been guilty of fome ill thing, for which they did not dare to fhew their faces. The beauty and ftateliness of the trees which he faw then for the first time, as in his own island there grows not a fhrub, equally fur prized and delighted him: but he obferved, with a kind of terror, that as he paffed among their branches, they pulled him back again. He had been perfuaded to drink a pretty large dofe of ftrong waters; and upon finding himself drowsy after it, and ready to fall into a flumber, which he fancied was to be his laft, he expreffed to his companions the great fatisfaction he felt in so easy a passage out of this world: for, faid he, it is attended with no kind of pain. Among fuch fort of men it was that Aurelius fought refuge from the violence and cruelty of his enemies. The time appears to have been towards the latter part of the reign of King Charles the second: when those who governed Scotland under him, with no less cruelty than impolicy, made the people of that country defperate; and then plundered, imprifoned, or butchered them, for the natural effects of fuch defpair. The best and worthiest men were oft the objects of their most unrelenting fury. Under the title of fanatics, or feditious, they affected to herd, and of course perfecuted, whoever wifhed well to his country, or ventured to ftand up in defence of the laws and a legal government. I have now in my hands the copy of a warrant, figned by King Charles himfelf, for military execution upon them without procefs or conviction: and I know that the original is ftill kept in the fecretary's office for that part of the united kingdom. Thus much I thought it neceffary to to fay, that the reader may not be misled to look upon the relation given by Aurelius in the fecond canto, as drawn from the wantonnels of imagination, when it hardly arises to strict historical truth. What reception this poem may meet with, the author cannot foresce: and, in his humble, but happy retirement, he needs not be over-anxious to know. He has endeavoured to make it one regular and consistent whole; to be true to nature in his thoughts, and to the genius of the language in his manner of expreffing them. If he has fucceeded in these points, but above all in effectually touching the paffions, which, as it is the genuine province, fo is it the great triumph, of poetry; the candor of his more difcerning readers will readily overlook mistakes or failures in things of lefs importance. TO MR S. MALLE T. THOU faithful partner of a heart thy own, Whofe pain, or pleasure, fprings from thine alone; Thou, true as honour, as compaffion kind, That, in sweet union, harmonize thy mind: Here, while thy eyes, for fad Amintor's woe, And Theodora's wreck, wich tears o'erflow, O may thy friend's warm wish to heaven prefer'd For thee, for him, by gracious heaven be heard! So her fair hour of fortune fhall be thine, Unmix'd; and all Amyntor's fondness mine. So, through long vernal life, with blended ray, Shall Love light up, and Friendship close our day: Till, fummon'd late this lower heaven to leave, One figh shall end us, and one earth receive. AMYN AR in the watery waste, where his broad wave To frozen Thulé eaft, her airy height 5 10 That That lives to reafon; ancient Faith that binds In love and union; Innocence of ill Their guardian genius: thefe, the powers that rule Man's happiest life; the foul ferene and found Red on each cheek behold the rose of health; And close their eve in flumber fweetly deep, 20 25 30 35 Daughter of heaven and nature, deign thy aid, 40 Spontaneous Mufe! O whether from the depth Óf evening foreft, brown with broadeft shade; Or from the brow fublime of vernal alp As morning dawns; or from the vale at noon, By fome soft stream that flides with liquid foot Through bowery groves, where Inspiration fits And liftens to thy lore, aufpicious come! O'er thefe wild waves, o'er this unharbour'd shore, 45 Thy Thy wing high-hovering spread; and to the gale, Here, good Aurelius-and a scene more wild 50 55 That faw him bleft, now wretched and unknown, Wore out the flow remains of fetting life 60 In bitterness of thought: and with the surge, And with the founding ftorm, his murmur'd moan Whom Love firft chofe, whom Reafon long endear'd, 65 With one fair daughter, in her rofy prime, · 70 75 The |