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tivation of the fine arts, and, parti cularly, that refined taste for the beauties of poetry, and that talent for producing those beauties, for all which Mr. Rafbotham is fo well known and so justly admired, will, I am fure, be thought to ftamp a peculiar propriety on my intentions.

ACCEPT, therefore, dear Sir, this teftimony of regard, as proceeding from the fincereft fentiments of efteem and friendship of

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PREFACE.

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N converfing with a few of my friends who were lovers of poetry, I have frequently joined them in lamenting that the number of excellent fongs which our language afforded, were fo difperfed through a variety of authors, or overwhelmed in injudicious collections, that it was a moft difficult matter to difcover and enjoy the riches of this kind which we poffeffed. We obferved that every collection of fongs, without exception, was degraded by dullness, or debafed by indecency; and that fong-writing fcarcely feemed in any of them to be confidered as a pleafing Species of poetical compofition, but merely as

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ferving for the conveyance of fome favourite tunes. We were concerned to find that the more modern any collection was, it was remarkably the more deficient in poetical merit; so that a total decay of all taste for genuine poetry, in this pleafing branch of it, was to be apprehended. This we in great measure attributed to the fashionable rage for mufic, which had encouraged fuch a mushroom growth of comic operas, that vile mongrel of the drama, where the most enchanting tunes are fuited with the most flat and wretched combinations of words that ever difgraced the genius of a nation; and where the miferable verfifier only appears as the hired underling of a mufical compofer. We thought therefore, that it would be a meritorious piece of fervice to the caufe of poetry, by uniting into one firm body the most excellent productions in fong-writing, to form a barrier against the modifh infipidity of the age, and to gratify fuch real lovers of genius as yet remain amongst us.

This task I was induced to undertake; and were I to make a boastful recital of the numerous volumes of fong-collections and mifcellany poems which I have turned over for the purpofe, it would show that industry at leaft had not been wanting in accomplishing it. This kind of praife, however, is of fo inferiour a nature, that, I confess, it would Scarcely fatisfy my ambition. During the progress of my researches, I was infenfibly led to make some remarks on the peculiar character and diverfities of the pieces which passed in review before me, and to form comparisons between them, and others, the produce of a different age and country. As the fubject bad novelty to recommended it, and was fuited to my inclinations, I was incited to pursue it to a length which feemed to render it lawful for me to take the title of an Effayift, instead of a mere compiler. If the attempts which fhould fupport this more honourable character have not the fortune to meet with approbation, I must

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I must be contented with

my bumble endeavours to pleafe by the merits of others; yet I cannot acknowledge any impropriety in the defign, well remembering that Horace promifes his friends not only to present them with verse, but to tell them the worth of his prefent.

It may perhaps be a matter of furprise, that after fo much labour I have not been able to furnish a larger collection than is here offered; but on confidering the manner in which these pieces have been ushered into the world, the wonder will cease. The chief fources of good fongs, are the mifcellany poems and plays from the time of Charles the fecond to the conclufion of Queen Ann's reign. Most of these were given in the earliest collections, mixed however with the trash of the times, and copied from one to another with no farther variation than fubftituting new trafb for fuch as was out of date. In the most modern collections, all the beauties, as well as the infipid pieces

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