us with any fuch machines, as have made the strength and beauty of the ancient buildings. But what if I venture to advance an invention of my own, to fupply the manifeft defects of our new writers? I am fufficiently fenfible of my weakness; and it is not very probable that I fhould fucceed in fuch a project, whereof I have not had the leaft hint from any of my predeceffors, the poets, or any of their feconds, and coadjutors, the criticks. Yet we fee the art of war is improved in fieges, and new inftruments of death are invented daily fomething new in philofophy, and the mechanics is discovered almost every year and the science of former ages is improved by the fucceeding. I will not detain you with a long preamble to that, which better judges will, perhaps, conclude to be little worth. It is this, in fhort, That Chriftian poets have not hitherto been acquainted with their own ftrength. If they had fearched the Old Teftament as they ought, they might there have found the machines which are proper for their work; and thofe more certain in their effect, than it may be the New Testament is, in the rules fufficient for falvation. The perufing of one chapter in the Prophecy of Daniel, and accommodating what there they find, with the principles of platonick philofophy, as it is now chriftianized, would have the miniftry of angels as ftrong an engine for the working up heroick poetry, in our religion, as that of the ancients has been to raise theirs by all the fables of their Gods, which were only received for truths by the most ignorant and weakest of the people. It is a doctrine almoft univerfally received by Christians, as well proteftants as catholics, That there are guardian angels appointed by God Almighty, as his vicegerents, for the protection and government of cities, provinces, kingdoms, and monarchies; and thofe as well of heathens, as of true believers. All this is fo plainly proved from those texts of Daniel, that it admits of no farther contro verfy. The prince of the Perfians, and that other of the Grecians, are granted to be the guardians and protecting minifters of thofe empires. It cannot be denied, that they were oppofite, and refifted one another. St. Michael is mentioned by his name, as the patron of the Jews, and is now taken by the Chriftians, as the protector-general of our religion. These tutelar genii, who prefided over the several people and regions committed to their charge, were watchful over them for good, as far as their commiffions could poffibly extend. The general purpose, and defign of all, was certainly the fervice of their Great Creator. But it is an undoubted truth, that for ends best known to the Almighty Majefty of heaven, his providential defigns for the benefit of his creatures, for the debafing and punishing of fome nations, and the exaltation and temporal reward of others, were not wholly known to thefe his minifters; elfe why thofe factious quarrels, controverfies, and battles, amongst themselves, when they were all united in the fame defign, the service and honour of their common mafter? But being inftructed only in the general, and zealous of the main defign; and as finite beings, not admitted into the fecrets of government, the last reforts of Providence, or capable of difcovering the 'final purposes of God, who can work good out of evil, as he pleases; and irrefiftibly fways all manner of events on earth, directing them finally for the best, to his creation in general, and to the ultimate end of his own glory in particular: they must of neceffity be fometimes ignorant of the means conducing to thofe ends, in which alone they can jar and oppofe each other. One angel, as we may fuppofe the prince of Perfia, as he is called, judging, that it would be more for God's honour, and the benefit of his people, that the Median and Perfian monarchy, when delivered from the Babylonish captivity, fhould ftill be uppermoft and the patron of the Grecians, to whom the will of God might be more particularly revealed, contending on the other fide, for the rife of Alexander and his fucceffors, who were appointed to punish the backiliding Jews, and thereby to put them in mind of their offences, that they might repent, and become more virtuous, and more obfervient of the law revealed. But how far these controverfies and appearing enmities of thofe glorious creatures may be carried; how thefe oppofitions may best be managed, and by what means conducted, is not my bufinefs to fhew or determine: these things must be left to the invention and judgment of the poet : if any of fo happy a genius be now living, or any fu ture age can produce a man, who being converfant in the philosophy of Plato, as it is now accommodated to chriftian ufe; for (as Virgil gives us to understand by his example) he is the only proper perfon, of all others, for an epick poem, who to his natural endowments, of a large invention, a ripe judgment, and a ftrong memory, has joined the knowledge of the liberal arts and sciences, and particularly moral philofophy, the mathematics, geography, and hiftory, and with all these qualifications is born a poet; knows, and can practise the variety of numbers, and is mafter of the language in which he writes; if fuch a man, I fay, be now arifen, or fhall arife, I am vain enough to think, that I have propofed a model to him, by which he may build a nobler, a more beautiful, and more perfect poem, than any yet extant fince the ancients. There is another part of these machines yet wanting; but by what I have faid, it would have been eafily fupplied by a judicious writer. He could not have failed to add the oppofition of ill fpirits to the good; they have alfo their defign, ever oppofite to that of heaven; and this alone has hitherto been the practice of the moderns: but this imperfect fyftem, if I may call it fuch, which I have given, will infinitely advance and carry farther that hypothefis of the evil spirits contending with the good. For being fo much weaker fince their fall, than those bleffed beings, they are yet supposed to have a permitted power power of God, of acting ill, as from their own depraved nature, they have always the will of defigning it. A great teftimony of which we find in holy writ, when God Almighty fuffered Satan to appear in the holy fynod of the angels, (a thing not hitherto drawn into example by any of the poets,) and alfo gave him power over all things belonging to his fervant Job, excepting only life. Now what thefe wicked fpirits cannot compafs, by the vaft difproportion of their forces to thofe of the fuperior beings, they may by their fraud and cunning carry farther, in a feeming league, confederacy, or fubferviency to the defigns of fome good angel, as far as confilts with his purity, to fuffer fuch an aid, the end of which may poffibly be difguifed, and concealed from his finite knowledge. This is indeed to fuppofe a great error in fuch a being: yet fince a devil can appear like an angel of light; fince craft and malice may fometimes blind for a while a more perfect understanding; and lastly, fince Milton has given us an example of the like nature, when Satan appearing like a cherub to Uriel, the intelligence of the fun, circumvented him even in his own province, and paffed only for a curious traveller through those new-created regions, that he might obferve therein the workmanship of God, and praife him in his works. I know not why, upon the fame fuppofition, or fome other, a fiend may not deceive a creature of more excellency than himself, but yet a creature; at leaft by the connivance, or tacit permiffion of the omnifcient Being. Thus, my lord, I have, as briefly as I could, given your lordship, and by you the world, a rude draught of what I have been long labouring in my imagination, and what I had intended to have put in practice, (though far unable for the attempt of fuch a poem) and to have left the stage, to which my genius never much inclined me, for a work which would have taken up my life in the performance of it. This K 3 too, too, I had intended chiefly for the honour of my native country, to which a poet is particularly obliged: of two fubjects, both relating to it, I was doubtful, whether I fhould choose that of king Arthur conquering the Saxons; which being farther diftant in time, gives the greater fcope to my invention: or that of Edward the Black Prince in fubduing Spain, and reftoring it to the lawful prince, though a great tyrant, Don Pedro the Cruel : which for the compass of time, including only the expedition of one year; for the greatness of the action, and its anfwerable event; for the magnanimity of the English hero, opposed to the ingratitude of the perfon whom he reftored; and for the many beautiful epifodes, which I had interwoven with the principal defign, together with the characters of the chiefeft English perfons; wherein, after Virgil and Spencer, I would have taken occafion to reprefent my living friends and patrons of the nobleft families, and alfo fhadowed the events of future ages, in the fucceffion of our Imperial line with these helps, and those of the machines, which I have mentioned, I might perhaps have done as well as fome of my predeceffors; or at leaft chalked out a way for others to amend my errors in a like defign. But being encouraged only with fair words by king Charles II. my little falary ill paid, and no profpect of a future fubfiftence, I was then difcouraged in the beginning of my attempt; and now age has overtaken me, and want, a more infufferable evil, through the change of the times, has wholly difenabled me. Though I muft ever acknowledge, to the honour of your lordship, and the eternal memory of your charity, that fince this revolution, wherein I have patiently fuffered the ruin of my fmall fortune, and the lofs of that poor fubfiftance which I had from two kings, whom I had ferved more faithfully than profitably to myfelf; then your lordship was pleased, out of no other motive but your own nobleness, without any defert of mine, or the leaft follicitation from me, to make me a most boun |