ADVERTISEMENT The Editor of this Collection has not much to say on the present occasion. Truth is seldom verbose: the truest things are most easily expressed in the shortest periods. POETRY is an art of which no liberal or cultivated mind can, or ought to be, wholly ignorant. The pleasure which it gives, and indeed the necessity of knowing enough of it to mix in modern conversation, will evince the utility of the following Compilation, which offers, in a small compass, the very flower of English Poetry, and in which care has been taken to select not only such pieces as Innocence may read without a blush, but such as will even • tend to strengthen that Innocence. VOLTAIRE, speaking of the English Poets, gives them the preference in moral pieces to those of any other nation; and, indeed, no poets have better settled the bounds of duty, or more precisely determined the rules for conduct in life than ours. In this little Collection the Reader, therefore, may find the most exquisite pleasure, while he' is at the same time learning the duties of life; and while he courts only entertainment, be deceived into wisdom. In a word, it is the peculiar property of POETRY to do good by slealth; to hide the thorny path of Instruction by covering it with flowers; and the veriest infidel in polite learning must be something more than abandoned, if he will not visit the Temple of Instruction when Pleasure leads the way to it. E. T. 72 Alessiah: a Sacred Eclogue. Pope .... page 1 An Enquiry after Happiness ... Carter 38 Written at Midnight, in a Thunder Storm.. Ibid. 40 A Father's Advice to his Son Cooper 56 Ode on a distant Prospect of Eton College. Gray 63 The Friar of Orders Gray Percy Invitation to the Feathered Race.. Graves 79 Elegy written in a Country Church-yard .. Gray 91 A Prayer for Indifference Greville.... 99 The Fairy's Answer.... Margravine of Anspach 102 Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady.Pope 120 On the Departure of u Nightingale Ibid. 212 May Eve, or Kute of Aberdeen.... Canningham 235 To his Friend inclined to Marry. . Pomtret.... 238 Elegiac Stanzas on the tolling of a Bell. . Rivers 240 The Tear of Sympathy.. Anan. 242 The Naturalist's Summer Evening's Walk. White 243 On the Death of a favourite Child. Moir.... 245 Translation of the 40thode of Anacreon Cheetham 246 Sonnet to the River Tweed Bowles 247 l'irtue's Reply to Pleusure Spence 2:10 |
