Th’impartial Destinies have now assign'd
A task far diff'rent to my wavering mind.
Without a call like Huntingdon's, I came
To preach plain sense to Sectaries in fame; 1020
To brand the heterodox, to strengthen truth,
And teach the aged what I 've learnt in youth.
But, while I thus diffuse as pure a law
As

grave M-th-s, or as light D--b-S,
I cannot, dare not hope a voice like mine, 1025
Tho' ventured boldly for the tuneful Nine,
Should chance be heard amid the clam'rous peal,
That deafens Pindus with unsparing zeal.
Loud, and more loud will rise the notes of fear,
And drown the Monitor they dread to hear. 1050

Farewell! then, Muse, who still hast urg'd mine ire
T'avenge the cause of thine insulted lyre;
Farewell! thou joy of many a weary hour,
My bosom thanks thee for thy kindling pow'r ;
Farewell !-ye rhymsters, who, with idle speed,
Read but to write, and write but what ye rcadl;

Ye servile Dramatists, who, hir'd to please,
Make Plays and Pantomimes with equal ease;
Ye wise Black-letter Critics, who would know
What blockheads said a thousand years ago ;-1040
Scrawl, dramatize, or pore, do what

do what ye will,
For I shall “ suffer" all, and yet “ be still."
Here, in the common cause, at once unite,
And aim together every shaft of spite;
Fear not his vengeance, who all vengeance dares,
Nor mercy deal to him, who none or courts of

spares.

As a final observation, I may be permitted to say a few words upon the motives which occasioned the publication of the foregoing Poem.

However disinclined we may be to admit the fantastical alliance between Politics and Poetry, which a late Writer in the Edinburgh Review 80 positively inculcates, it cannot be denied that our national verse has undergone a visible and radical change since the glorious era, when“ Marlbro' conquered, and when Prior sung." One Innovator has attempted to vary the pause, by the introduction of a mixed cadence, in which the subordinate word is sometimes invested with the emphasis which should properly belong to its principal, and bas presumed to abridge the use of

126

the article; a second, with all the pedantry of learning, would establish English dactylics and spondees; while others, with a wobler aim, reject the monotonous antithesis of Pope, while they unite his harmony to the vigor of thought and expression so admirable in his predecessor, Whether all these; acting separately or in conjunction, have produced any thing like a new standard of poetic taste, I leave Theorists to determine: the evils which extremes of innovation have occasioned, I trust are amply exposed in the preceding pages. To make those evils manifest, to strengthen precept by all the force of example, has been my ardent endeavour. Of the minor subjects, upon wbich, contrary to my original intention, I have been induced to expatiate, there can scarcely be a difference of opinion. Immorality and Infidelity will, even in these corrupt times, find but few defenders.

For the lines from v. 491 to v. 568, and from v. 851 to v. 888, as well as the two notes with the initials I. B., I am indebted to a friend, to whom I embrace this opportunity of making my acknowledgments; and conclude with this assurance, that however