Page images
PDF
EPUB

honour to be intrufted with a part of your education, and it was my duty to contribute all I could to the fuccefs of it. But the task was easy and pleafant. I had only to cultivate that good fenfe, and those generous virtues, which you brought with you to the University, and which had already grown up to some maturity under the care of a man, to whom we had both of us been extremely obliged; and who poffeffed every talent of a perfect inftitutor of youth in a degree, which, I believe, has been rarely found in any of that profeffion, fince the days of Quinctilian.

I wish this fmall tribute of respect, in which I know how cordially you join with me, could be any honour to the memory of an excellent perfon [a],

[a] The Reverend Mr. BUDWORTH, HeadMafter of the Grammar School at BREWOOD, in Staffordshire. He died in 1745.

who

who loved us both, and was lefs known, in his life-time, from that obfcure fituation to which the caprice of fortune oft condemns the most accomplished characters, than his highest merit deserved.

It was to cherish and improve that tafte of polite letters, which his early care had inftilled into you, that you required me to explain to you the following exquifite piece of the best poet. I recollect with pleasure how welcome this flight effay then was to you; and am fecure of the kind reception you will now give to it; improved, as I think it is, in fome refpects, and prefented to you in this public way. I was going to fay, how much you benefited by this poet (the fittest of all others, for the study of a gentleman) in your acquaintance with his moral, as well as critical writings; and how successfully you applied

your

yourself to every other part of learning, which was thought proper for you-But I remember my engagements with you, and will not hazard your displeasure by saying too much. It is enough for me to add, that I truly respect and honour you; and that, for the reft, I indulge in 'thofe hopes, which every one, who knows you, entertains from the excellence of your nature, from the hereditary honour of your family, and from an education in which you have been trained to the ftudy of the beft things.

I am,

DEAR SIR,

Your most faithful and

moft obedient Servant,

EMAN. COLL. CAMB.

June 21, 1757.

R. HURD.

[i]

INTRODUCTION.

I

T is agreed on all hands, that the antients

are our mafters in the art of compofition.

Such of their writings, therefore, as deliver inftructions for the exercise of this art, muft be of the highest value. And, if any of them hath acquired a credit, in this respect, fuperior to the reft, it is, perhaps, the following work: which the learned have long fince confidered as a kind of fummary of the rules of good writing; to be gotten by heart by every young ftudent; and to whose decisive authority the greatest masters in tafte and compofition must finally submit.

But the more unqueftioned the credit of this poem is, the more it will concern the public, that it be justly and accurately understood. The writer of these fheets then believed it might be of use, if he took fome pains to clear the fenfe, connect the method, and afcertain the scope and purpose, of this admired epiftle. Others, he knew indeed, and fome of the firft fame for critical learning, had been before him in this attempt. Yet he did not find himself prevented by their labours; in which, befides innumerable VOL. I. leffer

A

« PreviousContinue »