READER.

S not my intention to make an apology

I for

for my poem : fome will think it needs no excufe, and others will receive none. The defign I am fure is honeft: but he who draws his pen for one party, must expect to make enemies of the other. For wit and fool are confe

quents of Whig and Tory; and every man is a knave or an ass to the contrary fide. There is a treasury of merits in the Fanatic church, as well as in the Popish; and a pennyworth to be had of faintship, honesty, and poetry, for the lewd, the factious, and the blockheads: but the longeft chapter in Deuteronomy has not curses enough for an Anti-Bromingham. My comfort is, their manifest prejudice to my cause will render their judgment of lefs authority against me. Yet if a poem have genius, it will force its own reception in the world. For there's a sweetness in good verfe, which tickles even while it hurts: and no man can be heartily angry with him who pleases him against his will. The commendation of adversaries is the greatest triumph of a writer, because it never comes unless extorted.

But I can be satisfied on more eafy terms: if I happen to please the more moderate fort, I shall be fure of an honest party, and, in all probability, of the best judges: for the least concerned are commonly the leaft corrupt. And I confess I have laid in for those, by rebating the fatire, where justice would allow it, from carrying too sharp an edge. They who can criticise so weakly, as to imagine I have done my worst, may be convinced at their own coft that I can write severely, with more ease than I can gently. I have but laughed at fome men's follies, when I could have declaimed against their vices: and other men's virtues I have commended, as freely as I have taxed their crimes. And now, if you are a malicious reader, I expect you fhould return upon me that I affect to be thought more impartial than I am but if men are not to be judged by their profeffions, God forgive you commonwealth'smen for profeffing fo plaufibly for the government. You cannot be fo unconscionable as to charge me for not subscribing my name; for that would reflect too grofly upon your own party, who never dare, though they have the advantage of a jury to secure them. If you like not my poem, the fault may poffibly be in my writing; though 'tis hard for an author to judge against

himself. But more probably 'tis in your morals, which cannot bear the truth of it. The violent on both fides will condemn the character of Abfalom, as either too favorably or too hardly drawn. But they are not the violent whom I defire to please. The fault on the right hand is to extenuate, palliate, and indulge; and to confess freely, I have endeavoured to commit it. Besides the respect which I owe his birth, I have a greater for his heroic virtues; and David himself could not be more tender of the young man's life, than I would be of his reputation. But fince the most excellent natures are always the most easy, and, as being such, are the fooneft perverted by ill counfels, especially when baited with fame and glory; 'tis no more a wonder that he withstood not the temptations of Achitophel, than it was for Adam not to have refifted the two devils, the ferpent and the woman. The conclufion of the story I purposely forbore to prosecute, because I could not obtain from myself to fhew Abfalom unfortunate. The frame of it was cut out but for a picture to the wafte; and if the draught be so far true, 'tis as much as I designed.

Were I the inventor, who am only the historian, I should certainly conclude the piece, with