reputation would not wish to have his enemy, or whom a man of honour would not be ashamed to own for his friend. I am indeed but slightly converfant in their works, and know little of the particulars of their defamation. To my Authorship they are heartily welcome. But if any of them have been fo abandoned by Truth. as to attack my moral character in any instance whatsoever, to all and every one of thefe, and their abettors, I give the LYE in form, and in the words of honeft Father Valerian, MENTIRIS

IMPUDENTISSIME.

Contents of the First Volume.

PREFACE

Recommendatory Poems
A Difcourfe on Paftoral Poetry
SPRING, the firft Paftoral
SUMMER, the fecond Paftoral
AUTUMN, the third Paftoral

Ode on St. Cecilia's Day

Two Chorus's to the Tragedy of Brutus
Ode on Solitude

WINTER, the fourth Paftoral

MESSIAH, a Sacred Eclogue in Imitation of Vir

gil's Pollio

WINDSOR - FOREST

The dying Chriftian to his Soul, an Ode

Effay on Criticifm

The Rape of the Lock

Elegy to the Memory of an unfortunate Lady

Page

Prologue to Mr. Addifon's Tragedy
Epilogue to Jane Shore

Xiii

3

II

21

27

32

4

51

77

83

87

88

93

137

178

182

185

1

PREFACE.

I

Am inclined to think that both the writers of books, and the readers of them, are generally not a little unreasonable in their expectations. The firft feem to fancy that the world muft approve whatever they produce, and the latter to imagine that authors are obliged to please them at any rate. Methinks, as on the one hand, no fingle man is born with a right of controuling the opinions of all the reft; fo on the other, the world has no title to demand, that the whole care and time of any particular perfon fhould be facrificed to its entertainment. Therefore I cannot but believe that writers and readers are under equal obligations, for as much fame, or pleasure, as each affords the other.

Every one acknowledges, it would be a wild notion to expect perfection in any work of man: and yet one would think the contrary was taken for granted, by the judgment commonly paft upon Poems. A Critic fuppofes he has done his part, if he proves a writer to have failed in an expreffion, or erred in any particular point: and can it then be wondered at, if the Poets in general feem refolved not to own themselves in any error? For as long