could not be more intimately known to himself, than he was to Erafmus. YET ERASMUS WAS MISTAKEN ENTIRELY. His judgment and fagacity will not be questioned. But hear his own words, for on such an occafion, as the prefent, they are particularly remarkable. “Ex "phrafi, ex ore, ex locutione, aliifque compluribus, mihi "perfuafi HOC OPUS, maximâ faltem ex parte, esse Hier"onimi Alexandri. Nam mihi Genius illius ex domeftico "convicu adeo cognitus perfpe&ufque eft, ut ipfe fibi non 66 poffit effe notior!! (a)"

I recommend this anecdote to the confideration of thofe perfons who, from random conjecture, without any knowledge, or any proof whatfoever, continue to afcribe the following work to men, who are all equally guiltless of my labours, and all equally ignorant of my intentions. But I believe, no gentleman to whom it either has been, or may hereafter be, liberally or illiberally attributed, will fo far forget his character, as to appropriate my compofition to himself. "The Town's enquiring yet;" and will enquire, as I think, for a long time.

I am of opinion, that if the Poem is read once without reference to the notes, the plan, connection, and manner of it will be perceived. I may add, that, The First Dialogue was firft published in May 1794, the Second and Third in June 1796, and the Fourth in July 1797.

(a) Erafmi Epift. 270. c. 1755. Op. Fol. Ed. Opt. Lugd.

AN INTRO

ΔΗ

INTRODUCTORY LETTER(a)

ΤΟ

A FRIEND,

On the general Subject of the following Poem on the
Purfuits of Literature.

Nel cerchio accolto,

Mormorò potentiffime parole;

Girò tre volte all' Oriente il volto,

Tre volte ai regni ove decbina 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 prefented to their confideration, and for their ufe, at various intervals; I have now collected the whole into one volume, after fuch a revifion A 2

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.

It gives me As a mark of

and correction as appeared to be neceffary. pleasure to addrefs this introduction to you. my friendship, I truft it is decifive. I always thought with Junius, that a printed paper receives very little confideration from the most refpe&table 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 muft 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 Phyficians, 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 fubject are alike the object of my ineffable contempt.. More fagacity must be exerted than the Ardelios of the day are masters of, who are fo kind as to think of me, who most certainly never think of them. It is, however, my refolution, that not one of thefe idle conjectures fhall ever be extended to you." Quid de me alii loquantur, IPSI VIDEANT; fed

loquentur tamen." (6) It is a voice; nothing more. Prudence indeed fuggefts a caution which I unwillingly adopt, and refrains 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 conscience ; 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 disqualified me for all literary pursuits.” (c) -Yet I would not trouble the public, or myfelf, 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 ftill small voice may whisper thofe gratulations, from which an honeft 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 stimulated me, as you well know, to offer this endeavour to preferve 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, crumbling into duft, under the tyrannical Republic of France. She commenced with an imperious injunction

to

(c) The words of Mr, Gibbon. Pofthumous Works, 4to. vol. I.

page 34.

to the furrounding nations not to interpofe in her domeftic government, while at the very fame moment, she herself was interfering and difturbing 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 thefe latter days they have been neighing after the constitution of their neighbours, in their lawless luftihood. They first deflower the purity of the ftruggling or half-consenting 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 ber 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 crest, but every head which raised itfelf 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 seems, is declamation;) no fcenes of terror, and cruelty,, and defolation, are to be laid before them, but dry reasoning and mathematical calculations of the quantum of mifery, plunder, and blood, neceffary for the production, and establishment in England, of this bleffed revolutionary government.

We