*828 Vila 1773

au

As

S the Occasion of this poem was real, not

fictitious; fo the method pursued in it, was rather imposed, by what Spontaneously arose in the author's mind, on that occasion, than medi. tated, or designed. Which will appear very probable from the nature of it. For it differs from the common mode of Poetry, which is from long narrations to draw fort morals. Here, on the contrary, the narrative is sport, and the morality arising froin it makes the bulk of the Poem. The reason of it is, That the faets mentioned did naturally pour these moral refleétions on the thought of the writer.