And thence transferred to Rome, by gift his own; A willing people, and an offer'd throne. O happy monarch, fent by heav'n to blefs 715 A favage nation with foft arts of peace, To teach religion, rapine to restrain, Give laws to luft, and facrifice ordain : Himself a faint, a goddefs was his bride, And all the Mufes o'er his acts prefide. 720 Ver. 715. O happy monarch,] It is impoffible not to be struck with the elegance and harmony of thefe fix laft lines. Dr. J. WARTON. PREFACE CONCERNING OVID'S EPISTLES. THE life of Ovid being already written in our language before the tranflation of his Metamorphofes, I will not prefume fo far upon myself, to think I can add any thing to Mr. Sandys his undertaking. The English reader may there be fatisfied, that he flourished in the reign of Augustus Cæfar; that he was extracted from an ancient family of Roman Knights; that he was born to the inheritance of a fplendid fortune; that he was defigned to the study of the law, and had made confiderable progrefs in it, before he quitted that profeffion, for this of Poetry, to which he was more naturally formed. The caufe of his banishment is unknown; because he was himself unwilling further to provoke the emperor, by afcribing it to any other reason, than what was pretended by Auguftus, which was, the lafcivioufnefs of his Elegies, and his Art of Love. It is true, they are not to be excused in the feverity of manners, as being able to corrupt a larger empire, if there were any, than |