a

Had his noon been as fix'd as clear-but he,
That only wanted immortality
To make him perfect, now submits to night,
In the black bosom of whose fable spite,
He leaves a cloud of flesh behind, and fies,

45 Refin'd, all ray and glory, to the skies.

Great saint! shine there in an eternal sphere, And tell those powers to whom thou now draw'st near, That by our trembling sense, in HASTINGS dead, Their anger and our ugly faults are read ; The short lines of whose life did to our eyes Their love and majesty epitomize. Tell them, whose stern decrees impose our laws, The feasted grave may close her hollow jaws; Though sin search nature, to provide her here

រ A second entertainment half so dear, She'll never meet a plenty like this hearse, Till Time present her with the Universe.

:CON

TO THE REVEREND

DR.

W I L K IN S,

WARDEN OF WADHAM COLLEGE IN OXFORD,

SIR, SEEING you are pleased to think fit that these

papers should come into the public, which were at first designed to live only in a desk, or some private friend's hands; I humbly take the boldness to commit them to the security which your name and protection will give them with the most knowing part of the world. There are two things especially in which they stand in need of your defence : one is, that they fall fo infinitely below the full and lofty genius of that excellent poet, who made this way.of writing free of our nation : the other, that they are so little proportioned and equal to the renown of that prince, on whom they were written. Such great actions and lives deserving rather to be the subjects of the noblest pens and divine fancies, than of such small beginners and weak essayers in poetry as myself. Against these dangerous prejudices, there remains no other shield, than the universal esteem and authority which your judgment and approbation carries with it. The right you have to them, Sir, is not only on the account of the relation

you

had to this great person, nor of the general favour which all arts receive from you; but more particu

larly

I a

larly by reason of that obligation and zeal with which I am bound to dedicate myself to your service : for having been a long time the object of your care and indulgence towards the advantage of my studies and fortune, having been - moulded as it were by your own hands, and formed under your government, not to entitle you to any thing which my meanness produces, would not only be injustice, but facrilege: fo that if there be any thing here tolerably said, which deserves pardon, it is yours, Sir, as well as he, who is,

Your most devoted,

and obliged servant,

THO. SPRAT.