PREFACE.

WITHOUT 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 fome exuberances in imagery may be reftrained, with advantage, by a degree of judgment acquired in the progrefs 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 eagernels, with which thefe Poems have been received abroad, are a recompence for the coldnefs with which a few have affected to treat them at home. All the polite nations of Europe have transferred 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 conve nient indifference for a literary reputation,

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the Author hears praife without being elevated, and ribaldry without being depreffed. He has frequently feen the first bestowed too precipitately; and the latter is fo faithlefs to its purpose, that it is often the only index to merit in the prefent age.

Though the taste, which defines genius, by the points of the compass, is a fubject fit for mirth in itself, it is often a serious matter in the fale of a work. When rivers define the limits of abilities, as well as the boundaries of countries, a Writer may measure 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 another name. If this was the cafe, he was but young in the art of deception. When he placed the Poet in antiquity, the Tranflator fhould have been born on this fide of the Tweed.

Thefe obfervations regard only the frivolous in matters of literature; thefe, however, form a majority in every age and nation. In this country, men of ge nuine taste abound; but their ftill voice is drowned in the clamours of a multitude who judge by fashion of poetry, as of

drefs.