vi DEDICATIO N. As your Love for your Daughter was ever confpicuous, and has fo ftrongly reverted to her fon, permit me to fubjoin to this Poem an ELEGY facred to the Memory of the best of Wives, and written on her Coffin. Accept it, Sir, as the genuine Effufions of a fond Heart that loved her with inviolable Affection, and still laments her Lofs. TO THE GENEROUS READER. THE HE following Piece (amongst many others) was the Production of Leifure-Hours, when, fecluded from the Cares of a busy World, my Soul indulged its natural Bent, the engaging Pleasures of fober and divine Meditation; an Employment which heightens every rational Pleasure while it refines the Understanding, enlarging our Ideas, and prompting us to the Investigation of every Thing that is truly great and wonderful in the Works of Providence. The whole Beauties of the Creation open like a fair Picture to the contemplative Mind; while Strangers to its sweet Instruction overlook the nobleft Objects, and tread the brightest Pearls beneath their Feet. All the bright Affemblage of focial Virtues, bud, blossom, and bear Fruit, beneath the cherishing Hand of fublime Contemplation, whilft fair Religion nurtures them to a divine Perfection that renders them fit to be tranfplanted into the heavenly Eden, there to bloom through the endless Ages of Eternity, Retired viii TO THE READER. Retired Contemplation is that Balm of Gilead which heals the Stings which Sorrow goads the Mind with in paffing through this Vale of Tears. When retired, we forget the Wrongs inflicted by ungrateful Men; Patience and Refignation appear in all their native Charms, and, lulling every tempeftuous Paffion to Rest, dispose the melting Soul to give up all to the Will of Him whose kind paternal Love burns to render us ultimately happy, and labours with perpetual Care to draw us into the Paths of Happiness and Peace. Divine Contemplation is the Characteristic of rational Beings-the Mark that diftinguishes us from the Brute-Creation; for who can, unawed, behold the Works of Heaven, and view the starry Orbs glowing with fuch sparkling Luftre, and not think, with the inimitable Dr. Young, "For other Ends they fhine, "Than to light Revellers from Shame to Shame"? Such Surveys of the Works of exalted Wisdom raise the enlightened Mind to the bleft Regions of Immortality and Joy: Nor need the Pen, employed in fo good a Work, blush at its divine Endeavours; for Works like these will live when Time fhall be no more, while thofe proceeding from a polluted Pen entail Difgrace and Execration on their detefted Authors. * A Compliment on Dr. Young, from an Epistle of the Author's to a Friend. From From Error's cruel Tyranny fets free Shine forth as Stars whofe Light fhall never fail, But ftill, through endless Ages, glitt'ring roll Round that bright Sun from whence they Luftre draw. As this World is like a Perfian Caravanfara, a Sojourning-Pl for a Season, I therefore wish to use the Things of this World an excellent Author fays) like a loose upper Garment, to be par with at Pleasure. Too ftrong an Attachment to its moment Joys clogs the bright Soul in her aerial Journey, and retards 1 Flight. May Providence enable us all to fay, with Mr. Aikin, in agreeable Poems, "I ftand and ftretch my View to either Shore, "In each Event thy Providence adore. "Teach me to fix my ardent Hopes on high, "And, having liv'd to Thee, in Thee to die!" Truly fenfible of my Inability to appear as a public Author, encouraged by the Patronage of fome Friends (whofe Characte while we contemplate them, heighten our Ideas of Humanity), can with Sincerity fay, I come into the Prefence of the Public li a timorous Youth before an Affembly of fage Literati, whose brig Genius's, like the Sun, will eclipse fo small a Spark, and render it almost imperceptible. I only hope for their Candour and generous Indulgence, while I fing with humble Voice my artlefs Lays. I am a Friend to all who love the Mufes and facred Poefy; and always thought, with the accomplished Addison, "That a Heart "tender and generous, a Heart that can fwell with the Joys, or be depreffed with the Misfortunes of others, nay more, of imaginary Perfons; a Heart large enough to receive the greatest "Ideas Nature can fuggeft, and delicate enough to relish the most 66 beautiful, capable of entering into all thofe fubtle Graces, and "all that divine Elegance, the Enjoyment of which is to be felt 66 only, and not expreffed"--- such a Heart, fo formed and tempered, must be fmit with facred Song: "for, although all Kinds of Poefy "are amiable, facred Poefy should be our special Delight, as facred Numbers incircle us with every Thing that is holy and divine, fuperadd an agreeable Awe and Reverence to all thofe pleafing Emotions we feel from other Lays; an Awe and Reverence that exalts "while it chastizes; its sweet Authority restrains each undue Liberty "of Thought, Word, and Action; it makes us think better and "more nobly of ourselves, from a Confeiousness of the great Prefence "we are in, where Saints and Angels are our Fellow-Worshippers." O let me glory, glory in my Choice! Whom fhould I fing but Him who gave me Voice? WM, AUGUSTUS WILLIS, M. D. |