*The firft Sketch of this Ode, confifting of about an hun. dred Lines, was written when the Author was very young. It was occafioned by fome ill-natured Expreffions that were dropp'd by one of his Relations, and designed as an Apology for his Application to the Study of Poetry. He thought it neceffary, in a Piece of this Nature, to affume fomewhat of that B 'Tis not for you her Flights to blame, Who never felt the facred Flame; 5 Whofe Thoughts, whofe Wishes, end, as they com mence, With the low Objects of familiar Sense. Nature to me hath giv'n a Mind, By fhort Prescriptions not to be confin'd: II. You bid me Poetry forego: Command the THAMES no more to flow, Or upwards drive the falling Snow; Bid the Birds forbear to fly : When these observe you, so fhall I. 10 Enthusiasm and conscious Dignity, which Poets ufually pretend to, and which enables them to treat their Detractors as People of a Rank vaftly inferior to themselves. In the Prospect of publishing a general Collection of his Poems, he fixed upon this as a proper Introduction to the reft; and with that View enlarged it, on the Revifal, to what it now appears. What he maintains in it is, "That no Man hath a natural Right to impose a certain Method of Thinking and Living on any other 3, "That the Pleafures of Freedom and Study are preferable to thofe that attend thePurfuit,or Poffeffion, of Riches and Honour;, Till then, this MUSE, this nobler Part of Me, Must act obedient to th' infpiring Caufe, (As they to Nature's certain Laws) Nor ceafe to fing, till I fhall ceafe to be. III. Would you not laugh, fhould you be told, An home-bred Fowl inftructs the Bird of Jove Whither to fly, and how to move? Truths, that you tremble, to survey; 20 25 Who knows, in Life, the Specious from the True, 30 Dares fingle out the best, and venture to pursue. and, "That they who are capable of enjoying the former, are, in that particular, above the Cenfure of Perfons who can taste only the latter." Ver. 11, 12. It roves thro' th' extended Space, Where yet Creation never had a Flace. Space, confidered abfolutely, fignifies infinite Extension, or Expansion without Circumference; and therefore the Idea of it is not neceffarily limited by that of Creation. This Paffage, it is hoped, will not appear too bold, in a Species of Poetry that requires the boldest Thoughts, as well as Expreffions. |