CORRIGENDA, Page21. verfe 2. for in read on 49. in the margin for Light. read Sight. 53. v. 9. for rofy-bofom'd read lily-bosom'd 59. v. 18. read Leads to a cave where rav'ning monsters rðar, 60. v. 5. read The king, who wept, yet knew his tears were 78. v. 1. for blooming read blushing 13. for dolento read dolenti 86. v. 2. før jalouse, read jaloux, 91. v. 4. for but read yet 99. v. 2. for plain! read pain! 132. v. 4. for wretched read tunelefs 187. line 6. for imitating their ftyle, and adopting &c. read imitate their flyle, and adopt &c. 190. 1. 19. for gutturels: read gutturals : 195. 1. 16. for tranfcribing bis images, and giving &c. read transcribe his images, and give &c. 205. 1. 23. før Jambi, read lambi, [vain, ТНЕ 1 PREFACE. T HE reader will probably expect, that, before I present him with the following mifcellany, I should give some account of the pieces contained in it; and should prove the authenticity of those Eastern originals, from which I profess to have tranflated them: indeed, fo many productions,invented in France,have been offered to the publick as genuine tranflations from the languages of Afia, that I fhould have wifhed, for my own fake,to clear my publication from the slightest fufpicion of impofture: but there is a circumftance peculiarly hard in the present cafe; namely, that, were I to produce the originals themselves, it would be impoffible to perfuade fome men, that even they were were not forged for the purpose, like the pretended language of Formofa. I fhall, however, attempt in this short preface to fatisfy the reader's expectations. The first poem in the collection, called Solima, is not a regular tranflation from the Arabick language; but all the figures, fentiments, and defcriptions in it, were really taken from the poets of Arabia: for when I was reading fome of their verfes on benevolence and hospitality, which they justly confider as their most amiable virtues, I felected those paffages, which feemed most likely to run into our measure, and connected them in fucha manner as to form one continued piece, which I. fuppofe to be written in praise of an Arabian princefs, who had built a caravanfera with pleasant gardens, for the refreshment of travellers and pilgrims; an act of munificence not uncommon in Afia. I fhall trouble the reader with only one of the original paffages, from which he may form a tolerable judgment of the rest: Kad alama e'ddbaifo wa'l mojteduno Idha aghbara ofkon wahabbat shemalan, Leman |