all other writers, feem as if upon a fecond review he would have retouched and amended in fome little particulars; and fome few are left unfinished, or at least parts of them are loft or perished. This acknowledgment I think due to the poet's character and memory, and neceffary to befpeak that candid allowance from the reader, which the posthumous works of every writer have a just claim to. Ir is, I know, a common obfervation, that it is doing injuftice to a departed Genius to publish fragments, or fuch pieces as he had not given the laft hand to.--Without controverting the juftnefs of this remark in general, one may, I think, venture to affirm, that it is not to be extended to every particular cafe, and that a writer of fo extraordinary and uncommon a turn as the author of Hudi bras bras is not to be included under it. It would be a piece of foolish fondness to purchase at a great expence, or preserve with a particular care, the unfinished works of every tolerable painter; and yet it is esteemed a mark of fine tafte to procure, at almost any price, the rough sketches and half-form'd defigns of a Raphael, a Rembrandt, or any celebrated mafter. If the elegant remains of a Greek or Roman ftatuary, though maimed and defective, are thought worthy of a place in the cabinets of the polite admirers of antiquity; and the learned world thinks it self obliged to laborious critics for handing down to us the half intelligible fcraps of an antient Claffic; no reafon can, I think, be affigned, why a Genius of more modern date should not be entitled to the fame privilege, except we will abfurdly and enthufiaftically fancy, that time gives a value to wri tings, as well as to coins and medals--It may be added too, that as Butler is not only excellent, but almost fingular too in his manner of writing; every thing of his must acquire a proportionable degree of value and curiofity. I SHALL not longer detain the reader from better entertainment by indulging my own fentiments upon these Remains; and fhall rather chufe to wait for the judgment of the public, than impertinently to obtrude my own. It is enough for me, that I have faithfully discharged the office of an Editor; and fhall leave to future critics the pleasure of criticifing and remarking, approving or condemning. The notes which I have given, the reader will find to be only fuch as were neceffary to let him into the author's meaning, by reciting and explaining fome circumftances not generally 3 known, known, to which he alludes; and he cannot but obferve, that many more might have been added, had I given way to a fondness for scribbling, too common upon fuch occafions. ALTHOUGH MY author ftands in need of no apology, for the appearance he is going to make in the following sheets, the world may probably think that the Publisher does for not permitting him to do it fooner---All that I have to fay, and to perfons of candor I need to say no more, is, that the delay has been owing to a bad state of health and a confequent indisposition for a work of this nature, and not to indolence, or any felfish narrow views of my own. CON OF THE FIRST VOLUME. Satyr on our ridiculous imitation of the French 98- To the honourable Edward Howard, Efq; upon his incomparable Poem of the British Princes 104 |