ADVERTISEMENT

Τ Ο

THE

FIRST EDITION, 1772.

TH

HIS Volume contains a complete Collection of

the Poems of the late Dr. Akenfide, either reprinted from the original Editions, or faithfully publined from Copies which had been prepared by himself for publication.

That the principal Poem should appear in so disadvantageous a state, may require some explanation. The first publication of it was at a very early part of the Author's life. That it wanted Revision and Corre&tion, he was fufficiently fenfible; but fo quick was the demand for several successive republications, that in any of the intervals to have completed the whole of his Corrections was utterly impossible; and yet to have gone on from time to time making farther Improvements in every new Edition would (he thought) have had the appearance at least of abusing the favor of the Public. He chose therefore to continue for some time reprinting it without alteration, and to forbear publishing any Corrections or Improvements until he should be able at once to give them to the Public complete.

B

And

And with this view he went on for several years

to review and correct the Poem at his leisure; till

at length he found the task grow fo much upon

his hands, that, despairing of ever being able to

execute it fufficiently to his own satisfaction, he aban-

doned the purpose of correcting, and resolved to write

the Poem over anew upon a somewhat different and an

enlarged Plan. And in the execution of this Design

he had made a considerable Progress. What reason

there may be to regret that he did not live to execute

the whole of it, will best appear from the perusal of

the Plan itself, as stated in the General Argument, and

of the parts which he had executed, and which are

here published. For the perfon *, to whom he in-

trusted the Disposal of his Papers, would have thought

himself wanting, as well to the Service of the Public,

as to the Fame of his Friend, if he had not produced

as much of the Work as appeared to have been pre-

pared for publication. In this light he considered the

intire first and second Books, of which a few Copies

had been printed for the use only of the Author and

certain Friends: alío' a very confiderable part of the

third Book, which had been transcribed in order to its

being printed in the same manner: and to these is added

the Introduction to a subsequent Book, which in the

Manuscript is called the Fourth, and which appears to

have been composed at the time when the Author in-

tended

a

[* The Right Hon. JEREMIAH DYSON; by whom
this advertisement was written.]

tended to comprize the whole in Four Books; but which, as he had afterwards determined to distribute the Poem into more Books, might perhaps more properly be called the Last Book. And this is all that is executed of the new work, which, although it appeared to the Editor too valuable, even in its imperfect State, to be withholden from the Public, yet (he conceives) takes in by much too small a part of the original Poem to supply its place, and to fuperfede the re-publication of it. For which reason both the Poems are inserted in this collection.

Of Odes the Author had designed to make up Two Books, consisting of twenty Odes each, including the several Odes which he had before published at different times.

The Hymn to the Naiads is reprinted from the sixti Volume of Dodley's Miscellanies, with a few Corrections and the addition of some Notes. To the Infcriptions taken from the same Volume three new Inscriptions are added; the last of which is the only inftance wherein liberty has been taken of inserting any thing in this Collection, which did not appear to have been intended by the Author for publication *; among whose papers no. Copy of this was found, but it is

printed [* In the present Edition, a few pieces are added, which are known to be genuine, and which certainly

no discredit to their Author. But these are all placed at the end of the volume. ]

B 2

are

printed from a Copy which he had many years since given to the Editor.

The Author of these Poems was born at Newcastle upon Tyne, on the 9th Day of November 1721. He was educated at the Grammar School at Newcastle, and at the Universities of Edinburgh and Leyden, at the latter of which he took his Degree of Doctor in Physic. He was afterwards admitted by Mandamus to the Degree of Doctor in Physic in the University of Cambridge: elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, and one of the Physicians of St. Thomas's Hospital : and upon the Establishment of the Queen's Household, appointed one of the Phyficians to Her Majesty. He died of a putrid Fever, on the 23d Day of June 1770, and is buried in the Parish Church of St. James's Westminster.

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THE

Ι Μ Α GI Ν Α Τ Ι Ο Ν.

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IN THREE BOOK S.

'Ασεβές μέν έσιν ανθρώπε τας παρά το θεέ χάριας ατιμάζειν.

Epict. apud Arrian. Il. 23.