THE PREFACE. IT T will be to little purpose, the Author prefumes, to offer any reasons, why the following poems appear in public; for it is ten to one whether he gives the true; and if he does, it is much greater odds, whether the gentle reader is fo courteous as to believe him. He could tell the world, according to the laudable custom of Prefaces, that it was through the irresistible importunity of friends, or fome other excufe of ancient renown, that he ventured them to the prefs; but he thought it much better to leave every man to guess for himself, and then he would be sure to satisfy himself: for, let what will be pretended, people are grown so very apt to fancy they are always in the right, that, unless it hit their humour, it is immediately condemned for a fham and hypocrify. In short, that which wants an excufe for being in print, ought not to have been printed at all; but whe ther the enfuing poems deserve to stand in that clafs, the world must have leave to determine. What faults the true judgment of the Gentleman may find out, it is to be hoped his candour and good-humour will easily pardon; but those which the peevishness and ill-nature of the Critic may discover, muft expect to be unmercifully used: Though, methinks, it is a very prepofterous pleasure, to fcratch other perfons till the blood comes, and then laugh at and ridicule them, : Some perfons, perhaps, may wonder, how Things of this Nature dare come into the world without the protection of fome great name, as they call it, and a fulfome Epiftle Dedicatory to his Grace, or Right Honourable for, if a Poem struts out under my Lord's Patronage, the Author imagines it is no less than scandalum magnatum to diflike it; efpecially if he thinks fit to tell the world, that this fame Lord is a perfon of wonderful Wit and Understanding, a notable judge of Poetry, and a very confiderable poet himself. But if a Poem have no intrinfic excellencies, and real beauties, the greatest name in the world will never induce a man of sense to approve it; and if it has them, Tom Piper's is as good as my Lord Duke's; the only difference is, Tom claps half an ounce of fnuff into the poet's hand; and his Grace twenty guineas: for, indeed there lies the ftrength of a great name, and the greatest protection an Author can receive from it. To please every one, would be a new thing; and to write fo as to please nobody, would be as new: for even Quarles and Withers have their admirers. The Author is not fo fond of fame, to defire it from the injudicious Many; nor of fo mortified a temper, not to wish it from the difcerning Few. It is not the multitude of applauses, but the good fenfe of the applauders, which eftablishes a valuable reputation; and if a Rymer or a Congreve fay it is well, he will not be at all folicitous how great the majority may be to the contrary. LONDON, Anno 1699. POEMS |