers, and malevolent Cavillers: That he ought to raise and ennoble it by pointing his Satire against the most pernicious of all, Minute-philofophers and Free-thinkers. I imagined too, it was for the intereft of Religion, to have it known that fo great a Genius had a due abhorrence of thefe pefts of Virtue and Society. He came readily into my opinion; but, at the fame time, told me it would create him many enemies. He was not mistaken. For though the terror of his pen kept them for fome time in respect, yet on his death they rofe with unrestrained fury, in numerous Coffee-house tales, and Grubftreet libels. The plan of this admirable Satire was artfully contrived to fhew, that the follies and defects of a fashionable Education naturally led to, and neceffarily ended in, Free-thinking; with defign to point out the only remedy adequate to so fatal an evil. It was to advance the fame ends of virtue and religion, that the Editor prevailed on him to alter every thing in his moral writings that might be fufpected of having the least glance towards Fate or Naturalism; and to add what was proper to convince the world, that he was warmly on the fide of moral Government and a revealed Will. And it would be injuftice to his memory not to declare that he embraced thefe occafions with the moft unfeigned pleasure.

The fixth Volume confifts of Mr. Pope's mifcellaneous pieces in verse and profe*. Amongst the Verse feveral fine poems make now their first appearance in

* The profe is not within the plan of this edition.

This Works. And of the Profe, all that is good, and nothing but what is exquifitely fo, will be found in this Edition.

The feventh, eighth, and ninth Volumes confift entirely of his Letters. The more valuable, as they are the only true models which we, or perhaps any of our neighbours have, of familiar Epiftles. This collection is now made more complete by the addition of feveral new pieces. Yet, excepting a fhort explanatory letter to Col. M. and the Letters to Mr. A. and Mr. W. (the latter of which are given to fhew the Editor's inducements, and the engagements he was under, to intend the care of this Edition) excepting thefe, I say, the reft are all published from the Author's own printed, though not published, copies, delivered to the Editor.

On the whole, the Advantages of this Edition, above the preceding, are thefe, That it is the firft complete collection which has ever been made of his original Writings; That all his principal poems, of early or later date, are here given to the Public with his laft corrections and improvements; That a great number of his verses are here first printed from the Manufcriptcopies of his principal poems of later date: That many new notes of the Author's are here added to his Poems; and lastly, that feveral pieces, both in profe and verse, make now their firft appearance before the Public.

The Author's Life deferves a juft Volume; and the Editor intends to give it. For to have been one of the firft Poets in the world is but his fecond praife. He was

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