In Profe we read the execrable Tale,

And fee the Face of Sin without a Veil.
But when his Soul, by fome foft Theme inspir3a,
The Aid of tuneful Poetry requir'd:

His Numbers with peculiar Sweetness ran,
And, in his eafy Verfe, we fee the Man:
Learn'd without Pride; of Tafte correct, yet free,
Alike from Niceness, and from Pedantry ;
Careless of Wealth, yet liking decent Show:
In fine, by Birth a Wit, by Trade a Beau.
Freely be cenfur'd a licentious Age:
And him I copy, though with chafter Page;
Expofe the Evils in which Brutes delight,
And fhew how eafy'tis to be polite ;
Exhort our erring Youth-
And Lectures give-
Teaching this ART
Pleas'd in ourselves,

-to mend in Time,
-for Mem'ry's Sake, in Rhyme;
-to pass thro' Life at Eafe,
while all around we please.

THE

PLAN of an ESSAY

UP ON

DELICACY,

WITH A

SPECIMEN of the WORK.

In TWO DIALOGUES.

By NATHANAEL LANCASTER, LL. D.

Aggrediar, non tam perficiundi fpe, quam experiundi voluntate.

CICERO.

First Printed in the Year 1748.

ΤΟ

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

THE EARL OF

CHOLMONDELE Y.

T

My LORD,

HE Men of LETTERS feem to have well confulted their own Reputation and Intereft, when they threw off the illiberal Reserve, which had long kept them at a Diftance from the converfible Part of Mankind, and fecluded them from the high Advantages of that excellent School, which we call the Polite World. For it is a free and open Commerce with People of Diftinction and cultivated Abilities, which gives the true Embellishment to Senfe, and renders the Attainments of