ix

name of Mexicans, in honour of Mexitli, their tutelary god. Their emigration is here connected with the adventures of Madoc, and their superstition is represented as the same which their descendants practised, when discovered by the Spaniards. The manners of the Poem, in both its parts, will be found historically true. It assumes not the degraded title of Epic; and the question, therefore, is not whether the story is formed upon the rules of Aristotle, but whether it be adapted to the purposes of poetry.

Three things must be avoided in Poetry; the frivolous, the obscure, and the superfluous.

The three excellencies of Poetry; simplicity of language, simplicity of subject, and simplicity of invention.

The three indispensible purities of Poetry; pure truth, pure language, and pure manners.

Three things should all Poetry be; thoroughly eru dite, thoroughly animated, and thoroughly natural.

Triads.

COME LISTEN TO A TALE OF TIMES OF OLD!
COME, FOR YE KNOW ME. I AM HE WHO SUNG
THE MAID OF ARC, AND I AM HE WHO FRAMED
OF THALABA THE WILD AND WONDEROUS SONG.
COME LISTEN TO MY LAY, AND YE SHALL HEAR
HOW MADOC FROM THE SHORES OF BRITAIN SPREAD
THE ADVENTUROUS SAIL, EXPLORED THE OCEAN PATHS,
AND QUELL'D BARBARIAN POWER, AND OVERTHREW
THE BLOODY ALTARS OF IDOLATRY,

AND PLANTED IN ITS FANES TRIUMPHANTLY

THE CROSS OF CHRIST.

COME LISTEN TO MY LAY!