AN INTRODUCTORY LETTER (a) ΤΟ A FRIEND, On the general Subjea of the following Poem on the Nel cerchio accolto, Mormorò potentiffime parole; Gird tre volte all' Oriente il volto, Tre volte ai regni ove dechina il Sole ; "Onde tanto indugiar? FORSE ATTENDETE "VOCI ANCOR PIU POTENTI, O PIU SECRETE ?" Taffo G. L. Cant. 13. DEAR SIR, As the public have thought proper to pay fome attention to the following Poem on the Purfuits of Literature, the parts of which I have presented to their confideration, and for their use, at various intervals; I have now colone volume, after fuch a revifion A 2 lected the whole into and (a) This Letter was first prefixed to, the Fifth Edition of the P. of L. collected for the first time into one volume in December 1797, and published in January 1798. and correction as appeared to be neceffary. It gives me pleasure to addrefs this introduction to you. As a mark of my friendship, I truft it is decifive. I always thought with Junius, that a printed paper receives very little confideration from the most respectable fignature; but I would not be understood to infinuate, with that great and confummate writer, that my name would carry any weight with it. I must own, however, that I fmile at the various authors to whom my work has been afcribed. Doctors, Dramatick Writers, Royal Treasurers, Divines, Orators, Lawyers, Greek Profeffors, School-mafters, Bath Guides, and Physicians, have all been named with confidence. Sometimes the whole is written by one man, at others, ten or perhaps twenty are concerned in it. Criticifms and diffenting conje&tures on the fubje& are alike the object of my ineffable contempt. More fagacity must be exerted than the Ardelios of the day are masters of, who are so kind as to think of me, who most certainly never think of them. It is, however, my refolution, that not one of these idle conjectures fhall ever be extended to you. "Quid de me alii loquantur, IPSI VIDEANT; fed loquentur tamen." (b) It is a voice; nothing more. Prudence indeed fuggefts a caution which I unwillingly adopt, and reftrains the eagerness I feel for the difplay of your virtues and of your talents. But thofe virtues must at prefent be left to the teftimony of your own confcience; and your talents within thofe limits of exertion, in which an undifcerning fpirit has too long fuffered them to be confined. The bird of day, however, always looks to the fun. In regard to writing in general, the public expect neither thanks, nor gratitude from an author for their favourable reception (b) Cic. Somn. Scip. Sect. 7. reception of his work. If it is unworthy of their notice, it is left to perifh with the poetry of Knight, or the profe of Lauderdale. "I cannot indeed affect to believe," that "Nature has wholly difqualified me for all literary pursuits.” (c) -Yet I would not trouble the public, or myself, with this new edition of my Poem, if I did not think it agreeable to their wishes. I am fatisfied with the attention which has been given to it. And when I have commanded a filence within my own breaft, I think a still small voice may whisper thofe gratulations, from which an honest man may beft derive comfort from the paft, and motives for future action. The wayward nature of the time, and the paramount neceffity of fecuring to this kingdom her political and religious existence, and the rights of fociety, have urged and ftimulated me, as you well know, to offer this endeavour to preserve them, by a folemn, laborious, and difinterested appeal to my countrymen. It is defigned to conduct them through the labyrinths of literature; to convince them of the manner in which the understanding and affections are either bewildered, darkened, enervated, or degraded; and to point out the fatal paths which would lead us all either to final deftruction, or to complicated mifery, I am not yet fo old as to fay, with the defponding bard, "Vitæ eft avidus, quifquis non vult, MUNDO SECUM PEREUNTE, mori." Yet I fee, with forrow and fear, the political conftitutions of Europe falling around us, or crumbling into duft, under the tyrannical Republic of France. She commenced with an imperious injunction to (The words of Mr. Gibbon. Pofthumous Works, 4to. vol. I. page 34. to the furrounding nations not to interpofe in her domestic government, while at the very fame moment, she herself was interfering and disturbing them all. She has indeed. terminated in the change or overthrow of each of them, but of this kingdom. Frenchmen were always brutal, when unreftrained. With their own domeftick mifery and wickednefs they never were fatisfied. In these latter days they have been neighing after the conftitution of their neighbours, in their lawless luftihood. They first deflower the purity of the struggling or half-confenting victims, and then with their ruffian daggers they stifle at once the voice, and the remembrance of the pollution. Such are their abominations: fuch are their orgies of blood and luft. And when their cruelty is at last wearied out and exhausted, and demands a paufe, they call it clemency. FRANCE had been long looking for that, which her philofophers had taught her to term, THE PARALLELISM OF THE SWORD; and fhe has found it. That fword has indeed fwept down not only every royal creft, but every head which raifed itself above the plain of their equality. Such is their quaint and ferocious language. And now, when Englishmen are to be warned against the introduction of the horrid fyftem, no appeal is to be made to the common feelings and paffions of our nature, (this, it feems, is declamation;) no fcenes of terror, and cruelty, and defolation, are to be laid before them, but dry reafoning and mathematical calculations of the quantum of mifery, plunder, and blood, necessary for the production, and establishment in England, of this blessed revolutionary government. We We will not, however, be infulted and fooled out of our exiftence, or of our understanding. "Our fentence is for open war," till we can be fafe. England is still prepared, and alert, and vigorous, and opulent, and generous, and bold, and undismayed. She has not caft away her confidence. Among the bands and affociated energics of England I also, in my degree and very limited capacity, will struggle for the principle of her life. I feel, in common with the wife and reflecting, that the constitution of Great Britain, even with its real or apparent defects, is worthy of continuance, and I hope of perpetuity, Our ancestors, in 1688, once adopted the words of the aged Patriarch," We have blessed it, yea, and it shall be "bleffed." In this one refponfe, I truft we shall all be orthodox; and with one heart and voice condemn all the herefies of Gallic policy, in the words of the Alexandrian Liturgy of old ; Των αιρεσεων καταλύσου τα φρυάγματα. (d.) Government and Literature are now more than ever intimately connected. The history of the last thirty years proves it beyond a controverfy. Still it is difficult to roufe the attention of men, and to perfuade them of the fact. But I have attempted it. I thought it juft and right to fet before them excellence opposed to excellence, (e) as well as error contrafted to error. In the prefent change of manners, opinions, government, and learning, you may remember I gave it as my opinion, in which, after fome reflection, you concurred, that a variation is now required in the mode of conducting fatirical writing. I mean, by calling (d) Liturgia Sancti Gregorii Alexandrina. Liturg. Oriental. Collect. Vol. 1. p. 107. Edit. Paris. 1716. (é) Ayabuç ayaboıç avreĝerage. Dion. Halicarn. ad Cne. Pompeium de Platone Epift. p. 757. Sect. 1. Vol. 6. Ed. Reiske, 1777. |