SWEET Stream, that doft with equal Pace And liften to my Woe. Then go, and tell the Sea that all its Brine Inform it that the gentler Dame, Has pafs'd the fatal Flood, Alas, alas! I must give o'er, My Sighs will let me add no more. Go on, fweet Stream, and henceforth reft And if my fad Complaints have made thee stay, THE THE PLAGUE of ATHENS, Which happen'd in the Second Year of the Peloponnefian War. Firft defcrib'd in Greek by THUCYDIDES; Then in Latin by LUCRETIUS. To my Worthy and Learned Friend, Dr. WALTER POPE, Late Proctor of the University of OXFORD. 8 1 R, Know not what Pleafure you could take in beftowing your Commands fo unprofitably, unless it be that for which Nature fometimes cherishes and allows Monsters, the Love of Variety. This only Delight you will receive by turning over this rude and unpolifh'd Copy, and comparing it with my excellent Patterns, the Greek and Latin. By this you will fee how much a noble Subject is changed and disfigured by an ill Hand, and what Reafon Alexander had to forbid his Picture to be drawn but by fome celebrated Pencil. In Greek, Thucydides fo well and fo lively expreffes it, that I know not which is more a Poem, his Description or that of Lueretius. Though it must be faid, that the Hiftorian had a vaft Advantage over the Poet; he having been prefent on the Place, and affaulted by the Difeafe himself, had the Horror familiar to his Eyes, and all the Shapes of the Mifery |