of valour into the other, did Homer's Spirit, long after his bodies rest, wander in musick about Greece.

Thus you have the Model of what I have already built, or shal hereafter join to the same frame. If I be accus'd of Innovation, or to have transgressed against the method 5 of the Ancients, I shall think my self secure in beleeving that a Poet, who hath wrought with his own instruments at a new design, is no more answerable for disobedience to Predecessors, then Law-makers are liable to those old Laws which themselves have repealed.

IO

Having describ'd the outward frame, the large rooms within, the lesser conveyances, and now the furniture, it were orderly to let you examine the matter of which that furniture is made. But though every Owner who hath the Vanity to shew his ornaments or Hangings must endure 15 the curiosity and censure of him that beholds them, yet I shall not give you the trouble of inquiring what is, but tell you of what I design'd, their (substance, which is, Wit: And Wit is the laborious and the lucky resultances of thought, having towards its excellence, as we say of the 20 strokes of Painting, as well a happinesse as care. It is a Webb consisting of the subt'lest threds; and like that of the Spider is considerately woven out of our selves; for a Spider may be said to consider, not only respecting his solemnesse and tacit posture (like a grave Scout in ambush 25 for his Enemy), but because all things done are either from consideration or chance, and the works of Chance are accomplishments of an instant, having commonly a dissimilitude, but hers are the works of time, and have their contextures alike.

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Wit is not only the luck and labour, but also the dexterity of thought, rounding the world, like the Sun, with 'unimaginable motion, and bringing swiftly home to the memory universall surveys. It is the Souls Powder, which when supprest, as forbidden from flying upward, blows up 35

the restraint, and loseth all force in a farther ascension towards Heaven (the region of God), and yet by nature is much less able to make any inquisition downward towards Hell, the Cell of the Devill; But breaks through all about 5 it as farr as the utmost it can reach, removes, uncovers, makes way for Light where darkness was inclos'd, till great bodies are more examinable by being scatter'd into parcels, and till all that find its strength (but most of mankind are strangers to Wit, as Indians are to Powder) worship it for To the effects as deriv'd from the Deity. It is in Divines, Humility, Exemplarinesse, and Moderation; in Statesmen, Gravity, Vigilance, Benigne Complacency, Secrecy, Patil ence, and Dispatch; in Leaders of Armies, Valor, Painfulness, Temperance, Bounty, Dexterity in punishing and 15 rewarding, and a sacred Certitude of promise. It is in Poets a full comprehension of all recited in all these, and an ability to bring those comprehensions into action, when they shall so far forget the true measure of what is of greatest consequence to humanity (which are things righteous, 20 pleasant, and usefull) as to think the delights of greatness equal to that of Poesy, or the Chiefs of any Profession more necessary to the world then excellent Poets. Lastly, though Wit be not the envy of ignorant Men, 'tis often of evill Statesmen, and of all such imperfect great spirits as 25 have in it a lesse degree then Poets; for though no man

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envies the excellence of that which in no proportion he ever tasted, as men cannot be said to envy the condition of Angels, yet we may say the Devill envies the Supremacy of God, because he was in some degree partaker of his Glory. That which is not, yet is accompted, Wit, I will but sleightly remember, which seems very incident to imperfect youth and sickly age. Yong men, as if they were not quite deliver'd from Childhood, whose first exercise is Language, imagine it consists in the Musick of words, and 35 beleeve they are made wise by refining their Speech above

the vulgar Dialect, which is a mistake almost as great as that of the people who think Orators (which is a title that crowns at riper years those that have practis'd the dexterity of tongue) the ablest men, who are indeed so much more unapt for governing as they are more fit for Sedition; and it 5 may be said of them as of the Witches of Norway, who can sell a Storm for a Doller, which for Ten Thousand they cannot allay. From the esteem of speaking they proceed to the admiration of what are commonly call'd (Conceits, things that sound like the knacks or toyes of ordinary Epigram- 10 matists, and from thence, after more conversation and variety of objects, grow up to some force of Fancy; Yet even then, like young Hawks, they stray and fly farr off, using their liberty as if they would ne're return to the Lure, and often goe at check ere they can make a stedy view and know 15 their game.

Old men, that have forgot their first Childhood and are returning to their second, think it lyes in agnominations, and in a kinde of an alike tinkling of words, or else in a grave telling of wonderfull things, or in comparing of 20 times without a discover'd partiality: which they perform so ill by favoring the past, that, as 'tis observ'd, if the bodies of men should grow less, though but an unmeasurable proportion in Seaven years, Yet, reckoning from the Flood, they would not remain in the Stature of Froggs, so if States 25 and particular persons had impair'd in government and increas'd in wickedness proportionably to what Old men affirm they have done from their own infancy to their age, all publique Policy had been long since Confusion, and the Congregated World would not suffise now to people a Village. 30 The last thing they suppose to be Wit is their bitter Morals, when they almost declare themselves Enemies to Youth and Beauty, by which severity they seem cruel as Herod when he surpris'd the sleeping Children of Bethlem: for Youth is so far from wanting Enemies that it is mortally 35

its own, so unpractised that it is every where cosen'd more then a Stranger among Jews, and hath an Infirmity of sight more hurtful then Blindness to Blinde men, for though it cannot chuse the way it scorns to be led. And Beauty, 5 though many call themselves her Friends, hath few but such as are fals to her: though the World sets her in a Throne, yet all about her, even her gravest Councellors, are Traytors, though not in conspiracy, yet in their distinct designs; and to make her certain not onely of distress but 10 ruine, she is ever pursu'd by her most cruel enemy, the great Destroyer, Time. But I will proceed no farther upon old men, nor in recording mistakes, least finding so many more then there be Verities, we might beleeve we walk in as great obscurity as the Egyptians when Darkness 15 was their Plague. Nor will I presume to call the matter of which the Ornaments or Substantial parts of this Poem are compos'd, Wit; but onely tell you my endeavour was, in bringing Truth, too often absent, home to mens bosoms, to lead her through unfrequented and new ways, and from 20 the most remote Shades, by representing Nature, though not in an affected, yet in an unusual dress.

'Tis now fit, after I have given you so long a survay of the Building, to render you some accompt of the Builder, that you may know by what time, pains, and assistance I 25 have already proceeded, or may hereafter finish my work; and in this I shal take occasion to accuse and condemn, as papers unworthy of light, all those hasty digestions of thought which were published in my Youth,-a sentence not pronounc'd out of melancholy rigour, but from a cheerful 30 obedience to the just authority of experience: For that grave Mistris of the World, Experience, (in whose profitable School those before the Flood stay'd long, but we like wanton children come thither late, yet too soon are call'd out of it and fetch'd home by Death) hath taught me that the 35 engendrings of unripe age become abortive and deform'd,

Wit

and that after obtaining more years, those must needs prophecy with ill success who make use of their Visions in Wine; That, when the ancient Poets were vallew'd as Prophets, they were long and painfull in watching the correspondence of Causes ere they presum'd to foretell 5 effects, and that 'tis a high presumption to entertain a Nation (who are a Poets standing Guest, and require Monarchicall respect) with hasty provisions; as if a Poet might imitate the familiar dispatch of Faulkoners, mount his Pegasus, unhood his Muse, and with a few flights boast 10 he hath provided a feast for a Prince. Such posting upon Pegasus I have long since forborne, and during my Journey in this worke have mov'd with a slow pace, that I might make my survays as one that travaild not to bring home the names, but the proportion and nature, of things; and in 15 this I am made wise by two great examples, for the friends of Virgill acknowledge he was many years in doing honor to Æneas, still contracting at night into a closer force the abundance of his morning strengths, and Statius rather seems to boast then blush, when he confesses he was twice Seaven 20 in renowning the war between Argos and Thebes.

Next to the usefulness of Time, which here implys ripe age, I beleev'd pains most requisite to this undertaking: for though painfulness in Poets (according to the usual negligence of our Nation in Examining, and their diligence to 25 censure) seems always to discover a want of natural force, and is traduc'd, as if Poesy concern'd the world no more then Dancing, whose onely grace is the quickness and facility of motion, and whose perfection is not of such publique consequence that any man can merit much by 30 attaining it with long labour; yet let them consider, and they will finde (nor can I stay long ere I convince them in the important use of Poesy) the natural force of a Poet more apparent by but confessing that great forces aske great labor in managing, then by an arrogant braving the World when 35