not to mention, that Milton had a defign in his youth, of making Arthur his hero; that Dryden has given us a fketch of his intended poem on the fame fubject; and that even Blackmore had taken the same story; whose steps it were a difgrace to follow.

It only remains, therefore, to have recourfe to allegory and tradition; and to give the poem a double fenfe; in the firft of which, its fubject is fimply this, the discovery of our island by the Tyrian adventurers, who first gave it the name of Britain; in the fecond, or allegorical fenfe, it exhibits the character above mentioned, of a perfect king of this country, a character the most glorious and beneficial of any that the warmest imagination can form. It reprefents the danger to which a king of England muft neceffarily be exposed, the vices which he must avoid, and the virtues and great qualities with which he must be adorned. On the whole, Britain Discovered, is intended as a poetical panegyric on our excellent Conftitution, and as a

pledge of the author's attachment to it ; as a national epic poem, like thofe of Homer, Virgil, Taffo, Camoëns, defigned to celebrate the honours of his Country, to display in a striking light the most important principles of politics and morality, and to inculcate these grand maxims, that nothing can shake our state, while the true liberty of the fubject remains united with the dignity of the fovereign, and, that in all states, virtue is the only fure bafis of private and public happiness.

A work of this nature might indeed have been written in profe, either in the form of a treatise, after the example of Aristotle, or of a dialogue, in the manner of Tully, whose fix books on government are now unhappily loft; or perhaps in imitation of Lord Bolingbroke, who has left us fomething of the fame kind in his idea of a patriot king: but as poetry has the allowed advantage over mere profe, of inftilling moral precepts in a manner more lively and entertaining, it was

thought proper to deliver the whole subject in regular measure, under the fiction of an

heroic adventure.

The poem will be written in rhyme, like the translation of the Iliad by Pope, and of the Eneid by Dryden; fince it has been found by experience, that the verses of those poets not only make a deeper impreffion on the mind, but are more easily retained in the memory, than blank verfe, which muft neceffarily be too diffufe, and in general can only be diftinguished from profe by the affectation of obfolete or foreign idioms, inverfions, and fwelling epithets, all tending to deftroy the beauty of our language, which confifts in a natural sweetness and unaffected perfpicuity not to infift that a writer who finds himself obliged to confine his fentiments in a narrow circle, will be lefs liable to run into luxuriance, and more likely to attain that roundness of diction fo justly admired by the ancients. As to the monotony which many people complain of in our English rhymes, that defect, which is certainly no Life-Y. II.

FF

fmall one, if we admit only thofe endings which are exactly fimilar, must be compen-. fated by a judicious variation of the pauses, an artful diverfity of modulation, and chiefly by avoiding too near a return of the fame endings.

The machinery is taken partly from the Socratic doctrine of attendant fpirits or benevolent angels, like Thyrfis in the Masque of Comus; and partly from the Scriptural account of evil spirits worshipped in Afia, under the names of Baal, Aftartè, Nifroc, Dagon, Mammon, Moloch, and in ancient Europe, where Cadmus introduced them under thofe of Jupiter, Venus, Mars, Neptune, Vulcan, Pluto. If any objection be made to these machines, they may be confidered as allegorical, like Spenfer's knights and paynims; the good fpirits may be faid to represent the virtues, and the evil ones the vices.

The action, or ftory of the piece, is raised upon the tradition before-mentioned, that the Phoenicians firft difcovered the island of

Britain; but the rest must be wholly fupplied by invention.

;

A prince of Tyre, therefore, whom we may name Britanus or Britan, fhocked at the cruelty of his countrymen in facrificing their prifoners to idols, and at their impiety in paying divine honours to evil spirits, had meditated a voyage to fome diftant coaft with which intent, pretending to prepare for an expedition against fome rival, nation, he had built a number of barques, and fecured to his interests a company of enterprizing youths, but was doubtful whither he fhould direct his course, till his attendant fpirit, Ramiel, appeared to him in a vision, commending his pious refolution, and advising him to feek a beautiful ifle in the weft, where, after a variety of dangers on earth and sea, he would reign in peace, and be the proge nitor of a noble race, who would profefs a true and benevolent religion, and excel all other nations in learning, arts, and valour, At the fame time, the fpirit fhewed him the picture of a lovely nymph who then ruled