26 Luke's iron crown, and Damien's 27 bed of steel, To men remote from power but rarely known, Leave reason, faith, and conscience, all our own. 26 Luke's iron crown] This appears to be a mistake. Luke and George Zeck, brothers, were both engaged in a desperate rebellion in Hungary in 1514, and George suffered the torture of the red-hot crown of iron. See Nares' Glossary, art. Crown Iron, and Biblioth. Parriana, p. 519. Damien] For an account of the assassination of Louis XV. by Damien, see Anecdotes de la Cour de France pendant la faveur de Mad. de Pompadour, 1802, 8vo. p. 143–204. THE DESERTED A POEN FIRST PRINTED IN DEDICATION. TO SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. EAR SIR, N have no expectations in an address of this -, either to add to your reputation, or to blish my own. You can gain nothing from admiration, as I am ignorant of that art in ch you are said to excel; and I may lose much The severity of your judgment, as few have a er taste in poetry than you. Setting interest efore aside, to which I never paid much ation, I must be indulged at present in following affections. The only dedication I ever made to my brother, because I loved him better n most other men. He is since dead. Permit to inscribe this poem to you. How far you may be pleased with the versificaand mere mechanical parts of this attempt, not pretend to inquire; but I know you will ect (and indeed several of our best and wisest ends concur in the opinion) that the depopu any lation it deplores is nowhere to be seen, and the disorders it laments are only to be found in the poet's own imagination. To this I can scarce make other answer than that I sincerely believe what I have written; that I have taken all possible pains, in my country excursions, for these four or five years past, to be certain of what I allege, and that all my views and inquiries have led me to believe those miseries real, which I here attempt to display. But this is not the place to enter into an inquiry, whether the country be depopulating, or not; the discussion would take up much room, and I should prove myself, at best, an indifferent politician, to tire the reader with a long preface, when I want his unfatigued attention to a long poem. red out of late on the , that, merely for the sa one would sometimes I am, dear Sir, In regretting the depopulation of the country, I inveigh against the increase of our luxuries; and here also I expect the shout of modern politicians against me. For twenty or thirty years past, it has been the fashion to consider luxury as one of the greatest national advantages; and all the wisdom of antiquity, in that particular, as erroneous. Still, however, I must remain a professed ancient on that head, and continue to think those luxuries prejudicial to states by which so many vices are introduced, and so many kingdoms have been undone. Indeed so much has Your sincere Fr and arde OLI Reynolds painted a of expression, especially c e print taken from it to der it, quoted from the have been done by Sir ment to Goldsmith, who Northcote's Life of Rey |