AN

HEROIC EPISTLE

ΤΟ

SIR WILLIAM CHAMBERS, KNIGHT. Comptroller General of his Majesty's Works:

AND AUTHOR OF A LATE

DISSERTATION ON ORIENTAL LANGUAGES.

Enriched with Explanatory Notes, chiefly extracted from that elaborate performance.

Non omnes arbusta juvant, humilesque myrice-Virgil.

PREFACE.

This Poem was written last summer, immediately after the publication of Sir William Chambers's Dissertation; but the Bookseller, to whom it was offered, declined publishing it, till the Town was full. His reason for this is obvions; yet it would hardly have weighed with the Author, had he not thought that his Hero's fame would increase in proportion to his Publisher's profit. However, he foresaw that, by this delay, one inconvenience might arise, which this Preface is written

to remove.

Readers of the present generation are so very inattentive to what they read, that it is probable, one half of Sir William's may have forgotten the principles which this book inculcates. Let these, then, be reminded, that it is the author's professed aim in extolling the taste of the Chinese, to condemn that mean and paltry manner which Kent introduced; which Southcote, Hamilton, and Brown followed, and which, to our national disgrace, is called the English style of gardening. He shows the poverty of this taste, by aptly comparing it to a dinner which consisted of three gross pieces, three times repeated; and proves to a demonstration, that Nature herself is incapable of pleasing, without the assistance of Art, and that too of the most luxuriant kind. In short, such art as is displayed in the Emperor's garden of Yven-Ming-Yven, near Pekin; where fine lizards, and fine women, human giants, and giant baboons, make but a small part of the superb scenery. He teaches us, that a perfect garden must contain within itself all

AN

HEROIC EPISTLE,

&c.

KNIGHT of the Polar Star! by fortune plac'd
To shine the cynosure* of British taste;
Whose orb collects in one refulgent view
The scatter'd glories of Chinese Virtù;
And spreads their lustre in so broad a blaze,
That kings themselves are dazzled, while they gaze:
O let the Muse attend thy march sublime,
And, with thy prose, caparison her rhyme;
Teach her, like thee, to gild her splendid song,
With scenes of Yven-Ming,t and sayings of Li-Tsong;

Cynosure, an affected phrase. Cynosura is the constellation of Ursa Minor, or the Lesser Bear, the next star to the Pole. Dr. Newton, on the word in Milton.

† One of the Imperial gardens at Pekin. [Sayings of LiTsong.] Many trees, shrubs, and flowers," sayeth LiTsong, a Chinese author of great antiquity, "thrive best in low, moist, situations; many on hills and mountains; some require a rich soil; but others will grow on clay, in sand, or even upon rocks, and in the water: to some a sunny position is necessary; but for others the shade is preferable. There are plants which thrive best in exposed situations, but in general, shelter is requisite. The skilful gardener, to whom study and experience have taught these qualities, carefully attends to them in his operations; knowing that thereon depends the health and growth of his plants; and consequently the beauty of his plantations." Vide Diss. p. 77. The reader, I presume, will readily allow, that he never met with so much recondite truth as this ancient Chinese here exhibits.